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AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS v RAYSOctober 6, 2010Joe MaddonTAMPA, FLORIDA: Game One Q. Can you tell us who is on your roster? JOE MADDON: Sure. Well, let's see, the lineup today is going to be Bartlett, Upton, Crawford, Longoria, Peña, Baldelli, Zobrist, Shoppach and Rodriguez. Rock will be in the DH. Everybody else you pretty much know their positions. The bench today then would be, let's see, we've got the Js: Joyce, Jaso, Johnson, Brignac and Jennings. Among that group right there, Willy Aybar was the guy that we left out for today. Among the pitchers, Choate is the only left-hander, and then let's see where the pitchers listed here. Balfour, Benoit, Niemann, Qualls, Soriano and Wheeler would be in the bullpen. And you guys know who the starters are. Is that coming together, make sense right there? We're all good? Q. What went into the final decision between Aybar and Jennings? Was it just pure speed? JOE MADDON: You're right. I mean, a lot of it had -- we were just trying to figure out -- that's what took a long time last night was trying to figure out -- you go in your mind's eye how the game is going to play out, who you're going to use more often. So with that we just figured as the five game series unfolds here possibly that there's more potential to use DJ as opposed to Willy. Having said that, after the fifth game we'll find out if we made the right choice or not. Willy is so good off of our bench, a switch-hitter. As a pinch-hitter he's very, very valuable there. Even to start him against a left-handed pitcher, he's got great value there, too. Furthermore, Willy is just a big part of our fabric. He's one of the guys when he's not playing, he's very beneficial to everybody else because he's always involved in the game. He's a big part of what we do here. That was a difficult decision. Last night we were vacillating a bit. A big part of that -- and I wanted to use "vacillating" again specifically because I used it several times the other day in Kansas City. It was coming down to Jennings versus Aybar, and that was a big part of our discussion. Q. When Rocco first came back, did you envision him being on your opening day lineup for the playoffs, and what did you see from him since he's been back? JOE MADDON: Well, when Rocco came back, we did that with the intent that it was possible. We didn't know that it would happen but we thought it would be possible. When he went back and began playing in the Minor Leagues, the game was rather quick for him. I think he would tell you that himself. But he started down pretty quickly and then did relatively well in his Minor League at-bats, came up and with us has done a pretty nice job against the left-handers specifically. The other day he had a pinch-hit against Hughes, later in the game stole second base in Kansas City and scored that winning run. The big thing that I'm seeing with Rocco right now that I like is how he's taking pitches. He hasn't been jumpy. He's seeing the ball better or well, and he's got enormous power. Hit a pinch-hit home run versus I think it was González in Baltimore earlier this month. Just looks good at the plate right now, and again, this guy if we can find some kind of help for him in the future to get him back playing on a more consistent basis -- and one of the more talented players I've been around, period, anywhere. We feel pretty good about him right now, and again, he looks really good at the plate, I think. Q. I know Peña has had his share of struggles this season. What are you expecting to see from him? JOE MADDON: Well, the big thing with Carlos, he could, as they say, go off at any time. There was a pretty big hit he had the other day against Soria and I think that did something for his confidence. He had a big home run at home against Baltimore. With Carlos, again, power hitters like him tend to be streaky. You're in a situation like this right now where we're beginning a new season, and I'd like for him to think that there are no numbers attached to his name, that he's going to come out and start playing and have a nice second season this year. And then beyond that obviously Carlos is really important to us defensively. But from an offensive perspective, he looked better, I thought. Even not getting hits the last couple games, I thought he looked a lot better regarding his timing at the plate, swinging at better pitches and taking the balls, those kind of things. Again, with a guy like him, man, anything can happen on any swing. I like him in the five hole against Lee. He's had some success versus him historically hitting some home runs, and we'll see how that all shakes out. Q. Can you talk about Shields and what his keys for success tomorrow are? JOE MADDON: You know, with a lot of our young pitchers and Shieldsy is one of our younger pitchers, the big thing with James to me is to stay in his delivery and make pitches with his fastball. When