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MLB WINTER MEETINGSDecember 8, 2008Dave TrembleyLAS VEGAS, NEVADA Q. Last year this must have been pretty new for you, but what's it feel like to be here this year? DAVE TREMBLEY: It's a little bit more familiar for me because I know what the routine is. But it certainly is nice to see a lot of people that you haven't seen in a while. It certainly is humbling to see as many Hall of Famers and guys that have meant so much to the game walking around in the lobby. I think it's a great time for the game because this is a time where the game -- kind of the spotlight is on Major League Baseball and everybody gets together at one time, so that makes it real special. Q. You've obviously been hearing different rumors and speculation. How excited are you or how confident are you that you guys are going to get some players to make you a little more competitive now? DAVE TREMBLEY: Well, I feel that Andy MacPhail and the rest of the people in the organization, we did our homework when we went to the organizational meetings in Sarasota the week after the Major League season was over. I thought we gathered a lot of information. Obviously I think it's pretty clear what our needs are. You know, Andy took that information to the general managers' meeting, now we're here, and I think we're getting closer to doing what we have to do to improve the club. It starts with the philosophy that we've tried to establish since day one, pitching and defense. We need to improve our starting pitching and we need to identify who's going to be our everyday shortstop, and I'm confident that either it happens this week or sometime soon after that those needs are going to be met. Q. Do you feel like it's a lot to ask to incorporate three new starting pitchers into a rotation in one season? DAVE TREMBLEY: Well, I think what the unique thing is is for a lot of guys that as close as they are to helping us at the Major League level, we have some of those guys that are going to be coming to big league camp for the first time. A couple are going to be returning, like Tillman, but there's some new guys that we put on the roster, some guys that had very good Minor League seasons. We shied away from bringing them up in September. We have an awful lot of pitchers on our 40-man roster right now. I think it's a great time if you're a young up-and-coming prospect in our organization going to get a real good look at it. And there's some guys that got their feet wet last year and we'll see how much they've improved, Liz, Olson, you know, those guys are going to go around for their second time, so we'll see what that's all about. Q. Are you looking at lids as a starter? DAVE TREMBLEY: I'm not sure yet. If we get back the people that missed last year out of the bullpen, I think the back end of our bullpen is probably going to be one of our strong suits, and you go from the back going forward, with Sherrill, Ray, Johnson, those guys, I think they give you three pretty good arms. Sarfate's coming back, you're looking at Albers. We're not quite sure what Albers is going to be for us. There's some thought about starting him. Baez is coming back. Pat missed all of last year so he'll probably go to AAA. But there will be some competition. Liz put together a couple good starts last year. I think in our present situation right now he probably is a guy that we would have to look at in the rotation. Q. Is it fair to say that you decided not to evaluate Jim Johnson as a starter? DAVE TREMBLEY: I think it would be really hard to take him out of the role that he was in and find somebody that could do the job better. I think he really adjusted to it. He likes it, he's good at it, so I think the consensus is we're going to leave him there. Q. Is Sherrill your closer, is Chris Ray, or are you going to have a competition in spring training? DAVE TREMBLEY: I don't think there will be competition. I think I'm going to be afforded the luxury of having two guys that have done it. You know, Sherrill is the guy who's probably got a leg up on that role simply because he did it all last year and Chris missed the year. You know, with George doing it for the first time last year and then for a month there missing some time because he got a little tired, I don't think it's inconceivable that we could somehow share that role. Q. You certainly have with Sherrill a guy that's been the setup guy before, and with Ray he's a totally different pitcher that could give you a very viable situation. DAVE TREMBLEY: Well, there's some interchangeable pieces there with both those guys plus Johnson, plus Sarfate. We don't know what Albers is going to -- you know, Albers could be a starter for us. He was probably a real valuable guys for us, and when we lost him last year, it seemed like we put a awful lot of guys in situations to pitch out of the bullpen and we had to move guys up and take them out of their slots, and you saw what happened. I like to kind of put guys in situations where they've been before, let them be comfortable and then go with it. But there's some other guys that we signed. I'm going to take a look at Hennessey. I want to see what he can do for us. You know, and I'm sure there's some other guys that we're going to sign or bring to camp. Q. Given that guys like Liz and Olson, that's pretty tough stretches learning on the job last year, does that make you any more or less reluctant with the next wave of kids, how quickly you want to move them up and toss them in there? DAVE TREMBLEY: I think Andy MacPhail has been real up-front about that in that we don't want to rush guys. We want to put guys this situations where they're going to have a chance to develop. In Liz and Olson's case they had the year before to be up there in September and get their feet wet, so to speak, and then they had the majority of the season last year. They each got sent out one time. But I would think they would both have benefitted from their experiences last year. But you know, when you go to spring training as you guys well know, someone is always going to surprise you and someone is always going to disappoint you. I think someone in spring training this year is going to surprise us, whether it be a young guy or a non-roster guy like a Hennessey or someone who didn't pitch last year. Q. How much do you worry when those kids are going through what some of them went through last year, that there's damage being done? DAVE TREMBLEY: I worried about them just as much as I worry about myself because it's tough to deal with sometimes. It's hard. You don't want to see people lose their psyche, and that's why I think makeup is real important. You have to find out about a guy's makeup and whether he can handle it. Just like you've got to find out if a guy can handle success. I think it's kind of an equal give and take. And I think the off-season allows people to grow and makes them better the next time around in spring training. They should show some improvement. I think you have to rely on your coaches, your scouts, your evaluators a lot. Q. I know you haven't seen Nolan Reimold too much, but