J.D. Arteaga joined DMoney on the latest episode of the Coach J.D. Arteaga Show powered by Sallah, Astarita & Cox to break down Miami’s midweek win over FAU and the upcoming Cal series. The transcript is below:
DMoney: We are here with Coach Arteaga coming off another series win and another midweek win.
You guys had a couple bases-loaded jams, got out of some mistakes, some base-running errors, kind of hung around, and then the grit and toughness of this team showed up there at the end to pull it out against a very game opponent. What did you see in the game against FAU?
J.D. Arteaga: Just that we should have turned four double plays. We had one in the first inning, one in the seventh or eighth inning, but we had two in the middle that really cost us four runs, to be honest with you. Ogden had one that kind of bounced, came up on him and bounced over his head, and then an inning or two later one stayed down underneath Vance’s glove. So it’s tough when you see one ball bounce over your second baseman’s head and then he gives one hit to you and it stays down on you. But we’ve got to make those plays. We’ve got to make those plays, turn those double plays. Seabass [Santos-Olson] made some good pitches there to get out of those jams, and we’ve just got to make the play and turn it. At the end of the day, like you said, we pulled it off, stayed stuck with it. Really good energy in the dugout yesterday early and late. The middle kind of died down a little bit. But when we needed it most, Alan came through. Everyone talks about our hitting and how good it is, and a simple safety squeeze wins the game for us. So I love it.
DMoney: I was going to ask you. I know that was your favorite play of the day right there because that was really well done. He got on base too. That was a well-executed play by exactly who you’d expect to execute at a high level.
J.D. Arteaga: You know, it’s funny, that play is next to unstoppable. You’re going to score a run. You get it down soft enough, worst case scenario they throw you out at first base and you get a run in and move a guy over into scoring position with one out. So it’s a win-win. You just have to get it down. It was a perfect bunt where the catcher had to come out and get it. There’s no play at the plate. I think Vance crossed the plate before the catcher even got to the ball. So it was a great read on Vance’s part. Then Ogden beats the throw to first base and we’ve got first and second and one out. It’s just a great play and a tough play to defend.
DMoney: I want to ask about two guys that were really heroes yesterday and just unbelievable out of the bullpen, starting with ***** Bradley Cooney and then Lyndon Glidewell. What they brought to this game, and what we might see from them moving forward based on what PY did and then what Glidewell has been doing with his hot hand?
J.D. Arteaga: More of what we saw yesterday. On Glidewell’s side, more of what we saw yesterday and this weekend. He probably should have gotten the save on Saturday. Just the situation that came up, the one hitter in their lineup that was not a good matchup was that hitter that came up there on Saturday, their second baseman, so we went to Buck on that one. But I think you’ll see more save opportunities here for Glidewell moving forward.
And *****, we’ve seen it from him before. We’d like to see some consistency over hopefully the next time he goes out, he gets it done. We were a little more patient with him yesterday and let him work out of jams, and he did. He still had a couple walks, but we kept him in the game there and he proved us right by keeping him in. He’s done a great job all year of getting other guys out of jams, so we decided let’s see if he can get himself out of one, and sure enough he did. So we’re very happy to see that.
DMoney: One of the other stories yesterday, at least to me, was Gabo Milano. He came out of high school so acclaimed, out of Dorado, with some of the home runs he hit and just the overall performance at the plate. He comes to Miami and is sitting behind a pretty good player in Daniel Cuvet. I don’t know if we haven’t seen as much of him because of anything he’s done or just because of where he’s positioned and who’s in front of him, but he’s clearly a guy who has made the most of his opportunities. What did you see from him yesterday?
J.D. Arteaga: Being a freshman, the toughest part of being a freshman is when you’re not playing. All these guys were superstars, the best players on their team growing up, in travel ball and in high school. So you come in and now you catch yourself sitting on the bench. You probably never sat on the bench before. That’s a really tough pill to swallow. And even tougher is showing up every day and working hard and getting better and working on your craft.
