The media mob gets limited access to players during the playoffs, so on the eve of the American League Championship Series, they were herded into a large lounge at Progressive Field and seated at little round tables to accommodate a flotilla of roving reporters.

Many questions to the Blue Jays focused on the benefits that might accrue from having made it to the ALCS last year. Everyone thought that was a good thing, of course.

Russell Martin, whose teams almost always reach the postseason, observed that the Jays are a confident bunch, requiring no pep talks or other extrinsic motivators.

"It's never been as fun and as easy to go and compete with guys," he said. "I don't feel like I have to try and get anybody up, or push anybody. Everybody's already ready to play. Even when times are tough, you never really see any panic. You never see guys get down too much. It's just a really fun team to be a part of."

One reason is that just about everyone on the roster has been around for awhile. And then there is reliever Joe Biagini, a 26-year-old rookie whom the Jays plucked from the Giants in the Rule 5 draft last winter. Biagini has been a surprisingly welcome and somewhat eccentric addition to the team, but surely he might value a pep talk from his catcher as he goes deep into the postseason for the first time.

Martin smiled at the mention of the name.

"Biagini's fine, man," he said.

Biagini has been a steady middle-innings man all season. He also is an interviewer's dream, or nightmare, depending on the pranks he decides to pull or the one-liners he uncorks. (He likes to remind reporters that he is devoted to fingerpainting and that crochet lessons are part of the team's daily routine. And he can morph from interviewee to interviewer in the blink of an eye.)

"He's definitely one of a kind," Martin said, perhaps hopefully. "Great kid. Unbelievable kid. Definitely very special and different. He could have his own TV show. I'd watch it."

So what Martin seemed to be saying is that Biagini's personal drummer will march him happily through the playoffs. No pep talk required.

Remarkably, this is Martin's ninth trip to the postseason in 11 years. I asked him to think back to his first playoff game, on Oct. 4, 2006 as a Dodgers rookie, and consider how he has grown as a postseason performer since then.

"I was nervous before the game, and when the game started, I was just more like happy, excited," he said. "I don't know what to call it. Is it nervousness? I don't know if it is. I think it's more like an anxiety, like, 'Oh my gosh, is this ever going to happen?' And once it starts you're like, 'Yes, here it is!'"

And now, as he prepares for his 53rd playoff game on Friday night against Cleveland?

"Now I'm just relaxed," he said. "Yeah, now I feel like it's just another game. I have to go it there and help the team win. I feel calm. Maybe there's a calmness that has set in that maybe wasn't there before."

These changes come gradually, of course. Early on, Martin emerged as gifted catcher and natural leader. He has caught for four different teams in the playoffs, but never beyond a league championship series, a factoid he hopes to erase from his résumé this year.

"I feel like with time and age, everything changes," he said. "Your body changes, how you prepare changes, how you approach the game in certain things can change, too. I'm probably not the same athlete I was when I was 24 and 25, but I feel like I'm more efficient, and I'm smarter, and I'm wiser."

Marco Estrada, the Jays' Game 1 starter, says Martin does in fact provide the occasional "pick-me-up" to his teammates.

"If nothing needs to be said, he just won't say anything," Estrada said. "He goes about his business. But he's a great clubhouse guy. He's the perfect guy to have on your side. He's pretty tame until you need him to kind of lash out a little bit. He's got that also."

That reminded me of something Martin said after the Jays held a players-only meeting on Sept. 10. The theme, he said, was to "keep your thoughts positive." There was also another message.

"Stop complaining. Just toughen up a little bit and be resilient. That's kind of just what our meeting was about," he said that day.

So on Thursday, I asked him whether he thought the meeting had any positive effect. The Jays beat Boston 3-2 that day, but in the 21 games after the meeting, they went 11-10.

They have, however, turned on a dime. Including their last two regular-season games and the playoffs to date, they are 6-0. Martin said he simply doesn't know whether the meeting made any difference. Several reports suggested that Troy Tulowitzki instigated the session, and that Martin thought it was a good idea, too.

On Thursday, he said "it wasn't a big deal."

"It wasn't a necessity to have it," he said. "It was kind of like open-mic. Whoever wanted to talk could talk. I think Tulo started, and I think Bats (Jose Bautista), too. Even some of the young guys talked."

Then he broke out a smile.

"It wasn't like one of those magical meetings like you see in movies where there's music playing and at the end everybody starts clapping together and then we go win 20 games in a row," he said.

But now, just in time, they've won six in a row. Starting Friday against Cleveland, it will get harder, but Martin said the Jays are "more seasoned" after losing in last year's ALCS. Maybe that will help this time around.

No player on the Blue Jays roster has ever played for a World Series winner.

"Just knowing our team, and knowing what we have on our team, is enough for me to believe that we can make it," he said.

You can read all our Blue Jays postseason coverage here.