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NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: NATIONALS VS CARDINALSOctober 10, 2019Mike ShildtSt. Louis, Missouri - Workout Day THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. MIKE SHILDT: I wanted to address some of the postgame comments I made yesterday. You know, the clubhouse is a sanctuary that is very sacred, it's a private opportunity for us to be able to enjoy and celebrate. And yesterday, I got a great opportunity to have a moment with our team that is private, should have been private, and make sure they knew how proud of the accomplishments they have and moving forward, to our staff and our players. You know, I apologize if my language offended anyone. It's not something I like to represent, it's not to be excused, it's supposed to be a private moment. But I will say that I'm flawed, I have my moments. I grew up in a clubhouse and one of the crosses I bear is my language. So I have done a nice job over the many years of curbing that and trying to represent always this organization and myself in a positive light, with class and dignity. I feel like I've always done that. It was regretful that that was able to get out. I will not apologize for having passion about how I feel about our team and the accomplishments of our team. So I just want to get that out there. It's not anything I want to talk about moving forward, we got baseball to play. And as far as Randy goes, completely give Randy grace for, he was just excited. He's a great kid with a great heart, and like I said, grace moving forward for him and now, let's talk some baseball. Q. Do you have a Game 1 starter? MIKE SHILDT: We do. Miles Mikolas will start Game 1, Adam Wainwright will start Game 2, Jack Flaherty will start Game 3, Dakota will start Game 4. Dakota will start the series in the bullpen. Q. Anything you foresee changing roster-wise for this series, including how is Michael Wacha doing? What are the chances that he could be on the roster? MIKE SHILDT: We're going to -- I feel confident we're going to keep what looks like the same roster. Michael is healthy enough to likely to have been able to participate at some time in the series, but didn't want to compromise him or us. But his health is, he's in a really good spot, thankfully. Moving forward for him and we'll evaluate as we go. Q. Having Wainwright go 2, does that possibly set up 6, which would also be at home where he pitches pretty well? MIKE SHILDT: That's correct. Q. What does it mean for your lineup if you can get Fowler and Wong going at the top of it in front of Goldschmidt and Ozuna? MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, it's really important, we saw that yesterday. Dex set the tone with that walk, Kolten loved the bunt, something he can do on his own, did it, moved the runner, tried to get us an early lead. But it just sets those guys up. First of all, they can do all the different things on the bases, sets them up to make sure they continue to get pitched touch and then it just lengthens the lineup. Q. When you're in that moment and it's such an unpredictable place to be in with Flaherty, can you walk us through the decision of, hey, send him back out there and let him pitch as long as he did as many innings versus maybe trying to get him, I guess an additional start on short rest in this series and what were the costs and benefits of that analysis as you made it in realtime? MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, I think we don't want to -- we're, we scored 10, they're very capable of doing the same. So we're also in an environment, look, Donaldson hit the home run, that place came alive, the place was electric with the bases loaded when Freeman was up. So as far as -- the only real decision was after the 5th for Jack. But he was adamant, which I appreciated and more than willing to allow him the opportunity to go out and have a quick 6th, because he wasn't thrilled with how the 5th went. But we're also mindful of that being a 10- or 12-pitch inning, 15, probably max, which he was able to do. So beyond that, we want to respect the competition and we want to move forward without -- we want it make sure we're moving forward. So compromising Jack to save 20, 30 pitches and maybe come back on short rest just wasn't worth it and I think, I know we're in a good spot. Q. By ordering your starters with Miles and then Wano, he gets a little bit of extra rest and also will have two starts in home in theory, are those the compelling reasons that you put them in that order as opposed to the reverse? MIKE SHILDT: It was a part of it. We also kept the same order in which that we just got through participating in the previous series. So that was effectively how we thought about it. We talked about this and continue to look at our decision process and realize that we have got a lot of really good options. And so feel confident about Miles in Game 1, clearly, and Wano Game 2, and we'll forward from there. Q. Not in terms of you and your staff, but in terms of maybe story lines, do you feel like Miles has been lost in the shuffle maybe a