[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Whole Hog Sports podcast. And now, here's your host, Matt Jones.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Hey. Today's baseball coverage is brought to you by H and R Tire and Auto. They're a third generation family owned business that's been serving northwest Arkansas since 1976. Just like great baseball programs, H and R is built on consistency, trust and doing things the right way. No shortcuts, no gimmicks. Hey, welcome in to this new baseball set we've built here at our studio. Bubba Carpenter here. We're going to talk Razorback baseball. They start the season Friday down in Arlington, Texas against Oklahoma State. Going to be a 7 o' clock first pitch. They'll also play TCU, Texas Tech and Tarleton State while they're in Arlington. But before we talk about this year's team, I want to take a step back because tomorrow your coach, Norm de Bruyne is going to go into the College Baseball hall of Fame. I've been writing this series of stories about Norm's career on our website.
And so I feel like I have gotten a greater appreciation for, for what he did for the program.
But like for you guys who played for him, to see him go into the hall of Fame and get this kind of recognition this week, what's that mean?
[00:01:08] Speaker A: It's well deserved. It's about time. I mean, the guy's a legend, Matt. It's just, you know, you think of where the program started, everyone's heard all the stories about, you start out practicing at the fairgrounds, just, you know, from there, you know, the Legion Field into George Cole Field, just the way he built the program.
And I, you know, I know he gets a lot of credit, but I feel like there's a lot more credit due to everything he did back in the day just to build this program up. And you know, some of the guys that came way before me that, that helped establish things and you don't, you don't see much about those guys. I love the articles you've been writing though. Those are awesome.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: It's been a lot of fun talking to those guys.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: It tells the story and anytime a group of those guys get together, it's so much fun. I just love listening to their stories.
Guys that played before me and then guys that are in my group, we're on group text and we're constantly talking about Norm de Bryan and just the, not just the baseball part of Norm de Bryan, the way he affected our lives, like on a personal basis. I mean, he's just, he's one of a Kind.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: One of the things that has struck me as I've done all this is, yeah, I called.
Like, I called Brent Burch, for example, somebody you played with. And, yeah, I talked to coach this morning, or, you know, I talked to somebody. Yeah, I talked to coach last week, or I'm going to meet up with him next week, or several people. Scott Tabor has bought, I think, like one or two tables at the College Baseball hall of Fame induction ceremony where there's several of the players who are going to sit there and go. And I know in talking to other ones, you know, they want to. They're trying to get up there, too. It's. You think about 33 years.
There's 30, 40 players on the team every year. Yeah, it's thousands of players. It seems like he stays in contact with so many of them. I kind of wonder how he has time to sleep.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: I don't know how he does it, because I can say that him. And I'll text, you know, a couple times a month at least, or we'll talk, or we'll see each other out and we'll talk for a minute, and then the next week, I'll get a phone call from him or I'll call him. I mean, I don't know how he has enough time to stay in touch with that many players, but he does it. And you'll never hear a bad word about him. I heard, you know, at the. At the. The thing y' all did, the whole Hawk sports where you honest him. Yeah. Last week, Pagnazi was talking about it, and he said something to the effect of, if you hear anyone say. If you ever hear anyone say something bad about Norman o', Brien, get away from that person, you know, And I thought that was real telling. And it's. It's the way we all feel about it.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: I mean. But, you know, it's been close. 30 years since he. I mean, or more than 30 years in some cases. It's been 50 years since he coached guys.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: And for them to keep that level of communication with him, I don't know. To me, that that's just really striking. And I think it says something about the level of influence that he had on his players.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, I guess it was a couple years ago. There were some of the guys from the 79 team down in one of the suites, and he called me before the game or texted me, asked me to come down there and meet him and just wanted me to meet some of the guys from the 79 team. It was so Much fun meeting those guys because that was. Those guys were. They were studs and I don't know, it was just fun. I just, I love the way. I love the, the way he interacts with his players even to this day. I mean, it's incredible.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Well, he was so influential in getting Bomb Stadium built. Bomb Walker Stadium. Now, in looking all this up, one thing I found. They're gonna have Norm de Bryan Knight against Florida, the series opener in March. That'll be the 1000th baseball game at Baum Walker Stadium. How appropriate is that?
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Wow, that's. That's crazy. So that's good research on your part. I didn't know that.
I want one of those jerseys, though. I've seen that jersey.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Everybody wants one. Yeah.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: You're gonna have trouble getting it.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know who I talk, you.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Know, but you need to go talk to somebody over there who's in, like, marketing and merchandise and apparel.
They're sitting on a gold mine. There are a lot of people who want those hats to those seven, like, late 70s, early 80s era throwback hats they're wearing.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: Yeah, those are sweet.
Yeah. We got to make some calls. There we go. Get that done. I'll wear it. I'll wear it. On the podcast.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Let's. Let's talk about this year's team. They announced that they're going to start Gabe Gackle Friday, Hunter Deetz Saturday, and Colin Fisher on Sunday against Texas Tech.
He didn't. And he, being Dave Van Horn, did not say who he's going to start on Monday. He said, we know. We're just not announcing that yet. We think it's going to be Peyton Lee. Payton Lee had an outstanding performance last week over at the stadium in that scrimmage. You know, I went through and I charted his first three innings. His fourth inning kind of got away from him a little bit. There was an error back behind him. And some things that, you know, I mean, it can throw you off when you're on the mound. But those first three innings, the slider that he was throwing was unbelievable. And it was still good in the fourth inning. It just wasn't as sharp. And, you know, that makes sense. You're early in the season, you're building up your pitch count and whatnot. But I think I had in his first 22 sliders that he threw, 17 were for strikes, 12 were swung at and seven were swings and misses. It was really impressive what he was doing with that pitch.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And he does not look like a freshman out there on the mountain, big body kid, loose arm. I mean, it's like an easy 93, 95.
I want to say maybe he topped out 94 that day, but it was still 93, 94. Consistently locating his fastball. I thought his changeup was good. Good arm action on the changeup, but the slider seems to be the pitch he really has confidence with.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: He said it's his bread and butter.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: His go to pitch, so. And it. It showed. I mean, you. You watch the first six batters, five of them struck out, one had soft contact, and I mean, it was. It's pretty dominant stuff. So, yeah, he could be the guy, probably most likely. But, you know, if they got in a jam, they may bring him in on the weekend. You never know.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: And the soft contact was by Ryder Helfrick, who doesn't make a whole lot of soft contact.
