Coach J.D. Arteaga joined the CanesInSight Podcast to discuss the latest with Canes Baseball coming off an up-and-down week. A transcript of the discussion is below:
DMoney: Coach, great win yesterday, 9–5 on the road against UCF. This has been a tough program for you guys for a long time, tough program for a lot of teams. What did you see last night in the win?
J.D. Arteaga: It was a gritty team effort, man. We used a lot of pitchers, a lot of arms, and that was kind of the plan going in. Nobody was going to go more than two innings. The only thing that didn’t go to plan was having to use ***** [Bradley-Cooney] more than one inning. Those last three guys you really wanted to go no more than one inning—Dorn, *****, and Bilka at the end. But when you’re on the road and you fall behind, it becomes an eight-inning game pitching-wise. So we decided to go to ***** in the seventh inning and he did a great job for us.
DMoney: Is that the plan going forward—to do that whole staff approach on Wednesdays where a lot of guys pitch—or was that just for this particular game?
J.D. Arteaga: Hopefully not. It’s not ideal. That fourth starter—you can do that and get away with it during the season, but come playoff time, postseason, that fourth starter is key. You saw it last year at Southern Miss. You’ve got to have a guy that can go five, six innings if needed. You can’t not do it all year and expect them to do it in June. Ideally we want four starters and have the bullpen set up and everybody have their roles. That’s probably the biggest challenge right now in the bullpen—just the consistency with some of the young guys and really throwing strikes. You’re going to give up hits, but I’d like to see our guys throwing more strikes, challenging hitters, and being okay with contact. Just attack the strike zone.
DMoney: We had a few guys from our website out there and they said it was a pretty hostile crowd by the dugout. What was the environment like for a midweek road game?
J.D. Arteaga: It’s always the case. When you come here, when you go to South Florida, FIU, FAU—it’s always their biggest crowd of the year. Like I told the team before the game yesterday, they’re all here to see us. They’re not here to see the home team. That’s why it’s always their biggest crowd. The message was let’s give them a show. Give them something to talk about tomorrow. It was a fun atmosphere. I love that stuff. There’s nothing better than a quiet road stadium after you silence the crowd.
DMoney: Do you actually hear the stuff people are yelling or does it just blend into the background?
J.D. Arteaga: You shouldn’t hear specifics. It’s just noise, like background noise. Sometimes between innings they’re right over the dugout so you hear some things, but during the game it’s just noise.
DMoney: You had strong words for the team after the BC series. What did you see from the team in terms of their reaction?
J.D. Arteaga: It’s one game at a time. That Friday game hurt the most because we were in position to win. When things go your way and the script is set—you go into the ninth inning up two runs with your closer on the mound—those are games you have to win. That’s why that one hurt so much. But we responded Saturday. Sundays was just one of those games. As long as we show up every day with the mentality of 0–0 and just win that day, that’s what matters. Someone mentioned we were 2-4 in the last six games. If you look at it like that, you start getting into a rut. The reality is the last six games don’t matter. After Sunday we were 0–1 that day. Now we beat UCF and we’re 1–0 again.
DMoney: Your freshman catcher Alonzo Alvarez—it feels like he does a lot of different things for you guys offensively. What are you seeing from him?
J.D. Arteaga: He’s a freshman, right? So he’s going to have stretches where the game speeds up on him a little bit. He had that against Florida and Boston College. We gave him a couple days off and he looked really good last night—caught well, threw the ball well, threw out a guy stealing, swung the bat well. But he’s still very green at the position. In travel ball he caught a lot, but in high school he actually played shortstop because they needed one. Catching is a really tough position, especially for a freshman. But he’s done a great job and he’s going to be a great player.
DMoney: How do you see the lineup evolving as you head into Duke?
J.D. Arteaga: There aren’t many changes. The one guy you might see in and out is Peralta in the outfield and possibly Williams at DH. That’s really the only change you might see. With Max Galvin out right now, the lineup you’re seeing is probably going to be pretty stable.
DMoney: What’s the timeline for getting some of those arms back—Menendez and Roberts?
