Tony Vitello on sidelined pitcher AJ Russell: "It's kind of that time."
Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello commented on the status of right-handed pitcher AJ Russell on Tuesday night.
“He threw a pen today and felt good. He has been on the mound a couple times now,” Vitello answered when asked on Russell in postgame. “It is kind of time — and I have been open whether I should or not — it is not like we don’t want to use the weapons we have, but if we can have success without him, it buys both of us time.
“We are kind of to that point now where it’s time to decide what is the best way for him to get back out there. We will hook up and kind of meet and make sure, first of all, that he feels good. There has been times where he has thrown and if he doesn’t feel good, we stop in our tracks and even kind of backpedal a little bit. Today’s bullpen was good. We will see how he feels tomorrow. In an ideal world, it is time to start strategizing when would he throw in a game for us.”
Russell hasn’t pitched since the month of March. It was in the top of the ninth against Ole Miss on the 23rd and it was the second time he’d left for an extended absence this season. Russell previously left his second start of the season against Albany and has logged only 12.1 innings across three starts and four appearances this season.
“I’ve told you guys this and just from my – I didn’t know what I was doing – but being a pitching coach at Missouri the little stamp of approval was let’s face some of our guys first,” Vitello said on the final step for Russell coming back from injury. “Because the adrenaline kicks up when a guy might be swinging a bat because to get him out when he’s just standing in is to locate. To get him out when he’s standing in and swinging is different. So, that adrenaline kicks in and is a good thing for your body and your arm. But I’d prefer you face some of our guys and then get organized on what the next best day is.”
The righty pitched extremely well in the season-opener against No. 21 Texas Tech at Globe Life Field as the club’s Opening Day starter and it was also the first weekend start of his career as well. Russell went on to strike out 10 batters over 4.1 innings pitched where he allowed two runs off three hits in Opening Day start.
“He’s from a very intelligent family so he is very intelligent and very realistic. So, when he is in street clothes it’s like talking to a full grown adult. It’s easy. When he’s in uniform it is not,” Vitello said on how tough it’s been to keep Russell out. “The one time out there against Mississippi, he wanted to keep throwing in the game or at least throw a few pitches and see how he felt. The bottom line is, last year he’d be telling Richard Jackson that I want to be in the game and I think anytime he’s had the ball out there— Texas Tech, for instance— we go take the ball out of his hand because we’ve reached a pitch count and he wanted to fight me for a brief second. So, it’s nice that he’s that, I don’t want to say split personality, but I think you get what I’m getting at.”
Tennessee concludes the regular season at he this weekend against South Carolina, starting Thursday night at 6:30 pm eastern time. We will see if Russell makes his return against the Gamecocks or later – potentially – in the Southeastern Conference Tournament at the Hoover Met the following week.
