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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Mike Bianco Meets With The Press On Media Day
2/14/2011 | Baseball
Feb. 14, 2011
Below are some excerpts from Mike Bianco's meeting with the media on Monday
(Opening Statement)
We're ready to go on February 18th. With the line-up, I tell the players the first line-up is usually not the last line-up. The first rotation usually isn't the last rotation. As always one of the goals in the first four weeks is to play different teams with different line-ups and combinations. So we'll start here, and with conference play against the University of Alabama here in about four and a half weeks and we'll put the best nine on the field.
Let me go through the team real quick and I'll open it up with questions for you. First, I'll start with position players.
(On the Outfield)
In the outfield, Zach Kirksey is a likely candidate to start in left field, in center field, Tanner Mathis and/or Jordan King, Jordan King will be in the lineup could start center, could start left or right. Bear with me for a second, you'll know Matt Smith could play in right or play first base and so with those five outfielders, Matt Tracy, Matt Smith, Tanner Mathis, Jordan King, and Zach Kirksey - I'm sure probably all five of them will start at some point maybe even opening weekend. We have different lineups and combinations we have to address. All those guys have played great. I think all of them bring a little different talent to the table.
Zach Kirksey's a junior college transfer from LSU-Eunice, a big physical, the strongest guy on our team, and also the fastest guy on our team. So, he has a great combination of power and speed. He had a good fall, had a good early spring. Tanner Mathis, again one of those names that was here last year, people forgot about. He's a guy that hit about .330 last year as a freshman playing part time. Once again, I think he led the fall in hitting statistically. Again that will be the second fall in a row. As a true freshman he did that as well.
Jordan King was a Junior College transfer last year and was an infielder; we threw him to the outfield this year because of the depth, and because of his athleticism. He's kind of taken to it a lot like Tim Ferguson did a year ago, where he looks like he's played there his whole life. Each day he seems like he gets better and better out there. Matt Tracy batted for us sparingly. Really, if I had to do it all over again, I wish I would have got him in more games offensively last year. We were kind of tied at that DH roll with Matt Snyder only being able to DH last year, and because of Matt Tracy being valuable on the mound we ended up not letting him hit as much as we probably should have.
(On the infield)
Around the infield, starting at third, on Friday will be Preston Overbey, at shortstop will be Blake Newalu, that's where we're new. That's where we're young on the left side of the infield with a true freshman starting opening day. Overbey is outstanding. No doubt a super talent but when he walks out on the field you will see a great body, a great presence, like a big leaguer out there. We knew offensively he would have a chance to play early here as a freshman. I'm probably more impressed with his defense and the way he handles himself there. The way he moves around is a pretty big statement. He might be the best freshman at third base that we've ever had on opening day. And there was a kid here a few weeks ago that was the Rookie of the Year (Chris Coghlan). This kid's really good. Chris was a little more athletic, a little quicker, but this kid has played third base his whole life. He's got a big time arm, soft hands for a big guy, moves around, plays with a lot of confidence for a true freshman.
At shortstop, Blake Newalu will get the start, Blake's a junior college transfer from Chipola Community College. He's done everything that we've asked. He's been terrific. Defensively, offensively, stealing, running bases, bunting, doing everything that he can to help the team. He was in a neck and neck battle with true freshman Austin Anderson. Austin will play, he just will not start on opening day. I think Austin will going into the opening weekend will be that fourth infielder, and can play short, second, or third. Austin is a little more physical, left-handed hitter, Blake's more speedy, small-ball type of player. Both have played very, very well since they got here in the beginning of the fall.
At second base is another guy that's been here. Alex Yarborough started at second last year as a true freshman, and had a great freshman year. He will start at second base. He is likely to bat high in the lineup - probably bat second in the lineup.
At first base, we thought would be Matt Snyder on opening day, but in the fist inner squad game he dove and hate to say re-injured his shoulder, but what's the word, sublux? So I understand that's not as bad as dislocate, but he subluxed his shoulder and it went in and out quickly. He's fine. He intra-squaded, swung the bat, and as matter of fact he got a couple of hits in the intra-squad game yesterday. But, he's not likely to play first base for a while. He can do everything but is not likely to play first base for the first month or so and we will kind of revisit that as we go through the season. So starting open day, first base will be either Miles Hamlin or Matt Smith so that's why the amount of outfielders is what I mentioned earlier. Matt has been playing both the outfield and the infield for the past month or so, Miles played first base more then anybody we had last year. Miles will alternate between first base and catcher.
