I talked to Daniel Latham, Hudson Haskin and Jewett yesterday
LATHAM
What can your put your finger on for the staff-wide issues with the exception of a couple of guys?
"Yeah, we've had some guys chase some bad outings the last couple of weeks. Some of it's been a little uncharacteristic. Some of that's going to flip over a little bit. Kaleb Roper really struggled at Memphis. Last week his stuff was OK, he pitched OK and he got hit, which happens, which I can live with. That's a really good club. They are really good against right-handed pitching. He made some good pitches that got hit, so I would expect him to bounce back this week. That's not going to be a rest-of-the-season thing with him. The rest of it, obviously what (Justin) Campbell's doing, what (Brendan) Cellucci's doing, that's been great. We need some other guys to step up around them. We've had some guys their last couple outings kind of make some strides that way. Ryan Green's last couple outings have been pretty strong (4.1 innings, 3 hits, two runs, seven strikeouts). I've been pleased with him. Robbie Price's last couple outings, he's making some movements forward that are going to help us down the stretch, but we have some guys just kind of in their own way right now quite honestly. They are putting in good work during the week and not allowing themselves to have success on the mound right now. They are kind of hindering their own performance, so we need some guys to snap out of it a little bit."
How do you fix that?
"For me, I told these guys I'm just going to stay relentless on that end. I'm going to coach them hard. I'm too competitive to have some letdown on that end, so I'm going to continue to coach them hard. I'm going to continue to hold them to a high standard. The expectations are not going to change on my end. They're just not going to. These guys know it's not going to change on what I expect or what coach Jewett expects or what their teammates expect of them, so that's the only way to go about it is to keep demanding certain things out of these guys. At some point they've got to look at the mirror and come to the park and do it."
There was a pitchers' meeting in the bullpen area after the UNO loss. What happened in it?
"I actually was not part of that meeting. Kaleb called that meeting last night on his own. They met for a long time. I don't know exactly what they met about. I have a pretty good idea what they met about knowing Kaleb like I know him because that kid's a warrior and cares a lot, but I had nothing to do with that. That was on their own."
Will there be changes in the rotation this weekend?
"Yeah. Me and Jewett always joke about the definition of insanity--doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. At times we all kind of fall into those traps of redundancy on that. We've spent the last week or so evaluating what needs to be what, trying to push the right buttons because we're not going to get accused of going down without trying everything we can. We keep telling these guys going into the last three weekends, with two of them being at home, we're in second place. It's been a few years since we've been in that position, so we've got some good things we can accomplish down the stretch, so we're going to push every possible button we can to try to win every series that we can down the stretch. What that's going to mean this weekend, Kaleb's going to start on Friday. That's what I've got right now. I've got a little idea behind that but I'm not fully committed in my heart for anything else.
Can Cellucci start maybe on Sunday, or will it be determined by the situation?
"No doubt. If it's a situation where we're going to win Friday because we pitch Chooch then he's going in the game. The way our offense guys, we might score 20 the next one. The Memphis weekend was such a weird weekend as far as playing the two seven-inning games (after rain forced a Saturday doubleheader, which the conference mandates the opener be seven innings. The second game turned into seven innings because of the 15-run run). We only played two that weekend and we lose one and Campbell and Cellucci didn't really pitch. At the end of it you kind of look at yourself like that can't happen but we weren't really involved in the first game until so late that it was too late to get them in the game and get it going. Had it been a nine-inning game, you probably would have seen one of them. That's what you saw us do against East Carolina. As soon as we saw things go a little bit south, we inserted those guys into the game. We put Justin in the game in the second inning on Saturday. That's uncharted territories for him, and he was a warrior about it. We put Chooch in in the fourth and he had a great one. You might see some of that if we have to (against UCF)."
What is Keagan Gillies not doing this year, with his ERA doubling from last season?
