AL DIVISION SERIES: GUARDIANS VS YANKEES

October 10, 2022

Carl Willis

Yankee Stadium

Cleveland Guardians

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Quantrill has won his last 11 decisions going back to early July. From a pitching standpoint, what has allowed him to be so successful in that stretch?

CARL WILLIS: I think a couple things. He obviously does a very diligent job in preparing, but more than anything else, you know, he's a very aggressive type of pitcher. You know, he can shape the ball in many different fashions. He sinks it, he cuts it and he uses his curveball. So he can be somewhat unpredictable at times, as opposed to maybe if you look back a couple years ago, it was more easy or easier just to prepare for a sinker.

So I think he's evolved into a much more well-rounded pitcher with his repertoire.

Q. As a pitching coach, do you plan to have -- I guess my question is, what approach are you guys going to have?

CARL WILLIS: I think the first word that comes to my mind is respect. We obviously respect every opponent, every hitter in the box, and that stands true for this series. Not only Aaron Judge, but you know, the other eight guys that we're going to be facing. You know, certainly, we know what he's done this year.

At the same time, he ain't come out of nowhere. He's been pretty good for a while now. You know, we're going to attack him with respect, but we are going to attack him and hopefully not get in situations where he can be -- we don't want that, but certainly we respect Aaron and the remainder of their lineup.

Q. Of course the last two games in the Wild Card series, they were really hard-fought games, pitching duels. As pitching coach, what did you see from Triston and Bieber? From your standpoint, to carry on in the playoffs, what did you see?

CARL WILLIS: I think just the amount of calm, how they were able to control their emotions, their energy. For Shane it was his second postseason start. You all remember the first. Didn't go that well back in 2020. But I think that experience helped him and the fans helped him as well; in 2020, there were no fans, due to COVID.

With Triston, it being his first playoff experience, still, again, I just felt like his warmup and his pregame, there was a sense of quiet confidence that sometimes you don't see in a young pitcher their first postseason experience. We have kind of had a little bit of a saying that, you know, we don't rise to the occasion because the occasion is every day. That's how we respect Major League Baseball and how privileged and honored we are to be a part of it.

You know, hopefully that allows for an even keel and I thought they did a really good job of that.

Q. Have you had time to reflect on that 15-inning game and how well your bullpen pitched?

CARL WILLIS: It was really special, and from man to man, it was just like handing it over to the next guy.

You know, the same could be said for the Rays and their pitching staff because they did the same thing. You look at the games, 0-0 there were only a couple situations with scoring opportunities. You had a feeling with how the game ended was how it was going to end with a home run from one side or the other. Just extremely proud. If you look at the names on our bullpen, first of all, you have to be proud of the years they have had to this point.

But in that situation, a playoff atmosphere, and with high stakes, it was totally a proud moment for all of us.

Q. If Shaw is active, are there any things to say or do before going in after almost two weeks without a game, or is his veteran knowledge and presence enough?

CARL WILLIS: Well, I think a couple of things to answer that. No. 1, once he cleared waivers and made the decision, you know, to stay with us, which speaks volumes about what a person and teammate he is, he has been getting work on the mound. So from a physical standpoint, he is ready. He's been here before in terms of playing in the postseason. You know, he has sat in on our meetings with the Rays, the meetings concerning the Yankees. He's prepared and ready to go if that presents itself.

Q. Just to follow up on that, after that roster decision was made, you sort of touched on it but what does it say about Shaw that he wanted to stay around the team and just how important is that to have him there for such a young clubhouse?

CARL WILLIS: Yeah, you know, I think Bryan, you know, last year in 2021, we had some young relievers: Trevor Stephan, Nick Sandlin, those two come to mind, first major league experience.

I think just kind of leading by example, how Bryan goes about his day, how he watches the game, how he prepares himself during the game. Young pitchers watch veteran pitchers and they learn from that.

You know, Bryan, his first tenure with the Indians -- Cleveland, I should say -- was very special. He made himself one of the best relievers, middle, setup relievers in the game.

When he got away from Cleveland, I think he would have liked for his career to have continued on that path or would have liked to have performed better. But I think there's a lot of comfort here with Cleveland, with Tito, the training staff, everyone involved. He is truly a Cleveland Guardian and we are really, really excited and thankful that he wants to be here.

Q. Following up on Judge, when you say that you're going to attack him, all things equal, you won't be pitching around him?

CARL WILLIS: Are you going to tell him what I say? (Laughter).

You know, I mean, we don't want to back down from anybody. And at the same time, you know, we are not going to be stupid. I can't think of a better word for it (laughter).

The situation will certainly dictate how we pitch to him, but there are going to be times that we have to, and we'll be prepared to do that.

So again, there's the utmost respect for everyone that puts on a major league uniform, but certainly having an historic record-breaking year like he has had, he deserves a little more attention.

Q. And very separately, you mentioned Stephan a bit earlier. He came from the Yankees; how has he developed over the last two years?

CARL WILLIS: I think last year, we saw flashes, at times, of what we have seen this year. It's just a matter of, you know, gaining more consistency. He learned a lot about how his delivery should work and how it works now. And I think he learned a lot about his body, the things that he needed to do that our training staff and strength staff have been such a huge part of, that he put himself in a physical place to really go out and maintain Trevor Stephan's delivery. And what we've seen because of that is a lot of consistency, and you know, at times, electric stuff.

Q. Three years ago, Sam Hentges was a trusted starter in AAA, and now he's a reliever. Can you take us through the evolution?

CARL WILLIS: Years ago, you cringe when you talk about possibly changing an arm action or changing a takeaway out of the glove.

But you know, with advances and people learning and the cloud ball, the weighted balls, the things that you can do; I think Sam worked so extremely hard to kind of clean up the arm action and take away to get himself in a good position as he started coming down the mound.

That's not easy. But he continued to work on it diligently and all of a sudden, we have seen a command of three pitches. Obviously there's velocity. Curveball has really come into play here in the second half of the season, and controls the running game. He's made himself a complete reliever, and personally, there's no postseason All-Star Game, but if you look at what he has done through the entire season, he's an All-Star. He's had a heck of a year.

Q. The last two weeks here as Judge was chasing 61 and then 62, a lot of the guys around him in the lineup started launching balls around him, and Boone was speculating that there were some attention things with the pitchers because of Judge looming.

Postseason series, everyone is going to be on edge the whole time, but how do you make sure there isn't one spot in the lineup that doesn't attract undue attention?

CARL WILLIS: Again, it goes back to respect. I think having a young team -- you know, first of all, we are here to win. But at the same time, we want to make sure we enjoy the process of going about it. So we try to keep things simple. That's worked to this point.

I have to tell you that our two catchers outside of our clubhouse don't get the credit they deserve for the work they do, not only in helping me and our pitching group prepare, but helping our pitchers. In terms of game calling, throwing, they are the best in the game and we appreciate them so much.

We are going to go out and play baseball and hope that the moment doesn't get too big.

Q. Curious, the different setup with the Division Series this year with the extra off-day between Games 1 and 2, how does that affect the way that you can use your pitching staff early in the series? And by contrast, does it make a difference having potentially the last three games on the road like that?

CARL WILLIS: Certainly allows us flexibility with the bullpen, a game, a day off, a game, a day off. Does create somewhat of an issue if you look at, you know, getting to Game 4 and potentially Game 5 of who to bring back. Obviously your Game 2 starter would be on short rest if he pitched Game 5. So there are a lot of things to think about and digest, and obviously the weather can be a factor, also.

So you know, we try to plan but we also know that we have to be able to adjust from day-to-day and we'll be ready to do that.