Aggie Flashback with former A&M outfielder Daylan Holt

Key quotes from Daylan Holt interview

“Thank goodness for SEC Network. I am able to watch so many more games through that than I would have been able to otherwise. I have followed them quite a bit, mainly with that and when they got off to the start they did, through the watch ESPN app too.”

“Chicks dig the long ball, easiest way to put it. For me as a hitter, when you get into small ball and are bunting with a man on first, it takes the game out of it. You could see that there was a change of athletes when they changed things. There were a lot of shorter, faster guys, not power guys but gap guys that could put the ball in play and run and hit a gap. I don’t want to say that was a homerun, but that was the extent of the power. Something I get asked a lot is, 'What is the transition from aluminum when I played to wood?' I think that is the comparison these kids had to go through from junior high to high school or high school to college and that is a tough adjustment to make because you don’t really understand the contact point and how important that is.”

“We come back and do alumni games and this is the second time we have done it since the BBCOR bat was introduced and you can feel the difference. For me, it is very comparable to wood. You have to square it up on those 3-4 inches on the barrel or the bat or it’s just going to fly a little bit and then die.”

“We were playing Texas on Friday night and we got blown out by Bo Helm.  I knew he was getting into a routine. So by my third at bat he had thrown a first pitch fastball, second at bat he threw slider and third time he threw a fastball but then a guy got thrown out a third for the third out. So coming up again, I was sitting on a slider and was still out in front and pretty much one handed it out. The funny story is that Anderson was the pitching coach and Sam Anderson was the catcher and he said he got griped out for telling me what was coming. He goes, 'Did you not see how he hit the ball? He hit it with one hand on his front foot!' That is how bad the bats were. If you barreled it up, it was going to go.”

“The only question I have is, homeruns are up 30-40% which is great, but how far did they dip with the BBCOR bat? I don’t remember but it was dramatic. So with the new ball, if it would have swayed where it is purely offensive, that answer might not be solidified. But ERA and pitching hasn’t really changed. The homeruns are good, but it isn’t to a point where it is changing the game.”

“When you get a runner on second with nobody out and everyone is thinking, 'Bunt, bunt, bunt' That is not a lot of fun. Back in those days, they were playing for one run. They could win with one run.”

“I’m not really known for my defense, especially after my freshman year when the ball was hit to right field and the students gasped. The one thing Mark Johnson said after my sophomore year when he said I should’ve been the most improved player and I asked why he would say that and he said, 'Look at all the improvements you made defensively.' I was known for offense but I took a lot of pride in my defense and having a strong arm helped but I didn’t get a lot of respect for that.”

“If you look at the current pitching staff, the highest ERA of the weekend guys is 3.4. The strikeout to walk ratio ... these guys are pounding the zone and are dominating. That year in '99, we had a strong bullpen, now you have one guy that is in a four ERA and you have three or four guys with a 0.00 ERA. Even when your lead horses have a good outing, there is a lot of confidence in that pen and that gives Childress a lot of flexibility.”

“The Olsen Magic is starting to come back, especially this year and how good this team is. I think playing the Longhorns will be good. It will be good for the fans and for the student athletes to be able to say they played Texas. Compete against guys you played with growing up.”