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MLB WINTER MEETINGSDecember 7, 2010Mike SciosciaLAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA Q. I'd like to get your opinion on two players, you'll know why I'm asking. Victor Martinez, and Juaquin Benoit. MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think out of all the guys that were out there, they were two high profile guys that got a lot of interest from a lot of teams, including our club. I think it's something that Detroit added an incredible amount of depth in two key areas by signing those two guys, and they're definitely going to be a strong club. Q. What is your opinion on the expanded players, and the topic on the agenda? MIKE SCIOSCIA: There is obviously a lot to go over before I think any decisions are going to be made one way or the other. A lot of things are thrown out there and a lot of things are discussed. I think there are pros and cons to a lot of things that are there. So I wouldn't really say if it's necessarily something that is good or bad right now. Q. You're in favor, against, one or the other? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, like in favor? There are a lot of different things thrown out there. It's not to be in favor of one thing or the other, because there are different degrees to each thing you're talking about. Q. Just on the general principal of adding a team? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think there has to be a balance. In baseball there has to be a balance of having 162 games mean more than just seeding, like it does in some other sports, with, I think, the competitiveness of giving more teams more room to make playoffs or try to get into playoffs. So there has to be a balance there. So it's not whether you're in favor of it or not. I don't think anybody's in favor of having a set-up where you have 16 teams make the playoffs or 14 teams make the playoffs. But there seems to be balance there that hopefully would be explored. Q. Was that the main topic you guys discussed? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Lot of things talked about, a lot of things. Q. Would best of one, from your standpoint, being out there for six months, be somewhat unfair to play six months and then kind of go? MIKE SCIOSCIA: In some cases I think you could look at it like that. In some cases you're forced into an elimination game. It's like putting the team to Game 5 or Game 7 in the series. I think there will be a lot of excitement. I think there are a lot of things to be discussed before we'll start saying what is fair or unfair. There are some scenarios that for a team to make the playoffs, you'll say, hey, you win this inning, you'll make the playoffs. Or instead of going home. So there are some things to look at. Q. How would you feel about that if you faced it? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I would think a longer series obviously favors a deeper team. But logistically, logistically there has to be some balance to how many games you're going to be able to get in or what you're going to be able to do. Q. How urgent is your need to add offense given slippage in runs scored, and could Kendry's return alone be enough? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Kendry's return could be enough, but I think the depth portion of our offense needs to be addressed. We had a lot of guys that underperformed. I think that we do need to add offensive depth, and it might not be the one impact guy, but it definitely needs to be guys that have an idea what to do in the batter's box in case -- we fully anticipate Kendry back doing what he wants to or what he can do. But as far as the other aspect, how other players are going to perform, I think last year we got thin and put a lot of pressure on some guys and it went the wrong way. Q. Do you feel like another chance to possibly add him back, it looks pretty high? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yes, yes. Q. Recent events didn't change that opinion? MIKE SCIOSCIA: About like the Werth signing or something? Q. Yeah. That didn't kind of influence it? MIKE SCIOSCIA: No. In talking to Tony and talking to Artie, I think that there's still a feeling of being pro-active and going out there and trying to improve our team. If it happens to be a high profile guy, nothing like that has been ruled out. If it happens to be where you're bringing a couple of other guys for depth, the key is to make your team stronger, and I'm very, very confident that we're going to be a better team as we open up spring training than we were when we finished last season. Q. Where, if at all, is starting pitching in that mix? In the past it's been such a target here. Is that a priority right now or something that you're pretty happy with? MIKE SCIOSCIA: There are 29 other clubs right now getting asked the same question about starting pitching. And starting pitching, you never have enough depth. You can feel good on a given time period. You have guys throwing the ball well, but you never have enough starting pitching depth. We feel we have a terrific rotation. We feel we have some young guys in the minor leagues that are going to be on our depth chart as we start next season that are going to help us. Overall, I think our starting pitching is an absolute strength of our club. Although there are some things riding on the performance of some guys as far as our team's is going to do -- as