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MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 10, 2008

Jim Leyland

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

Q. A lot has been made about the fact that your contract wasn't extended. How do you respond to all that?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I'm not even going to discuss that one time this year. That's not an issue. That's what it is. It's very simple. If we do, well, I'll probably still be there, if we don't, I won't.
But I'm not going to make that a subject all year long, talking about things that aren't important, because that's not really important. What's important is getting our team to spring training, getting back in the good group that we think we can get in, getting our guys healthy and playing baseball.
I'm not going to discuss that. People can speculate all year long if they want, they can write what they want all year long. But I'm not going to discuss that one time. No matter where you are or what your contract is, if you do good, you stay, if you don't, at some point you go.
So I'll leave it at that. That's the end of the conversation for the rest of the year about that.

Q. How do you see your rotation shaping up at this point since it's basically the same as --
JIM LEYLAND: Right now I'm not sure about that. You know, we're waiting on Bonderman obviously who appears to be very healthy and should be ready to go at spring training and be ready for opening day. Verlander obviously and Galarraga, but after that I'm not sure.

Q. Do you look at Miner as more of a starter?
JIM LEYLAND: I'm not sure, depends if something else happens, what we see in spring training. You know, how does he fit best for us, do we have five guys that are better for him which upgrades our bullpen, what role is he better in. Those are decisions that will have to be made. I think the most important thing is that I think he's learned how to make the adjustment as far as going back and forth from starting to relief. I think he's got an idea now that there is a difference and that he'll have to make that adjustment.
Really when I say there is a difference, there really is no difference. He's got to pitch out of the bullpen like he pitches as a starter, as a closer, just coming in and trying to throw it hard. But when I say I think he's learned that, I think he learned that probably last year.

Q. You were outspoken about disappointment last year. Is it simply now turning the page and focusing on the upcoming season?
JIM LEYLAND: Yeah, I mean, I don't go back like that. I don't chew yesterday's breakfast. I didn't talk about 2006 going into 2007. That's history. Just like last year. We've been through this a thousand times. Everything that went wrong went wrong. We didn't do a good enough job, myself and the staff didn't do a good enough job.
But I think to sum it up best, our organization last year was probably just the opposite of 2006. 2006 we had a great year, was a surprise. 2008 we had a bad year, which was a surprise. 2009 is a whole new ballgame.

Q. Are you confident you can get back to the 2006?
JIM LEYLAND: Yeah, I think that if you look at baseball today it's a little bit different than it used to be. I think the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are a good example, went from last place to the World Series.
Detroit Tigers 2006 when I got here finished next to last in the division, went to the World Series. So it's not just the Detroit Tigers, that can happen to a lot of teams. Whoever stays healthy, plays good, they'll have a chance to get to postseason. We'll be one of those teams. There's several of them in our division obviously.

Q. Where are you at with Dontrelle and do you expect him in spring training?
JIM LEYLAND: Yeah, I certainly expect him in spring training. He's working out like everybody else. He's working hard in the off-season. We'll just have to wait and see how that develops when it comes to spring training.

Q. Once you get the bullpen kind of figured out, the back end, a closer, maybe another reliever, do you hope that there's still enough funds left over to maybe get a bargain-type starter to add to that mix, maybe add a guy late?
JIM LEYLAND: I don't know. I mean, if you look at that, we've thrown that around like it's easy to do. We've been at the meetings now for several days with all the teams right here, everybody talking to each other 24 hours a day, and hardly any of that has happened.
That just goes to show you how difficult it is. It's difficult to get everybody in the same place under the same roof talking about those kind of things and talking to agents and everything, and not much of that has gone on. Obviously there's some big names up there that people are talking about, but we're not involved in that.

Q. Do you think there's reason to wonder if Galarraga can pick right up and become a steady starter right out of the gate?
JIM LEYLAND: That's a very good question. I think Galarraga has proven he's a Major League pitcher. I think that we have to make sure that we don't get carried away, and you win 12, 13, 14 games, don't expect him to win 20, put a lot of pressure on yourself, but I think he's a bona fide Major League starter, probably toward the back end of the rotation a little bit. But like I said, I've never really been big on that.
When you're one of five starters, when you go out there on your day, you're the first starter, you're the No. 1 starter the way I look at it. I think he's proven he's a Major League pitcher, and I think the main thing is to just keep him calm, don't get him too excited where his expectations go so high that it backfires on him.