little bit this year? And outside of the back of the baseball card numbers what steps have you seen from him in year two compared to year one? MIKE SHILDT: I think really the most important steps we have seen is more recent. He's really been the better version of himself to the best version of himself here in the last several starts and he's a guy that you know is going to go in and throw strikes and control counts and he's also used to pitching in bigger environments and enjoys it. So yeah, Miles potentially could be a little unsung, but he's not under appreciated for us. He's a big reason why we are here. Q. The Nats have a similar type of mojo as the Cardinals. When you look at that club and that organization, what do you see right now? MIKE SHILDT: You see a good ball team. There's no surprise to that. That's a team that for the last several years has been a very competitive, very good team. A lot of good players, deep starting staff. It's a complete team that is playing well and deserves to be in the same opportunity that we have and we're looking forward to the competition. Q. How do you prepare for a team that seems willing to at any time and at any point use a starter and maybe throw some, pardon the pun, curveballs in their usage. MIKE SHILDT: Listen, we're prepared for most any and all things that will come at us. So one of the advantages we'll have with that is we're familiar with their starters, we played them recently, they're guys that are established in the league, we got some guys that are also established that are familiar with them, so we'll just be prepared for whoever comes out of that bullpen to have a good game plan and we'll be ready to execute and compete. Q. From a story telling standpoint talk about the best version of Miles. Give some examples of that, what you see out there, maybe just interacting with him. MIKE SHILDT: Just see like in control of everything he's doing. I love the conviction of how Miles has competed, where pitch to pitch he's just throttled down and looking to execute that next pitch, staying in the moment. I really enjoyed his competition and how he's been able to execute his pitches. Q. You spoke to this briefly, but going into Atlanta, that was a team that you hadn't played in four and a half months. The Nats are a team that you saw two and a half weeks ago. What's the difference in terms of preparation, how that can affect things? MIKE SHILDT: Just a little more freshness to it. We were still aware of it, obviously, but you go four and a half months without playing somebody, you want to make sure you're revisiting what is going on and what they're doing and how they're currently playing and anything adjusted. But there's a little more familiarity having just played these guys, but we'll still do our homework and make sure all the I's are dotted and T's are crossed. Q. You guys did such a good job shutting down so many of the Braves big guns, do you attribute that to preparation and scouting or pitch execution? And how much, I guess, encouragement does that give you as you take on guys like Rendon and Soto in this series? MIKE SHILDT: A combination of those things. Mike Maddux, Brian Eversgerd do a really, really good job of their video analysis and their game plan of what they want to accomplish. And then they peel it back to working with Yadi, Wieters always has some wisdom to chime in on. We do use some of the analytical information, that helps what that looks like. But then we clearly have some clarity with our pitchers, our starters, and our relievers. And they do a really good job of being proactive with setting to what that looks up and how they want to execute their pitches. And then that's what it gets down to, going out, having that clarity of what they want to accomplish and then looking to execute and then make adjustments if needed. Not be blind just to say that this is the absolute way we're going to attack, because this is a game of adjustments. If somebody is doing something a little different, a little more aggressive or a little aggressive, cheating more in, whatever the case may be, we see it and we respond to it in realtime. Q. You've been with this from a franchise for a long time. Watching from afar at times seeing them in October, fan base was restless for this to happen again. What's your level of satisfaction to be a part of this at this level, to advance? And in the past, would you come around in October? Did you come to some of the games? MIKE SHILDT: Oh, yeah, very blessed to be able to come in and the organization brings you in when you get to the World Series, so I've been able to experience that from outside. But being inside is very, very, I mean, it's magical, it's everything you want it to be and everything that you hoped it would be and just enjoying it. And there's more work to be done, but we're going to enjoy what we're doing, but we're going to continue to move forward and we look to take care of business. Q. The Nationals lineup, how can you counter the right, left, right, left all the top of the lineup especially in the later innings? MIKE SHILDT: That's a good lineup. They're there