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MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 7, 2010

Terry Francona

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA

Q. What are your thoughts with Adrian in the mix now?
TERRY FRANCONA: You know what, it's amazing how one hitter can really make you feel, not just feel, but look different. I mean, you stick him in the middle of the order, whether he's hitting third, fourth, wherever, we're a lot different team. It's Petey, Youk, David, you name it. It's kind of how we felt when we got Victor a couple of years ago.
Now all of a sudden you get that legitimate bat, that's pretty exciting. It was an exciting way to start the meetings. It still seems exciting the next day, and I'm sure when we leave here it will be exciting.

Q. Have you had a chance to talk to him?
TERRY FRANCONA: I was trying to round his number up I guess yesterday, and he called me, which you don't see that very often either. And we talked for about ten minutes and I just told him to make himself comfortable and gave him my number, told him I'd be talking to him and just relax. Then we'll start working on getting to know each other. Want to make his change as easy as possible, and just let him get comfortable and get him ready for the season. Just mostly a hello.

Q. Every year it seems you always say wait to see what we do, see what we put together here. Seems like you're always confident. The confidence is to do something for you?
TERRY FRANCONA: Yeah, that's what I think. Like two weeks ago when Victor left for Detroit, it was like Boston was going to fall off into the ocean. You have to remind people it's a long winter, and we have good ownership, and we have a smart front office, and let the winter play itself out. It's not played itself out yet, but we've got a really good first baseman.
The winter's not over. I just think that you can't judge the winter by the first day or the first transaction. You can't judge your season now either. This is a really exciting move on our part, and it will make us a lot better. But it's still the winter.

Q. We know what Theo wants, but how would you prioritize what comes next for you guys? What would you like to see?
TERRY FRANCONA: I don't know if it really matters about prioritizing. Because whatever order we do it in, we know we need to make our bullpen deeper. I don't know if that means it has to be next. I think Theo's been pretty open about maybe looking at right-hand hitting outfield bat, if it works.
We've already got, I think, some pretty good depth. But I think the bullpen is important. We probably lost some games there last year that hurt us. That's a hard way to lose games, especially when you want to be a good team. When you lose games late, you feel like the next day you have to come back and win another one just to catch up, it's a tough way to play.

Q. Have you talked to Youk?
TERRY FRANCONA: Yeah, very excited. I think he's always viewed himself kind of like the Happy Gilmore, where he's been at first but he wants to play third. He's really excited. And he I think that's something that I hope doesn't go unnoticed how fortunate we are that he can do this. I don't know how many first basemen can just pick up a glove and go over and play third and probably do it fairly seamlessly. So we're fortunate there.

Q. How do you see, realizing as you said that you could still add another right-handed hitting outfielder, but how do you see Cam's role right now? Could he play some right against lefties?
TERRY FRANCONA: And that's why I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. We signed Cam to play. He had a miserable year health-wise last year. From all accounts, he's working hard and he's doing really well. So, I guess I can see Cam playing every day. Who knows. That's why I don't need to get too far ahead of myself. I think it's easy to forget that a guy's a good player when he's injured and out for a while. I think we still view him that way.
Now, saying that, you also want to be realistic and make sure guys are healthy and not come to spring training and be short. We've been there too.

Q. Partly because of the injuries that hit in the first month with your outfielders, you didn't always have a right-handed alternative to J.D. in right last year?
TERRY FRANCONA: Right, right.

Q. Is that -- given how he struggled against left-handed pitching, is that a need to have somebody in place that could maybe play 40, 50 games in right?
TERRY FRANCONA: I think that might be a bit much, hopefully. I think what we'd rather do is have J.D. have a little more success against left-handers. Maybe drop him down the lineup as opposed to not playing Hill. I think that's probably a better way to do it. There are certainly certain left-handers that you're doing him a favor by giving him the day off. But I don't think you want to have a platoon out there. That seems like a little bit much.