Q. In the same vein, Robertson, you had a 200-inning pitcher there for a long time, 31 years old. How do you get him back to where he was? You see things that a pitching coach will also see, but what's got to occur there?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I think that you go through little periods in this game, and I think that sometimes you're out to prove a point and you're a little hungrier, and then sometimes you have other issues come up in your life and you're making adjustments all the time, and I think Nate is working really hard right now.
I don't think that Nate alone with a few other guys came into spring training probably in the best of shape last year. They're working hard to do that this year. It's a lesson that we all learn. It happens in every camp, not just ours. It's only nature; that's the way it goes.
I think Nate is working really hard right now, and I think he's going to come in and give himself the best chance to be in the rotation, and I'm certainly not saying he won't be. But it's not a given right now. That's just the way it is.

Q. You talked around the end of the season about the importance of next spring, spring training and what you wanted to get accomplished or maybe some changes. Have you had more time to think about that now and what you might want to do?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I think that we need to get that confident but professional swagger back, and I think we lost that last year. I think for one thing we were asking some people to do things that they weren't capable of doing, and I think that's very unfair. I think some of our veteran players were probably disappointed.
Players are smart. You know, when you have as many injuries as we did, as well as other clubs, and players aren't dumb, they're very perceptive to what goes on, and they know when you're going out there undermanned, they know when you're bringing people in to pitch that it's kind of a crapshoot whether or not they're going to be successful. I'm not saying that's right, but that's the way it is.
We had too many times last year when we didn't hold leads, we let leads get away, and I've always said that's the most discouraging thing that can happen to your ballclub, that it just tears your heart out. That's one of the worst things that can happen to your team.
I forget exactly what the date was, but we got to within four games, and all of a sudden we started losing games from the sixth inning on, lead after lead, and if we would have held half of those, we'd have been in the hunt close to the end. But we didn't.
But I think everybody has got to get over that. I think it's just -- it's a fresh start this year. We have a good ballclub. We have a very good team. Now, I mean, we've got to get Bonderman back, we've got to get Zumaya healthy, we have got to get Rodney healthy for a year.
We have some issues, but we've got a very good baseball team, potentially a very good team. Do we have some holes to fill yet? Yes, absolutely. But there's not many perfect teams.

Q. Are you confident that Zumaya will be ready for opening day?
JIM LEYLAND: No, I'm not. I don't want to say it like that. I don't know. I think it's up in the air. I don't want to get overly confident and just say, oh, everything will be all right, because that doesn't work. I'm hoping that he's all right. I think he's going to be all right. We'll find out when we get to spring training, you know, what his progress is. And certainly that's a big key for us.
That's my point that I was making just a minute ago. When your veteran players -- and this is not a criticism or reflection on somebody else, but when your veteran players see you trotting Zumaya out of that bullpen in the eighth inning with everybody pumped up, it's different. That's just the way it is. And it isn't anybody else's fault; we just got caught short because of injuries. It's just different. That's the way it is.

Q. Defense doesn't get the attention that offense gets from fans and other people, but your club has made improvements in that area. At the end of the season --
JIM LEYLAND: Yeah, I think we've got a chance to make a lot of improvement, but we're also in a league where the lineup is pretty much produced from top to bottom, and we've got to get back to that.
That's the one thing we did do, if you remember, in 2006, C-Mo and Brandon Inge late in that lineup, hit a lot of home runs. We got a lot of production. In the American League, the lineups, they've got to be pretty deep. We're going to have to get some more production out of Inge, there's no question about that. He's certainly capable of that.

