Sept. 28, 2004
The Notre Dame baseball team’s 2004 fall season is nearing its end and assistant coach David Grewe has stopped by to provide an update on the Irish position players. His counterpart Terry Rooney also has filed a report on the Notre Dame pitchers, to be posted tomorrow on und.com.
Q: – You suddenly have a very veteran group of outfielders who can impact the game all over the field. How are they progressing?
A: – “Craig Cooper has a good approach this fall in terms of his work ethic. One of the big things for Cooper is to strive to be the best player he can be by game one. He has done a good job this fall getting on base and stealing bases, which is going to be a big priority for him. He is getting good jump off pitchers. Defensively, he has been playing all three positions and has been one of our best defensive outfielders. Cooper really has to study pitchers well and learn how they are going to pitch him. He needs to have a plan of attack for every at-bat because teams are going to mix a lot of pitches when facing him. He may bat higher in the lineup this season and that means seeing some tougher pitching. He just has to build on what he did last year, things like sitting on offspeed pitches. He has to maintain his focus and mental toughness. And he will be a key guy getting on base any way he can. He also will need to be a big leader for us and be a tougher situational hitter. All of those things are within his grasp and it could be a big year for Craig.
“Cody Rizzo has taken more of a leadership and vocal role this fall. He is swinging the bat well and is working to hit the ball away more consistently and that will be a key thing for him. His wrist injury was such a tough injury for him last season. It is such a difficult thing to hit with a hand injury. It impacted his swing and he couldn’t generate good batspeed. We’ve even worked him in a little bit at third base knowing that he could be a utility type of player. He has made some more great plays out in right field and that clearly is his best defensive position. He has that plus arm from the outfield and has the best outfield arm on the team.
“Steve Andres is out most polished hitter. His eye, his confidence, it all goes into him being a complete hitter and he has really swung the bat well this fall. We have done some batting practice with him where we move the mound and screen and throw to him from a shortstop position so all the balls are thrown away. It’s called offset BP and he has done a tremendous job in working to hit the ball the other way. He’s always had great pull power but this should help him be a higher average and multi-dimensional hitter. He is doing well defensively in left field and also has been catching a lot and will serve as a backup behind the plate, where he will play a key role.
“Alex Nettey really has emerged into a great defensive outfielder. He has made some unbelievable plays that not many college players will make. That’s a tribute to his work chasing down balls in batting practice and his desire to be a great defensive player. He is arguably our best defensive centerfielder. He has made some Willy Mays over-the-head catches running into the fence. He has made some diving catches. He works hard every day in batting practice. He is trying to switch hit and his lefthanded stroke is more of a flat linedrive stroke. He really has solidified his righthanded up-the-middle, opposite away approach but at the same time he has shown the ability to turn on some inside pitches with pull power. His offseason work is going to be crucial and he has to become more of a team hitter by bunting, moving the runner over, slapping the ball down from the left side and beating it out.
“Danny Dressman is fighting for a spot and was hitting very well early in the fall. He is another guy that can help us from that left side and has shown good ability in the outfield. Danny had a good summer playing in the Clark-Griffith League and showed at times during his freshman season that he can help us in a number of ways. He is a very instinctive outfielder and using the whole field as a batter. His bunting also has improved and we hope he can help us in a number of ways this season.
“I think our overall outfield defense has a chance to be pretty darn good. If guys emerge and each has strong overall productivity.”
Q: – How does your offensive philosophy change this season, with so many more lefthanded batters in the mix?
“Ideally, you would love to take away a pitcher’s strength and to have more of a balanced lineup will be fun for Paul (Mainieri) to mix things up like that. But we have some power from the right side with Cooper and Bransfield, Dury is a switch-hitter, Nettey is a potential switch-hitter and we have two freshman infielders who have improved things from the left side. We have a little different look and this fall has been good to see some things out of our hitters because we have a great challenge ahead of us because we are going to be more of a scrappy team. We want the power guys to be more consistent hitters.”
