Preseason Top 25 | Preseason All-American Team | 2017 College Baseball Preview Index
Like a lot of highly regarded high school baseball prospects that made the decision to attend an elite four-year university – a school that oozes prestige with both its academic and NCAA Division-I baseball programs – Brian Howard figured his stay at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth would last no longer than three years.
Howard is a 6-foot-9, 185-pound right-handed pitcher from St. Louis who was not selected in the 2013 MLB June Amateur Draft out of St. Louis University High School. So, he honored his commitment to TCU and head coach Jim Schlossnagle and headed for Fort Worth confident that he would be drafted after his junior year (2016), and then would embark on a professional baseball career.
Lo and behold, it happened – or at least the getting drafted part of the scenario happened. The Houston Astros selected Howard – a 10-game winner for the Horned Frogs last season – in the 17th round of the 2016 draft, and it looked like the 21-year-old’s dream of playing professional baseball would be realized. But there was a problem. Maybe not a problem, exactly, but more of a stumbling block.
Howard, it seems, never expected he would fall so deeply in love with TCU – the campus, the classrooms, the baseball program – during his three years in Fort Worth. He just never considered his love of college life would be so strong that he’d forgo signing a professional contract and, to the delight of the Horned Frogs faithful everywhere, return for his senior season in 2017.
“It wasn’t necessarily about anything that had to do with money or anything like that,” Howard told PG during a telephone conversation last week while TCU students were still on their winter break. “I just felt like I owed more to TCU and everybody within the university and in the community.
“I didn’t feel like I had paid my dues for everything they had given me and what they’ve turned me into as far as my development there. I didn’t feel like I could leave without giving everything that I had back to the university and to the program.”
That’s the kind of hold a successful program like the one Schlossnagle has established in Fort Worth can have on a young man. It’s a program that enjoys all the benefits that come from having one of the country’s most highly respected coaching staffs, first-rate facilities – including 4,500-seat Lupton Stadium – and unbridled support from the university and the community at large.
The Horned Frogs have advanced to the last three NCAA D-I College World Series in Omaha and while they’re still in search of their first CWS championship, they’ve come mighty close. They finished last season with an overall record of 49-18 after going 2-2 in Omaha, including a 1-2 record against eventual national champion Coastal Carolina.
But with eight position players returning that started at least 51 of the team’s 67 games in 2016 – five started at least 64 of them – and five pitchers back that made at least seven starts, big things are once again expected of TCU this spring. Such big things, in fact, the Horned Frogs will open play next month as the No. 1 team in the Perfect Game College Preseason Top 25 National Rankings.
“Anytime you’re in that scenario you obviously want your club to remain hungry and stay committed to the process, and not let any outside expectations affect their preparations or their work ethic for the season; to this point they’ve been great,” Schlossnagle told PG in a recent telephone interview. “We have a saying in our program that ‘You can’t learn what you think you already know’ and the guys have done a good job of being coachable.”
TCU complied an overall record of 148-51 (.744 winning percentage) the last three seasons – it won Big 12 Conference tournament championships in 2014 and ’16 and the league’s regular-season title in ’15 – that includes a 5-6 record at the CWS (the Horned Frogs also went to the CWS in 2010 under Schlossnagle when they finished 3-2). This year’s group – led by five seniors, including Howard – looks to have the maturity and the experience necessary to make that final leap.
Under Schlossnagle (14th year at TCU) and pitching coach Kirk Saarloos (5th year), the Horned Frogs have a reputation for always having one of the top pitching staffs in the country, and this year’s group upholds that rep.
Howard (10-2, 3.19 ERA in ‘16) will be the Friday night starter, with sophomore right-hander Jared Janczak (7-4, 2.61), senior right-hander Mitchell Traver (1-3, 3.26) and sophomore lefty Dalton Horton (8-0, 2.58) probably getting some weekend starts as well. Sophomore right-hander Durbin Feltman (3-0, 9 saves, 1.56) is expected to once again anchor the bullpen.
The batting order could potentially include eight of last year’s top-nine hitters, including sophomore designated hitter Luken Baker (.379, 11 HRs, 62 RBI), senior infielder Elliott Barzilli (.339, 7 HRs, 48 RBI), junior catcher Evan Skoug (.301, 9 HRs, 51 RBI), senior infielder Cam Warner (.300, 6 HRs, 43 RBI) and sophomore outfielder Josh Watson (.280, 11 HRs, 44 RBI).
Baker, Barzilli, Feltman, Howard and Skoug are all Perfect Game College Preseason Second Team All-Americans.
“This is a pretty up-tempo and pretty upbeat group,” Skoug told PG in yet another recent telephone interview. “We all get along extremely well, we’re all very close; we’re very focused on what we’re doing that day. The best thing about this group is that we don’t worry about what’s written about us; we just worry about the tasks that we have in front of us.”
Added Howard: “We’re a pretty veteran team so most of the guys are just focused on doing a little bit better every single day … and doing whatever we can do to put ourselves in the best situation to have success this year. We’re pretty confident but I don’t know if that comes from us returning a bunch of guys. We’re confident because we know we’re doing the work that’s necessary to be successful.”
It is noteworthy that each one of these impact players enjoyed fairly extensive Perfect Game experiences while they were in high school. Traver was at the 2011 PG National Showcase and the 2011 PG All-American Classic; Baker was both of those premier events in 2014.
