ball5podcast/Pitching Coach/College World Series

Tune in as Scott gives his take on the new Aggie Pitching Coach Barry Enright and how he feels this is a good move in order to strengthen the pitching staff as well as the trust the coach and player must be willing to achieve. Scott also picks his winners for each bracket in the College World Series as well as his pick for the eventual winner. He also ask what are you watching more: College World Series or the World Cup? Enjoy....

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Hey everybody, thanks for joining the Bob Five Podcast. I'm your host, Scott Livingstone, and we had a little scheduling conflict, little snafu, if you will, uh, with my interview uh guest this week. But I did want to jump on here for just kind of a brief episode, if you will. I've been getting some questions about the pitching coach that was hired at uh Texas AM, as well as uh my thoughts on the College World series. So let's just dive into it. So Barry Enright uh was hired, uh, coach early, had extensive interviews with a bunch of different people, from what I understand. And I think um they ended up with Barry Enright, I think it was a good choice. He was uh I think he pitched with the Angels. I'm not exactly sure, but I don't have any notes in front of me, but um Oakland A's, I think he was the director of pitching uh currently, been with the Diamondbacks. Uh, like I said, I think he pitched in the big leagues with the Angels, worked a little bit with them. So I reached out to my uh buddy Shortstop, you guys might know our All-American Shortstop back in the day, Ever Maggianis, who works in the Angels organization, and I asked him about him. And he knows of him, and he knows people that know him, and said that he's probably an outstanding pick. Great guy, um understands a little bit of old school and the analytics that uh that people look at today. So I think a good mixture, that's what they're looking for. And I think we might have taken a playbook out of getting uh when we got coach uh Max Wiener, who's now at UT, and um, you know, getting that minor league guy that's got some big league experience uh as far as coaching and in rights played a little bit. But to me, if you saw my my last one, I wanted to talk about the guy that was in the building. You know, I called it the man in the box, you know, like the top gun maverick uh you know, kind of take on that. But I think I mean I think it's good. I really do. And you know, I think it's kind of I mean, what do you say? Throw strikes, right? Throw strikes, put it over the plate, throw everything for strikes. So I think, you know, any of us can do that, right? We can just tell the guys to do that. But I think getting inside the new building, having the right coach there, uh, that understands the analytics, the new wave that's going on with pitchers and so forth, pitching labs. I think he's gonna be really good. Um, I think now we kind of have a three-headed monster, if you will. I mean, we have a hitting guy and coach early that's outstanding. Uh base running and defensive fielding, whatever you want to say, uh, with Coach Pennington. And now with uh Coach Enright as far as the pitching. I think he's gonna be great. Um I totally believe whatever says, good friend of mine, and and uh he wouldn't he wouldn't lie to me. I know he wouldn't. But uh I think it's a good I think it's gonna end up being a good pick. Like anything else, you you just don't know. I mean, is he gonna take some of our guys that throw 92 and make them throw 99? I don't know. But I think a lot of it comes down to the relationship to believing in uh the coach, believing in the player. I mean, it's a two-way street. These guys got to respect him, he's got to respect them, they got to listen to each other, feed off of each other, and just have good dialogue and just talk back and forth with each other and just you know have that communication that's needed. Can he, you know, get in that building, our new players uh pitcher's lab, and you know, make it make sense to these guys. You're you know, however you're throwing. And I'm not a pitching guy, so I could be totally off base here, but I just feel like I think it's a good pick. I really do, because I think it's a good mixture. I know how I am as like a professional guy. If I was a hitter going in, yeah, I've been at the top level, but it's also kind of communication. You know how to deal with a lot of different people and a lot of different uh, you know, attitudes, if you will, and start to kind of, you know, you you you can't treat everybody just the exact same. So you have to kind of balance that out about who you're talking to at that point, you know, what what what clicks with them? What's what's that what's that phrase or that word or that analytic that clicks with that pitcher and just have the