	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 8, 2015

Jeff Banister

Toronto, Ontario - Pregame

MODERATOR: We're going to get started again in the interview room. Jeff, I know that it's posted but for the people upstairs, maybe you could give your lineup.

JEFF BANISTER: DeShields, leading off centerfield. Choo hitting second and right field. Then it's Beltre. Then it's Fielder, Napoli, Hamilton. Then it's Andrus, Odor and Chirinos.

MODERATOR: Now we'll take a question.

Q. Anderson's had a lot of success lifetime against David Price. Did you -- but yet he's still in his familiar spot. You didn't want to change any too drastically at this point?
JEFF BANISTER: Well, and that's a good question, Jeff. There's been a certain formula that has worked well for us, but really I believe in, as we talked about in spring training, when you construct a lineup and put a group of hitters together how well they work together up and down the line, but also constructing innings, trying to put innings together with the opportunity to give yourself a chance to score runs. Having that success, be it in the lower part of the lineup, you've got to be able to score runs. Those are back breaking runs when you can put those runs together at the bottom of the lineup.

Q. Jeff, just having watched the two wild card games and how sudden they are, do you kind of look at a five-game series and feel relief or do you go, man, seven games would be nice, best out of nine would be good? These things can come and go pretty quick.
JEFF BANISTER: Steve Buechele and I, this morning, we had that conversation about one-and-done games, just how abruptly they end. But also in baseball how abruptly, when you lose, they do end. When you win, the party continues. I love the fact of playing a series, being able to allow players the opportunity to play. You see the real resilience of players, you see different aspects in each individual innings and night. And if you happen to not play well in a game, be it the first or second game, you've got an opportunity to continue to play. So that's the aspect of it that I like.

Q. Jeff, have you decided on a starter for game 3 yet?
JEFF BANISTER: Martin Perez will go in game 3 for us.

Q. Rationale behind that decision?
JEFF BANISTER: We like how he pitches. No, that's the short answer, but really this is the body of work and how he's thrown the ball lately. We like the fact that he's primarily a ground ball guy. Plus the opportunity to have another couple of veteran arms available to us here early on in the bullpen if we need him. Yeah, that's how -- how Martin has thrown the ball for us here lately and our comfort. Look, we like all five of our starters. We can feel good about any of them posting up for us.

Q. I would like to know, you get your comments about DeShields, what he brought to the team. He's been progressing quite well, so I like to have your comments on this young man?
JEFF BANISTER: Yeah, you see the smile on my face. He's been a fun player to watch. We're fortunate to be able to have him on our ballclub. When we put him in centerfield, he was actually hitting ninth for us and we saw quickly just the impact that he was having on our lineup. It seemed like every time he was on base, we were scoring. So we put him at the top of the lineup and said, kid, go get them, be who you are and do what you do, steal bases and create for us. Really, that's what jump started our offense actually in Houston. It was Leonys Martin ran into the wall, hurt his thumb and it actually was -- Delino was playing left field for us and hitting ninth and then we put him in center field. He's continued to grow all year long and to be able to handle a major league season, being a Rule 5 pick, and coming out of AA, you don't really know what you're going to get but what we did know is we got a young man that really had the pedigree, he had already been in a major league clubhouse, kind of grown up in the atmosphere. So we knew it wouldn't be overwhelming, it was just could we get him to a point where he was going to be able to use all his skill set and tools. I believe there's still a lot of growth to be had with Delino, but he's been an impact player for us this year.

Q. Can you describe how Cole Hamels has impacted your team and your clubhouse since you acquired him?
JEFF BANISTER: Yeah. What a great competitor and just a great person also. This is a guy with so much integrity and character and leadership that really you can't -- it's unique in a way because a lot of these guys, when they come over, you've either been around them for a long time, you've played against them and you don't know how that leadership is going to show up. We feel like that one of the best things that Cole did in his opening press conference for us is how he acknowledged Philadelphia, his teammates and the city and the organization, and just what they meant to him. So you could tell that there was a certain connection that he really liked and it just spoke to the character and integrity of who he was. But also in the same press conference he talked about our group of players and what he knew about them and what he had observed and how passionate it was that he really wanted to come and play with this group of guys. As he started playing, you saw that. You saw that there were a couple games there that he got chipped a little bit and how he felt and the look on his face and how he wanted to continue to compete and how he prepared, so you knew that all the things that he was talking about, what he was bringing was real. It's a real guy with a really nice unique skill set to be able to pitch.

Q. How did Holland take the news that Perez is going to be the number three starter?
JEFF BANISTER: Like everybody else on our ballclub, that we had some guys that obviously are not on the 25-man roster and he was good with it. Obviously he wants to be out there and compete. I think when you create an environment, a culture with a group of players and athletes that when you're honest with them up front and you have lines of communication open, dialogue and they feel free to say what they feel like they need to say and have the appropriate conversations and it becomes a team atmosphere, that they're able to handle situations like that much better.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297