Yeah, it was impressive. And you know what, what stands out to me is that you had Gackel and Fisher and Dietz. They were throwing against the lineup of basically backups, guys who are not going to be the projected starters. That doesn't mean that some of them won't end up in the starting lineup. It just means this first weekend, most likely, they're not going to be there. And I understand why they do that. People ask, why don't they have Gackle throw against Kuhio Aloy and Ryder Helford? But you also, and I think this is something that happens is that.
And maybe gets overlooked a little bit. You want to be able to have that defensive feel with your pitchers. Right. And I think a lot of times that gets overlooked.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: I think so. It's, you know, holding runners on, maybe infielders, doing, you know, open glove picks, stuff like that. There's a lot of things that go, you know, bunk coverages. There's so many reasons why you want that starting pitcher out there with the defense that he's going to be working with.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: So I think there's a lot more to it than just getting on the mound and throwing. Throwing the ball over the plate.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: But the point I was. Where I was going with that was that Peyton Lee, all these strikeouts and all this success was coming against that lineup of Micah New and Nolan Sousa, Ryder Helfrich, Cam Kozal, who, by the way, we're supposed to call Camden this year. Have you gotten that note?
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah, someone told me in the booth that day. I want to say it was Oliver maybe told me.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it always throws me off when you get to know somebody and they're like, no, it'd Be like if.
What's your Charles, Right, Charles. What if we started calling you Charles?
[00:08:32] Speaker A: My mom is the only person that would call me Charles back in the day. And it's when she was mad at me. So I knew I was in Charles. Yeah. Camden. If I change his contact in my phone to Camden so I can remember that, I'll ask him about it.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: A quick reminder, our baseball segment powered by H and R Tire and auto. If you're heading to games, traveling for tournaments, or just putting serious miles on your vehicle this season, their team handles everything from tires and alignments to brakes and routine maintenance with honest service and no unnecessary upsells H and R tire. But, you know, it was this really good lineup of players that he was or of hitters that Peyton Lee was doing that against.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: He looked good.
You know, there's a lot of freshmen, though, and we can talk about them here in a little bit, but there's some guys I've been really impressed with that they brought in this year, some freshman arms that I think are going to get a lot of innings this year for us.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: You saw Gabe Gackel pitch the other day, so you weren't there when Dietz pitched, but you did see Gackel and you did see Fischer. What did you think of them?
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Thought they were both really good.
You know, bad day to pitch on Friday with the wind blowing out. I thought they both did a good job.
Gacko looks like Gacko. His Velo's not where it's going to be Friday night, but it's, you know, he's, he knows how to pitch. I was really impressed with Colin Fisher.
Change up. Looked good, threw a lot of really good breaking balls. You know, I think of a few at bats where like a, like a Zach Stewart, you know, and he kind of felt bad for him because he threw some nasty sliders to Zach. I want to say there were two at bats in a row. It might have been six sliders. I apologize to Zach if I'm wrong on that. I know one at bat. It was three sliders.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Yeah, three straight swinging sliders is what I've written down here.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: And, you know, and he wasn't really close. And I'm not bashing on Zach Stewart. He's. But to make a veteran guy look like that, you know, it's. It's a special pitch and he had that working for him. And you know what I like about Colin and I've talked to. I've talked to Matt Hobbs about it. You know, I think he calls him like a Throwback type pitcher, you know, kind of like, you know, he's not, he's not an upper 90s guy. He's a guy that just throws. And you know, in today's game everyone wants to ride the fastball at the top of the zone. He uses that two seam fastball, that sinker at the bottom of the zone. He can tunnel that slider off of that and then come back with a change up. I mean he's just got, plus he's, he's got that cutter now, which is going to be a game changer for him. I don't know if he threw it much last year or not, but the cutter's a nasty pitch. So I mean he's got really got four pitches he can throw. And what I love about him is he throws strikes and I know, I know DVH and Hobbs both love that.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: It was slider, slider, slider, swinging on all three for Stewart. And then the next at bat was a fastball looking, and then he went back to the slider, swinging, swinging. So he reminds me, Fisher does. Tell me if I'm wrong. Does he not remind you a little bit of a left handed Connor Noland?
[00:11:19] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's a good, that's a good comparison.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: Connor had better velocity toward the end than Fischer does. But like, and you go back to throwback and I think one of the pitchers who Matt Hobbs has used in comparison with Colin has been Casey Murphy who was here on that 2018 team.
But like their actual, and this isn't to degrade anybody else, but like they're pitchers, like they actually know how to pitch. They don't have this 97, 98 mile an hour fastball that they can blow by everybody. And so they really have to learn how to pitch to be effective.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Yeah, and, and that's, that's kind of a, I hate to call it a lost art, but there's a lot of guys, yeah, I mean a lot of guys, they come up just seeing how hard they can throw. Everything is max effort, you know, and it's, you know, and you see it on the major league side. You talk to former major league guys and a lot of them are disgusted with the way Major League baseball's kind of turned. It's all about max effort. Let's see how hard I can throw it. They've lost the pitch ability part of it. And I think that's another thing that Hobbs and DJ and Zach, they do a really good job of teaching these guys. They all have elite stuff, but they teach them how to use it. And I think they're able to use all that technology to teach them how to shape pitches and get the most out of what they have. But it's fun for me. I love watching a guy like Colin pitch because he really does pitch, and it's fun.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: Hey, we want to tell you that our podcast is brought to you by Southern Loft. They believe your home should reflect your unique personality. That's why they offer a wide variety of stylish furniture pieces that are perfect for any taste. Or whether you're looking for a new sofa for your living room or a sleek dining room table, they have just what you need. So when you look for that piece of furniture that reflects your southern loft, come to 3155 North College Avenue in Fayetteville or call 479-856-6100. You look at the lineup, we think we know what the lineup's going to look like this weekend in Arlington. You never know. And it could change, you know, I mean, you could have a bad game one day and maybe you have something different on the next. But you're looking at Riderhelf catcher Reece Robinette at first, Camden Kozel at second base, Carson Brumbaugh at short, TJ Pompey at third, probably Damian Ruiz in left. Although I think that there's still a possibility that Christian Turner could get some playing time there this weekend. Center field, Mike Anu, who I've been really impressed with, and then right field. This is, this is like the talking point after the weekend. I mean, Kahi Olloy had a lot of trouble defensively, and I thought it was interesting. When Van Horn was talking with the reporters this morning, he said, Dominic Fletcher has actually, and for people who don't know this, a lot of these guys who are in pro ball, whether they're in the majors or the minors, a lot of them come back here to Fayetteville and they train during the off season. They live here in Fayetteville. They go work out over at the facility. I think they've even got their own locker room, pro locker room at the Hunt Center. So he said that. And I found this interesting. Dominic Fletcher has been working with Kahiwa Loy the last couple of days defensively because Cohio had a really rough weekend and a lot of errors, misplayed some other balls that weren't necessarily errors. I think I counted there five balls in the air and four of them, you could potentially say that he misplayed one of them was kind of a tough ball On a foul ball down in the corner in right field and foul ground. But you played outfield before.
