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MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 6, 2005

Felipe Alou

DALLAS, TEXAS

Q. What are your feelings about the World Baseball Classic and how that's evolved? It's probably something that you thought was long overdue?
FELIPE ALOU: A year ago when there was some talks and even some meetings and reference to it, I thought maybe it was a possibility -- now it's a reality. I've been in the Dominican Republic twice and the first time there was some talks about it. The second time, which was last week, there was a lot of enthusiasm there from the fans, the authorities, the government, the players, especially the players. I believe this is very serious stuff now.

Q. How long overdue to recognize the international side of it?
FELIPE ALOU: I think that where they have been going to Japan and other places to play the game and so many countries now are represented in the big leagues, that it is about time to do with baseball what they have done with soccer, to have a tournament. I don't know how often, I don't know the specifics of that, how often that's going to be done but it could be a big, big thing. If what we're reading now and what we hear from the players is true, and I believe that it is, it's going to be something big.

Q. How much of a challenge will it be logically to manage with players coming and going in Spring Training?
FELIPE ALOU: Well, this is something that we all have to give, be elastic with it for it to be a success. I don't see how we could deny a player the privilege of representing their country in such a tournament. I believe if you leave it up to the player that even puts more pressure on the player to go in and have to participate.

Q. Is there any concern on your part with you have a player last year who missed most of the season, Bonds, participating in something like that, given his age and injury, that you want to see what he's like physically going into the season and he may not have that opportunity, the risk of getting injured?
FELIPE ALOU: Well, in the case of Bonds, which is really my concern and that of the Giants, since I'm not managing the team, I believe that the DH rule is going to be in effect, so Bonds will probably just hit.
Myself, I think it will be good for him to get those at-bats without having to be in the outfield like he did when he came back late last year on that knee and at least sharpen his swing, which really don't need a whole lot to be sharp, but it will be a help for him and to the Giants and to the tournament, to the U.S. team.
Now, some other guys the injuries will take place, I believe those guys and whoever is in charge of conditioning those guys and managing and coaching those guys, you have to make sure that those guys are in shape and are good enough condition to compete because when they play ball, it's going to be a serious competition. It's just too many big names and too many big hitters involved in that, it's not going to be a half-hearted type of -- it's going to be a serious competition.

Q. Do you have any idea what his physical status is right now?
FELIPE ALOU: I really don't know. I usually talk to Barry on occasions, but this time I haven't. When I heard the first words about the possibility of him playing in that tournament, I said, wow, I hope it's not just words, but it looks now that it is a reality and the fact that he said he wants to play and he's going to play, it tells me that he feels good to play. Because Barry is not -- he's not going to go ahead and show up and play without feeling he isn't in good enough shape and health-wise to go ahead and play.
So that makes me feel better about the whole thing, including Spring Training and next season.

Q. When did you talk to him?
FELIPE ALOU: I haven't talked to him. The only information I have has come from the medical people, the contact they have made and I don't believe he's doing a whole lot right now. But probably swinging the bat like he always does.

Q. How many games do you think he can play?
FELIPE ALOU: I'd say any number of games, close to 100. You know, over 100 games, that would be good. But it's going to be up to the -- you have Bonds playing in 100 games; how many at-bats is he going to get? The chance is he's going to be walked so many times, he's going to wind up with 200-some at-bats which is really not what we want.
We have to come to some sort of a, I'll say, situation, where we would like to play in more games and not have him play nine innings, sort of what happened last year. We gave him three at-bats, four at-bats, we took him out. But my worry is if he plays like 100 games, 110 games, 115 games, there won't be very many at-bats. They are still going to walk him.
I know they didn't walk him much when he did play last year because they knew he was not 100% when he came to swing the bat and playing in the game. But he goes to that tournament and he finishes Spring Training, I can see the walks again. I believe in 2004, how many at-bats did he have, official at-bat? Under 400, and he played in 130 games or something like that. For me personally that's a big concern, the walks, and maybe a low number again, that's going to hurt the team and also hurt his chances of that chase for the record.
See what happens. Him and I, we talk in Spring Training before the season starts on some sort of plans. Probably this spring we will talk more than any other spring and see how we're going to -- but 280 at-bats or 300 at-bats and 200 walks, that's not going to do a whole lot for him or the team?

Q. It seems if he is doing okay physically, why wouldn't you look at a higher number of games?
FELIPE ALOU: Well, if he's doing well physically, yes, no question about it. That's what I said - Spring Training, we're going to talk and see which way we go.