Q. Could you touch on how your defense has improved, though?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I think that we'll be very good in left field. He's not going to be a great left fielder, but I think he'll be very good. I think Inge should be back at third all year, consistent basis, is going to be a big plus for us.
Certainly I'm not going to say that Gerald Laird is better than Pudge, but certainly we think that's comparable. We've got a guy that can really catch and throw and get hits, a lot like Pudge really in a lot of ways, can get doubles and run. So that's also pretty good.
We're hoping to get a shortstop, depending on a lot of things. So I think we will be much better defensively.
The game has changed a little bit in the sense that years ago it was okay to have them hit the ball in the air in these big ballparks and deep center fields and things like that. That's no longer the game. You can't live in the air anymore very much in very many parks.
So I think it's important -- like I say, we've got Inge back there. I think Cabrera is going to be very good at first. We've got Polanco, who's very steady at second. We're going to get a shortstop. Santiago is very good defensively. So I think we'll be pretty good.

Q. How much does a better defense lead to a better pitching staff?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, you know, the thing that goes along with that, the most important thing for our club, is it's huge if you throw strikes and make them put the ball in play. Last year we walked way too many people and there's no defense for that. That's one thing we're going to have to cut down on. Having a great defensive infield or outfield means nothing if you're walking people.
So the key is pitcher strike one, make them put the ball in play, then your defense really comes into play. But if you're walking guys all the time, it's not that big an issue.

Q. Do you think there are some scenarios where you might have even more than one of those younger relievers that Dave talked about yesterday? Do you think there may be scenarios where a couple guys make the opening day roster?
JIM LEYLAND: I think that will be dictated by what happens the rest of the winter or possibly spring training. I think that's -- obviously everybody knows, like several teams here, we're trying to upgrade our bullpen. We automatically upgrade it if Rodney and Zumaya are healthy from day one. That's an upgrade automatically. But we are trying to upgrade that.
Obviously if you can't by way of trade or free agency or something like that, then you have to do from within. We have some arms, but they're going to be young arms. Are they ready? I don't know. The arms are good enough. I saw that in the instructional league. But are they ready? I don't know that.

Q. In regards to the news with CC Sabathia signing, what do you think will be the domino effect with other free agents starting to sign?
JIM LEYLAND: I'm not really sure about that. I don't know.

Q. Were you surprised for the amount that he signed with in this economy?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I don't stick my nose in other people's business. That's not really my business.

Q. What about the balance of power switch now in the American League East, regarding the balance of power, do you think there will be a switch and will the Yankees will be able to come back?
JIM LEYLAND: I don't know, I'm worried about the Central. I'm not worried about the East. Very few times a year.
I'm very respectful of the East and we've got to play them obviously, but I'm worried about the Central. It's loaded, to be honest with you.

Q. The psychology of closing is one thing that you always have to consider. Did you see Rodney, frankly, become a different pitcher when you brought him in the ninth as far as the nerves?
JIM LEYLAND: I think that the stuff is definitely there to close. The mentality has been there part-time and not all the time. And I think that we do have one advantage, which is normally players that are free agents are going to be prepared on a daily basis to do everything they can to enhance their opportunity at the end of the season. So that's good news.
Is the stuff there? Yes. Is the poise and the charisma there yet? Sometimes, not all the time.

Q. You mentioned the Central a moment ago. What have been your reaction to -- the White Sox have changed the roster a little bit in a couple different deals.
JIM LEYLAND: Well, like I said, we know this is a great division. I'm not going to get into what division is the best because I don't really know.
All I know is that Kansas City finished ahead of us last year as did everybody else in the division. Minnesota is there every year, the Chicago White Sox won it and Cleveland has got an outstanding team and it looks like they've signed a closer, a top-notch closer.
So it's going to be loaded. You worry about your own team and you take care of your own house. I can't worry about what Cleveland does. Last year we finished last and the media was buzzing about we won the World Series here or wherever we were. That didn't work out too good. I don't pay much attention to that. All the teams are trying to improve their ballclub, and we're no different than that. That's what we're trying to do.

Q. You talked around season's end how one of the things you wanted to do was to have -- I think Inge might have been the catcher at that time, but you wanted to have your pitchers and catchers focus on learning the AL Central hitters and how to approach them. You bring in a new catcher now, you'll probably have some changes in the pitching staff. How much more important does that become when you're bringing guys who haven't spent a lot of time?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, it's huge. I mean, I think that we've got a new catcher, we've got a new pitching coach. But we're going to go over things like that in spring training. I'm going to have them look at film and maybe pick two or three guys a day to go in there and look and have Rick in there and get some ideas. We just have to do better within, there's no question about it.
I think that's important. If you're dealing with a lot of younger pitchers, you have to also be very careful with that because you can't give them too much, but we'll see. But we have to do better within the division, there's no question about it.

