MAILBAG: What should the expectation be for Gamecock Baseball in 2023?
You sent in your questions and Collyn Taylor and Kendall Smith are here to answer in today’s preseason Gamecock Baseball mailbag on Gamecock Central.
South Carolina will begin pre-season scrimmages next week, as they ready themselves for the 2023 season opener at 4:00 p.m. on February 17th against UMass Lowell.
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MORE Gamecock Baseball: Mark Kingston talks 2023 roster, pitching rotation, more ahead of preseason scrimmages
By Collyn Taylor
South Carolina baseball is just over a month from officially kicking things off.
The Gamecocks begin preseason scrimmages over the next few days with plenty still left to answer heading into the year.
Before scrimmages start, Mark Kingston recently went on 107.5 FM The Game with Jay Phillips and Terry Ford to preview it.
In his interview, Kingston spoke about South Carolina’s roster, the practice plan, a potential lineup and what looks to be a stacked Gamecocks’ pitching staff. Here are a few highlights from his interview.
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On the transfer portal and new faces on the roster
“Yeah, that is a reality in college sports these days. That probably won’t go away as we move forward with the transfer portal, NIL, roster turnover. It’s here to stay at all sports and all schools. We are well past (getting to know each other) with our team right now. We did a tremendous job of doing all the get-to-know-each-others and who is that and what’s he made of and what makes him tick, we spent a lot of time doing that in the fall starting the first day we were together.
Luckily we’re to the point of who should hit where in the lineup, who’s going to platoon, who’s going to be an everyday starter, who should be the Saturday starter, all those things. We’re in a really good place, a really good place. But it was a challenge. It’ll be a challenge for every coach and every team and every player moving forward. There will always be some level of uncertainty for everybody because of the system now in place.”
On trying to move past pitching injuries in 2022
“We’re all very familiar with the phrase once bitten, twice shy. Once you go through a season where it’s incredible how often the athletic trainer said, ‘Hey we have another injury.’ Once you go through that as a coach you’re a little scarred for life and hope today’s not the day we get another report. Cause last year it happened so much. You have to move past it and focus on today and a positive outlook and hope the law of averages says that was our year to be extremely unlucky and unfortunate. You just hope you don’t have to endure that hopefully for the next 10 to 15 years.”
On if the development plan changes because of the portal
“I think you have to have a really good investment as a coach in that coach-to-player relationship. I think you have to really do a good job of understanding you will have a lot of players at different levels and chapters in their development. If you have an 18-year-old kid who just joined your program, you can really mold him and bring him up in your system and program and bring him along for two to three years, and four in some cases. When you bring in a portal guy, that process is probably already 80 percent complete and you’re getting a player you can plug into your team and into your needs.
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Whether you change your practice to make it more individual-based or whether you spend more time outside of team settings and focus on individual things. A fifth-year transfer will have different needs than a first-year freshman. It’s just the way it is. You can knock your head against the wall and say, ‘Man, this is too hard and there’s no way to do it.’ or you can get creative and tailor some more things to the individual than you had to in the past and still get to a really good spot.
The coaching staff has done a nice job of understanding and presenting it to the team what our core values are and what philosophies we’re going to base everything on but give guys a lot of individual attention based on where they are in their process. That’s what you’re going to have to do if you want to have success in this model. That’s how you’re going to have to operate.”
On South Carolina’s rotation, pitching staff
“I couldn’t be more excited about this group we have on the mound. After what we went through last year–and I’m not going to belabor last year because we’re all ready to move on from it–when I look at our staff this year I look at potentially five or six major leaguers on this staff. Which ones get to be weekend starters in 2023? Which ones are key bullpen guys and Tuesday guys? That is going to be determined over the next three to four weeks before the season starts.
And also we’ll evaluate as we go. As you know, last year (Matthew) Becker was a starter and reliever. That happens over the years where guys’ roles change as the season goes. You’re looking at the Sanders of the world and Noah Hall. those are two of the better pitchers in the SEC, which means they’re two of the better pitchers in the country. Jack Mahoney has come back off of his injury and looked extremely good in our workouts. In fall ball he was up to 97 miles per hour and we anticipate he’ll be a tick above that once it gets warm and the adrenaline is going.
Eli Jerzembeck is a freshman who has electric stuff, maybe the best stuff on the team if you can believe that on a team that has Hall and Sanders and Mahoney. Then James hicks is another guy who turned down six figures from the Baltimore Orioles in the draft last year to come back and continue to develop and get better. He felt like he had unfinished business. You really have six guys there who are all high-level prospects all fighting for those three or four spots in the rotation. Then I look at our bullpen as a strength as well. I feel really good about where that pitching staff is.”
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On how many spots in the Gamecocks’ lineup are set
“On the record and in public, I’m going to say every spot is up for grabs because we want guys to continue to work hard. I won’t give you the exact number. But we do have some guys who have really elevated themselves, whether it’s returning players who were much better than last year, whether it’s transfer portal guys who have come in and been the best at their position. I think a lot of guys on the team kind of know where they stand.
At the end of the fall, we did a post-fall survey with all the players and asked them a number of different questions. One of them was to write out your starting lineup if you were a coach. We got a feel for where guys thought the outfield should be, where the infield should look like, who’s the best catcher.
It’s good to see where the guys’ heads are and what they think and where it matches up with what the coaches have seen and where it doesn’t. That’s all part of the process. But I would say we have a pretty darn good handle on who the guys are going to be out there on Opening Day. But it’s not nine, I can tell you that. It’s somewhere between one and nine but closer to nine.”
On the NCAA allowing a third paid assistant coach
“It’s important. They’ve used the word volunteer to describe the word assistant for quite some time now. That was an insult to every coach that was in that (role). And at one point I was. That’s how I broke into the business. There’s nothing volunteer about it. The schools just aren’t able to pay coaches. The hours were full-time hours. The effort and investment were full-time.
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The fact it had been called a volunteer for so long really was an insult to all the people who went through it. But as we move forward to July 1 of 2023, that name goes away and all the schools can provide funding and benefits for that third assistant coach like they should have been doing all along.
It’s really good for our profession and provides more jobs and the coach-to-player ratio in baseball gets a little closer in line with the other sports. I think we’re still towards the bottom in that ratio but at least it puts us in a better spot than we were.”
On South Carolina’s first-pitch banquet
“I just want to extend an invitation to anyone out there–fans and alumni–we’re having a First Pitch Banquet Feb. 8. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the program starts at 6:30 p.m. It should be a great event. Our whole team will be there. We’ll sign autographs, there will be a silent auction.
The guest speakers will be coach (Ray) Tanner and Christian Walker. As we know he’s become a superstar in pro baseball and a proud Gamecock who works out here in the offseason. It should be a great night. You can go to GamecocksOnline to get tickets. They’re going fast.
I think it should be a tremendous event to celebrate Gamecock baseball with a little bit of the history and a little bit of the future of this team. It’ll be a fun team to watch so this will be a great chance to get to know them on a personal level before the season starts.”
