Episode 47 - CB Wilkins

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I'm Aaron

And I'm Mike.

and you're listening to the Monarchs podcast. Last June, CBE Wilkins joined us to talk ODU U Baseball. The feedback was awesome and y'all wanted more ODU U Baseball today. We welcome CBE back to the show to talk Monarch Baseball cbe. Welcome back to the World's Best and only OD podcast.

Hello. Hey, it's good to be back. Which change you guys having Me?

Thanks for coming.

It's great to have you back with us cb how was your off season?

Uh, it's been good. I mean, anytime there's no baseball to watch, it's not the best, you know, so that's, but now we're back, there's two weekends in a row. I've, and watching some baseball, so it's only January. So we're, we're, we're doing good now.

So you've been watching a lot of the, these new guys are coming in. is there a specific style we should be expecting this season from the team?

Um, you know, I mean, I, I know like we were talking a little bit here beforehand, uh, that a lot of people think maybe, you know, we lost Kutney. We lost Ola, lost Petrozzi, lost Trice. You know, we, we've lost a lot of these big power hitters, and so I was like, oh, well we're probably gonna go back to me more. And that kind of. You know, get on base, doubles and, uh, maybe going fast kind of team. But I don't see any reason we couldn't hit a bunch of home runs again.

All right, cb. So I mean, I, I think we're gonna step through this, piece by piece because we got a lot of new faces on the roster and I know that Mike and I haven't had an opportunity to be out to the ballpark like you have. And most of Monarch Nation probably has had even less access. So, hey, growing up, one of the positions I played a lot was. So we have three new faces behind the plate bra graduated, from an impact standpoint.

Well, you know, Brock was, Brock was a huge part of the team and unfortunately he's still around helping ODU sports, doing things, uh, with the big statistics and all. Um, So it's good to see him around, but you know our catchers. Yeah, we have three new guys. We have a couple other guys on the team. Actually we have three other guys who could catch depending on what situations come up. Uh, but I think Rob O'Neill, he's a, um, transfer from, uh, pit Junior College.

All right. So catcher sounds like we have a a lot of options and Robbie O'Neill sounds like the guy moving forward. The one position on the infield, if we're gonna move out towards that, that I'm concerned about is replacing a guy like Tommy Bell. what are we looking at at shortstop? Cause I know we got third is covered with Lari. Second, you got Carl Edwards and Dangler. Are they considering moving dangler short or what's going on?

No. So yeah, you're right. Kenny is gonna be a third base. You know, he's a phenomenal third baseman, really solid hitter. Um, it'd be, I, I think he could take a big leap and hopefully this will be the year he has a big year and, um, hopefully, unfortunately, I hope this is his last year at odu. I hope he has a great season and find himself playing pro ball by the end of the summer. Uh, Chris, uh, Chris ler is gonna be the second basement. He's gonna stick there. Hopefully he can stay healthy.

say this. I looked at that name and I thought at Norfolk and I thought, that's Bouch

Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I believe his bouche is how they say they, they just call him boo. So, um, but, uh, Alex, he is a, he, he plays third and short. Um, it's gonna interesting to me to see if, you know, he is, he's a problem for Chris Vinwood. He, Finn's gonna need to put him in the lineup somewhere. Um, it's made interest to see if he maybe finds some advanced shortstop. He's. As good as Kyle, which is not saying he's bad, it's just saying he's not as good as Kyle's phenomenal.

That's good to hear Cuz injuries happen all the time. we saw that last year with guys having to move around. It sounds like when you were talking about that at first base and dh, we've got some options there if things happen. And it sounds like that's our option at shortstop if, if something happens. What about third base?

yeah, Kenny will be the third, I would say. Again, Alex Boucher is the, uh, your backup there at third. Um, you got, uh, cam Grimes, another player we have that plays, uh, been playing mostly second in the, um, practices can play a third bass can play the outfield kick catch if you need to. You got Luke Waters another guy. He's been playing outfield in addition to second base and third base.

