AL Division Series: Indians vs Astros Thursday, October 4, 2018 A.J. Hinch Astros Workout Day A.J. HINCH: By far, one of the most difficult decisions -- Q. A.J., do you have any clarity or anything you can and really I say them as a group because there's some tell us as far as any roster decisions you've made really, really good relievers that pitch well for us that in the last few days? carried the bullpen at certain times. A.J. HINCH: We've had some pretty grueling meetings getting through the roster, which is a good problem to With Hector, he had a tough month. September really have as a team. It's a tough problem to have for the his only bad month. He wasn't great in the second half players. We've set our roster up, had the as a whole, but most of that is weighted into conversations we need to have, and I think the biggest September. surprise or the biggest dilemma or the curiosity around our bullpen is what is front and center for us. Honestly, this is a very difficult offense to match up with, and some of the things that he does and some of Our bullpen will consist of Osuna, McCullers, Pressly, his execution that he does didn't match up very well Tony Sipp, Collin McHugh, Will Harris, and Josh with very many areas of the lineup with the Indians. James. That leaves off some very notable relievers for us. Some have World Series saves. Hector Rondon Will Harris coming through with a scoreless has saves for us this season. As you can see, it was a September, his cut fastball/curveball combo is really tough bullpen to crack. On the pitching side, that's the good. Josh James, we really saw him emerge. And way we went. also, he can protect some of the guys who have been injured in recent weeks -- Lance McCullers, Charlie On the position players' side, we opted to keep Myles Morton. That length was very important for us, along Straw active and not Max Stassi or J.D. Davis. So the with his stuff and rate. balance of the position players are as expected. Tweet it out. (Laughter.) So as we pieced together the bullpen, it looked less and less likely that I was going to find a perfect spot to Q. A.J., in what role do you plan to use Charlie place Hector. He very likely, along with and Morton in the series? Peacock and Devenski, guys that have pitched notable A.J. HINCH: We'd like him to start Game 4 unless we innings for us, could find their way onto a future roster if win the first three games, which would be ideal. Not we're able to beat the Indians. But we had to pick 11 use him. I guess that would be the best scenario for us pitchers and 14 position players in a 5-game series, from a winning perspective. and that's a tough exercise when you have a deep roster. Unlike last year, we put a couple of our starters into the bullpen, and there was an uncertainty surrounding Q. With all the series going on right now, and Game 3 and Game 4. This year we know going in there's a lot of talk about bullpenning and openers. we're going to have Verlander in Game 1, Collin in This series will be more traditional. There's so Game 2, Keuchel in Game 3, and Charlie in Game 4. many strong starters. Is that nice? Is that significant? How does that strike you? And given the bullpen length we have, some of the A.J. HINCH: I think, if they pitch well, it's significant depth that Josh James brings and Collin McHugh because you'll see the most starter innings -- you brings, there's less of an appetite to push Charlie into know, if things play out as people expect. Now that it's the pen. Also given he's thrown only a few innings in laid out that way, it probably won't, and there will be the recent weeks, he's not somebody that I would feel some starters that leave games early. comfortable using in the first couple games and then bringing back for Game 4. So I'd expect to see him in I think it's just different. I think -- I've said this all year Game 4. about the opener versus our rotation and we face all kinds of guys, and September created a whole new Q. A.J., what went into the decision to leave Hector love affair with the opener idea and the expanded Rondon out of the bullpen? rosters. Now you have short series. I think you just

Rev #1 by #181 at 2018-10-04 18:25:00 GMT page 1 of 3 have to focus on getting the 27 outs. How you get there -- what's comfortable for people is when you have We promised them opportunity if they earned it. We Justin Verlanders and Corey Klubers and Coles and gave them the opportunity. For Tony Kemp, it was his Keuchels and these guys that get into the latter parts of first real opportunity to contribute pretty regularly. Tyler the game. But I think you have to play the game the White kind of rode a different road. But when the way you have to play it. opportunity opened up, they seized it. It starts and stops with good plate appearances and good at-bats Whether your personnel fits -- you can't have an because that reliability is why they got so many. overriding philosophy. I love starters. Why? Because I've got good ones. I think that's the easiest way to fall Q. Last year at this time, you'd only had Verlander in love with a rotation and have that mindset, do I want on your team for about a month. Since from then my starters to go deep in the game? Yeah, they're to now, is there anything about him that surprised good. If not, then I've got to have a contingency plan, you or maybe you didn't know about him that really and it becomes a bullpen day very quickly if you fall has been helpful to your team? behind or if the starter is not at his best. A.J. HINCH: Well, I didn't know him at all when he got here, and then the honeymoon period was pretty good. Q. Speaking of good starters, what makes So I think that it's easy to love those experiences. And Verlander so special? We saw it last year every I think his -- you know, his hunger for greatness was time he went out. pretty well-known going into his Astro tenure. I think A.J. HINCH: He's always evolving. You know, as much it's become a staple for what he's all about. He's as everyone expects greatness out of J.V., and he opinionated, he's thorough, he researches. He does a largely delivers, he's always evolving. He's had this lot of things that make you realize on the back end why start circled for a while now. We felt like -- I mean, I'm he's really good. sure he knew he was going to pitch Game 1, and as people were starting to predict it was going to be the He's got a passion for pitching and a passion for Indians. He's got a long history with the Indians, he's competing and a passion for statistics and analytics going to come up with ways to combat the successes and any sort of edge that he can get to beat his or failures that he's had, and he does that on an every opponent. I think that -- and I'm not surprised by that. start-by-start basis. Maybe I didn't learn that about him, but I've gotten to witness it for a full year. And having that mindset and having that ability to evolve as the game around him gets younger, he gets Q. Martin Maldonado has been a significant older. When people think his stuff's going to decline, addition to the team. How important is it for you to he throws harder. When guys start to hit his breaking have a catcher like him now in October? ball, he comes up with a cutter. He's always doing A.J. HINCH: It means a lot. If you look at what the something to evolve. Indians do on the bases, he could factor in very, very highly depending on what strategy the Indians try to And that's what this particular great one does. I don't take with their base running and base stealing. He's a know if they all do it, but I know he does it. very, very, very good catcher, and working with pitchers, caring more about catching than he cares Q. A.J., we've seen guys come up from AAA this about his hitting, the feedback, the effort level, the balls season and not be able to stick. What made Tony in the dirt, the pitch framing, the throwing. There's not Kemp and Tyler White the guys that could come up a part of the defensive side of the game that he's not here and stick, and what boost have they given you extremely passionate about and extremely impactful. offensively as you dealt with injuries all year? A.J. HINCH: Yeah, we've had injuries all year, and our So we'll see. If they want to test us on the bases and roster depth has been tested. For those two guys in Martin's catching, they're going up against the best particular, their at-bat quality is really good. When I put throwing catcher in . With the work from our those guys up to bat, there's a great expectation that pitchers and the way that he can shut down the running they're going to have a good at-bat. Successful, we game, it's a huge dilemma for the other side, and if you don't know, it's a tough league, but a good at-bat. look at two of the last three opponents that we could have, it's -- they like to put pressure on you. They want Part of that is zone control, knowing the strike zone. to put pressure on the best, and we have a perfect Part of it is knowing their strengths. I think both of counter to that. them have come up and gone back down. I think that creates a whole new opportunity for growth. And Q. After carrying three catchers last postseason all they've both taken it well. three rounds, what went into your decision to carry

