|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ANGELS v YANKEESOctober 15, 2009Mike SciosciaNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Workout Day THE MODERATOR: Mike Scioscia is here. We will take a first question for him. Q. What about Mark Teixeira? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah, you know, Tex he's a special player. He's a guy that we had the second half of the season. A lot of talent. Obviously wanted to re-sign him. He's had an incredible year with the Yankees and our team is, not that we're better off, but we're a little deeper in some areas by not having to put resources into Mark. You know, we're going to have to obviously pitch very well to get through that lineup. They have a terrific offensive lineup and obviously Tex is right in the middle of it. Q. Mike, could you explain how your closer role evolved into a situation where it's not just Fuentes gets the last inning, that it's matchups and Jepsen has been involved, how that came about? MIKE SCIOSCIA: It came about with I think some more defined roles appearing in our bullpen, in particular Kevin Jepsen, who really showed a power arm as we went into August and September. And I think that it's helped us to get through sometimes not having to put too much on Brian, not having to put too much on some other guys in our bullpen. So there's some matchups that are late that are going to make it easier to get those last three or four or five outs. We've taken advantage of that. You're not going to be able to do it every night. You're not exactly going to be able to take advantage of it. When it's there where maybe Kevin had cleaned up the eighth inning with a handful of pitches, and there are some matchups leading off the ninth that are favorable to keep him out there, we started to do it and it was effective for us. Q. Mike, what would be the ideal schedule if tomorrow's game is rained out for the Angels? MIKE SCIOSCIA: The ideal schedule if tomorrow's game is rained out? Q. Yes. MIKE SCIOSCIA: I don't know if there is an ideal schedule. These playoffs just a template of them even if you have good weather is quite disjointed. And there's lot of time in between some games that, you know, I think historically has not been there. So, you know, best schedule is to keep it rolling and once you start playing, to keep playing. We'll see what we're confronted with. Right now I think our rotation has some nice depth to it. We want to get four guys out there to pitch in the series. Naturally, the quicker you can play those games is advantageous to us to keep going and keep playing with guys that will be rested. But, you know, we'll see. Q. How much did playing as a catcher prepare you for what you're doing now as a manager? And how much do you think it's shaped sort of your philosophy on managing? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, I don't think there's any real advantage to being a manager if you were a catcher, but certainly there's one thing you live as a catcher that other position players have to acquire, and that's the pitcher-catcher communication and how important that is. How important that is in effectively going out and pitching good ballgames and getting other hitters out and keeping your strengths of your pitcher out there on the field. It's something that we live from the first day we catch. And other guys that play the positions, if you talk to Dusty Baker or Lou Piniella or guys that are incredible managers that play other positions, they acquire this. But they have to go about it from a little different perspective than a catcher being right there for every pitch that you call during the ballgame. I don't really see it as any advantage. I think that as, like I said, if you're going to manage, you have to, or even coach, you have to acquire this ability to evaluate pitches to understand the pitcher-catcher relationship. How much that determines the outcome of a game. So I think it's just affecting myself or influence -- to give it importance at a very, very young age and applying yourself to trying to be good at it and now passing that on to maybe the next generation that comes about. Q. Mike, you've been managing against Derek Jeter for your entire managing career. What do you admire and appreciate most about him? MIKE SCIOSCIA: What is there not to like about Derek? You know, besides being very, very talented, which is obvious, there's an internal mechanism in him that you just don't see in very many players. He's a winner. This guy never takes a pitch off anywhere. I think that you're seeing a Hall-of-Famer. We're getting to see him up close, sometimes a little too close. We're playing against him this much. But, I don't know if you can, if you're going to start a franchise, you can go wrong if you would have picked Derek Jeter as your number one player 15 years ago. He's an incredible player. Q. Ability-wise not yet in long-time success, is Lackey in that class with Beckett and, say, a Carpenter or other people who are very, very upper-echelon postseason pitchers? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Absolutely. I think John has been a terrific in-season pitcher, also. He's pitched big games wherever they would show up, whether it's in a pennant race or whether it's in the playoffs. I think he has the stuff, he has the make-up to go out there and make his pitches. Sometimes a pitcher might get a little too amped up in the playoffs and all of a sudden they're trying to do too much. Some guys maybe just can't get their game on to the field. John has shown the ability that I think every pitcher that you want to pitch in games going forward, whether it's a playoff or in a pennant race. He has that ability to bring his game on to the field. And you talk about Beckett, you talk about some of the great pitchers that have pitched in the playoffs, John is right there with them. Q. Mike, historically the Angels have given the Yankees a really hard time since you've been here, and I think since Terry Collins was here. What is it about this matchup that gives you guys maybe not an advantage but makes life so difficult on the Yankees when they play against you? