Winter Meetings interview with Craig Counsell

Q. After picking up Shaw, what do you think about what David’s done to get that balance you talked about going into the winter? CRAIG COUNSELL: Yeah, I think certainly right now, when I look at just our position player group, I think we’ve created balance there and we’ve created depth and kind of protection and choices really on a daily basis. So I think that’s what we were — I think David was kind of after is to create that, and then you feel like you can get guys that are playing well and put guys in position to succeed. I think we’ve done that.Q. It’s been a while since I looked at the numbers, I have to look again, but they didn’t like totally stand out that you struggled really bad against righties, but I think you said there were stretches where you felt like you were lacking a little bit — you could have used more depth. CRAIG COUNSELL: We were pretty good against left-handed starters last year, if you look that one up. I think we were over ten games above .500 against left-handed starters. That would lead us to — yeah.Q. The flipside of all your great acquisitions is that you traded away the back of your bullpen since last August. As a manager, you’ve had great closers since you took over, K-Rod, and then J.J. and Tyler, so are you worried right now about the back of the bullpen? CRAIG COUNSELL: If there was a game today I’d be worried, yeah. (Laughter).Q. There’s not, I don’t think. CRAIG COUNSELL: There’s not. We’ve got time. I’m sure there will be more guys down there when we start on Opening Day, and the names, you know, just look at what we went into — what we planned on in Spring Training and what we left Spring Training with. So you know, I don’t think there’s any question that we have to add guys down there. I don’t think at this point it’s a place that’s unsettled. I think that’s fair to say. But it’s December 6.Q. Of your incumbent arms, who do you like, that has the talent to be high level? CRAIG COUNSELL: I think if you look at the guys that performed really well last year, it was — I think you go back to Corey, Jhanny Mariñez, Carlos Torres and Jacob Barnes. Some of the younger guys that stepped up at the end, like Tyler Cravy and Suter, probably missing somebody, but I think it tells you that those are the guys coming back. I think it will take a while for us to shake out where everybody fits, and that’s fine. I think that a lot of that’s part of bullpen flexibility; that we stay flexible with our decisions. The number one thing, I’m going to say it again, is getting outs. How they get outs, when they get outs, not as important as getting outs.Q. Are you a believer — and this is an over-simplification, but that anyone can do that; basically that sometimes more is made of the ninth inning and you can have success with a guy who maybe doesn’t have a bunch of saves on his record? CRAIG COUNSELL: Well, I think — I don’t think having saves on your record is critical, certainly, but I do think you still need talented people back there. So I think that’s a little oversimplification. You need talented people back there.Q. How about experience? CRAIG COUNSELL: We didn’t have experience back there last year. I mean, J.J., Tyler, there’s no experience back there. They are talented, though.Q. What allowed Tyler to come into his own the way he did last year? CRAIG COUNSELL: Really it was him getting healthy again I think. He is — if you look at Tyler’s track record, he’s been a successful pitcher. He had struggled with some health issues. We got him to the off-season following the 2015 season healthy and he was able to have a normal off-season, and then he was ready to go. He’s been successful when healthy for sure.Q. Do you see Shaw as perhaps a platoon third baseman? CRAIG COUNSELL: I see him playing a lot of third base. We can’t — I’d love for all — Thames or Shaw to be guys that you plug in there every single day. I think that’s what everybody wants, but I think with new players, you take a little bit of a wait-and-see attitude. We need some guys to kind of play on both sides of the lefty and righty starters for sure. That’s what you’d like for sure. But with having — Perez is going to be somebody that’s going to be important, and I think now as part of the depth and the protection and getting matchups, he’s going to be an important part of this on the corners for sure.Q. Can you talk about the experience last year is going to help him moving forward at shortstop? CRAIG COUNSELL: Kind of we’ll see, but I do think having two months in the Big Leagues, like a lot of guys, experienced a little bit of failure, understanding adjustments he’ll have to make. Just the comfort level and exhale to breathe and play the game to his abilities; I think he’s in a better spot to do that coming into Spring Training.Q. What do you think if Villar ends up playing a lot of second base instead of short and third? Do you think his skill set might play better there? He’s so athletic. CRAIG COUNSELL: Defensively, I think it’s a good spot for him. Yeah, we think defensively it’s going to be his best position, yeah.Q. I know you played him there the last couple of weeks last year. I wonder if you saw enough of him to form a definite — CRAIG COUNSELL: He played four games maybe, three games. He played very well. But with his skills, I think it’s going to be his best defensive position.Q. You have a ton of young shortstops from Latin America; what do you know about the new one you just got, Mauricio Dubon? CRAIG COUNSELL: Really I don’t know much. I know probably as much as you guys know. Reading the stat lines and what our reports say, but he’s a young player who had a lot of success at AA at 21, 22 years old. That’s always encouraging. He’s athletic. Run, throw. Sounds like strength is still kind of coming for him. And I think that’s a really good profile of the young shortstop, just waiting to get stronger as he matures.Q. Does that leave Dubon at second and third as he makes his way up? CRAIG COUNSELL: I think these guys, you play shortstop and you keep playing shortstop, and then you can move — it’s really easy to move up shortstop. We use Perez as a shortstop all the way through the Minor Leagues, he comes up, and those players, the athletic players, the moving off shortstop becomes pretty easy for them.Q. With Thornburg, as good as he was last year, at what point did it seem like it would make sense to turn him into multiple assets that could help you guys out going forward? CRAIG COUNSELL: That’s a good question for David, yeah.Q. In your view of him, was it difficult — CRAIG COUNSELL: He’s a good player. So you don’t like trading good players, but we feel like we got good players back. We filled the hole at third base and now we certainly have some holes in the bullpen. Got another very good prospect, two good prospects that we like. It was kind of fill a hole — we created a hole, …

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