Feb. 16, 2011

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou baseball head coach Tim Jamieson met with reporters during the Big 12 Conference preseason conference call. Below is the transcribed press conference.

MODERATOR: Let's get started with Missouri Head Coach Tim Jamieson. The Tigers open the 2011 season at USC on Friday. Good morning Coach Jamieson.

QUESTION: Congratulations on being named the USA National Coach. How are the duties if they will change at all? Does that add to your work load at all at trying to coach a young team and trying to get them up there in the Big 12 Conference?

JAMIESON: I'm sure it will at some point. Right now we haven't done at a lot. The whole process with Team USA has changed, selecting the teams. It will, but it will be more office work, maybe one day a week. But I don't think it will have any affect on this year's season, and certainly the summer will be a lot more enjoyable if we have a good year.

QUESTION: Just to follow up on that, I know a lot has been talked about the new bats and not going as far. What have you seen so far in your workouts and how do you think that will reflect in what happens in the conference this year and college baseball down the road?

JAMIESON: Well we made the decision to use wood in the fall and I've never liked doing that because you have to evaluate your pitchers based on aluminum. But I think it was a good transition to go from wood to the new aluminum versus the other way. We used the new aluminum bats the last week of practice in the fall. So we came from wood which I think helped our swings and helped our guys get a better understanding of what the new bats are going to be like. But from my experience, the new bats are significantly better than wood. Everybody was saying how that they may be the same, they might be worse, but there's a definite benefit for the new aluminum versus wood. I think there will be some changes. I think it's still going to come down to the quality of the swings and the strength of the players and the decision process as to what balls they swing at. If you take it this way at good pitches, the ball is still going to go.

QUESTION: Do you see some of your pitchers in pre-season here trying to work on that? Trying to concentrate on pitching more inside, because obviously to have success you have to pitch inside. We've seen in the past in games where guys just stay away from the inside part of the plate.

JAMIESON: I saw that when we used wood a little bit Jack, but I think more than anything else, it's going to come down to strike efficiency. You can't walk people, you can't give teams extra base runners, but I don't know if that's any different than the way it's been in the past. It'll be more of a premium because one or two runs may be significant. Our guys still got to attack the strike zone and throw strikes and we've done a pretty good job of that. So I don't see that being a big difference but I think the teams that walk people are going to suffer more than the teams that don't.

QUESTION: I was just wondering what you feel best about with your team heading into the season and what areas might need the most polished.

JAMIESON: Well I feel good about our team. I think the last year we played a lot of young people. I think that will definitely help us this year, particularly on the positionally side. Pitching wise, we're going to have to rely on a lot of newcomers at the top of the rotation, which I think they'll be fine, but experience is a bit of an issue. I think the biggest thing that we have to overcome is just the fact that we don't have a marquee guy. We got to have more of a team approach and we have to multiple guys step up this year and both on the positionally side as well as on the pitching side. The one thing that we feel like we have strength in right now is the end of the game bullpen. We haven't had a really good bullpen in a number of years and I think that this may be the best bullpen we've had in a while. Of course, it doesn't mean anything if you're trailing late in the game, but I think we'll be better than people expect. Obviously if we finish 9th that's going to be better than people expect. But I think we have a good baseball team and I think we'll be competitive and I think we have a chance to make some noise.

QUESTION: How much separation do you think there is for maybe those four South schools that are picked 1, 2, 3, 4 there and for the rest of the conference?

JAMIESON: I don't think very much. You know like Texas had last year running away with it, that has not been common in our league. I'd be surprised if that was the case this year. You can make the argument that Texas and Oklahoma are the two best teams, and certainly I would not disagree with that. But I don't think there's going to be that much separation from one to possible even ten in terms of we've teams that can creep in, in the middle. I think that Texas and Oklahoma are the favorites, no question. But if we're the tenth best team in the league, then it's a pretty damn good league.

QUESTION: What are some of the new pitchers that you're going to be looking at, if you could give us a couple real quick and some nails on some of the new guys.

JAMIESON: If we're to start the season today, the Friday night guy would be Matt Stites, who's a junior college pitcher from Jefferson College. Pitched in the Cape last year, drafted by the Cubs. Saturday guy, would be a freshman by the name of Rob Zastryzny and he's from Corpus Christi, Texas. And he's been very good for us to this point. And then Zack Hardoin who was with us last year as a reliever, is likely to be one of our starters again at the beginning of the season. It's really the two guys at the top. But then in the bullpen, Dusty Ross is a potential closer for us. He did not have great numbers in junior college, but he was a starter in junior college. He had great numbers last summer as a closer. The guy that really no one has talked about because he didn't pitch last year, is Eric Garcia who played middle infield for us last year, but he's pitched very well in the fall for us as a relief pitcher and he's a guy that we think can be an end of the game guy. Then we have a couple of guys that are hurt, that need to get healthy and one of those is Eric Anderson. He was a conference starter for us the first few weekends, but then had to miss the rest of the year because of shoulder injury, and if he comes back, then we have that much more depth.

QUESTION: Have you had this much new pitching before, and if so, whatever, but you can't get experience without going to the Big 12. Is this one of those things that sort of as coach you have to close your eyes and say `well I hope this works out?'

JAMIESON: Well to a certain degree yes, because you have to parade new guys out there, but there's also a nucleus of returning guys that are going to have significant roles. Now they're not going to start on the weekends, but they're going to have roles that are going to help the younger guys adjust. It's true, our whole team, the market for error is not great because of the lack of experience, but I completely understand why we were picked tenth because of the last year and the newness of this year's team. But I have seen that the guys are capable and are competitive and just the intangibles they bring are different than what we had last year. We're a better baseball team than what we were last year. There's no question about that. But we're going to have trial by fire. They're going to have to go out there and get it done and we've got a lot of guys that have to step up.

QUESTION: I know it's a long way off, but the Big12 Tournament, you guys are going back to the previous format where it's more like the NCAA tournament. Can you talk about that and from your point of view the reason the coaches wanted to go to the format you guys adopted?

JAMIESON: Well I can't speak for the other guys, but I do feel like the drama left the tournament. I think it was really came to notice because the Saturday last year in the tournament when all four games had no bearing on Sunday. But I think for us, as the coaches and the players, you never want to be in the loser's bracket, but there's a drama there that goes with a double-elimination tournament that we've missed and for whatever reason the attendance has slipped a little bit, I don't know if its directly related to that, but I think we recognize it could be more fun in double elimination. It can cause some logistical issues, but the fun will be there versus in the past. If we get to Regionals and then get to Omaha, it's double elimination. I think it helps prepare us for what lies ahead.