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Interview with FIU Baseball Coach Turtle Thomas
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Interview with FIU Baseball Coach Turtle Thomas
FIU baseball's Opening Day is less than a month away, 10 days if you're scoring at home, when the Panthers host Jacksonville for a 3-game series to begin the 2009 season.

So here's a three-part interview series with FIU baseball coach Turtle Thomas (FIU photos, Alex J. Hernandez) about the upcoming season.

Pete Pelegrin - Miami Herald FIU Beat Writer("PP"): How did fall ball go?

Turtle Thomas - FIU Baseball Coach ("TT"): We basically have 6 guys back that played as a position player or a pitcher for a significant amount of time last year. Those 6 are: Tyler Townsend, Ryan Mollica, Steven Stropp, Jorge Marban, Corey Polizzano and Danny DeSimone and Javi Sujo played some. He had like 82 at-bats. We have a lot of new pieces of the puzzle to the team. It was a lot of teaching and developing, a lot of starting to understand college baseball. They’re young and enthusiastic and they seem to learn pretty quick. There certainly is some talent out there on the baseball field. We just got to find the right lineup, the right positions for a couple of guys still battling at a couple of spots.

PP: Who are some of the pitchers that stood out during the fall?

TT: Scott Rembisz (left) from Manatee junior college looks to be right now the Friday night starter. He was the Florida Junior College Pitcher of the Year with a 13-2 record last year. He’s a very good competitor. He’s not scared to throw inside, nice breaking ball. He beats the hitters, because he out competes them.

Tom Ebert, from Iowa Western, the year before at the JUCO World Series hurt his arm and had Tommy John so he really didn’t start pitching until later in the season last year. He is really good. I would think right now he could either be our closer or the Friday, Saturday or Sunday. R.J. Fondon, the left-hander from Flanagan High in Pembroke Pines, made some good impressions on us in the fall and should be one of our 4 or 5 top starters. We didn't really have any lefties last season. We’ve got 4 lefties now. Fondon, Justin Leith (Naples and St. Louis Cardinals draft pick), Corey Polizzano, Mason McVay (Killian) and even Ty Main, an outfielder, can throw a few innings.

PP: With Ebert, possibly being the closer right now 1 month before the season starts, what kind of role do you envision for last year's closer Jorge Marban?

TT: I’m thinking he’s either the closer or set-up guy either one or the other. He’s going to continue to come out of the bullpen. He grew up a lot last year. Going into the 2007 fall, he was kind of a name on the roster that was going to battle, develop and fight for a spot and low and behold he came through and did a nice job for us.

PP: What does the catching situation look like?

TT: Steven Stropp is our starter. There are 3 other catchers we got. We got Doug Joyce from Stanwood, Washington. About an hour south of Canada . He was the 41st round pick of the Kansas City Royals. We got Casey Hanrahan from St. John’s River junior college, who was 10th in the state in hitting last year. Sean Reilly is from just outside Boston. They are all battling for that number two slot right now. I don’t know that anybody is really forged ahead of the other two at this point.

PP: Can any of these catchers possibly play other positions?

TT: Not really, they are mainly catchers. Joyce, being a tall 6-3, could probably play a little first base and Stropp plays first base. All the catchers bats are developing, getting better and still figuring out the college game a little bit and 3-2 breaking balls and 3-2 change-ups. They’re still figuring out the college approach to pitching and have to become better at hitting different parts of the strike zone at different speeds and different types of pitches.

PP: How does the infield shape up going into this month of practice before the season starts?

TT: Steven Stropp is behind the plate. Tim Jobe from Indian River CC, has an unbelievable amount of power. He’s by far our most powerful hitter that we got. We just have to get the consistency of his stroke day in, day out to where it kind of needs to be. Jobe is a 1b/DH and he’s a right-handed pitcher with the best curveball on the team. He’s had a little iffy elbow deal so we just have to make sure he’s OK.

Ryan Mollica (left, Alex J. Hernandez photo) returns at second base. Garrett Wittels from Krop High could be at shortstop/third base. He did a real nice job there in the fall. He is more advanced than a lot of freshmen are. Junior Arrojo could also see some time at shortstop.

Raiko Alfonso from Key West has done a nice job for us at third base. Raiko being a switch-hitter is a nice thing to have. He’s got to keep working on defending, on his range, a little more consistency with his hands, but he’s coming along pretty good.

PP: What about the outfield how does that look and can we expect more speed there than last season?