It's tough. Number one, I think it's very tough when you're making that transition.
Number two, I would think that it's even more difficult when you can't get outside. You know, they've been cooped up here for quite a while up until this week.
What are your thoughts on how Kehila looks and what does he need to do to get better in right field?
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Well, I played mostly right field and first base, got into pro ball, played a lot of center. I realized that center is actually way easier to play.
You don't have to be super fast, you just got to get jumps. But I think when it comes to keel, I think it's one of those things, you boot a ball and then you start thinking about it, another ball gets hit to you. And Willie Randolph told me a long time ago in spring training talking about relaxing your eyes. Because you think about it, they always talk about the high sky in spring training. Ball goes up, it's at you and you're in the outfield. Everyone in the ballpark sees it but you, because you're tense and you're like looking for the ball. You relax your eyes, you see the ball. But I see Cahill. You people don't realize how much goes into being a good outfielder. Matt, like right field is a pretty easy place to play in Vaughn Walker. Left field's harder. You get the crosswind. Center field's not hard at all.
Right field's. Right field's pretty easy. But there's so many things, you know, one of the balls he misplayed was a ball off a right handed bat. He drop step with his right foot.
You got to know before the ball's hit, if it's hit right at me. I drop stuff with my left. It's going to slice to the line. Off a right handed bat, he didn't do that. You know, he drop stepped and then he got turned around. If you know, and I think Carson Willis hit that ball.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: And that's actually a simple play. You drop stuff with your left foot, take three steps and it's an easy catch over the shoulder.
You know, there's, there's so many things that you got to know your hitter, you got to know your pitcher.
When I played right field, I mean, first of all, you know that righty's balls are going to slice to the line.
Lefties are, lefties are a little bit harder actually because they're hit at you you don't know if they're backspun or if they're hooked. But a lot of it is knowing your hitter. You know, obviously, if a rider Helfer reaches out there, and I talk about posture with hitter a lot, if he loses posture and reaches for a ball, his ball's going to come off the bat different than, like, you know, maybe a little freshman. That's not as strong. You got to know who's hitting first.
You know your pitcher on the mound. You got to know the wind.
The Hunt center knocks down a lot of the wind. So in the outfield, you don't feel the wind. You got to know what's happening above, what's really happening above you, because you don't feel it because of the Hunt Center. So there's so many things you got to know before the pitch is even thrown.
And to me, every pitch that goes into the zone, you track it into the zone. And that's kind of your answer coming back out at you. And I think all that's done. We always talk about good infielders create their own hop. They know where they're going before the ball's hit. It's the same with the outfielder. Every pitch is different, every hitter is different. And a lot of it comes down to reading the ball off the bat, knowing who's at the plate, knowing who's pitching. And that first step is key. You don't have to be super fast. Gotta have a good first step. And that's where Kuhil is going to be fine. He's athletic.
I think he'll figure it out. It's just, you know, it's a learning curve right now for him, and being inside for a couple weeks probably didn't help.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: I thought it well, and I was going to make that point because this has come from our Hogs Illustrated baseball preview.
I talked to all the coaches and get their analysis of the players, and I thought it was interesting. What Nate Thompson, who coaches the outfielders, he said, I think he's much improved defensively. He said, I felt like toward the end of the fall, he was starting like he had control of everything and was trying to make routine plays look routine and feel routine. He goes on to say that he doesn't know why he can't be an average defender at least. And, you know, then talks about his arm strength. He's a former pitcher. We saw that a couple of times on one of the errors.
He actually picks the ball up and throws the guy out at second base. I mean, that. That shows you the arm strength and even to a certain degree, the accuracy that he has. But. But that whole piece of. And it's not just not being outside.
I mean, you think about last summer. They sent him up to the Cape Cod League and they want him to work on his outfield defense. Well, he goes to the Home Run Derby at the Cape Cod League and wins it, but he hurts his wrist swinging away in like extra innings. And then he comes back here and I think he had mono. I think he's dealt with the flu at some point in time.
Even that first practice when they were able to get outside, he had a wisdom tooth or some wisdom teeth pulled. I mean, this guy's been through it. And I think that, you know, you couple that with the fact that they haven't been outside, maybe that is why you see a lot of rustiness, if that is indeed what it was last weekend.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I think for a guy learning new position, I think that's got a lot to do with it.
But you know what? You hit a ball 379ft, you can.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: 470.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: I mean, 479ft.
Yeah, yeah, my bad on that. I just cheated him 100ft. 479ft. You hit a ball, you hit a ball that far, I'll let you. I'll let you kick one or two in the right field and we'll be okay with it. But, yeah, you. You got it. And it's. It's more than that. You know, I saw a right fielder miss a cutoff man, cost us a run. I saw a ball go under the glove.
There were other plays. I saw infielders, even. Bad first step, bad angle to the ball, made some errors.
A lot of that'll get cleaned up. I mean, the DVH's team is going to play good defense. We do it year in and year out, so the defense is going to be there. Cahill's going to figure it out. If we have to. It'll be a late inning situation where we got multiple guys that could go out there late innings if we need to. But I think they're going to leave him out there and let him figure it out, play through it. Remember Kendall Diggs? Wasn't that good Kennel? Looked like Heston wasn't.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: Heston cursed that early on.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: Yeah. In left field. It was. It was.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Didn't he have a Jose Canseco type play where the ball hit his glove and then bounced off his head over the fence?
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. I know he missed a couple that were just right at him that clinked off his glove. But.
But, yeah, it's. It'll. It'll work itself out. He'll be. I think he's going to be fine. I love Cahill, and I know he wants to be out there in the field so bad. He'll. He'll figure it out.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Who else is standing out to you?
From a position player standpoint?
[00:21:01] Speaker A: Mike and new man, he looks really good. Watching him, the way the ball comes off his bat and BP Watching the way he moves in the outfield, good routes to the ball, makes it look simple. He just kind of floats the ball.
He's really been impressive.
