Jan. 27, 2017
By Zac Ellis
VUCommodores.com
On campus in Nashville – Vanderbilt enters the 2017 baseball season boasting two of college baseball’s top five prospects in its locker room. As a team, the No. 7 Commodores are pegged as a preseason top-10 squad for the seventh consecutive year. These days that level of success is nothing unusual for head coach Tim Corbin’s program. In fact, it’s business as usual on West End.
But as Vanderbilt faced the media at Hawkins Field ahead of Friday’s first practice of the season, its two highest-profile major league prospects — junior outfielder Jeren Kendall and junior pitcher Kyle Wright – seemed unfazed by the bright spotlight.
“We don’t really talk about rankings or anything,” Kendall said. “It’s just another season, just another game, just another opponent.”
Added Wright: “It pops up on social media, so I see it, but I’m concerned with what we’re doing here. My goal is to win games here, so that’s what I want to do.”
Without a doubt, the Commodores’ stars remains two of the most talked-about college baseball players in the country. Earlier this month Baseball America tabbed Kendall (No. 2) and Wright (No. 5) as two of the top five college prospects in its annual rankings. Vanderbilt was the only team to land two players inside the top 10.
But Corbin, in his 15th season at Vanderbilt, has coached 12 of the school’s 14 first-round picks, including top overall picks in David Price and Dansby Swanson. He knows a thing or two about coaching players with big league futures.
“Just handle them like everyone else,” Corbin said. “Those types of things haven’t been brought up. They’re due to their past experiences and what they’ve done, and rightly so, but we really don’t spend too much time talking about it. And I don’t think the kids do, either.”
Kendall and Wright will undoubtedly play key roles this season for the Commodores, who return 19 lettermen from a 2016 squad that went 43-19. That group reached the NCAA tournament for the 11th straight year, the longest active streak among SEC schools. Alongside Kendall and Wright, this season’s Commodores will feature three players — Alonzo Jones, Ethan Paul and Patrick Raby — who earned Freshman All-American honors last season. Corbin has also added a top-20 signing class that features 14 newcomers.
Kendall, a preseason All-American, will enter 2017 as one of the top position players in the conference. He led the ‘Dores with a .332 average and 59 RBI last season, chipping in nine home runs. This spring Kendall will move from the outfield corners to center field, but the junior said the transition hasn’t been difficult thus far.
“I think I’ve always been a center fielder, but knowing what left and what right is now, I know what the ball is going to do to those guys,” Kendall said. “So now I have a lot better understanding of what center field really is.”
Wright is likely to succeed the departed Jordan Sheffield as Vanderbilt’s Friday starter after going 8-4 with a 3.09 ERA and 107 strikeouts over 93.1 innings in 2016. Alongside Wright, expect Raby and sophomore Chandler Day to round out the pitching rotation, though Corbin said Vanderbilt is still searching for a reliable lefthander.
Kendall and Wright might be the next dynamic duo to find success in Major League Baseball, but the juniors have watched previous Commodores thrive in the face of similar expectations. Just two years ago, former Vandy stars Swanson and Carson Fulmer were selected within the top 10 picks of the 2015 draft. Wright said he plans to maintain his focus just like the ‘Dores before him.
“It’s cool just to see how those guys have handled it and what they’ve done,” Wright said. “It’s kind of a comforting feeling. I can particularly point to Sheff from last year. He went about his business everyday. He never talked about it, that’s for sure.”
On Thursday Corbin said his roster has come a long way since fall ball mid-October, calling his players “mature” in the face of high expectations. Much of that growth occurs when a coach isn’t looking, he said. To Corbin, that’s a sign of a squad built on good leadersship.
“They take a lot of initiative, which is good,” Corbin said. “You can see older guys like Kyle and Jeren and Toff [infielder Will Toffey] and [righthander Matt] Ruppenthal taking initiative in things that are not coach-led. That’s always fun to watch.”
Vanderbilt begins practice Friday afternoon and opens its 2017 season at San Diego on Feb. 17. The Commodores then return home to host Evansville at Hawkins Field on Feb. 22.