University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss Baseball Media Day -- February 8, 2002
2/8/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Southern Miss Baseball Media Day -- February 8, 2002
Head Coach Corky Palmer
Opening Comments:
"I have said previously, we are a very young team. We have 14 freshman or redshirt freshmen out of our 27 players. We have had good, enthusiastic practices. We are going to have to rely on a rotation that is full of upperclassmen with Daniel Stewart, Shea Douglas, Charlie Rogers and Stephen Castleman. That will be our strength earlier in the year, along with Jeff Cook, Allen Winningham and Clint Stoy, who are our only returning full-time starters who played all the time to give us some depth until the young guys come along. Schedule-wise, we have a lot of games early on at home, and that was by design. With this young team and many new faces, we need to try to get off on a good first step early in the season."
On the newcomers who have done well through the fall and spring practices:
"Our defensive play just stands out, based on the way we have practiced. At third base, shortstop and second base, this is the best defensive infield we have had since 1999. They remind me a lot of that bunch. With Winningham playing third, Matt Benson playing short and Jarrett Hoffpauir at second, our infield play has been really steady in our fall and spring practices. It looks like we are going to be able to turn double plays like we need to turn them. That has been a real strength. Out of the newcomers, I would think that Carlos Velasquez, our centerfielder, has stood out. He has a lot of speed and is a good player. He is going to have to set the tone because he is our leadoff hitter. We recruited him for that. He is a guy who we need to make the offense happen. Hoffpauir, a freshman, is probably so far ahead offensively of where most freshman are. He continues to show that in practice, and I expect him to be one of the better freshman in the league. I think he has that kind of ability. Of course, Jeff Cook is like he has always been -- he swings the bat and he will be our best hitter."
On Benson:
"He is a transfer from Louisiana-Monroe. He is from Australia. He is very good on defense. He can handle all different kinds; he just has good hands. We probably made a few too many errors at shortstop last year, and I think that he gives us the ability to cut that down. I think we have Winningham in his right position. He is an above-average third baseman. So, I think we helped ourselves there."
On if the team is where he wants one week away from opening day:
"Yes. We need to scrimmage a little over the weekend, but I think it is time to get started. We just need to polish it up. When we have worked, we have worked pretty hard. We lost a few days to weather, but we have caught up. We will be ready physically, and we hope to be mentally ready, too."
On where Matt Shepherd factors into the infield:
"Matt is our rotation guy right now. He is our fifth infielder. With Benson, Hoffpauir, and Winningham, Shepherd is our extra guy who will play if something would happen. He has a chance to play some. Offensively, we need to get him a little better, but defensively, he can play any of the three positions. He is there in the mix, and he has a chance to play some if someone goes down."
On where Cliff Russum will play:
"Right now, Cliff is our No. 5 starter. He will pitch middle relief early, and he will be our fifth starter when we have five games in a week. We would like to leave him there, but one of the problems that we have is that we are very concerned with our relief pitching. He may end up in that role to help the team. That is a spot in our pitching staff that I am really worried about. We don't have a guy who has really stood out in drills who needs to be the closer that Anthony Rawson was."
On who is the closer now:
"We are going to give Bob McCrory every chance to win the job early in the year. He has a great arm with a 92 mph fastball. He is a good athlete. He just has to learn how to pitch a little better, but Bob has ability. We are going to give him a chance to win it, but he has some work to do to win that job. We feel that we have a closer that we can use right now in Allen Winningham. He pitches 87-88 mph with the best breaking ball on the team. His arm is healthy, and he has a chance. We will solve that problem before we get to conference play, one way or another. I hope it is Bob, but it may not be. It may be Russum or Winningham; I don't know."
On the catching situation:
"Brad Willcutt, a redshirt freshman, will start. He has had a tremendous spring practice. He is a good player. I think he can do it all. He can catch, throw, hit, and he can hit for power. He is going to hit in the middle of the lineup as a redshirt freshman and that says a lot for his ability. He is going to be one of the better players we have had here before he finishes."
On why Darren Welch left:
"I don't know. I have no idea. He never really told me. He just said that he needed a change of scenery. That is what I gathered out of it."
On how to eliminate memories of last year's season from the guys' minds this year:
"I think we have done that. A lot of the guys coming back understand that it is a different season. You can't get too high or too low in baseball. As coaches, we don't. If you have a three-game losing streak, you can win five in a row. We bounced around emotionally like a rubber ball last season. We were too low when we lost and too high when we won. As a team, you just can't do that. I have learned a lot of things, and that is the way we have to be this year. I have to show as much patience as I ever have because we are such a young team. We have some gifted young player. How quick they grow up will be a big factor in the success that we have."
On the makeup at first base:
"Bobby Garner and Griff Israel are both in a battle. One will play first and the other might be the designated hitter."
On Clint King:
"He is also in the mix against right-handed pitching. He is a possibility at designated hitter. We have more left-handed hitters than we have had since I have been here. We have combinations that we can play. We are not going to jump our lineup around as much, but there are combinations where we can get enough right handers in against left-handed pitching and enough left-handed hitters against right handers."
On how he feels about this team:
"I know that they work hard and practice hard. They have a lot of energy, and they like each other. The thing we have to do is that we have to hit for high average. Not having power other than possibly some players, is a concern. We are going to play a different style. We are preparing to hit-and-run and do some different things. Sometimes that is tough against the big time competition in this league. We are going to try to do those things. We have practiced really hard to put the ball in play and to cut down on strikeouts. I just question if we have a whole lot of power. I have had power teams before, but on paper it just doesn't look like we do."
On if Cook has been any different this spring:
"Since Jeff has been playing here, there isn't a whole lot of difference from when he goes 0-for-3 or 3-for-3. That helps him. I don't think stuff like that affects him. He has so much confidence in himself. He just plays even keel. I think he is going to have a good year, but we just need to get some help around him. His mindset is, stay confident."
On the conference this year with the addition of TCU and East Carolina:
"It is ranked fifth in the country now. That is pretty strong. It jumped us from eighth to fifth. Tulane, Houston, East Carolina and South Florida are at the top, and that is how it should be. We are down some, and with what he have coming back, that is where we should be. We have a young club, and that is where we are at."
On if there is a sense of urgency this year:
"I don't think so because we have a young club. I just want to play better than we did last year and find a way to win more games. We plan on getting after it, and we have a chance to be pretty good. I don't know how the young guys are going to react."
Junior outfielder Jeff Cook:
"Going into the season, it feels good. The intensity is up and practice has gone good. It has been one of the better falls. We feel good about our chances. I feel like it is my duty to be a leader now, especially with all of the young guys we have. A lot of them don't know how the season is going to be because it is a long season with the 60-game schedule."
Junior pitcher Shea Douglas:
"We are ready for the season right now. We have been practicing hard every day and staying out here late. I have to step up this year as a leader. Now that I am older, I have a lot of people looking up to me. It will be tough the first half of the season for some of our players to get used to the schedule."