"That's the question I've had. Obviously he pitched pretty well last year in spurts and it's been a struggle for at times this year. I haven't quite been able to put my finger on it. He's made some really good adjustments on the mound. He was in the same boat as Kaleb last week. He actually did make some really good pitches. He just got hit. That's a good offense. They handle right-handed pitching really, really well, which you saw once we inserted Campbell and Cellucci what happened. Their only losses are to left-handers with their offense, especially at their place in a seven-lefty lineup. He made some good pitches and got hit. That's baseball, and that's what I try to remind him. He's got to stay the course. We'll see how he's feeling today (Wednesday). We just have to keep pressing forward because he had some really strong starts this fall and some really strong starts in the preseason and he's had a handful of strong starts in the spring that I can go back to. We'd like to get a couple of more of those down the stretch, but whatever role it is that we need to use him in to win is what we're going to do. I tell these guys all the time that they're not the Friday guy, the Saturday guy, they're pitchers and whether that means they're coming in in the first, the ninth, the 10th, the third, it doesn't matter, let's get the guy out. We might get away a little bit from defined roles and a little more into be a pitcher and get the guys out."
Is it fair to assume that either Solesky or Gillies will start Saturday?
"Yeah. It's a possibility. I haven't really committed to anything yet. I'm prepping both of those guys to be ready for it. I'm also prepping a lot of other guys to be ready for Friday and Saturday, so they are just amongst the crew that's going to be prepped for what we need. Like I said, we're going to do whatever we can to win Friday. Then once we win that game, we'll figure out what we have to win Saturday. If we get into a situation where we look up and Brendan hasn't pitched or threw one inning on Friday and he's available on Sunday, that's where you would see him inserted into a different role. We'll figure that out when we get there."
When Chase and Keagan are pitching well, what are they doing that they are not doing now?
"For Chase it's count leverage, it's strike ones. That's always his thing. When he's ahead in counts, he's really, really tough to hits. You see (UC) Riverside and Ole Miss and some of those outings, South Florida, when he's ahead in the count, he's really tough to hit. When he's behind in the count, it's pretty vanilla. Here comes your fastball, get on time, and good teams do. He knows count leverage is big for him. Keagan is always going to be around the zone with everything. It's just the quality of the strikes. His misses have to be really strong misses, down in the zone, on the edges a little bit. When he starts missing over the plate, he gets himself in trouble. He's got a little margin for error early in the games, but as the games go on he loses his margin for error a little bit. Quite honestly, if you really evaluate Keagan's seasons, he's been pretty good the first three or four inning, minus a couple of outings, and somewhere in the middle he's kind of gone awry a little bit. Hopefully we can get that cleaned up. We'll figure that out as we go a little bit on him, but I'm hoping those guys can reinsert themselves down the stretch."
LATHAM
What can your put your finger on for the staff-wide issues with the exception of a couple of guys?
"Yeah, we've had some guys chase some bad outings the last couple of weeks. Some of it's been a little uncharacteristic. Some of that's going to flip over a little bit. Kaleb Roper really struggled at Memphis. Last week his stuff was OK, he pitched OK and he got hit, which happens, which I can live with. That's a really good club. They are really good against right-handed pitching. He made some good pitches that got hit, so I would expect him to bounce back this week. That's not going to be a rest-of-the-season thing with him. The rest of it, obviously what (Justin) Campbell's doing, what (Brendan) Cellucci's doing, that's been great. We need some other guys to step up around them. We've had some guys their last couple outings kind of make some strides that way. Ryan Green's last couple outings have been pretty strong (4.1 innings, 3 hits, two runs, seven strikeouts). I've been pleased with him. Robbie Price's last couple outings, he's making some movements forward that are going to help us down the stretch, but we have some guys just kind of in their own way right now quite honestly. They are putting in good work during the week and not allowing themselves to have success on the mound right now. They are kind of hindering their own performance, so we need some guys to snap out of it a little bit."
How do you fix that?
"For me, I told these guys I'm just going to stay relentless on that end. I'm going to coach them hard. I'm too competitive to have some letdown on that end, so I'm going to continue to coach them hard. I'm going to continue to hold them to a high standard. The expectations are not going to change on my end. They're just not going to. These guys know it's not going to change on what I expect or what coach Jewett expects or what their teammates expect of them, so that's the only way to go about it is to keep demanding certain things out of these guys. At some point they've got to look at the mirror and come to the park and do it."
There was a pitchers' meeting in the bullpen area after the UNO loss. What happened in it?
"I actually was not part of that meeting. Kaleb called that meeting last night on his own. They met for a long time. I don't know exactly what they met about. I have a pretty good idea what they met about knowing Kaleb like I know him because that kid's a warrior and cares a lot, but I had nothing to do with that. That was on their own."
Will there be changes in the rotation this weekend?
