NL DIVISION SERIES: ASTROS v BRAVES

October 5, 2004

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: He threw this afternoon and he threw okay. He felt it some. He didn't throw 100 percent, I would say, threw 75 percent. I think in a couple more days, he'll be able to start. Right now, unless he has a bad night, wakes up and it's really sore, he'll be starting Game 3.

BOBBY COX: He swung pretty good. He's still hitting out there right now. But yesterday he wasn't able to swing the bat at all; today he was. He hit a couple balls out. I fully expect he'll be in the lineup tomorrow.

BOBBY COX: I think he's throwing better this year than he did last year, myself. The times I've seen him on TV, he's been lights-out. He's got, you know, this split finger he's throwing now, he's got tremendous control. He's still the complete pitcher.

BOBBY COX: You don't. Maybe he got beat 1-0 all six games, I'm not sure. Things happen. You're always going up against the other club's ace in Game 1. Number two, one of the aces have got to lose.

BOBBY COX: I think so. I thought we were in a real good division this year. I thought when we left camp we had a good team that was going to compete. If you can compete, you can win. That's the way I felt about our team. A lot of things happened to it, obviously, and a lot of things happened to the other teams as well. So we weren't the only ones that were having trouble with injuries. The kids we called up from the minor leagues did an extremely super job, really. Not only filling in, but helping us win ballgames. They kept us afloat and finally we were able to sail off.

BOBBY COX: It may have been. We were down a lot of runs in that game. It kind of got the club fired up, I think. You can always pick out something during the season that maybe ignited the ballclub, I think. Greenie (Nick Green) did it. I think Chucky Thomas did it when they first came up. At least they could help us stay afloat and had a chance at it later on.

BOBBY COX: I can only tell you, we saw him last year in San Diego. They were using him as sort of a mop-up guy late in the game if they were down. He showed a great arm. Jim Fregosi and the other scouts that were on those teams saw him and said they were going to waive him. I saw a great arm, is what I saw, in mopping up, he didn't particularly pitch very well against us but his arm was there. It showed that his arm was healthy. When he joined our ballclub, we gave him one inning at a time, and in important situations. Immediately, he pitched well for us, right away. I think he pitched well enough for us to talk to him about starting this coming season, and I told him we'd put him in the mix with four other people, and that he would have a good chance of winning that job. He won it hands-down in the spring. He threw it so well. I think Leo (Mazzone) helped him out, making him more of a pitcher than just a thrower. He can still run it up there 95 miles an hour when he wants to, 96. He throws a two-seamer that he can locate on the outer half of the plate and inner half. He's a determined young guy. He's only 28 years old. He's a young guy yet he's been around a long time, but he's very young.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, I think Charles will be absolutely fine. He didn't show any signs of nervousness when he first came up; that's for sure. He stepped right in and excelled immediately. I don't think I've ever seen a better leftfielder all the years I've been around than Chucky Thomas. He catches everything. He has a good, strong, accurate arm. We still will go with the platoon, yeah, because Marrero is still one of the best hitters on the team right now and a good outfielder as well. So Chucky will be fine. I'm not worried about him one bit.

BOBBY COX: They've come a long way. When we saw them, Pettitte was struggling at the time, in and out of the rotation, finally they operated on his arm. Miller was still with them at the time. He's gone. It's amazing what they've done without two of their ace starters. You have to hand my counterpart, Phil Garner, a lot of applause, actually, because he's got them turned around. They didn't hit as well early on, I understood. What happened to them at that time, plus the pitching, wasn't as good as it is right now because of the injuries. But I think they're hitting the ball much better than they did earlier in the season.

BOBBY COX: Well, number one, you might think of using three pitchers. I think that's what Houston will probably do; I don't know for sure, I haven't talked to anybody over there. But they may. They're rested right now. Their two aces, Oswalt and Clemens, and I guess the other kid's Backe. So you might consider that. We'll probably go with four. I don't think you play the game much different. It's kind of do-or-die. But it's still a best of three-out-of-five.

BOBBY COX: I didn't have any set number in my mind at all. I just hoped he would get through the season without breaking anything. He's always had some major injuries, not just nagging things. He had the type of injuries that put him out for months. So he just had a couple nagging things through the course of the season, played an awful lot of ball games and really had a tremendous year. He's a great player, great outfielder, and he's got tremendous power and, you know, we'd sure like to have him back for next year.

BOBBY COX: It's pretty simple, really. We've had a pretty good farm system for the run of that, and we've got a terrific front office that when we do lose players we're able to go out and get somebody comparable. We lose Sheffield and we get Drew. We lose Lopez and we had Estrada in the organization. We lose Maddux, we sign John Thomson. Those were good replacements. We lose Tom Glavine, we were able to trade for Mike Hampton. So the front office has done a terrific job.

BOBBY COX: I like Beltran a lot. He's a terrific outfielder, thrower, he runs great, he can steal bases, he seldom gets thrown out, he's a switch-hitter with power. He's going to be a good-looking free agent out there for a lot of teams, no doubt about that. Of course Andruw Jones is still the best centerfielder in baseball. I'd put our outfield up against anybody today, with Chucky, Andruw and J.D. out there. That's a terrific outfield.

BOBBY COX: I thought about that, I haven't done it yet, no. I'm not saying I will. I don't know if he would do it (laughing).

BOBBY COX: Maybe like Finley with the Dodgers. They stay in tremendous shape. I was talking to Swanee (Mike Swanson, PR Director of Diamondbacks) today about Finley and how he does it at age 39 and still plays centerfield the way he does. It's because they stay in such tremendous shape. Julio, I'd put him in the Top 10 in baseball, probably, as being the best fit player.

BOBBY COX: Just simply managing the ball games through the season, really. Smoltzie has been here for all of them, and some of our coaching staff. It's been a great role. You play, really, you talk about spring training to the players about going down the stretch, how much fun it's going to be, the playoffs are even more fun than the stretch. Then you advance, get to the World Series. It's something to shoot for all the time, and it's a long haul and you keep pushing and you press forward all the time. But I haven't done anything special, that's for sure.