Tony Vitello shares Giants' expectations for Heliot Ramos' return vs. Braves
Giants manager Tony Vitello speaks to reporters ahead of San Francisco's matchup against the Atlanta Braves on Sunday at Oracle Park.
Tony Vitello shares Giants' expectations for Heliot Ramos' return vs. Braves originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
Continue to have those guys in the lineup every day?
It's great.
I mean, yesterday I think I might have commented, just good to have him in the locker room and in the dugout, 'cause he's always full energy.
The guys love him, and he's competitive, too.
I mean, he's watching the game, and he's into it and seeing different things.
But it's way better to have him out on the field.
So I think, you know, he's done plenty of damage against right-handed hitter, right-handed pitchers this year and prior years.
But, you know, in the Giants organization alone, he's been one of the best guys against lefties.
So good to have a threat in there today against the arm we see.
Okay.
You got him at DH today.
Casey's still in the outfield.
How, how do you just kinda plan to shift everybody around with, with the- as far as day one goes, I don't know if ease him into it's the right phrase, but, you know, we try to balance out the workload at the minor league level.
Only a couple games of nine innings under his belt, and try to mix in off days as well.
So kinda ramp him up a little bit as we go.
How do you feel about your, your infield depth with, with, having LaHair to lean on?
Yeah, I mean, you've got Schmitty can kinda play anywhere.
Cox has the ability and has played on the infield before, but it's, it's a little short-handed.
I mean, probably relative to, to maybe other teams.
It looked like Hoskins was gonna get in some work with War- Warren Washington.
Where on the infield could you see him potentially playing?
Probably mostly second base.
that's his prior experience.
And, and he does have a, a decent amount of experience there.
And obviously he's got quick feet, so you know, Wash is deal with, with the hand drills, so you combine the two.
I'd assume no matter what his baseline is, he'll improve.
But he's, he's been around guys out there, and guys have a feel for him.
It seems like it's kind of a trend these days to stick infielders in the outfield.
I mean, how much do you think You know, is it easier to cross over these days?
Are guys, you know, more athletic?
I mean, what, what's going into that?
I mean, same, same thing in college.
There's a lot of guys that, you know, are shortstops 'cause they're the best athlete on the field.
But because they're the best athlete on the field, it means they can play other spots.
I think that's, you know, Schmitty's case.
Heck, he was a, even a pitcher in college based off his athleticism.
So it is a little bit different and more challenging to bounce this way because footwork is such a huge part of what you do on the infield, and you can't just have a skill set.
You've gotta train it every day, too.
So But I think those guys that have been on the infield have their feet working.
y- you know how the arm translates is maybe a question mark, but if you got your feet working that way, and you got good glove work, then it just becomes a amount of time of tracking balls and getting some reps out there.
And then, then if we're gonna take it a step further, the ultimate, diploma to get out there, if you wanna say it that way, is operating around the wall.
Tony, I know it's not even been a full season, so it's a small sample size, but how much do you think you've changed since you first took over as a manager in terms of learning this, the pro game and all that?
Sure.
I feel a ton.
I don't know what outwardly I don't think you wanna completely change drastically with your actions or personality, but just internally, a massive amount for me.
and then a little bit different system about going about things.
And then, too, we're, you know, 1 and 0 second half of the season, but now we're halfway into the season, and there's been enough time built up.
I'm a big believer in give You have to have an appropriate sample size to evaluate someone or something fairly.
and there's some guys that have improved.
there's guys showing over time, like Rups out there playing catch, that he's reliable.
but there's also some things that haven't gone well, so I, I don't like sitting still and just saying, "That's okay," or point fingers or blame somebody or something.
might as well try and make an adjustment.
I think we've done that, with a couple things.
I think we're in the process of, of doing it with a couple others, too.
How much has it helped to have a guy like Wash on your staff, guy- a sounding board like Bochy, guys, even Buster, that you can Veteran guys with the experience that you can kinda bounce ideas back and forth off?
