AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v INDIANS

October 6, 1999

Jimy Williams

A. Well, for those of you that were here yesterday, I think you recall the statements I made about our starting pitchers, with Saberhagen and Ramon coming off the DL and rehab and joining us late, Mercker with his rib cage area. I feel it's very important to protect your pitchers, certainly your starting pitchers, so we decided to go with 11 pitchers and then if you look at the left side of the infield and you think about Nomar's wrist and think about Valentin's knee, played seven games in the last month, then you have to protect those particular spots, too, the best you can. That's the way we listed our priorities. And the one statement I made yesterday was that you can't protect everything, but we protect those things that we think are at the top of our list the best we can and go out and play. That's basically what happened.

A. I wasn't trying to be right, I was just trying to do right, you know. That's all. To me, that's the bottom line. That's all we try and do here.

A. Well, I don't know. Go with the players that we have. That's what we've done all year long. We've had injuries all year long, we've had disablements all year long. I think we used around 50 players, I believe, during the course of this season and people have picked up other people when we've had injuries or disablements. I think you'd probably have to be with us to have seen that; but certainly there are writers here who have traveled with us who have seen that and seen a lot of different players perform that maybe haven't been here all year and maybe aren't here now to help us win games.

A. Well, certainly as a youngster in his first year, he's had a tremendous year. I mean, he was a key factor during a long part of the season with his offense. Originally he came to spring training, they told me he was an outfielder and would probably start at Pawtucket. If we needed somebody, that's what I was told. Within the first couple days there, I saw him taking ground balls at first and he's worked extremely hard to refine his skills over there and I think he's done a real nice job, with his improvement over there, with his work ethic. He's always ready to play but certainly as a youngster to come in and perform in some key spots in key games, to be able to deliver offensively and drive in runs, I think it's just a tremendous story about a kid that just kept playing.

A. His last full start, he pitched very, very well. The last couple. He pitched a couple innings the other day in Baltimore. I don't think that's really a fair barometer to judge but the ones prior to today, I thought he pitched extremely well and really gave us some very, very good innings against tough-hitting teams.

A. I mean, this is a man that really loves to compete. I don't think any of us really know what he's been through because we haven't; but just to be able to keep coming back wanting to pitch. I mean, he went through a 25-day period during the course of this season where we didn't pitch him and he basically walked off the mound, not walked off but finished that one inning. Prior to the time of the 25-day layoff. I mean, this kid couldn't lift his arm. He couldn't lift it and he had to really work hard with the trainers who to me are unsung heroes on our team and do his weight program to try to activate or fire those small muscles around that area to cushion his shoulder so he could in fact pitch; but he's quite an individual, person first but you know he loves to compete. I mean, he's been doing this for a long time at this level, certainly isn't a youngster so I don't think it really is a surprise that he can handle it mentally. You just wonder how much he can handle physically. That's it. But he sure handled it so far.

A. We keep everything in our clubhouse. Everything stays in there period.

A. I'll say Beck, Mercker, Huskey and Florie. They've been pluses for our team since they've been here, you know, Beck and Mercker, certainly pitchers but I think Beck has done a great job, too. He's a good kid, he works hard but all of them have contributed, but to me it's a complement to the job our general manager has done to go out and get these guys to help our team win starting with Bret.