The Miami Hurricanes are 10-0 and lead the nation in runs, but the true test is this weekend against the hated Florida Gators. Coach J.D. Arteaga joined the CanesInSight Podcast to talk about the season so far and the big matchup this weekend. A transcript of the interview is below:
DMoney: Coach, you know, eventually we’re going to do this after a loss—but it’s kind of nice doing it after a dub like last night against FAU. How are you feeling about that performance?
J.D. Arteaga: Just showing a lot of resilience again, man. We didn’t panic going into the ninth inning there, putting up a seven spot against our closer. You just never feel like we’re out of it. Didn’t play well, especially defensively and pitching—you could pick each other up a little bit. Typical freshman stuff—once [Derek] Williams dropped that ball in right field, Sebastian [Santos-Olson] had a tough time kind of settling in and minimizing there. But overall, he did a good job until that late in the fourth inning. It was good to see the hitters pick us up again.
DMoney: We all know the competition is going to pick up, but to be 10–0—LSU lost midweek, UCLA lost midweek—what are the advantages of a start like this? Any disadvantages you’re managing?
J.D. Arteaga: There’s no disadvantages to winning. One thing it does do, it kind of masks some of the things we’ve got to get better at. But as coaches, that’s our job—even in winning, we’ve got to teach and make sure we’re correcting things we’re not doing right. Those things are going to beat you against better teams. But I’m never going to apologize for being undefeated, 10–0, or off to a good start. There’s no negative to that.
DMoney: Number one in America in runs the last I checked—what jumps out about this offense through 10 games?
J.D. Arteaga: That’s the part of having a long lineup. One through nine can beat you. A couple guys have an off night, you still have two or three others that can do damage. Not all nine are going to be hot all year—that’s not going to happen. But it’s going to be tough to shut down all nine in any game. That’s where you put pressure on pitchers. Mentally it’s a grind—you can’t relax, you can’t take breaks anywhere in our lineup, really. And that’s with two of our guys out. It’s a lineup all year long as long as all nine don’t slump at the same time. Baseball has ups and downs—that’s going to happen. But I like our chances with the bats we have.
DMoney: Brylan West was the hero this week—the FIU transfer at first base. What did you see in him when you brought him in, and what has he brought so far?
J.D. Arteaga: In our eyes, he was always a professional hitter. He’s been in this game in college baseball for a long time. He did a lot of damage against us midweeks at FIU the last couple years, so we knew what he was capable of. We brought him in to be that bat, and he’s been that guy—clutch performer, gets big hits, tough outs. And it’s funny you say “lost in the shuffle”—week one ACC player of the week was Williams, week two was Dubovik, week three hopefully somebody else. It could be anyone in our lineup. That’s the exciting part.
DMoney: With Vance Sheahan going down, Jailen Watkins has stepped in. What have you seen that gives you confidence in him in that role?
J.D. Arteaga: Another one of those freshmen I was talking about early—how talented our freshman class is. He’s come in, played solid defense, gives you the speed dynamic on the bases, a little small ball when we need it. We want Sheahan back—we can’t wait for him to come back—and time will tell when. It’s close, but I’m not sure it’ll be this weekend. But it’s not much of a fallback. Jailen brings a certain aspect to the game that Sheahan doesn’t. Then having Ogden where you can move him anywhere between second and short—that helps a lot. Ogden being able to play second or short is huge. So it’s an easy transition—move him to short and plug Watkins at second. He’s done a great job so far.
DMoney: You’ve played a lot of games and seen a lot of arms. Lachi Collera threw against FAU. Is this a sign we’re looking at a weekend rotation of Ciscar, Evans, and DeRias? How do you see it shaking out?
J.D. Arteaga: Sunday’s still not very clear. This weekend it’ll be Ciscar Friday, Evans Saturday, and a TBA on Sunday. Glidewell’s down right now for a week or so, so I’m not sure if he’s available. We felt we needed a little extra punch in the bullpen, so we slid Lachi Collera into that role. If we don’t have to use him Friday/Saturday, then he’ll start on Sunday. If we do have to use him, then it’ll be Tate DeRias or somebody else on Sunday. We’re still waiting on a couple guys to get back—Nick Robert and Frank Menendez. So for now, we’re still figuring out that role and who falls in there. The bullpen is so important—without Collera throwing a strong sixth inning yesterday, I’m not sure we win that game. Friday and Saturday are set. Sebastian did a good job—is he ready for the weekend? We don’t know yet. But he’s pretty close.
