Now ranked No. 3 in the nation ahead of this weekend's trip to Oxford, the Fightin' Texas Aggies are in the middle of a race for the SEC West division title. On Thursday morning, Jim Schlossnagle joined TexAgs to look ahead to a three-game set with Ole Miss.
Key notes from Jim Schlossnagle interview
- I’m good. I’m ready to get to Oxford this weekend and play some baseball.
- I’m so proud of our team for going 25-0 in non-conference play. It’s not normal. It’s very abnormal to win all of those games. If you know anything about baseball, it’s not built for that, especially with 18-22 year olds. It’s very mature. There is nothing more immature than coming off an SEC weekend and playing poorly in the midweek. We have a good team. You don’t win all of those games without good players or depth of pitching. Young players don’t want to hear what you say, but they want to play. If I tell someone to hang in there, they might have a million other people telling them the opposite. We just tried to get as many people opportunities.
- Weston Moss did a great job against Rice. I want to get Travis Chestnut more at-bats, but I really wanted to start Jack Bell. He’s a great player. For the midweek games, you want to get Bell a start, but on the other hand, you want Chestnut to stay in rhythm. We did both. We wanted to win the game, so we started Jackson Appel. Still, we wanted to get him off his feet.
- A lot of guys threw well against Rice. Brad Rudis is working on some things. We didn’t have to use Kaiden Wilson or any of the lefties, which is huge this weekend because Ole Miss has a hitter that can change a game with one swing in Andrew Fischer.
- The home run Moss gave up wasn’t hit that hard, but it just got up into the wind. I thought he did great. He just needs to get more physical this offseason.
- The plan this weekend is to pitch Ryan Prager on Friday and Justin Lamkin on Saturday. We had a good session with Lamkin and Tanner Jones yesterday, and we’ve talked about cheating vs. gamesmanship. If we’re tipping pitches to the other team, that’s our fault. I know they had the pitches when Jones was pitching vs. Georgia. I think Jones will start on Sunday, but he might be able to come out of the bullpen.
- What we did yesterday was putting video on them and our own coaches on them. The No. 1 thing I cannot stand on a team or coaching staff is ego. I want players to have ego between the lines, but when we’re trying to work cohesively, if Michael Earley sees something in a pitcher that could make him better, Max Weiner can’t be offended by that. And vice versa. They’re not offended by that. The general fan may notice a few things differently. In today’s world, with advanced video and cameras everywhere, there are more ways to figure things out. Ten years ago, I couldn’t sit and watch all of Ole Miss’ pitchers like I did yesterday.
- As a team, we got way out of character against LSU. We want to swing at strikes and take the balls. The teams that do the most damage swing the least, and their chase rates are low. LSU pitched us differently than anybody else has. They threw a lot of off-speed pitches and landed them. Our guys pressed, and Braden Montgomery was at the top of that list. That’s just baseball, and we were still a swing or two from winning those games. Montgomery was better on Tuesday. If we’re sitting here and our biggest worry is Montgomery, the Aggies are going to be just fine.
- I’m really proud of Jace LaViolette. He has handled left-handed pitching better, which was a problem when he first got here. He has always been a great guy and a great teammate. He’s fully invested in the team’s success. He’s one of the loudest voices in the dugout. He’s a leader and a great defender in the outfield. He has a heck of a future ahead of him if he can stay healthy.
- Ted Burton is doing better, but I’m not ready to say. I think he’ll play this weekend, but what day? I don’t know. It could be Friday. We haven’t pushed him yet, so it will be a game-time decision. I’m not risking the postseason with him. The day that you tell me you’re back to 100 percent, I’ll usually wait another day. The thing you need from a competitive player is them being honest with you. Kaeden Kent played awesome. Blake Binderup is still there too. We can’t mortgage the future for one game.
- Kent is a popular guy. He’s so versatile. Availability and versatility are huge on a baseball field. He has played all four infield spots and played left field for us last year. He has handled left-handed pitching better. He has taken his walks. He is coming around. He’s so competitive that it hurts him early in the count. He’s fun to coach, and our relationship has evolved. He has such tremendous value, even when he’s not playing, because he provides a coach so much. Right now, Jett Johnston is the fourth outfielder, so having Kent allows you to maybe move Chestnut to the outfield.
- Weiner has done a great job with Rudis. He has challenged him to throw harder. Give more effort. Not that he’s not, but 87-88 mph is not going to get it done in this league from where you throw from. He has done that. The other night, Weiner is tinkering with Rudis throwing even lower, sort of like Brock Peery. You have to be careful with tinkering with things in games. Rudis has good feel for the ball. He adds great value to a team and could pitch in almost every game.
- Ole Miss has great pitching. I watched all 15 innings last night. Guys were throwing 95-97 with old-school, power breaking balls. Their pitching is better than the numbers indicate. They have Ethan Lege, and he broke his thumb vs. Mississippi State. He may or may not play this weekend. Fischer, a transfer from Duke, is up to almost 20 homers now. You have to be mindful of where he is to keep him from doing big damage.
- Normally the atmosphere in Oxford is awesome. It’s graduation weekend up there. Their team hasn’t had the season they expected. I’m not sure if the fans will show up, but I still expect it to be really good.
- It’s going to be a high of like 70, and tomorrow night’s game could be in the 50s. The wind looks to be out of the north, which I am assuming blows in or across the field. It won’t be like here.
- With regards to holding back a pitcher, we’re still playing for a lot. We have to play this weekend as normal. If the last two regular-season weekends go well, then we’d consider it for the conference tournament to give us our best shot moving forward into the NCAA Tournament.