All right, so one question. I think a lot of fans are gonna be wondering, Kyle Edwards fantastic fielder. what are we, what is his, uh, improvement looking like at the plate?

He's looking stronger. He had a very good summer. He played up with, uh, the Charlottesville. Tom Sox had a very good summer. I think he finally relaxed. I think that was one thing that he, you know, as a kid who's, I, I think I've known him since he was about 14, and he is always been just off the charts. Phenomenal. On the field and never struggled. And I think when he came to odu, you know, he's, he's, he's a little bit of a light kid, he's skinny.

And you're right, he hit two 17 in conference play.

There you go. So, and I, he even seemed like a, it's, that's one of those where sometimes the guy seems like a better hitter than that, you know? But it's, uh, yeah, two 17 for one 50 eight's a big, big difference.

You should look at his on base percentage for the season versus conference. It's like 200 points higher.

Ah, there you go. Yeah. Cuz he was definitely getting walks, getting hits. I mean, he's, he's a, he's a, he's a ball player. He is one of those very smart guys.

All right,

and he's actually a guy. He, he's seems like he's coming to his own kind of as leader out there.

All right, cbi. So we started behind the plate and we moved to the infield. So let's move out to the grass and talk outfield a little bit here. so far, what have you seen out there? What have we had to look forward to?

Again, I think there's a lot of options out there. Uh, I'd say we know Thomas Wheeler is gonna play center field. We know he, you know, he's got a nice bat for us. He's, he's fast. He's kind of one of those like, nice kind of toolsy guys can do it all. A little pop, little speed, uh, big energy. We love that. And he is got his twin brother here with him, so that's gonna make him happy.

So I thought it was interesting you said Lincoln and Right, and it makes sense. It almost solves the DH quandary. Cause either you put Lincoln a dh, but now you have to figure out who plays right. But him going to right kind of solves that issue and allows you to put one of those first basement there.

from everything that we've heard, the opportunity to have both, Fitzgerald and Tyson and the lineup to be able to try to replace some of that power sounds like a, an awesome thing to be able to do if you're able to do that consistently.

I would be shocked to not see both of them in line of playing first base and dh. I don't see either one of 'em really spending time in the out. Especially, I mean, Tyson, he's, he's a giant, the guy, he's got this big black beard now too. He looks like, just like an old lumberjack, you know, he is a Paul bunion looking guy. Um, but I mean, the

saw him at the baseball event, uh, a couple Fridays ago, and yeah, he's, he's definitely a.

he's, he looks like a, he's like, he's 35. He's gonna have his teenage kids come to the game. I mean, he's, he's a, he's a monster and he, he's one of those guys that's swings the bat, nice, easy swing, the ball goes off the wall. And, uh, so both him and, and and, uh, hunter Fitzgerald, they're gonna really do some good stuff this year.

All right, so while we're talking about bat. Who's your lead off? Like if you had to pick a guy to bat, lead off, who are you picking? I'd imagine wheels kind of fits that mold with his speed and his ability to get on base, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on that.

you know, Wheeler's a guy and I think they're, that's where they're gonna start. I will say, I know for a fact that Wheels doesn't necessarily enjoy leading off. Um, and, but he does have all those skills. I wouldn't mind to see, uh, Chris Ingler doing it. I think he's, he's got kind of the same skillset that Wheels has. Um, and he maybe is a little more, you know, mentally in, into doing it. Nothing wrong with than wheels maybe bat second.

Yeah, Kenny's got that pop though. You kind of want to have him in the three or the four hole,

I got nothing wrong with, I got nothing wrong with one pitch. And, uh, we're got a one oh lead It was once against that.

I feel like Trujillo might even be able to push for lead off cause he's got speed too and he's pretty good about getting on.

Yeah, I was just looking at that mic. Yeah, the four. Seven on base percentage. So he's, he's getting on base. He's, uh, looks like he's got a pretty good eye. I mean, he had 23 walks last year too, so.

He and he really got better as the year went on too. He really, by the end of the year he was so, he, he can do that again and he's been looking pretty good. Um, so he, he's a great option for leaving off cuz I think he's a guy that's really well suited to it.

