NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS DODGERS

October 7, 2021

Gabe Kapler

Oracle Park

San Francisco Giants

Workout Day Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: First question for Gabe?

Q. I am guessing that this might be jumping the gun, but do you have a starting lineup yet potentially to give us?

GABE KAPLER: I don't have one to give you, but we have one.

Q. Never mind.

GABE KAPLER: This is so formal. I really want to go to the dugout. Whatever. It's fine. (Laughing).

Q. Last night after the game Dave Roberts said that there's a lot of similarities between these two teams, specifically in how you pursue advantages and matchups. How much cross-pollination is there with you and Farhan having come over?

GABE KAPLER: I think it's kind of less about any cross-pollination and more about just two teams who are trying their hardest to be competitive and find edges, but understanding that those aren't always available. I think it's much more about, coincidentally, some of the better teams around the game right now are approaching it similarly and less about kind of where we've been. That's my take on it.

Q. What's your relationship with Dave Roberts been like over the years dating back to the time that you guys played together in Boston and your time together in the Dodger organization, and also, kind of what was it like kind of going through that managerial thing with the Dodgers with him as the other kind of main candidate?

GABE KAPLER: I really like Doc. Obviously known him for a really long time, saw him be an extraordinary teammate in Jacksonville. We played, we were teammates in Double A. And then again obviously with the Red Sox and saw him steal one of the biggest bases in the history of baseball to some degree, but definitely in the history of the Red Sox.

Then kind of watching him throughout the rest of his career, playing against him, ultimately seeing him in San Diego, and then watching him develop in L.A., yeah, I just think he works really hard and cares a lot.

And I think one thing that stands out to me is when I watch Doc managing games he's very intense and very emotional and very invested and I respect all of that.

Q. Webb over Gausman. I read that you decided just giving Gausman a little bit more time and his velo is a little bit higher with five-plus rest days. How do you prepare a 24-year-old for his first career postseason start?

GABE KAPLER: I think, as a group, I think the preparation comes kind of in the form of conversations with his teammates, first and foremost. Curt Casali and Buster Posey are two of the more prepared catchers in baseball and there's no question that they're going to be having conversations with Logan.

So what I'll say is, he's going to be prepared because his teammates are getting him ready, and obviously the coaching staff will do the same.

One other thing that I would share is last night we played a poker tournament and watched the Dodgers and the Cardinals play and there was two tables and the second table was the final of two tables in a poker tournament, and Logan and I were sitting next to each other. He was super thoughtful about watching the game, asking a lot of questions. Mike Yastrzemski was there as well. He wasn't playing, but he was just kind of watching our poker game and then also watching the game itself, and both of those guys were asking a lot of questions.

So I think preparation comes in a lot of shapes and sizes. One way is to kind of watch the opposition, watch a game last night, so that's one way he'll be prepared.

Q. How bad did you want that game to go to extras?

GABE KAPLER: I mean, I was definitely invested in the game, definitely invested in the outcome, but also invested in the poker game, and at that point one, of our front office employees, he and I had about a similar stack of chips, and at that point, I started getting blinded out, so the blinds started going up and my chip stack was going down a little bit, so that's how invested I was in an extra innings game.

Q. Logan was talking about he felt the intensity of the end of the year game, never felt that before. He likened it to his first start in high school football. What about just how he carries himself, how he likes anticity, I mean, he's a quarterback. What about that makes him ready for a Game 1?

GABE KAPLER: The quarterback stuff matters. I've seen some really good players over the years have that experience. J.T. Realmuto comes to mind. I think it's no surprise that Brandon Crawford has that really calm presence on the field and nothing seems to rattle him. I think that in part comes from being in the huddle.

Logan's a pretty confident dude and he thrives when he is prepared, and so I mean being a quarterback, you have to prepare for a lot of different things. Defenses, of course, but also knowing your own personnel.

So yeah, I think some of that, it shows up in his pre-game study, in his preparation, but it also shows up in his confidence level. It's tough to kind of run an offense, even at the high school level, and not have a high degree of confidence.

Q. We're always so curious what it's like for players to go to their first postseason, but this is your first postseason as a manager. How do you compare and contrast since you do know what that's like as a player?