Baker, Howard, Skoug, Feltman, Barzilli and Traver all played at the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., at some point from 2010-13 and, in fact, Skoug was named the Most Valuable Player at the 2013 PG WWBA World while playing for the third-place Reds Midwest Scout Team. It is unusual for the MVP to come a from a team that doesn’t play in the championship game.
“It was a great honor to receive that award because there were a lot of great players down there,” he said. “But (that experience) kind of solidified the fact that I could go out there and compete with the best people that were my age, and it gave me confidence and go me really excited about competing at the next level (college). It really did prepare me for that next jump.”
The Horned Frogs are tearing a page out of Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon’s playbook this spring, adopting the catch-phrase “Embrace the Target.” They know – based in part on all this preseason chatter – they are going to get everyone’s best shot, and that starts Feb. 17 when they open the season at home with a three-game series against the Big Ten’s Penn State.
“You want to be the target,” Howard said. “You want to go to the school that’s going to put you in the best position to win games; that’s why we all went to TCU. We wanted to play for these coaches and have the chance to be the best that we can be so, yeah, we embrace that. But we also know it’s all going to come down to us playing our brand of baseball. As long as we play the way we’re supposed to play, that’s all we can control.”
Having now spent two-and-half years in the TCU program, Skoug said the thing he’s become to appreciate the most is how important it is to pay attention to every detail, no matter how small it might seem. It’s not always something as obvious as taking an extra batting practice session or fielding a few more ground balls, it’s more about paying attention to the little things that just might help propel a college team from the regionals to a Super Regional and ultimately the College World Series.
“We’re all really excited to get back after it. I’m excited to get back out on the field again because I miss being around (my teammates) all the time,” Skoug said. “We really do embrace that target because … no matter who it is, they’re going to come at us with their best game; we have to be prepared and come out ready to go.”
The remarkable physical abilities the Horned Frogs players possess are put on display every time they step out on the field but it may be their mindset and their willingness to live within the culture of the program on a daily basis that sets them apart.
The coaching staff invests a lot of time and effort teaching the proper mental approach to the game and it’s obviously paid huge dividends. Having the right mindset is imperative for any team trying to block-out the white noise created by those increasingly high expectations.
“I think our guys know the difference between the inner expectations and the outside expectations, and the things you can control and the things you can’t,” Schlossnagle said. “It’s easy to talk about as a 46-year-old coach; it’s a lot harder to navigate through as an 18- to 22-year-old young man. We talk about those things every day and you try to embrace it. …
“I also think our guys really respect the game,” he continued. “It doesn’t matter where you are at the beginning of the season, it only matters where you are at the end and there are going to be ups and downs to that. It’s never, ever about the best team it’s only about the team that plays the best.”
Howard has nothing but praise for the coaching staff and the outstanding work those guys do with the players on a day-to-day basis. As far as his own development is concerned, he said he hardly recognizes himself today compared to the pitcher and person he was during his freshman year, calling it a “complete 180-degree turn” in just three-and-a-half years.
“And it’s more than just the stuff on the mound,” he said. “It’s how to be a leader and how to carry yourself, and all of that goes into having success on the field – knowing how to carry yourself off the field always shows up on the field. …
“We put such a high demand on being disciplined and all that sort of stuff that you can’t find in a box-score, but that’s what really shapes us and makes this program what it is year-in and year-out.”
Another thing Schlossnagle really likes about this collection of Horned Frogs is the way they play for each other. If somebody makes a mistake out on the field, he’ll simply reach into his bag and pull out yet another axiom, which is simply, “So what? Next pitch.” The head coach is also quick to point out that these guys are not afraid to use their brains while they’re playing this game because it’s a group with a lot of brainpower to utilize.
“They’re good students,” he said. “It’s not nerdy in our program to be a good student. It’s actually cool to be a good student and they challenge each other that way as well.”
Doing enough winning to advance to three straight College World Series is not something that is easy to do. It is, in fact, very, very hard and getting to a fourth straight CWS will be a tremendous challenge. The degree of difficulty isn’t lost on the players, of course, and what encourages them more than anything is that they honestly believe their supporters are aware of how difficult it is, too.
“I feel like our fans and the Fort Worth community do a really good job of appreciating what we (accomplish) each year,” Skoug said. “There are (high) expectations around the area and around our program, which is great, but seeing people around town, you can see how everyone appreciates watching us make our runs and how difficult it must be. … It is a very difficult thing but it’s become a standard for us.”
Everyone associated with this year’s TCU baseball team feels like they’ve left some unfinished business up in Omaha the last three years. Everyone also knows that being one of the final eight teams left standing when the season concludes in mid-June is something to be very proud of.
Regardless of how it all plays out, these Horned Frogs players realize they have been truly blessed just with what they’ve been able to experience in the time they’ve been on campus leading up to the 2017 season. Skoug called his decision to accept a scholarship offer from Schlossnagle “the best one I’ve made in life so far” and went on to talk about lifetime friendships and lifetime memories.
And then there are the seniors, the guys like Howard who put their dream of playing professional baseball on hold for one more year just because they feel like they still owe TCU and its baseball program a little bit more than they have already given. In today’s me-first society, it’s that kind of attitude that may best explain why the TCU Horned Frogs enter the 2017 season as the No. 1-ranked team in all the land.
“I think college baseball is the best thing for any athlete that’s looking to become a better baseball player and a better person on and off the field,” Howard concluded. “I obviously know how lucky I am to go to TCU and I just think that I would be a completely different place (as a person) had I been anywhere other than TCU. I’m so grateful for everything that’s happened and I’m just looking forward to giving it one more go with all the people at TCU.”