AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ANGELS v WHITE SOX

October 11, 2005

Mike Scioscia

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, we're going on adrenaline, just like we did last night's ballgame. I guess it was last night. I'm trying to get a little calendar going, a body calendar going. But we're fine. We probably got to our hotel somewhere around 6:30 this morning and got about as much playoff sleep as you get anyway. So we're ready to go. I'm hearing a lot about us being banged up and the walking wounded and all that, but we're in a little better shape than I think guys are giving us credit for, so we'll keep this thing going.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, it still isn't a slam dunk that he's going to be able to start, but for us to even think about it was really the way he looked yesterday and today feeling even better. He's eating solid food, his strength is back, so he looks like if he keeps progressing he should be okay for tomorrow. It kind of really formulated on how he was feeling yesterday and obviously we had, you know, a bigger task at hand yesterday and worried about Game 2 of the series coming up, but we're confident he's going to be able to start tomorrow.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: What do you think (laughter)? Buddy Black is not stretched out enough. We've got some other guys we'll look at. I think we'll go with Kevin Gregg, who is a guy who has some length in him. We activated Esteban Yan for the series, as well. We'll hopefully get some of the other arms in our bullpen, but as of right now if Jarrod can't pitch tomorrow, it would be Kevin Gregg.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: You have to know Bartolo; he's a horse. This guy doesn't complain about anything. When he says something is bothering him, you know it's significant. His shoulder, which he's had relatively minor stuff with the whole year, nothing major at all, just normal stuff that a pitcher would get, flared up to a point where he couldn't pitch. So knowing that and knowing where we are now in the series and the time frame getting him back on the mound, we're not going to activate him for the series. There's been no indication that there is any damage in there that would impact him moving forward. But they're going to do some tests and we'll get a better idea this week exactly what his status is. I think as soon as he came out of last night's ballgame it was pretty ominous and pretty obvious that he wasn't going to be able to help us in this series.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, our feeling is this: I know the guys in our clubhouse if they scheduled a game for 1:00 in the morning, we're going to show up and play. They're very professional, they know what it's about. We have a tough schedule, but we're still playing baseball and we're getting to do something we enjoy. Should the game have been pushed back? Absolutely. But that's not our call. We're going to play by whatever schedule is handed down to us, and that's just the luck of the draw. We had a rainout in New York that at the time we thought was going to be a breath of fresh air for us to give our bullpen a little breather and it's come back to hurt us on this end of it. So it's the luck of the draw. That's the way it is. Like I said, we'll play baseball. If they schedule these games at 1:00 in the morning, we'll show up to play.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Paul was just playing catch early just in case we needed him last night. As a starter you have to go through a certain routine. He wanted to get a little catch out of the way just to get loose where if he was going to be needed he could be on the mound. It wasn't like it took anything out of Paul, it was really just playing catch, so he's fine. He didn't really pitch deep into the game against the Yankees as far as pitch count, so he's fine on three days' and he's ready to go. He's done it before this year and he came out in flying colors, so we're confident he's going to get to a point in his game where we have some of the arms in the bullpen we're going to get to.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: We're on schedule today, just to get out there and work out. We adjusted our pre-game routine yesterday because of the early arrival in California and playing a game at 5:00 o'clock, where we took our batting practice in the cages and did all our work probably behind -- more behind the scenes. But I think it's important here, the guys have enough rest, it's important to get out there on a new field and get into our pre-game, particularly the defensive end and let the infielders get the ground balls and get the workout before. We're okay now for tonight's game, and we've had enough time to sleep and get to the park. There won't be -- we'll go full board pre-game.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Bobby Jenks was obviously a guy that we saw his talent and were very high on him as he was in our organization. Like any young pitcher there's a lot of rough edges he had to work through in his game. I think the biggest concern that I know that Bill (Stoneman) had and our medical staff was going to be his health. He had a pretty significant injury to his elbow that is obviously healed and he's throwing the ball very well. Decisions are made all the time with guys going through waivers. There are various reasons on why guys are put through waivers, why they get through them or why an organization might not protect a guy. It varies with everybody player. I know the biggest concern with Bobby was going to be his health moving forward, and he's obviously passed that test and is throwing the ball very well for the White Sox.