Man, Gabo’s been amazing. He shows up to the park every day with a smile on his face, works hard, just anything you ask him to do. Every day you’d think he’s in the starting lineup hitting third or fourth, but instead he’s behind an All-American. He had to know he wasn’t going to play, and he probably knows he’s not going to play every time he shows up to the park. Then he got an opportunity yesterday, but by the way he practices, how he puts his work in, and how he approaches every day, he was ready for the situation. He wasn’t pressing, wasn’t too excited. I was really, really happy to see that for him. Hopefully the other freshmen saw that and learned from it, because his energy doesn’t go unseen. He brings it every day, and he’s a great guy to have on the team. I’m so happy for him to have the day he had.
DMoney: Look, this is the best problem in the world. Top-five offense in the country, and we’re always asking you, “Hey, is this guy going to play more? Is this guy going to play more?” Dubovik also kind of in that mix. But with Milano, is there a chance he could find his way onto the field more here with the stretch coming up?
J.D. Arteaga: Not at third base unless injury-wise, right? Cuvet's going to be there. That’s the problem. When you see [Donovan] Jeffrey swing the bat, and even [Jailen] Watkins, they can do some things. It’s just tough with this roster and this lineup getting him in there. Maybe in a pinch-hit role or something, or if Cuvet misses another day, whatever it might be. But we’re not afraid to play him. When the opportunity presents itself, he’ll be ready to go.
DMoney: Yeah, I think we know who’s going to be there at third base. Want to ask about Max Galvin, because we all know what he can do. We’ve seen him hit since he’s been here, really since he’s been in college. He’s done nothing but hit. Obviously coming off an injury, it’s a different situation for him. What does he need to do to get going and be that guy that we know he can be down the stretch?
J.D. Arteaga: He hit a ball really hard yesterday to center field on the line, which is a good sign. If you really think about it, he’s a senior. He’s looking at not being drafted as a junior, probably unsure about the opportunities he’s going to have to play pro ball beyond this season. He’s looking at maybe 15, 16 guaranteed games that he has left in his baseball career, possibly. He missed five or six weeks with an injury. He’s trying to make up for those six weeks in every swing that he takes. It’s a really tough thing not to do, but at the same time he’s got to calm down and stay within himself, not try to hit it 800 feet every swing and make up for lost time or possibly the last few at-bats he has.
It’s something we approach and talk about, but ultimately it’s a decision. He’s going to have to make that decision at some point and just kind of stay within himself, drive the ball. He’s shown signs of it as of late, better at-bats. When he’s getting beat, that’s actually a good thing. That means he’s not cheating and trying to get out, chasing the baseball. All those things are good signs that he’s about to break out.
Really offensively, the last stretch we haven’t been swinging the bat well. I think the last 10 games we’re hitting like .235 as a team. Our pitching has been much better and has been carrying us here as of late. I’m not worried about it. Everybody slumps. You can’t expect to hit all year. But we’ve got to pick it up a little bit. We’ve got to swing the bats a little better and give a little more quality at-bats.
DMoney: Going back to that Stanford series before we move on, it was a really fun series to watch just in terms of the highlights. You saw Fabio Peralta make SportsCenter Top 10 with an incredible catch in center field. Rintaro Sasaki unfortunately hit a home run that I don’t think has landed. There were some really big plays in that series. Looking back, what do you see in that series and what do you take from it?
J.D. Arteaga: I was joking Sunday morning with the team saying I got bad news, we’re delayed again. The FAA grounded all flights until Sasaki’s ball landed last night. Even Lachi got a laugh out of that one.
But Friday and Saturday were great games. I can’t say the same for Sunday. Great games, great defense, great pitching, good bullpen. Lachi did not have his good stuff. He threw four and two-thirds innings, and really the fastball was the only pitch he had command of and was getting over the plate. His changeup was not very good that day. That situation with Sasaki coming up with two outs in the fifth inning called for a good changeup, and he just didn’t have it that day, so we had to go get him right at that point.
Then Ciscar — he hasn’t had many of those, but he had a bad one. I guarantee no one in that bullpen expected to be in the game in the third inning. Lesson learned, right? You’re in the bullpen, you’ve got to be ready to go at all times. Anything could happen. Heck, you have a comebacker hit off someone’s shin and the guy’s got to come out of the game in the first inning. You can’t go into the game thinking you’re not going to pitch. I think that was a little bit of the case on Sunday. Guys just weren’t ready to go. The great AJ Ciscar is on the mound, we’re thinking he’s going to go seven innings — he always goes seven. And when your name gets called and you’re not ready, that’s what happens. We got some big hits when we needed them, had some good defensive plays like you said, and then Sunday just kind of got away from us a little bit.
