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Preseason Kickoff - Dudes Being Dudes
19 Plays14 days ago
Look back at the 1st two Preseason ID events in NC, plus a look ahead at what to expect from several players as we head to the spring.
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Transcript
Transition to Basketball
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome back baseball fans to another edition of the prep baseball report in North Carolina podcast. I'm Brandon Hall, the North Carolina director of scouting overseeing the mid Atlantic with me today. Our East and West directors, Patrick Johnson, Zach Brodsky. Gentlemen, how are we doing? Good. Good. How are you? Anybody lose their tails on football this weekend? Football for me is dead. The Falcons are done. George is done. We've moved on to next year. I can't believe people are still playing, but everybody did okay this weekend. and We survived college basketball. Got me.
00:00:39
Speaker
Big, big hook smells and college basketballs. You know, you you're 49ers to Charlotte, all Charlotte over there right by your house. ah yeah they theyve They got the cover on Memphis at the 11. It was an 11 and a half game. So they got there ah got us. I don't even know why we watched. We know the Chiefs are going to be there. They're going to make sure that the Chiefs get there in the end. so You see, this isn't about face. and My wife's going to watch this. And for those that don't know, my wife's a huge can't see things. She grew up in Kansas City. There was a little bit of smack talk on Saturday in Charlotte. Just a little bit to the point where my wife, when the game was done, said, Tex Patrick this. And so now you're coming on on the podcast and flipping it. You're going you're going reverse or owner. They're too good. There's no way they lose.
00:01:24
Speaker
I like to stir the pop, but you know it's hard to win when the rest are on your side. You know, come on, and come on. yeah Some of those some of those late hits and and pass interference calls. Come on. There were some great AI generated clips. The Mahomes and ref kissing on the sideline. That was fantastic. i How everybody is doing a lot of stuff that's that's gotten really good. Some of it. There were a couple that probably went over the line. We can't talk about on a show like this, but that's they were pretty good.
Successful Baseball Events
00:01:54
Speaker
Well, coming off that weekend and we didn't see a whole lot of the games because obviously event seasons here we're all for rolling. We had two events in North Carolina. Patrick, you and I were in Charlotte on Saturday. Zach, you and I were in Wilmington on Sunday and you know for us.
00:02:12
Speaker
ID events can be hit and miss. Sometimes they land, sometimes they don't. Scheduling early season, these were two great events. you know Good turnout, good players, players that were ready to dive in. Patrick, let's start in Charlotte. Let's just talk about the facility we we're at. We're at On Deck Academy, home of the On Deck O's. Jason Hill and the Hill brothers kind of run that forever. I coached with Jason at Charlotte, have an affinity for that program and what they're doing. But we've been in there is our second time in that facility. get Let's get done everything we need to get done.
00:02:42
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's a great place. I love the way they got everything set up, especially the way they can raise and lower the nets. ah I really liked that last year when we saw it. But yeah, overall, great place. The event went great. I think, like you said, for being early in the year, the level of talent that we had at the at the idea was
Indoor Baseball Logistics
00:03:02
Speaker
great. um The kids did really well adjusting the indoors this early in the year.
00:03:07
Speaker
um It was a good event. I enjoyed getting back into the flow of it. And you know it's gonna hopefully the rest of our events for this spring, early in the year, they go the same way as that one did because it was it was good.
00:03:21
Speaker
Yeah, good players make them run the athletic testing. All of our apps, people gotten used to this stuff. If they've been to an event, you know, sometimes apps don't work. Sometimes things go haywire and we have to kind of hit and miss and try to keep it. Most of the time players don't see it. We're kind of like ducks on the water. Our feet are turning into the water, but we're trying to stay calm on top.
00:03:39
Speaker
um I told both events um'm I'm on prednisone currently trying to kick some stuff and my heart was racing. my My mind was racing. I was talking a million miles a minute. I just told them constantly slow me down. Just slow me down for going too fast. And I thought the players did a great job of of kind of reacting and communicating with us. Letting us know, you know, trying to get through some of their anxieties. They could could put up really good numbers.
00:04:02
Speaker
Um, you know, and again, Saturday was good Sunday for me, another type of homecoming. I got the chance to, uh, the on deck guys on Saturday, Sunday, go to my alma mater. And it is not the same place I played at. Um, gorgeous indoor facility, uh, a fairly new outdoor, uh, turf infield they've been using for a couple of years now.
00:04:22
Speaker
They're putting putting AstroTurf on the main playing field. They're doing some stadium improvements. Zach, first time, yeah I think you said it was your first time being at UNC Wilmington. Overall, and thoughts and impact of just seeing the facility and what the Seahawks are dealing with on a daily basis for their player development.
00:04:39
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I thought it was wonderful. like I mean you got the mean, you walk up, you see this brand new field. like It looks beautiful, great seating around. And i say like i I don't ever know what it looked like before, but like that caught your eye right right away. Full infield, be able to do anything you want. You had a full infield that we got to use and kind of do for our infield-outfield stuff. Indoor.
00:05:00
Speaker
I think it was like four cages, same thing Patrick said, they got the retractables. They can do lives, do a lot. you know i mean And the benefit of it is when you're there, like you got to see some of the college guys kind of getting back into shape, kind of going through the workouts as we were going. you know Got to run into my old player, which was nice. you know Got to catch up with him, got to you know see him right before the season started. You guys saw some of the guys doing work as everybody was getting ready to get out, like just really nice setup for everything.
