Feb. 19, 2008
For the past couple weeks, UABsports.com has been previewing the 2008 UAB baseball team. Opening day is this Friday when the Blazers host the Ball State Cardinals at 3:00 p.m. at Young Memorial Field. Last Thursday, we previewed the Blazer pitchers and now today, we sit down with UAB pitching coach Doug Kovash to take a closer look at the Blazer arms. On Wednesday, we'll sit down with hitting coach Perry Roth to examine the UAB offense.
UABsports.com: What's your assessment of the development of the staff throughout the 2007 season?
Doug Kovash: Over the course of the season I thought we had a number of pitchers who improved and did a good job late in the year. Of course, two of those guys are no longer here. Grant Addison got some good starts late in the year and then Kasey Croft ended up pitching a very valuable role so really we need to find those two people for this year. That's been one of my goals, to make sure that we've found a little more solidified Sunday starter and find some more consistency in the middle of the week and find some relievers that do a good job.
UABsports: What improvements do you see in the returning pitchers?
DK: Maybe just an extra year under their belts, the extra year of experience. We threw a number of those guys to the wolves last year. Mitch Kloskowski went from throwing a third of an inning (in 2006) to throwing 80-plus innings (in 2007) and ended up being our Friday night guy. If you would've asked me a year ago, he wasn't even in the mix. Shay Crawford, as a true freshman, we gave 13 starts and the opportunity to pitch at Alabama and Arizona State so he really had to learn by fire. He's a much better pitcher now because of that. Because he has those innings under his belt and is a year more mature, he's a different pitcher and I anticipate him doing some great things. There were a lot of things from last year that kind of moved guys forward and they're all back other than Croft and Addison.
UABsports: What made
Mitch Kloskowski so tough last season?
DK: I think it was a team thing as opposed to him. But to give credit to Mitch, the biggest thing would be that for the most part, he went five to seven innings and kept pitching and kept us in games. He pitches with a unique delivery, which is deceptive to hitters and he just kept us in games. Even if he gets hit a little bit, his strike percentages are high and he just continues to attack the strike zone. I always think that pitchers like that will give you at least an opportunity to be in the game if your offense is having a decent day.
UABsports: What impact will the newcomers have in the rotation?
DK: We recruited four in particular and that would be the two junior college guys, Beau Pender and Johnny Volk, and the two freshmen, Trey Vice out of Westbrook Christian and Blake Huddleston. I would say all four of those guys are going to see opportunities. Vice has a tremendous left arm and had a ton of strikeouts in high school, but is still learning the transition to the college game and the college hitters and when he figures it all out, he has a chance to be really good. Blake is an outstanding competitor who keeps the ball at the knees and it runs in on most hitters. He's got a real good sense of composure and poise. All four of those guys should contribute.
UABsports: What have been your points of emphasis in looking to improve?
DK: We want to compete and attack the strike zone. We'd like to be able to get ahead and that would be not only first pitch strikes but also winning the first three pitches. I'd like to see guys get batters out within three pitches so that we aren't drawing long pitch counts, that's what happened to us a lot last year.
UABsports: Is there one pitcher who you are looking at to fill the closer role?
DK: You know the guy who ended up closing for us last year was Brandon Wallace, but he also happens to be one our better starters, so it's kind of tough. I would say that about most of our better pitchers, that it's a staff that's deeper and better and we have guys with better stuff. I'm not sure that we've defined who will be in that particular role. I do like three guys who I think have great closing stuff and that would be Kyle Roberson who has a really good arm and has a really good strikeout pitch or two. Beau Pender and Johnny Volk have that same ability. Like I said before, those are three guys who could start for us for any of the five games during the week so we're trying to play with it and see what will help the team the most.
