University of Tennessee Athletics
Media Monday: Game Week for Vol Baseball
February 09, 2015 | Baseball
Tennessee Head Coach Dave Serrano
(Opening Statement)
"Well, thanks everyone for coming out. Here we go again, the start of the 2015 campaign and I think from our house, we are excited about the adventure we are going to go down. I've never been more confident in the ability that we have. That goes back to a lot of work and recruiting by my coaching staff. We have assembled three very good classes starting from the first year we were able to assemble a class and now we are hopefully going to reap the benefits of that. I could sit here as this team's head coach and be pretty confident that we may not win every game, but that's not how baseball works, but there are not many teams that when we look across the field, we are going to feel out-talented anymore.
I think the big challenge for this team is feeling like they belong now and feeling like the belong in an upper echelon team in the SEC team and that they belong as a ranked team in the nation, and we need to respond that way and play that way each and every day. It starts on the mound. It starts with Andy Cox, who is here with us today. Andy had as special of a year as any guy returning on our pitching staff. We slowed him down a little bit in the fall. He had some tenderness, nothing earth shattering, and we just didn't want to push the envelope. He is getting himself back into shape now. He is one guy I could sit and say he is our Friday guy. Unfortunately for Andy, I cannot say which Friday that will happen. He is our Friday guy but also our most important guy. Going off a track record of last year, we lost a lot of close games, but that just wasn't due to pitching. That was just due to a team that was trying to overcome themselves in giving up leads late. I think building this pitching staff from the back to the front, and Andy starting the year where his longevity is right now, he's built up to two and could easily go three but we aren't pushing him right now.
Andrew Lee, who was at the back of the bullpen last year has developed another pitch, a very good breaking ball, has had a very great fall for us. Then Peter Lenstrohm, who has as good as stuff as anyone on our pitching staff, was hot and cold last year but I see a much more mature young man in him. Those three guys are going to anchor the end of it. The thing about those three guys is that they are interchangeable. They could start on the weekend for us.
This weekend, we are going to start with Bret Marks, who has been our most consistent guy throughout the fall and since we have come back, a low three quarter arm angle guy that is a senior. He has pitched like that for us, a guy who has experience.
On Saturday we are going to go Drake Owenby, who is another young man who has performed well out of the bull pen in this program, well out of the bull pen in his summer leagues. He has his body in tremendous shape and has done nothing to disappoint us throughout the fall and throughout the winter since we've been back. He's anchored down the Saturday spot for now. Then Kyle Serrano will start on Sunday. I think with those three young men, we have a formidable type SEC rotation.
The part I'm not talking about is the two guys, I already talked about Andy, that could easily be in there. One, Hunter Martin, who started for us, last year as a freshman, hasn't had the Hunter Martin-like off season. He hasn't been as consistent but threw tremendously well yesterday in an inner squad game. He, right now, is slated to be our mid-week guy and would start against Tennessee Tech when we get back from Florida. And, Steven Kane, a transfer from a junior college in California that only went 23-2, out at one of the best junior colleges in the country. He has shown consistency and had a good outing the other day on Saturday. So, we have some flexibility and that's where I feel confident.
There is another young man who is coming, is a ways behind still because of the talent we have up front, and that's a young man named Zach Warren, who we were fortunate to get late in the summer. Originally signed with Tulane but they had a coaching change so he ended up opting out of that letter of intent and coming in. He is our future. Zach is our future. He will be in the rotation, hopefully by the end of this year or next year. But, that's where I know this program has changed. Before, Zach Warren would have been thrown into the mix right now. He would have been in the weekend rotation two or three years ago. Now we can kind of groom him, pitch him in some mid-week games and allow him to grow up and when he is truly ready, we will run him out there. To me, it forms a pitching staff, there are other members too that are going to piece mill parts of the game for us. I feel confident about that.
Our defense has not let us down to this point. It didn't let us down, too much extent, last year. I think we are a year older and are pretty consistent during the fall no matter who was out there. We played good defense and our lineup has produced a lot of at bats. Maybe not everyone has performed to where their expectations are at, at this point but boy they've been through the rigors. They know what to expect now, there's not a surprise. Just like I said to the team the other day, we are facing each day, in inner squads, really good pitching. So, it's preparing us for the road we are about to go down. We are facing very good hitters from the mound each and every day, no matter what lineup we're facing, we're facing a left and right handed combination. So, both sides of the ball are getting prepared for the upcoming run that we are going to have.
