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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: TIGERS v RANGERS

October 7, 2011

Jim Leyland

ARLINGTON, TEXAS: Workout Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Jim.

Q. Hey, Jim. I know last night will be a game you'll always treasure, but can you walk us through the procedure of moving on and how you turn from last night to the future?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I think we're still winding down. We probably wouldn't even be here today if it wasn't mandatory, to be honest with you. I probably would have given a day off. We didn't get to the hotel till 20 to 6, 5:30 this morning.
People got confused on the time so they were calling me at 8:00. I had only been in bed for half an hour. That wasn't too good.
This is a responsibility and we're out here to try to take care of you guys. You do move on. I think there's some -- and I don't mean -- I think there's emotional hangovers, not the hangovers maybe you guys think there may be. More emotional and draining hangovers than anything else.

Q. Hi, Jim. What can you tell us about when we might see Delmon Young in the lineup.
JIM LEYLAND: He's being evaluated right now. Our doctors are here and they're doing an evaluation on him. We'll see if they have to take any further steps than just an evaluation. We're hoping not. He actually felt better last night, later.
But we'll just have to play that one by ear. I really don't have any information for you at this time. As soon as we get that, I'll be glad to give it to you. We don't have any. I just saw Dr. Lemos. He's in there now with him. They're waiting for him. We'll have to see how that plays out.

Q. I was curious, after most of a lifetime spent in baseball, what it is that you still love about the game.
JIM LEYLAND: The competition. That's the thing that's always motivated me. I wasn't -- everybody asks me if it was my dream to be a Major League manager. No, I never fulfilled my dream. My dream was to be a Major League player. The next best thing was this, obviously.
But I love the competition. That's what sports is all about. Sports is about competing, and we're going to be playing the defending American League Champion, a team that beat the team that we beat last night. They beat them last year. They're really good. It will be great competition. And when you get down to the final four, like this, everybody is really good. The team we played last night was real good. The team they beat was real good.
So it's all about competition. It's all about having the opportunity to manage the best players in the world and to manage against the best players in the world. It's a lot of fun.

Q. Jim, is there any insight you can lend to us about the playoff row -- the pitching rotation throughout this round. And if there's any playoff rosters differences?
JIM LEYLAND: We are going to discuss our roster. I'll give you my pitching rotation. There's no secrets this time of the year. I don't worry about -- we're going to start Verlander tomorrow. Then we're going to start Porcello. Then we're going to start Fister. And then Scherzer. And then Verlander again at home. And if it would go six or seven it will be Porcello and Fister.
Obviously, some of that is because of what we had to do in the last day or so. But there's no secret to that. I'm not trying to -- once in a while if you don't know who you are playing or something, you might have to hold off. There's no sense of holding it off. I'll give it to you guys and you don't have to bug me the rest of the time. It makes it easier for me and it makes it easier for you.

Q. Just back to the situation with Delmon, what's the plan B if he can't go on Saturday?
JIM LEYLAND: That's something that my general manager and my coaches and I will be discussing when I leave this room. We really haven't discussed that yet. We do have -- I will say plans B, not plan B. We have plans B. We're going to discuss that after I leave this room. We'll get everybody in and talk about it.

Q. Just a secondary question about Fister, that little pitch that he has that twists away from a left-handed hitter, in the back of the day you would call it a screwball. What do you call it now? Because that was very effective.
JIM LEYLAND: It's just a fastball that runs in. He has one that goes both ways. That's one thing he's been good at. He's been able to stay out of the middle of the plate with a cutter and actually a reverse cutter almost, so to speak.
One thing I was remiss last night. I wanted to mention, and I hope for the Detroit writers in particular, Jeff Wetherby and Scott Pleis were advanced scouts for that New York series and they did a wonderful, wonderful job.
Please get their names in the papers because they deserve it. They did one heck of a job advancing with us with the Yankees. They had a lot of great information for us. I was so excited last night to be honest with you I forgot to mention them. They did a great job.

Q. Jim, you obviously had to demand a lot of your bullpen, especially Valverde and Benoit. How do you -- does that have any effect on these -- especially Game 1 or going forward as far as how you use them?
JIM LEYLAND: No, I don't think so. I think the bullpen -- more of the bullpen will be used in this series in a little bit different ways than it was with the Yankees to be honest with you.
I guess you'll have to wait and see that as the series goes on. You'll probably see what I mean. I'm not really ready to disclose that yet. The bullpen will probably be used a little bit different than it was in the Yankee series.

Q. Personnel-wise?
JIM LEYLAND: There will be more people involved.

Q. Personnel-wise will it be the same people?
JIM LEYLAND: To my knowledge, yes. I don't foresee us making any changes with the pitching staff.