00:05:26
Speaker
that That was a cool deal. I didn't realize that their players came in earlier and got some of their individual work done. Just building was open. They come in. there A lot of those guys doing some some body rehab, you know, prehab or rehab, some just recovery type work. But having the high school kids come in and being able to see, hey, this is how some of these college guys are getting their work done.
00:05:47
Speaker
Um, and it kind of lends itself to one of the things we're doing with the IDs this year, we're running a rising stars events on top of the ID. So a lot of what we do is geared towards high school
Rising Stars Mentoring
00:05:57
Speaker
players. Obviously we have some college coverage, some junior college coverage.
00:06:00
Speaker
but 80, 90% is to high school players. We're also starting to develop just relationships with those guys that are going to be in high school in the next couple of years. So the Rising Stars events are chances for some 7th and 8th graders to be at some of these events and kind of use these high school guys as mentors. you know Both of you guys saw some young guys at these events. Talk one, extremely I was extremely impressed with just the way they handled the day, because we're throwing a lot of things at them that they probably have not seen.
00:06:27
Speaker
But then too, how the high school guys kind of took those guys out of their wing. There were a couple different times where I saw high school guys, older guys pulling them off the side and go, hey, second round, relax. You don't have to do much. Just be who you are. Don't try to do it, and seeing those guys relax those players into that environment. Let's start with Patrick. Yeah, no, the the guys in Charlotte did great. you know Sometimes sitting indoors or hitting BP off of somebody that you've never seen before.
00:06:51
Speaker
um you know the A couple of guys struggled their first round, just trying to adjust, doing a little bit too much. And there were some guys that told him, hey, you know first round, just get used to it. Second round's always better. you know You'll have the cameras on, this and that. They they did a good job. Our rising star guy that was there, he did really good. can you know he He adjusted to everything. um you know didn't Didn't look like he was flustered or anything like that. He he went through the the whole workout, the event well. But like said you said, he had some older guys that helped him through it. and
00:07:23
Speaker
you know, tell them, hey, we've done this before. This how it's going to be. Um, you know, overall went great. Zach thoughts. Yeah. So like for us, like, you know, like not everybody knows we're changing apps and IDs through some of these things. So like making sure you don't get warm too fast, where I think that was a big part, you know, you're kind of watching. They were able to watch because a lot of it was right in front of them, how guys are warming up, how they're going to the next thing. You know, nobody was really geared up, ready to throw too early in this. And so I think as people come to multiple events, you kind of learn.
00:07:54
Speaker
You know, I would love to say we can do all bullpens at one time and we get done one time But we can't like our technology we're changing like rising stars is different than the preseason ID So we have to go through apps close apps and all that takes, you know a minute two or three Well, if you do it two or three times your 10-15 minutes where if you got heated up you might have got heated up too early too slow so for them it kind of yeah Watching the older guys give them a chance to kind of understand how the process was gonna go and how the pace was gonna go and Let's dive into these IDs. And right out of the chute, all three of us have probably gotten phone calls. I know it was a topic conversation for me on my drive up Sunday, on my drive back Sunday
Quinn O'Rourke's Development
00:08:34
Speaker
throughout the event. During Sunday, we had a young man show up and show out on Saturday. Quinn O'Rourke, 2026, right handed pitchers at Charlotte Catholic now. um Charlotte Catholics, gonna they do they have the best pitching staff in the state? There's an argument to be made with with what O'Rourke did.
00:08:50
Speaker
And then also Alex Hoffman, how he he kind of got his bang off or got off in the fall. But you know the strides he's made. That's that's two power arms. It's that's two really good power arms. Bet you a lot of Christians got a couple of arms are going to. They're going to have a say in that, but a work showed up. He's put on, you know, again, I haven't gone back and looked at all the numbers that has just happened. 15 you could tell it muscle. You could you could see it on him like you could see the change and he's moving better.
00:09:20
Speaker
you know And it was a guy that we saw last year. And it's one of those things when we're scouting or evaluating, these guys change. They're not 24 years old. They're not 26 years old. You're not getting what you got. And credit to Quinn, you know he came last year and he you know his numbers were OK. He's a really good pitcher. He's a prospect in terms of you know landing ah at a solid Division I program and having that chance.
00:09:46
Speaker
But he took some feedback last year, whether it was from us or from coaches or whoever, and he made some adjustments. And those adjustments have paid off because he is moving, he is stronger, his arm is faster. um You know, I mean, but the number, the number is a little bit about just just prospects in their development. I'm going to play some video here of Quinn um as you're kind of talking about just how guys can change and how they can take that feedback.
