Scott Forbes Breaks Down the 2022 Tar Heels
The head coach spoke with reporters ahead of UNC's first full-squad practice
After two-plus weeks of small-group practices, North Carolina will hold its first full-squad practice of the 2022 season on Friday in preparation for the team’s season-opening series against Seton Hall from Feb. 18-20 at Boshamer Stadium.
Before taking the field, Scott Forbes spoke with reporters on Thursday for the team’s media day. Below is what the head coach had to say about his squad.
Opening statement
“I’m excited to get going with team practice (Friday). We’ve been out there with our small-group practice since January 10, and we’ve navigated a couple of snows and been able to be out there, for the most part, every day around the NCAA rules of giving them two days off. But it’s been productive, and it’s clear our guys worked hard over the break.
“The window is just so short for all of us in college baseball to get our guys ready for Game 1. A lot of people just think about the first day being (Friday), but these days since January 10 have been really important, especially for our pitchers. We’ve been able to keep them on track, for the most part. They've faced hitters, and when they haven’t been able to face hitters because of the weather, we’ve kept them on track with our bullpens. So, we’ve been able to get outside, and that’s all you can ask for. All of our guys came back healthy. I’m excited to get going for the 2022 season.”
On how he views his first season as a head coach in 2021
“I have had a lot of time to reflect, and when I talk to some different coaches and even Coach (Roy) Williams, that’s one thing he said: If you let yourself learn that first year, you’ll pretty much learn the most of any year as a head coach. It was a whirlwind, especially with COVID. But everybody dealt with COVID, so I’m not one to ever say, ‘Well, COVID this, COVID that.’ We all had to deal it.
“But, with it being my first year as a head coach and the extended ACC season and never really getting a down opponent – I thought everybody we played last year could beat us, which is a credit to college baseball – I feel like I learned a ton, not just about being a head coach but just about myself and what you want to do better and what you want to do different that you hope will help our program succeed and do more than make a regional. We were happy with the way things went, that we were able to get in a regional, but that’s not our ultimate goal.”
On his team's strengths
“I do feel like we’re going to have much more pitching depth. That was a major issue for us last year. We had a couple of injuries early, and we had trouble getting starting pitching. I hope it’s going to be better; I feel like it’s going to be better from what I've seen so far in the fall and the preseason. I think we have more options, and we return pretty much all of our bullpen. You lose a guy like Austin Love – who I thought over the last two months was the best pitcher in the ACC – but we’ve got Max Carlson back and we have some other guys who we think can help us in those starting roles. So, I think that can be more of a strength than people think.
“And I think we can be really powerful lineup-wise. I think we could put nine guys in there who can hit a double or a home run, which can change the game. We’ve got some speed and some athleticism. Those two things have stuck out to me.”
On what the weekend rotation might look like
“It's competitive. There’s a group of starters who are fighting for it. With Carlson being back 100% (from right elbow surgery), he looks really good. He had seven starts last year – six in the ACC, which are very valuable. So that gives him a little bit of a leg up if he's performing. He's fighting for that Friday role along with three transfers who have been very impressive in Brandon Schaeffer, Shaddon Peavyhouse and Connor Bovair. All of those guys are in the mix. We’ve got a couple of returners like Will Sandy – he's the one who sticks out the most to compete for a starting job. But we haven’t decided yet on the actual weekend rotation.”
On the additions of transfers Schaeffer, Peavyhouse, Bovair, Alberto Osuna
“The first thing you want when a transfer gets here is you want to feel like they're going to be good enough to help you. And the second thing is you need them to be really good kids because they’re coming in as transfers and joining a team. So, that's where you have to be careful with this transfer stuff is culture and chemistry, it’s important. The reason I said that is because they have been phenomenal in the locker room. They came to UNC because they want to get to Omaha, and they’re all talented enough to help us get there. They’re all four going to play a major role.
“All three of the arms are legitimate ACC arms. Shaddon is very intriguing because he can do both. He started Friday night for Coastal (Carolina) down the stretch last year, but he’s also worked out of the bullpen. And then Alberto, he’s going to be right in that same category of a Jesse Wierzbicki, a Cody Stubbs. He’s a guy who we're going to put in there somewhere like four, five, six. Could be seven. But he's got a chance to be a guy who can drive in a lot of runs for us.”