DMoney: When you’re deciding who gets starts—what are you looking for from these young starters?
J.D. Arteaga: Performance. The starter’s job is to give us a chance to win. We’ve got to go deeper into games. It can’t be four-and-a-third or three-and-a-third outings, because then it blows the bullpen up for the rest of the week or the following game. We want more innings—quality innings—get to the sixth, pitch into the seventh. That’s the job. It’s not really about the win-loss record. If he throws six or seven and we’ve got a lead, then the bullpen does their job and we win. The starter gives you a chance.
DMoney: On the bullpen—roles still evolving? It looked like last night was a “true bullpen” situation.
J.D. Arteaga: Last night might have been the first opportunity where we had that true bullpen role—the setup guys come in, hold it down, and the closer comes in and closes it out—and we didn’t get it done. That’s one of those concerns the hitting hides a little bit. Our bullpen has to be better, more consistent. In fairness, we haven’t had too many opportunities—that might have been the first one where we had a lead late. But we’ve got to be better. Coming into the season, that was a concern. We feel we have the right guys, but they haven’t really been tested until last night. So I can’t say we have it figured out because no one’s really done it yet.
DMoney: Through 10–0—what’s surprised you, or what have you learned about this team that you weren’t sure of coming out of camp?
J.D. Arteaga: The calmness in the dugout. The calmness at the plate. Veterans are a good thing, but it can be dangerous—guys in their draft year press, want to do more than they have to. It usually shows early. A guy like Sheahan, Cuvet, Sosa—this is their draft year. In their eyes, they’ve got to have big years, and it’s not easy. It takes mental toughness to stay within your game. Then you’ve got seniors who might be upset they’re back in college, upset they didn’t get drafted, trying to prove they should have been—you’re not seeing that in Ogden and Williams. Galvin is out now. Even Brylan West—great career, never been drafted—those guys can come out trying to do too much. It’s been nice to see them just be themselves—the best version of themselves. That’s something we preach every game: you don’t play harder because it’s Florida or Florida State, and you don’t play less against someone else. You’ve got to be your best every night, and they’ve done that so far.
DMoney: We hate that Max Galvin is out, but it creates opportunities. Dylan Dubovik—ACC player of the week, true freshman—what have you seen from him turning tools into production?
J.D. Arteaga: With him it’s been toning it down some. It’s always good when you’re pumping the brakes on a player, not trying to hit the gas and get him to play harder. He’s at times out of control—overswings—but that’s a good thing. We want to harness that. I can see him being a five-tool center fielder. He’s arguably the fastest player on our team. Great arm—low to mid-90s off the mound when he pitches. Power—hits the ball hard every time. There’s some swing-and-miss, but a lot of that is pitch selection. There’s a difference between missing pitches in the zone and swinging at pitches nobody can hit—that’s not “swing-and-miss,” that’s pitch selection. That comes with time. He gets amped and overdoes things sometimes, but it’s a special talent. When guys like Cuvet and Ogden see that right away and tell me, “This guy’s different,” that tells you something. He committed to us first as a sophomore as a pitcher before the rule changed. Laz went out, saw him pitch and hit, and said, “He’s got a chance to hit.” Now he’s basically a hitter for us—an emergency guy on the mound until the injured guys come back. But he’s definitely a hitter full-time right now, and we’ll see how long he keeps his job.
DMoney: He had draft buzz. What does it mean to land a guy like that—who in another world could’ve been in pro ball already?
J.D. Arteaga: It’s a dream come true for a hitting guy like Chris Dominguez to have tools like that to develop. Our job is to develop guys to be the best players they can be. They’re not all big leaguers—big league tools are different. Dubovik has big league tools. I’m sure Chris is having a great time with him. He’s very coachable, wants to learn. It takes a lot of coaching, but it’ll be fun to see his growth over the next three years.
DMoney: There were some drops and sloppy moments. How do you clean that up while getting ready for Florida?
