MLB WORLD SERIES: ASTROS VS BRAVES

October 30, 2021

Brian Snitker

Truist Park

Atlanta Braves

Pregame 4 Press Conference

Q. When you were evaluating Dylan Lee, what stood out? When you talked about the inexperience, where did the conversation go there?

BRIAN SNITKER: No, it's just he's been very impressive in the times that we've used him, what we've seen, ability to throw strikes, his change-up is real. We could have went many different ways, really, but he has, he's shown us we can trust him and put some confidence in him.

Q. Not many people talk about the job that d'Arnaud does swinging the bat this off-season. When you got him, how much was his offense considered?

BRIAN SNITKER: Really the total guy. I don't know that we talk enough about what we were missing. We lost him for a hundred games this year and how valuable he was to this pitching staff. When he came back, the trust that everybody has in him. It was the offense, the defense, the whole thing.

I know when we acquired him and Alex extended him earlier in the summer, it was really good to know we had him locked up for a couple more years because of how valuable he is for our pitching staff and our club.

He's a silver slugger. He's a top-of-the-order bat. And I think we're very fortunate to have him.

Q. Jesse said, when you guys were in L.A., he was stretching when you told him he was going to start. He didn't have much time to process the moment. When did you tell Dylan? What were his emotions?

BRIAN SNITKER: We told him he could just kind of come out of the bullpen. I didn't tell him until this afternoon, just for his sake, I think, as much as anything, for what he would have encountered. He probably wouldn't have gotten any sleep because people have been texting him and his phone would have been going off all night.

Yeah, he was excited. I told him, you don't need to go five innings, just get some outs. Come out of the bullpen and get some outs is all we're asking.

Q. I wonder if you could put into words how different it is dealing with front offices now compared to when you first started in baseball. Just the volume of people and the brainpower.

BRIAN SNITKER: It's way, way different. Not even on the same planet as it used to be. All good, though, too. It's good information. There's a lot of guys that are working very hard up there.

I think in our situation it makes it easier to assimilate in when you have a guy like Alex that doesn't have to be right, that he asks everybody. He's inquisitive. We all work together. It's not like him beating us down with anything. He is open to everything we have to offer. We're open to whatever he has to offer because we just want to try and get it right.

But it is a totally different dynamic than it used to be.

Q. While the analytics tells you that using openers sometimes, or often, gives you a better chance to win the game, is the fan in you at all concerned that the decreased emphasis on starting pitchers around the game hurts the marketing of the game and the fan attractiveness?

BRIAN SNITKER: I don't know. I'm a big fan of starting pitching, but in this age where some guys, they break, and it's just hard to keep it -- in your organization, to keep enough stable of starting pitching that you can use. Sometimes they break down in the Minor Leagues and you get up here, and there's nowhere to go anymore for whatever reason, whether it's how guys are -- they play so much baseball now, I think at a young age. And I think that's part of why, to me, they break. They never rest.

These guys are going to barns and taking pitching lessons in the winter. Guys used to play basketball and football and pitch in the spring and whatever sport was in season was their favorite one. I think guys are majoring in pitching at a really young age, and I think that may be a result of some of what we're seeing now as we try and piece all this together.

I'm still a big proponent in developing starting pitching. I think you develop starting pitching in your organization if you're going to be solid. Part of me thinks we need to get back to that.

Q. Using Dylan Lee today, theoretically you've got a few guys you can piggy-back and go like three innings, if not, to get to your main bullpen guys?

BRIAN SNITKER: Yeah, we have some options that guys, like I say, are stretched out enough to be able to do that.

Q. Going back to developing guys to start in the Minor Leagues, what are some of the methods you think should be brought back in to do that more effectively?

BRIAN SNITKER: Well, I think we're starting to do that in our organization. Just look at our game reports and how they ran pitching this year, which was tough because they literally lost a whole year last year, a lot of those guys, and didn't play at all. I think that was important.

I think they amped our guys up as the season went. Looking at game reports, we did a really good job of starting to stretch kids out, even at the lower levels.

And I think it takes a while to do that, which is why I think over the years we were so successful at doing that because that was a big emphasis in our organization years and years ago when I was managing in the Minor Leagues. The emphasis was starting pitching. We wanted guys to start and develop their pitchers. A lot of them ended up as relievers in the Big Leagues, but we had them start so they got a feel for all their pitches.

