BATON ROUGE — Following are quotes from LSU coach Paul Mainieri Wednesday during the Tigers’ annual Media Day activities at Alex Box Stadum. Mainieri was introduced at the press conference by one of his mentors and closest friends, Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda.
INTRODUCTION BY TOMMY LASORDA
“This is an honor and a privilege for me to be able to stand up here and introduce our great coach, a man that I have had so much love for. I knew him a long time ago when he started out as a coach in Florida, following in the footsteps of his father and we became friends. When he went to his first job at the Air Force Academy I was there with him, then at Notre Dame which was great. Then he decided to come south, and he decided this was the place that he wanted to be. This is the place that he felt he would finally end his coaching career, right here at LSU. He’s been an outstanding coach. If I had a son that wanted to play college baseball, and I could send him anywhere I wanted, I would send him right here to LSU under Coach Mainieri.”
PAUL MAINIERI QUOTES
Opening Statement …
“Obviously it is an exciting time for us. We are just a couple days away from opening day, and it’s going to be electric. The big tiger in the sky has taken care of us with the weather and it’s going to be a gorgeous weekend. They’re telling me they are selling standing room tickets for all three games already so we should have some wonderful crowds and an electric atmosphere. Let me say this, boy do I feel great about our team. I feel a lot better about our team today than I did four or five weeks ago. We started practicing officially on the 28th, before that we had done some individual workouts. Having gone through all of fall practice with so many new guys there were so many questions and so many answers that were needed. I think we’ve already answered a lot of those. I just feel like this team is really coming together, I feel great about some of the things we’ve found out.
“Some people have already reported about our decision to flip-flop JaCoby Jones and Tyler Hanover. The reasoning for that was quite simply I wanted to solidify our third base situation. It’s no secret that last year that was kind of our Achilles’ heel. Personally I feel that third-base is the most underrated position to play on the field. It’s an extremely difficult position, especially in college baseball because you have so many right-handed hitters, they’re swimming aluminum bats, and not as many hard throwers so those hitters have a tendency to pull a lot of balls. I think when that third base play is erratic it really has a negative impact on the team, so Hanover going over to third is going to make us a much better team. I really feel JaCoby Jones is an outstanding ball player, and by putting him at second base I believe the further away from the hitter a player is his athleticism shows up a lot more. Pure things like foot speed and other things, and Jacoby has looked great at second. I feel we have a really good infield now.
“The other things that has developed this spring is during the fall is Jordy Snikeris, one of our catchers, was hurt so we were a little bit concerned about the depth and our catching situation because of course we lost Micah Gibbs after a stellar career. Now Snikeris is playing again and playing well so he is really pushing (Ty) Ross for the starting job. I think it gives us two very solid catchers that I have a great deal of confidence in. Also on top of everything Grant Dozar is swinging the bat very well, which gives us a left-handed bat option either to platoon at first base or off the bench. Grant didn’t have a great fall so I was a little concerned whether we would have any left handed hitting at all. All those kind of things with our position players are coming together.
“I’ve said this from day one is I think we have some electric arms, all they’re lacking is experience. You can’t buy that experience you just have to let them go through it. I feel they’re coming along, and I think as time goes on we’re going to be really happy with this pitching staff. It’s going to be an exciting night Friday night with the start of a new season. Of course it’s only going to be the first of only 56 games, so it’s certainly not a sprint it’s a long run through the season and we’re going to take it one game at a time. We are going to take it one game at a time and work our way through the schedule. We’ve got some unbelievable games on tap, beginning with Wake Forest. I look at this as an SEC vs. ACC matchup, so there are some bragging rights at stake beyond just our record and wanting to win the game. We want to show that the SEC is an outstanding conference and deserves all of the plaudits that it receives in the national press.
“Wake Forest is a club that finished down in the standings last year but that was Tom Walter’s first year at Wake Forest. You may not have to stretch your memories too far to remember my first year at LSU was a little bit of a struggle too. That typically happens, but Tom is an excellent coach. He knows what it takes to win because he developed a tremendous program at UNO before he left. He’s an outstanding coach and a great competitor, and there is no doubt in my mind that he’s going to have an outstanding ball club coming into Baton Rouge this weekend. It’s going to be certainly the toughest opening series we’ve had since I’ve been at LSU, and it doesn’t get any easier as we go forward. A couple weeks down the road we have Cal State Fullerton coming in. We’ve got back-to-back weekends with Fullerton and Florida, two teams that should be in the Top 5 by that time. It’s time to get it going, ready or not, let’s go and get it started.”
