It’s that time of year! The Texas Aggie baseball team is set to open up the 2023 season on Friday against Seattle at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. We’re counting down the days with our 2023 Aggie Baseball Preview Series.
A&M baseball's head strength and conditioning coach Jeremy McMillan is entering his 12th season with the Ags, and as A&M embarks on a campaign that features lofty expectations, McMillan is tasked with keeping them playing at a top level through the grind of the SEC.
Key notes from Jeremy McMillan interview
- For all those guys, it's a different puzzle, and starting off with Brett Minnich, the biggest thing for me was the style of play that Brett Minnich has, that guy's always diving on the ground. He plays aggressively. He's got an aggressive style of play, so for him, it was robustness. And so I think the main objective for him was to gain some strength, get some movement quality in some certain areas of his body, but overall was to put size on his frame at the size he is. He did a phenomenal job with that. He's 24 pounds heavier than he was on post side of back season. Whereas you've got a guy like Austin Bost who has a smaller frame, good tool set. A middle infielder has got to be able to be dynamic and move. The big goal with Bost was to continue to improve that dynamic element of his game. We needed to stack a little bit of weight on him for robustness as well, but with guys like that, you've always got to be careful how far you tip the scale on one end. If you add too much, they lose a little bit of that quickness, side-to-side quickness, a little bit of that linear speed. Whereas guys like Brett or Nathan Dettmer, their frame dictates that they can carry a heavier load and still be extremely athletic. One of the biggest things for me is that Minnich is 24 pounds heavier, and he's running faster. Normally you put weight on guys like that, and you expect them to run the same speed, maybe a little bit slower, which means that they're improved if you can still run as fast and be heavier. For him to be able to be that much heavier and run faster at the same time, it's just a testament to him and the decisions he made and the effort he put into his body and his routine, and his preparation really ran away with that.
- Dettmer was fun. Since his freshman year, I think he's up 38 pounds since he first got here. The backside of his career has been a little bit different. With Dettmer, it's more about movement quality, teaching him to rotate better. He's got the requisite strength, he's got the size for his frame, finally. What we focused on with him was the dynamic part of things. His short sprint work, his acceleration, his jumping, more of the dynamic type nature stuff, and then sequencing on the mound. Going into the summer, that was my main focus. When I really broke down his program, that was a missing link. For me, there is such thing as strong enough. I think we're all still trying to hunt that down and what exactly that is for each individual guy. For Dettmer, I think the most important quality for a hitter or a pitcher is your ability to rotate, your ability to sequence on time and really use the tools that you have. The one that gets you is the Barbie doll. They're really strong, really fast, jump really well, but then it just doesn't add up on the field. I think the number one thing that we get away from sometimes is that movement quality, their ability to sequence their movement pattern on the mount or in the batter's box. With Dettmer, it was really teaching movement patterns that were holistic, ballistic movements, movements that required him to use the strength he had very rapidly. That was really our big focus with him along with a lot of water bag-type movement, some tools that we have that really pull him into rotation with the hips and really focus on some of his overall rotational qualities.
- Trevor Werner is a lot like Minnich. Trevor is incredible with his work ethic. He loves the game of baseball, so his preparation is good. He does all the little things that you'd want anybody to do. He's a great leader in terms of bringing guys along in the program. He's very meticulous with what he does. Trevor is a super physical, very lean human being. In baseball, I like to have a little bit of extra on the body because of the pounding. Day in and day out, these guys are running. We play four times a week. We've got guys four times a week that are hitting almost 100 percent of their max velocity four times in a week in game. That's extremely taxing on the nervous system. It's extremely taxing on the body. You want to have a little bit of extra to create some resiliency to help drive recovery in between what he does. One of the big pieces that we added for Trevor was some of the recovery and some of the activation and some of the preparatory work that he does specific to him and what he needs to do. Last year with the hand, that injury just takes time. Once you have it, there's a certain timetable in terms of getting that back, and for him, it was almost pulling him back every once in a while. He's doing everything he physically can to get back on the field as quickly as possible. That was the big piece for him in terms of looking at his program. We need to keep him strong. We don't necessarily need to chase strength. Speed was something that was big from him coming back off of last year, continuing to work on acceleration and work on max velocity. He takes a lot of pride in that. He's competitive as heck, so when I list those top three or four guys, he wants his name listed in those top three or four guys. Another big thing for him is just getting his hips opened up and the ability for him to drop step moves side to side, especially at his position. He's either going to get a chopper over that position, or he's going to get a ball that's screaming down the line, and so his ability to be reactive and get to that ball is important. He's got the arm. He could play halfway in left field and throw a strike over to Jack Moss. That ball almost elevates as he throws it over there, but that was a big piece for him. He was the guy that really does everything. It's just taking all the things that he does right, fine tuning them a little bit more to make them very specific to him. With the diet, just making sure certain things are in place. Guys like Werner and Moss, when that game starts, they're like a bull in a China shop. They are so locked into the game that we've had people in place reminding those guys to get an apple sauce after the third inning or make sure you're hydrating throughout the game just because they're burning it. Emotionally, physically, they're operating at an extremely high level. Guys that are like that are creating stress internally that is not only physical, but it's emotional as well. We dove into the recovery process with those guys.