J.D. Arteaga: Just keep at it. Keep working. Keep practicing. Keep working the fundamentals. Sometimes during the season fundamentals get lost—you come out, take BP, take ground balls, call it a day because it’s a late game, quick turnaround, five games in a week, whatever. But fundamentals are still number one, still key. And there’s not much coaching on dropping a fly ball—you’ve got to catch it. No drill for that. You’ve just got to keep doing it. And that game last night—the weekday before Florida—we always seem to play FAU the day before we play Florida, and it’s easy to get caught looking ahead. We mentioned it before the game. I had our SID look up the record—1–4 over the last five seasons in that particular game at Boca. I felt like we were okay until the fourth inning, then got sloppy and the pitching didn’t come through. But it was nice to have the hitters pull us out of that jam at the end.
DMoney: The Florida series is sold out—hottest ticket in town. Do you try to impart rivalry context on portal guys, or keep it “just another game”?
J.D. Arteaga: Our philosophy is play every game like it’s your last game—like game seven of the World Series. Respect the game. If you start pressing this weekend—yes, it’s big, I get it—but it’s a weekend. We’re not winning or losing a national championship this weekend. It’s a rivalry game—probably bigger for the fans than anything else. And believe me, I want to beat them as bad as anybody. But I want to play our game and not try any harder. I pulled up Derek Jeter’s career stats—he’s Mr. November, clutch, postseason heroics. He played 158 postseason games and his postseason stats are almost identical to his regular-season averages. He was the same player. You saw Derek Jeter in April, you saw him in November. He didn’t try to do more or less. He didn’t take days off. He played every game to the best of his ability. That’s what we preach, and hopefully that’s why we come out this weekend and keep doing what we’re doing.
DMoney: You lead the country in runs, but Florida’s arms are legit. How do you approach that jump in pitching quality?
J.D. Arteaga: Velocity will be a little more, but the biggest difference between good pitching and average pitching is hitter’s counts. An average pitcher on a 2–0 count is probably going to give you a really good pitch to hit. Good pitchers still make a quality pitch. If you try to do too much in those counts, you’ll get yourself out. Against better pitching it’s more discipline and taking what they give you. You’re not always getting that 2–0 or 3–1 center-cut fastball. They’ll sink something down and away—if you’re trying to hit it out, you roll over, weak ground ball to short or second. So the discipline has to be better against better pitching. Hopefully that’s what we do.
DMoney: Coach, always appreciate you joining us.
J.D. Arteaga: Thank you guys. Shouldn’t have to push to get people out today. Hopefully the parking garage will be full as well like it was against UCF.
DMoney: Coach, you know, eventually we’re going to do this after a loss—but it’s kind of nice doing it after a dub like last night against FAU. How are you feeling about that performance?
J.D. Arteaga: Just showing a lot of resilience again, man. We didn’t panic going into the ninth inning there, putting up a seven spot against our closer. You just never feel like we’re out of it. Didn’t play well, especially defensively and pitching—you could pick each other up a little bit. Typical freshman stuff—once [Derek] Williams dropped that ball in right field, Sebastian [Santos-Olson] had a tough time kind of settling in and minimizing there. But overall, he did a good job until that late in the fourth inning. It was good to see the hitters pick us up again.
DMoney: We all know the competition is going to pick up, but to be 10–0—LSU lost midweek, UCLA lost midweek—what are the advantages of a start like this? Any disadvantages you’re managing?
J.D. Arteaga: There’s no disadvantages to winning. One thing it does do, it kind of masks some of the things we’ve got to get better at. But as coaches, that’s our job—even in winning, we’ve got to teach and make sure we’re correcting things we’re not doing right. Those things are going to beat you against better teams. But I’m never going to apologize for being undefeated, 10–0, or off to a good start. There’s no negative to that.
DMoney: Number one in America in runs the last I checked—what jumps out about this offense through 10 games?
J.D. Arteaga: That’s the part of having a long lineup. One through nine can beat you. A couple guys have an off night, you still have two or three others that can do damage. Not all nine are going to be hot all year—that’s not going to happen. But it’s going to be tough to shut down all nine in any game. That’s where you put pressure on pitchers. Mentally it’s a grind—you can’t relax, you can’t take breaks anywhere in our lineup, really. And that’s with two of our guys out. It’s a lineup all year long as long as all nine don’t slump at the same time. Baseball has ups and downs—that’s going to happen. But I like our chances with the bats we have.
DMoney: Brylan West was the hero this week—the FIU transfer at first base. What did you see in him when you brought him in, and what has he brought so far?