DMoney: Nick Robert — want to ask you about him and where he’s at in his recovery. I know this is generally the area where we start looking for him. Is that still the plan?
J.D. Arteaga: Yeah. He’s cleared medically. Physically, he’s ready to go. Now we’ve got that mental obstacle to overcome. On Friday he’s got a simulated game, an up-and-down. This is his first up-and-down. If that goes well, hopefully we’ll see him next week at some point.
But like I said, those guys are not the answer. We’ve seen it with Frank. Frank’s throwing hard, the pitchability’s not quite there, and it’s normal. No one’s worried about it. That’s kind of the normal. We just hope it picks up sooner rather than later, but you can’t expect the guys to come in and be the guy they were right before the injury. That would be the abnormal thing to happen. But when he’s ready to go mentally, you’ll see him on the mound.
DMoney: In terms of the defense, we’ve talked about it before, but we’ve seen the highs. We know what all these guys are capable of doing. We’ve seen the spectacular plays. What needs to be more consistent down the stretch?
J.D. Arteaga: I think mental focus. People who haven’t played baseball, I don’t think they realize what a mental grind it is and how often you’re on the field and how long the practices are and the game days. For a 7:00 game, we’re out on the field at 3:15. Almost four hours before the game, we’re out there and we’re working and constantly studying. It’s more of a mental grind than anything else. So it’s just staying in the game mentally.
This is kind of the hump part of the season. We’ve got 15 games left and then you go to the postseason. It’s a natural time, not acceptable, but a natural time to fight the urge to kind of relax mentally. Sometimes you just have to get a couple days and hit the reset button and go back to work. But I think mentally, a lot of those errors we’re seeing are just guys not expecting the ball to be hit to them.
Some of that has to do with the pitching as well. Last night Sebastian came in and you can talk about the error we made that didn’t get him out of the jam, but when you come in throwing balls and being scattered all over the place, that’s tough on the defense. You throw strikes, keep the game moving, the defense is going to play well. You go 3-2 counts and 3-1 counts and long at-bats, the defense gets on its heels, and they’re not ready for the ball and they get beat by a ground ball.
DMoney: You mentioned something interesting. Your first year, this time of year was tough. Last year you guys really kicked into gear around this time. Now you’re playing well, but there’s still another level to get to. How do you make sure they crank that up down the stretch as opposed to dealing with what’s a long season and how hard it is to stay focused?
J.D. Arteaga: I don’t think we’re playing well right now, to be honest with you. By no means are we playing our best baseball, and we’re winning. Record-wise, when you win a series you’re happy, but when you win the first two of a series, the greed kicks in and you’re not happy when you lose that third one.
I just don’t think we’re playing great baseball right now. We’re still finding ways to win, which is a great sign. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take every win, but we’re not swinging the bats the way we’re capable of swinging the bat. Ciscar has been kind of up and down — bad one against Virginia Tech, then a good one against Wake Forest, then a bad one. He hasn’t been real consistent. The bullpen, Glidewell has been very consistent here as of late. Defense has been here or there. So we’re not playing great baseball, but we’re winning games. That’s a good sign, but we’ve got to get it going and put everything together here soon.
DMoney: I know you’re starting to get into Cal now, so I don’t want to ask you too much about what they bring, because you just finished FAU and are getting ready for Cal. But just in terms of your team, what do you want to see this weekend at home against Cal?
J.D. Arteaga: I’d like to put everything together — offense, defense, and pitching — and put it all together for a nice little run here and see how good we really are and make a statement across the country as to how good we are.
But these California teams, you can throw their records aside because they’re much more talented than their record indicates. We made one trip out there. It’s tough. They’ve got to do it four times a year. I assure you, some of those losses in their record are due to that and not their talent. And Cal’s hot. I haven’t gone into them too deep, but I’ve seen what they’ve done lately. I think they’ve won six of the last seven games, and they’re one of those teams where you better show up, like anyone else in this conference. You better show up. They’re definitely somewhere in the middle of the conference, and they should not be at the bottom.