- Jace LaViolette is absolutely incredible that we have a freshman like that on campus. I mean 6-foot-6, 230 pounds and can run the way that he runs. He's a almost 22 mph guy and possesses a ton of physical qualities. It's very unique to baseball. Enrique Bradfield could be a track and field athlete in terms of running 23 mph. Across the board, we've got quite a few guys that are almost 22 mph guys, a bunch of 21 mph guys and some 20 mph guys. You take the outfield position, you have almost the exact opposite. You have a guy like Kasen Wells, who has really come on and has really put together a lot of good weeks. The biggest thing I can say with him, it's just the consistency. He's been extremely consistent. The smaller type guys, you got to walk around with a little bit of chip on your shoulder, and you’ve got to be diligent with your routine. You got to know who you are, operate and be committed to that on a daily basis.
- The biggest thing you talk about as a coach and the culture is when Jim Schlossnagle got here, that's one of the first things that he said to me. One of the most important things for me to do in terms of his system. When I first talked to him, I wanted to know the three things that he needed out of our area more than anything else. Obviously, you've been around coach quite a bit. It all starts from the top, and he is absolutely incredible with the culture piece. It's a daily thing. It's never assume that it's there and it's in place and that we're just going to hold onto it. It's literally a daily thing. It's just part of who we are. It's part of our process. You can see why it's so successful. Our veterans have bought into it. They're invested in it. .They carry his same approach, and then it trickles down to the younger guys. In our program, leadership is not just doing what's expected. That's the bare minimum. Leadership is bringing guys along. All of that veteran group has done an extremely good job with bringing the younger guys along, but especially the guys at their position. They are pushing them to make them better so that we are a better team overall. There's constant competition within the team, but going back to your point with Jace.
- When they first get here, we strip guys down with our assessments. How do you move? What is your basic assessment telling us about who you are? What are your limitations? What are the things that we really need to focus on? What is your overall movement quality? We get guys that come in here that have never been in a weight room. We've get guys that have been in a weight room, but it might not be to the quality that we want. It's been more of that chasing numbers mindset rather than quality of movement. For me, when we first get guys here, it's more about the movement quality because that's going to be the foundation of everything we do. If we teach you to do something a certain way, the reason we're teaching it is because it's going to transfer to a certain way you're making a move on the field. It's not just about sheer output. At some point, it needs to be about sheer output. In our system, once we get guys learn how to move well, learn how to go through some of the basics in our program, then it becomes about outputs. We need to achieve a certain amount of output because that's what's driving the system. Once you get guys to move well, strength is the basis for a lot of other things. It's the basis for being able to generate power. It's the ability to generate rapid acceleration. It has to be in place, but we have to teach them how to move well first. That was our foundation program with all of our guys. It’s really just focusing in on teaching guys to move well. Jace advanced through that program a little bit quicker than others because he actually had some really good movement quality.
- Jace will quickly advance through our program. He will get to a point where we will no longer chase weight on a reverse lunge, chase weight on the trap bar deadlift, chase weight on a front squat or a safety bar back squat type variation. At some point, his program will be more about eccentric strength, so his ability to really absorb force. When you think about a hitter in the box, their ability to land on their stride leg, decelerate and then go back into acceleration to create a large amount of torque that becomes more of a focus with him, right? He has the requisite strength. Now we need to focus on a little bit more of that specific strength that he needs to use. Obviously, power output and then speed development with him.