TT: Pablo Bermudez (right) will definitely be our leadoff guy and starting centerfielder as long as he’s healthy. He is definitely far advanced for most freshmen, a very talented young man.

The team speed is definitely better. We got some guys like Michael Vargas from New Jersey, who played at the national high school champ at Don Bosco Prep (33-0). Vargas is definitely a speedy guy. Bermudez is a runner. We got a couple of guys like that.

You may not realize this, but Junior Arrojo led the Valley League this summer in stolen bases. He has as good a first step in stealing a bag as any Major Leaguer would have. He has a perfect technique. He just has to get the consistency of getting on base where he has that opportunity to steal.

Vargas played 2b in high school, but Ryan Mollica is in that spot so Vargas is going to get some playing time in left field. He’s a speedy guy. You put him and Pablo out there in the outfield and you have a chance to run down a few fly balls that hopefully won’t fall in.

We put Tyler Townsend mostly all fall in right field and he’s taken to it pretty good. It’s either a corner outfield spot or first base for him.

PP: We're still some time away from the opener, but what's a rough sketch of your batting order right now?

TT: We have an idea about our top 5 or 6 guys in the lineup. Pablo Bermudez in center field should lead off. Ryan Mollica (right, Alex J. Hernandez photo), who hit second in the lineup last year, should be our second hole hitter. I would think that Tyler Townsend would be our third hole hitter. Steven Stropp will probably clean up for us or hit fifth. I think Tim Jobe may be in the fifth spot and then some other spots below that are still open for competition.

PP: Stropp showed he can hit last season, but wasn't your prototypical cleanup hitter, what about Stropp makes him suited for the 4 hole?

TT: Stropp has a lot of power actually. He’s a big, strong guy. One game this fall we only used aluminum. It was one of only 2 times we used aluminum in the fall. In that game, he hit a grand slam, a three-run home run and a three-run double off the top of the center field wall. He knocked in 10 runs here in the intra-squad game. It was a pretty stellar day. There wasn’t anything wrong with the pitching he was facing that day. It was OK pitching he was facing.

PP: One guy that I thought made a pretty good impression in the fall was freshman shortstop Garrett Wittels (below, left). Could we see him in the starting lineup on Opening Day?

TT: Wittels probably has made more strength gains in the weight room than anybody that we’ve had so far. He’s taken to the weights and the bat weight stuff that we do. He’s done a nice job of getting stronger. He’s very strong from the elbows down where hitters need to be. He’s one of those guys who is a self-made player that competes and doesn’t want to get beat. He finds a way to hit the ball and finds a way to field it. He’s going to play somewhere either shortstop or third base.

PP: Wittels also was a pretty good pitcher/closer at Krop High, will he pitch too?

TT: Being a left side infielder, you’re probably asking a little too much for a young guy to pitch and play the left side of the infield. You’re waiting for an arm injury or arm problem waiting to happen when you do that.

PP: Your defense was a little shaky last year during some games. How do you feel about your gloves this season?

TT: We were middle of the road in our conference in fielding percentage last year, but we were close to the top in the 30 conference games. In conference games, we really had only 1 or 2 sub-par defensive games. We went six games in a row and another time five games in a row without making any errors and that set the all-time school record. I was pretty pleased with our defense. Probably the range of our players just due to probably not having the fastest of guys, probably was the biggest detriment. But when they got to it and caught it they usually threw them out. We just have to find the right guys for the right slots that can give you a nice offensive and defensive production.

PP: You guys came out a little slow offensively last year. Did you still go most of the off-season using only wood bats.

TT: We started picking up the aluminum on Jan. 26. We’ll be using the aluminum almost 4 weeks before we open up. Last year, it was one week before the opener and I thought it took our guys a little while to adjust to the aluminum so we are going to go with that a little bit earlier this year.
(This post was last modified: 02-11-2009 10:11 AM by FIU Panther Fan.)
02-11-2009 10:11 AM
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CajunFan8301 Offline
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Post: #2
RE: Interview with FIU Baseball Coach Turtle Thomas
Thanks for the interview, Very interesting.. Looking forward to the season.. We had FanDay yesterday, and it was great to get out
and watch the team . We hit the ball well, and look to have more
depth..We are going to get a good test next weekend as we host
Nebraska for a 4 game series. There is nothing better than Baseball,
peanuts, and a Cold Beer..
02-15-2009 09:16 AM
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Paul of Troy Offline
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Post: #3
RE: Interview with FIU Baseball Coach Turtle Thomas
I think our first conference series is with FIU.
02-15-2009 12:35 PM
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