J.D. Arteaga: Those two guys would definitely be a boost to any staff. Frank is about two weeks out. We’re targeting the FAU game before the Clemson trip to get him an inning just to get him back into the swing of things. Then he’ll be in the bullpen that weekend. Nick Robert is about three weeks behind him. When we get those guys back, it’ll make a big difference. Whether it’s bullpen or rotation, they’re going to play big roles.
DMoney: Rob Evans has really developed into a rock for you guys. What stands out about his growth?
J.D. Arteaga: He’s healthy, first of all. The guy we saw early last year wasn’t the guy you see today. He was our best guy all fall and all spring. He throws strikes, gets the ball down, gets ground balls. That’s something we need more of. We don’t throw many ground balls. I think we only had our second double play of the year yesterday. We’ve got a good defense behind us—good athletes in the outfield who can throw. We’ve got to trust the defense and not try to miss so many bats.
DMoney: Duke looks different this year with coaching and roster turnover. How do you scout a team like that?
J.D. Arteaga: There’s plenty of analytics and video now. Nobody sneaks up on you anymore. We know exactly what they have. They’re gritty, they run a lot, they do the little things and they’re well coached. Like any weekend in the ACC, if you don’t show up you’re going to get beat. But what matters most is how we play.
DMoney: Do you have the Sunday starter lined up yet?
J.D. Arteaga: Not yet. It’ll be TBA. It probably won’t be Tate DeRias, but we’re still evaluating. What you see on tape is one thing. What you see live is another. We’ll see how things match up and decide from there.
DMoney: As you head to Durham, what specifically do you want to see improved?
J.D. Arteaga: The obvious is the bullpen—guys attacking the zone and forcing contact. Early contact, bad contact. Offensively, I’d like to see a better approach. Sometimes we fall into stretches of uncompetitive at-bats where we’re trying to hit everything. If a guy has four pitches, we’re trying to hit all four and cover the whole plate. We need to be more selective and stick to a plan. The strength of our lineup is one through nine we can wear pitchers down. But that only works if we have a plan and stick to it.
DMoney: Coach, great win yesterday, 9–5 on the road against UCF. This has been a tough program for you guys for a long time, tough program for a lot of teams. What did you see last night in the win?
J.D. Arteaga: It was a gritty team effort, man. We used a lot of pitchers, a lot of arms, and that was kind of the plan going in. Nobody was going to go more than two innings. The only thing that didn’t go to plan was having to use ***** [Bradley-Cooney] more than one inning. Those last three guys you really wanted to go no more than one inning—Dorn, *****, and Bilka at the end. But when you’re on the road and you fall behind, it becomes an eight-inning game pitching-wise. So we decided to go to ***** in the seventh inning and he did a great job for us.
DMoney: Is that the plan going forward—to do that whole staff approach on Wednesdays where a lot of guys pitch—or was that just for this particular game?
J.D. Arteaga: Hopefully not. It’s not ideal. That fourth starter—you can do that and get away with it during the season, but come playoff time, postseason, that fourth starter is key. You saw it last year at Southern Miss. You’ve got to have a guy that can go five, six innings if needed. You can’t not do it all year and expect them to do it in June. Ideally we want four starters and have the bullpen set up and everybody have their roles. That’s probably the biggest challenge right now in the bullpen—just the consistency with some of the young guys and really throwing strikes. You’re going to give up hits, but I’d like to see our guys throwing more strikes, challenging hitters, and being okay with contact. Just attack the strike zone.
DMoney: We had a few guys from our website out there and they said it was a pretty hostile crowd by the dugout. What was the environment like for a midweek road game?
J.D. Arteaga: It’s always the case. When you come here, when you go to South Florida, FIU, FAU—it’s always their biggest crowd of the year. Like I told the team before the game yesterday, they’re all here to see us. They’re not here to see the home team. That’s why it’s always their biggest crowd. The message was let’s give them a show. Give them something to talk about tomorrow. It was a fun atmosphere. I love that stuff. There’s nothing better than a quiet road stadium after you silence the crowd.
