NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS v DIAMONDBACKS

October 8, 2001

Bob Brenly

BOB BRENLY: If you're all ready, tomorrow Womack will lead off and play shortstop, Steve Finley bat second place centerfield, we're going to use Luis Gonzalez in left field in that three hole, Reggie Sanders will bat forth and play left field -- I believe we stopped at Reggie Sanders in right field batting fourth, batting fifth at first place Mark Grace, batting sixth at third base Matt Willliams, batting seventh at second base will be Craig Counsell, Damian Miller will catch at the eighth slot, Curt Schilling will be on the mound tomorrow.

BOB BRENLY: Okay. Right-handed reserve position players we have Rod Barajas as the backup catcher, Greg Colbrunn, Danny Batista and Jay Bell, left-handed position players, David Dellucci, Erubiel Durazo and Midre Cummings, left-handed relievers, Greg Swindell and Brian Anderson, right-handed relievers, Mike Morgan, Bobby Witt, Mike Koplove and Byung-Hyun Kim, also for tomorrow's game, Miguel Batista and Albie Lopez will be available to pitch out of the bullpen as well.

BOB BRENLY: The backup catchers position was an extremely tough decision since Chad Moeller and Barajas has played very well for us. Including Chad Moeller in the post season roster would have involved using our only DL spot available to make him an active player and if we did that we couldn't be able to keep Midre Cummings, we like having Midre Cummings another left-handed bat on the roster, because we only had one position player DL spot available we chose to use it for Midre Cummings.

BOB BRENLY: We just felt Mike Koplove even though inexperienced has better stuff at this point of the season.

BOB BRENLY: Should be a tremendous pitcher's matchup at least going in, you would certainly anticipate that a couple of guys winning 20 games this year, both have pitched extremely well down the stretch. We had about a two and a half hour scouting meeting today with our advanced scouts would have been on the Cardinals for about two weeks, which was obviously very vital given the fact we have not seen the Cardinals since April. Curt Schilling is capable of attacking anybody's line up in a variety of different ways, depending on what's working well for him on a given evening, so we'll see what Curt brings to the table tomorrow. We expect Morris to throw a very good fast ball in the mid 90s, he has a tremendous overhand curveball, occasional slider, and occasional changeup. But like I said, two tremendously competitive pitchers on top of their game and I would imagine it should be a very low scoring game and every baserunner becomes vitally important.

BOB BRENLY: Well, I personally always felt in the post-season that the home-field advantage was a little overrated. Obviously we like being home, we're very comfortable in this ballpark, but throughout the overwhelming season we were a better road team than a home team, it was just a month or so we picked it up at Bank One Ballpark, it's nice to kick off the series at home, because we know what it's going to be like at St. Louis.

BOB BRENLY: Well, I don't think I could have gone wrong with either choice, both guys have been tremendous all season long for us. It's basically just a manager's decision. I know both guys are working on more rests than they normally would, certainly the fact that Randy was supposed to pitch the regular game of the regular season if necessary, that kind of entered into the equation because we were forcing him to mentally be prepared in the event he needed to pitch that ball game. But it was just the right choice I think. Obviously, things change over the course of a series, if we are forced to bring these guys back on short rest, well, but as I see it right now we'll go with the four guys we have right now, and Schilling will take the ball against again in game five.

BOB BRENLY: Fernando Vina has been the Cardinals Tony Womack when he gets on base and allows Tony LaRussa to do some things. He has a number two hitter I'm assuming, Placido Polanco will hit two for sure, they like to play hit and run, like to be aggressive on the bases and we like to do the same when we get Tony Womack on base, that's why they are lead off hitters, they get on base and make things happen. Tony Womack has been playing some of his best ball over the last couple of months, and hopefully he can set the table for our order, much like Tony feels the same way about his lead off hitter.

BOB BRENLY: Wow, that's a big question. There is no question that those two guys have had exceptional seasons this year and right from day one of the year, we felt good when those two guys took the mound and certainly the post season is going to be no exception. But that being said,are no different, as I said, we had a two and a half scouting meeting this morning, I'm sure the Cardinals did something similar and if there are any patterns or habits or tipoffs that are there to be seen, I'm sure that just like we are going to try to exploit them I'm sure the Cardinals will try to do the same. We just don't ever assume anything. We like our chances when those two guys take the mound. We like our chances when all our guys take the mound, but we don't assume anything, we know every game is going to be a battle.

BOB BRENLY: Our plan is to have six players go down to Tucson and we have John Denny and Ron Hassey and Tom Spencer our AAA manager down there right now, we're going to send three pitchers and three position players down there to continue to workout and stay in shape, keep their arms sharp, take batting practice, do some defensive drills in the event there is a need to change the roster at this point in the future. Robert Ellis, Troy Brohawn and Erik Sabel, and the three position players will be Junior Spivey, Chad Moeller and Ryan Christenson.

BOB BRENLY: It was tough to keep all these guys off the roster, you know, it needs to be said that without Robert Ellis and Troy Brohawn and Erik Sabel we wouldn't be here today, they made huge contributions to the ball game, as did Junior Spivey. It was a tough decision to make, but when we assembled our roster we went with the guys that we felt right now would give us a the best chance to win ball games, and Junior has played sparingly over the last month of the season, but his contributions over a four week stretch right there. He won a lot of ball games and was vital in getting us to this position, so those were some tough addition decisions to make, but we feel we have the 25 guys right now that will give us the best chance to win.