Q. It will be a year removed from the surgery.
FELIPE ALOU: From playing every day, yeah. We'll see. I have the most confidence, you know, that whatever he feels is better for him, we're going to do that, whatever number of games, whatever number of innings, whatever number of at-bats. We have a pretty good understanding on that. Like I said before, last year, there were times when I wouldn't want to play him and he would tell me he wanted to play. And there were other times it worked the other way around.

Q. Do you like the outfield depth enough with Mo and the rest? You've got a centerfielder who can play every day.
FELIPE ALOU: Yeah, I know Brian (Sabean) is exploring the possibility of deepening our outfield situation. But we still have those young guys with us and we also have Pedro who can go to the outfield in any given game. But yes, we might be deeper either when we leave Dallas or before Spring Training. I would like to add experience there.

Q. How encouraged were you by what you saw defensively from Barry? Again, it was just a few games.
FELIPE ALOU: Last year, the instinct and the jump and everything -- I don't believe his leg was ready. He made some good plays with a lot of effort, limping and we saw that, but we hope we don't have to see that next season. He'll be in much better shape, much better health and everything. He talked before the season was over last year about trying to play at a lighter, weight because of the knee. I hope that he'll be able to do that.

Q. How much do you think he should come in at weight-wise?
FELIPE ALOU: I have no idea. He's a big guy, I have no idea.

Q. When a team doesn't have it's premiere player for most of the year, other guys have to make adjustments and people have to compensate. What did you learn about your team last year, playing basically the whole season without him?
FELIPE ALOU: Well, we had -- I was looking at our club, not now or yesterday, after the season was over, the people that Brian Sabean brought to our team, they all did very well. Matheny, Gold Glover, lot of RBIs. Moises hit .300, and when he played he was a big, big hitter for our club. Benitez was out, but when he came back he was at 23.
There were some areas where we would falter a lot and especially on the pitching, we have some periods of some dry spells when it came to starting pitching. Especially when Jason Schmidt was not able to pitch early on in the season before we get him going. We have some incredible jobs done by our bullpen guys, that you would not believe a guy like Walker was able to give us a lift like he did. And then Scotty turned into the pitcher he became and we had to go through young starting pitchers that wasn't really ready to pick up the slack. I believe we need to pitch better.
I like our club offensive-wise. Moises, he's a 300 guy. Matheny is going to probably hit better for average. Pedro Feliz was a little down last year, but to me, we have to pitch better as a starting staff. We have to do better than what we did last year.

Q. What do you think about all of the stuff the Mets are doing?
FELIPE ALOU: What they are doing now, they got started last year. They got some guys last year and they are adding to that. They threatened the division all year but they found what they need to be a serious threat now to win it. They have got those parts, they got those parts they feel they needed. Personally, I know they are going to be so much tougher now in every aspect.

Q. Of all of things they have done, is Wagner the most significant do you think?
FELIPE ALOU: Well, Wagner, yes. He's going to save games for them. But I believe they got El Duque, right? They have a guy -- and not to take anything away from Mike Piazza who is a wonderful ballplayer, but Lo Duca, when it comes to running the bases and throwing and being healthy and everything, Mike got hurt a few times and that hurt the Mets, not only last year but other years. So they are a very aggressive team now. They have already some incredible -- the two young guys they have on the left side of the infield, they scare me. They have Castillo now. You're talking about speed, they have Beltran and they have Floyd. They are to me right now one of the most complete teams in baseball, the Mets are.

Q. Do they need Manny to win, do you think?
FELIPE ALOU: Well, if they need him, they are very insecure people.

Q. Are they a good enough club now that they don't need to make a move like that?
FELIPE ALOU: Well, I don't want to get into that -- I'm saying how tough they are now, very tough.

Q. If Barry is healthy, do you see the Giants possibly as a favorite in that division?
FELIPE ALOU: Well, you know, right now, there's some free agent guys available to anyone, including the Giants. In fact, there were some available yesterday that are not available today. It was a shame that we can't even play .500. I don't really remember when we were .500 all year last year, two days or three days? We knew that anybody who went over .500 was going to win, and the Padres, that was an incredible thing to me, we couldn't even play .500 to win the division. So now what's going to happen this year? You always believe that a team or two or three will be a lot better than .500, and you always believe that you are one of those teams to be over .500.

