Elliott Avent Looks Ahead to 2020 Baseball Season
Coach Elliott Avent and his NC State baseball team began practice for the 2020 season on Friday, looking to return to the NCAA tournament for the 14th time in the past 15 seasons.
The Wolfpack returns a solid nucleus of players, led by preseason All-American Patrick Bailey, and has added a number of newcomers who will be counted on to contribute right away and fill several key holes in the lineup.
Avent met with the media before practice to talk about the upcoming season, which begins on Feb. 14 against James Madison.
Here's what he had to say, starting with a look at who some of the new players to watch will be ...
"Jose Torres is a new guy that they should look at. He was a highly touted player out of high school for the Major League draft. He comes in with a lot of promise. Autin Murr is a junior college guy out of Minnesota who has come here with a lot of energy, and he looks like he is going to be a big help to us.
"We’ve got some local guys: Sam Highfill, Chris Villaman from High Point, Matt Willadsen, Logan Bender.We’ve got a lot of local guys that fans have probably seen here play, and now they’re going to get a chance to see them again. We’ve got some good young talent, but young talent takes time to grow. Hopefully the leadership on this team, and the way this team has bonded together since they’ve been here since August, is going to help this team to grow."
Avent was asked about the importance of a talented veteran catcher such as Bailey can have on a young pitching staff:
"He means a lot. You cannot minimize what that does for a pitching staff. Every catcher I’ve ever known that is a good catcher makes a pitcher better. If he takes it to heart and does what he’s supposed to do, hopefully Pat can relax this year.
"It’s a big year for him. Obviously there are a lot of eyes on him, he gets all kinds of accolades. There’s so much money in the draft now, so that’s got to be in a young man’s mind. He’s going to have to relax with all that stuff and learn out here and have fun so his skills can show and not feel any of the eyes on him. We had our first practice today and we changed it to 11:30 because of the weather, and you look behind the screen for the first pitch and there’s 20 scouts back there.
Avent said he has yet to decide on which pitchers will make up the starting rotation and which will come out of the bullpen ...
"We don’t have a set plan right now. We’ve got to narrow down some things, and the pitchers will show us where their strengths lie and where they will fit in on the team. We have a lot of guys that are versatile like Reid Johnston, Dalton Feeney, Cam Cotter. We have a lot of guys that are versatile and can fill any role on our team, so we’ll see what’s best for the team and how it fits for them. Right now, we’ll see how that works out."
Avent was asked what Tyler McDonough needs to do in order to improve on a successful freshman season and help fill the void left by the departure of MLB draft picks Will Wilson and Evan Edwards ...
'I don’t think he needs to do anything to elevate his game. What’s going to be tough for McDonough is that last year we had Will Wilson and Evan Edwards who were the two guys when you read our scouting reports that you know you can’t let these two guys beat you, and Pat Bailey and Tyler McDonough were able to sit down in the background a little bit and flourish from that.
"When you read the scouting report for NC State this year it’s going to be saying don’t let Tyler McDonough and Pat Bailey beat you. What we’re going to have to do is have some guys step up around them and allow them to try and flourish in this game without getting pitched around too bad. We’re going to have some guys fill in their roles last year what they did for Will Wilson and Evan Edwards."
Avent was noncommital on what position McDonough, or anyone else for that matter, will play this season ...
"I don’t know, because he is such a versatile guy. If catchers keep going down, we lost [Luca] Tresh for awhile. He had surgery on his hand the other day, he’s out so that takes one of our catchers out. [McDonough] is also a catcher. We’re just trying to see where everyone can fit in. J.T. Jarrett has come back playing as well as he ever has since he’s been here, and he’s started a lot of games so he gives us another option at second base.
"McDonough can play second and play center, and he plays them both very, very well. So, I guess it depends on if we’re going to need another guy in the outfield or need another guy in the infield. It might be about how well Jarrett plays as opposed to how well a [Terrell] Tatum or Devonte Brown plays, or Jonny Butler, with where McDonough winds up."