Q. To what extent do you think the World Baseball Classic will affect the way you plan and approach spring training?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I'm kind of looking forward to it because that's the year we went to the World Series, when we had the World Classic. So it didn't bother us that year.
It is what it is. I mean, all teams make those adjustments, and you prepare for that. We'll prepare for that just like everybody else does. I don't think that's a big issue. I really don't know how many guys we're going to end up with that are going to be participating in that.
But, you know, you have to be respectful of that and we'll be very respectful of that, but we'll have our guys ready to play.

Q. What's the next step for Curtis in his career do you think, in his development as a hitter?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I think hopefully he's going to get a little better at stealing bases, a little better idea. I think he does it on sheer speed and didn't do it as much last year. We're not really a running team, but -- and the other thing I think is continue to work on his outfield play, good jumps, good angles, better angles.
This guy is just an outstanding, outstanding player. He's one of the better young players in baseball in my opinion. He cut down on his strikeouts last year, he hit left-handed better.
It's not going to be like take him out every time we see a lefty. I got away from that a little bit last year and I think he's ready to do that now, play against lefties all the time.
In saying that, if you do give him a day off, it probably would be against some lefty that's been tough on him. So I think that's important. But he's going to be an everyday center fielder that plays against righties and lefties.

Q. This is going to be an interesting spring from the standpoint of you have a lot of outfielders, especially now with Carlos moving out there, guys that contributed last year, Joyce, Thames, Raburn. Do you have an early sense of how that might play out in terms of rosters?
JIM LEYLAND: I don't think you can have enough good players. I think we've got some protection there. You've also got to remember that Marcus can swing into first, Larish can play out in the outfield, he can play first. We have some versatility there. Raburn can play in the infield. Somebody might be gone for those games, the World games, so that's not going to be an issue. Everybody is going to get a lot of playing time. We've got a little better balance out there now with the lefty, righty.

Q. Realistically you saw Sheffield's shoulder get a little better the last part of the season and things took off. But he's 40. What do you think is going to happen with him?
JIM LEYLAND: To be honest with you, I know how hard he works in the off-seasons. He's always been one of those guys. He's got a personal trainer down in Tampa and he's always worked hard. This is really going to be the first time in a while he hasn't spent an off-season rehabbing because of surgery. He didn't have to get anything cut this off-season, and our trainers think he's going to be really good.
You know, does he play out in the outfield a little bit? I don't know, I doubt it. But should he be a totally healthy DH? Yes, he should be. You know, he hit some home runs the second half. You don't really know what to expect. You don't know when the time comes, when somebody has lost it a little bit. Obviously you lose it a little bit at that age, but he hit balls awful hard the second half there and hit quite a few home runs.

Q. Are you excited to see Verlander in the spring from the standpoint of how he works with the new pitching coach, maybe just a fresh perspective?
JIM LEYLAND: This guy is just a great talent that had a couple wake-up years to the world about Justin Verlander, and then last year things didn't go quite as well, and it's a process to learn how to handle those things.
So I'll be interested to see how he comes into spring training. I think he's going to be tremendous. I mean, he's got too good of stuff not to be an outstanding pitcher. He is an outstanding pitcher.
He had two probably surprisingly really good years, even though we knew how good his stuff was. He was awful young to have that kind of success. So there's a lot of things this kid went through, suffering some adversity for the first time, learning how to handle it, learning how to cope with it. I think he'll be right back to himself, his old self.

Q. You gave Dolsi a shot last year, you had some good situations, he had his ups and downs. How big of a role could he play for you guys this coming season and what do you need to see from him?
JIM LEYLAND: That was one of our situations last year that he wasn't ready to do that. Is he going to be ready this year? I don't know.
But that's what I was talking about. And not only him, because he's such a great prospect. But it's unfair to ask guys to do things that, you know, come from -- AAs and the big leagues and just tear it up. It's a whole different ballgame.
He got some seasoning. Hopefully he'll improve obviously on that. But you've got to be careful because when you get like instructional league and the Minor Leagues and lower levels and that, they're getting out Chico Ramirez, not Manny Ramirez, you know? You've got to be a little careful with that, you know.

