NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BRAVES v DIAMONDBACKS

October 15, 2001

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: Quite honestly, it's similar to some of them. When we lost players like Justice and Sid Bream at the same time and filled in with other guys. Then it's pretty far different than some of them, too. Some of them we had more speed with, probably a little more power. But the ingredients of the pitching staff is about the same on all of them. I do think this bullpen is probably the best bullpen we've had here. That might be one of the differences. We feel that we can cover from a sixth inning on and do a good job of it.

BOBBY COX: Well, they're not similar at all (smiling). Randy is maybe, I don't even know how many strikeouts Ryan got, but he's as good a strikeout pitcher as I've ever seen. Maddux is as good of a Whitey Ford type pitcher as I've ever seen, moving the ball around with great control, changing speeds. Not that Randy doesn't change speeds, because he does. He can take a little off and put a little on, too. Especially a slider. But big guy, overpowering.

BOBBY COX: Yeah.

BOBBY COX: I think when Smoltzie came back as a relief pitcher, when we made the decision to go ahead and put him out there, it sort of brought the bullpen together I think. It made it whole. It gave us so much depth. The trade, getting Reed and Karsay, first of all gave us more depth. When we moved Smoltzie out there, it just -- it brought the entire bullpen guys together I think.

BOBBY COX: Well... He's one of the lucky guys. At his age, he's still in unbelievable great shape. I've always thought John was probably the best athlete in the National League for a number of years, could do anything, basketball, football, golf, baseball. Anything. And excel at it. He's lucky, because he's a free agent. I tried to explain to the other guys the other day in Atlanta, we're trying to sign him. We want him back for sure. He can go both ways. If a team wants to win between 15 and 22 games as a starter or relief pitcher, 45 and 50, he can go either way.

BOBBY COX: I honestly think he could do that. He pitched three days in a row and we didn't need him on a Friday night when we clinched against Florida. But he was willing to go the fourth. He's honest, too. He'll let us know when he can go more than one or if he can go one and a third, pick somebody up. Or when he can go two. He can go more than one inning a lot of times. He's had three days' rest now. So we'll see, but he's good for more than one.

BOBBY COX: I couldn't answer that no more than I could answer Randy Johnson not winning every game in the playoffs that he pitches. I expect Maddux to do the same thing. You're always matched up against another pitcher and the best hitters. When you reach the playoff level, you're playing against the very best. I can remember some of the games, ground balls hitting bags and things like that.

BOBBY COX: Yeah. We added a pitcher, Kevin Millwood, and we had to take a position player off. We chose to take off Ken Caminiti, which was a real tough decision. He's really worked hard. We just felt we were going to be a little bit better by going a different way. We needed Kevin on there just in case.

BOBBY COX: Yeah. It's going to be Giles, Franco, Chipper Jones, Jordan, Andruw Jones, Gilkey, Sanchez, Bako.

BOBBY COX: He's got so many pitches that he can throw and throw for strikes. He's not using them all right now. He can throw a curveball, a slider, he can throw a knuckleball, he can throw a split finger and he can throw a two-seamer that sinks at 97 and a four-seamer at 99 to 100. I think he will find out which are going to work for him down the road. But right now he's basically throwing a couple pitches. But he can do all that. He's that type of guy, and throw strikes.

BOBBY COX: If we use a fourth starter, it's going to be Kevin, yes. Right now we're going to play it game by game. We had intentions of using a three-man staff in the first round, and we swept in three. It's just that with Maddux, Burkett and Glavine and the way our bullpen is set up, I feel very strongly we can go with a three-man rotation and cover innings late. But I may change my mind (laughter).

BOBBY COX: Yeah, I just got off the phone with Paul and his wife just an hour and a half ago, gave birth to a seven pound eleven ounce boy. They have been having some problems with the birth ever since spring training. It was one of those types of pregnancies. Finally, it was born a couple hours ago, and he will be here. He's done a wonderful job. Paul is a great catch and throw guy. He was one of our big hitters in that short series against Houston. We're still going to workout Javy this afternoon and see what he looks like. I need to get out there. But right now it's about 80-20 that he wouldn't be on the roster.

BOBBY COX: That's one of the questions we get asked most probably on a daily basis. Honestly, I think you have to play good. It doesn't matter who you play, a young team, an old team, you have to play good yourself. I think you just have to play good yourself and you don't worry if you've had experience or the other team has got more experience or is young. Young kids can play well, too.

BOBBY COX: Well, we had the weekend off prior to Houston, and I thought it was great for our club to be able to set our pitching. We were able to set up our pitching this time, too. So we've always done pretty well with getting three or four days in between. We've gone as much as -- Maddux has sat as long as 10, 12 days before he started. This will be six days. He and Glavine will be pitching on six. Burkett on Friday will be pitching on six days, too.