I am having a hard time getting interviews with baseball players in the zoom era with Tulane having no baseball SID at the moment, but Jewett always is willing to talk. I interviewed him over the phone Wednesday afternoon and asked him what player he wanted to talk about the most. He said Collin Burns.
Burns, a redshirt shortstop from De La Salle, started all but one game a year ago at shortstop and was decent, hitting .263 in the nine hole and making four errors in 17 games. He was an upgrade on Sal Gozzo at the plate and a wash defensively, but he had little power, with three doubles, no triple and no home runs in 57 bats. This fall, though, he had two doubles in the five-game intersquad World Series. Jewett likes his bat and loves his glove.
"The one guy that I've been really impressed with is Collin Burns. The maturity is present. His play is clean. I asked him the other day if he had velcro in his glove. It's just like if the ball is hit to Collin, you're out, and he makes all the routine plays. He plays to his right well, he plays to his left well, he plays forward well. He's not only catching everything, he's landing all of his throws. He knows when he has to use his arm strength, which he has some. He can throw from down under. He plays on the run well, so he's just been awesome that way. Pound for pound, I want to say he's the strongest kid on our team. He's running really fast. He's wanting to run. He's yelling at me to let him run, so he's showing a little bit of confidence in himself and that makes me feel good. He's impacting the ball very well. He's bunting for some hits. He's hitting line drives the other way. He's pulling the ball out of the park. He hit a home run just this last weekend in a scrimmage that got out of here in a hurry about three quarters of the way up the right centerfield net."
So you are expecting a lot more power from him this year?
"Yeah, I just think he's learning how to get his eyes down at the end of the bat a little more consistently, which keeps him connected over the plate longer, which adds to his explosion. He's sequencing his swing more regularly and really punching the ball all over the field. It's very rare when you don't see him at a batting practice being impactful. It's consistent, which this game requires a lot of."
How much does it help when you have a shortstop you can count on?
"Oh geez, you just go like, thank you. So that makes me feel good. I think we can lead him off. He can be a hell of a two-hole hitter, but he's going to be a front end of the batting order in my mind. Right now if I had a coin, heads its lead-off, tails it's two-hole. Things change, but I feel really good with him and (Trevor) Minder on the left side there. It's going to be hard to hit a ball by those guys."
Is this the natural progression from year 1 to 2 as a starter?
"I think so. When you saw him as a green rookie, you would think about this time he would have some things figured out. He's a smart kid, too. He does well academically and has a pretty good grasp of all the nuances we do offensively and defensively, so that helps him slow down. When you've done it a bunch of times, you're knowing, and it has allowed his performance to really shine through. I'm excited about what I think his season is going to look like, and he's earned it. He trains well. He's in the cage a lot. He's getting what he's putting in. It's good."
The right side of the infield is maybe Tulane's biggest concern, with replacements needed for Jonathon Artigues and Grant Mathews. Jewett said Ethan Groff likely will begin the year in left field after being double trained at second base. Redshirt freshman Simon Baumgardt, who had three at-bats last year, is the probable starter at second.
"He's made some nice moves," Jewett said. "He's changed his swing really completely. He's got some strength. He could add some needed pop for us."
Frankie Niemann, primarily a DH a year ago, is the likely first baseman. He is coming off an injury but is back now.
Look for Groff to begin some games in the outfield and move to second base when a replacement in the outfield is made.
"I just like the idea that if we make a move that doesn't mean that one guy has to be out," Jewett said. "He could move to another position."
Jewett said no one was expected to miss the beginning of the season with an injury.
I asked Jewett to name a pitcher not on the team last year who would play a significant role. When I asked the same question one game into the Fall Ball World Series, he named five, but after repeating the name of freshman Blake Mahmoud, who struck out six in 3.1 innings of his first fall World Series appearance, he came up with a name he did not mention then: Zach Devito, a freshman right-hander from Lithia, Florida near Tampa.
"He's really pitched the ball well," Jewett said. "He's small in stature, but he looks kind of like a young Tim Lincecum almost even in the face, the body. I'm not saying it's the same delivery, but that kind of frame. When he stands on the rubber, the word believability comes to my mind. He has the look, the heartbeat, he's aggressive, he pounds strikes in the bottom of the strike zone. He doesn't throw 100, but he doesn't throw 80, either. He can locate his fastball to both quadrants into the upper quadrant. He can spin it. He can pull it. He can field his position. His strikes are premium. He's has a nice fall and followed it up in the early spring, too. I would say that would be one of those new guys out there who has pitched well."
I also asked Jewett about David Bates, who had a sore arm at the start of 2020 and earned a two-inning save in his first appearance against Lamar in what turned out to be the final game of the year. Bates, whom Jewett recruited to Vanderbilt before he ended up transferring to Howard College, is ticketed for the back end probably as the set-up man for Keagan Gillies.
"He's going to be a big piece," Jewett said. "If I had my way, I would like to build my pitching staff backward because of the importance of those innings, and with his skill set, he just gives us, almost like if Keagan's not available, this guy could be type of thing, and even if they're both available, you could pass it from one guy to the next and we could get real creative by throwing Justin Campbell in between. He's going to be an important piece of that game towards the latter moments."
Jewett likes this team, but he knows there is plenty of room for improvement before the Feb. 19 opener against ULL.
"We had our first scrimmage of the fall on Friday trying to replicate a weekend series, and the words that would describe us would be rusty, dusty, muddy. Oof, and all over the place. Saturday was less rusty, dusty and muddy, and we got better as the weekend went along, which is what you're looking for. We want to try to continue to move north, that's the most important thing, and it just kind of naturally happens when you do it more."