On the adjustments to the bats …
“This is a unique year because there have been some major changes in college baseball, the bat being one. There is also going to be a pitch clock and they are moving the national championship to a new venue. Certainly the bats have had as much play in the media as the topic. I’ve been one of the most outspoken critics of this change. People ask me my opinion and I give them my honest feelings. My honest opinion is there wasn’t a need for a change. I think offense is something that makes college baseball a little different than professional baseball, and I think fans enjoy that. I didn’t want to see the bats change. During the fall when I was very critical of it we were using the wood bats most of the fall. I think maybe the last third of fall practice we started using the new aluminum bats, and so the players were exchanging them and sharing. The player didn’t have his own bat and fall in love with it so to speak. Now the bats have come in in full supply and each player has his own equipment, and I think time has passed and they’ve gotten used to it. I don’t know that the change is going to be as dramatic as maybe I thought it was going to be quite frankly.
“We’ve played 11 preseason scrimmages so far and we have hit 13 home runs in those games. Just the other day Mason Katz had two in one game and Mikie Mahtook hit a very long homerun, as did Raph Rhymes off of (Kevin) Gausman so it was against good pitching. I’m thinking now that the bats certainly are going to make a difference. I don’t think the home run totals are going to be as big but it may not be as dramatic of a change as I thought at one time. The game is still going to be a very fundamental game, we’re not going to sit around and wait for the three-run homer like in the past. We’ve got to get them on, get them over and get them in. Sometimes that’s going to mean drawing the walk or hitting a single, bunting them over to second or using a hit and run play to get them to third, and you may even see a squeeze-bunt once in a while. Our players have totally bought into the idea that there has to be some more fundamentally sound offensive baseball. Everyone can bunt and everyone is a pretty good runner. We handle the bat pretty good so it’s the same for everybody and the teams that can adapt and do some little things will have the better chance to score some runs, so I think we are in better position to do that.”
On the development of the new pitchers …
“As I mentioned earlier, you can’t buy them experience. They have to go through it. Any coach would prefer to have a kid with a good arm and then see if we can’t teach him the finer points of pitching. Gausman is certainly the prize of our recruiting class, but there are probably either or nine kids on our roster that will throw 90+ miles per hour. I don’t think in my entire coaching career I have had that many pitchers with that strong of arms. That doesn’t guarantee success however. Command, movement, secondary pitches and the ability to stop the running game contribute to successful pitching and being able to win. We’re working hard with them and trying to teach them all those things, but sometimes their learning curve is a little bigger than you would like it to be of course. Certainly when the bright lights go on on Friday night and beyond we will see how they react to it all. I’m excited about them. I think in a short period of time you are going to see guys like Gausman, (Ryan) Eades, (Nick) Rumbelow and (Tyler) Jones have good arms and they’re going to do a good job and I like where they’re at right now. Gausman has a chance to be really good. A year before the draft he was protected a for sure first round pick, the problem for him was he was pitching in Denver, Colorado. I spent time coaching in Colorado, and it’s not the easiest thing in the world. It’s windy, cold and high altitude. There are a lot of factors that lead towards a kid not doing well. For the price tag that he was asking I just think people didn’t feel that he was of that value. He came to college with the idea that he wanted to prove that he is. I think he has a chance to do that.
“He’s not the only pitcher as I mentioned, Ryan Eades might have one of the more electric arms I’ve ever coached in college baseball. He committed to us when he was in 10th grade, and then he had that unfortunate shoulder injury in his junior year at Northshore High. I think he’s all the way back now. I’m a little worried about endurance, but I think that will come with time. He is back up to 93-95 miles per hour with a pretty good breaking ball and whipping action with his arm, I wouldn’t personally want to hit against him. Kurt McCune has really showed well. If there is anyone that could be considered a surprise, it has been him. He’s throwing a little bit harder than we thought he would and he has a little bit better command than we thought he would. We think he’s got a great future ahead for us too. There are a lot of kids I’m excited about so we will just have to see how they develop.”
On shortstop Austin Nola expanding his role …
“Sometimes we get these kids that play so well in a certain role, and then we ask them to expand their roll and they put so much extra pressure on themselves and they go away from doing the things they’ve always done well. Austin Nola is as fine a defensive shortstop as I have ever coached, I marvel at his ability out there as a shortstop. Even as a freshman when we inserted him at the end of the 2009 season and his batting was down, I felt that at time he was one of our most clutch hitters, even on that national championship team. He had some really big at bats for us down the stretch. He’s going to hit in the middle our order, probably fifth. I’m going to count on him to drive in big runs. I think Nola is naturally a little bit more of a leader because he’s a little bit older, but I’m not asking him to do anything too special.”