Rev #1 by #181 at 2018-10-04 18:25:00 GMT page 2 of 3 two here and the extra runner? get used to it. A.J. HINCH: Well, is really fast. That factored in for one. The third catcher debate is huge, Every single guy in the clubhouse has a way to help us like insurance. You guys all got insurance? You don't win, and they have helped us win. So those are never ever want to use it unless you have to. The third easy conversations. You can experience it all you catcher changes the way the game is run. It also want, but anybody that's delivered bad news knows it changes the structure of your bench. doesn't get easier the second time. You just want to be more thorough. You want to give your example. You We feel like Straw can be a huge impact on the bases, want to wear it. As a manager, it's on me. It's on the or even if I put him in defensively, maybe he gets an at- organization. We're choosing who we move forward bat. He is so fast he forced the third catcher off the with, and that's tough to give some reality to some roster, and that gives us a lot of weapons. It allows me really, really good players and some really impactful to utilize Jake Marisnick in a different way. It allows me guys that, going into a series, I don't know who's going to save Tony Kemp's at-bat. I don't have to spend that to be the key guy. I don't know who's going to be on as a base runner. He's a potential upgrade for every the mound when the most important at-bat happens. player on our offense. We feel good about the guys we're matching up with I won't run for Altuve. I likely won't run for Bregman or them, but there's a lot of managers around the league Springer, but he's probably faster, and that type of that would take the guys we left off and go take them weapon in these type of games can pay huge. as a championship-caliber bullpen.

Q. A.J., you touched on this a second ago, but the Q. What are the most important takeaways from starting pitching this series may be the best we see last season's success that you can lean on during out of any postseason series moving forward. this postseason run? What's the challenge for the lineups in both teams A.J. HINCH: I mean, we've been there, so I think that to kind of match up with the starters? helps. And it's easy to say that because everything A.J. HINCH: If you look at the numbers, making contact went in our favor. But that team across the way has is a problem. They have four guys with 200-plus been there too. They didn't get to experience a parade ; we have three. The bullpen matchups, I like we did, but they got to experience the seventh know Tito well, he's going to try to find the perfect game of the World Series. matchups, which matchups are tough to deal with when you have so many -- such a balance. They have I think our guys understand the urgency, but I think all three left-handed relievers. The right-handed reliever teams that are still standing understand the urgency. is good on righties. Contact's a premium. We're a We've got some flashbacks. We'll have some cool good contact team, and so are they. videos. We'll be able to watch the successes that we had, but that will only get you so far. You've still got to So you have two good contact teams against two good go out and compete and get your hits and get your outs pitching staffs that are the best at getting swings and and field the ball and play clean baseball. misses. Someone's going to continue that trend, and someone's not. So I think getting a good pitch to hit is It's better to have that kind of reflection in the rearview a premium. Not missing, it's huge. Taking advantage mirror than to have bad memories, I guess. I'll take the of any mistake that might happen where you have a win over the loss. little bit of a window against Kluber or Carrasco or Bauer or any of their -- Clevinger. These guys are elite at getting outs and getting swings and misses. Contact is going to be huge in this series.

Q. A.J., does your experience at all different levels, everywhere you've been, help you in telling players who have played for you and done well at times that they're not on the playoff roster? Does that help you through all that? A.J. HINCH: No. No. I've ended careers before as a farm director or assistant GM. We've released players. You know, I released somebody ten years older than me, or almost ten years older than me when I was a manager in Arizona. It never gets easy, and I'll never

Rev #1 by #181 at 2018-10-04 18:25:00 GMT page 3 of 3