Hey folks,
This is the first of a couple of posts dumping to you my notes from a sitdown I had with Tracy Smith this morning over at Assembly Hall. I had literally about 1,200 words of stuff solely from this morning, but alas, space limitations only let me stick a few major highlights in.
I'll do these two posts in notebook format, follow along, if you please.
Carr has to earn weekend spot
Matt Carr distinguished himself well on the mound late last season, notching several clutch performances out of the bullpen as the Hoosiers finished strong and put together a Big Ten Tournament run. He further padded his laurels with a solid summer, going 3-1 with a 1.98 ERA for Anderson of the Great Lakes Collegiate League.
Still, Smith isn't ready to guarantee Carr a starting spot at the weekend, as some -- myself included -- have suggested, given his performance since mid-April. Smith said he wants to get Carr healthy, and he said he wants to see the right-hander keep working hard. He does like what he sees, however.
"The signs are there, no doubt," Smith said. "He pitched well down the stretch, but I'm usually one that, I need to see a little bit more."
On summer ball as a whole
Smith: "I remember, even as a player, guys would come back and say, 'Oh, I had a great summer,' therefore, I should be this. I don't put a lot of stock into the summer, because the pressure is different, the expectations are different. You flip that around, we've got some guys that have had pretty raunchy summers, and I tell them, 'Don't worry about it. It has nothing to do with what you do when you get here.'
"I look for the summer, again, just to get guys back in that relaxed mode, enjoying it again, because when we get at it, it's just a different thing."
On Monar and Dickerson spurning the Majors
Smith said it's always a challenge getting high schoolers who spent their summers negotiating possible Major League contracts back into a team mindset. He said he completely understands the draft process, but that when they get to campus, they need to bring their focus back to baseball, something he expects both players to handle well.
"They're focused on winning championships," Smith said. "The draft is exciting, all those things are great, we want every one of our kids to eventually play professional baseball, but now, you put that stage behind, and now it's focusing on getting better -- getting better individually, for themselves, but also being a part of that team.
"With Blake, any time you pass (on a Major League deal), we went through it with Kipp, there is always that, if you get hurt the "what if," but you make decisions and you move forward with it. Now they're part of IU baseball."
On replacing Tufts
Smith admitted Tyler Tufts' departure for the Texas Rangers minor league system this summer was not nearly as expected as Andrew Means' ascent to the professional ranks. He said that, although Tufts' ERA last year was rather high -- 5.65 -- he ate tons of innings for the Hoosiers as a weekend starter (86 to be exact, the most on the team).
The Hoosiers skipper said replacing Tufts will be a priority for the IU pitching staff, though as many previous posts and comments, and my story in tomorrow's paper, have alluded to, this team has tons of pitching depth at present.
"We're hoping that we can replace his numbers with one of the younger guys," Smith said. "While he was an experienced pitcher and a good kid and all those things, I've got to believe we're gonna be able to replace those numbers. The one thing we won't be able to replace, in losing Tyler, is the experience."
Dunning in at short
Coupled with Tufts, Smith pointed out that the Hoosiers' hole at shortstop -- left vacant by the graduation of Tyler Cox -- will need to be filled capably. Smith pointed out, and rightfully so, that Cox's solid and often stellar play the latter third of last season truly keyed IU's 16-8 finish to the regular season/run through the conference tourney. I'm sure I don't have to mention Cox's grand slam against Penn State either.
"To me, that was the key to our season," Smith said.
Smith said Jake Dunning, a junior college transfer we've talked about plenty on the blog, will be the starter for the Hoosiers in the six-hole coming into fall practice, based mostly on his experience.
"He's a junior college guy, he's played at the college level at shortstop, and that's what we signed him for," Smith said. "But, as always, we'll let those guys battle it out in the fall."
That's it for part one. Just to break it up (and give my fingers a break) I'll be back with the other half of the interview tomorrow. Enjoy.
