University of Tennessee Athletics
Catching Up with Todd Raleigh
October 01, 2009 | Baseball
Oct. 1, 2009
BY DREW EDWARDS
UTSports.com
With major renovations continuing at Lindsey Nelson Stadium and the Orange and White World Series starting this Friday, baseball coach Todd Raleigh is a busy man.
He's also excited. The Vols have a strong recruiting class on campus, and pitcher Bryan Morgado, a third-round draft pick of the Chicago White Sox, opted to return for his junior season.
Raleigh, entering his third season with the Vols, talks about all that and more in this Q&A. And the Orange and White World Series begins Friday at 6 p.m. Admission is free.
How have offseason workouts gone so far, and what will you be looking for during the Orange and White World Series this weekend?
"We've been working out since school started, and we started competitive practice in the last couple weeks. The biggest difference for us is depth. The competition has been unbelievable at each position. Competition's a good thing. Kids are more focused, they're working harder. Their talent level's better. We're just deeper. I've been excited with workouts all the way around.
"I haven't had a chance to evaluate pitchers a whole lot in game-like situations, but that's something that is going to be key for us. I feel like we've got good arms, and that's an area that we've certainly got to get better in. I feel like we do have the arms to do it. I'm looking forward to the World Series to be able to evaluate them in those game-like situations."
How big was it for Bryan Morgado to come back? That had to be pretty exciting.
"It's huge for us. He's the second-highest drafted player in the country to return. I think that speaks volumes about our program. If he didn't believe in what we were doing, he wouldn't have come back. At the same time physically, he gives us one of the best pitchers in the country coming back. I couldn't be more excited about that. To me, Brian's a first-rounder, and I believe he'll play like that this year and that that's where he'll go. But more importantly, he's a guy that can lead us to Omaha. I'm really excited about that.
"Tennessee baseball's due for some good things to happen. I think keeping all our high school recruits, going 4-for-4, which is hard to do, and getting Bryan back -- you take that, coupled with how we finished last season. I think we got a little momentum going now."
I was going to ask you about getting all your drafted recruits on campus this fall. That's not always an easy thing to do.
"There's a lot of things that go into it. No. 1, you've got to target the guys you think you can keep. You can't just go out and sign first-rounders. You can't compete with a million dollars or two million dollars. I think we did a good job there. I also think we did a good job of getting them to believe in what we're doing. It's kind of two-fold. You go after the right talent level, but there's also a lot of recruiting that goes into it.
"I think most people think once you sign them, you're done. Baseball's the only sport like this. Once they sign with the University of Tennessee, we're halfway home. We're literally halfway home. We have to continue to recruit these kids and then continue to stay on them. Then when the draft starts, it's almost back to ground zero. We have to go back into the house a lot of times. We've got to do our pitch, and to have these kids turn down some of the money they turned down, which in some situations was huge, to come to Tennessee, I think speaks volumes of what we're doing and the type of kid that we're recruiting.
"It's a good thing to be talented enough, but you've got to get kids to succeed in the class room. You've also got kids that say, `I can go to Tennessee. I can put the money aside now. I'm focused enough, and I believe I can get better. And I'm going to prove myself in the draft.'
"One hundred percent of those kids that came here, if they didn't think they could get better, they wouldn't have come here. They would have taken the money and signed. When an 18-year-old has a chance to sign professionally, it's hard to turn down. So I feel like on a lot of different levels, we did well in that area."
Who has stood out so far in this recruiting class now that you have them on campus?
"A lot of guys stand out. Matt Duffy, who was player of the year in the America East conference. Since Vermont terminated their program, he was allowed to transfer. He's certainly a kid that has really played well this fall. He's got a chance to be a special player. Cody Stubbs, the big first baseman, has been outstanding. Chris Fritts from Texas has done well. Rob Catapano from Farragut who transferred from North Carolina has done well. Khayyan Norfolk has done well. I know it sounds like a lot, but we've had a lot of good guys. Nick Blount, a right handed pitcher out of Georgia has done well.
"These kids can impact our program. From a coaching perspective, it's going to be mold these kids a little bit. My first year here, we had no freshmen pitchers, it's almost impossible to think about that, but we didn't have one. Last year being my second year, there was nobody that was a sophomore. We brought in eight or nine freshmen pitchers last year, and they all had to pitch last year. They took it on the chin at times, but they're going to be a lot better this year. All those freshmen from last year are now sophomores. They're outstanding.
"Now we bring in another big freshman class on the arms, which we knew we had to do. Now we don't have to hurry them through. We can say, `This is what you need to do. You can wear this hat this year. You'll pitch in the middle of the week, or you'll pitch in relief.' We'll bring them along instead of throwing them out to the lions. From that point of view, I'm excited about that, too. I see that with our young kids. Good coaches put kids in situations they can succeed in. Unfortunately for a lot of reasons, we haven't had that luxury. Some good has come out of it.
"(Matt) Ramsey and (Will) Locante at the end of last year were probably as good as anybody in the country. At the beginning of the year they weren't. Now, I've got two sophomores in the eighth, ninth inning I feel pretty darn good about. Steven Gruver, was he ready to pitch last year? No. Did he have to? Yeah. This year because of that, he has a chance to be one of the better pitchers in the country, and he's a sophomore.
"I think you need a balance between the two. You can't have no freshmen pitchers and sometimes you've got to throw them to the wolves a little bit, but I feel with this class, because of depth we're able to ease them along a little bit."
Just listening to you talk about this team, you seem pretty pumped. Is there a real sense of excitement around this program right now?
"There is. Think about a competitor, and that's us or me to the 100th time. It's just been a tough row to hoe as far as some of the things we had to deal with. And I knew it. I had no problem with it. That's not an excuse. I'm excited because I want to show people what we can build. We just haven't had that opportunity. The thing is, this is only my second recruiting class right now. I'm excited about what we can build, and I like what we got.
"We've got a Team USA catcher who came out of nowhere, Blake Forsythe. It might sound like a crazy statement, but I think we've got the best defensive infield maybe in the country. We can field the ball. Last year, we were second best in Tennessee history in 100 years fielding .973. We're better. We're better than we were a year ago. We can hit. We're going to score runs. We've got the best hitter in the country. I'm not joking. We've got Cody Hawn, the best pure hitter in the country. I am excited. We've got Morgado back. We're going to be able to say, `This is what we're building.'
"I can't get it out there fast enough to the Tennessee fans. That's what I want to do. I know that's what they want, too. I just want to be like, `Hey look, we can build something here.' We're going to. I think we did last year, I really did. We were one of the most improved teams in the country. Our RPI jumped something like 44 spots. That's unheard of. We played the most games in the country against top 50 opponents. Probably shouldn't have done that with eight freshmen and sophomores. But we still improved one of the best RPI-wise.
"In the second half of the year, we did beat LSU at LSU. Nobody else beat LSU two out of three. We swept Vandy. We did a lot of things. But we got off to a slow start and it cost us. You've got to play the full season.
"With all those things and coupled with what's going on, I'm excited. It couldn't happen fast enough for us. We're not 100 percent there. All you have to do is look at our team. Physically, we're a lot better than we've been. We've got better, faster runners. We've got bigger, stronger kids. You could see the growth of what's going on. I can't speed recruiting cycles. I can't have four in two years. You've got to go through one every year. (Laughs). I assure you nobody wants it more than what our coaches do and our players. Our players have worked hard, and that's why you see it. I'm excited about we're going to do. I like our team, I really do."