00:10:13
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you go through, you know, the pro world and the high level colleges, you know, a lot of the first thing is you're projectable. Well, and when we first started doing this projection, got you to a lot of places, like, you know, we're something to dream on. Well, as the, you know, recruiting world has changed, you know,
00:10:31
Speaker
Projection isn't as much as you know, you're now stuff and before he was you know, fairly projectable arm You know upper 80s and now this is production like he is produced. He is filled out his body He is turned some of that projection and to production and so as you continue to mature You know, the projectability is always good But if you're always projectable, that means you've never really got to the producing point and now we're at the producing point for someone like him and Patrick, what are you seeing on Quinn? I mean, obviously, you've seen a little bit of him before, and now we have a little bit of a look here. We haven't dove into a ton of video and a ton of analytics yet, but just watching some of this video, it's up. what's where you're What are you kind of thinking? I mean, just like you said, I mean, yesterday when I got to watch him, or this weekend when I got to watch him throw, I mean, he was just moving so well. um You know, it was just relaxed. It didn't look like he was trying to overdo anything when he was throwing, but just, I mean, I thought it was impressive that
00:11:28
Speaker
this time of the year, this early in the year, he's already putting up numbers like that. You know, where's he going to be when he hits mid season form, you know, over high school season or summer ball or whatever it is when he comes to another event. I mean, you know, he puts up those kind of numbers now this early in the year, he's made that biggest strides and he's, he's not even at peak form yet. I mean, I think it's something to be excited about for us to be able to go and watch him and see where he gets to this year.
00:11:54
Speaker
And we're excited cause off that event, I mean, obviously he bump he bumps 90, I think it was 92 six. He spent his breaking ball book, 2,700. And it wasn't a maxed out. That was a bullpen day for him. It was just, it was relaxed. And you know, off of that, he earned an and invite to our, our pro case at the,
00:12:10
Speaker
end of our preseason that I think it's February 9th in Kernersville. So we'll get a chance to see him mc again on February 9th. The pro case excited to see him there. But you know guys take jumps, guys move forward, and we shuffle how we have the guys assessed, and we move them up and down the list based on that. and you know, Quinn took advantage of that. Two other names, Zach, I'm sorry, Patrick, but that we'll jump into here. Two arms that I liked, Beckett, Howie and Brody Smith. I'll start with Beckett. Right-hander, again, it's another young man that's made some ah adjustments with the body. The arm was clean. It's a little bit more arm strength than his arm speed. um But the fastball jumped out of the hand. I'm trying to get my screen to load on him as it's exploding loading, loading, loading. So he was up to 88.
00:12:54
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he was another one that saw him throw. I mean, he, same thing we said about Quinn. I mean, he, he, this early in the year, he was, he was just, he was out there bullpen day, putting up numbers, you know, look relaxed. Same thing. I mean, it was just, it was impressive. Sometimes early in the year, you get guys out there. They're trying to do too much. So, you know, they're not informed. Uh, you know, you can tell they're trying to figure things out, but both of those guys, man, they, they looked good. They looked really good.
00:13:18
Speaker
And then there was a Brody Smith. I think Brody is a left hander if I'm remembered correctly. Yes. um And it's it's a little, it's a little bit raw. There's lines a little bit all over the place. But when you talk about intent and you talk about, you know, having some feel with where's hand speeds and you're talking about hand speed.
00:13:37
Speaker
There were some things to like there, you know, 85 or something like that and spun the breaker ball pretty well. And just yeah for me, I'm watching him and I'm going, I don't, I don't know that I'm going to be really real comfortable if I get in a box against him. No, there wasn't a whole lot where I go. I'm going to really see that ball. I got a chance to just put, put a good swing on it. So guys like that jump too. Sometimes it's not just pure stuff. It's that idea of what, how's he going to affect hitters? And I think he's a tough at that.
00:14:05
Speaker
oh Yeah, absolutely absolutely. I was I was behind the catcher when he was throwing his bullpen and I was thinking the exact same thing you said that I would not want to be in that box when he's thrown right now, not because the ball is all over the place, but because it was uncomfortable. I mean, he was he knew where he wanted to throw it and just it jumped out of his hand and it was it would have been a very uncomfortable bat being in there.
00:14:24
Speaker
the The offensive session of the day, those guys show up and and we're able to take them through some athletic testing. We've got some vertical gun, RSI jump. We've got grip strength, height weight, some visual edge testing. We got ah we got a 30 with it being indoors. We've got a 10, a 25 split off that 30. And then they start to roll into BP. What I loved about both these facilities is we can open the cages up and let the ball fly a little bit. So balls aren't just banging in the net as soon as they get off the bat. We can actually see if the ball has a little bit of carry off the bat, what type of spin it's getting.
00:14:53
Speaker
you know, allow track me and you know really kind of dial in on what the ball is doing. um And we had several guys stand out and um I'm just going to play some video here for you, um Patrick, and kind of let you talk.
00:15:14
Speaker
um
00:15:21
Speaker
like Jackson Jackson. Hay Haynes from yeah from the event young guy. He showed really well. I remember his army had a lot of arm strength when we were testing that with our outfield throws. Athletic kid put some good swings on the ball. I think he he made adjustments like everyone else from round one to round two and he really put some great swings on the ball. His second second round through BP. He's athletic there and and yeah, you know it's it's an interesting body of getting his raw. There's some arm length.
00:15:51
Speaker
So trying to figure out how he's going to time some things up. With the way I'm playing these videos, I think, i for whatever reason, the sound's still on. It's not supposed to be. So I don't know that you're training the audio transitions when we do this. So let the video play, and then I'll bounce back to you, Patrick.
00:16:05
Speaker
so then
00:16:12
Speaker
So we'll we'll just go through these guys. And again, we're the production team's rushed. We just got back at midnight last night, so the production team's rushed. Let's go Layton Grool. Layton Grool is a right-handed hitter, kind of a no stride, strong lower half, strong hands. Like the bat, half ball jumped off the bat a little bit. What did you see with Layton?