DMoney: Do you actually hear the stuff people are yelling or does it just blend into the background?
J.D. Arteaga: You shouldn’t hear specifics. It’s just noise, like background noise. Sometimes between innings they’re right over the dugout so you hear some things, but during the game it’s just noise.
DMoney: You had strong words for the team after the BC series. What did you see from the team in terms of their reaction?
J.D. Arteaga: It’s one game at a time. That Friday game hurt the most because we were in position to win. When things go your way and the script is set—you go into the ninth inning up two runs with your closer on the mound—those are games you have to win. That’s why that one hurt so much. But we responded Saturday. Sundays was just one of those games. As long as we show up every day with the mentality of 0–0 and just win that day, that’s what matters. Someone mentioned we were 2-4 in the last six games. If you look at it like that, you start getting into a rut. The reality is the last six games don’t matter. After Sunday we were 0–1 that day. Now we beat UCF and we’re 1–0 again.
DMoney: Your freshman catcher Alonzo Alvarez—it feels like he does a lot of different things for you guys offensively. What are you seeing from him?
J.D. Arteaga: He’s a freshman, right? So he’s going to have stretches where the game speeds up on him a little bit. He had that against Florida and Boston College. We gave him a couple days off and he looked really good last night—caught well, threw the ball well, threw out a guy stealing, swung the bat well. But he’s still very green at the position. In travel ball he caught a lot, but in high school he actually played shortstop because they needed one. Catching is a really tough position, especially for a freshman. But he’s done a great job and he’s going to be a great player.
DMoney: How do you see the lineup evolving as you head into Duke?
J.D. Arteaga: There aren’t many changes. The one guy you might see in and out is Peralta in the outfield and possibly Williams at DH. That’s really the only change you might see. With Max Galvin out right now, the lineup you’re seeing is probably going to be pretty stable.
DMoney: What’s the timeline for getting some of those arms back—Menendez and Roberts?
J.D. Arteaga: Those two guys would definitely be a boost to any staff. Frank is about two weeks out. We’re targeting the FAU game before the Clemson trip to get him an inning just to get him back into the swing of things. Then he’ll be in the bullpen that weekend. Nick Robert is about three weeks behind him. When we get those guys back, it’ll make a big difference. Whether it’s bullpen or rotation, they’re going to play big roles.
DMoney: Rob Evans has really developed into a rock for you guys. What stands out about his growth?
J.D. Arteaga: He’s healthy, first of all. The guy we saw early last year wasn’t the guy you see today. He was our best guy all fall and all spring. He throws strikes, gets the ball down, gets ground balls. That’s something we need more of. We don’t throw many ground balls. I think we only had our second double play of the year yesterday. We’ve got a good defense behind us—good athletes in the outfield who can throw. We’ve got to trust the defense and not try to miss so many bats.
DMoney: Duke looks different this year with coaching and roster turnover. How do you scout a team like that?
J.D. Arteaga: There’s plenty of analytics and video now. Nobody sneaks up on you anymore. We know exactly what they have. They’re gritty, they run a lot, they do the little things and they’re well coached. Like any weekend in the ACC, if you don’t show up you’re going to get beat. But what matters most is how we play.
DMoney: Do you have the Sunday starter lined up yet?
J.D. Arteaga: Not yet. It’ll be TBA. It probably won’t be Tate DeRias, but we’re still evaluating. What you see on tape is one thing. What you see live is another. We’ll see how things match up and decide from there.
DMoney: As you head to Durham, what specifically do you want to see improved?
J.D. Arteaga: The obvious is the bullpen—guys attacking the zone and forcing contact. Early contact, bad contact. Offensively, I’d like to see a better approach. Sometimes we fall into stretches of uncompetitive at-bats where we’re trying to hit everything. If a guy has four pitches, we’re trying to hit all four and cover the whole plate. We need to be more selective and stick to a plan. The strength of our lineup is one through nine we can wear pitchers down. But that only works if we have a plan and stick to it.