We open up at FIU. A lot of people know it's in Miami but may not know much more about FIU. They're projected as a possible regional team. They've got really good arms coming back. They had a turnover in their position players, but we're going to see some really good arms. We're going to see SEC arms out of the gate from FIU, and then we get to come home. Hopefully the weather stays nice and warm like it was this weekend.
We'll play a Tennessee Tech team and then a Rutgers team for four. Obviously they'll be coming out of the cold with the weather they've had up there, and then we get to go to southern California to another warm weather and play a last year opponent in the college world series and a former home of mine in UC Irvine. I'll just go on record as saying that may be one of the proudest moments of my career. To be leading the program which I am the most proud of ever running and be on the field of the second best program I've ever ran in my life. It'll be a proud weekend for me to go out there and compete against and see a lot of family and friends out there that weekend."
(On Andy Cox's role in bullpen and rotation)
"When the game is one the line. That's the easiest way for me to describe it. He's been through the fire. Like I said, some of my best pitchers throughout my career have been my closers because you can use them more than one time. You play at least four games a week. And the schedule we play and in the SEC the games are going to be tight. And he's going to be the guy that the majority of the time, unless he tells me he can't take the ball that day, he's going to have the ball when the game's on the line. And if we don't utilize him to that kind of mold, let's say we're not in some close games. Let's say we're winning games by big margins, and we're not using the bullpen, then obviously when he gets his arm back in shape, he will be put back in the rotation. It's kind of a wait and see right now as we continue to prepare him and build him up. But he's in the most important position on this team. And that's going to be when the game's on the line."
(On Andy Cox's rehab)
"Well you'll get to ask him, I'm sure. He's farther along than we've pushed him right now. And there's a reason for that. It's still early. This is a marathon, not a sprint. We want to win every game as their scheduled. But it's not so important that we have him at full strength right now as it is when we open up conference at Florida. And so, the players are going to end up making the decisions on who pitches on what days, who closes on what days, who hits in what type (of order). They're the ones that make the decisions. We have to make decisions based off of what we've seen in the fall and since we've come back in the winter. Right now it's more due to the fact of where Andy is strength-wise and in his endurance. You know, he threw four innings this weekend. He threw two on Friday and two on Sunday. And he rebounded tremendously well. So, he could probably go more in to games, but I want to be careful because I want him for the whole run."
(On whether anything has effected Andy Cox's arm or if endurance is the issue)
"It's just pure endurance. I've seen his stuff. His stuff has been just as good. He worked a very two-quick innings yesterday, two-quick in our intersquad game. He was on and off the field like the snap of your fingers. He throws strikes. He spins the ball for strikes. And he gets outs. And that's what he does for this program. And the other thing is, I think when Andy has the ball in his hands I think the team gets a lot of confidence behind him. They know the right guy's got it at the right time. And there's a lot to be said with that too. "
(On Andrew Lee's breaking ball improvement)
"Well, let me say something. I made a little change this year in my staff. I added Chip Dill who's a former teammate of mine back in the early days at Cerritos College. Chip has a pitching background, and I want to do the best thing for the team. My background is pitching. But I wanted to be more of a head coach and allow the pitchers to have someone to go to. And I think my decision to bring in Chip has been fabulous. The relationships from the players, the pitchers, to him has been tremendous. His demeanor is pretty flat-line which is good for pitchers. He's demanding, but I'm demanding in a different way where probably I was a little harder to approach at times from the pitcher's standpoint. And I give him a lot of credit for his development, on a lot of the pitchers, but on Andrew's breaking ball. He coached this summer in the Cape. Andrew was on his team. He started with the development then. And they've continued development throughout the fall. I tease chip all the time - Chip polishes the rims and waxes the Cadillac and I get to drive it on game days. But he's an important part. He is the pitching coach. That's my background and that's going to be the forte of this program all the time. But he is the pitching coach. He's the one that's going to be making the trips in-between innings or during innings to talk to the pitchers because he has a rapport with that. I'll be the coach that makes the changes when we're going to the bullpen. And I feel comfortable with that. You need to delegate and that's been a lot of where my success has come from is delegating to a lot of fine men that are working with you. And I feel comfortable with what I've done with Chip, bringing him on board."