00:16:34
Speaker
I just is relaxed man like I I I remember he was one of the ones like you know sometimes you're at events you're talking to these kids you can tell they're they're nervous or just like I don't know they're they're kind of it's okay to be dialed in but he was one of the only kids there as I'm standing there you know doing track man getting him ready to hit and everything like that he's just chatted up with me.
00:16:54
Speaker
Just relaxes can be then he he he gets in the box and he's just you know mashing balls Off VP first second round comes back around. He's just chatting up very relaxed You know knew what he was gonna do in the box. It was a it was a fun one to have there One of my favorites from the event not and again just starting to dive into numbers and how they actually perform but Brady Williamson I have an affinity for catchers who enjoy catching and And he was an outgoing young man behind the plate. He was willing to to talk to the pitchers. He was willing to find out how he could help them. He was a willing blocker in bullpens. um And then he gets in the box. It's a physical frame. There's bad speed. And the ball jumped off the bat a little bit. Yeah, no. ah I think that can't be overlooked what you said about someone that he's catcher that wants to catch and enjoys it and is out there looking out for his pitchers. I did see him do that several times when you know We're switching over bullpens and he's talking to guys before he gets over to the main mound and he's like, hey, you know what do you want? How can I do? How can I help you out here? you know That says a lot about him maturity level and he is physical. So yeah, he was a good one to watch at the event as well.
00:18:08
Speaker
And the final guy we'll kind of go through is our event leader and exit velocity, Luke Ponska. luke Luke's the guy we've seen before. I thought the swing was a lot cleaner. um you know He's made some improvements. He's made some adjustments. There's a little bit more quickness. The strength has always been there. When you start talking about, especially in BP settings, starting to get up above 100 mile an hour exit velocity, you're starting to do damage on the baseball. Got translated to games, and I think Luke has a chance to do that.
00:18:34
Speaker
Yeah, no, like you said, physical first thing that I noticed, I mean, you obviously you see it and it translated into the box. I mean, I think his first swing he took off a guy I'd never seen in, in BP on track, man, I think he was like 96 eight. And then the next one was one on one. And then he comes back around second round, a hundred plus again, you know, upper nineties. And it wasn't just one time he was consistent with it. The swing was there. He looked great.
00:18:59
Speaker
I'm gonna let this video play for about a minute just so we can see some of these swings we've talked about.
Event Review
00:19:04
Speaker
I'll do a better job producing this stuff in the future so we can overlay it. I'm still trying to get used to being this podcast master, right?
00:19:19
Speaker
um
00:19:32
Speaker
um
00:20:23
Speaker
physical dudes there, some bad speed. That was good to see. So we get through Saturday. I'm feeling pretty good because, you know, we're seeing some really good players. We head to Sunday. I'm excited because I'm heading back to Wilmington. I'm thinking, hey, got a chance to actually eat some of the places I ate at when I was in college, when I was coaching there.
00:20:38
Speaker
um Which is, you know, something I think about. I try not to. I'm trying to be better with my diet, but it pops in the mind and then we show up and there's players. Zach, we we had a future gamer there. We had ah one of our guys that we took down to to Lake Point last year, Preston Smith, College of Charleston Commit. You know, and Preston's gotten stronger. You know, initial impressions on Preston as we kind of roll through the day with him.
00:21:01
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he's the frame is, you know, he looks like a, like a left side of the infield guy. Like he's broad, you know, his feet move. Like he took some balls at third. And then he was like, let me get a couple of short, took some balls are short. And he just moves. Like he moves. Well, everything is flowing for him. You know, he got on the mound too. It was up to 87. Um, so, you know, there's some arm strength, you know, he struck a lot of balls. Well, in the caves, um,
00:21:27
Speaker
mainly middle of the field guy, like just letting his strength work. I mean, but he is really well put together and it's no bad weight. I think it's an interesting thing you said we were talking about the ball. The ball seems to jump harder off his bat than what some of the numbers are telling us. And I was thinking about it a little bit and talking to some other other friends as we're kind of going through some of the stuff on the way home.
00:21:47
Speaker
And he has an ease about his swing and a snap at the ball. And as he puts on strength, he continues to fill out that frame, I think we're going to see the exit velocity numbers skyrocket.
00:21:59
Speaker
Um, the other thing I loved about him, he worked out at third base. Um, you know, anytime of these events you're gonna get, you know, we we try to get you some ground balls and then, you know, you get put kind of spotlight on you and, you know, he mishandled one. Well, he he jumped back in line. He wanted extra reps, you know, and can't do that for everybody. We'd never go home. But for him, he jumped back in and it's short. You know, he moves as well as what you kind of think he's not a prototypical short stop body, but he moves really well there.
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah, no big, you know, as I said, like you like big, you know, the big infielders are coming back and like he's got a chance, you know, cause the bats always going to play, you know, if you got a chance to be even be that, you know, shortstop for a couple of years before you move over to third, I mean, that that's going to be great for him.
00:22:46
Speaker
One of the things that we we talk about with players and families is we'd like to be around good players, good families that are at our events.
Dylan Stacks' Offseason Progress
00:22:52
Speaker
And so when we we have events, we're going to invite good players there. But we also tell them, you know we're a service. we You don't need to come to everything that we do. When you're ready to put up better numbers, come put them up. One of the players that we saw last fall, Dylan Stacks, when he registered for this event, I looked at it and said, it hasn't been that long since we've seen him.