And you could steal a bag.

Oh

mean, that's what you want outta the lead off. You want a guy that can get on base and then he can, uh, put pressure on the opposition by stealing second.

I mean, we've got a few, you know, between Trujillo Wheeler, uh, waters Edwards. We've got a few guys who can swipe some bags. Has that, that's one thing that has not been a huge thing for od baseball, uh, in the last, you know, 10 years or so is having, you know, big time stolen base numbers.

when you're hitting. Many bombs, I guess you don't have to, but the ability to be able to manufacture runs can come up big at times. we talk about replacing home runs, but we have some stolen bases to replace too. Carter Tri had 18 of 'em last year, so that's something that, uh, that I think will be replaced based upon what, what you're talking about. Just, uh, a minute.

Yeah. I think in the aggregating, it's, it's one of those things you don't, you don't necessarily have to replace everything. You just have to produce, you know, and you, if you can find a way to have everything come together and you still are scoring runs and still getting guys on base, that's where the one matters. You look year to year and you say, oh, we didn't quite have as many still on bases. Oh, we didn't quite amazing home runs. Okay. Did we win ball games? Did we get.

All right, so now we gotta move on to the pitching rotation. starting, obviously Blake Morgan is back and that's a beautiful thing considering how. Spectacular, or he was last season.

He was phenomenal and he might be. he may actually be better. Like he's, he seems to be, you hear all those, um, the adjectives, he's disgusting. He's filthy, he's gross, he's nasty. You know, all those wonderful adjectives. He, he is really, he's added pitches. He's getting better break on things. Um, and he's really acting like a leader.

All right, so after Blake, Sam Armstrong. He's got a lot of experience there and he really seemed to catch some great momentum at the end of last season. what are you expecting outta Sam this season?

Yeah, I would, I would agree. I think Sam is probably the next guy you could, you could pencil in the, the rotation. Um, and again, yeah, he did, he kind of, he kind of stumbled a little bit later outta the gate. You know, he had scouts coming out to see him the first few weekends and then they never came back and they were missing out on what he was doing at the end of the year. Um, he's a big, strong guy. If he's competent in himself, he's got some just phenomenal stuff.

who's that third starter?

Who is that third starter? There's a lot of options. I, I believe right now, and you know, if Fannie might, when I see if any, tell me I'm completely wrong. I think it's gonna be John Hoz, um, who is a sophomore transfer from Radford. Um, lanky kid. Real good action on things. Um, really tough out there. It's looking to me like he's a guy. That could be the, the third start. there've been some other guys like, um, who else?

if we're talking about pitching the biggest question mark to me cuz we have Blake coming back. We have Sam coming back, starting. But we're replacing two fantastic relievers, this year. Noah Dean and, uh, sorry, I'm blanking.

Jason Heartline, I think it's probably who

And Jason Harline, who's gonna be slamming the door on the opposition this year?

Yeah. I think first of all, no one's gonna be Noah Dean or Jason Heartline. They were both really phenomenal in their own different kinda ways. Um, I, I would see Jacob Gomez finding his way into that kind of heartline role of working multiple innings and being a, a bulldog. Uh, he is one of the toughest. Young man you're over to meet. He, I mean, a lot of people don't know. Last year he, he actually hit, he was basically pitching on one knee last season, um, and he had that cleaned up.

If you had a chance to take a look at the Sunbelt very much with regards to baseball and kind of what you're thinking there.