You know, I'm a Carson Brumbaugh fan. I think Carson will be really good. He's a freshman. You know, he's. You know, he's. It's. It's tough for a freshman. I don't win the last time we had a freshman shortstop.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: I do.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: If ever.
[00:21:31] Speaker B: 2007 was it. Tim Smalling started 45 or 46 games in 07 as a true freshman shortstop.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:21:38] Speaker B: I should have asked, but, I mean, it's. It's.
Your point's taken. It's been a long time, and it's not something that really happens a whole lot.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: Yeah, but I think he's a. He's a guy grew up around the baseball his dad played, you know, so, I mean, the stage isn't going to be big for him. He's fearless, tough kid, a lot like his dad.
I think he's gonna be fun.
[00:21:58] Speaker B: You know this because you played with his dad?
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I played with Cliff back in the day and loved the guy.
And, you know, Pompey. Pompey's a guy you look at, and he's. He's athletic, you know, I haven't seen him really do anything yet in the scrimmages, but to me, he's like a guy. I see him. He's one of those guys, you know, you've got your five o' clock Cowboys where they look really good in, you know, BP and in scrimmages, but, you know, when the lights come on, they kind of shrivel up. I see him as being the flip side of that. I think he's. He's a guy. When the lights come on Friday night, seven o', clock, I think you're gonna see some. I think fans are gonna really like this guy.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: I'm gonna ask Sydney, our producer, if I can get a bell here. And every time you use one of your terms that I love, I'm Just gonna hit the bell, you know, five o', clock, cowboy. You bring that one out quite a bit.
Here's a thought on new. I love this quote from Hunter Bell because I was talking to Hunter Bell. The strength and condition goes with Arkansas and we were talking about new in their testing has jumped almost 48 inches vertically. It's insane.
And so I wanted to kind of talk to him about what does that mean in terms of what he can do on a baseball field. He said if you jump really high, you probably run really well. And if you run really well, you probably throw pretty hard and probably swing the bat pretty fast. And they thought that there was a chance that they might not get Mike a new on campus. I mean, he had a really good summer up on the Cape Cod League. He was the MVP up there.
I know that a lot of teams were interested in him. I'm sure he could have gone pro had he wanted to. That's something I think people don't understand about the draft. Just because you don't get drafted doesn't mean that pro teams aren't interested. They're only going to draft you in most cases if they feel like they can sign you. And so he wanted to come to Arkansas and boy, I feel like we'll see how he hits SEC pitching.
And he's hit it in practice pretty well. That's different when you know your pitchers and you know you've got somebody coming in that you're seeing for the first time. But I feel like the sky really is.
Or like the. The ceiling there for him is really high.
[00:24:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. I think he's going to be fine.
He's fun to watch. He's an exciting player. You know, I keep hearing how athletic the team is.
I think it's going to be a fun team to watch. And it's not really. For me, an athletic team is not just about stealing bases. It's about going first to third. It's about scoring on a base hit. It's about cutting a ball off in a gap, just saving that extra base. I know the. Just the pitching so good in sec, the value of that one extra base is huge. So if you can cut a ball off in a gap, hold a guy to a single or maybe run down that ball and catch it, I mean, it's. It makes a big difference. And I think. I think that's where this team. You look at the lineup and I was talking about it yesterday on the radio, just.
It's pretty impressive. It's a pretty good lineup. When you see it on paper now.
I think the staff deserves a ton of credit for going out and bringing these guys in. You think about the guys we brought in last year, Matt, and you don't really know till you get guy on campus, but they hit on every guy. Just think of the guys we brought in last year. We hit on every one of them.
But I mean, you know what I mean by hit is like, we picked the right guy, like Davlon incredible. You know, Iredale Kozil, Justin Thomas. I mean, you just go down the list and it's like every guy they brought in performed, and, you know, I like the guys they brought in, and we'll see what happens when we start playing, especially when we get into the SEC gauntlet. But I like some of the guys.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: Let's say Nolan Souza's arm gets right, and I think it's going to at some point. Van Horn, he expressed some frustration today. I don't know if you heard this when he was talking with us. He said it took him five weeks after the injury to get the surgery. Imagine if he had those five weeks, you know what I'm saying? Like, imagine where he could be in five weeks from now. They love his footwork.
From a footwork perspective, just fundamental defense. I think they think that he might be their best infielder on the team defensively.
So let's say in four or five weeks, his arm's back where it needs to be. Where does he fit in defensively? Because I don't think you can leave him out of the infield, assuming that he's hitting.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: You know, I think that's a good option to have. I mean, he could move over and play shortstop.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: What about third base? Because this has been something that's. That's been mentioned, and I thought Van Horn made a good comment a couple, three weeks ago, maybe in the Swatters Club, saying that, you know, a lot of people don't realize that that throw from third is actually an easier throw or a shorter throw at least than the throw from shortstop.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: Yeah, it's crazy to think that, isn't it? But it really is.
I think the one throw you worry about for Souza if he were playing third is that ball over the bag. You got to plant and really, really bear down on it. That's the throw right now that they might be worried about. I don't know where his arm is, health wise, but to answer your question, you know, I think he'll. I think Kozil's gonna stay at second, and I think it'll come down to who's performing on the left side of the infield, kind of where Souza ends up. There's, there's options. You can put Souza at short, you can move Brumbaugh to third.
You know, if one of those guys is struggling, you know, let's, you know, we'll see, we'll see what happens. But at some point, he's going to end up on the dirt. He's too good to, he's too good to be DHing.
That's why it's important right now that, you know, we get right field figured out because, you know, we want Cahill's bat in the lineup, you know, but you know, you don't want, you got to play Souza. And if he's not ready to play defense, he's got to be in there batting in the DH role.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: Souza, they like him potentially in a leadoff role. Now, I don't know if he's going to be leading off this weekend, but they did work him out and see how he did not only with, with one team, but they had it like, like you said, this is like every hitter's dream. Yeah, he was getting to bat for both teams.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: Oh, it's awesome. As a hitter, you gotta love that. But I thought he had great at bats all weekend. The two scrimmages I saw stayed in the zone, put the ball in play, had an infield hit, hit a couple balls hard, a couple good two strike at bats.
So I thought he looked good.
And, you know, let's say you're facing a tough lefty. You could flip flop them and lead off Mike and New and hit Sousa 2 hole.
There's a lot of different ways you can go about it. And Sue's a good bunner too. You know, he can bunt for a hit. He can, he can hit a ball to the right side, move the runner over. I think there's a lot of different options there with Sousa, but I think either way you look at it, I think whether he's one hole or two hole, I mean, he's, he's in a. He's going to have a good year.
