MLB WORLD SERIES: MARLINS v YANKEES

October 18, 2003

Jack McKeon

JACK MCKEON: Go ahead (smiling).

JACK MCKEON: Well, we had a choice of going with Penny, Redman, Willis. We decided to go with Redman. He's only pitched three innings the other day in Chicago. We felt that we were gonna have to get him in there sooner or later so we might as well do it at Yankee Stadium. That will give us Willis for the bullpen.

JACK MCKEON: Florida we got Beckett starting the first game. Then we'll take it -- play it by ear after that.

JACK MCKEON: Well, we got an opportunity to get Encarnacion in the line-up. He will be playing rightfield. Cabrera will move to leftfield. Conine will be the DH. The reason we decided on that is Conine has had more experience doing the DH. That's a tough task for some guy that hasn't done much of that. So he's had experience in that role. We decided to go with him in that role.

JACK MCKEON: No, no. That's not the reason. We just decided that with the make-up of the Yankee line-ups, that he would be our best option coming out of the bullpen, left-handed-wise. We didn't bypass him because of his first-half or second-half performance. Had we played Boston, I imagine he would have been the starting pitcher in Boston the first game, had we played Boston.

JACK MCKEON: Well, that was one. He's faced the Yankees before. He's had, you know, experience pitching against the Yankees. He's pitched here in Yankee Stadium before. But mainly we had the choice of getting two right-handers or we felt that we were better stacked up to put Pavano and Willis in the bullpen the first two games. That would be our best matchups.

JACK MCKEON: Well, there's no question Pudge spent most of his years in the American League and he's been a tremendous asset to us in going over players that have played in the American League. He's gonna have a significant input with our decisions as to how we pitch some of these Yankee players. His experience over in this league has been very helpful to us. I hope it continues to be the same.

JACK MCKEON: Well, I think they're all excited. I think when we started this role our goal was to get into -- make the postseason play in October. How far we could go, who knew. But the way these guys have improved in each series has been outstanding. There's no question that the experience factor has helped them, go into a tough last 10 days playing the Phillies and the Braves to get into the wildcard. And then being able to play the Giants and the Cubs when we were the underdogs. The experience these guys got in pressure situations, I think, has helped them tremendously. I think their emotions are very high. It's still a loose club that's going to go out there and do the best and not be concerned with who the opposition is. I think we're gonna go back to our old philosophy of just playing one game at a time regardless of who we play.

JACK MCKEON: I don't know. You know, we went into Chicago thinking it would be a low-scoring series. It turned out to be just the opposite. I don't know if you can say whether this would be dominated with offense. It might turn around and be dominated by pitching. Any time you get into the World Series, it's something special. As all of you guys know, anything can happen. The underdog can sneak up on you or some guy that hasn't played in two months comes up and becomes a star. So it's a lot of the unexpected happens in the World Series.

JACK MCKEON: Oh, there's no question he's been a very important part of our ballclub. As I tried to explain to some writers a while back, we're in a pretty good situation where we got nine guys for eight spots. I was going through the same thing with Mike Lowell in as much as, you know, you love Mike Lowell and how much he's contributed to our ballclub, when he broke his hand, it was an unfortunate situation. The kid Cabrera came in, lights out, did an outstanding job. Now all of a sudden Mike is almost ready to come back and you can't find a spot in the line-up because your club is winning 20 and 5 or 20 and 7, something like that, the chemistry is going good and you don't want to break it up. Unfortunately, Encarnacion had a couple days where he was struggling a little bit. I decided to stick Mike in there. All he does is hit the game-winning home run here, add some outstanding defense, contributes to our ballclub. Now you can't get Encarnacion back in. I know both of those guys are worthy of playing. It's just a nice situation to have when you got nine guys for eight spots. With the DH situation coming up, it makes it nice for us because it gives us an opportunity to get Encarnacion back, who supplies a little more power, gives us a little more speed, gives us better defense. Basically, being with the DHer today, it's helped us.

JACK MCKEON: Jeff's been with us a little over a month now, we got him at the trade deadline. He's certainly been a big factor in making it easier for those young guys, making them realize what the postseason is all about. I think he adds a lot to the clubhouse. The confidence, the example he shows, the way he approaches the game, he's always mentally prepared, he's a very intense player. He's had playoff experience before. He's a veteran, knows how to play the game. He sets the tone by the way he plays the game and he sets the example. He's been a tremendous addition to our ballclub. And of late, he's been really coming through with a lot of key defensive plays and key hits.

JACK MCKEON: I think if anybody had a chance to see Carl Pavano the second half of the season, you'd have seen this young man has really come a long way. He's a first-class pitcher, no question about it. He's a Big League pitcher and he's getting better and better each time out. It's unfortunate situation that we put him in the bullpen, but when we sat down and talked about the situation, he's the one guy that had a lot of experience out of the pen. I mean, sure, he's a guy that's worthy of starting, which is why we started him in Game 6. He could very easily start one of these games later on. Right now, we feel that he matches up and makes our bullpen much stronger coming out of the pen in the first couple games. But he's a guy that, you know, when you look around the league and see, I don't know, he won 12, 14 games for us, but he really came along the second half. He's got good control, knows how to pitch. He's really made a lot of progress. I look for this guy to be a big gun for us in the future and possibly a 20-game winner.

JACK MCKEON: Oh, I think so. I think Willis, he's got a bright future. He's done a heck of a job for us starting out. He was one of the catalysts when we got this club rolling pretty good. Started us out with 9-1. We knew it wasn't gonna be 9-1 the second half because it doesn't happen that way. We knew he'd have some ups and downs. He has pitched pretty decently. You can't say he's really slumped. He just had a couple bad outings, but that's gonna happen to the best of them. Really working out of the bullpen, it gives us a power left-hander out of the bullpen, which we haven't had. Especially when you're short side of a 7-game series, you need somebody like that, especially with their left-handed line-up. He's the kind of kid that's going to get better and better. He's got great work habits. He's a tough kid, mentally tough. I look for this guy to be a future star.

JACK MCKEON: Yeah, he's our secret weapon, really. I have to say this, I managed a number of years in the Big Leagues, 13, 14, whatever it is, I don't know, I can't keep up with it... But anyway, I never had a ballclub, in all my years in the Big Leagues, that had the intense desire and the dedication and the unselfishness as these guys had. I've said this before. But my bench players deserve a lot of credit. I mean, I have never been on a club where I have so many guys that had a legitimate gripe to complain because they don't get enough playing time, and these guys are very, very special. I told our team, many a time, that they should be proud of the fact that these guys here are always rooting, pulling and cooperating with the guys out in that field. There's no backstabbing, no cutting, no pointing fingers. They truly are dedicated guys. And they include Mordecai, the Redmans, the Foxes, the Hollandsworths, Banks, I hope I'm not missing anybody, Castros and Redmonds. Those guys here, and I sometimes have to apologize to them. I really apologize to them that they should be playing more and I just, you know, feel bad for them. To a man, every one of them has come up to me and said, "Don't worry about me, Skip. As long as we win, we're fine. Just keep doing what you're doing." That kind of makes you feel real good when you have those kind of guys on this club. Mordecai has been a special player. He sits there, doesn't complain. He studies the game. He's a kid that I think's got an outstanding future as a manager. He's always interested in learning a little bit about the game. He's been, like I say, a secret weapon. You put him in in a defensive role or a pinch-running role and he's got to stay in the game, he hits a home run, wins the game for you. He's done that twice. Put him in as a double switch the other day in Chicago, comes up with a three-run double. He's a gamer. All those guys are. I truly appreciate what they've done, the extra men.