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NL WILDCARD GAME: ROCKIES VS CUBSOctober 2, 2018Joe MaddonChicago, Illinois - pregame Q. Can you tell us about Strop's and Edward's situation? JOE MADDON: Yeah, first of all, Carl had a little bit of like a strain in the forearm the other day, so we wanted to be very careful right now, and we thought if we did not push him right now, he would be available for the next series. Stroppy on the other hand is doing well. Stroppy is doing well, and he's able to play tonight. Q. I guess over the weekend, we were told that Strop had thrown twice off a mound. Can you talk about what was the last box he had to check because we hadn't seen him field out there. JOE MADDON: Yeah, just to do that actually because his arm has been moving the whole time. He's been throwing the whole time he's been injured, and that's the difference between an injury like a hamstring, where you're just unable to do your normal baseball activity. He was able to. Going into this moment right now, the arm has been moving the whole time, so we don't feel like we're putting him in jeopardy. He feels good about it actually. I haven't watched the bullpen sessions but they say he's throwing the ball really good. We feel comfortable about it. He feels comfortable about it, so we'll use him. Q. (Indiscernible). JOE MADDON: No, he's gone through some of those drills with the training staff. Also they try to simulate as much as they can, and he's passed all those tests. Q. How would you describe the mood in the clubhouse going into tonight's game? JOE MADDON: Oh, it's typical. We've been through these things before. We've had a tough run of it lately. We've won some prominent games. We lost one yesterday, and if we win today's game, we move on just like we had won yesterday's game, except maybe for home-field advantage. I'm really both pleased and proud of our guys for the way they've handled situations. I think they've done a great job with that. We'll be ready to play. Q. As far as your pen goes, you've always had a plan and choreographed it, but will it be a little different knowing that this is a one-and-out game? Do you kind of go by the vibe of the score of the game or how long Jon goes? How do you look at it differently? JOE MADDON: Well, we have both Cole and Kyle available to us tonight, which is unusual. But before that, so is Chávez, so is Strop and so is everybody else. The guys that are normally relief pitchers normally do have an edge coming into the game out of the bullpen. The other guys aren't used to it. However, if they're utilized I will not shy away from either Kyle or Cole at the end of the game or extra innings is a possibility, too. Like you said, we'll just watch how the game unfolds. I do have an idea what I'd like to do in a perfect world, and most of the times it's an imperfect world. You have to have plan B available to you, also, but I do like -- I think Chávez is in good shape for tonight, Strop is in good shape for tonight. Even though Mills threw a lot of pitches the other day, he's in pretty good shape for tonight, too, and all the lefties are in really good shape. We kind of have a full pen, but perfect world you'd like to see Jon go as far as he can and based on their lineup construction, Chávez can be very pertinent and so can Strop, and then a lefty at the end, too. Q. You've talked a lot about David Bote and his emergence this season. What makes you think he's ready to own the moment in October tonight? JOE MADDON: Well, I don't anticipate him being anything different. The one thing we do emphasize, I try to emphasize, I want to play the same game all the time regardless of the date. I really anticipate David to be exactly the same. I mean that. He handles things well. He's got a really good head on his shoulders. He processes things well. To this point nothing has overwhelmed him including his opening day in Colorado, and he's from right down the street there a little bit north of Denver. So I don't really see David being mentally impacted by this whatsoever. Like having him at third base with Jon pitching, a lot of right-handers in the lineup for them. I actually feel really good about him. Q. You've addressed this on the radio; you've mentioned several times in the last few months that you would rather have Justin Wilson go with his fastball, and obviously a good executed pitch, different story. But has that conversation been had? I know every batter is different, but he's done it several times where you've mentioned it. JOE MADDON: Well, it's one of those things, that's our game planning when it comes to that has a lot to do with Hick and Mike Borzello and Lester. Things have been talked about. Q. What are some of the things that stand out about this Rockies' lineup and dealing with Freeland? JOE MADDON: Well, their lineup is very good. Listen, especially when you play them out there on the moon, it's always a little bit different. But they have a really -- they have a really good lineup top to bottom. They