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AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS v RAYSOctober 6, 2010C.J. WilsonTAMPA, FLORIDA: Game One Q. What worked so well for you in August and didn't work quite so well in September? C.J. WILSON: I would say mostly it's just the walks. I had a couple walks and stuff that ran up my pitch count early in September and kind of skewed the numbers a little bit. I think when you have a short start like three innings or whatever, it kind of makes things look worse than it really is. I would say when you're looking at a short window, whether it's just a month or whatever, you know, sometimes you'll have a home run or something like that that will make things look a little worse, short outing. We're trying to get ready for the playoffs, you have a couple tune-up games where you throw five innings or whatever. Q. Who have you relied on to get a little information about what it's like pitching in the playoffs, and what are the things that you have asked people about it? C.J. WILSON: I guess, you know, the people that I know really well that have pitched in the playoffs come from kind of all over through my baseball life. Like my mentor growing up is Bud Black from the Padres, and he called me the other night actually and said, nothing changes, you just have to keep the game the same. Don't try to throw any harder or do anything extra, throw knuckle balls, just go out there and pitch like you did all year, which was pretty good. So I'll stick with that. And John Wetteland is the bullpen coach for the Mariners, and he was one of the coaches that when I broke in with the Rangers initially, so he's known me for seven years or something like that, and he just said, you've just got to keep it simple, don't worry about everything else that's going on. You know, the same thing that Mike Maddux was told us and Nolan Ryan and stuff. Nolan said that the big key is to have fun, just realize that this is a big step for our organization, and that we have all the pieces lined up, so this is going to be a good chance for us to take a run at the whole thing. Q. What has it been like having Nolan around, and you mentioned what he's told you about the playoffs, but other than talking about how you pitch and your career has been going? C.J. WILSON: Yeah, I haven't quite got his fastball. It would be nice if he could sprinkle some magic dust on me and I could throw 100 miles an hour. He's been instrumental in the transition from the reliever to the starter. Last year he -- I think he first came around in '02 was my first Spring Training when I was in A-Ball or whatever, and he talked to us, and he was like giving us kind of a spiel on fitness and focusing on the length of the season, the length of your career, keeping yourself healthy off the field. And he made a lot of good impressions on me at a young age. I was 21 at the time. So ever since then it's been something that I kind of -- everyone looks up to Nolan Ryan, you know, so ever since then it's been something that I would kind of pull him aside and ask him a question here or there. He pitched for like 27 years or something like that, you know, so it's like -- as far as I know, he probably threw more pitches than any pitcher in the modern era, and so he's got more experience, and he'll talk to you about control, over-throwing, throwing a curveball, throwing all that kind of stuff, change-ups. Actually he had a lot of input on throwing change-ups because he was on the downside of his career velocity-wise and that's when he started throwing change-ups, and he said it added a whole 'nother era to his career. Everything he says, it's kind of like -- not all of it is going to apply because we're sort of different types of pitchers, but at the same time you'll take everything he says and try to apply it to yourself. It's actually really awesome to have him around. When you have a front office guy or a GM or now a team owner that has the experience and knows what it's really like to be on the field, it gives a whole different level of credibility when he asks you to do something because he knows how hard it is or whatever, so it's nice. Q. What do you think your strengths are against this Rays' lineup tomorrow? C.J. WILSON: Probably my versatility. The thing that's helped me all year is I don't necessarily have to pitch a particular game plan in order to succeed. I have the ability to throw a bunch of different pitches, and so it gives me the chance to kind of in real-time make strategic adaptations. For instance, if my sinker isn't sinking, I can throw a cutter. If my cutter isn't cutting, I can throw more change-ups or sliders or fork balls or whatever I feel like I need to throw. So when that's going, that's going. Q. Do you adjust on the run or do you pretty much know in the bullpen what you're going to have working in a particular day? C.J. WILSON: There's so many factors. I mean, you have -- maybe I think about this too much or whatever, but even if the individual ball is rubbed up a certain way or not rubbed up a certain way, then I'll adjust my pitch selection on pretty much everything. It's just something like I feel like maybe -- maybe I over-think certain aspects of it, but in the heat of the moment you tend to speed up a little bit and tend to go a little faster, so that way like your level of over-thinking drops down to just like regular thinking, so you're just staying present and not trying to -- as opposed to where a normal guy might not think that much and then overthrow when it comes down to it. When the pressure comes on, I kind of back off and think, okay, got this guy at the plate, I want a ground ball, seams are kind of crappy so what's going to be my best bet to get a ground ball. That's how I pitch. Q. Two things: How much influence has it been to have Cliff Lee here and Mike Maddux as your pitching coach? C.J. WILSON: Cliff has been huge because he's the first left-handed pitcher that I can look at and say that he is someone that I can actually mimic in a way that will be beneficial to me. For better or worse throughout my career, we've had mostly right-handed starters with the team, and I haven't really had a chance to watch like a very, very successful guy up close. You have the guys around