communication back and forth and have the trust. And I think I think he's actually gonna come in, he's gonna have the respect of already being at a higher level than college. And not to say that you know they're all better than college coaches, no, far from that. But I think it's a situation where he's gonna have that respect right away. Guys are gonna listen to him, they're gonna believe in him. And then if it you know translates to performance, then it's just gonna be great. So I think it's I like the mixture of the hire. I mean, it worked with Coach Wiener um when he was here, and so hopefully, you know, like I said, we took a page out of that playbook. So hopefully it's it's gonna work out the same way. So I like it, but let's see what happens. I mean, we'll see what happens with uh if they can put everything together. I just like I said, I think it's gonna be a little bit about relationships and believing in each other and trusting each other. So, and I think he'll have that right when he steps in the building or on the field, and then can he maintain that and prove it to the players? And can the players prove to him that they can listen and make adjustments and stuff like that? So I think it's gonna be good. I think it's good timing now because the transfer portal still, I think, has like two weeks left, maybe. So I think uh yeah, I think I think it's good timing to get these guys going because I haven't seen a lot of pitching commit out of the portal yet. I know we picked up an arm here recently, but um yeah, I think I think it's gonna be good. So I think it's good timing. I don't, I think they, you know, they didn't rush into anything, and I I think that that's a good thing. They didn't rush to make it just because the portal was opening and they wanted to make a good decision. And like I said, man, it's three-headed monster. I think it's uh sets up well for the future. So we'll see. Got a got some major bang in that lineup to replace. Now we don't know who's gonna leave with the draft. I know Dewar's trying for an extra round of eligibility, but we know our our three-headed monsters at the top are they gone, man. They're gone. Bear's probably gone. Dewer, we don't know yet. So there's gonna have to be some offense there too, but the pitching is definitely gonna have to step up because you're not gonna have the bang in the lineup that you had the last couple years that you could rely on. So to be able to sit there and bring a guy in, like I said in the past, bring like a Cortez or somebody in and shut them down while our offense catches up, may not have that luxury, but we might. We'll just have to see what happens in the portal, what happens with the freshman incoming. Maybe we got another Kelner, partita, another Jorian Wilson. We don't know yet. So coaches know, they have an idea. So we'll see what they uh what they come up with. So it should be fun. Uh next other thing I would got asked about was who I thought was going to win the College World Series. Well, everybody had UCLA picked, right? So uh I had them picked too. I figure they'd, you know, go all the way from wire to wire. But you know, when I look at the brackets and I see uh Georgia playing Texas, OU playing Alabama. I know Troy right now is playing West Virginia, and I love the Mountaineers, man. I love their stadium, I love the fire and their kids, and of course, all the you know, all the teams have that. And uh I just I feel like, you know, and don't let me forget, you know, North Carolina and um golly, who's North Carolina playing? I can't remember. But anyway, I think it's a situation where oh, they're playing Ole Miss. So man, I like Ole Miss, but North Carolina's pitching and bullpen is tough. I don't know if Ole Miss has the the hitters to do it. Um, but Troy and Alabama, like I said, have started right now. I mean, I'm sorry, Troy and uh West Virginia, and I think it's a situation where I'm gonna take the Mountaineers in the first game. Um Ole Miss. Oh man, I'd love to take them against North Carolina, but I just think North Carolina's got too much pitching for them and just enough hitting to get it done. But Ole Miss has some good arms, so that's gonna be a good uh good game tonight. So on the other side of the bracket, oh uh OU and Alabama. I like Alabama, man. I I think I'm gonna take Alabama. I like I think it's Tyler Faye, maybe their starting pitcher. I like him. Um golly, man. Texas and Georgia, oosh. Valantis, I think, is throwing, and that lineup over there with the Rhino, Daniel Jackson. Golly, man. That's a tough one, but man, I don't want to pick Texas. But I'm gonna go ahead and go with Georgia. What the heck, man? I'm gonna go with Georgia. Um, I'm I think they're gonna come out of that bracket, and then I'm gonna go with North Carolina. I think I kind of like North Carolina coming out of the other bracket, and