The board is pretty quiet this week so here's an attempt to keep the conversation lively. I don't spend much time on pay sites, but D1Baseball has just enough substance, both off season and in, to get me to put out a few bucks. Today, they published an interview with new dawg coach Wes Johnson that had a few interesting thoughts about the life of a college baseball coach. While Sully may not have exactly the same approach, Johnson talked about the balance of both managing the current team- in Johnson's example, during the postseason- and finding both HS recruits and transfers necessary to have successful future teams. Given Sully's consistent success in building teams that host regionals almost every year and make the CWS as often or more than any other program means he does that stressful and exhausting work exceptionally well. This summer, while I'm sleeping late and sitting on my butt in nice, cool AC, he and Gator assistants are either on the phone with promising recruits- including silly and clueless 8th and 9th graders and predatory "advisors" of promising older guys- or out in the heat watching games or workouts of club teams around the country. Johnson has experience with good college teams and a recent stint with the Twins. I took a clip that's just part of one paragraph that has a lot more real world stuff in it than Nuke LaLoosh's line about just taking it one day at a time. (Or a recent post here that all coaching takes is telling a pither to just throw strikes.) "...The biggest thing is when you look at game management, managing bullpens, staying in front of the game and staying ahead of situations is really big. I think lineup construction with matchup grids. Positioning your defense, besides looking at a spray chart, is understanding how well guys move to their right or left. Besides shifting really hard, you also have to put guys in position based on their movements. The mental process and focus, that’s why they are there. At the minor league facility, the guys are just as talented. They just can’t get over the mental hump or focus as well.” It's a bit abstract and I had to reread it a couple of times, but I found these remarks and the interview as a whole to be an interesting take on the work of a coach.
On another forum I post on it's been well noted Mr Johnson's propensity to blow out arms as a pitching coach. Lets just say I find that interesting.
I found his remarks interesting, but I wasn't impressed that he had no longevity in any job. I had a number of coworkers over the years where the consensus when they moved to a new job was, " We hate to see him go..." I'll be pleased if he can help rhe dawgs maintain their recent level of success.
The basketball coach Larry Brown did great changing jobs pretty often. Only coach with both an NBA and NCAA championship IIRC.
Head coach of a college team is a much different job than pitching coach. Must be lead recruiter as well and juggle lot of balls in air simultaneously
No doubt and to be fair some things just happen no one's fault and sometimes actions cause things to happen. We all know Sully was as cautious as possible with Karsten Whitson but putting it nicely things didn't work out. Kerry Wood starting both games of a doubleheader after he'd been drafted (Cubs scouts weren't too happy) and Austin Wood throwing like 170 pitches for Texas are the extreme examples and subsequent short careers. The whole throw for as many mph as possible philosophy ain't exactly helping kids arms.
