Q: Have you ever seen something like the injuries this team experienced this year, with the pitching staff?
A: No. That’s the best answer I can give you. This is my 10th year up here, and I can’t one Tommy John we’ve had, during the season or in the offseason. … I’ve lost a lot of hours of sleep thinking about what we can do to prevent it, but I think it’s kind of just been an aberration. I’m not going to say let’s forget about it and move on, because something has to be going on, but it’s been strange, to say the least.
Q: But couldn’t it be just a freak year?
A: I would think so. I think around baseball, it has been that way in general. There’s been more injuries this year — for what reason, I don’t know.
Q: What has the process been like for you, of getting these new pitchers ready?
A: When guys come in midseason, it’s a little bit more challenging just because you don’t have that time. … They’ll throw their game, they’ll take a day off, they throw a bullpen, and you’ve got 30 pitches to work with them in about a 10-minute span, and then they get a couple days rest and then they go out there and pitch.
Q: How about the rehabbing pitchers? I know you monitor them physically … do you monitor them mentally as well, to make sure they’re staying positive and in the right frame of mind?
A: Sure. I’ve been in the same boat. I’ve been hurt also. You kind of feel like you’re not a part of the team, and it’s hard when you’re not playing, and you’re not active, to feel like you’re part of a big win or part of the club and what’s going good, or even what’s going bad, at times. But as a coaching staff, we try to treat them exactly the same. They’re still a part of the organization and still a part of our future, they’re still Padres.
Q: Amid all that, longtime friend, and really a member of the family, Darrel Akerfelds, es away. How did you deal with that while still doing your normal day-to-day job?
A: It was extremely difficult to say the least. I mean, I can talk about this for hours, and it’s difficult for me to talk about, but Ak, I mean, I’ve only had one bullpen coach since I’ve been here for 10 years. Now I have Jimmy Jones, who’s doing a fantastic job filling in, but Ak was my right-hand man and also a great friend of everybody in that clubhouse. And everybody was very close to him. So that transition was difficult. Even seeing Ak in the last year, and at spring training, still working as hard as he ever had, 50 pounds less than he was last year when we’d last seen him, was both an inspiration for the guys to have a good spring and work as hard as they could for him, and then a letdown when Ack ed away. You know, the memories of Darrel are fantastic, and we’ll all have them forever. We think about him every night, his jersey is out there hanging in the bullpen every night. He’s still a part of this club and we all know that, but that was very difficult, to say the least.
Q: How do you keep this bullpen one of the best in the league, consistently?
A: This year’s a little bit different, and although it’s not ideal to have a bunch of rookies in your ’pen, they are kind of learning from each other, and at least when they fail they have something to share with each other — what do you do when this happens, how did you feel the other day, because they are all in the same boat. I think there’s a sense of camaraderie there, as far as being about the same age, going through the same ups and downs and dealing with it mentally. They’ve become a pretty solid unit.
Q: What excites you about the minor leaguers and the new guys coming up?
A: Going into spring training, when we were healthy, they boasted about how good our minor league system was, especially pitching-wise, and I saw it. We had depth. We had a lot of good arms who threw strikes. And now it’s being proven on a major league level.
Q: Any more thoughts on this year?
A: Of course, there’s disappointment … But two favorite things for me are seeing a major league debut, which we’ve probably seen too many of this year, but I still get excited about it. Also, seeing journeymen resurrecting their careers, like we’ve had a couple do, and proving they can pitch in the big leagues again. … It’s been challenging, but it’s been fun at the same time, because those are my two favorite things, other than winning.
Q: What makes you optimistic about the pitching future for the Padres, and really, optimistic about this team?
A: First of all, lately it’s been pretty good. A lot better than people expected. We’re not a pushover anymore, I think we’ve got a good group of guys who … play nine innings every night, and I think the opposition knows that. We’re not going to roll over and play dead. We play until the last out. Our younger kids are starting to be more comfortable in the big leagues, knowing they belong, and they’ve proven that. And, in a way — the injuries, I’m not going to say it’s a blessing in disguise, but with the Cory Luebke, with the Joe Wieland, at least we caught them early and next year they’ll be pitching for us, maybe not April but May, June comes along and it’s almost going to be like making a big, giant trade and all of a sudden getting this surplus of good pitching coming in.
Q: This job is a grind and there are so many ups and downs. What do you love about it and what keeps you coming back?
A: I love my job. And I grew up a Padre fan, and I find myself at times, sitting in the dugout — I mean, I’m coaching my heart out, like we all are — but at times just really rooting for the guys and pulling for them hard, just like a fan would do up in the seats, and like I did for hundreds of games when I was a kid, sitting up there with my mom or my brother or whoever.
