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MLB WORLD SERIES: CUBS VS INDIANSOctober 26, 2016Cody AllenAndrew MillerCleveland, Ohio - Pregame 2 THE MODERATOR: Cody Allen and Andrew Miller are here. Q. Hi, gentlemen. Cody, as far as the dialogue between you, the front office and Tito, what was it like before you knew whether Andrew or Chapman were coming to you? And what was the anticipation like as a professional? How were you dealing with it internally? CODY ALLEN: Well, I knew that we were looking to upgrade in some areas of our club, and I think the bullpen is an area where every team in baseball can afford to upgrade. There were some big-time arms out there that I knew that our front office was looking at guys like Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller. Chris Antonetti is extremely transparent. It's an open-door policy. So we talked and I let him know it was one of those things that wasn't going to create any friction between any of the guys down there, possibly moving guys around, and we all knew if you go get a guy like Andrew Miller or Aroldis Chapman, it's ultimately going to make your team a lot better. And we just wanted them to know that everybody was on board with it. Q. I know you've been asked this a million times about roles and that sort of thing, but for both of you guys just in general, do you think that some teams might look at the way you guys have done things and maybe start to think about using bullpen guys differently and maybe using your closer in the 7th and that sort of thing? Is it something that maybe teams might look at from this and sort of examine as a possibility? ANDREW MILLER: Yeah, I think it's a possibility. I think it's still a pretty big transition from your standard, regular season bullpen. I know when Chapman came back to us for the Yankees this year, Dellin and I were kind of up in the air about what order we would pitch. And in some instances it created a mess because we were both warming up next to each other. I think all managers, I think Joe, Tito, I've been lucky to have some that really handle the bullpen well. But you hate to have two guys warming up at the same time. It seems wasteful in a sense. I think it's maybe a little harder to do that for 162 games. But I think we're heading in the direction there's probably going to be a little bit more flexibility maybe than having a guy that only gets three outs in a three-runs-or-less-type situation. The playoffs are just a different animal. I think you have a little more flexibility and creativity. Q. Cody, you too. CODY ALLEN: I think throughout the regular season ultimately your goal is to try and win a division and get to October. But you have to do it for 162 games. If Tito was to try and do it for 162 games what he's done throughout this postseason, there's a chance that you may not have those guys there for October. So ultimately there has to be a little bit of structure there where guys know what inning they're going to pitch most of the time. There may be some different circumstances where if we're playing against Kansas City in a big in-division series, it could go a little different. But you're ultimately trying to protect your guys and win games at the same time, so you can be effective in October. So it's kind of a balancing act. I think managing a bullpen throughout our regular season is probably one of the toughest jobs a manager has. And I think Tito's one of the best at it. So what he's done this October is kind of a little bit unprecedented, but also, too, you have to have the inventory to do it. You have to have a guy like Andrew Miller and Dan Otero and Brian Shaw to be able to do that. And we're lucky enough that we have those guys that we can do that and leverage guys in certain situations. Q. Cody and Andrew, we've been around Tito now for three series, and we see how he relaxes everybody. What about something funny about him? What does he do that makes you laugh or puts you at ease? CODY ALLEN: He's the same guy every day, no matter what the situation, where we're at, who we're playing, whether or not Trevor Bauer -- he got a phone call that morning that Bauer cut his finger. He's the same guy every day. You'll probably find him in his office playing cards with some of the players. 30 minutes before the game, the clinching game in Toronto, he's in there trying to win money from guys playing cards. So he's very loose, you know, but you know exactly what you're going to get out of him every single day. So it's a pleasure to be around him. ANDREW MILLER: Yeah, I wish I had one particular anecdote. I know the one about the 50-50 in Toronto came out, but it's almost never ending. He is who he is, and that is -- everything in a sense can be turned into a joke, despite whatever moment it may be. I think a lot of times he probably uses it as an icebreaker in a sense or a way to relax guys. He's got such good people skills, he's just trying to push buttons and that's a pretty popular one of his to go after. Q. For people who weren't in Toronto, what was the 50-50? ANDREW MILLER: I think it was pretty early in the game, Bauer was bleeding all over the place. The 50-50 was maybe $100 grand or something, and he and Napoli were talking about buying some tickets. So I think it's a way to keep guys loose and keep guys focused. You talk about a situation like that where it could have probably been pretty stressful out there and guys could have gotten tight. But I think he sets the tone, and it follows down the line. We have other guys that have fallen in behind that. Napoli and Kipnis, and just anytime you hear somebody chirping, I think it's set with Tito and works its way down. Q. Andrew, when we look at pitchers a lot of the times we talk about where they were drafted and what role they have. In the series, there is yourself, and Kluber and Arrieta who maybe had false starts and then had to find themselves, even at the Major League level. I wonder what that says about how teams kind find elite pitching, and maybe even development plays a role in releasing pent-up elite pitching? ANDREW MILLER: I don't know. I think it's just not an easy game. There are a very few handful of guys that have success right out of the gates or that are young. The Lindors and the Bryants of the world, those guys they're rare. The rest of us have to grind and find a way. I think you stick with guys -- like we heard Tito earlier talking about that. You just don't want to give up on guys. You hope you end up in the right place and you click with, whether it's a teammate or a coach or just an organization in general that helps you kind of get going in the right direction. I think for me, it wasn't always straightforward. But I think