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: One thing about the playoffs that I found on this end of it just since 2002 that at times it's painfully slow. At times there's so many pauses with the days off and just so much hype into the game that when the game starts, that's the fun part. One advantage I think of what's happened to us in the last four days is, all we're doing is playing baseball. It's great to get a little breather, get a little day off to reset your bullpen, and we could certainly use it today, there's no doubt about it. But you think the only advantage is getting out here and getting into a game, and that's the fun part. But I certainly would have maybe liked to have had today and catch our breath and realign some things, but we're going to get after it.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: What's exciting for us is the last month of the season I think there were a lot of similarities that started to manifest in our club that did in 2002. I think our situational hitting all of a sudden got back to where it needed to be, we're running bases well. Our starting pitching up until this year, with Bartolo out and Jarrod with a question mark, is much stronger than it was in 2002. I think our bullpen depth coming into a series is deeper than it was in 2002 because we didn't know how Francisco (Rodriguez) was going to emerge because when we started the playoffs in 2002 Francisco was in our bullpen just as a wild card. We didn't know if he was going to be in some innings, he became our setup guy by early in the second round, or I should say the ALCS, against the Twins. So there are some similarities that are exciting for us, but we've got to go out there and play. We've got a lot of challenges with the White Sox club that we have to meet, and we match up very well with them. I think both clubs match up very well with each other. So we're going to get a chance to get into our game hopefully, and if it can emerge like it did in 2002, we have a chance to get on that roll.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, with Bartolo there was really only one plan for the time that he went out was Ervin Santana, and we knew that we were probably -- it was going to affect us a little bit if we had gotten by last night's game on the front end of the series which we're looking at now, but we needed Santana yesterday, and if it was in the 6th I think or something like that, it might have been a little different, but at the time he went out, Santana was the guy to go to. Any other options we had were really not going to be as strong as Santana, and I think that he stepped up and we saw his talent and it's ended up, until this point, to be the biggest game of our season, and he pitched a terrific game. With Bartolo, not that we didn't expect anything out of sorts with him, but if he had gotten into the 6th I think or 7th, I think then we would have gone to a little different set of the leaders for this series, but at the time Bartolo was the only option.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, I've been with this organization for six years and only seen it from a distance. Some of the guys that have probably followed the club could answer that better, Tim Mead or some of the guys that have been with the organization for years and years. I just know that in southern California, the way that championship was received was absolutely along the lines of what we saw in Boston or what you might see if the Cubs or White Sox or a team that has been grinding for a long time to get that championship feel. Walking around town, I had people coming up to me just thanking me for their grandparents who were deceased that were Angel fans back in the early 1960s. I think that that organization has done -- the Angel organization, even before we were there, did a great job in scouting player development, there have been Hall of Fame players that have played with the Angels, but I think until you win that world championship, you're really not on the map. And for us in 2002 for the whole community and all of southern California, Orange County, it was received the same way that Boston received their championship last season. That was very, very rewarding to be able to share it with people that followed our club for over 40 years.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Garret is a guy that has flown a little bit under the radar this year who's banged up, but if you look at his numbers, 142 games, was just short of his RBIs again. He was going to put up his usual numbers if he wasn't banged up in this 20 games or whatever. So we're excited to have him back, having him swing the back to his capabilities. He's driving the ball much better now, and he's huge for us. We're not going to get this done without Garret's contributions. Obviously Vlad and the other guys that are around that grouping. For a lot of time this season when Garret was either hurt or struggling, it was much too easy for teams to take Vlad's bat out of the game, and for us to be successful we need Vlad getting his pitches and Garret is a huge part of that.