@dbmill doesnt CJ usually interview coaches to get their preview as well? Those would wet the appetite to hear what progress has been made in offseason and what newcomers have caught their eye.
I would expect the CJ preview interviews with the coaches to start showing up in February in the couple weeks before the season starts. Those interviews often contain some great nuggets of information.
I'm especially looking forward to the the preseason interviews with the coaches. While Coach Penders in a fall interview indicated this team has a lot of potential, there are also a lot of spots in the lineup and jobs on the pitching staff that are pretty unsettled. I'm looking forward to see what the coaches say in order to get an idea how all this will settle out. In the starting lineup, from what was said during fall ball it sounds like that with Pat Winkel out we can count on Paul Gozzo at catcher, Reggie Crawford will get a long look at 1B, with Chris Winkel in CF. If healthy, Christian Fedko will be at 2B, or at DH if his fielding doesn't please the coaching staff. That leaves five positions in the field or at DH to figure out, and it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
As for the pitching staff, it seems that the only sure thing is Caleb Wurster somewhere at the back end of the bullpen late in the game. Hoping the interviews might shed some light on who might be joining Wurster in late inning situations. If healthy, Justin Willis is likely to join him. As for the starters, nothing seems to be really all that settled, although I would guess Jimmy Wang is likely to be a weekend starter. Not sure who the other starters will be, but my best guess for weekends would be Joe Simeone based on his great run during summer ball, plus JUCO Nick Krauth. Colby Dunlop would be my guess for the main weekday starter. That is all purely a guess on my part at this point, until I hear something from the interviews. All of this could definitely change depending on the development of various pitchers, especially with the crop of freshmen that the coaching staff seemed pleased with during the fall.
Still, it hardly seems any of this is set in stone, and I'd like to listen to the interviews to see how all this is settling out. For this team to be successful and make a run at the NCAA tournament, a number of players, whether they are new to the team or returning from last season are really going to have to have to step up their game. The injury to Pat Winkel really robbed this team of any returning big time star power in the lineup (Christian Fedko comes closest to fitting that bill).