to win the whole thing, man, I think I'm gonna go Georgia. Georgia's gonna be my pick. It's kind of the easy pick, right? Everybody can just be like, oh, Georgia, they did it. You know, they won the SEC by like what, five? Five maybe. But uh yeah, so that's gonna be my picks. I I think it's gonna be a good series. I really like seeing Troy and West Virginia in there. Um, of course, I like to see the Aggies in there, but didn't work out. Uh, but I I don't know. I I just think Georgia's gonna be there in the end, but I do like North Carolina, a little sleeper. They might be my sleeper there. So I do want to uh the last thing, I don't know if you guys know this, but there's this bar in Omaha. It's called Rocco's. So what they do, and I got my piece of paper here, they do a Rocco's Jello Shot Challenge. So they put it up on the board, they have all the teams listed. Uh, everyone's in the in the College World Series, and people come to that bar and they take they buy jello shots. And every time they buy one, I think it's a it's a five dollar shot, but it's a donation to something. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but they donate the money from the challenge, and so you can figure out the money number. I mean, it's five bucks for each shot. So this is this morning that I saw on Instagram, and you can go to like Rocco's of Omaha or something if you want to follow it on Instagram. West Virginia, they haven't even played yet, they're playing now, but this was this morning 7,911 jello shots already. Troy, 1,127, Ole Miss, 2,088. So they're actually in second. Uh let's see, who's next? North Carolina, 505, Texas, 353, OU, oh I'm sorry, Georgia has 257, OU, 224, and Alabama has 195. So I mean, before this all started, I was gonna bet on the Mountaineers. Reason being, I know Pat McAfee with his new contract, I think like $30 million a year or something, he's gonna be getting. He's probably buying shots for all those Mountaineers, I'm assuming. Uh, I don't know if he went to West Virginia, he likes West Virginia, whatever the case may be. Um, I'm not giving up on Ole Miss, though. I kind of got a feeling, even though they're down by 5,000 shots, I think it comes down to who's gonna be there the longest. Is Ole Miss gonna be there longer than West Virginia? And I mean, we might have a sleeper in there, Troy, but how long are they gonna be in Omaha? It just depends a lot of times. If you play all the way through, your fans are gonna be there, they're gonna be visiting Rocco's and they're gonna want to see that, you know, them skyrocket. They want to win. Everybody wants to win something, right? Win the College World Series. If you can't win the College World Series, you might as well win Rocco's Jell O Shot Challenge, right? So that's gonna be kind of interesting to watch. It's kind of been a thing that I've just taken note of over here the last couple years, and so you can, like I said, Rocco's Omaha might be their handle on Instagram, but you can go check that out. So uh yeah, Mountaineers, man, almost 8,000 before the tournament even started. So to me, that's crazy. But uh yeah, so that's kind of my pick. I feel like Georgia's gonna win the whole thing, but that's kind of an easy pick. North Carolina's not as sexy a pick, but you know what? I I think they got the bullpen too. But golly, all these teams, man, you you look at them, and I think that's why it hopefully bodes well for the Aggs is pitching. The reason I'm looking at these teams is Georgia, yes, they can bang the ball out of the ballpark, they can hit like crazy, but they can pitch too. Ole Miss can pitch. North Carolina can pitch, Texas can pitch. OU's got good arms as well. Alabama, you know, West Virginia. I hadn't really seen them a whole lot, but you know, I'm not sure how much good pitching they have, but we'll see. But I mean, you kind of get the you know, uh, the the pattern here. You know, they can hit a little bit, but they can pitch. And they got some arms that are crazy. So hopefully, like I said before, Barry Enright's gonna be a great uh addition to the staff, and and uh it's just kind of a wait and see right now. So anyway, I uh appreciate you listening. And I wanted to jump on here real quick. I know, like I said, the interview guests kind of fell through with a scheduling issue, but hey, it's life, man. We all have we all have to deal with life, right? So no worries, we'll catch up, reschedule, and uh have them on and uh just get them here for you to listen to. So anyway, thanks again for listening. I appreciate it. And uh let's go check out the World Series. Oh, one thing I want to ask you though, the World Series, tell me who you're gonna watch. You're gonna watch the College World Series or are you gonna watch the World Cup? Which one's it gonna be? Let me know. All right. Thanks for listening. Until next time.