AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RANGERS VS ASTROS

October 14, 2023

Dusty Baker

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Do you have a rotation beyond Verlander for this series?

DUSTY BAKER: Verlander and Framber.

Q. With all the young managers across the way, what do you think about the two oldest managers in the MLB are in the ALCS?

DUSTY BAKER: I just think that it's overplayed. You can't brag -- I can brag, because I've made it this far in age, but it has something to do with us, but mostly to do with your team. And the fact that the team trusts us. Our team has been here before, and makes for good press.

Q. Were you ever worried that your age would hinder you to get another job?

DUSTY BAKER: Probably. I wasn't worried. What can you do about it? You worry about things that's out of your control. You can't hire yourself. You can fire yourself. I was out of a job three different times for two years at a time without even offering.

So I've said in the past you look around the world, there's different kind of discrimination, there's age, race, and there's sometimes gender. And sometime intellectual. So there's all kind of things that you can think about. But it's no good to worry about.

Q. How is Kendall Graveman doing, and do you envision him being on your ALCS Rosser?

DUSTY BAKER: No, he's not improved. So we had to take him off the roster.

Q. Your thoughts on the Rangers going with the lefty Jordan Montgomery in Game 1?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, that's their decision. I mean, he's pretty good. He's been very good. He was good in St. Louis and he's been good here in Texas. He knows how to pitch. And probably they went with who was the freshest and who was the strongest at this time.

Q. And follow-up on your left-handed hitters have been so good against left-handed pitching?

DUSTY BAKER: Yeah, just depends on who the left-handed pitchers are. I mean, they pose some problems, they've got like five or six of them. It's different when they have one and I can stack them back-to-back. But if they've got five or six of them, and they bring them in 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, whenever, that's a problem for anybody.

Q. You realize that it's a battle for Texas, you compare it to the shootout at the O.K. Corral. Do you understand the significance of two Texas teams making it to the ALCS?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, I'm beginning to. And, you know, in California we were in the World Series, two teams, us and the Angels, battling for bragging rights in California. But everything -- being in Texas, I've learned that since I've been here.

Q. Once you got to see the Rangers first two series, does anything stand out to you?

DUSTY BAKER: I didn't get a chance to watch them because I was trying to get my own. They pitch well, and they can hit. And you have to try to break some of their momentum and try to keep them out of the big innings, because that's what they're very capable of, big inning even with two outs.

We've just got to keep them out of the big inning, and hopefully we have more big innings than they do.

Q. There's been a lot this week made of the layoff. What specifically allowed you guys to stay locked in during the layoff and kind of play the way you did in the Division Series?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, I don't know, we stayed locked in during the layoff, the fact that we had to play up until the last day of the season to get in, I think that's even more important than the layoff.

You look at the Dodgers, you look at the Braves, they had like two weeks prior to that and they had a layoff. So that's -- even though they were playing and winning, that's almost mentally three weeks to a month off.

Q. Do you like this format? Do you think this is the right format?

DUSTY BAKER: I don't know, man. I just go on what I'm told. They don't ask my opinion, and I don't have a vote. I'm just a high ranking employee that's coming to work.

Q. Talk about Bryan Abreu. Do you seen him as a guy who could be a closer in the near future with his stuff?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, don't presume the close yet -- we still have time on Pressly's contract. He has great stuff. But you can't -- the setup man is actually a lot of times more important than the closer. Because that eighth inning, if you notice in almost every game, this is when most teams stage their comeback. I don't know why, but this is what I've noticed, in the eighth inning something always happens. And before Pressly was the setup man prior to him being the closer. And they told me that he most of the time got the toughest duty of the order.

So it takes a certain mindset and takes time sometimes. You want to rest people in their roles or whatever. Sometimes you have to take time to let things happen.

To answer your question, I've seen Bryan since he got here, when I first got here, during the COVID years, he wasn't, then he came back. And he didn't have the command and control that he has now. He's always had stuff. But like most young pitchers it's about command and more than anything control, because a lot of them have stuff.

Q. As you get ready for the Rangers, how do they look different than they did when you played them in early September?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, you know, last time we played them the third baseman was hurt. The right fielder got hurt during that series, some of the big offensive guys. They look basically the same. You go through hot and cold streaks and hot and cold periods. And for right now they're hot and we're kind of hot or we're getting hotter.

Q. You have managed over 200 games against each other, how do you balance knowing somebody's tendencies, versus maybe overthinking it or kind of judging the analytics or looking at the statistics?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, I think overthinking is better than underthinking, number one. Number two, I'd rather have a foe that I do know versus one that I don't know. And I've always said that it's harder to manage against the person than it is against analytics or a computer, because a lot of times the computer and analytics will tell you -- just like we played Minnesota, they're going to change their whole lineup early in the game, where a person might not change any part of their lineup or try do different things to -- I respect Bruce. I don't know what his record is. But he's got a lot of brains in the head up there.

Q. After dominating the series against the Rangers in the regular season, especially the last three games, is there anything that can carry over?

DUSTY BAKER: No, depends, like I said, how you're pitching is, how their pitching is. I've been on teams that went to the playoffs and beat the other team a whole bunch and then they beat us, I was on a team -- I think the Phillies beat us like 10 out of 12 and then we swept them back in the day.

Q. When you played, you played against Bochy, can you recall meeting him and did you guys have any kind of relationship back in the '70s?

DUSTY BAKER: No. I mean, I knew him from the other side. I didn't know him very well. I got to know him better when I managed against him. And I got to know him a lot better when him and Sutcliffe, my former teammate, who was close to both of us. I got to know him even better in San Francisco with Brian Sabean, who was the general manager of both of us at different times, and I got to know him when and Sutcliffe and Lewis would call me when they were together hanging some place. So I got to know him more as a manager than a player.

Q. How much of your style is analytics, and how much is just going off the experience of you being manager and being a former player?

DUSTY BAKER: All of the above. Sometimes I use my experience as a player. Sometimes I use my experience from some managers that I've had, some how to be and some how not to be at certain times. I try to combine the things from my dad, from past coaches, from guys that taught me coming up.

I've always used numbers. But when I had my stroke 15 years ago what was most alarming to me is I couldn't recall numbers. And that's what's really -- when I was in Cincinnati, and so I'm just -- I've always liked numbers. I don't use Mapquest, unless I'm lost. I remember guys' phone numbers, at least area codes and prefixes, in order to stay sharp.

So you stop using your brain, I know not a lot of people at my age -- a lot of people my age have quit using their brain and then have dementia or Alzheimer's like some of my family members have. So I'm trying to stay as sharp as I can.