J.D. Arteaga: In our eyes, he was always a professional hitter. He’s been in this game in college baseball for a long time. He did a lot of damage against us midweeks at FIU the last couple years, so we knew what he was capable of. We brought him in to be that bat, and he’s been that guy—clutch performer, gets big hits, tough outs. And it’s funny you say “lost in the shuffle”—week one ACC player of the week was Williams, week two was Dubovik, week three hopefully somebody else. It could be anyone in our lineup. That’s the exciting part.
DMoney: With Vance Sheahan going down, Jailen Watkins has stepped in. What have you seen that gives you confidence in him in that role?
J.D. Arteaga: Another one of those freshmen I was talking about early—how talented our freshman class is. He’s come in, played solid defense, gives you the speed dynamic on the bases, a little small ball when we need it. We want Sheahan back—we can’t wait for him to come back—and time will tell when. It’s close, but I’m not sure it’ll be this weekend. But it’s not much of a fallback. Jailen brings a certain aspect to the game that Sheahan doesn’t. Then having Ogden where you can move him anywhere between second and short—that helps a lot. Ogden being able to play second or short is huge. So it’s an easy transition—move him to short and plug Watkins at second. He’s done a great job so far.
DMoney: You’ve played a lot of games and seen a lot of arms. Lachi Collera threw against FAU. Is this a sign we’re looking at a weekend rotation of Ciscar, Evans, and DeRias? How do you see it shaking out?
J.D. Arteaga: Sunday’s still not very clear. This weekend it’ll be Ciscar Friday, Evans Saturday, and a TBA on Sunday. Glidewell’s down right now for a week or so, so I’m not sure if he’s available. We felt we needed a little extra punch in the bullpen, so we slid Lachi Collera into that role. If we don’t have to use him Friday/Saturday, then he’ll start on Sunday. If we do have to use him, then it’ll be Tate DeRias or somebody else on Sunday. We’re still waiting on a couple guys to get back—Nick Robert and Frank Menendez. So for now, we’re still figuring out that role and who falls in there. The bullpen is so important—without Collera throwing a strong sixth inning yesterday, I’m not sure we win that game. Friday and Saturday are set. Sebastian did a good job—is he ready for the weekend? We don’t know yet. But he’s pretty close.
DMoney: When you’re deciding who gets starts—what are you looking for from these young starters?
J.D. Arteaga: Performance. The starter’s job is to give us a chance to win. We’ve got to go deeper into games. It can’t be four-and-a-third or three-and-a-third outings, because then it blows the bullpen up for the rest of the week or the following game. We want more innings—quality innings—get to the sixth, pitch into the seventh. That’s the job. It’s not really about the win-loss record. If he throws six or seven and we’ve got a lead, then the bullpen does their job and we win. The starter gives you a chance.
DMoney: On the bullpen—roles still evolving? It looked like last night was a “true bullpen” situation.
J.D. Arteaga: Last night might have been the first opportunity where we had that true bullpen role—the setup guys come in, hold it down, and the closer comes in and closes it out—and we didn’t get it done. That’s one of those concerns the hitting hides a little bit. Our bullpen has to be better, more consistent. In fairness, we haven’t had too many opportunities—that might have been the first one where we had a lead late. But we’ve got to be better. Coming into the season, that was a concern. We feel we have the right guys, but they haven’t really been tested until last night. So I can’t say we have it figured out because no one’s really done it yet.
DMoney: Through 10–0—what’s surprised you, or what have you learned about this team that you weren’t sure of coming out of camp?
J.D. Arteaga: The calmness in the dugout. The calmness at the plate. Veterans are a good thing, but it can be dangerous—guys in their draft year press, want to do more than they have to. It usually shows early. A guy like Sheahan, Cuvet, Sosa—this is their draft year. In their eyes, they’ve got to have big years, and it’s not easy. It takes mental toughness to stay within your game. Then you’ve got seniors who might be upset they’re back in college, upset they didn’t get drafted, trying to prove they should have been—you’re not seeing that in Ogden and Williams. Galvin is out now. Even Brylan West—great career, never been drafted—those guys can come out trying to do too much. It’s been nice to see them just be themselves—the best version of themselves. That’s something we preach every game: you don’t play harder because it’s Florida or Florida State, and you don’t play less against someone else. You’ve got to be your best every night, and they’ve done that so far.