Q. How do you see Jed Lowrie going next year? How do you think he might be able to help you?
TERRY FRANCONA: That was one of our bigger conversations this winter. You know, he played so well you talk about a roller coaster year. He comes out of spring training where he has mono and we don't see him for three months. Then he has be an OPS that is about off on the charts.
I think looking at it right now he'd be a super utility guy with the ability to play third, short, second and first and switch hit. That's a pretty valuable commodity. Saves you a player because he can play first. He's a switch hitter, so that would be you a really nice piece on our team.
That may not be his ultimate goal, and I respect that. But as far as our team goes, that would be a really nice fit.

Q. Will he work a lot more at first this winter and into the spring just to get more comfortable over there?
TERRY FRANCONA: That is the one place he's played very limited. He's had two games in the Major Leagues, maybe three. But we'll move him all around. Again, that's right now. Somebody gets hurt, and that changes. But it's kind of the obvious step for us right now.

Q. How's Scutaro feeling? Have you had a chance to talk to him?
TERRY FRANCONA: I have not talked to him, but I've gone through Mikey and everything's going really well. Once the season is over, Scut goes underground. But he's doing fine. No complaints health-wise; he's doing well.

Q. Do you know what his rehab has been? Is it just weightlifting?
TERRY FRANCONA: Shoulder strengthening. He's having a normal winter, but he's spent more time obviously on strengthening that shoulder.

Q. Along the lines of guys who are coming back, how's Ellsbury doing? What's he up to at this point?
TERRY FRANCONA: Jake's doing pretty well. The last time we had a couple weeks ago, he still was feeling it in the back a little bit, which I think they thought was pretty normal. I think we're all going to take a deep breath when we see him out there running and not feeling it, but we're certainly far enough away from spring training where that shouldn't be an issue.
I think also when you're talking about it being December, going out to test it probably doesn't make a lot of sense. But I know he's been at API and doing his stuff there for a while.

Q. You guys signed David. Theo said there was a pretty good understanding about his role and how you guys would use him. He was sort of hinting around if you wanted to hit somebody for him against a lefty he understood that.
TERRY FRANCONA: I actually spoke to David a little bit about that. The idea is not to sit him against lefties. I think the idea is to get David to understand if we do want to sit him against a lefty, it's not that we don't believe he can play. You know, I think that was more the -- last April was miserable. You can talk, you can spin it any way you want to, it was miserable. It was hard on David, it was hard on me, it was hard on our team, it was hard on everybody.
I think there are times when, like J.D., you give him a break against a tough lefty, and you're doing him a favor. Some of it depends on how he swings the bat. If he swings the bat like he can swing it, you don't want to sit him. I also believe for him to swing the bat like he needs to, he has to face some lefties. I think that's important. But I think you've got to be able to get to a place where whatever is best for the team, you end up doing, and that's what we always try to do, but you also want players to understand.

Q. Do you think that understanding is going to be better this year than it was last year?
TERRY FRANCONA: Yes, yeah.

Q. To that end, do you need somebody to be kind of a right-handed, sometimes DH, sometimes outfielder, that kind of guy?
TERRY FRANCONA: No, I don't think so. Again, our first choice is for David to rake, and we're a better team. We have guys even right now, and the winter's not complete, that can pick up a game, Cameron, Lowrie, we're in pretty good shape there.

Q. Are you comfortable with the catching situation going into the season as it is right now?
TERRY FRANCONA: Yes, yes. I think Theo was pretty honest when he spoke to you guys back a little ways about I don't know if he used the word kind of assuming a little bit of risk. Is that how he said it, as a position or two?
I think understanding that this is a place that I'm comfortable. I think -- and by that I don't mean -- when I say risky, Salty doesn't hit right away, that's not the end of the world. But when he catches, we always know that every time he caught the pitcher got deep into the game. He had that babysitting mentality where he wanted to take care of the starting pitcher. With Tek around to help, I think we're going to be just fine. If this kid -- you know, given his talent and what he can do, if it clicks, all of a sudden you've got a switch hitting catcher with power. So there is a lot to like.

