Takeaways: Red Raiders excited to start baseball season

Texas Tech baseball began its first day of practice as the Red Raiders look to have another successful season after making a College World Series appearance last year. The Red Raiders begin the season against Oregon from Feb. 15-18, at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park. Head coach Tim Tadlock, junior outfielder/right-handed pitcher John McMillon and junior right-handed pitcher Caleb Kilian spoke with the media ahead of their first practice.

Tim Tadlock

- Starting off, Tadlock said the team is excited to get back to work today. “Opportunity to have the whole team on the field and I know the guys are excited about it.”

- Tadlock said it was nice to have players like McMillon, Kilian, Josh Jung and others come back to play baseball.

- Tadlock said the team strength right now this early in the season is team speed, good arms, “we ought to be able to defend a little bit.”

- The number one thing Tadlock said you want to have, though, is having the players excited to play baseball. “As long as they love playing and they get enjoyment out of it, we’re going to be just fine.”

- Six pitchers went in practice today with the others going through Pitchers’ Fielding Practice.

- Health-wise, everybody is fine.

- When asked whether he sees Gabe Holt as an infielder or an outfielder, Tadlock said he seems him as a great baseball player and has no reservations of keeping him in the infield.

- Regarding shortstop, Tadlock threw out the names Drew Baker, Dylan Neuse, Brian Klein, Jung, Easton Murrell and Parker Kelly. “It is carpet. We’re playing 30/40 games on carpet.”

- Both Arkansas transfers are eligible to play.

- For McMillon, Tadlock said he has tried talking him into swinging the bat but McMillon is set on being a full-time pitcher.

- For the outfield, Tadlock praised Tanner O’ Tremba’s ability in the right field. He also mentioned Cole Stilwell could play in the outfield as well if he had to.

- Tadlock said they did tell the players to stay away from the Lime scooters on campus.

John McMillon

- McMillon said it is still open for discussion whether he will hit or just stay on the mound. “It just came down to what the team needed more and I feel like, for this year’s team, I need to be the best pitcher I can be.”

- One of the things McMillon worked to clean up over the fall/summer was his mechanics and be more consistent on the mound.

- One guy that has stuck out to McMillon has been Taylor Floyd. “Junior college guys are tough. Mentally and physically and he’s a guy that’s going to challenge hitters, throws a lot of strikes, he’s got good stuff.”

- McMillon said it would hurt his feelings if the “Whammer” nickname was gone.

- Regrading Kilian, McMillon said he leads by example.

Caleb Kilian

- Kilian said there was a lot of reasons as to why he came back to play at Tech as he was drafted in the 20th Round by the Baltimore Orioles last season but chose to stay. “I loved it. I had the best time of my entire life last year and I hope to do that again.

- Kilian is also learning a new pitch, the slider and he said he hopes to throw that during the regular season. Right now, he is throwing it in the bullpens and planned on throwing it in the intersquad for today’s practice.

- Tanner Gardner was the one to teach him the slider.

- One of the things that he was told the most to improve on as a pitcher when he was making the decision to go to MLB or stay, was consistency. “If you out there and have a good game every time or have consistency with every pitch, every time, that’s when you get good results.”