Q. Can you share what the scouting reports were like on Dylan as the year went along. Of course I know he didn't join the organization until the middle of April. At what point during the year did you start to think, okay, he can start to help us?

BRIAN SNITKER: It was late for me. A lot of the guys that I was looking at, especially on Triple-A game reports, are guys I never heard of, and there's a few that we acquired that ended up -- Alex was tireless in going out and watching these guys throw. I'd always ask him, like who do you like? And Dylan was always attractive because of his ability to throw strikes. That was the biggest thing.

And his stuff's good. His fastball plays.

The change-up is really good. He has a slider. But we got really good reports of him.

I used to tell a guy, if you go out and put up zeros, you start getting noticed. He was being effective, and like I say, throwing the ball over.

Q. What was your reaction when you found out that Duvall was coming back to play for you at the trade deadline?

BRIAN SNITKER: I was excited as can be. I love that kid. He was a big part of last year. Everybody, he's the greatest teammate you'll ever have and person. I really wanted to get him out of Miami because he was killing us when we'd go in there.

I think everybody in the clubhouse was really excited to get a player that quality, of that caliber back on our club. I kind of felt like you never wanted him to leave. Circumstances were such that he did. But I think everybody in our clubhouse was really excited to get him back.

Q. I know Ronnie and maybe a few other family members have been affected by cancer. What's that going to mean to you tonight to hold that card, and who will be on your card tonight?

BRIAN SNITKER: I just made it out, as a matter of fact. And Ronnie's at the top of the list and a couple of really good friends. We have a picture of Troy at his last World Series with his card, and it's on her dresser because mom's right there.

Q. What's your take on the universal DH next year? In this series, you had to take Pederson out of the lineup last night. You had him down in Houston. You worked with it last year. Would you like to see it, or would you rather have it stay the same?

BRIAN SNITKER: Prior to experiencing it last year, I was kind of like the old guard. I was not for it. I am for it now. Because I see for every Max Fried and Adam Wainwright and Madison Bumgarner, there's 15 guys who can't hit. Again, they don't grow up hitting. They grow up pitching, and they're not hitting.

Most of the time, those guys were some of your better athletes. And when they didn't pitch, they played shortstop and they batted. They don't do that a lot now.

I enjoyed the games in Houston where I could let all the guys play, and I liked it last year too. I didn't know if I would, but I ended up liking it.

Q. When you told Dylan he was starting today, did you call him into your office? After you did so, what was his reaction?

BRIAN SNITKER: Yeah, it was good. I told him in the clubhouse because he's usually one of the first guys to get here. I got here early and told the clubhouse guys to tell him to come see me whenever he came in. When he came in, he had that look, like "Uh-oh, what's going on? Where am I going?"

I could tell you he's excited. His family's here, fiancee, all the parents and everything, and he was excited. He was anxious to do it.

Q. Eddie Rosario's got 21 hits. He's approaching Marquis Grissom's couple records he set here. In your mind, is that just a guy who's getting hot right now, or do you subscribe to the theory that some guys are made for moments, October moments like he's doing right now?

BRIAN SNITKER: A little of both, I think. I think he's really enjoyed this. I think he did get hot at the right time, and I've had players tell me too that have done really good in the postseason. They worry so much about average and all that and keeping up during the season that, when the season's over, they kind of relax and go out and play and end up doing really well because they're not worried about the batting average and everything that's going to be at the end of the year. It's kind of a new start, and they're not really playing like that, and they end up relaxing and have really good postseasons.

I don't know Eddie that well in the short time he's been here, but I sure like the way he's doing now, that's for sure.

Q. You talked about how you would like to see the DH. Would you miss the stretch that's been baseball for so long, the double switches, maybe the sacrifice bunts?

BRIAN SNITKER: You do miss that. I think you would miss that, but I just see so many pitchers now that go to the plate and, number one, they don't want to. So I just -- honestly, I think it will be a better game to watch. It will be more action, more stuff going on.

And that is part of it, that gut-wrenching thing, just trying to get a guy through here. He's throwing good. Now do we hit for him? All of that kind of stuff. It's one of the reasons you're so exhausted after the game's over after dealing with things like that.