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NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS VS BRAVESOctober 3, 2019Mike ShildtAtlanta, Georgia - pregame 1 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with Cardinal manager Mike Shildt. Q. Can you walk us through the decision you made with your bullpen, particularly with Ponce De Leon, who thought, as he told us, he thought maybe if he didn't pitch much in September he might not catch your eye in October? What did he do in limited uses that caught your eye? MIKE SHILDT: So couple thoughts to the roster. First of all, the biggest person off the roster is John Gant. That was the hardest decision, quite candidly, by far. You're talking about a guy that won 11 games, more than 10 percent of our win total. So just made a decision based on more recency. And Cabrera being on there is a situation based on their roster compensation. I think that's pretty clear. And specific to your question about Ponce, he provides a link. He provides a link that we can count on. He's done a nice job in that, did a nice job with three scoreless in Arizona, took advantage of the opportunities he was able to receive. But ultimately -- he's also, he's not over split, actually good against lefties, too. If we need the length, which hopefully we do not, he'll be available. But he's also able to navigate both sides of the lineup. Q. I'm sure sports writers even asked the '27 Yankees about lineup decisions. I want to ask you about having Carpenter, who was hitting so well in September, not starting tonight. Can you describe the strategy that went into that? MIKE SHILDT: A combination of things. We look at the lineup holistically. A lot of people look at it offensively, which is reasonable. We've got to score runs. We're comfortable and confident we'll be able to do that with the roster, the lineup that we have. Keuchel is a little better against lefties, that has something to do with it. Really don't mind Carp's batting against Keuchel if he was going to be in there, based on how he pitches and the way Carp swings the bat. But ultimately it came down to putting a group out there that we feel like Harrison's been representative against lefties, hit a homer against a lefty the other day and plays really good defense. We wanted to make sure we put a group together out there -- and Kolten is back. That's the thing that impacted Carp. And the other thing about Carp is he's done a great job coming off the bench, taking really good at-bats. There will still be a spot for Carp. Q. And it gives you a chance to not have to wedge anybody in positions. You're not wedging Edman in right field and Dexter moving over to center, and all that? MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, it kind of gives us continuity that allows us to get here. Q. When you had to have that conversation with John and break that news to him, how difficult was that? And was there any element of stay ready because you don't know what the rest of this month could bring? MIKE SHILDT: Absolutely difficult. John was disappointed, rightfully so. And I appreciate the guys who are disappointed. I don't mind the fact that they can challenge the decision, not that John did. John was a complete pro. But clearly a tough decision, tough conversation and tough for John, really. I think the world of him and moving forward that's the great point. So you guys may have seen our workout yesterday. John threw a lot of BP. John will be available in case, God forbid something happened to somebody in this series, and keeping him sharp for next series based on what that looks like after this series and based on matchups. There's a really good opportunity, if we advance, that John will be on that roster. Q. When you were looking at the inclusion of Yairo as opposed to a guy like Ravelo, was that about wanting to make sure you have defensive coverage at a variety of positions in case you needed somebody in the course of a game? MIKE SHILDT: That's how that went down. Charles did a nice job. We've got two extra infielders that can play multiple positions. We use Carp off the bench for an at-bat. And now we've got Yairo to come in and double-switch anywhere really because he can play the outfield, but coverage in the infield as well. If we did that with Carp -- hit early in the game, fifth, sixth, whatever that might look like -- and then didn't put him in the game -- but irregardless, he would double switch or we'd put Eddie in the outfield; that would be the only way we'd kind of be covered. But if we did that and burn Carp early on, something happened with a guy later on in the infield, we'd be pretty well stuck. And Yairo did a nice job, got a lot of versatility. Ravelo was a tough decision as well. It's good -- it's an indication why we're here; we've got guys who have contributed to us being able to get to this point, so tough decisions. Q. The other side of that is we've seen Ravelo and Jose kind of switch off in that first righty off-the-bench pinch hitting spots. Does that open up at-bats for a guy like Randy, e.g., who maybe isn't running and playing defense recently, but might be in one of those positions? MIKE SHILDT: I think it puts him in play a little bit more, it does. Q. What's the status of Michael Wacha? I know he was shut down from throwing for a few days. MIKE SHILDT: Michael continues to progress. He'll start to play light catch here fairly soon. How he recovers based on that, he'll throw a light bullpen. But Michael's moving forward. Q. What's it like for you, a guy who started in the organization as a scout? You've won championships throughout the minor leagues and now you're here as a manager of the Cardinals, representing the team in the postseason for yourself for the first time. What's it like to be part of this organization for the better part of your adult life and then to have this opportunity? MIKE SHILDT: Appreciate the question. It's a tremendous blessing, to be put in a place where you get to, as a starting point, be around people in an organization that are like-minded, that generally care about the organization more than they care about themselves. They're