far as our team will do next year. I don't think it's going to be anything they're not capable of doing. If you look at the way Jered or Dan Haren, or Ervin, and Pineiro, and hopefully Kazmir's return, if you project that out as a rotation, even if they don't make all 33 starts but make enough to be productive, it's a good rotation. Q. In terms of committing huge financial resources though, is that -- MIKE SCIOSCIA: What is the question you're asking me? Why don't you just get to it? Are we after Lee? I think us and -- you know, there's a number of clubs that would definitely -- a pitcher of Lee's caliber makes you better. There is no doubt about that. Whether he's a fit for us or not depends on more than just the talent aspect. Obviously, free agent, complicated. He's obviously commanding a lot of attention. But he's certainly a guy that a number of teams would look at and know that they can make you substantially better in that area. Q. The national media has sort of pounded on you guys as a potential Carl Crawford destination. You're obviously aware of that. How much lobbying have you gotten from your players, like Torrii and some of these guys, not like it's their money, but how much do you hear? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, it's kind of like the off-season becomes fantasy baseball for players too. You always look at who is out there and who might be in your lineup. I think we all did it when we played the game you'd say, man, if we had this guy or this guy, we could be better. I don't think it's any different than what would go on. There are a number of guys that are out there that would make us a significantly better team. I think that some players -- when players -- every year when there is that crop of free agents that come out, players always handicap it and look at it and say, hey, if we can get this guy our line-up could be this or that, and doesn't really sway you on what you're going to be able to do or not. But I guess there is a little bit of that that goes on. Players are only human. They can only look at that and hope. Q. In adding the offense you're talking about, in your perfect mix or perfect world, bat, speed, mix of both? MIKE SCIOSCIA: There is more than one way to score runs. I think our team -- there are a couple of areas that are really -- and it was a small sample one year. It becomes a smaller sample with Kendry Morales saying what your needs are. You can project it. But the spillover from a guy in the middle of your lineup that's going to hit 30, 35 home runs is very, very big. And the way your bullpen sets up and everything happens. So I don't know. I think we definitely need on-base percentage; that's very clear. Independent of Kendry coming back, we need some guys that are going to get on base and make some things happen. If it becomes the batter's box offense is a little different, meaning that it's more of a get on base and put guys in motion offense, as opposed to an offense that has more relied on just batter's box offense, that remains to be seen. But we need more on-base percentage. So some guys that are going to play for us next year having better years. Obviously, some guys that maybe can maybe add a little different dimension to our offense are going to be considered. Q. Where's Kendry right now? Is he going to be ready day one of spring training? MIKE SCIOSCIA: We're anticipating him to be full go in spring training. Obviously once you get on the field and get into some more extensive activities, you're going to take it slow. Does it mean he'll play our first spring training game? I don't know yet. When he comes into spring training we expect he'll be full go for all the drills, and if not, we'll adjust on that. Q. Your thoughts on your new lefty, Hisanori Takahashi? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I've only seen video of him. Talked to a number of people about him. We're excited to have him for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the versatility that he brings and the good innings he gives. Adds a lot of depth to what we feel is an important part of our team and our bullpen. So that versatility is going to be important. The fact that he could come out and start if he had to gives us an option of maybe not having to use as many arms down there on a given night, which maybe lets you pay a little more attention to the offensive side where you might be an 11-man staff if you have someone with that versatility. So there are a lot of positives there. We need a guy to come in and make pitches. He's shown he can do that. He didn't give up a home run to a left-handed hitter last year. I think that's kind of some of the things that are attractive to bringing him into our bullpen. Q. Primarily, what is going to be his role? MIKE SCIOSCIA: He'll start in the pen somewhere. We'll see how he pitches, how he develops. Getting through spring training, he's obviously on our depth chart as a starter if something would happen in spring training. But if everything goes the way we hope, he'll definitely start in the bullpen and pitch anywhere from the sixth to the ninth inning, depending on the situation, how he's pitching and how he's throwing the ball. I think that says it all right there when we can use a guy in any one of those roles as to how much depth he'll bring to our pen. Q. Do you view Scott Kazmir as being in your rotation right now? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yes. There's definitely competition, but if Scott gets close to where he was throwing the ball for us September a year ago, which it's not like we're going back five or six years, we're talking September a year ago, no doubt he'll be a big boost to our bullpen. That's what he's working towards. He's on a totally different winter program now. He's in Arizona. He's doing very well. He just started to throw and feels good. So his progression hopefully will get him back to where he was a short time ago. If it ends up bringing him further or closer to the pitcher that he was three or four years ago, that could be really big for us. Q. You guys design the program for him this time? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Everybody did, yeah. He had input, medical staff had input, and he's doing very well down there. Q. How comfortable would you be going into spring training not having addressed third base during the off-season? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, I think that a lot of the things that happened to our team, to our offense, I don't think you're going to look at one position. I think that if you look at -- one guy that's key is Maicer Izturis. His ability to get out there and play at least 100 games is going to be really big for us. If you have the combination of Callaspo or Brandon Wood playing at a higher level with Kendry Morales back in the lineup and with some things like Erick Aybar having a better year, Bobby Abreu having a better year, we sure get enough offense from that position to do what we need. Talked about the depth issue, and part of it is if Maicer isn't able to play as much as we want him to play. It puts a lot of pressure on one guy, Callaspo, because Brandon Wood is coming to spring training in a different light than he did last season. So there are a lot of things to consider. With the right team, and the right mix of guys, and guys playing to their potential, I think we're comfortable where we're going to be at third base. But I guess it's kind of a fragile balance right now until we can see what the depth of our team is going to be and where we are going into spring training. Q. Do you see Izturis as a solution to leadoff then? MIKE SCIOSCIA: He's absolutely part of the leadoff. He's part of the leadoff solution, sure. Q. Can you reflect on the season Matsui had? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think Hideki started off really well for us the first month of the season. And as the season went on, I think physically he felt stronger. He was running much better. He really had two real downturns that lasted a while. Finished very strong for us. His numbers lined up about what we had projected them to be, although he maybe wasn't as consistent as we know he was with the Yankees. He still ended up very strong for us and did a good job. Q. Tony said that it's unlikely he's coming back. If so, how disappointing would that be? MIKE SCIOSCIA: You know, I think Hideki showed one thing and we saw it firsthand, of why he's been so successful so long. He's one of the most professional players you're ever going to meet. He has a passion for the game, he loves the game. He studies it. I know that although nothing's been ruled out, obviously he's going to look for opportunities to get more at-bats than right now we can project. But as I said, stranger things have happened. Nothing's been ruled out. He certainly is a guy that we still have talked about internally. Q. You've known Adrian Beltre a long time. Does he come up in your discussions and possibilities? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yes, I've known him a long time. Sure, I mean, you know, we've talked about every player that is out there. Their availability, whether they're a free agent or whether they would be some player you have to acquire in a trade. All of those guys that you guys are talking about, we've talked about too. Q. You mentioned Victor Martinez early, where would he fit in if that became a possibility? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Victor, first of all, is obviously a tremendous bat. His versatility to be able to catch or play first or just get his bat in the lineup, you would make it work or make it fit. I don't know, have they said what his intentions are in Detroit? But I'm sure it's along those lines. Q. Lot of DH, catch against left-handed pitching, occasional first base? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Sounds like a good plan. That's probably exactly what we would have done right there (laughing). Q. The beautiful thing is Avila, the catcher hits left-handed. So Victor goes in there and hits right-handed against left-handers and he hit.400 right-handed this year. MIKE SCIOSCIA: That's good. That's good. Q. Hypothetically, in free agency, would your preference be one great player to fill a position or two very good players to fill positions? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Or three great players to fill three positions? How far you going with this? Q. One great player to fill one role. MIKE SCIOSCIA: You know, there are a lot of things, lot of variables there for each scenario. Like we talked about we tried to sign Mark Teixeira. Couldn't sign Mark Teixeira a couple years ago. He was our priority, and ended up breaking up into three guys that were instrumental in us winning 97 games. If that's the case where that one high profile guy isn't a fit, obviously, you go the other route and you have some resources to give your team maybe a little different look, a little deeper look, but maybe not with that one impact player. You do it any way you can. And I think that's what Tony paid a lot of attention to. Q. Is Peter Bourjos pretty much set in your opinion? MIKE SCIOSCIA: We're going to look at some things in spring training moving forward. I can look at a number of scenarios where if Peter plays to the level we think he can play, he's playing centerfield every day. If he's struggling with some things, we have the opportunity to move a pretty good centerfielder back to center in Torii Hunter. And if something happens where he's really struggling with stuff, we have, like I said, we have Torrii there who can play for a whole season if he had to. So we'll know by the time we get into the season exactly where we are and we're going to play it and see how guys are performing. Q. On the outfield, if you do have a log jam there and add another outfielder, Abreu would be the odd man out and he would be going DH. Would he be okay with that? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Sure. Bobby wants to win. Bobby's going to do anything he needs to do to help us to win. If it means not playing the outfield as much, so be it. But we'd definitely need to have Bobby stay in touch with the outfield. We have Juan Rivera also, and Reggie Willits. So if you bring an outfielder, you'd have a tremendous amount of depth at that level. And some guys obviously would have to move around to get some at-bats. Q. How do you view Mike Napoli? Is he catcher or DH? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think he's a catcher. He thinks he's a catcher. He needs to go out and catch like a catcher. That is the frustrating part with Mike. We've seen it when he first came up. Absolutely I view him as a catcher, and I know he still feels he's a catcher. His ability to go out there and do the things behind the plate is really important to our club to get him to get the at-bats to be productive. Last year he got at-bats, but it was mostly as a first baseman or a DH. So he knows he has some work to do. He works very hard. It's obviously an important position for us. There is not a lot of depth if you look around catchers anywhere in baseball. For us to have a combination of guys that are really different players. Obviously, Jeff is more skilled defensively. Mike swings the bat a lot better. Bobby Wilson who is almost a blend, and Hank Conger coming, we have some depth there that you don't want to easily see evaporate. So, yeah, Mike is a catcher. It's important to our team that he can play at a level that he can behind the plate, because it definitely coordinates to how your pitching staff is going to function. We've talked about the pitching staff being the heartbeat of our club. We need those starters to have a guy back there that is doing what they need. Q. The way things are set-up now, Torrii goes into spring training in right field, right? MIKE SCIOSCIA: More like a right centerfielder, playing him kind of right center. Q. Like in softball? The rover? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah. Torrii is obviously getting acclimated to right field. I think the emotional break of playing centerfield is past him, but he would definitely go back to it if we needed him to. Again, part of our defensive problems last year was not anything that Torrii did, it was really the wing men playing the corners didn't have -- weren't playing with the range that we needed. So some gaps showed up. So Torrii's ability to play center is going to be enhanced with a little more range on his left and his right. I think that's why it's still a viable option for us. Q. Obviously it's way too early to put any hard and fast deadlines on it or anything like that, and Torrii obviously knows centerfield. Could you go the week before the season starts and make decisions and say, oops, Torrii, you're going back to centerfield? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Torrii's up for moving on a given day. He's up for saying, you know, we've got a weekend series. Torii you're going to play center on Saturday and right on Sunday or whatever, yeah. You know Torii. Torii will do anything to help the team. He's definitely comfortable with that and we'll see how lineups go. And how the season goes and what our needs will be to get the best lineup we can. Q. How confident are you guys that Erick can get to a level you want him to get to? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Aybar? Q. Yeah? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think Erick -- a number of reasons. A number of things happened last year. We might have put too much on him by putting him up in the top of the lineup, where I think he was obviously trying to do some things that maybe he wasn't quite ready to do. I think when he was settled in the bottom of the order in '09, he really blossomed. He has much more offense that he can bring than he showed last year. I think that he's -- especially the defensive side, can play at a high level. I expect a bounce back year for Erick, for sure. Q. What do you think he'll be hitting? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, depending on where our lineup is, hopefully he's grown from his experience last year and can maybe hit to set the table a little better up top. If he can't, he'll be hitting in the bottom of the lineup, 6, 7, 8, 9th somewhere in there. Q. Do you think you have your closer on staff now or do you expect something to happen? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think with the power arms that we have in the back end of our pen, I really feel that we're going to have a closer that is going to emerge. Fernando Rodney at the beginning of the season last year was light's out. He had a tough last month. You look at Kevin Jepsen with his stuff and Jordan Walden, hopefully their progress, I think you have the power arms there. Some young arms coming up, too, that are exciting. Also, we have a little balance now that might take some pressure off some of those guys and get those last outs. Maybe not having to use as many guys. Q. You don't view that as a need in terms of the outside, a closer? MIKE SCIOSCIA: No, I don't see it as a need. I think that there are guys out there that sure can make us better. But I think there are some other areas to right. If you're asking what areas we need, the offensive side of our game needs addressing. There are some guys that can make us better, but I wouldn't say that there is a glaring need right now. Q. You mentioned the Teixeira year when you didn't get him broken up. Are you confident that the fallback options are out there to satisfy the needs this time around? It seems like two years ago you came off a 100-win season, and -- MIKE SCIOSCIA: 97. Q. No. You were coming off 100. MIKE SCIOSCIA: Oh, with Teixeira? Q. When you were trying to resign him? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah, you're right, you're right. Q. Did you get that? MIKE SCIOSCIA: You were not wrong at this moment. You were not wrong this time. I think the biggest thing we're talking about is Kendry Morales. And if you're going to add Kendry Morales plus some of the guys that may be out there that are some of the high profile guys that you've been talking about, our offense is going to rebound. There is no question about it. Yeah, if you're not getting the high profile guys, some of the other guys, there is still depth out there that is going to make us a better club. I think it's what Tony's put a lot of time into. We've bounced a lot of names around. Q. Have you personally met with Carl Crawford? MIKE SCIOSCIA: No. Q. Do you intend to? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, if it's -- obviously, like any situation, guys you're trying to acquire on the free agent route have any questions about roles or trying to get an idea of a comfort level of a team, you're always open to hear from them. Tony's taking the lead on all of this and talking to guys and met with them. Q. Have you talked to him on the phone? Has he called you? MIKE SCIOSCIA: No. Q. Have you call him? MIKE SCIOSCIA: No. Q. You haven't talked to him on the phone? MIKE SCIOSCIA: No. Q. Really? What are you waiting for? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I said Tony's taking the lead. Q. Do you see him as a solution to the leadoff spot? He hasn't hit there in a while? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think every player out there brings a little different talent. Would it make us better offensively? I think the depth, if you were to acquire somebody like that, the depth that you create in your lineup and the ability to create runs when you get on base takes pressure off having to find that one table setter. If you acquire a guy like that, you have a number of table setters that are hitting before the heart of your order, whether a guy's hitting first, second or third. They need to get on base and create. So the fact that you're hitting one or two in the lineup is not that big of a deal. The difference is not that big of a deal. It's obviously bigger than 9-1, but 1-2 is not that big of a difference. Q. Abreu gives you flexibility there too? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Bobby can hit anywhere from first through fifth. Q. (Indiscernible)? MIKE SCIOSCIA: He's also one of the best guys there too. Q. Right. Is it crazy to think of him as depth for your team next year at 19 or 20? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think at some point if you just project where Mike's going to be, I know I'd personally be surprised if he's not on a depth chart somewhere sometime next season. Whether it's later in the year, doesn't mean he's going to get called up. Doesn't mean he's going to be in the big leagues. But his talent has risen very quickly, and I think that obviously, he's opened up a lot of eyes. When he's ready, he'll obviously get an opportunity. Right now the long season got to him a little bit last year. He got a little bit tired toward the second half of the season. There are a lot of things young players have to go from playing a certain amount of games to play 140, 160, plus hopefully playoff games. There is still growth on Mike. But he's a guy that we'll see where he is as we get into next season and later in the year. Q. Has he adapted as quickly as anybody you've seen? MIKE SCIOSCIA: He's been incredible. A kid coming out of high school, where he is now and playing at a high level. You're not going to see as many guys that put it together as quickly. The issue now is every level you're playing, you face tough pitching, tough competition. You need to make those adjustments. That's what Mike has to do to get going. End of FastScripts |
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