[00:28:31] Speaker B: Who leads off? You think, you think, you think it's him? You think it's Mike and New?
[00:28:35] Speaker A: I don't know. You know, you look.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: It's interesting. Can I interrupt?
[00:28:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:39] Speaker B: New is interesting because he could be a leadoff guy, but he's also that guy that I think you would feel really good about having him in the three hole or the cleanup spot, maybe even a five hole.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: I mean you could hit him anywhere. But boy, I think we got spoiled last year with kind of that three headed monster at the top. You know, I hate to keep talking about last year's team, but you know, having having a true leadoff guy like Davilon and then Kahil after him and then Maxwell, you know, those three guys were ridiculous at the top of the lineup. I think, you know, just to have a good leadoff guy. But I don't think you, you can go wrong either way with, with Micah or, or Nolan in that leadoff spot. I mean, it could go down to matchups though. Like I said Friday night we're facing, we're probably going to face a tough lefty. You know, Dave might flip flop.
[00:29:24] Speaker B: A lot of people remember Nolan Sousa for all the strikeouts at the, at the beginning of last season. But the coaches that I've talked to, they've all mentioned, they're like, we thought he was really coming on. They thought that he was kind of on the same trajectory from a hitting standpoint as Ryder Helferich was on. And we saw Ryder have a tough start and then we saw him be maybe their best hitter at the end of the season outside of Behiva Aloy.
So you wonder, I mean, would that have happened for Nolan Souza? I don't know. I think about. And we've talked about this before. You know the play at Georgia where he gets hurt on.
That's a 350 foot wall to left field at Foley Field. It's easily the biggest left field in the sec.
You know, he smoked that ball to the wall. That's a home run in every other SEC ballpark. And I think that, you know, to me that illustrates what kind of. And it's to the opposite field.
It illustrated to me what kind of hitter he was becoming at the end of last season. Now I don't know that he would have gone on and had the same ceiling or top out or whatever you want to call it, that Helfer cad.
But I think maybe he's a better hitter than people remember because I think that it is easy to focus on all those strikeouts at the beginning of the season and the.042 batting average or whatever it was when they took him out of the lineup for a day or two.
But it's.
I guess my point is he was hitting better at the end of. Before he got hurt.
[00:30:48] Speaker A: Yeah, he was trending in the right direction and he was starting to smoke the ball. And I think he's an imposing force at the plate. He's so strong. Speed, power.
I think he would have gone on and had a great year. And you think about plays like that, such a fluke play, and you hate to see it, but I mean, that's part of the game.
But yeah, I think. I think he's going to go on and have a great year. The first time I saw Nolan Sousa, I'm like, man, this is a first round pick.
[00:31:13] Speaker B: I was there. I remember I was sitting with you when you saw him first time. Yeah. And this is something, because I wanted to bring this up. This is something that I love about people who really know baseball.
I can sit here and I can talk stats and whatnot, but like, you guys who really know what a good baseball player looks like, I'm sitting there like, I don't see this with Nolan Sousa, but you saw it and, you know, you were talking about he put on £20. He, you know, look at how he moves, you know, laterally, look at his hips. And I mean, you really saw it with him from the get go.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, he's just a crazy athlete. Just the way he moves, everything about him. I mean, to me, he's a future major league baseball player.
And you hate to see a guy get hurt like that. But sometimes, you know, it's, you know, an injury like that, you sit out a little bit, you know, you watch a lot of games. I think mentally that's going to be good for Nolan. Having to watch those games from the side, it kind of. And you'll see Dave do it. When a guy's struggling, he'll sit him out a game or two, not his punishment. If you sit there and you watch the game, it slows down in your mind. And I think possibly sitting, you know, having to sit there last year is going to be good for Nolan mentally.
You know, just being able to slow the game down in his mind and go out and just really do what we know he's capable of doing.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: Some people will probably hear you say that about Nolan Sousa. It's like, have you seen his batting average? How would you say that this guy's going to make it, you know, high up in pro ball? One thing that Tony Vitalo told me, and I always remember this, he said that he thought that one of the things that made Van Horn really good was that he was maybe the best he's ever seen at being able to look at someone when they're 16, 17 years old and then take a look at their dad and take a look at the brother and take a look, you know, like this is probably what he's going to fill out and look like. Heston Kirstad is the greatest example of this. I think they committed him. He was like 5, 8 and 150 pounds. But you know, he's got a dad who's. And you know, it's. And vital said Van Horn is so good at being able to find the player who maybe they're not the big prospect when they're 18 years old, 17 years old, but by the time they get to 21, 22, you know, they've been able to project and have a lot of success with that. I feel like that's kind of if Nolan Sousa gets to that point, like you think he might.
That's what you're going to see with him is it's not necessarily what you see right now, but there are elements to what he's doing right now that you could see forming into a good ballplayer down the road.
[00:33:40] Speaker A: I think that's what the whole staff, I think that's what makes our whole staff special. I talked about hitting on every player last year.
They're able to evaluate talent and they do it at a high level. And you know, to be able to look at a kid when he's young and say, okay, yeah, he's going to turn into something good. It's a special skill. I do it on the youth side. Matt, you ought to see some of the parents on my 14 year team.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: Norm de Bryan going back to him for a minute, he said that, you know, when Van Horn was graduate assistant for him, he would actually take and this is back when GA's could go out and recruit. Rules changed at some point in time, but he said that he would take Dave with him to these different ballparks and he wouldn't tell him who he was there to watch. It was. Who stands out to you? Yeah, that guy and that guy right there. And sometimes it was. He pointed out the guy that I came to watch and then he pointed out the guy that I needed to come to watch.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: Right.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: So I mean it's a skill, it's a gift really as a baseball coach being able to have that ability to evaluate talent.
[00:34:46] Speaker A: And the thing here's what I love about DVH is he doesn't just bring in good players. He brings in good people, good locker room clubhouse guys.
[00:34:56] Speaker B: Right.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: You know, good solid kids with great attitudes that fit the mold of Razorback baseball. You know, he doesn't bring in turds.
[00:35:05] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: Sorry. I don't know.
I don't know any other way to say it. He brings in good kids.
They'll recruit a kid every once in a while and they'll track him, they'll follow him. They don't like some of the stuff they're seeing, they end up not making it to campus. But tell you what, for the most part, because I'm fortunate enough to be around those guys a lot, and there's no bad characters. They're all great guys.