00:23:14
Speaker
um But he has made improvement that that that guy has gotten better in his offseason. He took some of the things and some of the numbers and some of the output from the fall and we saw drastic improvement. He was a really good player to begin with. So really good improvement both on the bump and in the box.
00:23:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, like his body's changed enough where it's noticeable. Like he's leaned out and he's leaned out in a great way and it is very flowing. Like he got on the bump and it was like, first ball was like 88 forward. It was like, hello. And then.
00:23:45
Speaker
His whole, you know, pitching deliveries, everything was simple. Fastball changed up. Didn't throw any breaking balls. You know, I know it's early, but he had phenomenal command of a changeup, you know, which I mean, in January is pretty much unheard of. And I mean, it was, you know, 86 to 89. I'm 88, nine. I'm gonna round up for you, bud. And then I'm like, all right, you know, maybe he's taking a jump as a pitcher. And then this dude got in the box and, you know, I take some claims. I can throw some good BP. Nah, he made me look good. Like he was absolutely waylaying balls and,
00:24:14
Speaker
you know It was upper 90s the whole time, great angles, just effortless, easy juice in the bat. He's gonna be an interesting follow because I want to i think that it has a chance to translate in the games very quickly. So it'll be a good follow for him into the spring. you know Young man, that I was saying I think for the first time I have some notes on him. We've seen some stuff I knew his brother, ah Camden Crume, Wilmington product.
00:24:40
Speaker
Right there, hometown locals familiar with the territory having brother had played at UNCW showed up. He's a lot more physical then than what his brother was, Jacques. And um you know it showed up on the mound. There was some ease. There was good lines. ah The ball jumped out of his hand a little bit. He can spin a slider. it Slider got a chance to be an out pitch. yeah Initial thoughts on Camden as we're just now starting to jump into the information.
00:25:02
Speaker
Yeah, like I had another guy, you know, I had never seen, um, and he gets on the bump and it's like 80 45 and the breaking ball is like, Oh, okay. You know, we got a chance. All of a sudden the last pitch comes out and it's like 88 and he's like, here I am. I just want you to remember me. And I was like, bro, I got you. Like that was really impressive. You know, your last breaking ball, fastball combo, like 77 breaking ball, 88 fastball.
00:25:25
Speaker
And then like I get in the box and like he was right handed, you know, pitcher, well, there's this left-handed dude in the box. I'm like, I don't, I don't know who you are. And then the first ball comes up my head and then the next ball goes beside me really fast. And then I'm like, Oh, and then all of a sudden I got to go look up a name and I'm like, Oh wow, we got legit two way potential here. You know, physical kid, like no bad weight and actually really looks young. So like, I think for him, he's got a chance to become more physical without it hurting any of his performance.
00:25:53
Speaker
And the final play we're going to talk about from Wilmington again, we're just now starting to jump into these guys. It just happened. We're filming this on Monday. We're going to lease on Tuesday. So we are just starting to get into everything. Not even all the numbers have loaded in yet. But Caden Nolan. Caden's a guy that we saw with C35, now power baseball, North Carolina.
00:26:10
Speaker
um you know It's a physical frame, broad shoulders, a lot of strength in the legs. But when he starts to move around the infield, he moves with a little bit more nimbleness than what you kind of see and out of that power compact type body. he has He has some length in the frame as well. um I think as a hitter, the power potential is there. I like the swing. I like the barrel ability. The ball has a chance to jump. It's the ability to play the infield that kind of starts to separate him a little bit. Because if he can do what he think he has a chance to do with the bat,
00:26:39
Speaker
and stick on the infield, now you're talking about a guy who's going to start elevating is himself up prospect list. Your thoughts on Katie Nolan? Yeah, I know. I mean, he's great frame. You know, hitting wise, you know, he has tremendous exevials already, mid-up or 90s. You know, he gets a little steep at times. Might be the BP pitcher. I might be off a little bit. So, you know, it could be 50-50, but like he's strong and like it's simple.
00:27:02
Speaker
You know, and then all of a sudden, like, you know, he gets on the mound. You're talking about he's moving. Well, he moves on the mound. My man's got one of the best cutters in the state. Like it's his natural fastball. It just cuts. It's 85. And if you have a wood bat, you're not happy. Like, I'm just going to go ahead and tell you, like, he's going to shatter baseball bats for a long time.
00:27:19
Speaker
And then you know he spins off this pretty good spin and breaking ball right off of it, plays well. like he's you know He's another two-way guy, especially with the way that the world the baseball world's trending, where like for him being able to throw, he might be a quarter infielder. But with that cutter, curveball combo, he might be able to help somebody out a little bit, you know might help himself out too, just being able to be able to do multiple things.
00:27:40
Speaker
Well, that's, that's a couple of guys. Now we've talked about two way potential, you know, with Camden, criminal Katie Nolan with Preston Smith, Dylan stacks, Jackson Haynes, you know, the, one of the things that we talked about when I saw the staff at Wilmington yesterday, I've been talking about what college coaches have been on the phone is how are they going to practice? 34 guys on a roster. We're in an age where the strike zone is a fricking thimble.
