J. D. MARTINEZ

You can ask every coach from Ron Gardenhire to Dave Clark, anyone who has seen me play, they don't know why they say I'm a bad defender.

Everyone's path is their own.

When I'm at my best, I'm ready to hit from pitch one. When I go up there and I'm passive, I'm not as successful.

My parents taught me that in life, you get out what you put in.

You have to go up there, and it's you vs. the pitcher. No one's there to help you. That's how I go about it.

I stand by the Constitution and I stand by the Second Amendment and it's something that I take pride in. It's something that I'll back up.

I think my failures in Houston is what made me who I am. I think it's given me that drive, that drive to keep working, because you never know what can happen type deal.

Obviously, I have to do what's best for me and my family; I've got to put that first. But I definitely want to be on a team that's in contention.

Just kind of finding it, that's what Spring Training is for, to work on stuff and get ready.

That's why, to me, Spring Training is so hard, because every time you go up there, there's a new pitcher, and you have to come up with a new plan.

If I'm ready to hit early, if I get fooled, then whatever. I've still got two more strikes.

I told Pedro this story: I used to wear a freakin' Pedro Martinez jersey because it had 'Martinez' on the back.

To me, you can always get better.

You want to see the team that is in the playoffs.

You can't say it's good when guys out there are signing minor league deals and they would be big league players on 80 percent of the teams, but why would a team sign a player when you can pay dirt, and they're not going to win anyway?

Obviously, I'm sad to leave Houston. I love the fans and players and everyone here.

I think I've grown over the years and learned about who I am and what I can do and what I can't do.

We want the fans to be in it, because when they're in it, it makes you kind of live up to it.

I want to be on a team that's got a chance. That's what's fun. That's what you play the game for.

To me grinding out a good at-bat is pretty much fighting. And it's not trying to do too much with pitches, just finding a way to spoil a good pitcher's pitches, really.

Whenever you see me and I'm hitting ground ball after ground ball, you know I'm not feeling right.

Detroit will always have a special place in my heart.

I've always loved hitting, and even as a kid, I always hit.

When you're up there and everything feels good and you're competing against the pitcher and the pitcher strikes you out, you're like, 'OK, yeah, I struck out, but that's OK.'

I grew up in Miami watching baseball down there, so you could see it from one extreme to the next. It was like, 'Well, this is what baseball is about.'