have good lefties, good lefties on the bench. They have power. They're just purely good hitters, guys that utilize the whole field. A lot of their righty power can come into the right-center field gap. They play strong defense on the infield. Also they're very good defensively. So they've got it all going on, and their pitching has gotten better. That's why they're so good. The kid Freeland tonight, I've been a fan of for a bit. Actually bought a bike in Tampa the last couple years and his brother is one of the guys that worked at the counter there, and I've talked about him, how I like his brother for the last couple years. So he's a really good pitcher. I know it's on short rest, but that's not going to bother him I don't think in the least today. It may impact how long they want to choose to leave him in the game, but this kid has been good for a bit. He's got good stuff. He's a great competitor. Q. In your four years with Jon Lester, he already had a reputation as a big-game pitcher before you got here, but what have you learned about him in those big moments as to how he's able to usually have the best version of himself? JOE MADDON: He's able to slow it down. If he gets -- he's always normally been able to get out of a bad situation. He pitches even well with traffic normally. In the beginning when I first started to get to know him, him and David Ross were together a lot, and I saw them working together and was a great synergy between the two of them. They really fed off one another well. Since David has been gone, I've really seen Jon grown. He's grown a lot, I think in a sense, even though he's been a veteran for a while, obviously. He handles these moments well. I'm thinking about in the recent past where it's gotten tight, I see him get off the mound, he gathers himself, he gets back on it. He makes a good pitch. He's very calculated in what he's doing. He doesn't give in, and he knows -- like I said, he normally knows how to control motion on the bases or stuff that's going on. The fact that we've done a good job with him also eliminating the baserunning game against him, we've done a pretty good job of that, that's helped, also. But primarily he slows things down, and that's what I see, and he's able to make a quality pitch when it's necessary, and that's what makes him really good this time of the year. Q. Oakland is going with Liam Hendriks tomorrow. Zach Britton was asked about it today. He attributed this to how you used your bullpen in 2016. What is your reaction to that, and do you think this trend of openers and that style, like Tampa used this year, becoming more prevalent? JOE MADDON: I think I've kind of talked about that. I'd have to study it more. It's just so hard to -- first of all, I love the tried and true starting pitcher. It really permits you to, I think, work a game more formulaic in a sense. But if you plan on that and that's what you have, I don't even know like with the 10-day DL if that permits you to become even more able to do this based on sending guys down and bringing guys up. My point is to not get guys too tired or overwhelm a bullpen by being able to shuffle parts in and out, and I think you have to have a lot of really good relief pitchers. I think the Rays have done it so well because their arms are pretty good. They've got good arms there and they've got good arms on the shuffle, too. I don't know exactly what Oakland looks like. I haven't followed it that closely. I know that they have good arms. I know what they've done with -- the training has been unbelievable this year, too. That's one of those things I think down the road needs to be nurtured, and it needs to be nurtured starting in the Minor Leagues, and you have to have a really good supply, I think, of legitimate relief pitchers. Just to say you're going to start a relief pitch every is one thing, but he's also got to get outs. How often you can do this, I don't know, I haven't studied it closely enough, but for right now it's working for them, and I understand why they're going to continue with it. Hendriks has got good stuff, too. Does he only pitch one inning? I mean, I saw him in Toronto. This guy has got really good stuff. I don't know exactly how they are planning it out, but necessity can't become the mother of invention. Maybe they just have to do it that way. Q. Your reaction to the (indiscernible)? JOE MADDON: Oh, I have no idea. That was never my intent. In 2016 we just had one guy that was incredibly different than most pitchers you ever had. The ability with his stuff and his durability. A big part of that was at the end of the season, that was the Cahill year, right? Was that Cahill and -- yeah, it wasn't an opener. What we did during the game might have been different. Maybe that's what he's talking about. But we never really consciously tried to start somebody, then bring somebody else in. Q. Given what you accomplished the previous three years, what would you consider to be a success in this postseason and what would you consider