On Spencer Ware‘s role …
“Let me tell you, Spencer Ware is exactly what I thought he would be and actually more than that. First let me say this, he is a wonderful young man. He’s very responsible, he’s never late and he’s always where he is supposed to be. He genuinely wants to be a part of the team, not as a prima donna by any stretch, but as a rule-abiding full pledge member of the team. He’s a great kid to have around, everyone loves him. When he first started with us he was overmatched at the plate. He hadn’t faced a live pitcher since last May in high school, and he certainly didn’t face guys throwing 93-95 miles per hour on a consistent basis. But being an athlete is took it as a challenge and he worked, and worked, and worked. This last week he’s probably hit the ball as hard as anyone on our team. I know he hit at least one triple and hit the ball hard on a consistent basis. I have absolutely no hesitation to use him now. Our starting outfield is going to be Mathook in left, Watkins in center and Katz in right field. I’ll use Rhymes as the fourth outfielder.
“However, Raph Rhymes is going to be our staring designated hitter. I have no hesitation at all putting Spencer in. He’s ready to play and he will do a good job. He’s got gotten nothing but better. I really didn’t want him to earn a starting job before spring practice because I thought if he earned a starting job and then left the team for five weeks it would be traumatic for our team to deal with. When he comes back from spring practice there is going to be a little period of time where he has to knock the rust off, but if he gets back to where he is now and we need a spark certainly he would be a candidate for that. Mason Katz banged into a wall the other day and has missed the last couple of days with a shoulder bruise, so we are hoping he is ready to go but if he is not then it could be sooner rather than later in terms of Ware getting in there.”
On if Ware brings a “football” mentality to the team …
“When I was watching the Cotton Bowl at my home I said with each passing carry this kid is moving up the depth chart on the baseball team. I think athletes are athletes and winners are winners. They find a way to get it done. Spencer brings that hard-nosed mentality to the team. He got hit by a pitch the other day, and it hit him right in the side of the arm and he didn’t even flinch. It kind of upset our pitcher a little bit because he was hoping it might have hurt him, but he didn’t flinch a bit. He brings that hard-nosed all out attitude kind of like Mahtook. I love him because I think he’s a great kid and will be able to play in the future. I expect we will lose Mahtook after this year to the draft and Spencer is a candidate for center field next year.”
On the starting nine for Friday …
“The lineup for Friday night I don’t know exactly because I don’t know what is going to happen with Katz. I can tell you that if everybody is healthy it’s going to be (Trey) Watkins in left, Mahtook in center, and Katz in right. It will be Hanover at third, Nola at short, Jones at second, (Alex) Edward at first, Ty Ross at catcher and Raph Rhymes as DH.”
Austin Nola, Shortstop
On if the expectations are the same heading into the season…
“I think the expectations have changed. Going around campus and going around everyone that loves LSU baseball seems to have the same exact fight and wants to come out here and watch us play. I don’t think the expectations have gone down. I don’t think we’re really worried about it. We’re just going to go out there and play the way we’ve always played, the way LSU baseball is meant to be played.”
On if he would be disappointed if fans didn’t expect big things…
“I wouldn’t be disappointed. We’re a new team and we’re excited to show everyone. We have to prove to our fans that we are for real and we’re going to go out there and compete. The main thing is to go out there every single day, no matter what the expectations or level of pressure is and compete every single day.”
On how JaCoby Jones looks at 2nd base…
“He’s looking good. I think he’s slowly coming into his own over there. He’s getting comfortable because we’re taking a lot of fundamentals and a lot of ground balls live. Every single opportunity we get is a chance to get better and I think he’s doing a really good job at that.”
Mikie Mahtook, Outfielder
On what he thinks of the team…
“I think this team is awesome. We have a lot of young guys and new guys, but we have a core group of guys coming back that got to experience what it takes to get to Omaha and also what it takes not to get out of a regional last year. We’ve had both ends of the world and we really know what we have to do this year and the new guys that came in really bought into what the coaches were saying. We just mesh really well this year. It didn’t take long for us to realize that this team could be something special. It’s a talented team and we’ll just have to wait and see.”
On stepping into a leadership role as a junior…
“We only have two seniors on the team so being one of the six or seven juniors, we got kind of forced into that role. I made it a point that I wanted to be more vocal. I’m not a rah-rah guy, but a guy that if they have questions they can come to me. Me, along with the other six juniors that we have, want to explain to them, this is what we did in ’09 when we made it to Omaha. This is a different team but some of the core values we had on that team we need to bring back to this team.”
Ben Alsup, Pitcher
On his career at LSU…
“It’s been great. We’ve won three SEC Tournament Championships, one SEC Championship outright, and a National Championship. I couldn’t be happier with my career here. [Daniel] Bradshaw and I are the only two seniors so we’ve stepped into that leadership role. We have a lot of young guys, talented guys that are going to be able to step up in the clutch and really perform well for us.”