March 13, 2008
Audio: Listen to the entire teleconference at SECsports.com
Vanderbilt baseball head coach Tim Corbin discussed this weekend’s upcoming series with South Carolina and other pressing issues with the national media during a recent SEC Teleconference.
Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin:
Opening statement:
“We started off in Arizona and played Oregon State, Arizona State, and Miami (Ohio). That was a good test right off the bat. Since we’ve come back from there, we’ve played some very favorable teams: Kansas, Iowa, Louisville, and we just got done playing Illinois-Chicago. We’re still looking to develop some type of team identity. It’s early, so you just don’t know particularly what you have.”
How difficult is it to play a team as good as South Carolina so early in the SEC schedule?
“South Carolina is good. They’ve been good for years. I used to be in the same state as them for years. It really doesn’t matter who you start off with in the conference. It’s a very powerful conference. Everyone is good, regardless of what the preseason rankings say. Everyone is a high caliber team.”
How does Vanderbilt develop an identity without Pedro Alvarez in the lineup for the early part of the season?
“When you bring back a lot of older kids, it’s a different type of challenge. Two years ago, it was a nice challenge. We had some freshmen and sophomores, they got older, and they lost their innocence a little bit. They’re good kids, but when they’re older, they have a different set of goals internally that sometimes you can’t always put your finger on. It’s just a different challenge. I like this team. I like the kids on this team, but they’re older. We just have to see what type of team we have as we play.
“You can’t really do anything about Pedro. You’d love to have his 20 homeruns, but he’s standing right next to me in the dugout, so it’s a non-factor right now. We have to develop what we have on the field at this point.”
Why is it harder to develop an identity with an older group of players?
“Sometimes you have older kids that use to play for you that don’t play. There can be different chemistry issues. You have to do a lot of different styles of communication with older kids because they’re wiser. They’ve been in your program. It’s just different, and it’s tough to put your finger on sometimes.”
Do you want the SEC to reduce the number of conference games in the regular season?
“I like it the way it is right now.”
As the defending SEC Champions, what SEC team is the most improved from a year ago?
“It’s difficult to say right now until the season progresses a little bit. I really like Kentucky’s ball club. I didn’t hear as much about them in the early season, but I really like the pitching they had coming back. They have an experienced group. I thought their hitters could potentially produce one of the best offenses in the country. Getting (Collin) Cowgill back in the lineup (makes them formidable). I like their team a lot.
“A lot of teams have improved a great deal. It’s a premium junior class right now in this conference. There are a lot of very good offensive players and pitching. The freshmen that are entering the conference and not signing professionally (straight out of high school) makes it a very strong field.”
What does Vanderbilt’s pitching situation currently look like?
We’ve been relying heavily on first year guys: some of them redshirt freshmen, some of them true freshmen. They’ve all pitched pretty well. I’ve been pleased with them. They throw a lot of strikes, which is all you can ask. Caleb Cotham has done well. Mark Lamm and Chase Reid have pitched well. Taylor Hill and Russell Brewer have pitched very well for us. I like those kids a lot. I think they’re only going to get better. They compete out there. They don’t seem spooked once they get out there or frightened. They pitch well.
How does Vanderbilt differ from South Carolina offensively?
I really don’t know. The thing I’ve always seen in them is physicality of the swings. (Justin) Smoak is obviously a premier hitter and power hitter. It seems like Phil Disher has been on that team or five or six years. He is a very strong kid and can hit the ball out at any time. I think the guy who has made the most improvements on their team and who everyone was waiting to see this because they knew he was a good player was (Reese) Havens. He’s having a terrific year so far which makes them very dangerous. They have a few runners in (Harley) Lail and (Andrew) Crisp, but those big power guys are guys you have to be careful of because they can separate the game very quickly.
What is your opinion of the NCAA pushing the start of the baseball season back by two weeks?
It doesn’t make a difference to us. The only time we really started early was when we went to the Minute Maid Tournament, but we usually start this time of year anyway. I can remember being with Jack Leggett at Clemson. We were use to playing two games per week.
“The teams that have the issues that can’t start early are more west coast teams like Hawai’i. How they are going to travel during the midweek is very difficult. From an academic standpoint, I will have to wait this one out.
“The thing that we need to be careful of with baseball is that we do (tend) to make some knee jerk reactions to some things and change things up. I think from an administrational standpoint, they look at baseball thinking `they like this, this, and this,’ so I think we need to stick with something for a while and see it through.
How do you view that the NCAA might cut the number of games within the regular season?
“I think we’ve got a very good product. The 56 game schedule is solid. If we can keep everyone academically eligible and do a good job in the classroom, then I don’t think there’s much to change.
“There’s not much changing needed in the scheduling. The northern teams still have to come down because the weather this winter has been a bear for a lot of people. It hasn’t been overly nice in Nashville for the last couple of weeks, and we’ve played in some very difficult weather. I think that’s the nature of the beast when you start your season in the middle of February.”