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MLB WORLD SERIES: RANGERS v GIANTSOctober 26, 2010Ron WashingtonSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Workout Day Q. Can you just talk about what makes Nelly so good in clutch situations for you all year. RON WASHINGTON: Well, you know, I think he has a good idea of who he is and what he's capable of doing. You know, this past year he learned how to hit the ball the other way. By staying back and trying to go the other way, it has certainly helped him not to pull off the baseball. He's maturing, and he has confidence in his ability, and you need all of that. Q. Your ballclub I think is known for its aggressiveness. Do you have to tone that down a little bit against Lincecum? How do you approach him? RON WASHINGTON: Well, I don't think we're going to tone any part of our game down. All of that is determined by, will the pitcher allow us to do things? If we're allowed to be aggressive, we will. If for some reason he don't allow us to be aggressive, we'll have to look for other ways to do what we need to do out there. The game itself is going to present something to us, and we're going to react to it, and if that means we will be aggressive, we will, and if that means that we can't, we won't. We're going to go out there, try to get them in the strike zone and try not to make mistakes. If you make mistakes, it don't have to be the Texas Rangers, it could be anyone. Q. You guys were a pretty good club when you got Cliff. When you got him could you sense from your players that there was a renewed commitment to doing something that hadn't been done before just by getting him? RON WASHINGTON: Well, I think it proved to my club that Nolan Ryan and Jon Daniels was intent on helping us any way they can. We had a young pitching staff, and we certainly needed a No. 1 guy that could lead us, and I think everybody in baseball, I know Cliff Lee is one of those type of guys. When we got him, it certainly helped push the rest of our guys into a position where they can be successful, and in the game of baseball that's what you want to do with players, try to put them in positions where they can be successful. It gave us a lead horse, and to put something in front of that horse, he's a thoroughbred. You know, he made a big difference. Q. Your team has improved year after year since you have been in charge of this organization. At what point did you start to believe that this team could be right here, four wins away from being the best team in baseball? RON WASHINGTON: Last year we came into September 4th with the lead, and then we had some unfortunate things happen to our club where we lost some of our best baseball players for a while, and we just didn't get it done in September. Up until that point we realized we could play, and we came back in Spring Training and committed ourselves to doing whatever we had to do to make sure that whatever obstacles that were in front of us we could go either over or around or through them, and we did that. We didn't stay healthy the whole year, but we had some good depth, and all the kids that stepped in when we lost some of our players got it done. But it was last year in September. We came into the 1st of September with a 4 1/2 game lead on Anaheim. It didn't stay that way, but we're not making excuses, but we did go down the stretch without our best players. Q. What does Michael Young mean to this team and the clubhouse and what has he meant to you? RON WASHINGTON: Well, he's meant everything. He's the face of the Texas Rangers. He's the one guy that you would like to model yourself after. He shows up every day. He's a pro in the way he goes about his business. He tries to help everyone to understand what's going on on the ballfield. He's a leader. You know, most of his leadership is by example. He would pull the guys over if there was anything that he needed to say, and to me, he's everything. When my situation happened, he was the first one to step up and say that he's got my back. If you know Michael Young, when he says something, other people follow. Q. Out here the Giants' slogan is "Giants Baseball... Torture." Could you share with us your thoughts on the Rangers' slogan, I guess, maybe coined by you, "That's the way baseball go"? RON WASHINGTON: Well, you know, that slogan, "That's the way baseball go," that means that things happen in the game of baseball that you can't control. Maybe I should have said that and maybe the slogan of "that's the way baseball go" wouldn't have been out there. You know, everyone has their style. I have a team of athletes that can do many, many things, and I just let them go. We can beat you with the long ball, we can beat you with small ball, we can run the bases, we can play defense, and no one wants to talk about it, but we can pitch. You know, there's two teams that are certainly going in the right direction. They play their style, we play our style. They like to play close ballgames because of their pitching, but we can also play close ballgames because of our pitching. I think it's going to come down to opportunity and who takes advantage, and in the game of baseball that's the way you would like it, so that's the way it goes. Q. You also mentioned, "We're going to play Rangers' baseball." Can you characterize exactly what you mean by "Rangers' baseball"? RON WASHINGTON: What I mean by "Rangers' baseball" if the game says you've got to bunt, you bunt. If the game says you've got to hit a ball to the right side, you go to the right side. If the game says you need to tag and go from first base to second base on a deep fly ball, you do that. Whatever the fundamentals of the game of baseball, that's Ranger baseball. I group up being a fundamentalist and that's the style of baseball I like to play. It mainly comes down to whatever the game asks you to do, that's Rangers' baseball. Whatever the game asks you to do, that's Rangers' baseball. We're multifaceted. Q. In your view what are the pluses and minuses of adding additional wild card teams to the playoffs and expanding the Division Series to the best of seven? RON WASHINGTON: Well, it would give an opportunity to -- without the divisions being equal, it just gives a team an opportunity to get to the playoffs and have an opportunity because it doesn't matter what's your record once you get to the playoffs. It usually comes down to who's playing the best baseball at the time. That's what the wild card does. It gives a team an opportunity because of the fact that there's only three divisions, gives them an opportunity to get in there. They've got to win games to get there. It's not like they're back there. They've got to win games to get there, and it gives every other club an opportunity. I think it's a good situation, and I do believe the two teams that are playing right now in the World Series are the two best teams because they won to get here. Q. Josh Hamilton, who has allowed him to kind of take that next step and climb to sort of another level this year and hit .359 and