Veteran savvy: Frogs stocked with experience for 2015 baseball

TCU began baseball practice last week with such a veteran team, coach Jim Schlossnagle has hardly ever seen anything like it.

And probably has ever wanted to see anything like it.

“It isn’t very often in college baseball that you have eight seniors,” he said and tried to hold back a smile. “If you do, they’re usually not very good players.”

Nope, the best players are typically long gone to pro baseball by their senior years, if they even got to college baseball.

“That’s absolutely not the case with this bunch,” the veteran TCU coach said. “Almost all of them are going to get a chance to play professional baseball after this year. It’s just for whatever reason — they weren’t signable or really wanted their degree or really valued the program and didn’t want to go off and play — they’re back.”

The prime example is right-hander Preston Morrison, who led the team in ERA and starts last year.

“He could have been a guy drafted in the sixth to 12th round, but he wasn’t signable in those areas because he really wants to graduate,” Schossnagle said.

And win.

“I wanted to win a national championship,” Morrison said. “I wanted to be a part of this brotherhood one last time.”

The brotherhood will have to deliver if the Horned Frogs are going to compete for a national championship. The eight seniors are not on the roster merely for one more fun ride:

▪ Much is expected from the returning starters, shortstop Keaton Jones, second baseman Garrett Crain, third baseman Derek Odell and center fielder Cody Jones.

▪ Jeremie Fagnan is going to get the first shot at first base now that he is fully recovered from hip labrum surgery, but he can also DH and play right field.

“He played hurt all year, but he can do a lot of really good things on a baseball field,” Schlossnagle said.

▪ Pitchers Trey Teakell and Travis Evans were second and fifth on the team in appearances last year, respectively.

“Just getting those guys back is big, but they all have to improve,” Schlossnagle said. “Because there’s only one guy in that whole bunch who has hit over .300 in their whole career, and that’s Garrett Crain.”

The Horned Frogs naturally expect to improve. What they want to guard against is assuming they will.

“It’s easy to hold a freshman accountable, because he’s never been there. The hard part is holding each other accountable, the upperclassmen. We’ve been doing a good job so far.”

This story was originally published January 25, 2015 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Veteran savvy: Frogs stocked with experience for 2015 baseball."