Q. I cover the Giants who picked up Edgar Renteria. The stats suggest he picked up his performance, at least hitting-wise, a little bit toward the end of the season. Is that what you saw?
JIM LEYLAND: He did. He got better the second half. I think he'll be a very good player for the Giants. Probably he didn't come in quite as prepared as he needed to. I think as the year went on, he realized that, and I think that will be taken care of, and I think he's back in the National League where he's more comfortable. He still actually did okay offensively. Didn't knock in quite as many big runs as he did in the past. But he's still capable of doing that.
But I think that the relationship with Dave and myself, having known him in the past and everything, I think maybe I didn't stay on top of him enough, maybe him coming in a little too casual. I kind of scold myself for that because I expected him to -- I think it kind of surprised him and snuck up on him. The longer you play and everything, sometimes the harder you've got to work to keep yourself in shape and everything.
I think he really started working hard during the season. It was probably a little too late to have a great season, but he did salvage some things, and obviously he's done very well this off-season, and we wish him the best. He's one of my favorites and he always will be, and I think he'll do much better probably over in the National League. He's been more comfortable there.

Q. Can I throw you a change-up, please? It's about the All-Star Game. You managed in '98 the All-Star Game.
JIM LEYLAND: Yeah, I was a coach there last year.

Q. But managing, when you managed it in '98, is it a joyful task, a pain in the ass task or somewhere in between?
JIM LEYLAND: It's a very nerve-wracking supposedly three days off, and I think there's a lot to be -- I really think -- I won't get into that all today, but I really think there's just some minor adjustments that could be made that could make that easy for everybody, and that's what it should be. I think the game should mean something. I think it's fine if they want it to mean something.
But I think you have to make some adjustments, number one being DH everywhere you go. Forget all that stuff about the National League. This is the All-Star Game. They don't care about seeing a pitcher hit, you don't have to double hit. To me that's simple.
There's just a couple little adjustments that you need to make to take care of that. I mean, I managed it, and I was a nervous wreck because the year I managed it it was at Coors Field. One thing as a manager, you don't want to have some really All-Star pitcher embarrassed in that ballpark at that time. I was really nervous about it.
Last year I was fortunate enough to coach, and it got hairy toward the end. They came down in the 11th and 12th inning or something and they said this game has got to be finished. That's fine, and it should be finished. I agree with that 100 percent. But all of a sudden you've got somebody else's pitcher out there, and you might have to -- you're panicking.
But I think it's something that could be really easily taken care of if you just sit down, take the time to, okay, what's the best scenario for this, do we have some reserves, DH all the time, maybe have some reserves or something, just whatever it may be, so it's not an embarrassing situation, because the fans deserve to see a full game. I agree with that 100 percent. I have no problem with that.

Q. Pardon me for not doing my homework. The game in Coors Field, did you play it to win or did you play it to get everybody in the game?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I've never played any game that I didn't want to win. But was I as intense about that game winning as I would be a regular season game? No. But the rule was not in effect at that time. I felt like this was the players' show. It's your baby, have fun with it.
I played everybody but one player, which I felt bad about, but I was worried about getting embarrassed. I didn't want to get embarrassed. And I played everybody, and I just said, do your thing. If you can get a jump, you want to run, run. You get a 3-0, you get the green light -- but it's a little bit different now.
So I did manage that game a couple years ago, and it was different. Believe me. I managed the game in San Francisco against Tony who had beaten us in the World Series, and I was managing my ass off. I mean, when I say that, I don't mean that I was good, but I was trying hard to win that game.

Q. Because you knew what was at stake?
JIM LEYLAND: What was at stake and everything, and yeah. But is it a fun game to manage, no, it's not. To be honest with you, no, it's not. It's an honor, but it's not necessarily fun. You're trying to get everybody in, you don't want to upset somebody from one of the teams, especially somebody in your division. You don't get their player in -- it's really not a fun game to manage, but like I said, it's a very high honor to manage that game. I hope I get to do it again. I've managed two of them. I'm 1-1. I'd like to manage another one.

End of FastScripts

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