Yeah, I think the first part of it is the reassurance part.
if you're in line with kinda what they're thinking, it's great, but the more valuable thing is, you know, correcting some, some thoughts or, or giving advice that can maybe change the way you think a little bit, or, or maybe it's a blind spot, something you hadn't thought of.
And those guys can provide insight probably better than anybody literally in the country.
When you talk about, you know, the, their insight, when you get insight from them and it's in line with what you're thinking, do you kinda get puffed up a little bit?
Hey.
Not too puffed up.
Maybe I should, but, I, I think again, it's a, it's a reassurance.
And so, it's like this game.
I mean, you know, Wash will say things all the time in the dugout.
There, there are some nuances, and there's new things with technology, but there's also a lot of simplicity to it and things that have gone on for over 100 years.
Throwing strikes, you know, getting on base.
You know, we could list off a bunch of others that it's not a secret on what to do.
It's how well can you do it.
Tony, just kinda going off that, halfway through the season, what do you think is kinda like the biggest or some of the more prominent lessons you've learned about this job since you've taken over?
I think just all things tied into the duration.
not, not afraid to You know, the length doesn't bother me.
I mean, we're all here long hours of the day.
That's not an issue.
But the emotions that come with it, of a lot of wins, a lot of losses, a lot of ups and downs, frustration, excitement, all those things.
I think managing it the right way.
And then also again, it's I, I think anyone And there has been other coaches, just different positions f- from college to, to pro ball.
I think one thing that I've Broken record talking about those college coaches would all agree, it's so different.
We're here all day long, but no one's in the same spot at one time.
You guys know that from going around in the locker room.
Everybody's on a different schedule.
And so getting the team on the same page is one of our responsibilities.
so it's I don't wanna say that it's tricky, but it's definitely different than it is from, from my prior experiences.
Tony, with Casey learning left and Jung-hoo looking like far improved in right, how much do you think just kinda the stability of playing those positions every day recently has helped them, and is that complicated at all with Ramos coming back?
I think, I don't think it complicates it.
I mean, you never It's impossible, with a recruiting background, I've always said it, it's impossible to have too many good players, and it's definitely impossible to have too many good pitchers.
We, with, Burns and Dolander and those guys, we stretched the limits that year, and it, it did get a little, little dicey.
but it's, it's hard to ever imagine where you have a problem with too many good players or guys that can do too many good things.
So I think the fact that Schmitty has established himself as a good defender at a minimum out in left field is a bonus.
And then Jung-hoo's become a weapon, just in this ballpark in general.
Probably could have played a ball a little bit better the other day, but for the most part has handled everything his way in right field, and has been good in center field for us, too.
So I think there's a little bit of flexibility there.
Bader will come back.
certain guys will get a little hot or a little cold at the plate, so there'll always be puzz- puzzles to solve, but the more weapons we have, the better off we are.
I mean, the, the bench today is pretty exciting, with the way Drew's been swinging the bat, Bryce coming off the bat.
You know, if you're down two and there's a guy on base, he could tie it in one swing.
And Cox doing what he can do to separate yourself in a game.
And then Cavanaugh, I think what he's done the last two days has been kinda, kinda interesting.
No one's talking about it, 'cause there's nothing to talk about.
He went out there and did a good job and, and like I said the other day, it's a- almost a weird compliment, but he kinda went unnoticed 'cause he's so steady and calm back there.
Yeah, Tony, you know, there were times that maybe you started to wonder if, you know, Jung-hoo should play a lot against lefties.
he was hitting 313 against them this year.
He's boosted his slugging 100 points over last year.
What are you kinda seeing left on left with him?
I think staying in line a lot more.
I Again, I've mentioned before, Ichiro is obviously his hero.
One thing Ichiro did is he, he wasn't stacked like a lot of hitters are.
He would drift or flow forward, but he always did it in line.
And I think looking at past videos and then even earlier this year, Jung-hoo had a tendency to start going that way, but start going away from the pitcher to- towards first base.
and lefties at this In college they'll miss a lot and, and be on the hitter's side of the plate.
They can locate away consistently here, and if you're going one way and the ball's going the other way, that's bad math.
Yeah.
I think he's improved in that area greatly.