00:28:03
Speaker
You got to throw it in there and and offensively guys are are spitting on anything that's not over the plate. And they're driving fastballs that are 96 miles an hour. The game has exploded offensively, and now we're limiting rosters. And so a lot of time when I was in the college game, I would i got an interview and was telling, you know going through talk, I got a job telling a head coach.
00:28:24
Speaker
We've got to carry 14. We need 12 that are really kind of projected to be do something in their four years. And we need seven that year. If you have seven on your staff in a 56 game season, the way it was laid out, you have a chance to win 30, 35 games. The games you get beat, you may get boat raced.
00:28:43
Speaker
But you have a chance to win those games. Now, staffs are talking about 17, 19, 21 pitchers because of the offensive onslaught. And now we're going to take the roster's number from the 35 from now 40, 42, whatever they're at, down to 34. I don't know how they're going to practice.
00:29:00
Speaker
Because if you're carrying that many pitchers, trying to get through an inner squad, start doing the math. you I got POs, if I got 15 POs, call it 14. Now I'm down to 20 players.
College Roster Challenges
00:29:10
Speaker
you know If I have a couple guys hurt, if I have a guy in class, because it's there's a lot of things that happen on a college campus trying to get inner squads in, you know you're going to have to figure out some ways to kind of work through this. Patrick, if you'd been in today's time and age, would you have gotten a chance for Coach Fox to be in the outfield?
00:29:29
Speaker
ah I don't know. I'd like to say I would have, but let's let's I don't know. ah Probably not. If if I if I remember Coach Fox correctly, I probably wouldn't have. But who knows? You know, I might have. I mean, maybe if I showed off some speed or some power in baton practice. But the the way the rules have changed, who knows? Because this year it's going to be ah it's going to be a learning experience for everyone. and and We'll see how it plays out and how they handle everything. They're going to have to figure it out on the fly. They're going to have to have more two-way, guys, just to get through practices and not necessarily contributing games or get through practices. Coach Fox and you guys at Chapel Hill, about the time you were coming through, he became a little bit more bullpen heavy in the way he relied on things. You had a guy typically on the front end of rotations. But I can remember in midweek games, which is when we saw you guys on Tuesdays and Wednesdays,
00:30:24
Speaker
you know ah What was Sir Hoffs? The left hander Sir Hoffs nephew. You play with him, ah Brian Brian, right? The invisible fastball, right? And literally invisible like he he hes he threw pitches in the middle zone and everybody swung through and you try to figure out how your hitters were hitting them. Then you'd watch him do it the rest of the year.
00:30:43
Speaker
And we didn't know back then what it was doing. Now we have a better idea of what was happening. Right. But he the game the high leverage situation in that game may be the third inning. And all of a sudden, here comes their best stopper in the third inning. And all he's trying to do is get me out of that inning, get me one more zero, and then we'll start to backfill with our numbers.
00:31:03
Speaker
From there on out, we're going to match up. We're going to have sliders against right-handers. We're going to have breaking ball against left-hander. And we're going to match up the rest of the game. But you guys had enough arms to do that. You're seeing most of college baseball do that now and because of the way the offensive numbers work or the offensive game works. I'm wondering how they're going to manage that. I think you're going to have a lot of games just get out of hand. We're going to give up four touchdowns. We're going to take our we're gonna take our our our butt kicking and move on. And then we'll have Liv to fight another day with ah our bullpen intact.
00:31:31
Speaker
But I think though they'll they'll have to. I mean, like you said, you had to play it more strategically. I mean, you're trying to win a certain amount of games, get you to a regional, super original Omaha. So, you know, sometimes you might just have to take that ah that beating and make sure you guys are ready and you win the next one. I mean, they're going to have to see how it plays out.
00:31:50
Speaker
I'm excited about what we have coming up this upcoming weekend. We're in Cary on Saturday scheduled. We're going to talk about the weather here in a minute. Then we're going to be in that Hickory region and made in North Carolina A-Lab on Sunday. We've been to A-Lab before. Great facility, great guys.
00:32:07
Speaker
You do a great job kind of developing their guys and then we're seeing more and more. They've been been around long and they're starting to churn those younger teams up into the high school age. We're starting to see more of those places. We're excited to see those guys, put some numbers on them, get up into the western part of North Carolina and and and kind of identify some talent there.
00:32:24
Speaker
um let's Let's start, Zach, with with the triangle area. I know you'll actually be in South Carolina helping, but you know just give us a little preview of heading to Cary and heading to the National Training Center and kind of what we're going to be dealing with there. Yeah, I mean, it's actually brand new. um you know I've been around it a lot. I've heard a lot of wonderful things about it. I heard it's a little chilly. But other than that, like I hear like is you can't match what you're about to go into. So for an experience for a kid, it's going to be great. um It's a big, huge facility. You'll be able to do anything you want in there. um you know Looking at the roster, there's a lot of young, youthful kids. So I'm i'm looking forward to it. you know i I'm hoping I'm there. I'm trying to trade off a Sammy to come on Sunday. And then so that way I can see us in Wake County. you know I like to be in Wake County. It's where I used to coach. And I like being still a face in around Wake County. um So I'm hoping to be around. you know I've always said Wake County's got the best baseball. So I'm hoping we got a chance to back it up around here.
00:33:25
Speaker
And Patrick, we head to ah the mountains, and we head to that maiden area on Sunday. We were there last year. We have Meridian LeFue at the event last year. We had some guys from TC Roberson there last year that stood out. As I can remember, some guys from Watauga that stood out. So what are you excited about as we kind of get into this mountain idea of what we're going to see on Sunday?
