Wade throws down the gauntlet

Felipe Paulino is back with the Big Club, this time in a relief role, and Ed Wade is getting tired of his pussy-footing:

“I think Felipe needs to take advantage of every opportunity he gets to stand 60 feet, six inches away from major league hitters. He's got to show that he's prepared to take advantage of these opportunities. He needs to give us a clear signal going into spring training next year that he's prepared to win a job for spring training and hold it for the entire season and help us win. He's got the stuff to do it. It's not too late, but he's got to step up and take advantage of this. We see the stuff. It's got to come out in whatever role that he's given for the reminder of the season. Right now it's a bullpen role....

...I think he is out of options. Aside from the options, when you see a guy who's big and physical with the tools that Felipe's got, you want to see it begin to manifest itself from a more regular basis from the standpoint of success. He clearly needs to understand this is the best opportunity that he's going to get for a while. He's got to make the most of it.”

Paulino:
“I have the opportunity to demonstrate that I can get outs here,” he said. “What has happened has been part of baseball. I have to work on the mental part. I need to work on my concentration. That's what I need to work on the side. I need to focus more on each pitch to make each itch.”

I'm going to give the Chronicle the benefit of the doubt and go with the assumption that the last word in Paulino's quote was "pitch," but it's too funny to fix for them.

Cooper, on Paulino's role:
“I think from the organization's standpoint I think that everybody thinks (Paulino) can be a front-line starter because of his stuff. We have to let that thing play itself out. I don't think it's good for him to go back and forth, back and forth. At some point we have to settle in someplace...

...I think even the fastball command is a work in progress. It's not just the breaking ball. I think the fastball, you can't just throw 97 miles per hour just in the middle. You have to move it to the corners and you're going to have to have the fastball move a little. That's what we told him to work on.”
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Brocail will throw a simulated inning today. How does he feel?
“It feels 10 times better. We'll see. When you get done with the bullpen and you say, ‘How did it look? And your pitching coach says, ‘Like the old Brocail.' It's kind of nice to know that I at least have my stuff.”