Q. With John going to Toronto, is it important to get a guy like Varitek back to work the stats?
TERRY FRANCONA: I don't know. Curt Young is a good pitching coach. Curt doesn't know everybody as well as John did, and I'm sure there will be some transition in spring training in the getting to know you and things like that. I think getting Tek back is important regardless of who we had.
It's a really good mix. Lot of times you get a veteran guy back in name, and they're not necessarily helping the young kid. If you talk to Salty, Salty's pretty comfortable with Tek leaning over him and helping him. I think it's a really good match.
The way Tek swings the bat right-handed, ultimately we can talk about mentoring and tutoring, we've still got to win games. And I think Tek is still at that point where he can do that too. So I think it's a real good fit.

Q. Do you look at that as a job sharing situation between Salty and Tek?
TERRY FRANCONA: Oh, I'm sure some of it will depend on health and production. I think Tek's done a enough job where -- if you take away that broken bone last year, and Tek is having a heck of a year. Kind of a bounce back, hey, I can do this and keep playing. So Tek's going to play more than probably the average back-up catcher, if that's what you're asking, sure.

Q. However the lineup shakes out, how reassuring is it to go into the next season with the rotation that you have, sort of a foundation?
TERRY FRANCONA: I think you're always kidding yourself if you don't have enough pitching. You know you've got to score runs, but if you pitch, you always give yourself a chance. And I think we're looking for Beckett to certainly bounce back. To be mad enough where he wants to bounce back. That's what he did a couple years ago.
I think you'll see Lackey across the board have slightly lower numbers, all the way across the board, which will lead to a few more wins.
I think we're feeling like Buch and Lester are still growing and understanding themselves. Hopefully even getting better. Then Daisuke, if I sat here and told you I could figure him out, I'd be lying. But if he's pitching out of your four or five hole, you have a chance to have a really good staff.

Q. In terms of playing time with catching, it seems you have three variables. One is sort of the day-night, first guy needs a blow. Second is who the other team is pitching, left-right, Tek better from the right. Third is Tek seems to get better outings out of guys like Beckett. How do you work those three factors so they're not all in conflict and you kind of juggle it?
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, in December, I don't. But we'll take everything into consideration. The one thing we're trying to do is develop Salty. I think by developing a young, whether it's a catcher, pitcher or position player, you're trying to sometimes maybe protect him also. Give him enough responsibility where he can take it and run with it and not overwhelm him either. He had a pretty full year last year. He had a lot going on.
We'll try to give him enough where he grasps it and grows, but not too much where we overwhelm him.
The good thing, I mean, Tek can catch -- I mean, besides catching Wake, Tek's pretty much caught everybody successfully. So it's not like you've got to pick and choose and keep somebody away from somebody or something like that.

Q. Tito, how much do you think Lackey's performance was impacted by the patchwork defense you had to put out there a lot of times, especially in the outfield?
TERRY FRANCONA: I don't know. No different than anybody else. I think the one thing that I think happened a lot was Lackey ended up because of who he was, and him being a veteran, he threw to the -- he'd get that Sunday day game and he threw to Molina. Every Molina start was Lack. And I heard people talking about Lackey making excuses. I don't remember seeing that guy. I remember seeing a guy taking the ball and sucking it up, regardless of who was playing short or who was catching. Didn't always go the way we wanted it to exactly, but saw that guy who maybe lost a couple starts because of some unfamiliarity that way and never said a word.

Q. Of all of the injured guys, is there anybody who wants to get to spring training that you don't expect will be full go?
TERRY FRANCONA: Don't expect?

Q. Yeah.
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, I think we need to keep an eye on Adrian, he's coming off that shoulder. But now Petey will be fine, Youk's already -- no, we'll be in good shape. Certainly I don't think Adrian's supposed to start swinging until March 1st, so that will be a little bit slower.

Q. Have you felt the need to reach out to Pap at all in the wake of the offer to Mariano?
TERRY FRANCONA: No, I will. I'd reach out to Pap from time to time, but he may not even know.

Q. Wakefield had said he'd been uncomfortable last year with his understanding of his role. Do you see that going better this year in terms of communication?
TERRY FRANCONA: I hope so. We had a tough year last year. That was tough at times. He was not very happy. I was very aware of that. It's do the best can you.

