“Offensively, we have eight of our ten starters returning. There's eight, but the truth of that reality is if you have a family atmosphere, then you have to believe in brutal honesty. You guys probably know this, but we've addressed this with our team. Out of those eight guys coming back, we actually finished in the bottom half of our league - and this is just the brutal truth - in average, runs, doubles, total bases, slugging percentage, hits, plate appearances, on base percentage, RBI, steals, and walks. So if our goal is to win the league, then we have to get better and we have challenged our positional players with that. They've gotten better and they've responded. It's really neat.
“A couple of the guys I do want to mention. (Preseason All-American) Evan White. I'm going to save you guys the question. He's going to play first base for us. Can he play the outfield? Yes. This guy is gifted. When you start going through his tools - the five tools to run, hit, field, throw, and power - the guy can run a 4.0 from home plate to first base, steal a base at any time, and score from first base on any double. He can pressure our opponents in so many different ways. The hit tool - he hit over .370 - he possesses that. He's one of the premier hitters in the entire country. The throwing part, although we don't anticipate him pitching, I bet if we put him on the mound that he could throw a ball 90 miles per hour. The defense part - the guy has a Gold Glove from Rawlings last year sitting at his house right now. Obviously, the power just keeps getting better. He's five-tool player. I'm extremely impressed with him and his leadership thus far.
“(Senior shortstop) Connor Heady is on a mission. He's a senior, who has not maybe had the career that he has wanted, but he is a premier defender and has a knack for finding his way to first base. He's done that this fall and continues to do that this spring.
“The last infielder I want to mention is (junior second baseman) Riley Mahan. As you all know, he hit over .300 for us last year. He had a great summer in the prestigious Cape Cod League, where he hit over .300 as well and was an All-Star there. We're looking for big things to come from him.
“We've challenged our catchers. Last year, we were 13th in the league in passed balls and wild pitches. We just created and standard and told them that in order for us to be great, we're going to have to improve in that area. Two guys that have emerged are (junior) Troy Squires and (sophomore) Kole Cottam. I've been so impressed with their ability to take on our challenges, command our pitching staff and, ultimately, run our defense.
“Our pitching staff. All of you know this: we lost all 30 SEC starts. We actually lost all 42 weekend starts. I couldn't be more impressed with our pitching staff. When you have 18- to 22-year-olds and you present them with a challenge, then there's tremendous opportunity and it's like a carrot dangling in their face. They all want it. They've been awesome. I'm going to mention six guys on our pitching staff.
“Number one is (junior left-hander) Zach Logue. When we talk about student-person-player, the guy exemplifies it. He is the epitome of student-person-player. His slider has gotten better. His fastball command has improved.
“(Sophomore right-hander) Justin Lewis is another guy that we're going to count on this year. He's stronger. His slider has improved and his change-up is absolutely one of the best change-ups that I've been a part of in my coaching career. Sometimes it even acts like a screwball.
“(Sophomore right-hander) Sean Hjelle - I love to tease him every day, 'Do you play basketball?' He says, 'Are you the baseball coach?' His breaking ball is an above average SEC pitch. As all of you know, he's 6-foot-11'. You start talking about Justin Lewis at 6-foot-7' and Sean Hjelle at 6-foot-11' - I think we've got some uniqueness - and maybe a left-handed starter in Zach Logue. But Hjelle, I've been so impressed with his competitive nature and his ability to attack hitters.
“(Freshman left-hander) Zack Thompson is the freshman from Indiana - huge draft pick. I'm so happy he's here. He's got a plus fastball. He's beyond his years, as far as a freshman goes, when it comes to his poise and fastball command.
“The last two guys: (junior right-hander) Zach Pop, who has thrown out of the bullpen, out of all of the players on our team, he's probably grown the most - especially mentally. He's ready to make that jump. He's got the look. He's carrying himself in a different way. Coach Belanger has done an awesome job with him. We're really counting on him.
“The last person you guys will talk to today is (senior left-hander) Logan Salow. Logan's going to be a neat story because he's a senior that, maybe a lot like Connor, hasn't maybe had the career that he's wanted to this point, but he's going to do special things for us. He's committed himself to the weight room. He's committed himself to our team and may be one of the leaders of our pitching staff.
“Our schedule, it's a challenging schedule. Nobody is going to accuse me of having a cupcake schedule in my first year. I want to say 26 games of our 56 are against teams in the top-25.
On getting the reserve players to maintain their level of energy as the season begins…
“At the very end of the fall we had our players fill out evaluations and we had the players rank themselves – where they stand offensively, defensively, who has the best fastball on the team, the best curveball, the best changeup. If they had to fill out a roster what would our 27-man SEC travel roster look like? Who would be you starters? You know else did the same thing? Our coaches. At the end of the fall we sat down with every single one of our players and told them where they stood and made it really clear but we also told them the season didn’t start in December, some things are going to change, but here’s how we see you (now). When you talk about honesty, we’ve been brutally honest with them. At any point in time if we ever feel like our players are being selfish, whether it be soft, lazy, making excuses, or any version of that, we’ve addressed it. This group has been very unselfish and open to anything so I anticipate that (continuing).”
On how closely the coaches and players grades matched up…
“It was neat. When we picked the (weekend starting pitchers) it was very similar. The weekday (starters) were very similar. It was really close. Any time you’re around 18- to 20-year-olds and you have coaches who are honest with them a lot of times there is nothing hidden and it all pretty much matches up the same. One of my favorite things we got from that was what pitcher was most difficult to face and it was fun to pick their brains on why some guys were hard to hit and some others maybe weren’t as hard to hit.”
On senior outfielder Storm Wilson…
“Storm, at the beginning of the fall, struggled as much as any player but by the time we got to the end of the fall he was one of our better players. That was really fun to see. He was recovering from an injury this summer but by the end of the fall he was very, very impressive. He’s a guy that has had a lot of at bats. We’re going to have to count on him in some role because our outfield is very mature and has a ton of experience. He’s a guy we’re going to be leaning on for sure.”
On how the team can get 1.5 runs better on offense…
“We’ve put an emphasis on commanding the strike zone. If you’ve got a group of hitters that just want to swing at everything you don’t put any pressure on the opponents – their pitchers, their defense – so we chart how many times in our scrimmages we chase pitches and who chases them. There are eight ways to get a quality at-bat and we’ve educated them on those eight ways. Hey, even though you may make an out you can have a quality at-bat. Connor Heady in our scrimmage had an 11-pitch at-bat, drew a walk and we ended up having a big inning. We’ve addressed the strike zone, what it looks like, how to get a quality at-bat and, of course, baserunning.”