00:33:45
Speaker
Well, like you said, there there was lots of talent there last year, so I'm excited to see the new talent that comes in this year. You know, see if it can match the what we had last year. Facilities are great. ah The people there are great. ah it's ah It's always ran well. they They help us with anything we need there, um but yeah, just excited to see the new guys rolling this year. The ones that I'm going to be venturing out in high school season to to get to see play, get to know him and see how they grow throughout the year and.
00:34:13
Speaker
Just see see where they're gonna get to this season. Two great facilities gonna allow us to do everything we need to do and see good players in good and good environments. So I'm excited about that.
Upcoming Events Preview
00:34:24
Speaker
The one thing we will deal with a little bit on Saturday mentioned it that Arctic blast is coming through. And the way that USA Baseball built that facility, it's like a three story building, but the top story they didn't enclose for whatever reason.
00:34:37
Speaker
So inside that building, not a ton of sunlight gets in there. No wind, but you know the cold air is cold air. So we'll we'll be kind of finagling the schedule throughout the week, trying to make sure we kind of put players in positive situations with that event um and taking care of you. There's a hallway that's heated. There's some things we can do to kind of get you in and out of the building so you're not just standing in you know colder temperatures for for an hour or so. We're going to move you around.
00:35:02
Speaker
um but It brings us to players trying to get ready for their spring season and. Zach, you were a high school coach, you know. Not a ton of high school programs. North Carolina have it. A dedicated indoor facility. They can just go. Hey, it's cold. We're going indoors. I was never in a college program that had that, you know. So what are some of the things high school coaches are going to be dealing with here in the next couple weeks trying to get their players ready? Trying to build pitch counts? Cause you know that that March one right around that area that it's closing in fast on us.
00:35:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I was going to say we were blessed. you know My dad owned a facility. So like we were we were ahead of the game. um you know we We tended to go outside unless it was under, I would say, 40. I was weird. like Everybody knows this. like Our pitchers had to wear sleeves if it was under 45. We had to wear sleeves and pants if it was under 40. We kind of took ways of that. um We tried not to double up on throws, so if we're doing infield drills and bullpens of the day, our pitchers were just bullpens. We still did lives like we had to. you know like For me, like it's if we can learn how to train in it a little bit, you know so we might do a little less max reps and we might work a little bit more on game swings or
00:36:18
Speaker
You know, stuff like that, like, we got to get used to the cold. Like, I don't want my first game to be a conference game, and it's 35 degrees, and we've never hit in cold. We've never played in cold. So, for the most part, you know, we tried to, like, just practice that way, and, like, you know, we just had the weird rules about making sure you're in sleeves, making sure you're in pants. Coach, I'm not cold, like, too bad. Like, you're going to wear sleeves, or you're not practicing. Like, stuff like that. You you were, I was a little hard. Mine was, I think, 68, they had to be in sleeves, so.
00:36:45
Speaker
40, 50 degrees. i'm I'm putting thermals on for me. So here's what I want to do. We're going to talk a little bit. Obviously, all three of us, coaching background, development background, playing background, some better than others. But we've all been around the game for a long time. We've got cold air coming. We're going to play a little game. I'm going to set up a wheel here. And on that wheel will be the three of our names. And as the wheel lands on you, um you're going to have to tell your best cold weather baseball story.
00:37:15
Speaker
playing, developing, coaching, whatever. And then if we can get through two of these, then we will see. him And Sean, and we can we can look. Maybe we put up a poll on this as you as you're kind of breaking all this stuff down um and see who wins. We'll come back next week and we can declare winner a winner of best cold weather story. You guys ready to spin? Go ahead. Here we go.
00:37:41
Speaker
ah Well, shoot. Seems right. Seems rigged games. Alright, so my I've got I've got to one from Wilmington when I was a freshman, but I'm going to stay with the one one from when I was at Wilmington. I was coaching. I've been a coach for I think this is my 4th year. We're coming off a year where we finished the top 10 in pitching. This the year we're talking about we actually finished in the top three in pitching in the country.
00:38:10
Speaker
and Delaware was in our conference their first time in the in the conference. We go up there. It is gorgeous on Friday, which is not what they wanted. They wanted the southern kids to come up north and have to deal with all the elements and be soft on stuff. And we were pretty good and and they were coming into a conference and played it. But the colonial at that time now the Coastal Athletic Association was really good. And we just beat the dog out of it on Friday. I think it was 25 to something, of whatever. Digging up any runs, whatever. Saturday, show up, starting to get a little chillier. As weather comes in throughout the game, we score three or four touchdowns in the first quarter, game's over. We blow them out again. We get to Sunday and we had talked to them about, hey, can we play a double header on Saturday with the Sunday weather?
00:38:57
Speaker
We know what's coming. We know what's coming in. Can we do this? And they were like, no, we're playing Sunday. So we show up on Sunday and it's like 26 degrees. We don't have access there indoor for hitting. We basically just rolled out of the hotel, got there in time to hit in the cage a little bit and just go. We weren't going to be outside. We were running shifts to the bathroom.