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DMoney: We are here with Coach Arteaga coming off another series win and another midweek win.
You guys had a couple bases-loaded jams, got out of some mistakes, some base-running errors, kind of hung around, and then the grit and toughness of this team showed up there at the end to pull it out against a very game opponent. What did you see in the game against FAU?
J.D. Arteaga: Just that we should have turned four double plays. We had one in the first inning, one in the seventh or eighth inning, but we had two in the middle that really cost us four runs, to be honest with you. Ogden had one that kind of bounced, came up on him and bounced over his head, and then an inning or two later one stayed down underneath Vance’s glove. So it’s tough when you see one ball bounce over your second baseman’s head and then he gives one hit to you and it stays down on you. But we’ve got to make those plays. We’ve got to make those plays, turn those double plays. Seabass [Santos-Olson] made some good pitches there to get out of those jams, and we’ve just got to make the play and turn it. At the end of the day, like you said, we pulled it off, stayed stuck with it. Really good energy in the dugout yesterday early and late. The middle kind of died down a little bit. But when we needed it most, Alan came through. Everyone talks about our hitting and how good it is, and a simple safety squeeze wins the game for us. So I love it.
DMoney: I was going to ask you. I know that was your favorite play of the day right there because that was really well done. He got on base too. That was a well-executed play by exactly who you’d expect to execute at a high level.
J.D. Arteaga: You know, it’s funny, that play is next to unstoppable. You’re going to score a run. You get it down soft enough, worst case scenario they throw you out at first base and you get a run in and move a guy over into scoring position with one out. So it’s a win-win. You just have to get it down. It was a perfect bunt where the catcher had to come out and get it. There’s no play at the plate. I think Vance crossed the plate before the catcher even got to the ball. So it was a great read on Vance’s part. Then Ogden beats the throw to first base and we’ve got first and second and one out. It’s just a great play and a tough play to defend.
DMoney: I want to ask about two guys that were really heroes yesterday and just unbelievable out of the bullpen, starting with ***** Bradley Cooney and then Lyndon Glidewell. What they brought to this game, and what we might see from them moving forward based on what PY did and then what Glidewell has been doing with his hot hand?
J.D. Arteaga: More of what we saw yesterday. On Glidewell’s side, more of what we saw yesterday and this weekend. He probably should have gotten the save on Saturday. Just the situation that came up, the one hitter in their lineup that was not a good matchup was that hitter that came up there on Saturday, their second baseman, so we went to Buck on that one. But I think you’ll see more save opportunities here for Glidewell moving forward.
And *****, we’ve seen it from him before. We’d like to see some consistency over hopefully the next time he goes out, he gets it done. We were a little more patient with him yesterday and let him work out of jams, and he did. He still had a couple walks, but we kept him in the game there and he proved us right by keeping him in. He’s done a great job all year of getting other guys out of jams, so we decided let’s see if he can get himself out of one, and sure enough he did. So we’re very happy to see that.
DMoney: One of the other stories yesterday, at least to me, was Gabo Milano. He came out of high school so acclaimed, out of Dorado, with some of the home runs he hit and just the overall performance at the plate. He comes to Miami and is sitting behind a pretty good player in Daniel Cuvet. I don’t know if we haven’t seen as much of him because of anything he’s done or just because of where he’s positioned and who’s in front of him, but he’s clearly a guy who has made the most of his opportunities. What did you see from him yesterday?
J.D. Arteaga: Being a freshman, the toughest part of being a freshman is when you’re not playing. All these guys were superstars, the best players on their team growing up, in travel ball and in high school. So you come in and now you catch yourself sitting on the bench. You probably never sat on the bench before. That’s a really tough pill to swallow. And even tougher is showing up every day and working hard and getting better and working on your craft.