I really haven't, I mean, you know, you know, Like Southern Miss that came with us from the, uh, conference. You say they're ranked in the top 25? Um, Texas State who we actually play at home. I think they were ranked in one of the top 20 fives. You know, you always have, um, south Carolina's been con consistently a good program for years. Um, J M U, I mean, they're J M U, we're just gonna beat them. I don't really worry about them. No. I'm assuming they're, they're using a pretty good program.

you said JMU and it, you said they're usually pretty good. And it made me laugh because actually if you look at history over the last decade, they've only broken 30 winds once, I think in the last decade. and that was in the C, which is not up to the caliber of the Sunbelt. the teams, I would, you highlighted a few of them. Texas State, Southern Miss and Coastal, but I'd add in Louisiana to that group, and Georgia Southern was fantastic last season. I'm not sure what they're replacing,

Yeah, I knew they made the tournament last year.

they were fantastic last year. And, yeah, I did see one, someone picked J to go to the, to. And I think it was, one of the guys from D one baseball. And I, I thought it was interesting considering what they lost. Cause I mean, they had their best player maybe in JMU history go to the draft and was it the first or second round he was picked?

I think he was free. He was like a 12th, over 17th. Overall, somebody chase the water. Yeah,

yeah. And I mean, they struggled with him in the lineup. You're replacing that guy and

he was hurt a lot year too. So that was, that was an issue for him. Yeah, I mean, I know, I know this about the Sunbelt, they talk about, you know, the Power five, they say the Sunbelt baseball should be in, it's supposedly one of the best baseball conferences in the country. So, and I think o you'll fit right in there. So, I, I don't know 'em all yet. I'm, I'm excited to learn what they got going on. Um, I would love to see Marshall compete a little more than they have.

with Marshall building a new stadium, I imagine recruiting will get better for them, since they won't have to drive 45 minutes off campus to get to the stadium.

to play at A Y M C A. Yeah.

And then I think they played that Appalachian Power Park every once in a while too. So

been a few years ago. I think they, they stopped letting 'em do that. I think a couple years ago, that was the, the first time the ODU broke, tied there and broke their school record for Homers in the game of seven. They were playing at that Y M C A at their Marshall.

That's like Planet Larry Moore here in nor.

Yeah, right. Exactly.

So looking at the schedule, we have some improvements to the non-conference by adding a series with Charlotte and we have a, midweek with Liberty. hopefully that helps with our rpi and, but is there a certain series you're most excited about?

Yeah. We got Liberty home and away, don't we? Yeah, we got both of 'em. Yeah. Um, you know, I, I'm looking forward to Charlotte. I'm actually gonna go down to the Charlotte series and see that one. Um, I always like when V M I comes here, you know, they have so many local players, it's always fun to go out there and see those guys. Um, and of course, you know, with, with Finny and Hara both being a V M I guys, it's always a good time. Um, I mean, we got Southern Miss coming to us.

And a fantastic team is that, I mean, ECUs been lights.

And I, I imagine they'll travel. Well, I can't, I mean, they're very passionate. I really don't. Being around East Carolina fans at games, they're, it's not the way I wanna be a fan of games, so I don't prefer it. But they are very passionate, they're very into their team. I, I assume they'll probably travel well and hopefully, uh, we can fill up Harbor Park.

hopefully we just. All because how many years in a row has it been where we've scheduled a game at Harbor Park and it just hasn't happened?

Well, it's two years in a row now, because uva uh, always cancels because they don't, they're scared of us. And then the covid, you know, 2020, everything got canceled. So it's three years in a row. We haven't been able to play at Harper.

I'm glad that we've got 'em home and home this year. I really do hope in the not too distant future though, we can actually get weekend series with, east Carolina.

Yeah, I mean, it was, it was great back when we had it, you know, I mean, I think the last time we actually had a weekend series like against East Carolina, they had, uh, Jeff Hoffman who ended up being the fifth overall pick in the draft that year and we beat him. Um, and they had another guy, Reid Love, they ended up playing minor league ball for the Orioles. So it's, yeah, I would love to see, uh, a big rivalry with East Carolina.

Yeah, I think we'll probably have to wait for the new stadium before we can maybe even entertain a discussion about a weekend series with them, given how well they get their games are attended at home. Because they, they would be giving up a weekend at home and they're packing that place out like six, 7,000 fans.

Yeah. They are. They are passionate. Uh, again, it's not what I care for in baseball. I don't really like, I don't like the idea of anybody yelling at a college kid and being mean to 'em. You know, it's a little silly to me, but that's what Southern Baseball, that's what they love. And I guess that's, they're trying to be the s e c over there in, uh, Greenville.

