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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: TIGERS v ATHLETICS

October 12, 2006

Jim Leyland

DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Workout Day

Q. Could you talk about the cold? I know it affects everyone, but is there any perceived advantage for the Tigers, and would the cold favor the pitchers more than the hitters?
JIM LEYLAND: I don't know. It's going to affect everybody from both teams. It's one thing in any of these situations, nobody has an advantage. I'm sure it's going to affect both teams somewhat, but this time of year, that's what can happen, and I've been through this situation before.
It's going to be a little rough for both teams, but it's not that big a deal.

Q. Could you give the status of Zumaya, what you're hoping for, maybe tomorrow or in this series? And was it the same kind of recurring thing --
JIM LEYLAND: We got a good report on Zumaya. I'm not sure he'll be ready to pitch tomorrow, but we got a good report on him. We got the best news you could get. It's basically the same type of thing. There's a little fluid there, but it appears to be pretty good, probably as well as we could expect it.

Q. Was there an MRI that he took this morning at all?
JIM LEYLAND: Yes.

Q. Just one more about the weather. How will it affect the way that you use Kenny tomorrow?
JIM LEYLAND: It won't have any effect whatsoever. I mean, we're both going to be a starting pitcher, and Kenny is mine. We'll just see. I mean, that's -- sometimes guys have a little bit more of a problem in cold weather getting a feel for the pitch and everything. The ball can be a little slippery. It's hard to get a better feel than you normally get, but these guys have all done this stuff before, so this is old hat. They'll make the adjustment.

Q. Do you have a sense your guys are ready to go for the jugular here tomorrow at home, having a chance to go up 3-0 in this series?
JIM LEYLAND: No. I mean, I think we're going to come out and play as good as we can. But I don't think anybody is smelling anything. I think that's one reason we're doing okay. We've an able to keep everything in perspective, and we know that it's a long series obviously because of the seven games instead of the five.
We've put ourselves in a decent position, but that's all we've done. There's a lot of baseball left.

Q. What has been the most impressive thing about having Kenny Rogers on your team this year? Obviously you knew about him as an opposing pitcher.
JIM LEYLAND: I think the fact that he won 18 games is the most impressive thing I can tell you. I think everybody else is getting caught up in what he's done for the other young pitchers and this and that.
And I certainly don't want to take anything away from this, because there's probably some truth to that. But like I said all year, we got Kenny Rogers to win baseball games, and he's doing a good job of doing it.

Q. Could you give us an idea how you're going to work first base tomorrow, and are you considering Pudge at all over there in this series?
JIM LEYLAND: No, I'm not.

Q. Can you tell us what your lineup might be tomorrow? Have you decided on it yet?
JIM LEYLAND: I don't have my lineup yet. This is a different type pitcher. I've been watching him today for the last hour and a half, two hours. I don't really have a feel yet for what the lineup will be. I mean, there won't be a lot of surprises obviously because there are none; we're playing with a player short, and it is what it is.
Guillen will play first base. I'm not sure who's going to play shortstop yet, but it's not like there's all kinds of situations to choose from. You're pretty much -- it's right in front of you pretty much what you have to do, so you just have to make a choice, maybe the DH spot or what you play at shortstop, but Guillen will definitely play first.

Q. The emotion that Kenny showed the last time for you, a lot was made of it and it seemed to be out of character for him. Did that show anything to you about what this postseason means to him?
JIM LEYLAND: Who's that?

Q. Kenny Rogers.
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I just think that was a -- that was one of those situations I think it starts with the fact that it was the Yankees, and rightfully so. The New York Yankees are awfully special. He was a member of that team, of that organization, at one point. The numbers were lopsided against him to do well.
I think it was a little out of character for him to be that emotional, but I could certainly understand it. I was concerned about it, because sometimes too much emotion works for you and sometimes it works against you. But in his case the other night, the other day, it worked for him.

Q. When you make decisions, for example about who's going to play first or short, do you find yourself relying more on statistical data this year than you did say --
JIM LEYLAND: Well, first base was a no-brainer. That's an absolute no-brainer. Anybody is wasting their time thinking who's going to play first base. As long as Casey is not ready, Carlos Guillen is going to play first base. Now, if you got in a situation where you had to make a move, something happened to another infielder where you had to switch him back or something, then obviously you'd have the luxury of putting Vance in to catch and Pudge at first.
But that's not going to happen. I don't want to get anything started with Pudge playing first base, because he's not going to. The only time that would happen is if there was an adjustment during the game. Carlos Guillen will be the first baseman. Mark it down, put it down, sleep on it, whatever, but he will be the first baseman.

Q. I was more interested in at this stage in your career as a manager do you rely on statistical data in any decision, not particularly first base, than you did say ten years ago?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I think you rely on a combination of things, one being statistical information, but there's not a lot of statistical information on the guy we're facing tomorrow.
Number two, you try to look at what type of hitter you have and what type of pitcher are they pitching. And if you feel that's your best match-up, then that's a lot to do with how you make your decision, to decide which guy to go with. But it depends a lot on the pitcher, what type of pitcher he is and what type of hitter you have.

Q. Just what the fans are going to mean tomorrow, what they meant in the Yankees series, and what you see them meaning the three games you've got here at home now?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I think we certainly have a great appreciation for them. I don't know, it's going to be pretty cold for them tomorrow obviously. We have a great appreciation for that, but I think it's something that we also have to guard against, and I thought we did a good job of that in the Yankees series.
Sometimes you have a tendency to want to win so bad for your home crowd that you lose sight of what's going on and that's the baseball game, and you lose sight of the concentration you need to have on the pitcher. I'm down-playing that. I want the fans to enjoy it. It's their day.
They can have all the hoopla, but the players have to be concentrating and not get caught up in, We'd like to do it for our fans or do it at home. If you get caught up in that, it usually spells disaster. We were fortunate to do it in front of our home crowd in the Yankees series, and it was a beautiful thing, there's no question, it was a wonderful thing, and we were very fortunate to be able to do that.
In fact, I talked to my team about guarding against that. Don't get caught up in all that.

Q. With Zumaya unavailable last night, how important was what Fernando Rodney did for you?
JIM LEYLAND: He was tremendous last night. He had only throw 20 some pitches the day before. He had had about ten days off. We caught a break today with the off day. So it was a perfect 8th inning. It doesn't get any better than that. He was fantastic.

Q. With the report you got on Zumaya, would you expect him to be available for game four, or hope?
JIM LEYLAND: Game Four?

Q. Yeah, because it kind of sounded like he wasn't available tomorrow.
JIM LEYLAND: I don't even want to speculate on that, because when you start dealing with physicians and trainers, that's a whole different situation. I think a lot of it depends on the player himself. You know, if Zumaya is able to pitch, he'll pitch. He'll take the ball.
But we're not in a situation where we're worried about any damage to anything or anything like that, not in a situation where we're worried about hurting him anymore or anything like that. But whether he's able to pitch the next -- tomorrow or the next day, I really couldn't say that for sure.

End of FastScripts...

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