Q. Is he someone you reached out to during the off-season or is that closer to the season communication?
TERRY FRANCONA: When you start talking about roles, we always tell guys their roles as much as we can. There are times -- to be honest with you, there are sometimes you can't tell somebody what is going to happen a month ahead of time. Our versions are probably slightly different in the communication department. But when a player's not happy with the way they've been communicating with, you try to do better. We always try to do that.
The one thing we couldn't tell Wake last year was the fact that he was going to make every start. So I'm not sure so much it was the communication, but what we were telling them. Sometimes you just can't tell somebody something they want to hear.

Q. What does Pap need to do to bounce back and get back to the guy he was the first four years than the guy he was last year?
TERRY FRANCONA: I think it starts with command of his fastball. He had to work last year, it seemed, harder in innings than he had in the past. That starts with the command of his fastball and the location of his split.
I know he's working on his slider. But if Pap throws fastball split and he's down in the zone and locates, he'll be fine. Every closer's going to give up a game once in a while, but he'll be fine. His velocity's still good. He's in good shape, he's a strong kid. He just needs to not have to work so hard on some of those innings.

Q. They had a ceremony this morning honoring four managers, Cito, Bobby Cox, Lou Piniella and Torre. Of those four, I imagine that Joe was the one you had the most relationship with, is that fair to say?
TERRY FRANCONA: Yeah, probably, probably.

Q. Is there a story that you tell to best illustrate your relationship to him particularly in those years when he was managing the Yankees and going head-to-head with you?
TERRY FRANCONA: I don't think a particular story. To be honest with you, when we played the Yankees, I really didn't talk to them much. People didn't want to see that. I respected that. They don't want to see us hugging out by the cage during BP, and I understand that. I would always give him a call. Or a couple times I snuck back -- like in Yankee Stadium, I saw him back on the runway, just because I do respect him. It it's a little easier to be friendly when he's in a Dodger uniform, like in spring training and things like that.
But I have a lot of respect for him. That doesn't mean you don't want to beat their brains out. He's probably a little different. He played with my dad and there is that relationship there, so pretty special guy.

Q. Have you talked to him since he announced his retirement?
TERRY FRANCONA: I think so. I think I did right when he did. He's good about getting back on the texts.

Q. He said his daughter taught him how to do it.
TERRY FRANCONA: Don't we all?

Q. What's it been like not talking to John Farrell the last month since --
TERRY FRANCONA: He's been busy. Obviously we stay in touch because we're friends. But he's obviously not helping us out on our pitching questions. This is a pretty busy time for him. I'm more excited for him. But I'll probably spend more time talking to Curt Young recently than Johnny because, again, he's got his own business.
Since they're in our division, I don't see him giving us a lot of input on our staff.

Q. He said he gave a little bit of input though.
TERRY FRANCONA: He'll always be able to.

Q. Has Curt traveled at all to go visit with guys and is that on the schedule to go introduce himself a little bit to guys to watch him throw?
TERRY FRANCONA: He'll come up to Boston, I believe, in January for that rookie development thing. We may bring a few pitchers up for that. It's middle of January, it's a tough time. You guys have noticed over at the writers dinner, it's not an easy time to get guys up there. But he'll be up there for that. He's been in touch with everybody though.

Q. Like going to them, you know, going to Texas to see Josh or --
TERRY FRANCONA: I don't think so. We've got our medical pager and our trainers have all been doing that. With the way email is now and video, it's just not quite as necessary. I think we'll be okay. But he has been in touch. That's important.

Q. How much time have you guys spent with him just talking about the staff and kind of reviewing things?
TERRY FRANCONA: I've talked to him more than a few times for a pretty good length of time. As we certainly get past Christmas and into the new year, we'll spend significantly more time, not just on our pitchers, but how he feels about the game. Since we have a change in staff, I'm sure he's going to have some opinions, so we'll probably make a few changes.
Whether it's in spring training or how he feels about preparing pitchers or the fundamentals of the pitchers, the PFP, things like that. There will be some conversations about that.

Q. I didn't know you guys knew each other before, but now that you're working together, how has that come together? Has it been pretty smooth?
TERRY FRANCONA: Oh, yeah. There is a reason we hired him. But at the same time, in the middle of November, you don't talk every day about it. That might be a little overkill. There is plenty of time to get ready.

