Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello met with the local media on Wednesday afternoon just two days before the Vols open up their 2024 season at the Shriner’s Children Hospital Classic.
The Vols face Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Baylor at the Texas Rangers’ stadium in Arlington this weekend as they face three Big 12 foes to open the season.
Vitello discussed a number of position battles, his pitching plan for the weekend and much more. Here’s everything Vitello said on Wednesday.
More From RTI: Tennessee Baseball To Start Drew Beam On Saturday
On lessons learned from last year in similar format to begin season
“Yeah, same format, different tournament – different venue as well. We’ve been blown away about how organized things are, how much information we have on how things will go. Then, obviously, it’s going to be an incredible venue – home of the World Series champs. So, the competition is incredible. A lot of familiar faces with that. So, it’s a different vibe. It’s a different setting, different year, different team and really what we want to accomplish is to have a good experience and a good experience for media, for fans, for coaches, players is all different, but combined as a team, we want to go down there and have a good experience.
Our guys need to act like pros. When they’re not at the park, at the park, they need to play the way ball fans want them to. We’ll see how the results go and it’s going to be hard to go on this trip and not at least get better regardless of what the results are because of the venue, the competition, the media attention and everything else.”
On Zander Sechrist and his development over the years
“Yeah, I think we could date that back to when we started recruiting him because it was at a fairly young age and because of the proximity of being from Georgia – not very far away and – and him just being a, a big personality and coming from a good family. There’s been a ton of interaction. So, he’s always kind of been the same guy. Goofy lefty, big heart, good family, easy to interact with, but he’s matured in a lot of different areas that have made him more comfortable. I think in the clubhouse more of a leader as each year has gone by and then, you know, just in different facets of the game has become a little bit sharper and you see that incremental improvement every year.
You all could probably research the stats and watch video too. It’s easy to see. There was never one big jump he put on 20 pounds or 10 miles an hour on a fast ball, but he’s consistently gotten better. And a lot of that’s attributed to his work ethic.”
On Frank Anderson being an elite pitching coach
“Yeah, I don’t know. I said this to the fellows that’ll be broadcasting the game. I don’t know that when he’s asked, he doesn’t really put a finger on it. I don’t have a specific list. In this day and age, you’d like to think any pitcher in the country would be interested in Tennessee if they look at his resume. But in this day and age, most people look at Twitter or they want to see a video or a mechanism or some kind of formula. Like a pitching lab or a pitching coach has got a beaker and a – I went to science class but I don’t remember all that stuff. I don’t think any of that’s there. I think at the heart of it is you got a very competitive person that is incredibly intelligent.
He comes to work every day wanting guys to get better. He takes it very personal. If guys do not get better or they do not perform well and you’ll see him the next day on a mission with that guy in particular and speaking to that guy in particular is the way he coaches. He doesn’t have a system. Again, maybe it hurts the same recruiting, I don’t know. We don’t have some system we can lay out and say, this is why guys throw hard or throw strikes or get drafted. Or his guys have a track record for doing very well in pro ball. We don’t really have any of that stuff because he approaches each guy very differently. It’d be easy to label him in old school coach because he’s older.
Hopefully he doesn’t watch this, but he is older and he has got experience and he does kind of have that old school grit and toughness mentality. But he is very into educating himself on all the new developments and pitching. So, he kind of meshes those together in what works best for him as well. That’s not my final answer because it’s too big of a question to answer and it’s near and dear to my heart and everyone else that’s a part of the program. And the bottom line is we’re blessed to have him. In Frank we trust.”
On pitching plans for opening weekend and the positives to having Drew Beam throw on Saturday
“Stability. No question. That’s been the upside to his entire career. We play three different opponents (this weekend) and they’re all three really good programs with coaches that have resumes almost as long as (Tennessee pitching) Coach (Frank) Anderson’s. To me, it’s about stability. You go into day two, you want to kind of know what you’re getting and I think on top of that he’s willing to take the ball in any facet or in any way, shape or form you want to do it throughout the year. We even talked in the fall about if we’re fortunate enough to be in the playoffs he may be the guy we wear out and throw in a bunch of different situations.
But for now, the second day against Oklahoma. We’ll see how things go with (A.J.) Russell as far as pitch count and all that. We have a bunch of guys we want to get out of the bullpen for their first time wearing a Vol uniform. And it dates back to my first answer, what we want out of this weekend is to get better and have a good experience. If a guy can just get out there and wear a Vol uniform for the first time and just compete, it’ll make everyone better and put a smile on our face.”
On how Drew Beam meshes with Frank Anderson and his coaching
“He’s a very unique kid. I think freshman year, he made some of the other guys uncomfortable because he was more mature than them and just different in how he goes about it. And I think that comes from his family background. It’s hard to say anyone’s better or worse in certain areas when it comes to personality or character. But he’s different. I think that maturity is tied into the word stability I said earlier.
So, he’s kind of always been somebody that’s polished in a meeting or in a locker room or in a dugout and then it’s increasingly got better. He’s kind of along with Zander (Sechrist), there’s never been one crazy big jump because he burst onto the scene pretty quickly.
But I think that came from, again, just incremental daily improvement. He’s very regimented and, and very into his work ethic and is always open to coaching. And so, I think because he is open to coaching, he has improved as much as you can. I mean, all we’ve ever asked of our guys is, if you listen to Woody, who’s been around over 16 first rounders I think and been in pro Ball Q [Quentin Eberhardt] who’s been in Major League Baseball and has been around as many as you can list and I think is the best guy in the country. And Frank, if you just listen to what those guys do, you’ll have a good experience and you’re probably going to be in a pretty dang good position. And Drew Beam is a guy that’ll just listen to what he’s asked to do and he’ll go do it.”