that's just the reality for most guys, and you grind it out, and you work at it, and you'll figure it out eventually. Q. What has it been like getting to know Trevor as a teammate this year? Is there anything that you've learned from him during the course of the season? ANDREW MILLER: I came here pretty late in the season. Obviously, Trevor, I knew of him as a pitcher and I knew a little bit of his eccentric personality. But he's been great. I get a blast watching him carrying the pole around with him and all the routine stuff he does, and the long-toss pregame. But he's prepared. He works his tail off, and I think he's a competitor. He wouldn't have come out of the game unless they forced him to the other day. There's not a lot of guys you can say that about. We love having him. I think he carries his backpack around with his drones and does his thing. I think it's pretty neat that people of all types, and you don't have to be a traditional baseball player that is playing Cribbage and doing whatever. You can be your own man in this clubhouse, and everybody's going to love you. I think it helps that he's such a good pitcher that he's fun to watch. He manipulates the ball as well as anybody, and that goes a long ways, too. CODY ALLEN: Yeah, I think what you see is what you get with Trevor. He's true to himself. He's not going to try to be anybody else. He really cares about his teammates. He really cares about winning. The guy's a heck of a competitor. Through anything, he's going to show up and try to give you everything he has and try to help his ballclub win. He really, really cares about winning. I remember that 19-inning game in Toronto, he was supposed to start the next day. Sometimes that can be a little unfortunate or take a guy out of his comfort zone a little bit, and he walked down to their bullpen and said he had no problems with it. He warmed up and said, "All right. Let's just go win a baseball game." So that says a lot about who he is. He's just an ultra-competitive guy, and he's going to be him. He's true to himself. We enjoy having him. Q. Andrew, two distinctively different styles, two different people obviously, but were you able to pick up anything from Chapman and vice versa with your time together just from the professional way you both go about your jobs? ANDREW MILLER: I don't know if I picked up any tricks or anything. I think I can appreciate what kind of pitcher he is. I think watching him work, he's a better natural athlete than I am. I can't compete with that. He's as good as they come. But no matter how good of an athlete you are, it takes hard work, and he puts that in just like everybody else. It was a pleasure getting to play with him and just watch him all the time. I think it's something special, you don't get to see that every day or at all, really. He's such an outlier. But competitor. Just glad I got to cross paths with him. Q. How would you describe your interest level in competing for the U.S. at the WBC in the spring? And what would it mean to both of you if you were part of the first team to win that tournament? CODY ALLEN: That's definitely something that I think all of us have thought about. We've watched it before, it's definitely a pride thing being able to wear "USA" across your chest and represent your country. But it's also one of those things that you have to make sure things align for yourself and for your club. Because I think you have an obligation to your organization and your franchise, so we're obligated to try and do the best we can for the Cleveland Indians before what happens with the WBC. But if it's one of those things where if everything lines up, you have a good off-season, you're feeling good coming in, because of the timing of it - it's right there in Spring Training - you don't want to do anything to get ready for the WBC to possibly jeopardize part of your season for your club. But it's definitely something that's sparked a lot of guys' interests, and it's something to think about going forward. ANDREW MILLER: Yeah, I think I would absolutely love to do it, but like Cody said, there is a lot that goes into it. The most important thing is that's way down the road, but we want to be here in these situations because of what we did in the regular season. But Leyland's managing that team, I would do anything I could to cross paths with him again. I love seeing him. I'm definitely up for it. But I've tacked on quite a few innings here down the stretch. It's something I'll have to think about later. Right now we've got to try to fight to win three more games. Q. Cody, you've been here for a few years and you've seen guys like Carrasco, Bauer come in as starters and get better, and a guy like maybe Otero in the bullpen come in and get better. What do you think it is about the program here in Cleveland for pitchers or Mickey Callaway? What is it about it that maybe seems to bring out the best in pitchers? CODY ALLEN: Well, I think like when you say with Otero and Carrasco and Bauer, I think first off our scouting department does a very, very good job, because Dan Otero was good before he got here. I know he had a little bit of a rough year last year, but he's had some very good seasons in the Big Leagues. And then Carrasco and Bauer, their stuff speaks for itself. Trevor, I think he was a third overall pick. He was especially young when he got drafted and Carlos was signed. He was a big piece of a big trade that sent Cliff Lee to Philadelphia. But in order to develop those guys, our development and our scouting department, I think this organization has is very, very solid, scouting and development. But ultimately guys like Mickey and Jason Bere, and obviously our catchers, they do an unbelievable job of trying to get pitchers to pitch to their strengths and letting guys find themselves a little bit and not really giving up on guys. Because you look at a guy like Carrasco and the kind of stuff he has, it's eventually going to play. The guy's got an upper 90s fastball with three other plus-pitches to go along with it, but sometimes it takes a little patience, the guy gets confidence and he starts rolling. So Mickey does an unbelievable job of getting guys to buy in and believe in themselves, and it all kind of starts with Corey Kluber, too. He's kind of the image that you want with guys. They tell him, just watch Corey, find your own routine, watch him the way he prepares and they can learn from him. It's all about preparation and just being prepared and going out there and just trusting your stuff. I think being able to watch him every fifth day for those guys is monumental. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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