“he wonderful thing about baseball is that players come in all shapes and sizes."

"I want to play every game of my career in an Astros uniform."

"The mark of a good hitter is someone who hits the ball hard, often. And if you run into a few home runs, that’s fine."

"God has given me a lot of ability to play the game of baseball."

"When I started to play consistently and produce consistently, that’s when I knew that I could compete and do well in the big leagues."

"I’ve always enjoyed baseball, but even when I was a kid I can remember viewing it with a businesslike approach."

"If you gave me a choice between being married and being a baseball player, that’s a no-brainer. I would be married any day. I just love it."

"I’ve always liked doubles. When you scald the ball on a line to the gap, I think that's about as close to a perfect swing as you can get."

"When I hit home runs, they come in bunches."

"I go game to game, at-bat to at-bat. That’s my way."

"I think any great performer or athlete has to have a little bit of a gut to be great."

"I want to be a guy who produces runs, who drives in runs, who can beat you with a single or can beat you with a home run, who’s just a tough out."

"My father always told me that to be successful at anything, whether it was baseball or tiddlywinks, you have to be willing to pay the price. You have to be willing to do more than the kid down the street if you want to be better than he is."

"I wish I was just a left-handed hitter. It's really tough having to keep both sides sharp, and that's one reason why you don't see switch-hitters hit for that high of an average. You're always fighting one side or the other."

"I'll be a Houston Astro no matter what ... I would certainly want to leave myself open to a return to the team if that made sense for the organization and for me as well."

"Agile, athletic, sleek—all these things describe my game!"

"I'm not Willie Mays out there or anything."

"What comes first, the chicken or the egg? You start out bad, you don't really feel right, you don't have the same explosion, then you start to lose confidence, you start to doubt your ability. It's a snowball effect."

"When you hit .300, then you're sculpted … when you don't, you're fat and out of shape."