You got to have a good team.
You got to be together as a team. Look at the team last year, how close to knit they were, and hopefully this team's trending in the same way.
[00:35:35] Speaker B: I think I heard him say something recently. He said that he doesn't know if it's quite like last year's team in terms of how they feel about each other, but he thinks that they're trending in that direction. I remember him telling me one time, this has been a long time ago, but they had a team that was. It was fairly highly ranked and the season didn't go quite like they thought it would. I can't remember exactly how they finished, but I do remember it being, you know, below whatever the preseason expectations were.
And I was talking to him about, well, what happened last year, and he said, you know, sometimes in baseball, it's all about how the guys feel about each other.
You know, if it's all about. If it's just about talent. The New York Yankees and the Dodgers are winning the World Series every year. I know the Dodgers have won two in a row. But, you know, the point being, you know, you've got a lot of teams that you probably don't see coming and winning that. And that's always stuck with me.
It's about how the players feel about each other. Because if you don't like each other, you're not going to play hard for each other. You're not going to dig deep in the ninth inning when, you know you're down by two runs and there's two outs, and how are you going to make this rally?
And I think that, you know, that's one of the things that in this era now, where you're going out and you're, you know, you're kind of having to rebuild your roster every single season and kind of having to speed date, so to speak, getting some of these guys out of the transfer portal, like, that's really important to be able to, you know, have that number one, that. That awareness. But that ability, the ability to evaluate someone's character like that, yeah, I think so.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: And then as a player, it comes down to trust. You want to be able to trust your teammate and they bring in the right guys. I know. Look, I spent years in Triple A. Seven, eight years, I don't even know how long. And there were years that were on paper, we shouldn't have lost a game, but we couldn't win because we had a bunch of individuals that were complaining about being in Triple A. The years we won. We had your average guys that were, you know, pretty good players. But we all gelled. We got together. You know, if I'm up at the plate, you know, runner second, nobody out, I'll move him over because I know the guy behind me is going to drive him in. You know, if I'm out in the outfield, the pitcher's on the mound, you know, he knows that he can put that ball over the plate and defense is going to pick him up. If I'm in outfield, this is a no fly zone. I'm not going to let anything hit the ground because I love that guy on the mound. And it's about trust and love of your teammate.
And you got to have those good clubhouse guys. You know, I said that, you know, they'd hit on everybody. Rocco Pepe, you know, he didn't perform very well, but I thought Rocco was a guy that everyone seemed to like in the dugout. He was your rah rah guy. I think you got to have those good clubhouse guys. Kozil seems like the guy, the kind of the glue that keeps everyone together. You got to have those guys that aren't just good baseball players, they're just good dudes in general.
[00:38:25] Speaker B: Well, Rocco, I mean, he's still here. He's like a strength and conditioning graduate assistant or something. So you're not going to hold on to somebody like that if you don't like the makeup of them. Absolutely. I wrote something about catchers and how. I think that if you look through the history of Razorback baseball and you could probably say this about a lot of baseball teams, like the really successful ones, they have catcher leaders.
In a lot of cases, sometimes it's not the best player on the team.
You know, you and I were talking about Kirk Pisker, who you played for. I think he was a. Like, he started as a freshman. Right. Or maybe he caught some as a freshman.
[00:39:04] Speaker A: Yeah, some as a freshman.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: And it was big for you guys down the stretch in 89, when you went to the College World Series, James McCann, kind of a similar deal where, you know, in 09. He came on and ended up beating out. I think it was Ryan Cisterna was the senior catcher on that team. Then he became the guy down the stretch for an Omaha team. But all of that is to say they've got Ryder Helfrich, who to me, he is the clear cut leader of this baseball team. You watch him on the field that scrimmages, and you can tell that is the guy who's in charge. That's the guy. Whenever he says something, and I don't know that he says a whole lot, but whenever he's out there talking, everybody kind of stops and they listen to him. And I don't know what that means for this team, but I just do. I do know that it seems like the teams that are the best are the teams that have a really good catcher leader. And Arkansas seems to have one this year in Helford.
[00:39:58] Speaker A: You know, they always talk about being strong up the middle. You know, got to be strong up the middle. Razorback teams historically have been very strong up the middle. But to your point, there's something about that catcher position I can go back to once again. You know, I don't want to bring it back to me, but the teams I played on that had good catchers that were the leader, we, we did well. I mean, we, we won games. There's just something about it.
You know, talking about Kurt Pisker, he was a tough, gritty guy. You know, how I greeted Kurt every day is because he was just tough.
[00:40:32] Speaker B: So we're going to walk by him.
[00:40:33] Speaker A: Yeah, just growl when I'd walk by him, he reminds. Helfrick, reminds me of Kurt Pisker. Just tough, gritty, and boy, that's the guy you want leading your team right there. You want. Because baseball's about, you know, being tough, being gritty. You know, when you play for Dave Van Horn, you take on his personality and boy, that's. That's Ryder Helfrich right there. And he's a guy I want to go to battle with.
[00:40:52] Speaker B: Without going into details, I mean, Helfrick took a quite the injury in fall ball the other day, the other day in the scrimmage. I mean, he took one right off the look, like maybe his wrist area or his hand stayed in there and kept playing.
[00:41:07] Speaker A: Anytime that happens, you get scary.
[00:41:08] Speaker B: Oh, I know.
[00:41:09] Speaker A: Get scared. Especially the week before the season starts. But, you know, he's tough. I mean, Ryder just, you know, all catchers are tough, but Ryder's just built a little different. He's another guy that as a freshman I was like, wow, this dude is an athlete. You know, they think that he could.
[00:41:27] Speaker B: Go in there and play pretty much any position on the field that they needed him to.
[00:41:31] Speaker A: I think you put him in. You could put him in center field.
[00:41:33] Speaker B: Like, you don't see that at catcher very often. Somebody that, you know, hey, why don't you go out there and play short?
[00:41:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it's pretty impressive. So, yeah, he's. It's going to be fun. Watch him this year. I watch him go down and get a fastball down and hit it off the batter's eye off a Gibler.
And I mean, it was just.
I mean, last year, early in the year last year, he would have probably rolled over that ball and hooked it. He stayed through the ball. His swing direction, so much better. But just everything about him is. Is better.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: Talk about that, because that's one thing. I heard somebody saying this a week or so ago.
His ability now to, like you said, his swing direction, everything. Last year, it felt like everything was real, or even the first two years, very pull heavy. It's not pull heavy anymore with him. How do you fix that as a hitter?