Burns, a redshirt shortstop from De La Salle, started all but one game a year ago at shortstop and was decent, hitting .263 in the nine hole and making four errors in 17 games. He was an upgrade on Sal Gozzo at the plate and a wash defensively, but he had little power, with three doubles, no triple and no home runs in 57 bats. This fall, though, he had two doubles in the five-game intersquad World Series. Jewett likes his bat and loves his glove.
"The one guy that I've been really impressed with is Collin Burns. The maturity is present. His play is clean. I asked him the other day if he had velcro in his glove. It's just like if the ball is hit to Collin, you're out, and he makes all the routine plays. He plays to his right well, he plays to his left well, he plays forward well. He's not only catching everything, he's landing all of his throws. He knows when he has to use his arm strength, which he has some. He can throw from down under. He plays on the run well, so he's just been awesome that way. Pound for pound, I want to say he's the strongest kid on our team. He's running really fast. He's wanting to run. He's yelling at me to let him run, so he's showing a little bit of confidence in himself and that makes me feel good. He's impacting the ball very well. He's bunting for some hits. He's hitting line drives the other way. He's pulling the ball out of the park. He hit a home run just this last weekend in a scrimmage that got out of here in a hurry about three quarters of the way up the right centerfield net."
So you are expecting a lot more power from him this year?
"Yeah, I just think he's learning how to get his eyes down at the end of the bat a little more consistently, which keeps him connected over the plate longer, which adds to his explosion. He's sequencing his swing more regularly and really punching the ball all over the field. It's very rare when you don't see him at a batting practice being impactful. It's consistent, which this game requires a lot of."
How much does it help when you have a shortstop you can count on?
"Oh geez, you just go like, thank you. So that makes me feel good. I think we can lead him off. He can be a hell of a two-hole hitter, but he's going to be a front end of the batting order in my mind. Right now if I had a coin, heads its lead-off, tails it's two-hole. Things change, but I feel really good with him and (Trevor) Minder on the left side there. It's going to be hard to hit a ball by those guys."
Is this the natural progression from year 1 to 2 as a starter?
"I think so. When you saw him as a green rookie, you would think about this time he would have some things figured out. He's a smart kid, too. He does well academically and has a pretty good grasp of all the nuances we do offensively and defensively, so that helps him slow down. When you've done it a bunch of times, you're knowing, and it has allowed his performance to really shine through. I'm excited about what I think his season is going to look like, and he's earned it. He trains well. He's in the cage a lot. He's getting what he's putting in. It's good."
The right side of the infield is maybe Tulane's biggest concern, with replacements needed for Jonathon Artigues and Grant Mathews. Jewett said Ethan Groff likely will begin the year in left field after being double trained at second base. Redshirt freshman Simon Baumgardt, who had three at-bats last year, is the probable starter at second.
"He's made some nice moves," Jewett said. "He's changed his swing really completely. He's got some strength. He could add some needed pop for us."
Frankie Niemann, primarily a DH a year ago, is the likely first baseman. He is coming off an injury but is back now.
Look for Groff to begin some games in the outfield and move to second base when a replacement in the outfield is made.
"I just like the idea that if we make a move that doesn't mean that one guy has to be out," Jewett said. "He could move to another position."
Jewett said no one was expected to miss the beginning of the season with an injury.
I asked Jewett to name a pitcher not on the team last year who would play a significant role. When I asked the same question one game into the Fall Ball World Series, he named five, but after repeating the name of freshman Blake Mahmoud, who struck out six in 3.1 innings of his first fall World Series appearance, he came up with a name he did not mention then: Zach Devito, a freshman right-hander from Lithia, Florida near Tampa.
"He's really pitched the ball well," Jewett said. "He's small in stature, but he looks kind of like a young Tim Lincecum almost even in the face, the body. I'm not saying it's the same delivery, but that kind of frame. When he stands on the rubber, the word believability comes to my mind. He has the look, the heartbeat, he's aggressive, he pounds strikes in the bottom of the strike zone. He doesn't throw 100, but he doesn't throw 80, either. He can locate his fastball to both quadrants into the upper quadrant. He can spin it. He can pull it. He can field his position. His strikes are premium. He's has a nice fall and followed it up in the early spring, too. I would say that would be one of those new guys out there who has pitched well."
I also asked Jewett about David Bates, who had a sore arm at the start of 2020 and earned a two-inning save in his first appearance against Lamar in what turned out to be the final game of the year. Bates, whom Jewett recruited to Vanderbilt before he ended up transferring to Howard College, is ticketed for the back end probably as the set-up man for Keagan Gillies.
"He's going to be a big piece," Jewett said. "If I had my way, I would like to build my pitching staff backward because of the importance of those innings, and with his skill set, he just gives us, almost like if Keagan's not available, this guy could be type of thing, and even if they're both available, you could pass it from one guy to the next and we could get real creative by throwing Justin Campbell in between. He's going to be an important piece of that game towards the latter moments."
Jewett likes this team, but he knows there is plenty of room for improvement before the Feb. 19 opener against ULL.
"We had our first scrimmage of the fall on Friday trying to replicate a weekend series, and the words that would describe us would be rusty, dusty, muddy. Oof, and all over the place. Saturday was less rusty, dusty and muddy, and we got better as the weekend went along, which is what you're looking for. We want to try to continue to move north, that's the most important thing, and it just kind of naturally happens when you do it more."
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