Shieldsy is able to locate well with his fastball, everything else works off of that and of course you can say that about almost any pitcher. But with him particularly, when he's really dotting down and away both to righties and lefties, fastball, and then he works a very, very good change-up off of it, and I'll say it again, I love his curveball, when he's got all those things going on, he's a pretty good pitcher. You know, with Shieldsy for those that are really into numbers, look into more of the deeper numbers regarding his performance this year, and he's actually done a lot of good stuff, too. The innings, hits, per innings pitched and the homers really stand out, but beyond that he's done a lot of really good work underneath the surface. So I really -- just like I described Carlos you could talk the same way about James. If James gets off well tomorrow, which I think he will, this guy is capable of pitching a really good ballgame and getting us into the latter part of our bullpen. Q. Do you anticipate the Rangers testing Longoria testing his injury early at third base? JOE MADDON: Let's say. Andrus is a very good runner and he bunts well to the third business side. That's a possibility. Michael Young may, but I know he's not normally one to bunt. I'd say I haven't seen it in the lineup yet, Borbon should not be in it versus a left-hander, Price, so their bunters -- Cruz will bunt on occasion, probably five or six times all season. He'll go to both sides. So I guess what I'm saying is based on their lineup, which I haven't seen yet, they have several bunters, and again, probably their best bunter would not be starting I don't think versus Price. You may see some of that, but I'm here to tell you I think Longo will suck it up and make a nice run of it. He throws on the run as well as any infield I've ever seen. I call him the Joe Montana of third basemen. I mean, this guy actually would prefer -- just like Beltre doesn't want to be moving when he throws, Longo wants to be moving when he throws, and that's why he's so good at that play. Q. The fact that we beat Cliff Lee three times this year, last time we got him late here, what kind of confidence does that give us to face him? JOE MADDON: Yeah, I mean, a guy like Cliff Lee we have done relatively well. Again, I compared it to the situation versus Roy Halladay several years ago. I think we beat him four times in a season. To beat pitchers like Cliff Lee and Halladay and all these really good, high-end pitchers you've got to pitch well yourself. When you're facing a guy like Lee, it's very important that David Price pitches his game today, otherwise you pretty much have no chance. So to beat really high-end pitchers like Lee, you have to pitch well yourself, and that's what I'm looking forward to today. Also, you've got to play your defense, and furthermore, when you have a chance to score runs, you've got to score, meaning that run around third base, less than two outs, you gots to figure out a way to get that guy in from third base somehow because those are the opportunities that could really make a difference in the game like today. Q. In 2008, you told us when you were driving across the bridge you had The Stones cranking most every morning before playoff game, but this year we heard a lot of southern rock coming out of your office blasting? JOE MADDON: Why is that? Q. Because it's great. JOE MADDON: I'm trying to figure out why I did that. Q. Will you stick with tradition and go with The Stones or will you play the -- JOE MADDON: The Stones were there today. We started with Start Me Up today. I had to go back to it. I walked in -- I had actually mixed emotions when I walked in, which I don't have, but nevertheless walked in there and they switched right over to Start Me Up. Yeah, I went back to the roots. We went back to The Stones today, although I was really toying with the icon that was The Outlaws icon. I was really toying with that. I may want to go back in the office and switch it up. Q. When Niemann struck out the side in Kansas City, did that sort of ice it right then that this was where you thought he could play a role? JOE MADDON: Yeah, you're right, we pretty much thought that he would be that guy anyway, but it was really nice to see that. A couple years ago we had him coming out of the 'pen and I think it was versus Minnesota here and he really showed well at that point. The thing he did the other day, he really had a really good breaking ball, good command of it, really a power kind of a breaking ball. It probably reinforced the thought more than iced it. The game stretched out to the point where we could get him into the game, also. That was part of it, too. Prior to the game I wanted to try to get him in somehow but the game played out in the way that it did, and then all of a sudden we're in extra innings and it was a perfect Jeff slot. He did a wonderful job. End of FastScripts |
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