Q. As far as your bullpen options, what are your thoughts on Koji Vehara, free agent?
TERRY FRANCONA: He's not in our bullpen.

Q. As far as an option, is he on your radar?
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, you'd have to ask Theo about that. He's much better at answering those types of questions. I don't want to overstep my bounds. He's good though.

Q. How about a guy who is on your roster, Doubront? How intrigued are you by what he might be able to do for you guys?
TERRY FRANCONA: You know, really interesting kid. He obviously has the ability to start maybe in the near future, maybe the way our team sets up, maybe he's in the bullpen. Whether it's for a year and then transitions into a starting role, I don't think there would be anything we'd do that would throw him or knock him back. He holds runners, he throws strikes. He's not afraid of his fastball. He's a really interesting guy. Kind of a nice name to have when you're looking at building your bullpen, knowing that you have a lefty with three months service time that you feel confident you can give him the ball somewhat late in the game. That's a nice feeling.

Q. So at this point there is no question he would be a guy that you would plan on carrying on the Major League roster?
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, he has options, so I don't know that we'd want to tell him he's on the team in December. But we also think he's pretty good. Now there are some obligations he has on his end, too, coming to camp and being in shape and things like that. But we think he's a pretty good pitcher.

Q. Is the whole neck-shoulder thing okay?
TERRY FRANCONA: He's fine.

Q. Did you have him prepare at the start of spring training?
TERRY FRANCONA: Probably not. There are always a handful of guys that we like to stretch out somewhat just because we feel it's good for them, and he could certainly fall into that category. You can't do it to everybody, because you'd run out of innings. But there are four or five guys that you try to stretch out as much as possible, and he certainly could fit into that.

Q. But right now?
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, we have five starters.

Q. You mentioned the impacts that Adrian could have on the lineup being right in the middle. Did you have that situation with Manny and David in their primes when they got here. When you look back at that, how much of a luxury was that? How nice was it?
TERRY FRANCONA: We won some games that we probably shouldn't have. There are games that we played being a little sloppy, missing the cutoff man or something, and one of them would hit a three-run homer. Those are nice games to win.
It's always a good feeling when you play nice, clean, crisp baseball. But when you have guys in the middle that can hit the three on homer, that helps too. If you have to go through the lineup as an opposing pitcher and you have guys with that ability, at some point you should get nicked up.
How many times does Youk have one of those at-bats with 10, 12, 13 pitch at-bat, and then the next guy hits a home run? It happens. The more hitters you have like that, the better off you are.

Q. How much are you looking forward to seeing Adrian in Fenway, out of Petco?
TERRY FRANCONA: Yeah, he's going to be good regardless, but his swing does match-up with Fenway. So his strengths will certainly play-up at Fenway. I think that will be fun to watch.

Q. Youk early in his career was at third base, always seemed to have a little bit of a drop off late in the year. At first bases been consistent. Does that tie into it maybe mentally like different responsibilities or do you think it's just growing?
TERRY FRANCONA: Are you talking about his batting average?

Q. Batting average.
TERRY FRANCONA: I don't think that was defense. I think that was the way he was attacking the game. Because Youk would attack himself. He'd beat himself up so much, I don't think that was the position he was playing. I think he's just more mature as a person and a player now he can handle it. He's always going to play the game kind of like a football game, but he understands now this long year, and he'll be able to sustain it.

Q. Gonzalez has a reputation of being a real gamer. I think he's missed like 11 games in the last four or five?
TERRY FRANCONA: I saw that.

Q. How important when you have a team with Pedroia and Youkilis, who kind of have that same where you've got to stop them from being on the field. What does that do in terms of setting the tone in the clubhouse?
TERRY FRANCONA: If guys are healthy and they can play every day, that's great. I know I saw he missed two games last year and three the year before. That's terrific. Especially when they're driving in 100 runs. If they're driving in 60, that's a little different story. That's good. It's good to have guys that are good that want to play every day. Nothing wrong with that.
Some guys were better off making him rest. Doesn't look like he really needs that. If you do that same thing to Petey, he'll run himself right into the ground.

End of FastScripts

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