And we feel very comfortable with the catching situation. It's as strong as we've ever been behind the plate. It reminds me a lot of the 2009 team when we had Basham and Henson. We have Taylor Hightower, Miles Hamlin, and true freshman Will Allen could play some catcher, could play some first, or could DH for us. Will is a true freshman from Florida. He may be the best offensive player for the last six months of any in newcomers that came aboard.
(On the starting pitching)
For the pitchers, starting on Friday night will be Matt Crouse, again another veteran. He's a junior, but was a transfer last year as a sophomore. Matt mostly pitched in long relief last year. He got a big win against LSU last year. He got a big win against Auburn in the SEC tournament. He also had some mid-week starts. When I look over his stats, he's the pitcher with maybe the best numbers coming back, but more importantly he had the most dominant fall of anybody that we've had, and he really has been sensational in all of the intra-squad games since we've gotten back this fall. He's a three pitch guy, he throws the ball in the upper 80's, low 90's with a very improved curve ball and change up and a great competitor. It was kind of difficult to kind of figure out the rotation for us this year. The last couple of years, we've had Drew, kind of, as a head coach, it's a good feeling on Friday night for a coach when you can run a guy out like Drew Pomeranz. Before that we had Will Kline and Lance Lynn and so Matt's got some big shoes to fill with some of the guys who have pitched here on Friday night. But one of the things that all of those guys have is they are great competitors, and I think at the end of the day the other starters that will pitch on Saturday/Sunday have great stuff, and are terrific pitchers but I think Matt Crouse gives us the best shot to win on Friday night. It's not only about the stuff that he has, but he is a tremendous competitor. I think his presence on the mound makes you feel that you're going to win. He gets the knot on the first Friday.
On Saturday, we will go with David Goforth. David, as many of you know, pitched mostly as a starter last year on Sunday. It's one of those tough years. As a coach, I think a lot of times you scratch your head, you can't figure out why a guy that's so talented, has a lot of great stuff and didn't have more success. Guys like Aaron Barrett, guys like Scott Bittle that may have had a tough year but have come back and excelled here. And I feel that that is going to happen to David. David could have gotten drafted, could have left as a draft eligible sophomore. I think for a lot of kids it would have been easy to leave. You know, after the year that he had, and kind of a change of pace to play professional baseball somewhere where nobody knows you. To come back says a lot about the kid and says a lot about the program itself. He came back and probably had the second best fall of anybody. He picked up with Coach Lafferty in the bull pen picked up a cut fast ball that's not like Scott Bittle's. I don't know if there's another pitch like Bittle's pitch. This is more like Rivera's. Bittle's ball is more of a swing and miss pitch that was thrown in the low to mid 80's. This ball's thrown faster then most people's fast ball. This ball's thrown about 89-91, and cut's away a little at the last moment away from right-handers and into left-handers. It's not really a strikeout pitch by design, it can strike people out. But it's built to miss barrels, it's built to miss the barrel of the bat. David has thrown it this past fall and early spring with a lot of confidence. I think that's taken the pressure off some of the other pitches and made him the pitcher that I think we all thought he would be.
On Sunday, we will start Austin Wright, Austin is a Junior College Transfer. He was teammates with Blake Newalu at Chipola Community College. Austin is a big, physical, left-hander. He's a strong guy that is a pitcher and is a worker, and just wants to continue to improve. He's got great stuff. His fast ball is in the low 90's, and he has an 80 mile an hour slider, and a very good change up for a power left-hander. So we feel pretty comfortable going into the first weekend. Guys that competed for that still have an opportunity to compete for that, and will throw in relief the first weekend and/or start on Tuesday and Wednesday will be R.J. Hively, another junior college transfer. Matt Tracy, who we mentioned, will be a dual player, and Bobby Wahl, who is a sensational freshman.
(On the bullpen)
For Parrish's opening question of who will be the closer, this year Parrish, we have two closers. Jake Morgan returns from a year in rehab with elbow reconstructive surgery, and of course freshman All-American last year in Brett Huber. We feel very comfortable with the bull pen obviously with those two guys, and with other guys like Eric Callender, Trent Rothlin, and some guys that are seniors that have experience. After going through it, I think you can see what I mean by we have a lot of new faces, we have some guys that will play immediately that haven't been here before. But, there are a lot of guys when you look at who's going to play on opening day, who are going to play some significant roles on this team as far as on the mound, at the bat and in the field that guys have played before. We think it's a great mix, and we're excited to get going on Friday.