Q. When you say you need more out of your pitchers, is there a specific area that you would like to see your starting pitching rotation?
FELIPE ALOU: Everybody here in this building and in the winter meetings knows that the Giants need some starting pitching. We have a bullpen that we like a lot. We need to pitch deeper into the ballgame. We have some guys, we have three guys that we know that are pretty solid guys, (Jason) Schmidt and Matt King who is free now, we don't know what we're going to get for him this year, but I know in the next couple of years -- tough inside, good kid, good arm, smart pitcher and everything.
We had the other kid, Hennessey, who had some good and bad games for us and so we need to improve that. If we can improve that area, we could win our division.

Q. Have you been surprised to see how expensive pitching has been?
FELIPE ALOU: I was talking to some of the guys in the room before I came, I'm not going to repeat because some guys heard that, that I fish for grouper in Florida but I never catch a 20-inch grouper. I always catch 18 and 19 inches. I don't know who is catching the 20 inches; I don't know where to go to catch it.
The winning pitcher, the guy with the winning record, who is signing those guys? Who is catching those guys?

Q. The Blue Jays.
FELIPE ALOU: They got a guy 49-50 -- well, that's a 19-inch guy. (Laughter.) I don't know how good the guy is, but the example, yeah, they are expensive those guys. A guy with 35 wins and 50 losses and 5 million bucks a year? Is that what you're talking about that?

Q. Speaking of fishing, when are you going to be a full-time fisherman?
FELIPE ALOU: Any time the knock is at the door, any time.

Q. You talk about 20-inch guys, a guy like Morris who has won 101 games, do you look at him --
FELIPE ALOU: He's a keeper, yeah. He's about 40 inches.

Q. How do you look at (Matt) Morris right now?
FELIPE ALOU: He's hard to catch, I believe, that Morris guy.

Q. You've seen him a long time, what do you think about how he would fit for you guys?
FELIPE ALOU: Well, to me Morris has always been a pitcher. When he was a kid and pitched against me when I was managing Montreal, he came right at you with incredible stuff, but also with good sense of pitching and then something happened to his arm, I don't know when or how, and he had a change to the pitcher that he is now. He's a guy, he knew how to win a ballgame. He knew how to stay in the game or get out of trouble, and when the game is over, hey, St. Louis won the game. Even if he didn't win the game, so he's that kind of pitcher.

Q. Who are the teams to beat in the National League this year?
FELIPE ALOU: I really don't know. I already talk about the Mets, you know, the way they put together that kind of investment.
But we've got to wait and see because there are still some guys out there, some trades to be made.

Q. While you were talking about the bullpen before, do you feel like you need another lefty?
FELIPE ALOU: Well, Taschner, the way he came around he's very solid. Yeah, we could use another lefty with experience, so that he is a guy, probably start pressing a little bit, knowing that he's the guy who is going to come in, he will share with that guy and learn from that guy, he will be a lot better. We could use some help from an experienced lefty.

Q. There's a lot of talk of Milton Bradley going to the A's. You had him in Montreal; what do you remember about him coming up?
FELIPE ALOU: He's a tremendous talent to play the game, speed, good outfielder, nice runner, nice hitter and everything. He was a kid that had some problems with umpires and coaches. Very seldom with teammates but mostly with authority when we had him. He was getting better, he was getting some advice, and we traded him.
Since then, I liked the player a lot, I saw some changes for the better, but he had been involved with a couple problems with teammates and umpires and suspensions and everything, but I really don't know where he is. But I fear him and respect him as a player between the lines, put that way.

Q. Is the new drug policy fair or is it too harsh?
FELIPE ALOU: I think it's fair. I believe it's a pretty serious message, pretty serious threat, the end of your career. I know there have been so many instances where a player claimed that he either received or didn't know what he was taking. That policy has to be very clean and clear, so a guy who may not or didn't take or whatever wouldn't be suspended for life, too, so this is the other side of the coin. Now that an innocent guy, we talk about a mistake or some sort ended -- now the policy, this is my question, would that apply to the Japanese baseball? If a guy is banned for life, would a player play in Japan and make his living?

Q. He's banned for life just in the Major Leagues. He can go play in Japan. He could play in Mexico or Japan.
FELIPE ALOU: Well, that's really not a good advertisement for those leagues.

Q. Do you think the game will change?
FELIPE ALOU: No.

Q. The player is going to change?
FELIPE ALOU: No. I believe some guys will even be better players, some. We're not police. We're managers, we hear stuff, but no proof.

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