Man, Gabo’s been amazing. He shows up to the park every day with a smile on his face, works hard, just anything you ask him to do. Every day you’d think he’s in the starting lineup hitting third or fourth, but instead he’s behind an All-American. He had to know he wasn’t going to play, and he probably knows he’s not going to play every time he shows up to the park. Then he got an opportunity yesterday, but by the way he practices, how he puts his work in, and how he approaches every day, he was ready for the situation. He wasn’t pressing, wasn’t too excited. I was really, really happy to see that for him. Hopefully the other freshmen saw that and learned from it, because his energy doesn’t go unseen. He brings it every day, and he’s a great guy to have on the team. I’m so happy for him to have the day he had.
DMoney: Look, this is the best problem in the world. Top-five offense in the country, and we’re always asking you, “Hey, is this guy going to play more? Is this guy going to play more?” Dubovik also kind of in that mix. But with Milano, is there a chance he could find his way onto the field more here with the stretch coming up?
J.D. Arteaga: Not at third base unless injury-wise, right? Cuvet's going to be there. That’s the problem. When you see [Donovan] Jeffrey swing the bat, and even [Jailen] Watkins, they can do some things. It’s just tough with this roster and this lineup getting him in there. Maybe in a pinch-hit role or something, or if Cuvet misses another day, whatever it might be. But we’re not afraid to play him. When the opportunity presents itself, he’ll be ready to go.
DMoney: Yeah, I think we know who’s going to be there at third base. Want to ask about Max Galvin, because we all know what he can do. We’ve seen him hit since he’s been here, really since he’s been in college. He’s done nothing but hit. Obviously coming off an injury, it’s a different situation for him. What does he need to do to get going and be that guy that we know he can be down the stretch?
J.D. Arteaga: He hit a ball really hard yesterday to center field on the line, which is a good sign. If you really think about it, he’s a senior. He’s looking at not being drafted as a junior, probably unsure about the opportunities he’s going to have to play pro ball beyond this season. He’s looking at maybe 15, 16 guaranteed games that he has left in his baseball career, possibly. He missed five or six weeks with an injury. He’s trying to make up for those six weeks in every swing that he takes. It’s a really tough thing not to do, but at the same time he’s got to calm down and stay within himself, not try to hit it 800 feet every swing and make up for lost time or possibly the last few at-bats he has.
It’s something we approach and talk about, but ultimately it’s a decision. He’s going to have to make that decision at some point and just kind of stay within himself, drive the ball. He’s shown signs of it as of late, better at-bats. When he’s getting beat, that’s actually a good thing. That means he’s not cheating and trying to get out, chasing the baseball. All those things are good signs that he’s about to break out.
Really offensively, the last stretch we haven’t been swinging the bat well. I think the last 10 games we’re hitting like .235 as a team. Our pitching has been much better and has been carrying us here as of late. I’m not worried about it. Everybody slumps. You can’t expect to hit all year. But we’ve got to pick it up a little bit. We’ve got to swing the bats a little better and give a little more quality at-bats.
DMoney: Going back to that Stanford series before we move on, it was a really fun series to watch just in terms of the highlights. You saw Fabio Peralta make SportsCenter Top 10 with an incredible catch in center field. Rintaro Sasaki unfortunately hit a home run that I don’t think has landed. There were some really big plays in that series. Looking back, what do you see in that series and what do you take from it?
J.D. Arteaga: I was joking Sunday morning with the team saying I got bad news, we’re delayed again. The FAA grounded all flights until Sasaki’s ball landed last night. Even Lachi got a laugh out of that one.
But Friday and Saturday were great games. I can’t say the same for Sunday. Great games, great defense, great pitching, good bullpen. Lachi did not have his good stuff. He threw four and two-thirds innings, and really the fastball was the only pitch he had command of and was getting over the plate. His changeup was not very good that day. That situation with Sasaki coming up with two outs in the fifth inning called for a good changeup, and he just didn’t have it that day, so we had to go get him right at that point.
Then Ciscar — he hasn’t had many of those, but he had a bad one. I guarantee no one in that bullpen expected to be in the game in the third inning. Lesson learned, right? You’re in the bullpen, you’ve got to be ready to go at all times. Anything could happen. Heck, you have a comebacker hit off someone’s shin and the guy’s got to come out of the game in the first inning. You can’t go into the game thinking you’re not going to pitch. I think that was a little bit of the case on Sunday. Guys just weren’t ready to go. The great AJ Ciscar is on the mound, we’re thinking he’s going to go seven innings — he always goes seven. And when your name gets called and you’re not ready, that’s what happens. We got some big hits when we needed them, had some good defensive plays like you said, and then Sunday just kind of got away from us a little bit.
