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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ANGELS v YANKEESOctober 20, 2009Mike SciosciaLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Four THE MODERATOR: Questions for Mike Scioscia. Q. I'm sure you heard the University of Connecticut football team lost one of its players over the weekend. I was wondering if you could, from your experiences, talk about what a coach or a manager can do to help his team get through that process? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, one of our good friends is on that team as a quarterback and knew the kid well. It's something that is surreal when you're going through it. But, again, our perspective is it's about a family losing a son. As we've supported Nick's family through this, it's given us a little sense of peace. There is no manual at handling things like this. And it's obviously a tragedy that goes far beyond anything we do in playing this game. Q. Kendrick is batting over .400 against the Yankees. I was wondering, is there any reason you can point to why he's so successful against them, and can you talk about his surge after being sent down? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah, Howie is a guy that has an incredible high ceiling as far as the offensive player he can be. He's shown some glimpses of it. I think earlier in the season he put a lot of pressure on himself to be everything and do everything he could -- that he has the capabilities to do in every game. That's a little unrealistic what his expectations were, and it started to make him press. Going down I think it took a little air out of him. He just relaxed. Got back into the rhythm he had in spring training, and he killed the ball. And did very, very well when he came back. As far as hitting one team, there are going to be some guys that just feel comfortable in an opposing ballpark or with an opposing set of pitchers that they see the ball really well. Howie's hit a lot of teams. It's a small sample size I think when you're probably talking about it right now. If this goes on for three, four, five years, you know, it might be something to talk about. But right now it's a small sample size to make too much out of it. Q. Is that quarterback a friend of your son's? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Friend of the family, yeah. We were his sister -- we're her godparents. We've known the family, the McEntee's for almost 30 years, so it's tough for them to go through that. Q. They seem to be controlling your base-stealing game, like they've got a lot of left-handed pitchers. Is it just that or what else is involved in that? MIKE SCIOSCIA: They're doing a terrific job. They have two catchers that do throw the ball well, and if you give them -- if time is on their side, they're going to throw guys out. So you can't force the action with Posada or Jose Molina. So you have to kind of pick your spots. I think our running game is more than just a stolen base. If they can control our stolen base, obviously, it's a big part. We have to control their stolen base also. Those guys will take it if the opportunity's there. But as far as the base running aspect of it, we have to be aggressive. We had a couple of ugly outs yesterday. But that's part of just a by product of staying aggressive, and we'll continue to do that. So, yeah, the stolen bases we're certainly going to have to pick our spots. They're doing a good job of containing a lot of the things in that aspect. But if they're controlling the stolen base, we have to be aggressive in every other aspect of base running. Q. Obviously, there are a lot of current managers who are former catchers as is the case for both teams in this series. Can you shed some light on your experiences as a catcher, how they reflect on you as a manager? And whether there is something that catchers see that maybe other players don't? MIKE SCIOSCIA: If you think about it, there are more managers out there that weren't catchers than were catchers. But I know the most important thing that I feel happens on the baseball field is that pitcher-catcher relationship, and what happens on that mound. As a catcher, if it's what you did in your career, you live that every day. You live it every pitch. It's something that's embedded in you. Managers that aren't catchers obviously acquire that ability. If they're going to have the success like Dusty Baker or Lou Piniella, or guys that are terrific managers that weren't catchers, you know, they acquire that ability and move forward with it. If you talk about pitching theory with Dusty or Lou, these guys are as sharp as anybody on the planet. So I don't think it's any edge. It's something we've lived with, but it's nothing that other managers don't acquire if they're going to have success on it. It's just the most important thing that happens in the baseball game is that what happens on that mound, and the relationship that the catcher has to bring in with that pitcher to help him make pitches. Q. Teixeira's obviously had a pretty big impact defensively out there. You saw him here last year and with the Rangers all those years. What do you think impacted him defensively? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Tex is a baseball player. He's more than just a guy in the batter's box that can do, obviously, with his numbers show he can do. I think when he's struggling at the plate, you know. He's one of the players in this league that's not going to take a pitch off defensively. He's going to be in every game because it's two separate -- two separate parts of what he brings. I can't tell you how impressed we were just seeing him up close in the couple months we had him last year. Just how hard he works on his defense. How much pride he takes in it, and the difference maker he is. In a position where it's probably a little tougher to be a difference maker than if you play shortstop, centerfield, catch, second base. But he certainly is. And he takes pride and works harder, and he's obviously had a major impact on a lot of situations that have already happened in just the three games we've played them on the defensive side. Q. When you get to the postseason, do you have the same general philosophy on your bullpen? Or do you change it? What is basically your game plan with the bullpen in the post? MIKE SCIOSCIA: It changes, I think things are going to happen more quickly. There are going to be times when you're going to have to maybe go for match-ups earlier, depending on where the series is. Where the game is, where your off day's going to lie. What you're able to do what the ability is. But still keeping a little more of a big picture in mind. You have to really play this to win four games. When you win them doesn't matter, but, obviously, there is momentum in a series. You want to keep it. When you have an opportunity to win the game, it's important to have guys that can go out there and get it done. So I think it's the roles might -- you know, like if a guy's a closer are in the season, he's going to be your closer in the playoffs. But what his ability is and where he's used might be changed especially getting to him. So one role might be expanded if need be. You know, I think we're seeing it from both teams. I don't think Mariano's thrown two plus, two and a third, maybe he has during the season. I don't know if he did. But he went two-plus the other night. We've had our guys go two innings like they've done in the season. But those regular season games, you know, I definitely do think you handle things maybe with a little more flexibility than you would during the season when really the big picture is really mindful. The big picture is much smaller in a series like this. Q. There's a short snippet in the broadcast that's been sort of circulating around different websites and different media sites of yesterday's game that shows Mariano Rivera either spitting on the ball or not spitting on the ball, but it was enough of something so that Major League Baseball felt that they needed to issue a statement saying that nothing was definitive from the stills that they saw. Can you speak to whether your players or former teammates or baseball people that you come into contact with have ever suggested that maybe something like that goes on with Mariano? