Tim Corbin has set a standard for excellence in Vanderbilt University baseball that is unparalleled in VU baseball history and has made this program the standard bearer for the SEC and a premier program nationally in college baseball. Three SEC regular season titles (2007, 2011, 2013), an SEC tournament title in 2007, three Super Regional appearances (2010, 2011 and 2013), a college world series appearance in 2011, and a massive amount of players in professional baseball, led by the stellar southpaw David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays. David won the AL Cy Young Award in 2012 as the best pitcher in the American League and just signed a one-year deal with the Rays two days ago to stay with them this season. David could be an all time great. Pedro Alvarez (Pirates), Mike Minor (Braves) and Sonny Gray (Oakland A’s) are emerging superstars in the game. Ryan Flaherty of the Baltimore Orioles has a good chance to be the starting second baseman this year for the O’s. Tony Kemp, Aaron Westlake and Curt Casali among many other former Dore players are matriculating through the minors to make it to the big leagues Our recruiting classes in 2011 and 2012 along with 2005 were number one in the country according to Baseball America. Our class this year which is not signed, sealed and delivered yet is ranked second in the country by Perfect Game USA.
The goal at Vanderbilt every year is to be playing deep into June, preferably in Omaha. That’s the standard Corbs has set. Last year the team went 54-12 and set a record for wins in the SEC going 26-3. This year’s team looks promising with some good bats,good gloves and excellent arms. Our team opens up with a series against Long Beach State out in Long Beach, Caly, February 14th-16th. Long Beach was not an NCAA tourney team last year, but traditionally have been talented and made several tournaments,
Corbs and I talked about this year’s squad and the prospects for the season. Here are his thoughts in our Q&A:
DW: Who are your key infielders this year and what are each guys’ strengths?
TC: “The left side of our infield should stay intact.(Xavier) Turner ((sophomore) and (Vince) Conde (junior)should play 3B and shortstop respectively. They both move very well and have enough athleticism and arm strength to give us good coverage on that side of the field. Dansy Swanson (sophomore) will also play somewhere: he could be our shortstop right now. But Vinnie has played that position very well. Dansby will play second base, he is a very good all around player and will be extremely rangy at second. Zander Wiel (redshirt soph) is a front runner at 1st base. He is continually improving. He is a good athlete for his size (6’3″, 215) and shows good glove skills.”
DW: What about your outfielders?
TC: “Our outfield may be the biggest question mark right now. Obviously, when you lose three seniors in one spot it impacts a position (Yaz, Connor Harrell and Jack Lupo off last year’s team). We have very good parts, we just don’t know what parts will be installed. Rhett Wiseman will play somewhere. Johnny Norwood could as well… it is his time to man a starting position. He is plenty athletic. It will be more about consistency with him. Ro Coleman (freshman), Bryan Reynolds (frosh), Nolan Rogers (frosh) and Kyle Smith (soph) could all be impactful. They all possess different styles of play, but they all have bright futures. Good, good baseball players.”
Comment: Really like Wiseman and Smith’s bats. Smith hits for power. Wiseman could too. If Norwood shows consistency at the plate he could be an excellent center fielder for us. He’s got great wheels too for base stealing purposes. We’ll see how the young guys develop
DW:Have you decided on your Friday Night starter and weekend rotation yet? And, if so, who are those guys and what are their strengths?
TC: “No, this is open right now… (Tyler) Beede, Jared Miller, (T.J.) Pecoraro (Carson) Fulmer, (Walker) Buehler and (Tyler) Ferguson would all be considered at this point. We are training 6-7 guys for that role right now. We have been fortunate in the last couple of years to have some consistency with our starting pitching and we hope to have that again. But it’s too soon to label any of those kids in that role.”
Comment: Translation: We have some absolute stud arms and the good problem is all of them are so good, it’s tough to figure out Friday Night and the weekend. Man, is there some talent on this staff…
DW: How does your bullpen look for middle relief and your closer or closers? I imagine (Brian) Miller is still a key cog on the team on the back end…
TC: Our bullpen will have a nice mix of arm variations and rhythm changes. Obviously, pitchers who will not fill a starting role will move to the bullpen role. Like the starting situation, it’s too early to put kids in specific bullpen roles. Brian Miller, Steven Rice and Hayden Stone are very good candidates to be in those positions. We are continuing the development of Jordan Sheffield (one of the top recruits in this class nationally). If he continues to strengthen his arm and stamina, he could find himself in this position as well. Keenan Kolinsky, Ryan Johnson, Ben Bowden and John Kilichowski are left handed pitchers who could figure into this spot as well.
Comment: As you can see there is a lot of depth in the pitching staff this season. Ton of depth and talent.
DW: What do you think it’ll take for this team to win another SEC title and make a deep run in the postseason?
TC: “This group just needs continual game growth and maturity. We have a nice mix of talent on the mound and some developing talent positionally. But our mental growth of learning how to compete and personal development will be the emphasis for our group as we move forward. There will be 5-6 people on the field that have never been in this position before, so it will be a growth transition for many of those kids. New roles and dealing with the day-to-day mental stamina of playing. We just want to be better in May than we are right now.”