do what he's done, and beyond that, what does his story say to you given everything that he's gone through? RON WASHINGTON: Well, his story is perseverance. He's the type of kid that each year that he's certainly been here in Texas, he's learned a lot about the game of baseball and he's learned a lot about Josh Hamilton. This is a grinding game. In the past he come up with some aches and pains and he wouldn't play through them because he thought maybe he was hurting the team or hurting himself, but now he understands how important team is. He understands what presence means. He understands how much he means to his teammates. He understands how much he means to the organization. So now he's going out there and he's understanding that if you don't get results, just the fact that he's in the lineup can make everyone else in that lineup better. He's solid defensively. He has a strong arm. He has speed. He can beat you with a base hit. He can beat you with an infield hit, and we all know he can beat you by going over the defense. He's a five-tool guy. They don't come along very often and I think he's beginning to recognize what he's all about, and he's maturing. Q. As much as you would have scouted Cliff Lee in the past when you were playing against him, what have you learned about him that you didn't know previously? RON WASHINGTON: Tremendous work ethic. You know, you see him from afar, you never see him prepare to do what he does out there. He has tremendous work ethic, and more than anything else, he brings influence. The way he goes about his business, the energy which he plays with, the passion he has for the game, the things he goes out there and never let affect him, those are the type of qualities that a No. 1 guy brings, and it just influences every other pitcher that follows him or that's on that pitching staff. That's what he brought to us. That's one thing I didn't know. I knew he was a quality pitcher, but I never got a chance to see how each day that he prepares for his starts. It's amazing the work he puts in to go out there and then accomplish what he accomplishes. Q. You've seen a lot of games in this park. You know what outfield defense is in this park. Can you talk about playing outfield in this park, and also what went into the decision to get Vladimir a start out here? RON WASHINGTON: Well, it was an easy decision to get Vlad to start because once again, we talk about influence and we talk about a guy that can make a difference in a ballgame, his bat, and Vlad played right field for 14 years. He's not a slouch out there. When he came to Texas he ended up being our DH because we wanted to keep him healthy. I got him an opportunity to play some right field. Maybe not a whole lot but he did play right field. He has an idea what is going on out there. He works hard at his outfield play every single day. So that wasn't a tough decision to make to put Vlad in right field. I know there's some nooks and crevices out there that's pretty tough. We're going to go out there and Gary is going to make sure he tries to find every one of them so he can react to the way the ball comes out of it. If something happens off that wall and gets away from Vlad, it could be Roberto Clemente out there and it'll get away from him. So that's nothing to be worried about. Q. Similar question: After building your lineup and building your team for a 162-game season, how much of a disadvantage is an American League team in when the DH is taken away and how much of an advantage might it be for you back in Texas? RON WASHINGTON: Well, the only disadvantage I think we might have is our pitchers haven't hit all year. We give them an opportunity to bunt, but it's not the same at game time. So right there is the disadvantage, where their pitchers have been doing it all year. But everything else, you know, the game is going to dictate what you do, how you do it and when you do it. It's my job to make sure that I put my team in the position each time when, where and how it's to be done. But other than that, we're going to go out there and we're going to try to get the pitches they're throwing against us in the strike zone, we're going to try to play our game. I have quite a bit of experience on the bench with me that have been in the National League before, and any moves that have to be made, they will be made, and there will be no hesitation in making them. I feel comfortable as the manager going out there doing -- performing in a National League game. We've done it before, and we'll do it again. But as I said, the only disadvantage is our pitchers haven't done it for a long period of time, and they haven't hit. Other than that, we'll let the game dictate what we do. Q. When J.D. told you that you guys had acquired Cliff Lee, what was your reaction to that? And what was the club's reaction when he walked into the clubhouse that day and said, "We got Cliff Lee"? RON WASHINGTON: My reaction was, "Good job, Jon. You're the man." And then I told my club that we just acquired Cliff Lee and that Jon Daniels and Nolan Ryan, they're showing to you that they're serious about us maintaining the quality with which we play the game and win our division, and now it's just up to you guys to get it done. We're not bringing Cliff Lee over here to carry us. He's just going to be one of those guys that gets the ball every fifth day, and we certainly have to go out there and play behind him and put enough runs on the board so he can be effective. My club took that as easy as any club can take it because they did not doubt themselves, and we just continued to play baseball and knowing every fifth day we were going to have Cliff Lee out there, and just kept performing. Q. Any other differences in the lineup obviously beside moving Vlady in there, any difference from the ALCS? And what kind of weapon is Cruz on the bench? RON WASHINGTON: Who, Cruz? Cruz is not going to be on the bench. I'm moving Cruz over to left field and putting Vlad in right. It takes Murphy out but that gives me a hitter off the bench. There's no difference. I'm going to run my lineups out there who face right-handers and I'll run my lineups out there that face left-handers. And we'll just continue to play baseball. Q. Can you talk a little bit about why this event, this World Series, is so special to you? RON WASHINGTON: Well, it's special to me because I've never been here before, and I'm no different than any player or any coach or any other manager, you dream to be in this position to be able to, No. 1, manage a World Series, and No. 2, to be in a World Series. This is what it's all about. This is what you go to Spring Training for. It just means everything to me, and you know, it means everything to my players. They love to play the game of baseball. They play it with a deep, deep feeling of passion, and I wear my passion on my sleeves, and they wear theirs on their sleeves. It's nice to be in this position, and we've just got to get four wins. End of FastScripts |
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