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NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: CARDINALS v BREWERS

October 12, 2011

Ron Roenicke

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: Game Three

Q. It would appear that you're willing to trade some defense for offense in center field today. Is that a fair assessment of how you came up with the lineup?
RON ROENICKE: Yeah, I think it is. I think Kotsay going in there, I always feel good when Kotsay is in the lineup. He's especially when we start him, he seems to have a big day, something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good.
I think, too, if Nyjer had been swinging the bat well, I wouldn't have even thought about this, but I think it's the right thing to do here.

Q. Does having Yovani on the mound allow you to sacrifice a little bit of defense for offense because of the way that he pitches?
RON ROENICKE: Yo it certainly adds to it. But I don't think that's -- that's not really the reason. I really didn't think about that when I was doing it.

Q. Does the forecast make you nervous at all about Yo, or what have they told you to avoid using him for an inning and then losing him?
RON ROENICKE: Joe Garagiola is here. He's talking with Bud Selig, and they are discussing what they want to make sure to stay away from. That's their concern is they do not want the starting pitcher to start this game, and then pitch an inning or two and then have an hour-and-some delay. I know you can't predict that all the time, but really, this is the main concern on what to do with this game, which certainly it is for me, too.
So they have brought in a bunch of people to look at the radar. They are meeting at 5:00. They will meet again after that. I think probably if we get to about the 6:30 mark is really an important time when -- if we are going to start this thing on time and what we are going to do. Because you get farther than that, and we run into a situation where we ran into this year, where both starters were warmed up and walking off the field and we had an hour-and-a-half delay.
Something I'm sure the Yankee-Detroit game had something to do with that and what happened. So those are tough calls, because there's some times when -- right now it looks like it's drizzle, but something can happen later on where it builds up more.

Q. It's kind of a goofy notion and one that your GM has tossed around from time to time, whether in jest or seriousness, but if it looked like a situation where you had to start and then have to stop, would you consider putting someone else in for an inning or two and then bringing Yovani back after a possible delay?
RON ROENICKE: That's really a tough call. I think it makes sense. If you have a good report, I think it makes sense. But boy, that's really a tough call, to depend on somebody reading a radar and letting you know what's happening, when you know that radar can change a lot.
So in theory, very good, but I just don't know if that's too practical for us to do that.

Q. Is that part of the home-field advantage in Milwaukee where you can just manage the baseball and you don't have to worry about the meteorological effects, you or the players or anybody?
RON ROENICKE: Are you talking about us at home with the roof? Oh, absolutely. I've talked about it a lot this year, and I didn't know that I would be talking about it at all when I first came over, because I had never been in a dome before, and being out in Anaheim where we don't have to worry about rain.
It's huge. I can't imagine how many delays or cancelled BP or cancelled games there would have been this year if we didn't have that dome. It allows me to plan on whatever I want to plan on, it's going to happen that day, which is great for a manager.

Q. There's been some cold or flu or some kind of bugs going around. Has any of that stuff gotten into your clubhouse or is anybody feeling it? Looked like Cory might have been feeling a little under the weather.
RON ROENICKE: Cory was a couple of days ago. We had a couple of guys, a couple of coaches that are getting that bug, whatever it is. But I don't think -- it's not a big issue right now. But there have been a couple guys.

Q. Any important players?
RON ROENICKE: Cory, I just know Cory was bad there for a bit. But nobody else that I know.

Q. Obviously you guys are a pretty extroverted team. Does that make itself relevant in the sort of brand of baseball you play or the way you play? Do you feel like you're sort of a team that is risk-taking in any way?
RON ROENICKE: Well, I want them to be that way as far as on the field; I want them to take risks. I want them to push it. I want them to try to put pressure on the other team in all areas of the game: Baserunning, offensively swinging the bat, pitching I want them to be aggressive.
So I like that aggressiveness in a player. I like them always worried about making plays and taking advantage of something that comes up versus worried about, oh, I can't go here because I may get thrown out or I'd better not make this pitch because if he hits it for a home run, we are in trouble. I don't want them thinking that way. So everything we do, we do with the purpose of trying to get them to be positive thinking about what they are going to do in a situation that's going to happen now, not worrying about what would happen last inning or a week ago or whatever.
So I think that thinking and that style, I'm hoping that runs over into the field and the way we play.

Q. There's a story that's come out now about perhaps your players dealing with another distraction having to do with their family and where they are being seated. How do you as a manager control those peripheral things that come up out of nowhere?
RON ROENICKE: Are you talking about the seating here? It's there. You know, and it was a little bit of concern. I think they cleaned it up okay. I don't know exactly.
But you know, it's little distractions that certainly I don't want players to have to worry about. They have got enough issues with thinking about the game and what they were going to do.
But I don't think -- I really haven't heard much, so I don't think it's -- I don't think it's a big issue.

Q. You've got Wolf lined up for tomorrow. Given what is the trend of his season here down the stretch, what sort of issues or is your approach to kind of getting him to reverse his course?
RON ROENICKE: Well, I guess it goes against what I just said, but I'd rather him look back at his last start that he had in here. He had a pretty good start.
So I think it was his last one here. I know he had a really good game here. I don't know if it was last one or the one before that. Pitchers, they get into situations where it's not just looking at stuff. It's looking at command; it's looking at the lineups they are facing.
Wolfy is a guy that when his command is good, it doesn't really matter where he's pitching or what offense he's pitching against. He has to have that good rhythm, that good feeling that allows him to command the baseball. And not just command it, but the dexterity to be able to take something off his pitches, to be able to throw a slow curveball, throw his changeup when he needs to.
I think it's more him just trying to be more relaxed. He gets pretty keyed up at times, just being relaxed and getting into the rhythm that he has had really good success with against a lot of different teams.

Q. You mentioned that 6:30 mark being a really important one as far as tonight's game and how it goes with a delay or not. Is that also the mark at which you kind of determine your starting pitchers, to go warm up if the expectation is that you will play, or is there another point in which you'll wait to tell him to get started?
RON ROENICKE: They will let us know if we are starting on time; whether it's 6:30, 6:15, I don't know exactly that time.
But when we get to that point where he has to go down there and start warming up, we need to know for sure if we are going to start this game on time or there's some kind of weather coming through at the time where we are going to hold back your pitcher a little bit or wait, whatever it's going to be, 15 minutes, half an hour, sometimes it's an hour.
Really it's the information that I get from Garagiola who is getting it from their grounds crew and whoever the meteorologist that they brought in to be the expert in this thing.

Q. We forgot to ask you yesterday, or maybe someone did, did you get to know Gary VandenBerg this year? I know he was absent a lot because of his illness. Did you get to know him and did you have anything to say about him, and also about wearing the patches on the uniforms, what you think about that?
RON ROENICKE: I know that Doug (Melvin) called me, and that's what we wanted to do as an organization. I did not get to know Gary very well this year. Certainly had many conversations with him. But unfortunately because of being sick this year, he wasn't around as much as he usually is.
When he came in, he would sit on the bench for a little bit. We would have a short discussion. But we have told the players, we mentioned to them yesterday about what happened, and today why we are wearing the patch.
Hey, he was with the organization for a long time. The people that knew him well -- like I say, I really didn't get to know him that well, but had a lot of respect for him and what he has done for the club, and as a person, too.

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