00:39:17
Speaker
because the bathroom had a red light heater in it. And so we were telling our guys, you can go in there, yet but you had to leave kind of the stadium area to get there. And then the next shift would go and bring those guys back. So they were missing part of the game. But it was like, I think the high on the day was like 34 and it was like a 25 or 30 mile an hour wind.
00:39:34
Speaker
And so we're going through and we're just freezing. Our starter that day was a freshman and we're pretty regimented on what we do in terms of how we're going to get those guys ready. He basically turned to me at one point goes, I'm loose, I'm ready and I'm starting to sweat. I got to get out of this. And so we just, we shut the bullpen down and went in. We score 14 in the first. Our guy runs out there.
00:39:57
Speaker
And bang, bang, bang, we're out of the inning. And then over the course of the next three or four innings, it's evident. It's going to be a seven inning game. We get into about the fifth. We're starting to run our seniors out there. i don't I'm done. I'm done calling pitches. I've moved on. We're just going to get some guys some work. We're going to get through the day and move on. About the fifth, the umpire, for whatever reason, he got tight on a couple pitches. So I start barking at him.
00:40:19
Speaker
you know Let's go lock in. Let's go. We're going through it and going through it. He's snapping his mask. He's looking over the dugout and as he does that more and more, I'm getting more and more upset. Use a different word and so I'm doing it more and more and I'm all over him. It's like a 1721 run game and I'm every pitch. I'm in this guy's tail. So at the end of the inning.
00:40:40
Speaker
you know he He steps out, he walks down the first baseline where we're at. He looks in the dugout and he says, hey, Brandon, bring your lineup and come here. I don't have a lineup, I'm a pitching coach. So I just grab a chart and I walk out there. He pulls his lineup out, he's looking at it, he goes, here's the deal, dude.
00:40:56
Speaker
It's 17 degrees and if I have to be out here, so does everybody else ain't nobody getting run from this game. They walk back and so I remember that it's one of those things with us and you guys probably we see the same umpires all the time. So a lot of times we think of this adversarial relationship we have and.
00:41:12
Speaker
Um, you know, umpires versus we get to know those guys. And so we'd known him forever. And yeah, I'm still gonna challenge him at times, but he kind of called me out on it because I, yeah, I was, and there came a point in my mind. I was like, it's too cold and somebody can get ejected. You know, our role on staff was one could go. Um, and if I was the first one, I'd go sit in the bus, whatever else I'd deal with that weather. So we got time for another wheel one. You guys think?
00:41:36
Speaker
Yeah, why not? One more. All right, let's see. Let's go remove me. Is it presenting? It is not. Present. 50-50, Patrick. Here we go.
00:41:51
Speaker
Either of us go. All right, Patrick, you got to beat me. um I don't know if I'm going to beat you, but. I got it. Oh, did it? It did. Did it show on me? Did you guys see the wheel? No, we don't even know who won. We just, I just think you picked Patrick. Sorry. I mean, I got one if you want to do it again. No, we'll do it again. It's got close. that It's got to be a fish be on screen for it to count. ah Zach, you're a hundred percent going now. No way. I get it twice. You got it twice. Right there. There you go. Um,
00:42:27
Speaker
So my worst one, freshman year at Chapel Hill, we're in Maryland. I was ah i was a midweek starter freshman year, so I started on Wednesday, Friday night. ah and It was early in the year, too, when we were on the road up there. I knew I wasn't pitching. I should have been more prepared. I was running late to get on the bus. It is sleeting outside. It's freezing cold. I forget my jacket.
00:42:52
Speaker
um Like I said, I knew I wasn't pitching. But for some reason, Alex White's out there dealing. Forbes in the third inning. Hey, you guys go down to the bullpen. Sends me to the bullpen. I don't have a jacket. I know I'm not throwing. I'm not moving around. I'm just sitting there for nine innings. Alex, those are complete game. We beat them by like eight runs or something. And I can't feel my body the entire time. But that's that's more of my fault. I left my jacket at the hotel.
00:43:21
Speaker
They gave us these nice little Nike gloves that were very warm to go with our jacket. Left those two. um you know So this is more of a me issue. I wasn't prepared. I didn't handle my time management very well. Could be one or I don't know. was it I wasn't prepared. I paid for it. i' you know Whether it was summer, winter, whatever, if the jacket was in the and the package when we left.
00:43:46
Speaker
it was in my pitching bag for the rest of the year, whether it was summertime or winter, you know, I wasn't, you know, I was taking my shoes off after the game and I had sleet in them. So, you know, I, I didn't make that mistake again. That's pretty, you think, you think Forbes saw guys like that and just moved you down there? No, I, I think that we had two heaters in the dugout and Forbes saw, I forgot my jacket and he said, I'm going to send this freshman down there with no heater because next time we won't forget his jacket or gloves. So so I think that, uh,
00:44:15
Speaker
And I think he was right. I never forgot it again. Like I said, it was in Omaha and I was taking a jacket with me everywhere. turned twenty three So I never forgot it again. But yeah, that was ah it was a life lesson learned and I still don't go places without a jacket. So, you know, I learned my learn a lesson.
00:44:34
Speaker
Well, gentlemen, good podcast as always were two for two. This one come out this week. Next week we'll be able to talk about the the upcoming preseason all states. The preceding ideas that just happened. um You know, for Zach Barosky for Patrick Johnson, I'm Brandon Hall. This is the prep baseball of North Carolina podcast. Thanks guys.