Jack's Mailbag Ep. 54: Answering your latest South Carolina baseball questions

The final week of the regular season is underway. South Carolina has one more weekend series remaining before heading to Hoover, Ala. for the SEC Tournament next week. Not long after that, the offseason will begin, and eventually a new leader will take over the program.

It’s time for my weekly Q&A series, Jack’s Mailbag, where I answer all of your Gamecock baseball questions. If you would like to have a question featured in the next episode, I’ll create a post on The Insiders Forum at the start of every week, and you can ask your question there.

Without further ado, let’s get into this week’s questions.

Gamecock14: First off, thank you for all your coverage of Gamecock Baseball/Athletics.
When Paul Mainieri was hired, did you ever think he would put together teams that lost more games than any other teams in program history? If you could go back to the firing of Mark Kingston, would you have fired Kingston, number 1, and number 2, who would you have gone after to be the coach? Thanks for taking my call and I’ll hang up and listen.

Well, thank you. I appreciate the kind words. I enjoy what I get to do through the ups and downs. I’ll be the first to admit that I never saw this coming. At the time, I thought hiring Mainieri made sense given his past success at Notre Dame and LSU. Looking back, the fact that he had been away from coaching for three years raised some concern, but I thought he would be able to adapt and rely on his staff to help navigate how much the landscape has changed. Now it’s clear the hire never worked out, and that’s a big reason why things have reached this point.

To answer your second question, I still would’ve fired Kingston. He had some good years at South Carolina, but by 2024, it eventually became clear he wasn’t going to be the coach to lead the program back to Omaha. That’s why a change became necessary. I would’ve hired either Tom Walter or Chris Pollard, who were some of the initial candidates on our hot board back then. If that were the case, I think things would be a lot different right now, definitely nowhere near as bad as things have gotten.

Taxbud: Why is Carolina going for Kansas head baseball coach so hard? He not impressed by his records. Isn’t there a lot of other that we should focus on?

In a story from TheBigSpur’s JC Shurbutt over the weekend, he shared that Kansas head coach Dan Fitzgerald is a candidate for the South Carolina job. But I’ll ask you the question: why aren’t you impressed by what he’s done at Kansas? His work there has been nothing short of impressive.

When Fitzgerald took over in 2023, Kansas was in a bad spot. The Jayhawks were coming off a 20-win season the year before and hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2014. After missing the tournament in his first two seasons (while showing some improvement), he led them to a 43-win season, ending with a trip to the Fayetteville Regional, where they went two-and-done. This season, Kansas is having another strong year and will be back in the postseason with a chance to go on a deep run.

I’m not sure what the baseball NIL resources are like at Kansas, but I’m sure they are nowhere close to what South Carolina, let alone any SEC school, is spending. If he’s able to turn a program like the Jayhawks into a contender, imagine what he could do in Columbia with strong backing and resources.

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Hampton Rhodes: Who would you say is this year’s most valuable player? Personally, I think Evans deserves it.

Talmadge LeCroy. I know there will probably be some groans at the thought of that, but he’s arguably been South Carolina’s best hitter this season. On top of that, the fact that he’s caught nearly every game behind the plate is even more impressive. He’s cooled off a bit lately, but he’s still put together a strong season and has clearly emerged as the team’s leader.

JRS9572: Jack. No matter the head coach. There has to be a serious effort into figuring out why this program has been like a walking MASH unit for the last half a decade. We constantly have people hurt. What fixes it? Better handling of pitching? Better strength and conditioning?

Fair point. That’s an underrated factor that should matter in South Carolina’s next coaching hire. The Gamecocks have dealt with their fair share of injuries over the last few years, and while some of that likely comes down to bad luck, some of it could also stem from the other factors you mentioned. From what I understand, though, there was a greater emphasis on strength and conditioning this past offseason compared to the year before.

ClemsonBloz: Will the pain ever stop?

Well, maybe someday!

Cock69: Was Totally shocked at Kingston hire. Think Tanner made
Another “feeling the Pressure “ hire when L’Ville coach’s wife screwed that hire up.
Mainieri was Always a bandaid hire. So here we are a decade + later, program not playing on dirt but in the Dirt. Hope Donati makes a great hire.