I'm just ready for baseball to get started, man. Um,

I'm excited about our new, uh, you know, I say we talked about the new ballpark. I mean, we got the, the lights were actually on today. I couldn't quite tell the difference now, obviously during the day just cause it was cloudy. Um, but we got our brand new lights to the ballpark that are supposed, I know Bash Vincent Bashier was telling me about it. Like it's, it's uh, like being out there during daytime. Um, and I got my new camera and my couple new lenses to take pictures.

you say Al Turf. Are we doing the Al Turf dirt too?

Yes, everything Whole, whole infield hill out.

no dirt

No, you know, and I know

No. Dirt.

I know, and I, and I'm kind of a baseball purist too, and like I was talking to Finnie about this. He's like, he's like, I, I'm a baseball purist. But it's just one of those things that it comes down to what makes the most sense financially, what makes the most sense as far as getting games played. Um, you know, when you could cut down on you, you make this one time initial investment on the field, and after that, you're paying like maybe one guy to throw down pebbles here and there.

They're definitely pros and.

Yeah. It's just one of those, I think it's, yeah. It's not like baseball, but at the same time, I, it's, it's a good move. It's, it's gonna, it's gonna benefit them in the long run.

I think that's so important to get that word out and talk about what those, we'll just call, we'll just call 'em upgrades because if that word gets out, that excitement, that make, maybe that makes it easier to raise money for that. If you actually can understand what some of those thoughts and those big ideas are, for the program.

I'm not sure exactly when I'm gonna launch it. We are planning on launching dollars for dingers earlier in the year so people can get involved before the season's over. I'm hoping we can keep that momentum going because every extra dollar means a whole lot to these guys, especially when you're a coach for a team that isn't football or basketball. Those dollars are harder to come by. So this fundraiser's been really good for the baseball team, I think.

Yeah, absolutely. It's, uh, certainly exciting over the last two years. We've been able to do that with Monarch Nation as a grassroots campaign. the Monarchists, along with all the ODU baseball fans have been able to raise about $25,000 in every single one of those dollars has gone directly to the baseball. Program we really need to keep that momentum going.

CB we really appreciate you joining us tonight. If there was one thing that you were most excited about this season, other than it just. what would it be?

Uh, you know, it's, it's always this, this is the great time of year. It's cause you get, it's just all possible. You know, you don't know what they're gonna be. You're hoping you got another 40 plus win team. You're hoping you got another conference championship and another regional in them and you know, you. You really, you don't know.

Sounds awesome to me. I'm ready. CBE thanks so much for coming on, but before we let you go, is there anything you wanna let Monarch Nation know about you, how to find your stuff and where to go?

Yeah, I, I appreciate that. I would, uh, I'm, I got a new thing. I'm doing CD, sports photography. I'm actually, you can, uh, hire me to come to your games, do whatever you're doing. If you got, you know, I, obviously, I'm really good at baseball. Uh, if you got some, somebody playing baseball. You got somebody playing softball, you know you're doing basketball, football, hockey, whatever it is. I, I guarantee you, I can take pretty good pictures at it. Figure it out.

Yeah, Monarch Nation definitely checked that out and Stevie's not lying about being able to pick it up. I think, I remember this year Mike and I had gone to, ODU U volleyball game, and I don't think you had ever shot volleyball, but you came out with some pretty awesome pictures.

Yeah, that's, and that's hard. That's not, like, that's one thing that I come up with. Some of these other sports that aren't baseball, they're, they're not easy. I really, I, I, I go to all the volleyball games. I go to all the, the women's basketball. Um, and they're really talented, which, you know, If you're ODU sports fans go, it's not just football and, and men's basketball.

All right. Thank you again for joining us tonight, and please stay tuned for episodes with, coach Chris Vinwood of ODU Baseball and Rick French. Thanks again everybody. And go Monarchs.

Go Monarchs.

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