(On how far Bret Marks has come)
"Well as you can see, I've grey hair on the sides. But by the end of the year with Bret Marks, I'm probably going to be fully grey. And that's okay. He's a weirdo in a good way, okay? And I mean that. He's going to drive me crazy, but boy the guy has a lot of confidence and that's a good thing. I would like more guys to have his confidence and his swagger. When he's not on the mound, he's going to drive me crazy. That's just Bret Marks, and that's a good thing. That's probably what you want out of a guy. You could probably drop him in any stadium, in any atmosphere; it's not going to bother him at all. It isn't. In fact, he's going to welcome it. See, we didn't really get the full Bret Marks last year. He was injured throughout the season. We didn't really have him at full till last year. And then he went out to Alaska and had the best summer of any pitcher out there. I think he led the league in strikeouts. He's not really a strikeout pitcher. That's me talking. If he's talking he'd say he's a strikeout pitcher. I think he gained a ton of confidence. He was one of the best pitchers in Alaska this summer. And he has not stopped since he came back. There's nothing special that he does, but he sure throws the ball down in the zone for strikes a lot. And he gets a lot of ground balls. And I'm sure you could ask AJ when he's up here, the guys probably love playing behind him because they get a lot of action on the infield with ground balls and he works fast."
(On how close he is to having a set lineup)
"Well, I think the team that we ran out this weekend, Team A as we call it, pretty much is our set lineup. There may be some tweaks here and there, but that's with Nathaniel Maggio at first (base), that's with Nick Senzel at second, that's with A.J. Simcox at short(stop), Jeff Moberg at third, David Houser behind the plate, Christin Stewart in left (field), Vincent Jackson in center, and then a combo of either Chris Hall, who had been nursing a hamstring injury but is almost 100 percent back, and Derek Lance (in right field). If Chris isn't 100 percent to play defense, then Derek would go out there and that's interchangeable. The thing that I'm excited about, and I said this to the team yesterday, is that there's a lot of battles that are going to still be going on throughout the year. We're having a tough time just compiling a 27-man travel squad. There's some tough battles, and I know it's numbers 26 and 27, but there's some tough decisions to be made. That's different. That's way different than it's been in this program. Before, it was pretty clear cut, we knew who are 27 guys were and it was a matter of injury or maybe a discipline thing of why a guy didn't go on the road. I think it's going to continue to push the guys that are on that list, that are in that lineup everyday, because there are some names I didn't mention of those nine guys that have a chance to play for us. That's a good thing. Just like the pitching, with the position players we have some depth, knock on wood, we continue to stay healthy because we want to play with all our pieces. We've already been dealt with the Tyler Schultz injury. Tyler was going to be a key part of our catching core. He had back surgery, unfortunately for him but the best thing for him, in December so he'll miss the whole season. But, we have a Benito Santiago and a Dom Cammarata that can spell that, so it'd be nice to have Tyler, but we think this is a year that we can afford to lose someone like that."
Junior Pitcher Andy Cox
(On status of arm)
"I'm making big strides. I feel a whole lot better. The strength is getting back. Obviously, like coach said, I didn't thrown much this fall. It's getting there. I threw four innings this weekend--two on Friday and two on Sunday. I felt better than I did on Friday when I pitched on Sunday. I'm just going to keep building that strength and building that endurance to get back to where I was last season."
(On role of being the go-to when the game is tight)
"It's an honor to have. Obviously, it doesn't matter what role I have, I just want to do good for the team, help the team in any way I can to win the game. It will be nice knowing that when the game is on the line, I'm the one that gets to go in and help finish the game off. It's an honor for me."
(On mindset of starting versus coming from the bullpen)
"No, it's the same. Last year, I did both. I just go in there, have confidence and throw my pitches the way I do and let the defense work for me."
(On playing FIU)
"Like coach said, we aren't going to schedule cupcake schools for our non-conference games. We're going get prepared because we play in the best conference in the nation. Playing schools like FIU--I don't really know much about them, but I know they have pretty good pitching, and that is going to help our hitters. I know they're going to have a good enough lineup for pitchers like us to be challenged. Just good hitters to get ready for the SEC play. And, I know when we go over to California and play UC Irvine--that program has always been top notch--it's going to be really exciting to play at a place like that with their tradition and knowing that we are going to play some good teams getting ready for the SEC."
(On impressive UT pitchers thus far)
"The guy that has impressed me most is Bret Marks. He's the dude. He is a bulldog. He goes out there. He is a weirdo like coach said. He is a great guy, awesome teammate, but he is the kind of guy who is going to go out there, and it doesn't matter who we are playing, he is going to go, show up and shut the team down. That is what we want to see on a Friday night--a guy going in there no matter what happens, he is just going to keep battling and just get through the game."
(On difference in Bret Marks from a year ago)
"I think just that one year of experience, getting your feet wet. He came in as a JUCO transfer. He didn't know anybody, but then he went to Alaska, had a great summer, and that helps a lot, getting that confidence built up. He has that mentality of a Friday night starter, just going out there to beat anybody."