- I would tell you speed is the underlying thing in our program. If I were to tell you there's one thing that we're doing year-round, it's running almost at full speed. It's something that you have to train often to get better at, and for me, I actually think about it the opposite way. Does strength transfer to that? Yes, it does, especially for somebody who's very weak or novice. For an advanced athlete, the work you do outside with the advanced jump training, the sprint training, acceleration, resisted sprinting, full-speed, max-effort, give me your best bullet as fast as you can run. That actually has a really big potentiation effect on the weight room. Where it would normally take a guy 16 weeks to get him somewhere, if we're really doing a good job with our outside dynamic, like fast work, now it cuts that time in half in the weight room.
- I love Kaeden Kent. He's an absolute joy to coach. I mean, there is not a guy that's more invested in his process and the game of baseball. He loves it, so some of the talks that I had with Kent this summer when he first got in here was not necessarily not doing less but being more meticulous with what you do. If you want to go at it constantly, you got to have a balance in that. You might have a day where you're really getting after ground ball routine. It's a very taxing day on your body. You can come back the next day and do a lot of work. You can do some recovery work. You can do some mobility work. You can do some range of motion type training, but you can do a lot of stuff on the field. If you go to your position and you’re fielding balls, whether you're taking them from second base or shortstop and you're working on double play feeds, it's very technical. It's very tactical. It's not very taxing. You're not having to run all over the place. You can do your tennis ball drills off the wall, so you're getting a lot of high-quality work that's not very taxing on your body. You can step in the cage, do some of your tee routine, but then you can get in the cage and get off the equalizer and take 100 balls without ever swinging. You're learning how to command the zone. You're learning how to track pitches. Those were some of the big things early on for him in terms of getting him to understand more of not the here and now, but coach talks about this a lot: You're the CEO of your career. He talks to all of our guys about that. Ultimately, you're in charge of your career and so really getting him to understand long-term development, right?
- We're about building every year so that in five years, 10 years, 15 years, your plan is continuing to grow and continuing to evolve with who you are and how your body's changed and the demands that you need at that specific time in your career.
- Max Kaufer is absolutely hungry. He's a great teammate. He's energetic. He's passionate about the game. For me, every day he comes in the weight room, he's one of the first ones there almost in the building on a daily basis, so you never question his love and his passion for the game. He's fun to coach. He's going to be fun to be around. You talk about Jace, you talk about Kaeden Kent, you talk about Kasen Wells, Justin Vossos... Man, that group, that group's going to be... And Lucas Kelly's coming back just from not doing much in the fall and getting into the mix. Justin Lamkin. Oh yeah, that group's going to be really fun to be around in the future, and they're getting a lot of inexpensive vs. expensive experience. They're getting a ton of inexpensive experience. They are getting to listen to an older class. They're getting to watch an older class that they're not having to make the mistakes, right?
- They're learning from the older guys teaching them so that they don't have to make those mistakes, and then they're getting to watch what it looks like to operate on a high level on a daily basis. Max is coming out of IMG Academy. I've met somebody else that's also come out of there. The biggest thing I can say about that is that it’s almost like a preparatory school for college. He’s extremely mature. Coming into college, you would never guess that he's 17 years old. He’s the first kid I've ever had come into college early, needing to step into this environment. You want to talk about preparation? The day he stepped on campus, he asked the right questions. He's got the right routines. He's open to conversation. He asks you to critique the things that he's already doing and to make adjustments to fit more of what he needs at a higher level and to continue to advance his game. If we've got weights at 7:30 or 8:30 in the morning, he's in the building 30 to 45 minutes before. He's going through a whole activation, preparatory routine on top of what we're going to go into, and then he does the same thing for practice. The questions he asks are extremely intentional. He has a very good understanding of his body. He's got really good body awareness, which that's the one thing that I think you're hunting as a coach. You're trying to pick that up through watching them, you're trying to pick them up at the high school level through talking to people, but really those are the guys that survive and play at a really high level for a long time.