the league like Price and Sabathia and Lester and Cliff that are some of the premier pitchers, and they're also left-handed. So I'll watch a lot of video of those guys. But now getting Cliff here to actually pick his brain a little bit and ask him, hey, when you're trying to throw your cutter, what does it feel like, what are you doing here or there, and it helps me out a little bit. I think since we've gotten him, I've pitched better. It's not always measured in statistics, but sometimes efficiency is a little bit better. And with Mike, Mike is so funny, he'll come out to the mound and in the most tense situation kind of loosen you up, crack a joke, and then just make you realize that you're just out there playing baseball, it's not that big of a deal. Q. This probably is the highest, biggest stakes game that you've pitched in. What are the one or two that are the biggest up until this one, and how did those go for you? C.J. WILSON: Um, I don't know. I mean, every game I pitch is a big game for me. When I was in little league, it was like I was pretending like it was the World Series, so it's like I feel like I've been preparing for this for a long time. I enjoy it. I enjoy it, look forward to it. It feels nice to know that you're on the field with the best players in the league, with the best teams in the league and with the best team in the league behind you, as well. The only teams left are the good teams, so it's like you just hope that the efficiency is there, that the defensive efficiency behind you is what you expect it to be and that the offense performs up to its capabilities to support you. Obviously we're going to be going against great pitching throughout the rest of the playoffs, so we're probably not going to have like 10-2, times where you can kind of cruise and kind of check out. But during the course of the year you have games like that where it'll be the fourth inning and you're leading 8-1 and you're thinking, all right, I'm just going to throw seven, I don't care about anything else. I'm just going to go out there, if I give up four or whatever, because you just have to get through those innings to save your bullpen or whatever. But this is different. You have to be conscious of every hit you give up, every run you give up, and more often than not that's how I pitch anyways. But pitching in some games where we had like a -- we had a Sunday game where it was like 102 degrees or something like that, a day game, I pitched against the Red Sox, and we had a game against the Angels where it was like -- I forget who I pitched against, but it was like a 1-0 game or something. There's some big games that I've pitched this year, but being a closer previously, I understand the elements involved and the sort of fluctuations in momentum and all that stuff, and it's something that's helped me a lot because on an individual inning, I'm able to say, hey, I've done this before, I've shut down a team before with a one run lead or with a tie game or whatever in the late innings. It gives you a little bit of, like, relaxation, gives you a little bit of a chance to, I don't know, familiarize -- it's a little bit of familiarity I guess is the thing. So I guess I would just draw on that experience there. Obviously I don't have playoff experience, so I have to compare it to something, so I would say it's like closing or something like that. Q. Sitting there now as the Game 2 pitcher in the playoffs, did you envision that when this transition began in Spring Training from bullpen to starter, and did you feed off any of the skepticism people had at the start? C.J. WILSON: I mean, there's always going to be skepticism in professional sports. There's always going to be somebody that's bigger and stronger and makes more money and throws harder, whatever. So you can't really let that constantly get -- it can't irk you. There's always going to be pundits and stuff. For me, when I tried to sell, when I gave the hard sell to J.D. last year after the season or during the season, I forget, but I was like, look, if I have a good year, we're going to go to the playoffs, so I felt like that was something that I was planning on. I mean, when things go according to plan, everybody looks smart, so I mean, I guess things went according to plan with the transition to starting. So everything is good. Q. Obviously you'd prefer to keep the base paths clear of runners, but do you enjoy sort of the cat and mouse game, a strategy against a team that really relies on being aggressive on the base paths to score runs? C.J. WILSON: I guess being left-handed you have somewhat of an advantage because you can kind of see what's going on. But at the same time, they are going to try to use some sort of hocus-pocus to get me out of my rhythm, as well. I mean, that's part of the game of a fast team is they use their speed to disrupt the rhythm of the pitcher. So you have to be conscious of that. You're juggling a lot of different stuff, you know, but I used to play center field. I used to steal bases when I was a kid, so I understand what it's like to be on that other side. You see Kinsler for us, he's out there at second base and he's giving little jukes and stuff, and we kind of laugh in the dugout because the pitcher is focusing on him and then Borbon is going to drive him in or something like that. I don't know, I don't particularly enjoy certain elements of the game because when the American League -- you know, it's pretty rare. It's pretty rare to have a team like Tampa. It seems like it's kind of a more National League team in that sense. So yeah, I don't know. It's just kind of whatever. You just evaluate in the game in the sense of what do I have to do to try to win and what are they going to do to try to beat me. Obviously that's what it is. They don't have a really high team batting average, but they have a lot of stolen bases and they try to walk a lot. So they're going to try to get on base and advance over so that it only takes one hit or maybe a sac fly or something. So you just want to prevent them from scoring. You feel like if you can isolate that guy and restrain him at first base, then you're probably not going to give up any runs that inning. End of FastScripts |
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