GABE KAPLER: Yeah, I think that being a player in those situations is really helpful. I definitely don't want to say that it's an advantage because there's a lot of people who played in the postseason.

So earlier today Matt was kind of saying, Hey, there's going to be a lot of media tomorrow. And I think normally our sessions are somewhere in the like half an hour to 45 minute range all in. Tomorrow it might be more like an hour and 15 minutes. Not that that's the only part of the postseason, but it is part of the responsibilities of a manager to extend some of the obligations in that way.

So my point is that as a player you get to know that a little bit, right? You get to know the bigger group of media. Even something as simple as the way we're doing our pre-game stuff right now. I know this is more of an official media day. But still, like, we have been doing all of our sessions in the dugout and this is a little bit different.

So just understanding that things are going to be a little bit different. There's going to be additional umpire. We're going to get two challenges. Like, little things like that are just part of the equation.

From a game strategy standpoint, there are some nuances to consider about the postseason, probably most notably extra innings. Probably going to manage games and play games very similarly to the way we did during the regular season and we're having our, we had our advance meeting today, very similar to the way we had our advance meetings during the season. Hitters' meeting this afternoon. We're going to try to do things the same way.

That doesn't mean that we're not making process adjustments along the way. We are. And we're not like accounting for some of the things that may be a little bit different in the postseason. But we're trying, and I think are successfully attacking this with just keeping things pretty similar.

I guess the one other thing -- this is the thing that I think becomes easier in the postseason is the rest. We probably know that most of our pitchers are going to be up on a daily basis. We know that we don't have to account for position players resting unless there's something physically happening with them.

So Buster may catch most of our postseason games and we don't feel like we have to be too concerned about Craw wearing down. Wilmer Flores and Donovan Solano and Tommy La Stella, just to name a few, during the season we pushed them for long stretches, and sometimes I think at the end of those stretches they were pretty gassed. So this actually, the built-in off-days in the postseason make some of the things that we're, maybe a little bit specific to our roster slightly easier and so I guess I'm looking forward to those things too.

Q. Then with that perspective in your answer, do you have, do you look back at your manager when you were in the playoffs differently as to what he had on his plate now that you're, that you have this?

GABE KAPLER: Sure. I mean, I guess I hadn't thought about it yet, but now that you're mentioning it, I can think about some of those managers and some of the things that they had going on in addition to just doing the things in between the lines.

But I don't -- I'll just say this, I'll speak for myself. It doesn't feel overwhelming in any way. It feels like the day's just going to start a little bit earlier and we're just kind of looking forward to playing exciting intense playoff-caliber baseball.

Q. Can you disclose who won the poker tournament and your placing in this tournament?

GABE KAPLER: I don't think it's giving anything away. Yeshayah Goldfarb won the tournament and I was, I came in second. He beat me heads-up.

Q. Was there any method to, like you wanted them, the players, involved in something different or in a mental game or in having a poker game or was it just because you wanted to do?

GABE KAPLER: Zero strategy, all fun.

Q. You mentioned Buster and potential playing time. Is there a chance he could start every postseason game?

GABE KAPLER: I think that's a possibility. Obviously -- I haven't specifically talked to Buster about this so I think that's an important part of this process. Sometimes I say that everything on the table, is on the table. I would say this is a step beyond that, right? Like if assuming he's healthy, strong, feeling good, I don't see any reason why, I don't think we have to plan out every postseason game, but I think he's a great choice to be in as many lineups as possible.

Q. And you mentioned yesterday, and kind of alluded to it today, that you thought you would learn something about your possible opponent by watching that game last night. What did you learn about the Dodgers? You faced them so many times this year. Did you learn anything new?

GABE KAPLER: A few little things. Yeah, I mean, mostly you're kind of watching for usage and things like that, but not just usage, like base running things, and so this isn't like some covert operation or anything like that. It's just probably not things that I would bring up in this setting.

Q. Given all the factors the rivalry between these two teams, the amount of times you played, and how intense those series were this season, how much of a battle are you expecting this series to be that will really push your players and your staff?

GABE KAPLER: I think it's going to be very intense, similar to the games that we played during the regular season with the Dodgers, similar to the last couple of games of the season when the National League West was on the line, similar to some of the rather intense moments throughout the year but probably elevated just a little bit.