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I can't speak before 2000 when we came on board. It's been anything but easy for us. They've been an incredible team. It's been a team that's been incredible for this whole decade. They've turned over with some people and they continue to be a team that's incredibly deep and incredibly talented. At times maybe some individual matchups that have helped us along the way. At times there's been matchups for those guys and they've taken it to us. So I don't know if there's any rhyme or reason for it. I don't think there's been any dominance. It's been good ballclubs that we've had playing against their ballclub. And we've held our own. But you can take all that and throw it out, where right now it's a different environment. Different series. We know we have our work cut out for us, what we have to do to hopefully come out on top. Q. Joe Girardi is finishing his third year as a Big League manager. What kinds of things does a manager learn and where does he get better after that period of time on the job? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I'm still waiting to get better. You keep hoping that something is going to click in. I keep making the same mistakes. You don't know. Just from my experience, I just know that the decision-making process becomes much cleaner as you move on, as you get some experience. Takes lot of input that we have. There's an incredible amount of input that comes in that can help you win a game. And you have to really focus on what's going to be important and what's really going to help you, that you can give the players to help them. And like I said, that process becomes cleaner as you get experience, as your coaches understand the input you need. As everything starts to work from your preparation to when the game starts. I just found that to be the case of what's happened with us with the Angels. And I'm sure it's probably similar to what Joe is going through now with his coaching staff. I know he's got a lot of guys there that have great baseball minds. I'm sure they have some terrific baseball discussions as we have. You have to understand what is going to influence your decisions and as you make those decisions they will become cleaner. Q. Mike, there are a lot of teams, I think yours included, that have always looked to the Yankees as a way to measure yourselves and you talk about how much you respect that organization, the team. What does it mean to you when you hear Yankee players talk about how much they respect you and what you've done with your organization over the last ten years? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, the Yankees are obviously an organization that is deep in tradition for good reason. They've done things right. The support they get here from their fans is incredible. They use their resources to go out there and put together the best team that they can year in and year out. And I think everybody respects their ability and respects what they do. But going beyond that, they're an organization with players that have as much class as anybody we've seen. Talk about Derek Jeter. You talk about Mark Teixeira and guys that have played here. They have the respect of everyone in our clubhouse for sure. And I think if you talk about measuring yourself, I don't know if you're ever going to be able to measure yourself against an organization like the Yankees. It might take a century before you would get there. But I think our guys feel good at the way they go about their business, the way that they play the game hard. The way that they push the game and the way they bring every aspect to baseball which makes this game beautiful on to the field. If that's recognized by a group of guys who have done it as long and as well as the Yankees have, that's a terrific compliment. But we're still going to try to beat them. Q. Mike, you guys have a very aggressive team. I think you ran more than all but one team in baseball this year. Will the possible bad weather negatively affect your team more than the Yankees? MIKE SCIOSCIA: You know, I think in the past we have been much more dependent on what we've created on the bases than I think we did this year. We had a really good season running the bases. We really did. I don't think our offense was as dependent on what we did on the basepaths this year as it had been in previous years for us to reach our goals. Our batter's box offense this year was much better. Our situational hitting was much better. We didn't drive the ball as well as the Yankees did, but we certainly scored on par with them. So if it slows down our running game, I think we have some things that we can still do. I think something you don't talk about is how much the running game has been part of what the Yankees do, too. Whether it's looking for that opportunity to steal a base or running the bases going from first to third. Those guys do it right. So it's going to take a little bit away from what they might be able to do. Obviously, they still drive the ball in the batter's box better than anybody in our league as far as hitting the ball out of the park. But I don't think just slowing the running game is going to affect us as much with our team the way we have it right now as it might have in the previous couple of seasons. Q. You know, obviously you lose K-Rod in the offseason, and you have to kind of rebuild the bullpen. You did some of that with acquisitions, but you did some of that with defining roles. Can you talk about the job your bullpen has done in really putting you in the final four here? