AL DIVISION SERIES: INDIANS v MARINERS

October 8, 2001

Lou Piniella

LOU PINIELLA: We're going to carry 15 regulars and 10 pitchers. And we decided, of the three pitchers that were being considered, and it was a very, very difficult choice for us, we talked about it long and hard, but John Halama will be on our roster.

LOU PINIELLA: We've got two and possibly three right-handed starters. And it gives us a long lefty in our bullpen. And Johnny has had experience in post-season. He's been pitching very well out of our bullpen. And so we decided that Halama over Franklin and Pineiro, and both of them have pitched well for us. If we get fortunate to get past this first round we'll go to 11 pitchers the second round, and we'll carry one of those other two.

LOU PINIELLA: We've got -- let's see, we've got Sprague, Martin, Gipson, Vasquez. The guys that aren't playing tomorrow. Our bench is going to be Martin, Lampkin, Vazquez, Buhner, Gipson and Sprague. So that's our bench. Those are the six that we'll carry on our bench tomorrow.

LOU PINIELLA: Our starting line-up is going to be Ichiro in right field, McLemore at shortstop, Boone at second base, Edgar DH, Olerud at first, and Cameron at centerfield, Javier in left, Wilson the catcher and Bell at third base and Garcia is pitching, starting.

LOU PINIELLA: As far as our roster is concerned, experience is important. We didn't really have all that many choices as far as the position players. When we lost Carlos to tuberculosis, that's really a big blow to us. Not that McLemore can't play shortstop, he's done a great job there, but it takes away from our depth a little bit. And we basically have carried -- are carrying people that have been here with us all year. The only two guys we sent out are Kingsale that was with us for about two and a half weeks and Borders, the third catcher, so we really kept everybody else.

LOU PINIELLA: Halama does well out of the bullpen, since we put him in the bullpen right after the All-Star break. And he's pitched well against Cleveland. He gives us a little different look out of our bullpen, more softer stuff, throws strikes, can hold runners on well. And there's a good possibility we'll use three right-hand starters in this series. I'm talking about Abbott being the fourth. So we felt that having a long lefty would do us well. We're going to have Abbott in the bullpen for the first couple of games. And then we can have Halama, that can eat up a lot of innings if we need it. It wasn't easy, we could have kept Pineiro, or kept Franklin and be just as comfortable. We decided on Halama. We talked about it as a staff, and we decided on Halama.

LOU PINIELLA: It was good seeing him here. I think it was a little bit of a pickup for the team. He's a good kid, good player, and we're going to miss him, believe me. But just to see him physically, that he's doing well, that he's improving, that he's feeling good makes us feel better as a team.

LOU PINIELLA: We don't know that. The important thing with Carlos is to get him well. If he's available, he's available. And if he's not, we'll have to do without him, obviously. But we just want to make sure that he gets well.

LOU PINIELLA: It gives us a power situation back. I'm undecided about leftfield with a left-handed starter, it would either be Jay or Javier.

LOU PINIELLA: It's been difficult, he's got 200 and how many hits -- 242 hits. And we've only played 162 games. So he's been on base a lot this year. But that's the secret really to beating any good team, to keep the leadoff-type hitters off the bases and making pitching to your power people a little easier.

LOU PINIELLA: Well, outside of the fact that there's a war going on, Cleveland is a different club than Chicago. They're playoff tested. They've been there quite a few times in the past, what, seven or eight years. They're more experienced. They've got a good baseball team. It's going to be a challenge for us. We've got to play good baseball against them. Where with Chicago, to have been there for the first time, it's a little more difficult the first time than it is when you're used to postseason. One thing I am happy about, though, is that Charlie Manuel is in their dugout. I mentioned that after the ballgame last night. He's been through a lot physically this year, and I'm happy to see he's feeling much better, and he's going to be in the dugout for them. Because he's done a good job for them as their manager.

LOU PINIELLA: I've got no concerns with it at all, absolutely none. He's done a good job with the position. He was going to be in our line-up somewhere, anyway. And we've played him enough at shortstop this year to feel that he's going to do an outstanding job. It just takes away a little bit from our depth, the fact that Carlos hit second in our line-up against left-hand pitching, and was hitting left-hand pitching well. And at the same time it takes away a switch hitter from the bench for me, to maneuver late in the ballgame. But McLemore at shortstop, we're covered very fine, very good.

LOU PINIELLA: He's pitched well. This guy is a horse. He's got a good fastball, and he competes very well. We hope to get to him early, because it's been our experience against him that as the game goes further he gets stronger. He's going to be a challenge, no question about it.

LOU PINIELLA: No, there shouldn't be. There really shouldn't be. Postseason is totally different than the regular season. Everybody starts equally. Everybody is capable of winning. And you've got to go out and play good baseball over a short series. There's very little room for error, margin for error. I don't think we're going to carry any burden in the postseason, we're going to play the game the way we've played it all year, rely on good pitching and good defense, and some timely hitting, and if we do that we'll be fine.

LOU PINIELLA: We're not going to have to say much. I haven't said much all year. And we've got the people in there that know what needs to be done. They know how to play the game. We've got good leadership in our clubhouse. We've got good chemistry, we've got some doggedness, and -- this team doesn't like losing. And the reason that we won 116 games is, yeah, we've got good talent, but at the same time they don't like losing. And yesterday after we got beat, people weren't too happy in there. And maybe in a way it was a little bit of a blessing in that it got your ire up a little bit, as opposed to coming in the postseason with the six or seven wins, whatever we had in a row. We'll see. But let me tell you this, Cleveland is a good ballclub, and it presents a challenge for us, and we'll go out and do the best we can.