|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC POOL TWO: MIAMIMarch 15, 2009Davey JohnsonMIAMI, FLORIDA Q. Talk about your thoughts on the game last night. DAVEY JOHNSON: Well, I mean, any time your starting pitcher, especially this time of year, is a little bit under the weather, struggling a little bit -- he was up a lot. The last time he pitched he was getting under his slider, which he was dropping a little bit. Tried to get something going, just didn't have enough regular work, and then he got sick in between. Probably normally at this time of year if that happened, you probably would have bumped him from pitching. But you've got four starters and I don't have that luxury. Q. He was the only other starter who was even eligible, right? DAVEY JOHNSON: Yeah, you've got them on a throwing schedule and you're hopeful that he's going to be all right, and if he's not, you're not managing that. You have it set that he's going to go and going to get his work. Even if it wasn't good work, he threw 50 pitches or something like that. Q. As the manager of a tournament you're supposed to be trying to win, when you're managing almost like under spring-training-like conditions -- DAVEY JOHNSON: Well, obviously countries in the southern hemisphere have winter ball. These guys are tuned up and getting ready for this event more so than we do here. Same way in Japan, their spring training starts in January sometime. You know, there's a lot of off-days in between; that creates problems as far as managing. Most pitchers are creatures of habit and they like to do things on a certain schedule and don't like it interrupted or changed. Unfortunately with travel and that kind of thing, it's hard to give them exactly what they can deal with to be successful. All of them wanted to represent their country, and in talking to Jake, he feels bad that he didn't have much. To me as long as he got a little work in, he'll be fine. Q. That's fine because it's just the way it has to be? DAVEY JOHNSON: Yeah, you know, it's double elimination. I've got Oswalt, Lilly and Guthrie. Hopefully they'll all get their second outing. I mean, I've coached in Olympic qualifiers and the Olympics, and one game could be critical and you could be gone. I mean, this has been a great career for me. I have not even been close to feeling like I've got to have a team meeting and tell them this is a big one. They all understand they're playing for the USA, and they have pride. So hopefully we'll win this game and be able to proceed and have another big game. Still basically we've got to win two games. It's kind of nice for Venezuela. Even though they didn't need it, they got an extra game in Toronto, and that helps everybody. Us being successful the first two games didn't really help us because we had two off games, then played a meaningless game really, and then have two more off-days, and now we go again. So maybe there's a few things in the scheduling and the format, but we'll finally get it, whether we get it this year or four years from now remains to be seen. Q. How do you think the tournament has resonated with baseball fans? DAVEY JOHNSON: Well, I think that it's probably going to be slower here than anywhere else. We've been playing baseball here longer than anywhere else. People really identify with their teams, whereas in the countries the stars come back from the majors, Venezuela or Panama, anywhere, to the fans they're like national heroes. I know I've taken All-Star teams over to Japan and played there, All-Star teams, the Tokyo Giants, and their program has really grown in Japan and in Korea and in Taiwan and all those countries. They really love their baseball. More and more kids are playing it, and the quality of player coming out of there, there's more and more of. I remember when I was one of those that went over there, and none of them came this way. Now I would say there's as many coming this way as there are going over there. That tells you that they're playing around the globe. And the Netherlands have always kind of been like the Yankees of Europe. They've competed at times with Italy for the No. 1 program over there, but by and large, I think it's grown in popularity more in the Netherlands. And really one of the reasons I think is guys like "Bam-Bam" Meulens and Robert Eenhoorn. Robert Eenhoorn as you know is the head of the federation over there, and he's an excellent coach and organizer, and he was telling me I think a couple days ago that they have six leagues over there. I've seen Curaçao in the league World Series, so you know they've got some good young players coming along. I'm talking about Curaçao now, I'm not talking about Venezuela and Dominican, and everybody knows how many great players come out of there. We just can't throw our gloves out there and expect to dominate like we used to. Q. A few of the countries play winter ball and have their teams playing together a few weeks before the WBC. Do you think for the United States you could ever get the guys to come in a few weeks ahead of time? DAVEY JOHNSON: I've always thought spring training was too long. I mean, I've been looking at games and watching it, and I always felt it was a time -- that the record that you had in the spring was indicative of your promise. The teams that really do well use spring training as a chance to really give a younger player a chance to face some big league pitchers, give young pitchers a chance to face some big league hitters. By and large there used to be four players off the regular roster. I have a hard time sometimes when I look at my roster seeing four players. Big league managers are looking at it the same way I did way back then, as a team to see the young talent, give them some experience. The guys are on their own program. I mean, they can advance their B games. A lot of times the good players would rather just stay home and play. This event with all the stars playing in early March, that's something they've probably never done. It's way out of their realm of preparing for