Comment: My translation: We’ve got a dang good group of ball players. Just need to develop and peak in May and June. We always do.
DW: Do you feel good about (pitching coach) Scott Brown having a year under his belt and his ability to handle the pitching staff this season?
Note: Scott got the job right before the season started last year and came in kind of hamstrung as our stellar pitching coach, Derek Johnson, took a big pitching job with the Chicago Cubs, I believe it was director of minor league pitching. Brown is in his second year at VU after coaching the pitching staff at St. John’s for nine seasons and had 15 players sign pro contracts in his tenure.
TC: “Brownie had to make a very difficult transition in many ways (last year). Personally, he had to move 3 young kids and a wife across the country as the season began. That is a hurdle in itself. Then he had to jump right into competition. That never happens in college baseball. If there is a coaching transition, it takes place during the summer. He never had that luxury. He is far and away in a better spot this year. He has had a spring of game growth and a year of having each pitched underneath him. His comfort level is in a completely different position than it was last year. The pitching will certainly benefit from this. He is a good one.”
DW: How does the hitting/base running look on this team? Do we have an explosive player or players on the base paths? This is my own thought, but I’m pretty excited about John Norwood.
TC: “We have good team speed. (Dansby) Swanson, (Ro) Coleman, (Xavier) Turner, (Rhett) Wiseman, and (Zander) Wiel love to run the bases. Swanson is the type of kid who could take a lot of free bases, similar to what Xavier did last year. Very good base running instincts. We spend a lot of time on the base running component. All of our kids are very adept at taking bases and understanding the accomplishment of free bases.”
Comment: Corbs may have accidentally left out Norwood. But he’s a blazer too.
DW: What about the fielding of this group?
TC: “I like the potential of our defensive group. I really believe that we can have a very good infield. Swanson would have played a lot last year had he not gotten hurt. He really gives us added athleticism up the middle. Our catching situation will get better as the year progresses. Chris Harvey improves every time he steps on the field. Jason Delay and Karl Ellison (both catchers) are two promising freshmen who will have opportunities this year. The outfield has options; we just haven’t defined them yet.”
DW:My sense is we have more power/run producing ability in this group than we did last year, though I liked last year’s group a lot. Guys like Zander (Wiel) , Kyle (Smith), and Chris (Harvey) all look like good power guys. Xavier is as strong as a Sherman Tank. Do you see those guys producing a lot of runs, hitting it out?
TC: “We do have some strength in our lineup, but not sure how to translate it yet. (Xavier) Turner is certainly stronger than last year and very healthy. Swanson is a mix of strength and speed. Wiel has really improved as a hitter in the last two years. He understands the strike zone and is a tough out. Harvey and Smith have that ability as well; they just need to be more consistent (at the plate). The group has a nice blend of size, strength and speed. The goal is for those skill sets to be more usable.”
DW:How does the schedule look and which series are some key early season matchups?
TC: “The schedule is tough and demanding. We begin on the road against a Long Beach State team that brings back most of its players. This will be a strong challenge for us immediatly. Illinois-Chicago, Stanford and Winthrop are our other out of conference opponents. Stanford is very recognizable, but the other two are future (NCAA) regional squads and pose many issues for us. Then we start the SEC season with (powerhouses) LSU (at home, March 14-16) and Mississippi State (on the road, March 21-23)… enough said.”
DW: What are your thoughts on the SEC and who are the teams that will be factors this season?
TC: “The SEC will never change. It’s the AL East of college baseball. Every team purchases free agents in the off-season and improves their stadium by a million dollars. You add Texas A&M and Missouri to a group of 12 and you start asking yourself, ‘ Where are the gins going to come from?’ I refuse to look at the whole thing at the beginning of the year.. you can’t. It’s very overwhelming.”
DW: Finally, Corbs, what are your thoughts on James’ departure?
TC: “Having our fan base upset with James is a very normal thing and a very healthy thing. It means that he was very instrumental in adjusting a culture and drawing in the emotions of Vanderbilt people. He made a decision based on his upbringing, his family and his background. I’m sure the emotional “tug” was a key component when it came down to finalizing what he wanted to do. He didn’t purposefully try to hurt the players, fans or administration when choosing to leave for Penn State. When a coach builds a strong culture, the culture has a chance to survive the loss of leadership because a strong foundation has been set. This is the case here. The emotions of his loss will quickly turn to the emotions of the next person that takes his place (it is being reported it’s Derek Mason, about 95% sure of that). This caring attitude needs to be placed towards the kids. They are the only reasons that I, James. Kevin and Melanie have a job.”
Final comment:
We’ll get it done in baseball. Omaha is within reach with continued development of this baseball team. We have speed, power, defense, run producing and a ton of pitching. All the ingredients for a big year, though the SEC is brutal and will be a major challenge as it always is. Like our group and its potential a lot though.