"Yeah. Me and Jewett always joke about the definition of insanity--doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. At times we all kind of fall into those traps of redundancy on that. We've spent the last week or so evaluating what needs to be what, trying to push the right buttons because we're not going to get accused of going down without trying everything we can. We keep telling these guys going into the last three weekends, with two of them being at home, we're in second place. It's been a few years since we've been in that position, so we've got some good things we can accomplish down the stretch, so we're going to push every possible button we can to try to win every series that we can down the stretch. What that's going to mean this weekend, Kaleb's going to start on Friday. That's what I've got right now. I've got a little idea behind that but I'm not fully committed in my heart for anything else.
Can Cellucci start maybe on Sunday, or will it be determined by the situation?
"No doubt. If it's a situation where we're going to win Friday because we pitch Chooch then he's going in the game. The way our offense guys, we might score 20 the next one. The Memphis weekend was such a weird weekend as far as playing the two seven-inning games (after rain forced a Saturday doubleheader, which the conference mandates the opener be seven innings. The second game turned into seven innings because of the 15-run run). We only played two that weekend and we lose one and Campbell and Cellucci didn't really pitch. At the end of it you kind of look at yourself like that can't happen but we weren't really involved in the first game until so late that it was too late to get them in the game and get it going. Had it been a nine-inning game, you probably would have seen one of them. That's what you saw us do against East Carolina. As soon as we saw things go a little bit south, we inserted those guys into the game. We put Justin in the game in the second inning on Saturday. That's uncharted territories for him, and he was a warrior about it. We put Chooch in in the fourth and he had a great one. You might see some of that if we have to (against UCF)."
What is Keagan Gillies not doing this year, with his ERA doubling from last season?
"That's the question I've had. Obviously he pitched pretty well last year in spurts and it's been a struggle for at times this year. I haven't quite been able to put my finger on it. He's made some really good adjustments on the mound. He was in the same boat as Kaleb last week. He actually did make some really good pitches. He just got hit. That's a good offense. They handle right-handed pitching really, really well, which you saw once we inserted Campbell and Cellucci what happened. Their only losses are to left-handers with their offense, especially at their place in a seven-lefty lineup. He made some good pitches and got hit. That's baseball, and that's what I try to remind him. He's got to stay the course. We'll see how he's feeling today (Wednesday). We just have to keep pressing forward because he had some really strong starts this fall and some really strong starts in the preseason and he's had a handful of strong starts in the spring that I can go back to. We'd like to get a couple of more of those down the stretch, but whatever role it is that we need to use him in to win is what we're going to do. I tell these guys all the time that they're not the Friday guy, the Saturday guy, they're pitchers and whether that means they're coming in in the first, the ninth, the 10th, the third, it doesn't matter, let's get the guy out. We might get away a little bit from defined roles and a little more into be a pitcher and get the guys out."
Is it fair to assume that either Solesky or Gillies will start Saturday?
"Yeah. It's a possibility. I haven't really committed to anything yet. I'm prepping both of those guys to be ready for it. I'm also prepping a lot of other guys to be ready for Friday and Saturday, so they are just amongst the crew that's going to be prepped for what we need. Like I said, we're going to do whatever we can to win Friday. Then once we win that game, we'll figure out what we have to win Saturday. If we get into a situation where we look up and Brendan hasn't pitched or threw one inning on Friday and he's available on Sunday, that's where you would see him inserted into a different role. We'll figure that out when we get there."
When Chase and Keagan are pitching well, what are they doing that they are not doing now?
"For Chase it's count leverage, it's strike ones. That's always his thing. When he's ahead in counts, he's really, really tough to hits. You see (UC) Riverside and Ole Miss and some of those outings, South Florida, when he's ahead in the count, he's really tough to hit. When he's behind in the count, it's pretty vanilla. Here comes your fastball, get on time, and good teams do. He knows count leverage is big for him. Keagan is always going to be around the zone with everything. It's just the quality of the strikes. His misses have to be really strong misses, down in the zone, on the edges a little bit. When he starts missing over the plate, he gets himself in trouble. He's got a little margin for error early in the games, but as the games go on he loses his margin for error a little bit. Quite honestly, if you really evaluate Keagan's seasons, he's been pretty good the first three or four inning, minus a couple of outings, and somewhere in the middle he's kind of gone awry a little bit. Hopefully we can get that cleaned up. We'll figure that out as we go a little bit on him, but I'm hoping those guys can reinsert themselves down the stretch."