On the injury situation with Dean Curley, Ariel Antigua and Alex Perry
“Ariel is coming along. He’s able to use his lower half in any way, shape or form that we want as coaches. He did have the thumb issue, so we got to be a little patient where he’s doing anything, swinging a bat or fielding, but he is able to play catch. And then Dean (Curley) – knowing Dean, as big and physical as he is and confident as a kid, he’s going to want to play Friday. Whether he’d be in the lineup, even if he wanted to, we haven’t even gotten that far. It was nice to see the competition we have. But I think Dean and Alex Perry both had lower half injuries that were minor and if push came to shove, we could use both of them on Friday.
It’s more of a conservative time of year as opposed to May and we don’t want to hear you turned your ankle or you’re not feeling well or you got a cough or anything like that. But for now, we’ll be a little more conservative.”
On what he expects the middle infield to look like this weekend
“CMo (Christian Moore) and Bradke (Lohry) will be two of the mainstays. I think we mentioned (Dean) Curley and (Alex) Perry. We will assess where their bodies are at. It’ll be nice to kind of see those guys and I’m sure I’m leaving somebody out. I mean, Cam Bates is from Oklahoma and so it’ll be cool to have him and the dugout and he’s performed really well. He just keeps increasingly get better. But you know, CMo and Bradke are two older guys that we trust and then will be out there at some point. But heck, Hunter Ensley was at second base and (Dalton) Bargo during some of the drill workers in the middle. We’ve moved guys all over the place and it’s going to be a group where we experiment a little bit. I don’t want to drive these guys crazy, but we don’t want to leave any stone unturned either.”
On if he expects to use multiple catchers this weekend
“Yeah no question. Peebles and Cal and Chuck would be the main guys because Bargo can kind of play anywhere and then we’ve had a million conversations up there (coaches offices). But you want to treat the freshmen with delicate hands, words, whatever you want to call it because right now they got big bubbles over their head. ‘What’s this season like? What’s expected of me? Where are we going?’ And with (freshman) Stone (Lawless), I just know I think the kid can play in the big leagues and he’s got a bright future, but he does have a lot to learn. If we plug him in in a certain situation, I have confidence in him, especially at the plate right now swinging the bat. But we’ll see. But Chuck and Cal and Peebs will be ready to go.”
On how Robin Villeneuve has looked in the outfield
“Yeah, you’ve been sneaking into practice here, although we haven’t had any closed doors. Yeah, Robin, he wants to play man. He’s as passionate as anybody and I think he adds some toughness to our team. And he’s run around in the outfield a little bit on his own to have fun and it kind of caught our eye because he looks good doing it and we do want that versatility of trying different lineups and the more we can kind of use different combinations of guys, the more it allows us to give a guy, 20 games or so prior to conference, give a guy a fair look and if Robin’s, getting chances at the plate, we’re a better team and that’s one more way he can get a chance. He looks good out there.”
On freshman LHP Matthew Dallas and his progression
“I have seen him kind of get over the hump of, that guy he did a lot. He was invited to all the big showcases and whatnot and threw a lot for his high school. So a little bit of soreness early in his time here, but he’s passed that. He’s been a great kid as far as anything you ask him to do, he’s going to do it full speed and yet he believes in himself. He doesn’t need a crutch or doesn’t believe in any excuses or anything like that. So he’s got that mentality regardless of what it says next to his eligibility, being a freshman. And then he’s always had good stuff. He’s grown into his body and grown into his stuff. But good enough right now in my opinion to go compete against any hitter we want him to and make us feel comfortable in it.”
On the options to be the third starter
“Four or five guys, to be honest, but because of the pitch counts being so low we just don’t see an advantage to it. I mean, it would for whoever that particular kid is to sleep better at night or maybe to be able to tell his mom and dad. But for now we want to attack opening day and see where that gets us. And to be fair to our second starter, we want him to be able to prepare. But when there’s enough time or a good enough window where we can make sure that guy is settled and can get ready, we’ll let him know. But it might be somebody gets crossed off because we want to use him in the seventh inning on Friday night.”
On what he expects from Blake Burke
“A lot. Have fun being around him and another guy that wants to win as bad as you do. He’s often in the corner with the coaches and watching the game trying to figure things out. He kind of reminds me of Andre Lipcius in that capacity. And then at the plate we showed a swing. It was unfortunate for the picture that was on video, but we showed a swing on video from a scrimmage where it was his best swing and it eerily looked like Todd (Helton). And I don’t want anyone to ever have their name attached to Todd unless their name’s Redmond Walsh because those are two big of shoes to fill. He just needs to be Blake Burke and I think, you know, rambling on, I found my answer directly to your question is a guy that’s more comfortable hitting in the middle of the order and playing first base every day. Last year, he was great for us freshman year and he was on a big time team, but that’s a, cheer for our guys and you should demand excellence and I want to win too. But in any sport, basketball, our deal, our women’s soccer team, these are 19 and 20-year olds. So this kid came all the way from California and all of a sudden is supposed to take over for Luc Lipcius who was like 36-years old and play every day and hit in the middle of the order. And you guys started comparing him to Todd before we did. And he hears that because he doesn’t listen to me or the other coaches and stay off social media. So I think a more relaxed dude that’s a lot of fun to be around and wants to win.”