On the importance of increasing the team's walks, striking out less
“You can’t win if you don’t have a fairly decent walk-to-strikeout ratio. It doesn’t mean it has to be like we were in 2013 – that’s kind of unheard of now because even in college baseball, they're matching up with you more, arms are fresher and the stuff is better, so automatically you’re going to have more strikeouts. But you have to know the strike zone and you have to take your walks and you have to get hit by pitches; a hit-by-pitch is just like a walk. So we should be much better at that.
“You look at guys like Johnny Castagnozzi, Mac Horvath, Tomas Frick, all of these guys played a full season, a lot of them went and played a full summer, and that's something you have to work on. It was very eye-opening for those young guys, with it being an older year in the ACC, seeing the quality of arms, and that only has helped them. But I sure am hoping we’re a lot better at it.”
On the leaders on the pitching staff
“Gage (Gillian) and Caden (O’Brien) definitely stick out. They’re older. Caden, this is his fifth year. He pitched in Omaha for us as a freshman. Both are phenomenal students, and they lead by example. Nik Pry, all the older guys have done a good job. Davis Palermo. Coach (Bryant) Gaines actually brought that up the other day, just how much better in his eyes that it’s been just overall from that aspect, the accountability and the leadership side. We’ve got some older guys where it’s clear they've got pretty high goals.”
On managing Tomas Frick’s innings behind the plate
“We’re going to try to manage it, if one of our other three catchers – Max Riemer, Eric Grintz and freshman Dylan King – can compete close enough. We want to give Tomas some breaks, but I did talk to him when he first got back here in the fall. I said, ‘Look, Jacob Stallings caught about every single game for us, especially in 2012, and you can do it, but you've got to take care of your body, you’ve got to get stronger, your rest, your nutrition.’ So, I think he learned a lot in that area, as well. He’s a bigger kid now. He’s more physical.
“But we definitely feel like Grintz and Max can do the job back there when we do need to give Tomas a break from catching. So that should help him some. Both of those guys have improved enough where I feel comfortable writing them in the lineup.”
On second-year players who could make big leaps
“I would say Castagnozzi and Horvath, I think they both have a chance to be really, really special players. When I say special players, not just help us win but in time – you know, Mac is a draft-eligible sophomore, so where he would get drafted, he's already right now predicted to be a high draft pick. He’s got his head on straight. In his mind, he's going to be here another year unless somebody changes his mind. Both of those guys, you can just tell they’ve matured. You can tell they went through a full college season. Mac went and played in the Northwoods League and had a ton of at-bats. Johnny ended up having an injury, but he still got a lot of playing time in the Cape. He was with Danny Serretti up in Chatham. I would say those two guys.
“And then probably the one guy who has stuck out the most has been Patrick Alvarez. He didn’t play much at all last year. Credit to him, he went and worked and played every single day in the Coastal Plain League. He made one error all summer and got a ton of hits. His walk-to-strikeout ratio was really good, and that carried over here in the fall. He's that Chaz Frank-type guy who, if he continues to emerge, having those guys on the field every day can really help your team.”
On replacing Caleb Roberts, Justice Thompson in the outfield
“We talk about how good we were in the outfield and how if we hadn't been that good, we definitely wouldn't have made the postseason. We weren’t exactly missing barrels all year, and they made some phenomenal plays. … I feel depending on who plays center – it’s going to be Angel Zarate or Vance Honeycutt – the other one is going to play another outfield spot. I feel like with those two guys you have two legitimate center fielders in the outfield. So whether or not our overall outfield play will be as good, I’m not sure.
“I think when you have two guys who are that good … I hate to build up Vance that much – and I won't even talk about his bat right now – but he has the potential to be as good a center fielder, in that mix of Justice Thompson and Skye Bolt; he just has some things you can’t teach. He’s as fast as any kid we've had in here at his age, he’s got closing speed. And then Angel has made himself into one of the best outfielders in the ACC. So it gives you a little flexibility, honestly, to play a guy like we have in the past – like a Jay Cox in left field who can drive in runs, like a Reid Fronk, like a Sean Farrell, like a Kyle Shelton.
“So that’s kind of how we're looking at it now. Right now, Vance and Angel have won those two outfield spots. We haven’t decided who has won center because they both play it so well. And then, really, it’s going to be who we know can be a really solid outfielder but can also bring us offense in that other spot.”
On the leading candidates for the third outfield spot
“Tyler Causey has made the transition from first base to left field. Reece Holbrook has come back and played extremely well. There are some kids who you can tell when they come back that they really improved over the Christmas break, and he sticks out as one of those. Those two would be in left. Casey Cook had a really good fall for us. He’s a second baseman, but we’ve been working him in the corner outfield spots, as well as Will Stewart and Joe Jaconski. All of those bats I was telling you about are left-handed bats.