Yeah, the last two hires just haven’t worked out the way South Carolina hoped. As I mentioned earlier, Kingston had some solid years in Columbia, especially in 2018 and 2023, but he ultimately couldn’t get the program back to Omaha. Mainieri was never viewed as a long-term solution, but he was brought in to help South Carolina take the next step after moving on from Kingston.

Now, this next hire needs to do more than just stabilize the program — it needs to get South Carolina back among the elite in college baseball. Before any talk of Omaha can happen again, though, the Gamecocks first have to climb out of the bottom tier of the SEC standings. That’s why this may take some time before they really hit the ground running. In my opinion, a good season next year would be returning to the postseason.

gacock: Jack, do you get combat pay from Shoe for the season you just endured?

Go Gamecocks!!!

gacock

Hahaha. I guess that’s a fair way to look at the last two seasons. But in all seriousness, I’m thankful to Shoe for sending me all over the southeast to cover this baseball program. I’m grateful to have the job that I do and work for a great boss like him.

Fleet50: Hey Jack!! Do you expect a mass exodus of players when the season is officially over? If the players on the bench can’t get any playing time over the 10 / 11 that play all the time, should they be looking elsewhere and would the new coach coming in encourage them to leave? Also, who on this team would you like to see back? Thanks!!!

I think many players will wait to see who the next coach is before making a decision, but there will likely be a few who enter the portal right away. Some players probably need to look for a new opportunity just because they never really got to play much here. To answer the question, I’m not sure about a mass exodus just yet, but I do expect the roster to look fairly different next season.

From a realistic viewpoint, these are probably the players I’d prioritize keeping moving forward: Brandon Cromer, Patrick Evans, Will Craddock, Patrick Dudley, Tyler Bak, Reese Moore, Zach Russell, Riley Goodman, Cooper Parks and Parker Marlatt. There are a few others who could come back, but I think some will be taken in the MLB Draft or look to play elsewhere. Then again, how much of a roster that went through the worst season in program history does the new coaching staff want to retain? We’ll see.

BraveCock93: Who are most likely transfer portal candidates on this current roster?

I’d say anybody that I didn’t mention above who has any eligibility left could be a candidate to hit the portal. I don’t know for a fact, so this is just my opinion. I’d have to imagine guys like Caleb Hoover, Aaron Jamison, Elijah Foster, Bryce Navarre, etc. (who all barely played this year) will be the ones to go. There will probably be more, but again, just my opinion based on what I’ve watched this season.

GivEmDaSpurs: Thanks for all the effort Jack!! It’s been a loooonng two seasons. What is the timeline for hiring a new coach?

I appreciate the kind words. Thank you. As far as the timeline goes, Jeremiah Donati wants to make this hire as quickly as possible. At the same time, he understands the process could take a while because some candidates may still be coaching teams deep into the postseason. Most of the realistic options are likely leading programs that could still be playing into June, so that may be the holdup here. I know this is a basic answer, but I’d say sometime in June is when a hire should be made. Again, just depends on who they’re targeting and where that coach is coming from with their current team’s situation.

WidespreadPanic: Why couldn’t this be a possibility?

HC: Kevin Schnall
AHC: Chris Lemonis
PC: Matt Williams

It certainly could be. If South Carolina hires Schnall, it would make sense that some of his assistants could follow him, including Williams, who was the pitching coach in Columbia in 2024. As for Lemonis, the only question would be, does he want to be an assistant or is he waiting on another head coaching gig? He didn’t coach this season after being fired at Mississippi State last season. He knows the Palmetto state well from his time as a player and coach at The Citadel. I actually like this idea for the coaching staff, but it really depends on whether Schnall/Lemonis/Williams want to come here.

GamecockVinny3: When is this nightmare of a season going to be over with?

It could be as soon as next Tuesday if South Carolina loses in the first round of the SEC Tournament.

The Insiders Forum: Discuss South Carolina baseball!