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 The following are excerpts from Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon media availability from today's ALCS workout day at Tropicana Field.
Maddon on the ALCS pitching rotation:
Shields, Kazmir, Garza, and Sonny [Sonnanstine] set up for the fourth game. I’m only saying that way because there may be a situation where we want to use him earlier than that, we would not be opposed; if that were to happen maybe Shields would have to come back early. Theoretically perfect would be those four guys in a row. I just like it that way; it’s no different than the first round in a sense. Shieldsy [Shields] in the first game because he normally gets a little deeper in the game, Kaz [Kazmir] in the second game if he runs into bit of a pitch count problem you have the bullpen fresher. Day off and then of course the next two guys and listen Andy [Sonnanstine], we know about Garza, but Andy has done consistently well this last month or so I don’t want to subtract Andy out of the mix either. You could talk about a three man rotation, but we have really not sent up guys on less than normal rest we are not opposed to doing it if it needs to, but for right now theoretically perfect we are going to go that way.
Maddon on the ALCS roster:
We are going to have a meeting post-this-workout right now and we will get a little bit closer at that point. Still consideration for eleven pitchers, it’s possible we are still discussing all of that…I think the one thing you have to guard against in a seven [game series] whether you got one or even two games where you do have to utilize too much bullpen in a negative situation. You can’t emphasize enough how it is just one game at a time here and you really have to try to win or lose and just move on to the next day. If you have to suck up a lot of guys, you don’t want to utilize the meatier end of the bullpen. I think that is one area you have to be cognizant of protecting…This is just about this situation right now the LCS and we’re still considering that right now.
Maddon on Carl Crawford being healthy and hitting in the 5-hole:
Knowing that C.C. is well and he is able to go and everything is cool it does present a different thought…I like it. What it does, first of all, Aki [Iwamura] and B.J. [Upton] have done a fine job one and two, so you are always trying to set up your number four hitter because also Carlos [Peña] is a high on-base percentage guy all in front of Longo [Longoria]. I believe Carl is a very good RBI guy; he just missed two more points the other day on that groundball that Ramirez made the play on his left. RBI situation with two outs I like guys that don’t hit fly balls. Fly balls with two outs are normally caught, groundballs and line drives, when you have a runner in scoring position with two outs the more often you can stay on the ground or on the line is a better or higher percentage chance of driving in that run, unless you can hit the ball over the wall. Nevertheless I still like that thought, so Carl coming up behind those guys, I kind of like it for those reasons and if doesn’t work that way and he has to start the next inning then he’s going to set up six and seven [hitters] which I like because Navi’s [Navarro] done a nice job driving in runs, Carl can steal bases and he can get better pitches for the six-hole guy. I just like him in the middle of this whole thing right now, for me it tastes pretty good right now.
Maddon on what makes the Red Sox good in this situation:
Experience, been there done that, they understand how this part of the year works. After that you look at their personnel, their starting pitching, I think, is very good and they match-up well with us and we have to equally pitch with them in order to have a chance to stay these games. Offensively speaking the thing that I don’t think they are given enough credit for is that they are not just a bunch of bangers anymore. They play a pretty complete game, they have guys that you have to be concerned about running, they can hit-and-run now, they can hit for power now, I mean they are pretty balanced. I think we are very similar to them in a lot of respects now, where in the past one or two guys may run on occasion…They are more balanced so preparation for these guys entails a lot more thought than maybe it did a couple years ago, for me. You look at the season series what we’ve done against them here what they’ve done to us up there I think it was a pretty matched up situation right now. They have the edge in regard to experience and having been there before. Source: Boston Red Sox
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