“And then (Alvarez), we worked him a lot in left just in case we wanted to have a right-handed dominant lineup because of Johnny Castagnozzi’s transition – we’ve moved him to first base, but he can play all three infield positions. So if we have (Alvarez) in left, Johnny can play second. We definitely have tried to think of anybody that could play the outfield. Coach (Jason) Howell coaches our outfielders, and he has done a really good job. Our guys have really improved, even the guys who were not outfielders when they came in here.”
On the returns of Serretti, Zarate
“I’m really proud of both of them. I met with them right before the draft because they both had opportunities to sign, and I said, ‘Look, you don't need to come back unless you’re coming back for the right reasons. If you’re coming back to improve your draft stock, you need to go ahead and sign. If you're coming back to help us take the next step and get to Omaha and have a chance to win a national championship, I definitely think you should come back. You’re going to be more prepared. You’re going to leave here with your degree.’ And they both called me and said they decided they wanted to come back to school. So I knew after having that conversation that they were all in. That's been so evident and clear.
“Angel has kind of always had that personality, just that even keel. But Danny has really matured, and that’s why you coach. It’s been good to see him learn how to hold teammates accountable, practice at the right level and lead by example. But getting those two guys back, let’s just be honest, that was big for us.
“You take away Danny’s horrific start and he was one of the better players in the second half. And if he plays like he’s capable of, he’s a top three round draft pick. And Angel continues to grow. Just as far as pure hitting goes, he’s got to be one of the top 10-15 pure hitters in our league. So having those two guys back has been a big luxury for us.”
On impact freshmen
“We’ve got some kids like Honeycutt, Jaconski, Holbrook, Casey Cook, they’re all very athletic. Reece Holbrook and Vance Honeycutt have elite speed, so if they start figuring out the game, that can help you generate runs – which you need to do, especially if you’re at a bigger park or if the pitcher is that good that day.
“Vance has stood out the most throughout the fall and the spring preseason. He’s a guy who even if he’s not bringing much that day offensively, he can change the game by getting on base and stealing second and stealing third and playing an unbelievable outfield. It is elite speed. If I’m not paying attention at third base when he's on second, he’ll be by me, and that hasn’t been the case too often. He has that really good closing speed.
“We’ve got some arms who have started to throw the ball pretty well. I don’t know what their roles are going to be. I don’t think we'll have to ask them to pitch for us in the weekend rotation, but we’ve got some guys like an Alden Segui and some others who can bring us some power out of the bullpen.”
On what the team needs to improve on from last season
“The biggest thing we’ve talked about is – I know it can sound cliche in the coaching world – toughness, but exactly what toughness entails and understanding you can’t win championships if you’re not good on the road. You have to go on the road and you have to relish playing in those tougher environments and finding a way to win the series, sweep the series or salvage one game. Playing at home for anybody should be easier. The competition is still going to be hard, but going on the road in our league, the teams that we've had here that have been our better teams, they really enjoyed winning on the road and quieting the crowd, things like that. So we’ve worked on that and talked about it and understand it.
“And the other thing we’ve talked about is being better in the little things that don’t show up in the box score. We’ve got to be a better running-for-a-hit team, we’ve got to be better at reading dirt balls, we’ve got to be better at taking the extra base – those types of things that I thought we were a little bit tentative in last year.”
On what he wants to change about how he approaches the team this season compared to last season
“I’d say for me personally, I don't know if COVID was a little bit of a factor, but looking back on it, I felt like at times when I would walk out on the field, I was thinking about the wrong things, thinking about whatever is going on up in the office or what you have to get ready in the head coaching standpoint instead of the most important thing that you do, period, as a coach is, No. 1, your players and your current team and then you recruit. You can’t let anything get in the way of those things, and whatever else comes to your plate as a head coach, you've got to just figure out the time where it doesn’t affect those guys.
“I felt like with about 20 games left in the season last year, I kind of stepped back and said, ‘I’m not doing that. You work your tail off that hard to get an opportunity to be a head coach, I’m going to give these guys every ounce of attention, energy, practice plans ready, knowing what we’re focusing on. You just have to figure out on your own time how to get all the head coaching stuff done.’ I would say that’s the most important thing for me. I feel good about that now, just incorporating some things we do now as a staff. Meeting in the morning, the first thing we do is talk about our team, plan practice, get that done, have it ready knowing exactly what we’re going to do that day and then go over what we’re doing in recruiting and then let the rest just fall into place.”