April, early April. Q. Do you think if they said the next time, okay, the guys who want to play for the U.S. team, we'll get you together, whether it's February 1st or whatever, and get going earlier, do you think players would be receptive to that? DAVEY JOHNSON: Well, I think they might. I mean, I think a lot of players were getting ready. But as far as game conditions, you know, playing games, that's tough. I just think it's going to take time. There's a few little kinks that need to be worked out from the personnel side, but we'll get it. We'll get it. I think it's a great event. And it'll grow in popularity. Q. You said kinks to work out. What would you like to see changed? DAVEY JOHNSON: Well, I mean, obviously nobody likes a lot of off-days. I think it was really -- I saw the Japanese and Korean teams played two more spring games. I couldn't even send a player to another college and have him play in a game because of insurance. There's some inadequacies. I know there's the travel day and they have to recover, give them a couple days. But like I say, we had four off-days leading up to yesterday. I think that's just tough this time of year, or if you play any game. Q. In terms of personnel, getting pitchers to come because of fears from their club? DAVEY JOHNSON: Well, I think you have that. Again, I think a lot of the pitchers are so used to having a schedule every day from early spring or early February all the way through April to build their strength, I mean, a lot of guys -- big league guys, I mean, I didn't even -- now you're in competition, you need to be throwing a breaking ball. A lot of guys didn't even think about a breaking ball until the latter part of March. Of course in Japan they love to practice, and I'm sure that's why they've been so together. And of course down south those guys play starting in January. So it's a little different format up here. Q. Considering what you're saying about how it's been a little slower in the U.S. to sort of build that enthusiasm, if this team was to lose before getting to the next round, how do you think that would be viewed in this country? DAVEY JOHNSON: You know, that's a good question. I don't know. You guys are the ones with the pulse on that. You know, I think the fans, big league fans, have a lot of pride and want to see us do well, no more so than the guys on this ballclub. Certainly the effort is there. You know, in talking to Chipper and some of the guys, their long ball stroke is not going to come around until the latter part of March, and most of them are just getting their timing and building up some strength. The same way with power pitchers; they don't usually come around until the last part of March. Just kind of trying to not get ready too early, kind of want to peak right around opening day or be real close. That's why the last time our pitchers, if they can go 100 pitches they're pretty much ready. In this format we start them at 75, and most of them couldn't go but about 60. Q. Telling the fans that your players are going to aim to be good opening day, which is the way everyone does, how do you avoid this tournament feeling to people here just like other spring training games rather than actual competition? DAVEY JOHNSON: That's a good question. I mean, it's conceivable if you won every game you could have nine off-days. And I know some players two or three years ago complained in six games they only got five at-bats. From a managerial standpoint those are the questions that -- I want all 28 guys to have enjoyed this experience and felt like they've got a lot out of it and prepare them to start the season. You know, this isn't opening day for them, so they're giving it all they've got. Q. But as a fan people who are asked to pay $60 for a ticket or to turn it on when there's a basketball game on another channel and your game is on whenever, and you're saying you're going to watch it if it's a high level tournament, but if I feel like it's just another game in Fort Myers, am I going to -- DAVEY JOHNSON: Well, the three games we played in Toronto were outstanding games. Us against Canada, that was a good game. It was a good game for five innings against Venezuela until we blew them out, and then it was a good final game. But our starting pitcher got us a little behind. I think it's a little too early to judge because as this thing goes on, everybody is going to be more in condition. I think the caliber of play is going to get better. Again, the only thing I wish is that there weren't so many off-days. That's the thing that bothers me. Q. If this was a regular season game do you think you would have taken Jake out earlier? DAVEY JOHNSON: Throwing like he was throwing, yeah. But I would have had a sixth starter or a fifth starter because you only need four in the postseason. So I would have had several guys that I could have gone to. I mean, it wasn't so long ago I had David Cone pitching against LA and I think I hooked him in the second inning. Q. Is it difficult to get the message across to the players that this is not an exhibition game, and then you start to make moves where you're thinking of more of the individual than the team? DAVEY JOHNSON: Well, I'll give you an example to that: We have a setup where I've got two good catchers that I'm alternating because at this time of the year I wouldn't want them to go back-to-back nine innings. I looked at some stats on the closing pitcher and saw the guy that hammered him to death was McCann. He hit a home run and was 3-for-6. I told him, I'm sticking with my game plan. I said, "If this was a World Series, I'd probably DH you and catch two catchers." But then I'm short-changing some other guys. Q. Do the players feel like it's an exhibition, though? DAVEY JOHNSON: No. I mean, I would have managed just like Oquendo managed yesterday. I would have put a lefty in to face McCann, get him out, make another change. He's got a six-run lead. I would have managed just like that. It's all about match-ups. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|