Q. Jim, just in hindsight, can you provide maybe a little bit more insight into your decision not to pitch Verlander? Did you have concerns about his health, maybe, a little bit with you mentioned all the pitches he threw at 100 miles-an-hour or was it more than him not being right, maybe? What kind of did you go through when you made that decision?
JIM LEYLAND: I thought that was basically a common-sense decision. And I think there were also some combinations that played in that. Scherzer won two games at Yankee Stadium this year. Scherzer was more rested than Verlander. He had been very successful at Yankee Stadium. He pitched a great game in the first game that we won at Yankee Stadium. He was more rested.
Verlander was real assertive in the game he pitched. He was throwing 100 miles-an-hour in the eighth inning.
That's real dangerous. The combination that was a no-brainer. That was one that had it not worked out, the world was going to second-guess me. I don't jeopardize any pitcher or player's health under any circumstances. I won't do it. It's not going to happen. You can take it to the bank. Other people can feel how he wanted to pitch, he volunteered to pitch.
But that's why you're the manager. You make those decisions, and sometimes they are popular decisions, and sometimes they're unpopular decisions, but you try to make the right decision.

Q. Jim, you've lived at both ways with the bullpen, mix and match at the end of games and what you have now, Benoit, Valverde for the last five or six outs. What are the virtues for you of having it this way versus the other way?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, whenever you have a top notch closer and a top notch setup guy, to be honest with you, it's a big relief for the manager. You hate to look at it like this, but it eliminates the second-guessing.
I'm not answering questions why I brought this guy or that guy. Nobody is going to question last night when we had a one-run lead in the ninth inning in Yankee Stadium why I brought in Valverde.
If you're picking and choosing and you have to mix and match, that's a little bit of a different story because if it doesn't work out, it's why didn't you use this guy? Why did you use that guy? It takes a load off your mind emotionally. You don't have to worry about it. That's probably the biggest advantage plus they're really good. That's what you try to get to, the consistent set-up guy as well as a closer.
We're in a seven-game series now. It's a little bit different. So you're going to have to extend your bullpen a little bit, and more guys are going to need to contribute for us to be successful.

Q. Jim, batting in front of Miguel, how much has that helped Delmon Young to produce?
JIM LEYLAND: That was the first thing he told me when he got here. I told him he was going to hit third. I said, are you okay with that? He said yeah, are you kidding me? Hitting in front of Miguel Cabrera. I'm really happy with that. It's worked out well for us. He extended our lineup a little bit. Magglio is swinging good.
I think one of the notes you might be interested in knowing for this series is it's actually pretty good, because some of our right-handers all of a sudden are going to come into play more. The Inges and the Raburns because of the staff that they have with Holland and Wilson.
Now it's their time to step up and do a little something. I thought the lefties did a good job for the most part. So that's kind of an interesting side note for me.
We're going to be utilizing our whole roster. That's a good thing.

Q. Jim, in the LCS last year, Josh Hamilton obviously made his impact well-known. You guys, when you faced him this year one time, Hamilton wasn't really in the lineup for the series, in the third time Beltre wasn't in the lineup for the entire series. Facing these guys right now, does what Adrian did in the last couple of games of the Division Series have any impact on how you approach Josh?
JIM LEYLAND: No, but I think that's a great point. You can forget the season series, the fact that we won that, because of just the point the gentleman made. We may have missed a couple of star players. Certainly that had something to do with it. You can throw that out of the window. This is a tremendous team, a very versatile team. I like that team. It's very versatile, left, right. Got some speed, got some power. Got a very creative manager who is probably untouched in motivational tactics.
So we know all that. I remind everybody like I did in New York, we're pretty good too. It should be a real good series. Obviously, the best two teams, or the teams that played the best are here. That's the way it should be. We know we have our work cut out. I saw the three home runs against Tampa. Pretty impressive. In fact, very impressive.
But it's a versatile team. It's got some nice pieces, some speed, power, lefty, righty. They're really good. And we think we're good too. Hopefully we'll put on a good show for you. Both of the teams.

Q. So than obviously your lineup for Saturday's is contingent on what you learn about Young?
JIM LEYLAND: That would be correct. I would give it to you if I could. I can't give you my lineup because I don't know if Delmon will be available or not. Obviously that will change things. You can figure that Raburn is going to be in there for sure. OrdoÃ±ez is going to be in there nor sure. Jackson is going to be in there for sure.
How that's going to play out -- that's if Delmon is not available and Raburn will possibly play second base. Inge will be at third base.
But I can't give you the total lineup. I really don't know the availability of Delmon Young at this time. I wish I could, but I can't give it to you.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks for coming in.

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