DMoney: We hate that Max Galvin is out, but it creates opportunities. Dylan Dubovik—ACC player of the week, true freshman—what have you seen from him turning tools into production?
J.D. Arteaga: With him it’s been toning it down some. It’s always good when you’re pumping the brakes on a player, not trying to hit the gas and get him to play harder. He’s at times out of control—overswings—but that’s a good thing. We want to harness that. I can see him being a five-tool center fielder. He’s arguably the fastest player on our team. Great arm—low to mid-90s off the mound when he pitches. Power—hits the ball hard every time. There’s some swing-and-miss, but a lot of that is pitch selection. There’s a difference between missing pitches in the zone and swinging at pitches nobody can hit—that’s not “swing-and-miss,” that’s pitch selection. That comes with time. He gets amped and overdoes things sometimes, but it’s a special talent. When guys like Cuvet and Ogden see that right away and tell me, “This guy’s different,” that tells you something. He committed to us first as a sophomore as a pitcher before the rule changed. Laz went out, saw him pitch and hit, and said, “He’s got a chance to hit.” Now he’s basically a hitter for us—an emergency guy on the mound until the injured guys come back. But he’s definitely a hitter full-time right now, and we’ll see how long he keeps his job.
DMoney: He had draft buzz. What does it mean to land a guy like that—who in another world could’ve been in pro ball already?
J.D. Arteaga: It’s a dream come true for a hitting guy like Chris Dominguez to have tools like that to develop. Our job is to develop guys to be the best players they can be. They’re not all big leaguers—big league tools are different. Dubovik has big league tools. I’m sure Chris is having a great time with him. He’s very coachable, wants to learn. It takes a lot of coaching, but it’ll be fun to see his growth over the next three years.
DMoney: There were some drops and sloppy moments. How do you clean that up while getting ready for Florida?
J.D. Arteaga: Just keep at it. Keep working. Keep practicing. Keep working the fundamentals. Sometimes during the season fundamentals get lost—you come out, take BP, take ground balls, call it a day because it’s a late game, quick turnaround, five games in a week, whatever. But fundamentals are still number one, still key. And there’s not much coaching on dropping a fly ball—you’ve got to catch it. No drill for that. You’ve just got to keep doing it. And that game last night—the weekday before Florida—we always seem to play FAU the day before we play Florida, and it’s easy to get caught looking ahead. We mentioned it before the game. I had our SID look up the record—1–4 over the last five seasons in that particular game at Boca. I felt like we were okay until the fourth inning, then got sloppy and the pitching didn’t come through. But it was nice to have the hitters pull us out of that jam at the end.
DMoney: The Florida series is sold out—hottest ticket in town. Do you try to impart rivalry context on portal guys, or keep it “just another game”?
J.D. Arteaga: Our philosophy is play every game like it’s your last game—like game seven of the World Series. Respect the game. If you start pressing this weekend—yes, it’s big, I get it—but it’s a weekend. We’re not winning or losing a national championship this weekend. It’s a rivalry game—probably bigger for the fans than anything else. And believe me, I want to beat them as bad as anybody. But I want to play our game and not try any harder. I pulled up Derek Jeter’s career stats—he’s Mr. November, clutch, postseason heroics. He played 158 postseason games and his postseason stats are almost identical to his regular-season averages. He was the same player. You saw Derek Jeter in April, you saw him in November. He didn’t try to do more or less. He didn’t take days off. He played every game to the best of his ability. That’s what we preach, and hopefully that’s why we come out this weekend and keep doing what we’re doing.
DMoney: You lead the country in runs, but Florida’s arms are legit. How do you approach that jump in pitching quality?
J.D. Arteaga: Velocity will be a little more, but the biggest difference between good pitching and average pitching is hitter’s counts. An average pitcher on a 2–0 count is probably going to give you a really good pitch to hit. Good pitchers still make a quality pitch. If you try to do too much in those counts, you’ll get yourself out. Against better pitching it’s more discipline and taking what they give you. You’re not always getting that 2–0 or 3–1 center-cut fastball. They’ll sink something down and away—if you’re trying to hit it out, you roll over, weak ground ball to short or second. So the discipline has to be better against better pitching. Hopefully that’s what we do.
DMoney: Coach, always appreciate you joining us.
J.D. Arteaga: Thank you guys. Shouldn’t have to push to get people out today. Hopefully the parking garage will be full as well like it was against UCF.
