(Part one of a three-part series)

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, general manager Ned Colletti and president and CEO Stan Kasten met with reporters on Thursday afternoon in what could be described as a kickoff press conference for the 2013 season. And while it may seem a bit unusual that it took place less than 24 hours after the final out of the 2012 season was recorded, it clearly shows exactly what most of us already know and feel – that the 2013 season cannot get here soon enough and that it will have much better results.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly at Thursday’s press conference.
(Video capture courtesy of Dodgers Media Network)

Mattingly was the first to speak with reporters and after saying that meetings have already begun regarding what changes need to be made for next season and some possible staff changes (which he would not go into detail about), he immediately opened up a Q & A session. The session lasted nearly a half hour with a wide variety of questions being asked of the Dodgers skipper and here are some of the more significant points that Mattingly addressed.

Q: Is there any new information regarding Matt Kemp’s pending surgery (on Friday) and how will it affect the team for spring training 2013?

Mattingly: “I don’t have the answers for that for sure. Talking with Sue (Falsone) and Stan Conte yesterday, they said that they’ll know more once they get in there, there will be more information out about what’s going to happen with it. All scenarios that I’ve heard is that Matt will be ready to play next season (on) Opening Day and will be ready for spring training… baring and kind of weird setbacks.”

Q: How have all of the new player acquisitions affected the clubhouse?

Mattingly: “I think it’s impossible to think that you’re going to bring in and change over thirty of your guys over a month period and think you’re not going to get a little different dynamic. I don’t think it ended up being bad in any way. Nobody came in being a bad guy, nobody came in and disrupted the clubhouse, so from that standpoint it really didn’t give us any problems, but it’s definitely a change… personal relationships change, guys move from here to there, but that’s the nature of the game.”

Q: Is there anything that you and your coaching staff would like to do differently next season?

Mattingly: “If there isn’t  then I think we’re doing something wrong. I think that you always evolve and you should be evolving all the time. You would approach things a little differently, you look at them differently. Sometimes you would do it the same.”

Q: What specific things would you change?

Mattingly: “There’s not a whole lot that I want to do differently. I think the emphasis is to make sure that we continue on. I’ve been to (many) spring trainings both as a player and as a coach and you pretty much do the same things all the time… everybody’s doing them.

We’re no different than a lot of other organizations. I just think that the things that are important to us you’ve got to make sure that the players understand that they’re important and these are the reasons why they’re important to us, this is where we’re trying to go, this is why we do these things. We have to make sure that that point continues to get across and how important it is to be able to do some of the smaller things on the team that don’t get noticed that are important to us winning.”

Q: Do you anticipate any changes to the coaching staff?

Mattingly: “We started with meetings today and it’s something that we’re discussing and talking about. It seems every year somebody changes something. Very seldom do you see it stay totally status quo, but it’s something that we’re talking about.”

Q: Aside from the obvious personality differences, are there similarities in the way that George Steinbrenner and Mark Walters did things?

Mattingly: “Listening to Mark and (having) played for Mr. Steinbrenner and worked for Mr. Steinbrenner, the thinking is the same… we’re here to win – period. And anything that doesn’t add up to that is not good enough from all aspects; so that’s exactly the same thinking. Personality, it’s obviously two different people, different guys the way they go about getting to that seems to be… at least to this point, different. But where they want to go it seems to be pretty much the same mentality – we’re going to do everything we can to win, that’s what we’re after and why hide it? Why said ‘we’re here to do our best’ when we’re here to win?”

Q: Where does Luis Cruz fit in next year (my question, of course)?

Mattingly: “We’re still going through meetings on everybody but my personal opinion is that Louie pretty much has taken the job (at third base) and said that this is my job to lose. Louie Cruz to me has kind of done that… he’s kind of put his face on the map, he did the job. There’s no reason to say that Louie can’t do it. Everybody has to keep getting better, keep trying to prove themselves. There’s no gift long-term for anyone, but I think going into spring training and going into this winter, Louie Cruz is one of our guys.”