very dedicated to moving the history of the organization forward. And that's all I've tried to do is just my part of that. There's a long history of success with the St. Louis Cardinals. And I've always embraced and admired and accepted that responsibility. And whatever role I've been in, I try to create value and try to move that forward and be a good steward. Like I say, very blessed and very excited and ready to play. Q. Piggybacking off of that. Brian Snitker spoke highly of you in his press conference. You guys come from similar backgrounds of the organizational guys, who this is your dream job, you're living out your dream. How special is it that you two get to face off in such a big series with those kind of backgrounds and just how much more it might mean to you guys? MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, very, very special. When you kind of, in our case, bleed the Cardinal red. I've got a sense of gratitude for Brian in the sense that his ability to come in in a similar fashion growing up, doing everything literally through the Atlanta organization and being a big part of their success for years and years and then getting an opportunity in the interim situation, which is not as common obviously. It's a lot more rare especially today. And then him doing well and moving that forward, created an opportunity to say potentially for us -- I can't speak to why I was hired -- but it did create an opportunity to say, hey, there's a template here for an organizational guy that cares that's gone through the bus rides and all the different things that come with it that has success, that moved it forward and proved it can be done. So I've got some gratitude for Brian for that and a lot of respect. I've always appreciated people that are baseball men, baseball lifers, people that care about more about the players than they care about themselves. And anybody that dedicates the number of years that Brian and a lot of guys have in the minor leagues, that's always the case with that. And I've always heard good things about him. I had Phillip Wellman in the organization. And Welly was in the Braves organization for years, and he came over, our hitting couch in Double-A for a couple of years, and he always spoke highly of Snit, just the kind of person and the baseball guy he is. And I really respect and appreciate those words and looking forward to the competition. Q. How much does having Dakota Hudson in your pen in these early games allow you to be aggressive and if there's a pinch-hitting opportunity early, or if Miles hits some turbulence going forward? MIKE SHILDT: It does. It creates an opportunity, because Dakota has been able to do that, did it last year, has some experience doing it. Obviously has the stuff to be able to come in and get out of a situation, whether it's a ground ball or, more lately, he has gotten more punch-outs and he's got length. It does create an opportunity to say, hey, we can make an adjustment if we need be early in the game. And we get to a certain point, we'll be kind of more in our normal bullpen. Q. You didn't get to work out yesterday at the time this game is going to be played tonight. Are you concerned about any shadows or anything like that? MIKE SHILDT: I'm not. I mean, I think shadows are the shadows, and the guys will be able to adjust to it. We'll take it as it comes. Q. Not only your first time in the postseason, but quite a few players on your roster, too, this is their first taste of this stage. How important would be the influence of guys like Waino and Yadi who have been here time and time again, and what does it mean that at this point in their career they kind of get another crack at this thing together? MIKE SHILDT: It's going to be really important that our guys, Yadi, Waino, Dex has been through it, Goldy and Wiety, Andrew Miller and I may be omitting a guy or so. But we do have a fair amount of guys that this is their first opportunity. So, yeah, we have some leadership that's gotten us to this point that will say, hey, this is what this looks like. But we also have a really good group of young players that embrace competition and embrace opportunity and also they have really good habits. And ultimately the thing I have the most confidence in, of many things with this group, is just they're going to go play. They prepared very well all offseason, spring training, during the season. And they're just going to go play the game, trust their preparation and enjoy it. Q. In answering the question about the lineup, you mentioned both continuity and Keuchel's success against lefties. Wonder how you find that sweet spot between your strength and the opponent's splits and how you kind of weigh those two parts? MIKE SHILDT: I think we always air on our strengths. So we're going to make sure that we're going to play our game and we're going to -- we're also going to be aware what the competition looks like on the other side and put ourselves in the best spot. But ultimately we're going to go with our strengths. And, listen, there's tough decisions as a good club we have. But our strengths have been pitching and defense a good portion of this year. So we're going to ride that out there, get Kolten back in the lineup, and we'll take our at-bats and we have confidence in everybody. Q. Do you have a firm Game 3 starter scheduled now? MIKE SHILDT: We'll go with Wainwright Game 3. Adam will pitch Game 3. Q. Can you talk about Waino and Hudson, 3, 4? MIKE SHILDT: Really talking about experience: Waino has been really good. Both have been really good. That's the thing about our rotation, when you make these decisions. And again I think I alluded to it yesterday. When we were sitting there talking about it, we do our due diligence and go through it rightfully so, but you look up, take a step back, and you go... we've got good starting pitching. So it does matter. We're being intentional about where it looks. But Waino has good experience, been really good at home. He'll get that opportunity in Game 3 and Dakota will go Game 4. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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