- The catchers have the feel, and they have the awareness to be able to go make that adjustment. Kaufer shows a really high level of aptitude. He asks the right questions. He's been a great teammate. If anything, him inserting himself with JD Gregson and Hank Bard, I think it just adds another element for that position in terms of competition on a daily basis. You got three guys that are competing, chomping at the bit. Whenever you have to show up to practice and really compete at a high level, it makes the team better. It makes everybody at that position better. Max has been really fun to coach. He's been well-coached in terms of my area. Same thing with him, I think going down the road in the future. One of the big areas with him is going to be more of the dynamic parts.
- Kaufer has got to be physical, and he does a good job with that, and he's got to be physical. If he can run well, that's a plus for that position. We're never going to make him an elite runner, but we want to make him better at some of those dynamic pieces. Sometimes that you see guys coming in from high school, they've spent a ton of time in the weight room in absence of a lot of those other pieces. You don't ever want the absence, right? You can have both. You can have only the dynamic part. You don't want to just be only weight room where you're not adding a lot of that dynamic portion in outside, so that'll be a big focus for him. He's a lot like Jace. I would consider them intermediate lifters as freshmen coming into college, where I would consider most lifters beginners. They're riding that beginner-intermediate line even going in their sophomore year. Both of them will advance in our program very quickly.
- We have a system called the Catapult System, which really allows me to manage our position players at a really high level. In season, the biggest thing is consistency. Obviously, our pitchers are on a certain lifting schedule as they move throughout the week. Our relievers are on a certain lifting schedule as they move throughout the week. Our position players are on a certain lifting schedule as they move throughout the week. With position players, it's really unique in terms of we basically have subsystems with those guys. Our everyday players, we have our guys that are spot players, and then we have our guys that are obviously redshirting. They're on different programs.
- We don't want to miss an area of opportunity to continue a little bit more aggressive development with guys. If they come out of their freshman year and they haven't played as much, let's not miss that window of development so that the next year we're actually coming in at a much higher level. We use a little bit of a system called autoregulation with guys, and we will do jump testing once a month on the force plate with our guys. We look at our Catapult data with those guys as well to formulate. We have ways that we adjust using velocity in our program to check mark. Are guys moving certain loads at the speeds that they should be moving them at? We have ways to adjust our program. If it's an everyday starter, we have a system where we can cut reps. We can cut intensity. The biggest thing for me in season is I try not to cut intensity. The one thing that induces the most fatigue is volume, so my main objective in season is to stimulate, not annihilate. I need to make sure I'm trying to give coach the most minimal fatigued group I can.
- Any coach in the country will tell you that day one's the best you're going to feel. After that, you have to be great at playing at whatever. That's 80, 85, 90 percent as you move throughout the year. The biggest area for me that really draws fatigue is volume. You have to keep intensity up, so what we generally do with our guys is we cut our overall volume. If you're a three-day lifting team in the off-season, you just simply cut a day out, or you take that third day and make it more of a primer-type day. We typically live with most of our guys between 75-90 percent. More of that emotional physical player might live more between 70-85 percent. It's not necessarily a minimal, but it's a very optimal volume for those guys. Low rep range, we're moving the bar with intent. We're making sure certain bar speeds are staying on the bar as they move the bar. Basically, a system of checks and balances as we move throughout the year to keep those guys up and where we need to be.
- Where people go wrong is the need to be consistent. It doesn't take much to be consistent. If you get in the weight room twice a week, it can be very minimal. You get in the weight room one day. It's a trap bar deadlift. It's a back exercise. It's a core exercise. You get in the weight room the next day, it's whatever pressing variation you want. It's a hamstring or a single-leg variation. Another core rotator cuff variation, and get out of there. At the end of the day, did you do everything you want? Probably not, but you got your big rocks done. As long as you're consistent with that, if you're playing a 20 or 24-week season and you're getting two, if not three, lifts a week, you've done a pretty good job. You're definitely going to start off after that high school season or after that college season in a much better boat than not having done anything over that last 20 to 24 weeks. You're looking at anywhere from 40 to 60 lifts that you totally just missed. At some point early on, you'll ride well, but then you just start to drop off. It's Groundhogs Day. Every year you're trying to repeat, and you're trying to improve these guys, and it's like you're starting right over basically where you left off. For us, we need to continue to try to develop these guys as we move through the in-season period, but we keep the main thing the main thing, which is on-field performance. We need to make sure that our program in spring is specifically built around optimizing their performance on every Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