to be a disappointment? JOE MADDON: Well, obviously we wanted to win the division, and we had that much of the way. That just did not occur. Obviously our goal is to continue along and continue to play. It's always disappointing when you don't reach your ultimate goal, which it should be on an annual basis, and that's to play the last game of the season and win it. Even the last two years -- well, last year, getting to the NLCS three consecutive years, the two that we did not go to the World Series, we consider them disappointments. So whenever you lose a game before you get to play that last game of the year and win it, you're normally disappointed when you go home. Having said all that, under the circumstances this year, what our guys have done to this point, I could not be more proud of a group, and this is not any kind of a concession speech, I'm just saying the 40-some games almost in a row, to be able to be in this position winning 95 games, which did tie for the most wins in the National League this year, pretty good stuff. Pretty good stuff out of our guys. So for us, we're always aiming for playing the last game of the year and winning it, and if we don't, we just don't like that. Q. Did Hendricks warm yesterday, and would there be any sort of limitation on him today? JOE MADDON: He didn't get real hot. He's fine for today. Just saw him walking by. He's good. Q. Could you talk about your relationship with Bud Black? I know you guys go back a long way, how you met and any good stories? JOE MADDON: Pepe and I go back. I met him when he first got to the Angels. I had been there, and then Sosh came in, and I interviewed for the job and Mike got it, and they made the right choice, and I became the bench coach. Pepe became the pitching coach, so we're going to Hermosillo to play a Spring Training game against the Diamondbacks because I think Buck was managing there, and we're driving up to the ballpark in Hermosillo, and we're on the bus together, and I'm really just getting to know the guy. I knew Buddy, I knew who he was but never like that. He said, Joe-Joe, I won the Caribbean League championship in this ballpark. I said, that's pretty cool, man. What did the papers declare the next day, buddy Negro pitches and wins championship? He said, no, Pepe Negro. So from that moment on, he became Pepe Negro to me. So after that game we're leaving the ballpark, this dude comes down with the hat, and he wants us to sign it, and he threw it at Pepe, he started to sign it. He said, no, no, no please sign it Pepe Negro, and he did, and that's where the legend began, and he threw it back into the stands. So from that moment on, he's Pepe Negro to me. Whenever we talk, he's Pepe. He's wonderful. He's everything you guys have noticed when you work with him. Just a straight-up, straight shooter. He's old school, Pepe is old school. Very bright and funny. Very, very funny. We've always had a good time together. I'm not rooting for him quite as much as I normally do today, but we are good friends. Q. You'll be surprised Javy was incredibly confident when he was in here, of course. How have you seen that kind of confidence build throughout your clubhouse through a lot of adversity this year for your club and allowing them to turn the page quickly like they have to tonight? JOE MADDON: Yeah, that's one thing we tried to breed from the beginning is you have to be able to turn the page quickly. I talk about the win hard for 30, lose hard for 30 and move on for 30 minutes. Start talking about that in 2015, and if he's saying something like that, that really indicates that they do listen. Just like kids sometimes, you wonder if they actually do listen. So it does not surprise me. Very confident young man. By saying that, you've been around enough to know he has kind of taken one of the leadership roles in that clubhouse. Beyond the numbers you see on the field, the numbers that you see in how he plays on the field, he has become more vocal. When we're playing the game on the bench, he always is involved vocally, and I love it. He's not afraid of anything, and I really respect that about him. And it's just the beginning for him. I mean, this guy is going to keep getting better, and there's still different things he's going to do better in his game. But I love the fact that he's that confident and he's not afraid to say it. Q. You may have addressed this on the radio today, but if you're fortunate enough to advance, do you know anything at this hour of Addison Russell's possible availability, and would? You be concerned that he would be in good baseball shape? JOE MADDON: I don't know anything, honestly, right now because that's out of our hands. It's hard to determine anything. That would create conjecture if he'd be able to play or not based on being in baseball shape or not. But I don't know anything regarding the investigation. We haven't heard anything there yet. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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