AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: YANKEES v MARINERS

October 16, 2001

Lou Piniella

LOU PINIELLA: He looked good. He hit off Tomko early, and he took regular vp, ran the bases, fielded the position, shortstop, and we're going to have a meeting here in about 15 minutes and make the final decision. But it seems to me like he will be added to our roster.

LOU PINIELLA: No. Our players are pretty good at talking to the media and we give them every right to do so.

LOU PINIELLA: Not at all.

LOU PINIELLA: We haven't. We're going to have that meeting in about 15 minutes, and we're going to add a pitcher to the roster. Probably add Guillen, almost assured. And we'll decide who we take off, too. We haven't even talked about it or discussed it yet. I don't think it will be an easy decision because everybody deserves to be here.

LOU PINIELLA: I would think so, yes. And probably not every game. But we can use him there from time to time, yes.

LOU PINIELLA: Tough kid. Loves to play. Very competitive. And to think that he played with tb for probably a good while, never complained, speaks a lot of the individual.

LOU PINIELLA: Well, I don't know about waiting for, but here we are. You know, they beat us last year in six games. We get another crack at them. They are the World Champions, so if we want to go to the World Series, we're going to have to beat the World Champions. I guess that's the way it was meant to be, so we're going to go out and give it our best shot. I'm going to go read Joe's book again on how to manage. (Laughter.) See if I can pick up a pointer or two here and we can turn the tables.

LOU PINIELLA: No. It just came out this spring.

LOU PINIELLA: Well, the Yankees, they are a very formidable bunch. They can turn it on. They have got the success in postseason that's been unequaled in this era, obviously. And our ballclub, it has gained confidence from last year. I thought we played well in the series against the Yankees last time. We got beat in six games. We've changed our mix a little bit. We play probably a little more of a -- actually, the Yankees and us are fairly comparable, really. They rely on good, solid pitching and some good defense, and timely hitting; and that's basically our formula, also. I think we were 1-2 in the Leagues in stolen bases, so there are a lot of comparables there.

LOU PINIELLA: You can talk to Joe about his team, but our ballclub, we basically all year have been in a safe situation from the sixth inning on. That's the way we use our bullpen. We try to come up with our best match up from the sixth inning on, and obviously, we've got a solid closer in Sasaki, but the rest of the mix, we try to stop the other team from the sixth. Because we've got some depth out there and we've got some talent, and we utilize it, whenever it presents itself.

LOU PINIELLA: My rotation, we're going to start off with Sele on Wednesday. Then Freddy Garcia is going to come back on three days rest on Thursday. Moyer will pitch Saturday. And I would think that Abbott will pitch on Sunday. We'll come back with Sele on Monday, and then if it goes six or seven games or whatever here at home, we'll have Garcia and Moyer.

LOU PINIELLA: We don't want to give them too much joy, though. They have been through a lot there, and we understand that. But we'd like to curtail their enjoyment here over the next seven days.

LOU PINIELLA: Well, I've been here in Seattle nine years now. I still wear my Yankee championship ring with pride. I'm just waiting for a Seattle one. So hopefully it will be the year. But I've got a lot of roots there. I mean, the owner gave me an opportunity to manage at the big league level, when I wasn't too far removed from a player. I've always been exceedingly appreciative of that. But I haven't been there in so long now, that I am a Mariner. We'd love to have some success against them this time. It's not going to be easy. They are a good ballclub. We understand that. They are solid. But our team has played well all year. We're going to be ready to play.

LOU PINIELLA: He just had a bad series against Cleveland. And he had such a great season; that you don't expect -- sometimes people don't expect a player that's had a great season to struggle, but it happens. It can happen to anybody. But he played very well defensively. We turned some real nice double plays. He just didn't hit as well. But he can bounce right back and get hot again, and we're hoping he does, because we need his bat productive in the lineup.

LOU PINIELLA: It's always fun playing the Yankees. I mean, they are what everybody is trying to accomplish, what they have done. You know, the success that they have had here over the past four or five years, it's just unparalleled in modern sports. You've got to tip your hat to them and give them credit. But, you know, they are a fun team to go out there and compete against and beat, if you can. Now, few teams have done it, but, you know, if you talk to our players, they are looking forward to this challenge.

LOU PINIELLA: Well, if we didn't pitch him on three days' rest, we would only have him for possibly one game. But the day off on Friday gets him right back on turn again. He only threw 82 pitches his last start; we shortened him up. He's a big, strong kid. He'd be ready to go.

LOU PINIELLA: We knew we were getting a good player when we signed him. We had an advantage over other teams. He was in our camp for, I don't know, 2 to 3 weeks a few years back. So we knew we were getting a good athlete and a good player. Now did, we think he was going to get 244 hits, did we think he was going to get, what, 13 hits in the first rounds of the playoffs, lead the League in hitting? I don't think anybody is that smart. But I tell you this, we knew we were getting a guy that would be a very good athlete; that would be very productive; that would give us a good front-of-the-lineup type hitter, and would help us win. He's done that, and much, much more.

LOU PINIELLA: I haven't really thought about it yet. We're going to look at the statistics here with Pettitte, and I guess Mussina will probably be pitching second. So we'll look at it after the meeting today. But if we play Carlos, he's hitting the second spot against left-hand pitching.

LOU PINIELLA: Well, he's a table-setter for us. You know, he's got speed, so he gets more fastballs for the hitters behind him to hit. At the same time, he can run; so a pitcher has got to be very careful with him on base, got to pay attention to him some. Sometimes it makes the pitcher slide step takes away some of his stuff from going to home plate. And when he gets on second, he can steal third so you've got to bunch them a little bit, so it creates more holes for our hitters to hit through. He's an offensive force. There's no question about it, and he's a heck of an outfielder to boot.

LOU PINIELLA: That's a heck of a comeback. Oakland is a good baseball team. When they lost two ballgames in a row in New York, to come -- Oakland won 17 baseball games in a row in their home ballpark. And to come back like they did, speaks very well. I thought that we would probably be going to Oakland after that happened, if we got through Cleveland. And give them credit. They won a thrilling game, 1-0, and then they turned on the burners a little bit and here they are. Here they are.