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah, I think our bullpen really started to have its roles defined as our rotation got settled this season as the season moved on. Especially when we acquired Scott Kazmir and we all of a sudden had five guys that were going out there and routinely pitching deep into the games and giving us a chance to win. Those bullpen roles became very well defined. And you saw guys like Darren Oliver, Kevin Jepsen, Jason Bulger, leading up to Brian Fuentes, and it became a very effective bullpen, as we started to move on through the season. So early on we were obviously searching for some things in our whole pitching staff, whether it was the starting rotation or some things in the bullpen. Some guys like Kevin Jepsen spent some time in the Minor Leagues this year. Some guys like Darren Oliver started a game for us. There were a lot of things that floated around that finally got settled when our rotation really got healthy and we acquired Scott Kazmir, and had the depth that we needed to go out there every day and they kind of piggybacked that. Q. Mike, I just want to expand on questions asked to you earlier about managing in the playoffs, you said that over time your decision-making process became clearer. In your memory what kind of mistakes does a first-year playoff manager more likely to make? And does the pressure of the playoff baseball cloud your decision-making in some way? MIKE SCIOSCIA: No, I don't think it is. Stuff happens very quickly in the playoffs. And I think that I wouldn't even categorize it as a first-year manager or second-year manager making a mistake, because there's nobody that should know your team better than you do. So as you're making moves, there's obvious input that you have that says common sense-wise this is going to help us to win and give us a the best opportunity to win. Sometimes the media disagrees with you. And sometimes fans disagree with you. But as far as the manager, you should know your team better than anybody else. And I guarantee that there's nobody on this planet that knows the Yankees better than Joe Girardi. And a lot of first-year managers that have gone into playoff situations, I think to get there you have to have the confidence and the understanding of your team to put guys into the position to achieve and get the matchups on your side as best as you can. And I think that's what it's about. So maybe we look at it a little differently than the media does or fans do, but I just found that to be my experience. Q. Mike, could you quantify the impact Abreu has had in terms of his own contributions and it seems like there's residual effect on some of the other guys. MIKE SCIOSCIA: I thought you were going to ask me about Kazmir again. Q. In a couple of days. MIKE SCIOSCIA: Okay. Bobby Abreu I think from afar when you're in the opposing dugout and you look at him, you can see the talent and you have to respect the talent. We certainly did for the years that he was with the Yankees and we were in the other dugout. When he comes into your clubhouse, into your meetings, into your practice sessions, on the practice field, there aren't many guys that have matched his passion for playing the game I've been around and his knowledge of the game. Bobby loves baseball. And he's an incredible student of the game. And I think that that internal mechanism he has to compete is alive and well. And I think that's why he's such a tough out in the batter's box. I think that's why he plays at such a high level, and will probably play for a number of years at a high level because of how much he uses his experience to make things a little bit easier out there. He's been incredible for us this season. Q. Mike, what does Torii Hunter's leadership mean to you guys? Have you ever been around a guy who seems to have as much fun as he does playing baseball? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah, there's a number of guys that play baseball that just play free and have fun. And Torii, he's at the top of the list. He loves to play the game. And besides leading by example, which you hear a lot about players which Torii certainly does, he's the guy that can go over to anybody in that clubhouse and just say, "Hey, turn the page, man. You're going to do better or we can do better. We'll get this thing done. Let's keep going." I think if you're blessed to have one guy in your clubhouse that can do that, you have strong leadership on your club. We're fortunate we have a number of guys that can do that. But Torii is leading the charge. He's in the dugout. Whether it's just telling guys, "Keep having good at-bats, good things are going to happen." at meetings, like we said or in the clubhouse. He has one thing on his mind, going out there and beating the other team. That's why he's a great fit for our club or any club. He's a great fit for our club. He's been important to bringing a lot of our younger players through sometimes where there have been some rough edges. Howie Kendrick is a great example of this. Howie was in the Minor Leagues also this year just trying to find his swing again. And Torii was his mentor. He called him every day when he was down in the Minor Leagues just wanting to know how he was doing and what he's working on. He came back after about three or four weeks and has been on fire. So that's what Torii brings. He cares. He cares about winning. Q. Mike, given the way the starting pitching is set up for each team, would a rainout in Game 1 or 2 benefit one team more than the other? MIKE SCIOSCIA: We talked about that we have a deep group of guys that we could line up, we feel, in any order that are really guys that would accept the challenge of pitching against a tough club and pitch well. I think that our depth and our rotation is probably overall a little deep are than what the Yankees have right now. But they've got three guys that are as good as anybody in our league that you know looks like we're going to face right now. I think it matters when rainouts happen. You know, if there's going to be a rainout that's going to give the guys an extra rest and having to come back a little early, obviously that would give them an advantage. A rainout after day one depends on how the rest of the series unfolds as to when the game is going to be played. I think there's a lot of scenarios we can talk about. But I would think if there is going to be a rainout in this series, it's going to really hinge on when it happens and maybe it helps if they were going to bring a guy back on short rest. Maybe he comes back on normal rest. Things like that. So it's tough to see how it will play out right now. But we're going to go with our four guys Games 1 through 4 for sure. And if that takes ten days to do it, like we said -- maybe we're going to face CC seven times this series. I don't know. It depends on how much rain we get. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Mike. 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
|