[00:42:19] Speaker A: I think early on he led the nation in foul home runs. Like every bat, he was going to hook a ball or two foul. And, you know, sometimes you're going to do that. It's timing. But when you start taking pitches down the middle and hooking them foul and waste them, then you know you got it. You got to fix your direction. I think now he's done a really good job. I think Nate and Bobby and the guys have done a really good job of him and him just kind of learning his body, you know. Now his swing direction is different. He can drive it to right field and drive it to left field. He can stay on a ball down in the zone, and instead of rolling over, losing posture, coming off the now he stays on it and he hammers that ball to center field. And he's a. He's a threat because he went down, got that ball. I don't know, it was 109, something like that off the bat. But, I mean, it doesn't matter. I mean, it was a line drive off the batter's eye, so it was just a good swing. It was good to see here.
[00:43:05] Speaker B: Real quick. Before we finish, I want to talk a little bit about the bullpen. Cooper Dosset. This may be their closer if they need one this first weekend.
He's somebody you've known and watched for a long time. I mean, your facilities in Springdale Taneytown he's from harbor, right? I mean, literally, like, you could throw a baseball like five times from your facility, probably hit Harbor's baseball stadium.
But you've seen him play a lot. But, boy, he looks so much different than the last time that we saw him pitch in a game, which would have been down in College Station in 2024. The physical transformation of this guy is incredible.
But you're also seeing that, I think, you know, make a. Or you're seeing that play a difference in the type of pitches that he's able to throw.
[00:43:50] Speaker A: I think so. And it goes back to the. The guys that that DVH brings in. I mean, great kid, great family. You know, I know his dad really well. Just an awesome guy.
Coop's been through a lot, and, boy, he's just worked his butt off. I'm so happy for him. You know, he hit 98 miles an hour the other day.
Talked to him last year. His goal for his cutter was around 88, 89. He threw 192, too, in the scrimmage the other day. I mean, just electric stuff.
I'm so happy for Cooper because I know how much time he spent in the weight room, and it shows. Right now, I mean, he looks like a beast out there on the mound, so I hope he gets a chance to close out games. But if he's not closing, he's going to be out there getting outs for us. It's somewhere in the game. He's going to be out there getting outs.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: David Horn said that he's always. Dave said that he, the coach is always the first one out to the field or one of the first ones and the path from his office down to the field. You kind of. You really can't go anywhere in that building without going past the weight room. I mean, it's. It's kind of the centerpiece of the whole building. Everything's built around that big weight room that they have in there. But he said every time that he'd go out to the field last year for a game, Dossett is in there working out, getting stronger, like. Like really attack this. And I think of Dossett kind of like I think of Hunter Deets.
There's something to be said about having to persevere through something and come out on the other end of it.
And like, when you start talking about a pitcher or any kind of player, and it's like, you know, what is it? Like, what's that special thing that they have inside of them? Sometimes it's their drive, and it's that drive that is, that comes from, you know, missed opportunities, missed seasons, whatever it might be, you know, frustrations of injuries or whatever. And I think that maybe there's a similar characteristic in those two pitchers because of all this stuff that they've had to deal with the last couple of years.
[00:45:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because I did want to mention that about Hunter Dietz. I mean, look at everything that kid's been through and to see him out there doing what he's doing now. I mean, you know, his confidence is back. I mean, he's everything that we thought he was going to be. So super happy for him. Same with Dawson. There's so many good, like, good feel good stories on the team. I look at Reese Robinette. Oh, yeah, you know, you know, the whole work while you wait thing is gone in college sports. I mean, if you don't play, you, oh, I'm going to transfer. I mean, look at everything that Reese went through. You know, good at bad hits a home run, doesn't get to play, gets a little bit of playing time, red shirts, you know, keeps working, gets a chance to play last year and takes advantage of it. I mean, that's what's cool about it. There's so many neat stories around this team and that's just, I mean, guys that you got to pull for, you know, and then I'm super excited to see them out there and I'm, I'm, I'm glad they work so hard. They deserve this chance and it's going to be fun.
[00:46:40] Speaker B: Other bullpen guys that stand out to.
[00:46:41] Speaker A: You, there's a lot, there's a lot of big arms. The creamer looked good. Jackson Kersher, really good electric stuff.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: Can I say something with Kircher? I feel like his ceiling is really high.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: Oh my goodness.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: Because, you know, when he came out of high school, they didn't know if he was going to be a pitcher or a position player. And I think even at OU when he went there last year, he was a two way guy.
I think that like he's still kind of learning how to pitch, so to speak. And it's an electric arm that I feel like could really be good in a year or so. Yeah, I mean, not say it won't be effective this year, but like, if you're talking about him as a potential pro prospect, that's one I think to really watch out for.
[00:47:19] Speaker A: Absolutely. You know, McIlvaine's another one. You know, he's electric stuff. You know, we'll just See how good when the season starts.
You know, we got Parker Coyle. We haven't mentioned him. I mean, just huge for us last year. You know, he's going to get out somewhere in there.
You talk about freshmen.
[00:47:38] Speaker B: Oh, Lanzini, Joey Lorenzini.
[00:47:41] Speaker A: Lorenzini. Love him. Oh, my goodness. I've got to see him pitch a couple times.
[00:47:45] Speaker B: I think this freshman pitcher class could be really good.
[00:47:47] Speaker A: Mark Brissey, love him. Does not pitch like a freshman. I think he's going to be really good.
I feel like I'm leaving someone out.
[00:47:54] Speaker B: There's Peyton Lee, obviously, who we thought Jordan Martin, Luke Cornelison, who was at harbor, who I think Carson Brumbaugh is actually a freshman pitcher. It's just he's probably not going to pitch this year because he's going to be focusing on the position.
It reminds me, and I don't. Well, let's not even say that, but it's a very talented freshman pitcher class that if they can stay together and Arkansas's had a lot of success of keeping these freshmen together.
I mean, even like what we're seeing right now with Fisher and Dietz and Gackel, if they can keep them together, then you think about what they might look like as sophomores and juniors.
I would think that Matt Hobbs is probably pretty happy about that.
[00:48:36] Speaker A: I think so. And back to the culture. I like how DVH and the staff brings in freshmen. I mean, you look at some of these other teams, they hardly recruit freshmen anymore.