you're familiar with his specifics. Is that a guy you think is ready to be challenged with a big league audition? DAVE TREMBLEY: Well, he's going to get his first look in Major League camp. This is his first time. He put up some power numbers last year. I've spoke to Andy about him, and we're going to have to take a look at him in spring training and make a decision on where we see him in the big picture. Is it as a regular, everyday player, or is it as an extra player. And I think that will help us make a decision on what he does and where he goes. Q. Do you get a good feeling with the Teixeira situation? Do you think you guys have a good shot at him? DAVE TREMBLEY: I wouldn't see why we wouldn't. I think we have just as good a shot as anybody else. I think we've done our homework, but it's up to the player. I think where the player goes is totally up to him, and they should make the decision that's in their best interest. I mean, they're the ones that play. They have to be happy with where they end up, and I think there's a lot of factors that way into it. Q. How do you view the catching situation? DAVE TREMBLEY: Well, I'm looking forward to seeing Wieters. I think everybody is. I think Wieters is probably, like I said about Jones last year when we got Jones -- you know, I've been playing with guys in the Minor Leagues for a long time, and those guys don't come around very often, and when they do you'd better make sure they get better, and that's how I feel about Wieters. He's got a chance to be very good, and if you're a coach or a manager or instructor, your job is to make sure they get better. You can't afford to not do everything you can to not get that guy the best he can be. He's going to be fine. That's an area that we're real excited about in the future, just like Tillman and Arrieta and Matusz and Hernandez and Burgeson. We've got some young guys coming. I think for us it's hold it together, get some pieces that make us more competitive than we were last year and keep everybody's attitude focused on the right direction, because we'll play hard. We'll play hard all the time. Q. You know if Wieters comes in the fans are going to want to see him out there every day? DAVE TREMBLEY: That's great for the fans and that's great for Baltimore Oriole fans and that's great for the game because those kind of guys don't come around very often. When they do, I think it's nice that there's a lot of attention on them. I think that says something about the direction that we're all going. You know, I learned a long time ago you don't make decisions so much on what you see in September or instructional league or spring training. I think you use the whole body of work before you make decisions. Q. You've heard the term rebuilding for much of your tenure. Now they're talking about guys like Burnett and Teixeira. Do you see this as a time for remodeling or how would you phrase what your team is going through right now? DAVE TREMBLEY: I think what the team is doing is restructuring and placing as much emphasis on quality people as quality Major League players. I think as Andy says, character counts when it's attracting not only a high caliber of players but a high caliber of person. I think Baltimore is a unique place with great people. They're blue collar. They love the Orioles. They want to see an honest effort. They want to see a consistent approach. And they want you to tell them the truth and they want that kind of player representing their team and their city. Q. There's been a big emphasis on improvement. If you guys bring those in, is there going to be an emphasis on immediate contention? DAVE TREMBLEY: Well, for me it's just get better. It's a darned tough division. There's teams that are always doing what they can do to improve. We have to take care of our own, and we have to get better, and for us to get better, it starts with pitching and team baseball. Q. At this time last year you were very confident Roberts was going to be back and your second baseman lead-off hitter. Has your stance changed on that? Do you think he could be traded or are you almost positive he's going to be with you guys on opening day? DAVE TREMBLEY: Well, I would say Brian Roberts is my lead-off hitter until someone tells me he isn't. I think he's a darned good one and I think he's one of the better second base men in baseball. I think he means a lot to our city and to our fan base. That being said, I didn't just fall off a truck. I know that things change. But no one has told me or no one has led me to believe that Brian Roberts is not going to be the everyday starting second baseman for me in Baltimore. Q. Talk about your evaluation of Ramon Hernandez. DAVE TREMBLEY: Ramon Hernandez probably hit into more tough luck last year than his batting average showed. A lot of hard outs. I think he's a very good offensive catcher. He has experience. He's played for a while. I think he's an offensive catcher and a pretty good bat in the lineup. Q. Before you sat down Joe Maddon was sitting there. How much does what they did last year -- you talk about a lot of the same things, pitching and defense, doing things the right way. Does that make it easier to say, yeah, this could be done? DAVE TREMBLEY: Well, I think what it does is it gives everybody an incentive, and it gives everybody a sense of encouragement that there is no one that's above doing things right. I think proof in the pudding is what Tampa did, they developed their own players, they were patient with them. As Joe would like to say, they took their body blows, and he stuck with his players. He gave them opportunity, and I think they all grew together as a team. They all got very confident together, and once they tasted what it was like to win, there was no turning back. And I think that's just the way it is with every club. I think it's neat for the game, and I think it's very good for us because we're starting in a situation where we've got nowhere to go but up. Q. If you guys were to sign a Japanese pitcher, what kind of challenge would that impose for you in terms of communication? How difficult would that be? DAVE TREMBLEY: Well, I would need some help. I ain't kidding anybody, I'd need some help. I would fully expect that I would get it, and I'd be more than willing to accept it. I think you have to be courteous and you have to be hospitable to people that are going out of their way in another country and another social environment. I think you have to do above and beyond to show a certain level of common courtesy and extend that to them. I think you treat people the way you want to be treated, and I have no problem with that. Q. Whether it be your staff or your everyday lineup, are you confident you can get something done here in Vegas to improve the club? DAVE TREMBLEY: Well, I'm confident that we'll have a much better team when we start spring training, and hopefully we show that sense of improvement on a more consistent basis throughout the entire season. I would think we would have some improved additions to our club. End of FastScripts |
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