AL DIVISION SERIES: INDIANS v MARINERS

October 11, 2001

Lou Piniella

LOU PINIELLA: We haven't seen him all year. He hasn't pitched against us. We've seen some film. And he certainly has a good arm. He's had an outstanding first year as a pitcher, 17 and 5. And he's a big, strong kid. But we haven't seen him.

LOU PINIELLA: Well, let's hope that's not the case Saturday. He's always pitched against Oakland, because of their left-hand hitting. We've never faced him. He's certainly capable of throwing very well. We know that for a fact. Just got to be patient with him and see what he features.

LOU PINIELLA: We've run all year, and we've put the game in motion all year. To do that you've got to get base runners. So hopefully we can do that today. That's been a big part of our offense. We still have to hit. Colon was really quick to the plate the other day, and at the same time it's harder to run off of left-handers. So we're going to have to swing the bat some.

LOU PINIELLA: You mean as a hitter or?

LOU PINIELLA: Well, he's a five tool player. He can hit. He can hit the ball all over the place. He can run. He can catch the ball very well. And he can throw. He's just a complete player. And he can turn on the ball and hit it for power, occasionally. So his style is unique. You really can't teach it. But if you break down his film when he's up there hitting, he does the things that you would like other players to do. But you can't duplicate it. He's got his own unique style.

LOU PINIELLA: Stays inside the ball. And if you look at his swing, the barrel of the bat stays in the hitting area a long, long time.

LOU PINIELLA: Sele is a professional pitcher. He knows how to pitch. And you want guys like that. He's consistent. He's pitched 200 plus innings four years in a row, he's won double digit games. He keeps you in the ballgame and gives you a chance to win. Aaron is very capable. He's pitched well against Cleveland this year, also.

LOU PINIELLA: I know that.

LOU PINIELLA: First of all, I get a switch hitter off the bench, which is important. It gives me a chance to match up better, if we need to. At the same time, Jay's been here nine years with me. And he's capable of running into a few pitches. He's faced Finley many times before. I think he's played well in leftfield since we brought him up, put him on the roster here in September. He's worked hard to get to this point. He deserves the opportunity. I'm loyal to my players. And now if I didn't think that Jay could go out and get the job done, he wouldn't be playing. But I have all the confidence in the world that he can. But you put the whole thing together and he belongs in leftfield today. He's worked hard to get to this point, playoff-wise. We're going to give him the opportunity.

LOU PINIELLA: You know, I don't know that. He's had a real nice year. He's 17 and 5. And we know he throws hard. We know he's got a good breaking ball. Outside of that, we're going to look at some film on Friday, when we go work out in Cleveland. We haven't seen him all year. I don't know if the advantage is to the hitter or it's to the pitcher. You would think that it tends to be with the pitcher a little more, but it depends on how many -- what kind of pitches he's making. He's young, he could be a little excited out there. I don't know that for a fact. I think it's important that we're a little patient with him early in the game and make him throw pitches, so that we see him. But I don't know what to expect. Hopefully we won't see what Colon gave us yesterday or the day before. I don't know. I really don't know.

LOU PINIELLA: I think it's a little darker in here when the roof is on. And I think the background is probably a little better because of that. When the roof is on I think the ball carries a little better. But this is an open air stadium, and the weather is really nice outside. It would be a shame to have the roof on it.

LOU PINIELLA: I remember Charlie when he was with the Minnesota Twins. Charlie was a decent hitter.

LOU PINIELLA: He was a part-time outfielder and he'd pinch-hit, yeah. He swung the bat. Left-hand hitter. He's a good guy. I'm glad to see he's healthy and enjoying this. I hope he doesn't get a chance to enjoy it too much over the next few games. But he's a good guy.

LOU PINIELLA: Yeah.

LOU PINIELLA: You know, about the only thing -- we look at statistics a lot. And left-handers are hitting .254 off of him, and right handers are hitting .297. Right-hand hitters have 13 home runs off of him. And left-handers none. Walks more right-hand hitters than left-hand hitters. So basically we went more right-handed. The only two left-handers are Ichiro and Olerud, that should handle the bat well against him. He's got a good splitfinger. He's got -- he's a professional pitcher. He's had success against our baseball team, career-wise. I think he's won 19 games against us, and lost, what, 8? So we know that he's had success. Now, can he go back and revert to -- he's 8 and 7 with a 5.54 ERA. Is he capable of pitching a darned good game? Yes. No question. We'll have to wait and see.

LOU PINIELLA: He looked better. He caught some ground balls and got a little tired. He wore down a little bit. But we've been trying to get him to go to leftfield all the time. And he hit the ball in leftfield, left-handed, I'm talking about.

LOU PINIELLA: Well, we've got Edgar, Olerud and Buhner (laughter.) in the middle part of our line-up. They might have to change the game plan for all three. But it puts a little thought in their mind that they might have to hold Edgar, with Olerud up. And Olerud might be able to get one through the first base hole. We'll see.