for a reason. It is a staggered lineup. We have had similar lineups we faced recently. If you look at Chicago, they run a very staggered lineup there at you with switch hitters and right and left. You even look at the Braves lineup, it was fairly staggered and you know that there's going to be, even if they run a couple lefties, there's a spot where they are probably going to think about hitting for a guy, so you got to pick that matchup as well. So like I said, similar answer to the question earlier about how we evaluate our pitching. We just have, everybody's got a game plan for how we're going to attack them, it's our job as a staff, and my job to put guys in the best position as possible relative to all the moving parts of the game and what's going to happen as the game moves forward. But it's just about giving us the best opportunity to compete and then letting the guys go play. Q. Two questions one quick and more thematic. Michael Wacha, does he get some consideration for the roster in this round of the playoffs? MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, Michael gets consideration. It's just going to -- Michael's still at a build-up phase, and the great news is he threw a very aggressive bullpen yesterday, but it's just going to be difficult based on the time to get him in a spot where he can be on the roster potentially. But the good news for Michael, from just a physical standpoint, is he's in a good place. We'll ramp up his activity as we go and create an opportunity if it's there for him. Q. The second one: Yesterday I asked about the young pitchers. It's not just that they're available at this time, but they also had strong second halves. I wonder how much you trace that back maybe to the individual preparation they did, but also the planning and plotting that Maddux did in spring training? MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, the young pitchers, meaning like Jack and Dakota? Yeah, a lot of credit goes to a lot of people, ultimately the players, but Mad Dog, Mike Maddux, does, you know, he's, experience pays off on a lot of levels, but he's got the good experience. And he just has a real clarity of how he wants to build guys up, and there's an art to it, there's art and some science to it, but there's an art to figuring out what that looks like. The other part is there's a communication of what that looks like with the player, which he does a good job. We do, try to do the best job we can at talking to guys and see how they're feeling and creating an open dialog to where if they say, hey, I could use an extra day, they're not judged for it, we actually appreciate that. But them being able from spring training to take care of themselves, ultimately the credit goes to the pitchers. The young guys, being smart enough to listen to older guys like Miles and Wano and guys like that, to get some guidance from, but -- and Michael Wacha - does a good job of leading as well with that. And then just planning it out and knowing that it is a longer season. And while we always feel like, and we are in sprint mode, but it still, there's a marathon aspect to it as well and knowing making sure we're strong at the end of that marathon. Q. A cool aspect of this series is the fact that you guys tied for first for stolen bases. You and the Nationals. Can you describe the difference between the strategy of base stealing in the regular season and the postseason or is it pretty much the same? MIKE SHILDT: I don't know that it necessarily is too different. We're going to take our opportunities when they're presented, we're going to play the game. Like I said previously, last couple days over in some of the other press conferences, we know we're going to play to win, we're going to play the game, and if we have an opportunity, we'll seize it. Q. I know we asked you a lot about the Blues throughout the summer, but you got to watch them from up close here in this city go through a championship run and see what that meant to people here, as well as sort of see the support between the organizations. Are you sort of feeling now that from the fans here, and also sort of seeing what that support looks like when it's turned in your direction too? MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, I mean, I love this energy that takes place with the two organizations. I just appreciate the fact that both organizations look at it as a collective part of the city, and they're very supportive of each other and very sincere about that. I love that our players and the Blues players interact. I've enjoyed getting to get closer with Berube. As far as the fans go, listen, I can only speak for us, but we're, a big reason and excitement of what we're doing is to honor the, all the support we get on a lot of different levels from fans, not only locally, but we travel and Cardinal fans are everywhere. So we want to reward that. And I don't know if there's more to it because of the Blues. There's, we have a really great opportunity to have a special year in St. Louis. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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