“We made some big strides last year as an offense, with the team’s slugging percentage going up 50 points from the previous season (.430 to .480) while the team on-base percentage was above .400 (.407), which is outstanding. Our walks went from 204 to 275 and the home runs more than doubled from 31 to 69. We were very happy last year with our approach and how we attacked pitchers. Early in games, we attacked the baseball and put pressure on the opponents. And that just affects the pitcher’s mindset and gets him away from his game. One of the greatest things we did last year was we changed out hitting approach every at-bat and that made us so hard to pitch against. We had multiple baserunners per inning and clutch hitting and when you combine that you’re going to have a good offensive club. Any offensive club can do that and I hope this team does that.”
Q: – Your infield is without a couple of injured standouts in shortstop Greg Lopez and corner man Matt Edwards but tell us about the others, namely the three freshmen.
A: – “Our infield situation this fall is very unique because of Lopez and Edwards not playing, two returning starters out with injuries this fall. We’ve been in this situation and it doesn’t worry us but it kind of skews the fall and limits what combinations you can throw out there. But our three incoming freshman infielders have looked great and all are vying for a spot.
“Brett Lilley has shown some tremendous defense and great ability to control the bat with gap power and the ability to bunt. He has the potential to be a big-time player at Notre Dame.
“Ross Brezovsky was a second-team all-state player in Florida and is one of the best freshman in the country this year. He is a solid, polished hitter. He could emerge as the future shortstop in this program. We also are working him out at third base, much like we did with Lopez as a freshman. Ross brings a lot of energy and a lefthanded bat with a really good stroke. He and Lilley are about the same size but Ross plays more of a big-man’s game. He has a plus-arm at shortstop and has great ability to throw from the left side of the infield.
“We are very impressed with Tony Langford’s freedom as a hitter. It isn’t pretty but he is a free-swinging guy who gets his money’s worth, hits the ball to different fields and just gets his hacks in. He could be a great boost to the lineup from the right side and we have been looking at him at third base. Of course, he also has great promise on the mound so we are very excited about him.
“Mike Dury is just a sophomore but he basically is one of the oldest guys out there in the infield right now. He has had a decent fall at first base and at the plate. He is getting better as a hitter but he needs to become a middle-of-the-order threat guy. His ability to hit .350 and put up some home runs is going to be crucial to our offensive production. He also is working on becoming a better defensive first baseman. He also needs to be a very confident and gritty player. He has to win the battle with the pitcher, put balls in play with two strikes but early in the at-bat swing the ball with force.”
Q: – Finally, the performance of your catchers could be a big key to the season. Discuss those players, along with some of the other DH candidates.
A: – “There is a huge challenge ahead for Sean Gaston, to really mature as a sophomore in his development as a player, not just as a catcher but as a leader. It’s his chance to step it up as a vocal leader. We want him to have undying confidence and take charge of the infield and those pitchers need to have confidence in him. He’s a great catch-and-throw defensive catcher but he has a lot of areas to improve. He needs to work on his receiving, his footwork and transfer to throw. We want Sean to become more of an athletic catcher and athletic hitter. He is very fundamental right now. The harder Sean works, the better he becomes and the more confidence he has. And your catcher has to be a leader. The mononucleosis limited Sean’s game experience and development last spring but now he has to make up for it.
“In terms of our depth at the catcher position, our workouts with Gaston, Andres, Bransfield and Mainieri are going to be a consistent thing. We are going to a lot of offseason workouts with those guys because it has to become consistent and natural. Javi Sanchez was not a good catcher but he worked hard at it and got better and better. It takes time.
“If Matt Bransfield has the desire to become a good catcher, he will. He understands if and can do it but it will take an offseason to work on it. He never has had the time to focus on it and work on it like we did with Javi. Matt has been scorching the ball once again this fall and he is going to be a good hitter for us this year while being a DH, playing first, catching, doing whatever it takes.
“When Brent Weiss makes contact with the ball, he hits it really hard and he hits with force. He needs to lower his strikeout ratio and put the ball in play with two strikes but he is going to be in the mix at that DH spot.
“Nick Mainieri is working hard to contribute in every way he can. He is so key to us in helping our pitchers develop. He has a great attitude and understands his role on the team. He has been really important these past two falls and was crucial to us last spring in knowing that we had a guy that could go down to the bullpen and warm guys up. He knows the starters’ routine and knows how long it takes for a relief guy to warm up, because we don’t have a coach going down there every time.”