They bring in a good core group of freshmen that are going to be with us for multiple years and then they learn to play baseball the Razorback way and they have that. There's just something about it. They're playing for the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back. I feel like some of these teams bring in all these superstars. It's not about the name on the front, it's about the name on the back in college sports in general. And don't even get me started on that. But I think Dave does a good job at the. These guys are still playing for this. You know, you look at Gage Wood last year, throws a no hitter. What's he do? You know, it's about Arkansas. It's not about Gage. I don't know. It's just little things like that mean a lot to me and it means a lot to the fans in the state of Arkansas. And I don't know, I'm excited.
[00:49:29] Speaker B: Week one, you're not really able to scout your opponents A whole lot other than just, you know, what you know about these guys and maybe what they've done elsewhere before. They get to, like, what's success this weekend?
[00:49:42] Speaker A: Going out there and just getting a chance to see the guys play someone else and they're tired of beating up on each other. I know these guys can't wait to get out there.
Do we win all three games or four games?
I don't care. I just want to go out there and watch them play. And, you know, I think.
I think it's going to be a fun team to watch, but I guess that's a hard question to answer. What do you think your definition of success?
[00:50:06] Speaker B: Play hard. Play hard, Be competitive.
[00:50:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:09] Speaker B: I mean, you may not win, but don't do things that beat yourself, especially not routinely.
[00:50:16] Speaker A: Right.
[00:50:17] Speaker B: You might make a mistake, but don't do it, you know, in the fourth inning and then do it again in the seventh inning and do it again in the ninth inning.
What about, like, starting this? Oklahoma State, tcu, These are big name teams.
It's not James Madison, you know, who they started against a couple of years ago, or even Washington State.
Like, like, as a player, what would you rather start out against? I have a feeling I know what you're going to say, but I'm interested.
[00:50:41] Speaker A: You know, honestly, I like starting out against these guys. Yeah, strap it on. Let's go get it. Let's play in a major league ballpark.
[00:50:48] Speaker B: Against when they played Texas first down there a few years ago. I mean, it's like, boom, right out of the gate. We're going to find out what you're all about.
[00:50:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. I absolutely love it. Now, you know, if you're dvh, you'd probably rather play a series first before you go down there. But, you know, as a.
[00:51:03] Speaker B: See, I think this is the difference, though. And you think about all the coaches who are there right now. I mean, think about how long Josh Holliday's been at Oklahoma State and Van Horn here and Tim Tadlock at Texas Tech. Even on the other end, you got Skip Johnson and Tim Corbin, who. They're not going to play against those teams, but they're going to be down there, too. Kirk Sarlos is at tcu. He's been there for a while. Like, these are coaches who are comfortable enough in their own skin and in their own, you know, ability to coach players and teams.
If you go 03, whatever, you know, like, like, you can take it. Whereas I think if you're a new coach, I don't know that you're necessarily signing up for this type of event right out of the gate.
[00:51:41] Speaker A: That's a good point. I didn't look at it that way, but, you know, I listen to Josh Holiday in an interview. They brought in 16 freshmen this year. They brought in like 24 guys total. They only got three guys out of the portal, and they went more the freshman route and then the juco route. They signed some guys, but, you know, I think for him it's. It's. There's a lot of unanswered questions. He does have some veteran guys. He's got some big physical guys. It's going to be a good, good test for us. We know what we're going to get with tcu.
Quick, athletic team. We know what kind of pace, the kind of baseball they play. They're going to be. They're going to be a good team. I just think it's a. It's a good way to start out the season. And like I said, I mean, I want to say we went 031 year and went to Omaha, didn't we? Or am I wrong?
[00:52:23] Speaker B: That's a good question.
I don't know. I'd have to look it up. I know they went 03 in 2020 down in Houston.
No, nobody went to Omaha that year, but I know that. Well, let's put it this way. I know there have been some years.
I think in 2012 they might have gone 1 and 2 down in Houston and that team went to Omaha. Your point's well taken that you can go to some of these events and it not go well, and you can still turn your season around. You can go. You can go. The 2016 team, worst team they've ever had here at Arkansas, at least during the Van horn era.
They went 3. 0 in Houston. You just never know, right? Like, these are not. Like your results of these early weekend trips are not totally predictive about how your season's going to go.
[00:53:05] Speaker A: But with that being said, I know we're about to wrap up, but look at what we've done. I say we. I mean, look at what Razorback baseball's done the last. Just five years, last three years, whatever you want to go to. 22 wins, 18, 20, 2020.
It's incredible, the success rate all the in. And I don't know, I listen to some of these national guys and I don't hear them talking about Arkansas like they should. I mean, there's no one better than DVH and what this staff's done and what these players have Done.
And you know, everyone wants to win all these SEC games. You want to have a good record, but at the end of the day, the best team does not win in Omaha. I mean, look at the last multiple years. I mean, there's been a couple. Last year we were the best team in the nation.
You know, things didn't work out for us. We ran into a really good pitcher. You know, things. It is what it is.
You know, we've gone there.
What 21 really good team didn't get there. But I don't think the best team there's been the last several years. 22 Ole Miss won it. They weren't the best team. They last team in and they won the College World Series.
[00:54:16] Speaker B: Tennessee won like 58 games.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: Yes, they were incredible and they didn't get there. So, you know, when I look at this team, I definitely see a team that could end up in Omaha and win it. I mean, all the pieces are there. And I know this is. It's hard to jump out there and make this prediction. I'm not, I'm saying again, you just never know. And it's crazy. It's just the team that gets hot at the end of the year and the players are here. It's going to be fun to watch them all come together as a team.
[00:54:43] Speaker B: Seems like maybe over the last 14, 15 years. If you predict Arkansas is going to go to Omaha, you got about a 50% chance of, of success having your prediction be right. Bubba, appreciate you being here. We appreciate all of you being with us, too. I'm going to be out of this chair for the next few days. I'm actually going to Kansas City for Norm De Bryant's hall of Fame induction and then I'll be going to Dallas for baseball. So Ethan Westerman will be in here the next few days. You'll be talking Razorback basketball up ahead of that game against Auburn. They'll also be looking back at the big win that Razorbacks had last night over LSU. 91 62. You can read all of our coverage from that game, all of our baseball coverage, all of our coverage from every
[email protected] hope to see you there or on our podcast next time. Have a great day, everybody. Hey, our thanks to Bubba Carpenter for being in studio with us today. Want to tell you once again, today's baseball segment brought to you by H and R Tire and Auto. They're proudly family owned since 1976, trusted across Northwest Arkansas and committing to keeping your family safe all season long on the road you can learn more or schedule service ath and rtireauto.com.