DMoney: Nick Robert — want to ask you about him and where he’s at in his recovery. I know this is generally the area where we start looking for him. Is that still the plan?
J.D. Arteaga: Yeah. He’s cleared medically. Physically, he’s ready to go. Now we’ve got that mental obstacle to overcome. On Friday he’s got a simulated game, an up-and-down. This is his first up-and-down. If that goes well, hopefully we’ll see him next week at some point.
But like I said, those guys are not the answer. We’ve seen it with Frank. Frank’s throwing hard, the pitchability’s not quite there, and it’s normal. No one’s worried about it. That’s kind of the normal. We just hope it picks up sooner rather than later, but you can’t expect the guys to come in and be the guy they were right before the injury. That would be the abnormal thing to happen. But when he’s ready to go mentally, you’ll see him on the mound.
DMoney: In terms of the defense, we’ve talked about it before, but we’ve seen the highs. We know what all these guys are capable of doing. We’ve seen the spectacular plays. What needs to be more consistent down the stretch?
J.D. Arteaga: I think mental focus. People who haven’t played baseball, I don’t think they realize what a mental grind it is and how often you’re on the field and how long the practices are and the game days. For a 7:00 game, we’re out on the field at 3:15. Almost four hours before the game, we’re out there and we’re working and constantly studying. It’s more of a mental grind than anything else. So it’s just staying in the game mentally.
This is kind of the hump part of the season. We’ve got 15 games left and then you go to the postseason. It’s a natural time, not acceptable, but a natural time to fight the urge to kind of relax mentally. Sometimes you just have to get a couple days and hit the reset button and go back to work. But I think mentally, a lot of those errors we’re seeing are just guys not expecting the ball to be hit to them.
Some of that has to do with the pitching as well. Last night Sebastian came in and you can talk about the error we made that didn’t get him out of the jam, but when you come in throwing balls and being scattered all over the place, that’s tough on the defense. You throw strikes, keep the game moving, the defense is going to play well. You go 3-2 counts and 3-1 counts and long at-bats, the defense gets on its heels, and they’re not ready for the ball and they get beat by a ground ball.
DMoney: You mentioned something interesting. Your first year, this time of year was tough. Last year you guys really kicked into gear around this time. Now you’re playing well, but there’s still another level to get to. How do you make sure they crank that up down the stretch as opposed to dealing with what’s a long season and how hard it is to stay focused?
J.D. Arteaga: I don’t think we’re playing well right now, to be honest with you. By no means are we playing our best baseball, and we’re winning. Record-wise, when you win a series you’re happy, but when you win the first two of a series, the greed kicks in and you’re not happy when you lose that third one.
I just don’t think we’re playing great baseball right now. We’re still finding ways to win, which is a great sign. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take every win, but we’re not swinging the bats the way we’re capable of swinging the bat. Ciscar has been kind of up and down — bad one against Virginia Tech, then a good one against Wake Forest, then a bad one. He hasn’t been real consistent. The bullpen, Glidewell has been very consistent here as of late. Defense has been here or there. So we’re not playing great baseball, but we’re winning games. That’s a good sign, but we’ve got to get it going and put everything together here soon.
DMoney: I know you’re starting to get into Cal now, so I don’t want to ask you too much about what they bring, because you just finished FAU and are getting ready for Cal. But just in terms of your team, what do you want to see this weekend at home against Cal?
J.D. Arteaga: I’d like to put everything together — offense, defense, and pitching — and put it all together for a nice little run here and see how good we really are and make a statement across the country as to how good we are.
But these California teams, you can throw their records aside because they’re much more talented than their record indicates. We made one trip out there. It’s tough. They’ve got to do it four times a year. I assure you, some of those losses in their record are due to that and not their talent. And Cal’s hot. I haven’t gone into them too deep, but I’ve seen what they’ve done lately. I think they’ve won six of the last seven games, and they’re one of those teams where you better show up, like anyone else in this conference. You better show up. They’re definitely somewhere in the middle of the conference, and they should not be at the bottom.
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