NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PADRES v BRAVES

October 12, 1998

John Schuerholz

JOHN SCHUERHOLZ: How do we explain the fact that we only have one ring from postseason in the face of all of our success during the season? We have more than one ring. We have several National League Championship rings. I can't explain that. I don't know that anyone can. In a short series, sometimes the depth and the breadth of your club isn't shown. Sometimes teams outplay you in short series, as has happened in the past. Sometimes you don't play at your very best, as happens periodically in the game of baseball, as you all know. Baseball teams can sometimes be at their very best for a short period of time or extended period of time, 10 games, 15 games, then all of a sudden hit a wall and not be able to do the things they clearly are capable of doing. Our feeling has been about -- with respect to hitting those spots in the road. But the team has been, over these eight years, the team, I think, has been capable of being a legitimate postseason team, legitimate League Championship team, and in some cases even a World's Championship team. We've only won one, but we've put ourselves with the talent and the commitment and the leadership with Bobby and such that we're there every year, just about. We feel good about that. The continuity of that success -- we're obviously disappointed that we haven't achieved more of the ultimate goal of our industry than just the one.

JOHN SCHUERHOLZ: The answer to that is yes. The answer to that is yes. The answer is yes: We feel like we're one of the class organizations in baseball, not because we feel it, but because so many of you have said it and indicated that. And we're proud of that. But we also feel there is sort of the unfinished symphony. Unless we reach our goal to be World Champions, or get in the World Series, I guess the standard is higher than most, because getting to the World Series isn't enough, unless we win the World's Championship, we're not satisfied. So we're proud of the fact that we put ourselves in that position each year, and have done so now for these eight years, which is really remarkable, when you think about that in this environment in which we work, in this crazy economic system in which we're forced to operate to be able to continually keep a winning team. We've done it and no organization has done it. We're proud of it but we're not satisfied when we don't get in the World Series or win a World Championship. We've gotten in before and lost, and it hasn't been satisfactory.

JOHN SCHUERHOLZ: I have heard that talk, and I heard it yesterday. It doesn't make any sense to me. Because I don't know how anyone can make that kind of criticism and lose sight of the fact that we just won 106 games. We set a franchise record for wins. We won more games than anyone in the National League. We won our division by a wide margin. And if the team was unbalanced, I don't know that we could have achieved those things to that extent. I doubt we could have. What does happen at the end of the year is that teams that you're playing are very good, as well. And they are usually at the very top of their game, emotionally, physically, and all of that. And that is more the reason I think for whatever perceived lack of success we've had than the fact that our roster may be unbalanced. I don't know if there's another general manager in baseball that you can ask the question: Would you like to have your roster balanced like the Braves or some other way, they would not say we will not take the way the Braves have theirs balanced. We're satisfied with our concentration and our focus and our emphasis has been on pitching. Admittedly so. We've had a great deal of success. In 1995 we found ourself in a very similar situation as we find ourselves in today, down 3-1 in the League Championship Series. But because of the commitment we made to the outstanding high-caliber starting pitching we have, those guys were -- allowed us to prevail and win the League Championship. So we feel that's a good investment. We still like that philosophy. It's served us very well throughout the regular season and for the most part in postseason. And I don't expect we're going to alter that philosophy.

JOHN SCHUERHOLZ: With respect to finding a closer, the market is limited because there are so few of the dominant closers in the game. There are ordinarily more starters. The field of choice is much greater for starters than it ordinarily is for dominant premiere closers. So that's how you start out with that situation. And the very few, if you want to narrow it down to even one that might have been available, was very expensive. And at the same time, we were experiencing acceptable production and productivity and performance from our young closers. They hadn't been proven and weren't experienced, but we weren't motivated by lack of performance in that area or concern in that area. We were motivated by trying to strengthen ourselves in that area that's important. If we had seen these guys trying to do the job and struggle, we might have been more willing to be more aggressive in that attempt to acquire a closer. We didn't feel that, to be very candid with you. We made some inquiries and made some attempts, but we didn't feel it appropriate to give up what the cost was with respect to our future and the umpires in our organization with the job our guys were doing. And so far, I think that's fairly well proven out.

JOHN SCHUERHOLZ: No, not really. We evaluate in a very thorough, and some would suggest methodical fashion. That's the way I think you have to do it. If you get caught up in emotion and short-term evaluations, you make more mistakes than if you evaluate over a longer period of time. And that's what we do. We have evaluations provided every year. I have meetings with Bobby and the coaches and they evaluate from the inside viewpoint of what this team looks like, what it's strengths and weaknesses are, what changes they may sense are necessary. We have scouts who look at the team from outside, in. And then we evaluate all those, balance them and analyze them and make our evaluations. But we don't make any decisions based on a short-term series, or something as emotional as a devastating loss like in a short series like this would be. We don't do that.

JOHN SCHUERHOLZ: I think in a short series, it's diminished. If the team has more money to spend, and spends it wisely, by the way, that they will have more of an opportunity to win more games, if they do their jobs right with that resource, that money that they have. In a short series, I don't think -- it doesn't matter as much. I think anybody can get hot for a three- or four-game period or five-game period or whatever, and it would counteract whatever long-term effect an impact that a team with more money would have against a team with less resources.

JOHN SCHUERHOLZ: The answer to that goes back to the question of starting pitching before. We've committed so much money to our starting pitchers -- the question had to deal with do we think we can come back from the deficit we've created for ourselves. And the answer I feel is yes. Referring back to an answer I gave earlier, in 1995, we were down 3-1 to the Cardinals. And the reason I feel we can do it then is the same reason I felt we could do it now, and the reason is simple: Smoltz and Glavine and Maddux. If there's any team who has the capability of fighting themselves out of such a deep hole like we're in, it is a team like outs with those caliber pitchers scheduled to pitch for us, if we get the opportunity to play all three games. I couldn't feel any better about an effort to try to overcome a deficit like this than I do, because of the fact that we have those pitchers going for us.

JOHN SCHUERHOLZ: I think it's better. I really do. I think it's more balanced. We have a greater left-handed, right-handed balance in our line-up. We were first in the National League this year in homeruns. I think we were second in runs scored; so we scored a lot of runs. We have a very capable offensive team. And we're facing a very good pitching staff right now, which, in the immortal words of Greg Maddux: "Good pitching usually defeats good hitting." And that's what we've seen so far. Our guys broke out of it last night, and hopefully they'll keep it going. But in my view we, clearly have enough offense to win those three games, if we hit like we're capable of hitting.

JOHN SCHUERHOLZ: I'll be honest. I really haven't focused on that. We're still focusing on trying to win this League championship Series. And when we have the final analysis of our team with that outside-in view with our scouts, and we begin to analyze and evaluate, we'll have a better feel for what we might want to do to adjust our roster for next year. We haven't gotten there yet. We're still very proud and very happy with the results of this season, having won 106 games. And there really isn't an area of concern that we had coming into the postseason, based on the way the club was playing, and the way they played throughout the 106 game schedule.

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