NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES v ASTROS

October 9, 2001

Larry Dierker

LARRY DIERKER: Oh, I don't think the pitching on the fourth day is going to bother him very much. I would imagine that he'll be all right pitching at noon, too. I would say that if we had a regular season game at noon where the consequences weren't so severe and the importance of the game wasn't magnified like it is in a short series, whether he was on short rest or regular rest, that starting at noon might not be the best thing for him. But I don't think it's the best thing for the other team either.

LARRY DIERKER: He could. He'd be on the fourth day again. And we'll just kind of see how he looks today then probably have a better idea whether he could come back in Game 4 after we see what happens in this game.

LARRY DIERKER: He'll have a bullpen between now and the next day. He'll go down, throw to the catcher maybe 15, 20 minutes. That's about it. He'll be doing stretching and exercises with the trainer against resistance. We have a little swimming pool-type thing with the power jets coming out. They use that a lot in rehabbing injuries. He'll be in there. That's about it. He's not going to see any more hitters until he pitches.

LARRY DIERKER: Well, what we've basically done all year is considered Lugo to be the regular shortstop and played Vizcaino in games where either Jose has really had a lot of success against the pitcher we're facing or Lugo has really had a lot of trouble with the pitcher we're facing. And in some cases, just on the scouting report. There was a guy with the Cubs that we had never seen before, but our scouting report was he threw a side arm and he threw in the low- to mid-90s and had a good sweeping breaking ball that would break away from a right-handed hitter. Just based on that scouting report, I started Vizcaino. Most of the guys that give Julio trouble are right-handers that that breaking ball breaks away from him and can throw pretty hard. There aren't all that many guys in the league that I think present that kind of problem for him. He's hit a lot of right-handers well. But there are some that I think we're better off with Vizcaino. But in general, Lugo's got a little more speed. He covers a little bit more ground at shortstop. He has got a stronger throwing arm. Both of them have been a little bit erratic at times, but Lugo's been so much better this year than last that he really looks like a bona fide shortstop from a fielding standpoint this year. I give him a lot of credit for that because a year ago this time, I couldn't have said that.

LARRY DIERKER: Well, we're going to have to win three games somehow. If they go with three pitchers, that means we have to beat one of those guys once or maybe both of them once. I think the effectiveness of any pitcher pitching on short rest is going to depend on control. Because generally speaking, if you pitch on the fourth day, you don't have quite as much life in your arm as the fifth day. And sometimes during the season if we have an off day, a guy will go to the sixth day. The challenge, when you have a lot of rest, is to try to find the strike zone because your arm usually feels real good, you have lively stuff. If you can find the strike zone, it's an advantage. On the fourth day you have to have good control most of the time because you're not going to have quite as much sharpness on your pitches. That might be an advantage for them because they're pretty much control pitchers anyway.

LARRY DIERKER: Well, the playoffs are unlike the regular season. Whitey Herzog once said you should have to play the five games right in a row or seven or whatever it takes, because when you go through the regular season, you have to use all 25 of your players to win. Then you get into the post-season and every third day, it seems like, is an off day. When we have a lot of off days, sometimes we have pitchers that are sitting around and they're not getting enough work. So in this situation, we don't really need five starters. So the fourth starter even can work out of the bullpen. Then you've got your full complement of relief pitchers. And the extra players, generally speaking, don't get that much work either unless you have a platoon or situation somewhere where a guy is guaranteed that he's going to play some. But with us, that's not really the case. We don't have any platoon. Once in a while I'll start Merced to get a left-handed bat in the line-up or (inaudible). There may be guys on our playoff roster that never throw one pitch or get a single at-bat. That's the nature of post-season baseball. It's probably true for almost every team that's involved in the post-season.

LARRY DIERKER: I think Dave is a much better pitcher now than he was a couple months ago. When he came over from Detroit, his couple starts, he looked like he was pitching scared. It's not that he was wild but that he was leery of throwing the ball into the strike zone against some of the better hitters. He was ending up throwing a lot of pitches per inning and walking too many batters for a guy that has decent control. So during that period of time, he pitched several times when we scored a lot of runs and he barely made five innings, but he got the wins. So at one point you could say he was lucky. But the last couple - two, three wins, he really pitched well. Even in the games he hasn't won, the last five or six starts, he's been more aggressive in the strike zone. His pitches per inning have gone down. His walks have gone down. He's become a much more confident pitcher. I think for any pitcher, a lot of their success depends on confidence, and confidence depends on how well the guys behind you make the plays and how well they hit the ball and score runs for you when they're at the plate. I think as he has grown into this role with our club, he has gained a lot of confidence from the way we've played behind him. So I feel he's a much better pitcher than he was a couple months ago. He still wouldn't rank as our No. 2 guy if we had everybody available. We don't have Astacio, we don't have Carlos Hernandez, and Roy Oswalt's just coming back and is not ready to start tomorrow. So it goes to Mlicki. I don't know what he is, 7-2, 7-3. Whatever his record is, he's proven that he can win pitching for us. So I don't feel at any great disadvantage sending him out there.

LARRY DIERKER: Ausmus has really given us the foundation of our defense, just in the same way that Bagwell's been the foundation for our offense all these years. Brad has really helped a lot of our pitchers that aren't that decisive themselves to pitch with confidence, pitching the game that he calls. He's always worked pretty well with some of the pitchers that like to call their own game. And when we had him a few years back, sometimes he'd get upset when pitchers threw something different to him (inaudible). I think he's grown in maturity as a catcher and is just about the best in the business now when you consider all aspects - catching the ball, blocking the ball and throwing. Of course the last thing is calling the game and the relationship he has with the pitchers. In all of those areas he's very strong. As for Hidalgo, his home run production has dropped off mostly because all of his home runs have gone foul. He got him into a super pull mode, and I can't tell you how many balls that he's hit that were anywhere from 10 to 50 feet foul that would have been home runs. The same way with a lot of home runs that would have been doubles. He's swinging around the ball and pulling it, even outside pitches. In our batting practice sessions, he was able to hit the ball in all directions with authority. Just recently, he started to do that again. But I think that the season he had last year put a lot of pressure on him in terms of duplicating it. The contract he got over the winter put a lot of pressure on him to justify that kind of salary. I don't think he was responding to that in the best way, but he's still been reasonably effective at the plate and is still playing well in the outfield. So although he doesn't look like an All-Star like he did last year, he's still a good player.

LARRY DIERKER: I'd say more than anything control. When he came up to us midway through last season, it was obvious that he at times had nasty stuff and was really hard to hit. At other times he didn't have quite that much stuff, but he still had enough if he hit spots and was able to work the hitters with fastballs and off-speed and breaking pitches. Even in the first part of this year he got off to a great start. I think he was Pitcher-of-the-Month in April. In May and June he started showing some inconsistencies with his control (inaudible). July, he started doing better. August and September, he's just been nails. Whether he has great stuff or not his best stuff, he still seems tough enough to pitch a good ball game. I think it's rather remarkable, a pitcher of his age, to make that many adjustments in order to get consistency in that short a period of time. Normally, when a guy comes up, whether it's Oswalt or Miller or Carlos Hernandez or whoever, you expect them to have their good games and their bad games. Then when a guy gets to a more veteran status and ability with control, you expect them to have their good games and their average games but to cut down on bad games because they're not throwing too many balls into the hitting zone for extra base hits. I'd say normally it's going to take about three years for that process. With him, he's made it in one year.