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NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERS

October 15, 2018

Dave Roberts

Los Angeles, California - pregame 3

Q. Big day for Joc Pederson yesterday. You had him batting leadoff. Have you talked to him today?
DAVE ROBERTS: I haven't seen him yet. I assume he's in a good place, obviously congratulations to he and his wife Kelsey. So I know he's excited and I need to track him down.

Q. When you're constructing a lineup and the other team has an elite left-handed reliever, is there a benefit to stacking your lefties at the top of it when you have righties maybe on the bench?
DAVE ROBERTS: So you're saying to play the righties because a guy can go two innings?

Q. I'm curious, if it's switching up second and third.
DAVE ROBERTS: Might be, possibly. Having Joc at the top of the order where you could potentially hit with any number of guys on the bench and still liking Munc to take at-bat. And a couple of right-handers behind him feels that you don't give up a whole lot, change a whole lot, but you kind of can count on a potential move by them.

Q. Was the paternity list in play for Joc, had his wife not given birth on the off day? Can you contrast with your playing days. Is it something you wish was around for you personally or your teammates?
DAVE ROBERTS: It wasn't around when I was playing, I don't recall. It wasn't even, I don't think, an option. I think it's great for the players to have the paternity days. We had Andrew Toles, here, we had Chase here, if something happened, one of those guys would have been the option for today.

Q. Jumping back to the other question, how do you prepare when you know you might see like five or six pitchers in the game and the starter only goes a couple of innings, as opposed to just preparing to a guy who might go five or six and then you get the bullpen at the back? What's the difference?
DAVE ROBERTS: Well, the difference is you just don't know when they're going to go to the pen. But I think the overarching kind of message for me to the players is we have really good players. And although we do use our guys essentially in a platoon, our position players are very good against both, and have shown it throughout their entire careers. So on the margins we look for a potential advantage, but you're not always going to get your optimum matchup. But when you have Matt Kemp, Chris Taylor, David Freese, Brian Dozier, all these guys, for example, for today that are not starting, they've been pretty good hitters against right-handed pitching. If you don't get your optimum matchup, we're very comfortable with who we have in the batters box.

Q. Why do you think positional flexibility has become such a desirable trait in players, especially in the past few years?
DAVE ROBERTS: It's just kind of probably because matchups and obviously information is so prevalent now. And so when you have a player who is versatile and you don't lose anything on the defensive side, just gives you more flexibility and now you're talking about guys that can handle right- or left-handed pitching.

But I think for our club to be able to move Chris Taylor, KikÃ© around, Max Muncy, Cody Bellinger, it's freed me up to do a lot of different things as far as when a pitcher's spot is coming up, or how I want to get a particular matchup in our favor.

Q. Both of these teams are similar in that they both have a lot of depth, they both really are set up to leverage every spot on the roster, a lot of in-game moves. When you're going against a team like that, is that fun for you to have that challenge?
DAVE ROBERTS: It's certainly a challenge as opposed to as Barry alluded to, you get a starter going 7 innings, and then you look at the back end of a game to match up against a couple of relievers. Especially in this series, relievers are deployed a lot earlier, especially on their side.

Our guys, to their credit, are ready from the first inning on. We've hit for David a couple of times early, and got Max in there. So it does make it more challenging and I've got good coaches around me and the players are in and prepared. So it does add a little -- it's fun, yeah, sure.

Q. Continue with the theme of so many moving parts on a roster, can you reflect on how things have changed for a manager's duties, say, 30, 40 years ago, just penciling in basically the same lineup every day, and how you're always, always on your toes during a game, before a game?
DAVE ROBERTS: 30, 40 years ago, that's a little further than I can recount (laughter). But I would assume, like we all would, Barry might know -- no, I'm kidding Barry. I think that there are a lot of moving parts. I think communication is certainly at a premium. Managing players is still kind of what I imagined, and the strategy behind it, which I think that with the media and the way that people are digging into things may be more magnified, which is great. I think that managers now, everything is dissected. You're held to a different maybe higher standard, which is great. It's good for the accountability piece.

But the game, as everything kind of evolves and grows. And so I really can't speak to that. But even ten years ago I think that there's been a big change in how Major League managers, the job description and what is entailed in this job description.

Q. I don't ever remember it being this windy at Dodger Stadium. Are you curious how that's going to play out.
DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I woke up this morning and you kind of feel the warm air and the wind. Let's make sure we keep everyone around the area safe. We know this time of the season.

I don't know how it's going to affect the ball flight. I'm looking forward to seeing, when we get out there and take some swings, but I expect the ball to be flying a little bit today.

Q. Talking about communication, during the season you want to make sure that the guys know when they're going to play the next day. Do you notify them the night before or the morning of? How involved is it just keeping everybody knowing what they're doing?
DAVE ROBERTS: I would say 95 percent of the time I'll let them know the night before. And there are certain times for extreme circumstances that I'll let them know the day of. But I try to give them as much time.

But to lay it out there two to three days in advance, that's a little bit more challenging. Because what you don't want to do is tell them and then you've got to backtrack. So that's kind of -- you almost want to keep everyone ideally ready to play and that's kind of the old school thought. But I try to give guys a heads up.

Q. Did you get an explanation on why Yasmani tried to slide feet first into first base the other day?
DAVE ROBERTS: I didn't seek a reason. I think it was just more he was frustrated that he put the ball on the ground and he was doing everything he could to get to first base. And he felt in that moment the feet first slide was the best option. So I think if it were happening again I don't think he would do that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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