MLB WORLD SERIES: GIANTS v ANGELS

October 27, 2002

Mike Scioscia

MIKE SCIOSCIA: If I'm Peter Magowan? Not knowing the environment of the Giant organization and not knowing relationships, it's tough to comment on. I know how I feel about Dusty. I know there's not many people in the game of baseball that I respect as much as Dusty. He's incredible. He's obviously a leader. So, as far as what Mr. Magowan and Dusty's conversation is like, I really don't have any input. I don't know the dynamics.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Eckstein at shortstop; Erstad, centerfield; Salmon, rightfield; Anderson, left field; Glaus, third base; Fullmer, DH; Spiezio, first base; Molina, catching; and Kennedy, second base.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think with three rounds of playoffs, there's a strong case to be made for shortening the season to some extent. I think not only for when you're possibly playing baseball into November sometimes, if you're playing back East, you have a rain-out, something here or there, inclement weather, but I think it does take its toll on pitching. It certainly does. As we configured our playoff roster, we went with a 10-man pitching staff. We've just about gauged it right. But we're about the end of where I think our guys are going to be able to go out there and execute the pitches you need to win ballgames. I don't think it's anything uncommon to most staffs. It could be a case to be made to try to condense some of it, particularly for the pitching end of it.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Kevin Appier will be unavailable. I think we'll have Jarrod Washburn available for an extreme situation, if it goes extra innings. Ramon Ortiz should be okay to go out there and pitch. The question where Ramon is, how is his wrist going to react after -- if he had to throw 20 or 25 pitches, if it's going to start to act up again. If we need to have him in that game, we'll use him. We'll see how it responds.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: No. I've seen Barry for long enough to know that him hitting either one more home run or seeing that swing again wasn't going to have me gain any more respect for his talent. I don't think anyone can deny what an offensive force he is that really transcends eras. If you go back, it's not just saying Barry Bonds is maybe the best hitter today, you might go back generations and come up with the same analysis.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Our state of mind was fine. Obviously, if we lost yesterday, our state of mind wouldn't be fine today (laughter). Our state of mind coming off any loss this year, whether it was during the season or in the playoffs, we had some tough playoff losses too, our state of mind's fine. To say that winning a big game like that is going to put us or elevate to us a new level, I don't really see it. I think our guys have perspective on what, hopefully, winning this series is going to take. We're going to go out and play our game.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, we're excited about that part of it. I think Bill Stoneman has made a huge statement with some of the guys that have been signed. I think over the winter you'll see some other guys signed, to say that this club is hopefully in here for the long haul. He makes no bones about it. I make no bones about it, about hopefully forming a team that is a perennial contender. That's going to take a lot of hard work. It's going to take a lot of hard work on the pitching end of it. If you look at some of the teams that had a lot of success over - just going back over the '90s, you can see how they were built, what that success was built around. Most of those clubs, it's been pitching. I think Bill was going to make an effort to keep this core together. Hopefully, it will pay off with the type club that will be a perennial contender as we move forward.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yup.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Frankie is available in a shorter term than he pitched last night. But he certainly has maybe the 15 or 20 pitches in him that we might need for an inning.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think every pitcher is different. You're going to have some pitchers go out there throw 230, 240 innings, be no worse off than if you limited them to 190. Some pitchers are extended with maybe the extra starts it takes to get through the full season. The playoffs, it's so emotionally draining, too, for pitchers. You have to work harder for every out. There's no breathers through any part of the lineup, there's no easy outs in the playoffs. You have to earn every one. You have to go harder. To say that a pitcher's only pitching five or six innings in the playoffs, what's wrong with him? Probably nothing's wrong with him. It's the club he's pitching against, is a match that makes him work harder and maybe his stuff leaves him a little sooner. I think you have to kind of separate the playoffs. I think the playoffs, three tiers, is about all you'd really want to go. I don't see us being able to go any more, if you start to add more wildcard teams, you start to make this four or five tiers, it's going to be tough. Then you would definitely have to shorten the season. But I think -- I'm also talking about going back East. I haven't checked the weather, but I know there's always an issue going back East this time of year. How long is the baseball season going to go? Back to your question, I know I'm getting off on some tangents. On the pitching end of it, I think if you looked into a little, maybe, shorter season - a more compact season, I think it would be something to explore. I think it would help the pitching end a little bit. As we talked about the state of baseball today, how pitching is really spread out, pitching is really spread out (smiling).

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah, it is. I do.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: You know what, I think at this time of the year, when you go on the mound, you're trying to get an out or outs. You're not consumed with, "What's my role? Why am I in the seventh inning when I should be in the eighth inning? Why am I in the third inning when I should be in the sixth?" Our guys are beyond that. Going to the playoffs, we really made it known that as we moved through playoffs, roles evaporate, are redefined, and maybe you get back to the original setup by your staff, sometimes, in the playoffs. Tonight's a night that, depending on our own side, depending how John Lackey pitches, will dictate how the roles in our bullpen are affected. We're not going to obviously sit around and say we're going to wait for a guy to come in in the sixth inning when we need him in the fourth, in a game like this.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: I don't really know if there's anybody in our club that has gotten attention that's probably in line with their accomplishments. You know, that's baseball. This is our first crack at getting to the playoffs for this core of guys. I think that the baseball world certainly knows the talents of Troy Glaus, Garret Anderson, Darin Erstad. I think the media and fans are getting exposed to it. It takes winning to really do that, for the exposure. I think Troy, in the baseball community, gets all the respect he deserves. I don't think there's any team that doesn't know Troy's talent. As far as the fans getting a chance to see Troy play, forming their own ideas on him, I think it's great. They're going to see an incredibly talented young player.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Bill pitched in the Major Leagues for a long time. Although his expertise was thought to be, "He's going to come in here and run the financial end of it, do that part," evaluating talent is critical to a general manager. He has that talent. He can certainly evaluate talent. He knows how to put a team together. I think he's shown in three years what he's accomplished here, by not only keeping the core unit together, but filling in some peripheral players that have had a major part of us being in the World Series. He's done a tremendous job of it, just incredible.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, you want to lay out on paper, it's easier for me on paper, just to look at scenarios, look at "what ifs," combine it with matchups that make sense and look for little pockets of the game that roles might be defined. Most of it ends up in the waste paper basket as we move forward. But you certainly have to be prepared for anything. And in the short-term in the playoffs. Obviously, you want to look a game ahead to see what will happen, but you're not going to bypass one game to get to another game. Especially in a situation like this, all this stuff we talked about Game 6, hey, it's already come and gone, so we know where we are. That would funnel us to some of the other options we talked about for Game 7, as we decided on Lackey, you know, that was the first step, obviously. Moving forward to see how guys came out of their appearances last year, how they feel today at the ballpark, which isn't an issue, because everybody feels great. We have other plans for how this game goes. I mean, hopefully, John Lackey is going to give us a start that will keep our bullpen where it needs to be. If he doesn't, we'll adjust and we have some guys that hopefully are going to come in and do the job.