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When you look at starting pitchers, once they make it through year four, then - knock on wood - you see a lot of injury risk go down.
Sometimes you have to look at a start and say, 'Nothing is wrong.' Even when you get lit up, you still have to say 'Nothing is wrong.'
When there's too many teams that are not trying to win, that poisons the game, poisons the fan experience, and it creates bandwagon fans.
That's when I'm at my best. When I can throw a fastball over in the count, just throw strikes both in and away, it just sets up all my stuff.
You have to look back on everything that you've done and critique yourself and find the holes in your game that you can continue to get better.
That's sometimes the hardest thing to do as a professional athlete, because when you get lit up, you wear it, especially as a starting pitcher.
Any type of discomfort is going to alter the way I throw the ball. If I alter the way I throw the ball, I run the risk of major injury to my arm.
Strikeouts are important. Anytime you can generate an out without the ball being put in play, there's nothing that can be done in those situations.
I've said it, I'll keep saying it, I want to be in Detroit. I've really enjoyed my time here. I really enjoy the clubhouse and everyone that's involved.
I think every facet of running has its benefits towards a starting pitcher. I mean, you're explosive off the mound and yet you've got to have endurance.
Social media is dangerous for baseball players. Things can get taken out of context so fast. You can say something you don't want to say. It's dangerous.
I've seen so many of my friends get cut and released and all taken advantage of because at the end of the day, we say it's the business part of the game.
There's so many great things I learned at Mizzou. I took a sports psychology class. It was kind of eye-opening on certain different ways to look at things.
I don't know what my record's going to be. I can't dictate it. I mean, obviously I have to pitch well, but it also takes the guys at the plate to show up as well.
If you're constantly just trying to go in this win-loss cycle that MLB is pushing, you are creating bandwagon fans, and that's not the type of fans you want to create.
I'm not trying to strike them out, but there are certain situations, when it's an 0-2 count or a 1-2 count, when I want to have a pitch where I want to strike you out.
I'm trying to make sure that I get to my 0-2, 1-2 counts. That's really how I would rather phrase it: I'm trying to make sure that I can drive the count into my favor.
There's really no secret to this; that everybody's - they are going to have a game plan against me and I'm going to have a game plan against them. It just comes down to execution.
Having a pitch clock, if you have ball-strike implications, that's messing with the fabric of the game. There's no clock in baseball, and there's no clock in baseball for a reason.
For me, I really enjoy helping out the Youth Baseball Academy. That's something that any time you're helping out the game of baseball with at risk children, that puts a smile on my face.
I'm aware of the luck in [BABIP], but at the same time, you can't directly influence it. You can just keep mixing your patterns, executing and locating, That's the human element of this game.
Yeah, I've always been very straightforward when you start dealing with injuries. You always have to communicate with the trainers and the manager and the pitching coach exactly where you're at.
I know when I get to 0-2, 1-2, when I'm ahead in the count, that I hold a distinct advantage over every single hitter. I have so many options because I don't have to work within the strike zone anymore.
Being in the clubhouse, talking to the veterans, talking to guys who have been here, getting to know everybody, getting the personalities, you can actually learn a lot from the other players in the league.
I'm not trying to throw six or seven pitches just to be able to strike you out. I'm trying to do it in three or four. It's the homework and the process between starts that I really focus on to help me do that.
I never want the ball above my shoulders until I'm really firing. I feel like I can generate more velocity with my arm path. The way my arm works, there's so many benefits to it - from a health standpoint, as well.
I understand why there is a push for an automated strike zone. However, I do think there would be some unintended consequences of having it that I think need to be addressed first before we would go down that road.
The expectations and pressure doesn't mean you change. That's something that's always been instilled in me, and doesn't matter what the situation or what the game means, I'm always going to approach the game the same way.
I understand what sabermetrics get across, and what they're getting across is to keep it simple. Especially for me, as a pitcher, that's something that helps me - finding ways to keep it simple. Numbers can only tell so much.
In previous experiences of being in the All-Star Games, you know, seeing the hometown players and how the fans get behind the hometown players, it's always been a special moment just watching that from afar and being on the other side.
There's so much information now, and that even goes down to the college game. You have so much video, you can watch every YouTube video of guys and mechanics, and so I just feel like the younger generation's more educated than ever before.
I need to eat a large meal before I play, and the one thing that was kind of consistent in every single clubhouse at least in the minors was a roast beef sandwich. So that kind of stuck there, and it just kind of stuck in the big leagues as well.
The game can come down to one pitch. But when you're actually out there on the mound and when you're pitching, you can't be worrying about the margin of error or whatnot. You have to go with your strengths and what you believe is the right pitch and keep executing pitches.
The advanced stats are great to look at for my long-term goals and what I'm trying to accomplish. It shows me there is an inherent failure in pitching. The luck involved, the factors you can't control. You just have to let go of those and focus on the next batter, the next game.
A lot of times, I've always looked at pitching in the All-Star Game as a prelude to how you pitch in the postseason, sometimes how you might have to pitch on two days' rest out of the pen, only throw one inning and then you have to go face the best hitters. That's what you do in the All-Star Game.
That's why you went to school, because you realize that, being a professional athlete, there's a good chance you're not going to make it. You need an education, that's why for me, it was such an important decision to go to college and further my education to provide me a safety net in case this didn't work out.
Perfectionist is sometimes the wrong word... It means like you're never satisfied, or you're upset by every single failure - any type of failure. And so for me, I don't look at failure as necessarily a bad thing as long as I'm able to learn from it and take something from it, so that next time I'm in that situation I know how to succeed.
Look, the umpires behind the plate? They're human. They're doing the best they can to try to call balls and strikes. I understand that there's a lot of calls that kinda are 50-50. They can go either way. And as a starting pitcher, you try to manage, 'Alright, if you didn't get that call, maybe you'll get it again here a few innings later.'