I think the good thing about having had those experiences with our players, with our staff, and then between the lines, is that it does prepare you for what happens in the postseason. It's not the same thing of like having been, Dodgers were in the World Series last year and they won the World Series last year. It's a different kind of experience.

But the kind of experience that I would point to is what Camilo Doval had in Colorado earlier in this year when he struggled to throw some strikes and fell behind in counts and got beat up a little bit and did that to some degree in some consecutive outings. Had to get sent down to Triple A in the middle of the season, work on some things, come back, and then when he came back he was better for having had those experiences in the middle of the year, some very emotional experiences and ones that I think taught him some valuable lessons.

So you can take that anecdote with Camilo Doval and expand that out across like our entire roster and many players that have been in Triple A this year and they could share similar experiences, not, they're not all perfectly analogous, but you get my point, I think. They, they're all better for having been in those moments.

Q. One quick follow-up for you. Longo just said that he would like to see the playoffs restructured. It's kind of disappointing that a 106- or 107-win team will end up going home after the Division Series. What is your take on that?

GABE KAPLER: I have been, I'll be pretty consistent with this, as I have been all year. I think our job -- I respect Longo's view on it, glad he expresses his view on it openly.

My position, and I just genuinely believe this, is we want to be good with whatever the rules are. I just don't personally have a lot of time and energy to be like thinking about how the rules could be better. It doesn't mean that I don't have them in side conversations. I just don't, I haven't had the energy to be thoughtful about them in the way that I would want to have that conversation. So I'm just more, this is what we have right now and we've got a lot right in front of us.

Q. What do you appreciate about what Albert Pujols is doing at age 41 and what goes through your mind when that guy steps in the batters box and just the presence he has?

GABE KAPLER: Yeah, I mean, I guess Susan asked about what we learned last night and watching Pujols walk up to the plate in a big moment in a tie game, he just looks kind of dangerous. He's like -- we've talked a little bit about experience here -- the experience that he's had in those situations, I just thought to myself, like, I wonder if his heart's beating fast at all. And we talked a lot about that too in recent days about how when your heart's beating fast and you're feeling some nerves you're feeling some adrenaline how helpful it is to be able to channel that into like focus and sometimes even bat speed. I just kept asking myself, like, I wonder how Albert is feeling right now. I imagine he felt pretty good about his chances. So every time I look over at the other dugout and see Albert Pujols standing there I'm like, damn, the guy's like one of the greatest players that ever lived and he's also having a really good year, particularly against left-handed pitching. A different kind of year, of course, but he's still super dangerous and I obviously have a lot of respect for what he's accomplished in his career.

Q. You've got guys like Posey and Crawford and Longoria, with their postseason experience. First, how do they help you with getting buy-in with this group in the beginning and how can they help you in your first postseason experience as a manager?

GABE KAPLER: So I think all of veteran players, Posey, Crawford, Bell, Longoria, Cueto, Kevin Gausman, just to name a few and could probably go on and on, were very receptive and very open to practicing a little bit differently at the outset. And what I would also say, and this is true for some of our younger players, they were very hungry and beginning to raise the bar for themselves or challenge themselves. I think at that point, because we had that opening, we were able to support what those veteran players' initiatives were and goals were. And that's it. At every turn we have tried to just kind of listen to what they're trying to accomplish and what's on their mind and then be responsive. And that's it. It's not -- to answer your question directly, it was very important that they open the door for us and continue to leave that door open. I think in large part it's part of the reason that they have been so successful, because they have been, they have been driving towards their goals.

Q. Is Jake McGee definitely on the playoff roster and if so how would you anticipate using him?

GABE KAPLER: I'm confident that Jake will be on the playoff roster. Definites will come when we announce our roster.

Q. As far as how you might use him?

GABE KAPLER: He could be used in a variety of roles. Obviously Jake has pitched in some of the biggest moments of our season, Jake had an awesome year last year for the Dodgers, which is in part why he fit us so well this year. And outside of this little blip with the oblique, he's been healthy and he's been, he's bounced back well, so I could see him be used in a variety of different roles and I think he's going to be open to any of those in the postseason.