Auburn baseball began full squad preseason practice today. I have a video interview with Butch Thompson below where he talks about the team, position battles, adding Tim Hudson as pitching coach and more. Also, here are just a couple of small tidbits I picked up today...
** Auburn's pitching staff was already deeper than it's been under Thompson, and there's another young arm that showed out in individual workouts over the last few weeks. Freshman RHP Mason Barnett has been hitting mid-90s on his fastball and really commanding the strike zone. He was injured his senior season of high school and didn't throw much in the fall, but now looks like another piece to an already talented and deep staff.
** Tim Hudson has jumped right in to his new role with a ton of energy. I had one coach describe Hudson to me as the most focused person he's ever been around. He was working with one of the guys before practice while we were doing interviews today. Hudson was originally going to join the program as a student assistant this season but when the opening to be the pitching coach came available, he was determined to get it.
** Auburn's pitching staff was already deeper than it's been under Thompson, and there's another young arm that showed out in individual workouts over the last few weeks. Freshman RHP Mason Barnett has been hitting mid-90s on his fastball and really commanding the strike zone. He was injured his senior season of high school and didn't throw much in the fall, but now looks like another piece to an already talented and deep staff.
** Tim Hudson has jumped right in to his new role with a ton of energy. I had one coach describe Hudson to me as the most focused person he's ever been around. He was working with one of the guys before practice while we were doing interviews today. Hudson was originally going to join the program as a student assistant this season but when the opening to be the pitching coach came available, he was determined to get it.