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Not at all. This is the first I'm hearing about this. I didn't even know that there was any indication that it's been looked at. Never. There are certainly some guys that might be suspect, never Mariano with anything that I've heard or been part of. And I'd be shocked if there was anything to that. Q. When a guy like Vladimir has put up such huge numbers and then gets to a point in his career where maybe the numbers aren't what they used to be. We hear a lot about what he can't do anymore. What can he still do in a lineup and how intimidating a presence is he still? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think that's a great question. I think a lot of times a lot of focus on what the shortcomings are of players whether you're 23 years old or 33 years old, whatever the case might be. We look at it in the aspect of what a player is capable of doing. What is a realistic expectation he can bring in a situation. And Vladimir still brings a presence that is extremely important to our lineup. And I think he showed it yesterday. Q. Yesterday when Izturis hit for Napoli, do you believe you could have left him in the game to play second for Howie and made a double switch there, why did you keep Howie in the game there? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, I think first thing is Howie is a guy that is swinging the bat extremely well right now, and we have a lot of confidence on the defensive side that he'll get the job done at second base. With the situation where it was, where we really wanted to slot our catcher in the lineup, we wanted to keep Howie's bat and his presence in the lineup. Q. Has his defense progressed to the point that would that have been a move you made a couple of years ago with him defensively? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Howie's never been a guy that's come up and we've made defensive substitutions with. Because when he got here he's been playing at a high enough level at second base that he's got good range in terms. He turns the double-play well. He's played at a level where he gets it done. Izturis is a guy that has a little more experience. Maybe a tad more range. But we have confidence in Howie. He plays that position and plays it well enough that we haven't had to explore defensive substitutions for him. Q. I'm from the Philadelphia area, I know you're from Springfield? MIKE SCIOSCIA: All right, we're doing cheese steaks then. You think I'm kidding. Really, I'm not. Q. We'll talk. First of all, I know you're pretty busy right now. But are you following at all what the Phillies are doing? Do you have relatives there that still follow them? MIKE SCIOSCIA: When we went back to play there last summer, and it's an incredible environment that's going on in that city right now around this ballclub. But I can guarantee you there's way too much on our plates right now to even follow that series outside of a passing notice of what maybe -- how or what the games are. But we have, obviously, we have scouts following them. Hopefully it's going to be a meeting we'll have here in five or six days to worry about those guys. But not at all. No. Q. You mentioned earlier you thought maybe Howie's presence earlier in the year. I was wondering, did he change anything mechanically or was it a matter of getting his confidence up to produce? MIKE SCIOSCIA: There were maybe some slight mechanical adjustments in his stance, but nothing like he reworked anything he was doing. I think he just got in the comfort level of trusting. Getting counts maybe a little bit deeper. Maybe understanding what pitchers were trying to do. He came back and he was terrific. Q. With the proliferation of cameras and their increased capability and YouTube allowing fans to rewind things over and over, how does that affect how you might just behave in the dugout or on the field? Or might affect a play or anything that people don't want to see? MIKE SCIOSCIA: You need to play this game, and you need to manage like nobody's watching. That's the philosophy I have. Hey, you know, we're out here. We want to focus on what needs to be done to win a ballgame. Nobody's watching you. Let's go out there and play the game and play it the way it should be played. Manage the game and run the game like it should be if nobody's watching. I will tell you the camera does tend to put a little more weight on you (laughing). My wife said, you know, I know the camera angles can put on ten pounds. She said you must have five cameras on you (smiling). You guys don't get that one? Anyway, I don't know what you're alluding to, but we're not playing this game for the camera. We're not playing this game for anything but going out there and trying to win it. So our actions are going to be the same they are in spring training games, same they are in inner squad game. We're going to try to go out there and make sure we're playing at the right level. Q. One specific thing I've noticed over the years is players when they're talking on the mound they'll cover up their mouth with the glove. It's like are they afraid that somebody back home is going to be lip reading and relaying the information? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah, I think that's something that I think has happened probably before cameras. There are times when you'll zero in on a conversation that maybe an opposing pitcher is having with his catcher. I just know when I was a player you could do it. You might just pick up something. Looked like he said second sign. There are going to be things that you can pick up doing that. That's probably something that's been going on in baseball a little more. Probably had to happen more with camera angles and scouting and things like that, but that might have changed some of that. Q. About Guerrero, it seems like both during the Division Series and in this series there have been a number of times that you've been asked about, you know, staying with him or keeping him in that position in the batting order. Is he the kind of guy who, when things start rolling that he gets on a tear? Is that part of what went into your wanting to keep him right where he is? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, Vlad, his history is he's had some 200 at-bats maybe samples where he hasn't swung the bat well. But he's been both very, very dynamic and consistent through his whole career. He absolutely has the ability when he gets hot to carry a team. We're not asking him to do that. If it happens, great. But we're not expecting that. But we are expecting him to be the presence in the middle of the lineup, and get some of the big hits he's gotten for us over this last week or so. Certainly in Boston, in Game 3 in that series, that was a huge hit. Yesterday's hit was huge. Drove the ball off of CC in Game 1 that the wind brought back, would have been a home run in New York. There's been some real good signs that he's getting more comfortable in the box. If that happens, that's very, very important to us. It looks like he's getting there. End of FastScripts |
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