I love my story. I wouldn't change it. It gives it character. It's never been on a silver spoon.
J. D. Martinez
Obviously, I'm sad to leave Houston. I love the fans and players and everyone here.
People are always asking if I was mad at Houston. Honestly, I'm not. The truth of the matter is that when I was there, I didn't perform and they actually did me a favor by cutting me loose. They could have really held me there, not let me leave, bury me in Triple-A, put me behind some prospects and I would never even play.
The last thing I wanted to do was get buried in Triple-A behind prospects.
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.
I'm going to tell you right now, no one is harder on me than me. The fact that fans sit there and boo me, I'm booing myself when I'm walking in.
I'm a very analytical guy, I like to study my swing, I like to study what my back foot is doing, my elbow, whatever it might be, and there's a lot of guys nowadays that are like that. That's the trend of the game, that's the way the game has gone.
Everyone here has a right to their own political beliefs and everybody has the right to stand by what they believe in. That's what makes us American.
Everything happens for a reason.
I mean, I learned a lot from Houston. And you know what? It made me who I am and there's really no animosity there. In a sense, they did me a favor by allowing me to leave and going to play on another team.
I think that's one of the things you start learning from being hot and playing every day at the beginning, you know. The league, they made their adjustments and their change to you, the way they pitch you, the way they attack you, and just learning and learning from that and making the adjustments the very next at bat or the very next pitch.
Sometimes you just need a spark, and then boom, boom, boom, now the bats come alive.
Rodney Linares really stuck his neck out in Greenville to play me, because they had their prospects, guys who they had invested money in.
I was able to play alongside, in my opinion, the best hitter with Miguel Cabrera and kind of watch the way he goes about it and the way he looks at situations, when to try to drive a ball versus when to shoot a ball.
I want to win championships.
Let's say I have a new respect for guys who come off the bench every day. That's not easy to do.
I busted my butt in '15. Then in '16, I broke my arm running into a wall, so then I got scared of running into walls because I didn't want to get hurt again.
I had to lower my hands, I had to work my hips a different way. I also had to stride to get the power. I'd always been a standstill hitter and had to generate power from my upper body. Basically, I had to change everything I was doing. It was really difficult.
You can say baseball's fun, you're in the big leagues, you get to come to a Major League field every day - and, yeah, that's great. I love it.
I've been on a bunch of teams in my career.
There aren't too many Mookie Betts, Mike Trouts or Bryce Harpers out there to be grabbed. Those players only come around once every 10 years.
Losing is incentivized now. You have 80 percent of the teams trying to lose.
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?
My whole life, I've felt like I've always had to prove myself. It's never been easy, as easy as others who are in my position have had it.
Everyone's path is their own.
I told Pedro this story: I used to wear a freakin' Pedro Martinez jersey because it had 'Martinez' on the back.
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.'
I love my country. I love this country.
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.
We're all not going to agree on the same things, but that's what makes this country so great.
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.
I've lost a lot. I'm tired of it. It's not fun.
It's fun coming to the ballpark when you're winning.
Control what I can control. Study the pitchers, work hard, put the work in. That's all I can control.
That's the hardest play in baseball, is a line drive right at you.
Whoever's hitting in front of you or behind you is going to determine how you get pitched, but there's nothing you can do.
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.
To me, I just play baseball, whether I have the contract or not.
I'll never say a bad word about the Astros.
It sucks when you can't play the game you love.
If I'm ready to hit early, if I get fooled, then whatever. I've still got two more strikes.
That's one thing I learned from watching great hitters hit. A lot of hitters, they're ready to hit from pitch one.
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.
When I fall behind, my swing changes.
I wish I could go up every single time and have guys on base.
I get to play what I dreamed about since I was a kid. So, on that end, I love it. But I also take pride in it.
Obviously, this is a job, it's a grind, but it's what you love to do. It's your passion.
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.'
We want the fans to be in it, because when they're in it, it makes you kind of live up to it.
To me, you can always get better.
