All of the information below is EXACTLY what I posted for our premium subscribers earlier this afternoon. I hope you guys enjoy this as a little "sample" of the type of coverage you will get throughout baseball season if you become a premium subscriber to TexAgs.

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I hope you enjoy the interview (audio & written transcript) with head coach Rob Childress and my projected lineup, rotation, and bullpen for 2009.

Thank you.

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Childress Looking Forward to '09 Season - Click Here



Attached to the top of this thread is my Q&A (audio & written transcript) with Aggie Baseball coach Rob Childress. Today was the midway point in pre-season practice as top-ranked A&M gears up for the season opener on February 20.

***If you want to get fired up about an A&M sport, do yourself a favor and read or listen to Coach Childress talk about his team.***

Also, posted below is my updated "big board" or projected opening day lineup when the Aggies take the field on February 20. With so many interchangeable parts and still about 12 or 13 guys vying for early-season at bats, this is a difficult thing to do. Rather than breaking this thing down based on a lefty/righty matchup (because I don't think A&M will change much depending on who is on the mound...at least 6 guys will remain pretty much the same), I'm going to project the lineup into two groups:

GROUP 1: WHEN BROOKS RALEY IS NOT IN THE ORDER.
GROUP 2: WHEN BROOKS RALEY IS IN THE ORDER.

LINEUP ONE:
1) Kyle Colligan--CF
2) Brodie Greene--2B
3) Luke Anders--1B
4) Nick Fleece--RF
5) Joe Patterson--DH
6) Dylan Petrich--LF
7) Nick Anders--3B
8) Adam Smith--SS
9) Kevin Gonzalez--C

LINEUP TWO:
1) Kyle Colligan--CF
2) Brooks Raley--RF
3) Brodie Greene--2B
4) Luke Anders--1B
5) Nick Fleece--LF
6) Joe Patterson--DH
7) Nick Anders--3B
8) Adam Smith--SS
9) Kevin Gonzalez--C

***THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:
-Joe Patterson can catch and give Gonzo a rest against right handed pitching. It helps that your number two catcher is a power hitter from the left side.
-If Petrich is hot, the coaches will find a way to keep him in the lineup.
-Fleece can play third base...Anders can play second base...Greene can play ANYWHERE. So they may tweak the defensive positions to suit their needs on that day.

There are certainly three or four other guys who feel they deserve a crack at the lineup and rightly so. I just feel like this is the direction that Childress and Co. might go right now if the season started today. I'm heading out to some practices later this week and will have another full-length report.

PITCHING:
Starters-
-Friday: Brooks Raley (LHP)
-Saturday: Barret Loux (RHP)
-Sunday: Alex Wilson (RHP...still battling with Ehlert)

-Tuesday: Clayton Ehlert (RHP...still battling with Wilson)
-Wednesday: Chad Sherman (RHP)

Bullpen-
-Closer: Travis Starling (RHP)
-Setup: Kyle Thebeau (RHP)
-Setup: Shane Minks (RHP)
-Setup: Hank Robertson (RHP)
-Lefty: Ross Hales (LHP)

-Denny Clement (RHP)
-Scott Migl (RHP)
-Nick Fleece (RHP)
-Estevan Uriegas (LHP)
-Tyler Dyer (LHP)
-Steve Martin (RHP)
-Ross Stripling (RHP)
-Adam Smith (RHP)

Expect a comprehensive season preview sometime next week...leading into the Wright State opener February 20 at Olsen Field.

Enjoy the Q&A guys...thanks a lot!

gabe,

Loved the interview. In fact tonight I'm going to play it for my 10-year-old son who is playing 11U for a coach that reminds me a lot of Childress in his attitude and approach. first thing out of his mouth was that we may not be the most talented but we will be the best conditioned team in any tournament we play in. And true to form they have worked harder than any 11U team I've ever seen. They have a ton of fun but they work very hard as a team. I've told him that I think this guy is a lot like Childress which motivates him since he wants to play for RC one day. I think listening to this and hearing RC say some of the same things Cookie says will be good for him.

Great stuff.

Thanks Loyal...and good call. Rob Childress is a good example for any young baseball player.

gabe - good stuff

love RC's attitude - 56-0

quote:

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first thing out of his mouth was that we may not be the most talented but we will be the best conditioned team in any tournament we play in.

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Unfortunately I had a coach who thought that meant running on a track until we puked instead of playing soft toss until our hands bled.

I played this for Kyle last night and just told him to listen and see if it sounded like anything he'd heard before. Almost immediately his eyes got big and he said, "Cookie told us exactly that at the first practice and he says it at the start of every practice." He tells them every day that every one of them can start on this team but that three will not. Those that work hard on every play will start.

94

I hear that kind of stuff all the time from my friends with kids in other programs around here. As a parent of a kid playing for a coach like this I was concerned about how that message would translate to how they practiced. But I have to say that they really don't run for running sake very often. They practice at a fast pace and they do it for about three hours at a time. There is little down time but they are fielding and throwing the whole time. Right now (pre-season) they work about five hours a week and one of those is spent on strength and conditioning. Even that is explosive work such as standing flat footed and leaping over a 2-foot hurdle while holding an 8-pound medicine ball. By the way my son only weighs 65 pounds so that was entertaining. that's A LOT of extra weight for a kid his size. We have our first tournament next weekend so we'll see how it goes. This is a new team so it may take awhile for them to win their first game but that aside I do feel like he's being VERY well coached at this point. Far better than he got in 9U under his dad.