(On needing more `weirdos' on pitching staff)
Hey, it helps. Bret has those glasses on. He looks like the guy off of Major League. It's a good guy to have. You have to have those kind of guys. That is what I like about our pitching staff. They are all different. Everybody is different. We all have our different ways of pitching. We all have a different way of going about life."
(On the depth of pitching staff)
"I can honestly say this year that we have SEC pitching. I know my freshman year, we got thrown into the fire. I got thrown into the fire as a freshman, but I know this year we have upperclassmen like myself that can take over and kind of give the freshmen a little bit of experience and sit there and watch. Some of them will play, but it's nice knowing that we have a team this year that can compete in the SEC."
(On pitching coach Chip Dill)
"Coach Chip Dill is a great man. He is one of the most laid back coaches I've ever been apart of. You won't hear him yell, but he can coach. He has taught us a lot. He has helped our [pitchers fielding practice] game. He has helped people develop pitches. He is a big asset to our team because he is always there with us. Every single practice, it's just Coach Chip and the pitchers. We have gotten to know him, we have gotten to build a good relationship with him. He is just nice to have around."
(On Christin Stewart)
`Stewie' is one of a kind. He can face the best guy in the nation, then he'll come in the dugout and a guy like A.J. will ask him, `Man, how does he look?', and he will have no idea what pitch he hit. He goes up there, and he swings the bat. He is one of the hardest guys on our team to get out, and he is lethal for our squad. He is power hitter, and, like I said, he doesn't know what's coming. His approach is he just goes up there and swings the bat."
(On Stewart's approach being a strength)
"That is how he is. He just goes up there and hits. He could face anybody in the pros, he'll just go up there and swing the bat. It doesn't matter what pitch is coming, he knows he is going to hit it."
(On feeling the new baseball's impact on pitching)
"Honestly, I haven't. It has affected my slider a little bit, but I think it is because I haven't gotten back yet. I feel like it helps either way, a pitcher and hitter's side. I'm getting more tail with my fastball. I can't really see much of a difference that people were saying about it. I don't mind either way. I like it."
(On noticeable difference when holding new ball)
"Yeah, you can definitely tell the difference with the seems, the lower seems. Obviously, with the higher seems, it makes the grip on your breaking ball a lot easier, but it doesn't take long to get used to [the new grip]. I am already used to it now. It's not that bad at all."
(On change of leadership role throughout Tennessee career)
"I came here as a small little freshman just scared, timid. I was nervous, I'm not going to lie. Throughout the years, I've changed. I am a completely different person than I was freshman year. It's good to know that I am one of the leaders on the team now that can take control and help out with the freshmen and give them my experiences and give them what to do to help build that confidence and be successful."
Junior Shortstop A.J. Simcox
(On current position of UT's program)
"It's good. When I first came here, we were a little down to say the least, and to see the program grow throughout my career here, it's been unbelievable. We came in with a big class my freshman year. About half of those guys are gone, but the guys that are still here--coach mentioned watching us grow and everything like that. We have a really, really close team, and it's been fun to watch my teammates, the guys that I came in with, Andy included--guys like Vincent, Christin, those kind of guys--it's been really fun to watch us grow on and off the field. I think it's going to be a good year this year, and the program is definitely headed in the right direction."
(On ability to compete with the top SEC programs)
"There is not a doubt in my mind that we have that [confidence] now. We're actually a veteran club this year for the first time since I've been here. My freshman year, we would start seven or eight freshmen any given game. Starting that many freshmen, it's tough. We kind of just got thrown in there. It was good. We grew, we learned a lot of stuff about the conference, a lot of stuff about baseball and stuff like that. But, we got kicked around a little bit, so it was hard to have that confidence as a team throughout that season. Last year, we made a baby step. It was not as big of a step as we would have liked, but we started out the season really well, had a lot of confidence going. Coach talked about that as well, how last season we started so, so hot. With the schedule that he schedules, he doesn't expect us to go unscathed through the preseason. I think that is going to benefit us playing those tough teams, having tough games, close games, being able to pull those out. That just benefits you later on during the season. It gets you going and gives you some confidence."
(On seeing an even level of talent between opposing teams this season)
"Without a doubt in my mind. Like coach said, freshman year, we had the talent there, but we were playing juniors, seniors. We were 17- or 18-year-old kids playing 20-, 21-year-old guys, full grown men. I think, now, our talent has developed even more so. We are as old as it gets in the SEC, and I think that is really going to benefit us. I think, man-to-man, we are at that level."
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