Feb. 14, 2008

ATHENS, Ohio - Question and answer with Assistant Coach/Pitching Coach Andrew See on the upcoming baseball season.

What do you think the strong points of this year's pitching staff are?
We've got a lot of experienced guys coming back. Last year's sophomore class got a lot of innings for us last year which I think will help us out throughout the season. As far as experience, from that standpoint we have an older and deeper staff. We have a lot of juniors, a good mix of seniors, along with some developing younger pitchers. With those older guys, having that experience will give us time to develop some of those younger guys. New additions like Mike Babin, Zach Fairbanks, from the lefty side will give us a chance to do some lefty match-ups late in the game out of the pen and then Joe Stover coming in, in that junior class as well has had experience with two years at junior college. So we have an older staff which I think will be our strong point and we have a lot of athleticism on the mound that I think will help us out as far as controlling the run game and fielding bunts and the other stuff that goes along with pitching other than just throwing off the mound.

Last year there were several injuries that caused some setbacks on the staff, what is the health of the staff this year?
As a whole we are doing okay. Of the 12 guys that we have 11 are 100 percent ready to go and I think it will be good early on if we can get some of those kids some innings the first three weekends before we get back here for our weekend against Purdue and then the conference. To get them in there and kind of get their feet wet...everybody will get their innings.

What has impressed you so far about the pitching staff?
We've been throwing a lot of strikes, which is obviously key for our pitchers. We try early on to focus on throwing strikes and competing. For the most part they have done a pretty good job with that. Obviously it's a little early on to tell, but I think that has kind of impressed me the most from their end. You know their work ethic has been good. I think they have been believing in the system we have instilled, which is going after hitters and competing, not trying to give the hitters too much credit at times and making pitches when we need to early in the count and then finishing hitters off when we get ahead in the count.

What has been your main focus during the off-season with the pitching staff?
Trying to just stay healthy is the main thing. We do a lot of things to prevent injury, we long toss a lot, we do a lot of arm exercises. You know Joe (Fondale) (Strength and Conditioning Coach) does a great job in the weight room with our core and things like that. Just kind of instill that, in then after that we do what we can to maintain arm strength and kind of gain arm strength right now before the season starts. And then throwing strikes, that's the main thing. Just try to make sure we can throw two to three pitches down in the zone and for strikes and we'll have a chance to win a lot of games if we do that.

As your first full season as recruiting coordinator you were able to bring in a strong class, what do you think of this year's newcomers?
Pretty pleased overall, I mean it's a pretty athletic group that we brought in. There's some speed in that group which we haven't had a lot of here at OU. We do have some guys on the team now that have a good amount of speed, which helps, but I think this class coming in kind of brought a number of guys that can really run, a couple guys that have some juice in their bat, and overall the position guys are really athletic. The three arms we brought in we're very pleased with the shape that they came in to start the fall. I think two of those guys will really contribute this year, one may down the road a little bit once he gets a chance to develop a little more, but two of those guys are ready to step in and pitch right away, which is good to see. But overall as a group it was a good class, I think there's a lot of versatility in that group, along with this next year's group coming in which will give us some options as far as playing some guys in multiple positions. Guys on the mound have good breaking balls and not the low-90s yet, but they'll get there as they grow stronger...it's a good group, it's a good athletic group.

Who are some of the newcomers to the pitching staff that have impressed you thus far?
Joe Stover and Jason Moulton are looking right now to be long relief and possibly starters, both of them have the ability to do that. Boomer's (Moulton) a freshman that has got the ability to be really, really good, he's just got to put his mind to it. He's not ready 100 percent mentally yet, he's got the stuff, it's just the little things. You know that's why in the majors they have A-ball, and AA-ball, and triple-A ball, because it's more mental preparation for everything. Stover can come in and compete right away he's got to do some small things...holding the runners on and fielding some bunts and stuff like that. With Mike Babin and Zach Fairbanks it's kind of been one of those things where we are surprised, they were late transfers, and they've actually come in and they are really going to help us out as far as far as making our pen right now, they'll start out there, but they could end up starting. But they'll make our pen a lot deeper and give us a lot of options late in the game for some lefty match-ups and they'll also both be able to pitch some middle relief because they both throw strikes and keep the ball down in the zone. They will make our pen a little bit more versatile.

You were on the Ohio team that led the nation in homeruns (2001), how do you think this team compares?
I don't know if they can be...I mean that team was tough, one through nine guys hit double-digit in home runs. The perplexity of college baseball has kind of changed, when I played, we used to joke around here that it was OU guerilla ball, but you don't see a lot of teams that are going to put up 100-plus home runs anymore. And that's just the game, you know they've changed the rules with a lot things. Obviously the bat, the bat was in play when I was here, the minus three. Pitching, I don't want to say it was bad when I was here, but it seems like pitching has gotten so much better throughout all of college baseball, and I don't know if that has to do with the changes to the draft, but there's a lot of pitching that's still in college that could be in the minors. College baseball is going towards speed, defense and pitching, so that's kind of what we're trying to recruit here. Speed, defense and pitching, and then the power will come along. We've got some guys with power like Krauss, Maddox, Stiffler, Besl, Johnston's got some ability, Klimko for power, but the rest of those guys we're more concerned with getting on base and kind of creating some havoc on the bases and getting some doubles. The power will come, and I know Mal (Assistant Coach Scott Malinowski) does a great job with that, just creating the gap kind of knowledge and driving the ball to the fence and not over it.

What are your overall feelings on the upcoming season?
We're excited, I think we will have more depth then we had last year on the mound, which is obviously key. You just kind of hope that you have one or two guys that you can count on as a starter on the weekend and we have one for sure right now and I'm hoping that will emerge. I think that out of the five or six guys that we think can be good starters for us I'm hoping that two will emerge and I have a pretty good feeling that they will. From that aspect I feel pretty good about where we are at on the mound. Positional I think we are ready offensively, there's no doubt. We hit a lot in the cages and I think our guys showed in the intra-squad that they are ready to get in the box and compete and that's good to see. And we'll score some runs, hitting has always been our strong point. Defense will come; I think it's tough right now to judge that to tell the truth just because we've only been outside with the intra-squad one time. If there's any question mark it would be the defense, but I think the more repetitions come as the games come along that we'll be fine defensively. But overall I'm looking forward to it, we've got a good mix of older guys and a good mix of younger guys, guys that really want to get out there and compete and that's the good thing about this group is that they really want to get out there and compete.