Wise ready to make impact for Sooners Baseball is back, pitchers and catchers hold first workouts
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NORMAN — With another underwhelming season behind them, the Oklahoma baseball team will look to start the 2016 campaign strong Friday under third-year coach Pete Hughes.
The Sooners haven’t made the postseason since 2013, and things won’t be much easier this time around. OU will have to make it through one of the toughest road schedules in college baseball. This means OU will have to rely on veteran leadership to have a chance of making a run at Omaha.
One of those veterans is senior outfielder Alex Wise. He battled through two major injuries last year, with each causing him to miss significant time. In OU’s eighth game, Wise suffered a broken hand after he was hit by a pitch, causing him to miss 40 games. This past summer, he had surgery for a herniated disk in his back.
Wise said the recovery process is going well, and he is close to being at top strength.
“I feel good right now,” Wise said “A lot of credit to our trainer, Robert Fulton. I laid out all summer and rested for three or four months. It’s gone well.
“I have been going pretty hard lately, and I would say that I am pretty close to where I was. Just getting my legs back into shape is my thing right now. Over the last week or two, I have been getting my step and sprinting.”
It’s fair to say the Sooners missed Wise’s versatility last season. He is a dynamic player who has solid plate discipline but can also keep pitchers
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honest with his speed and base running ability. In his limited starts, Wise registered 14 hits and a stolen base.
“If you don’t have power, then you have to create some offense and you do that with your legs,” Hughes said. “That is what Alex can do. He is a dynamic base runner. He is guy that can go first to third and steal bases.”
Wise gets a chance to start his comeback at 4 p.m., Friday when the Sooners take on Northeastern at Mitchell Park in Norman.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — David Price made his first bigmoney throws of spring training as Boston’s prized offseason acquisition, while new Diamondbacks ace Zack Greinke began Day 1 with his new club by drilling on the basics of covering first base.
Johnny Cueto showed off some orange-tinted dreadlocks beneath his off-kilter cap that will fit in perfectly with his new San Francisco Giants colors. His former team, the World Series champion Kansas City Royals, arrived in the desert and were set to get started Friday.
From Arizona to Florida, that familiar sound of baseballs snapping into gloves returned Thursday as many clubs held their first spring training workouts for pitchers and catchers that signaled the true start of a new year. In the greater Phoenix area, a cooling cloud cover provided a respite from the unseasonably warm 90-degree temperatures.
Now, all those franchises that went on offseason spending sprees for pitching are counting on those arms to bring heat.
Greinke, signed to a $206.5 million, six-year contract with surprise suitor Arizona, was picked as the Diamondbacks’ opening day starter in what manager Chip Hale called the easiest decision he has had to make. The right-hander is scheduled for his first bullpen session Friday in Scottsdale.
Price brought his new $217 million, seven-year deal to Red Sox camp with similar fanfare, while Jeff Samardzija began getting in sync with his new San Francisco catcher, Buster Posey.
After playing catch with closer Santiago Casilla, Cueto sat in the dugout at Scottsdale Stadium soaking in the scene of his new spring home. Dominican Republic countryman, former Giants manager and outfielder Felipe Alou, made a point to stop and thank the pitcher for joining the organization.
Any nerves for Cueto at this stage after just winning it all with the Royals?
“Claro que no” — of course not, he quipped. “Maybe if I were a rookie,” he said through translator Erwin Higueros. “I came from pitching in the World Series. I don’t get nervous.”
He is plenty funny, however. When told ace Madison Bumgarner brought horses to spring training, Cueto cracked, “Maybe he will sell me one, or maybe he will (give) me one.”
Manager Bruce Bochy figures Cueto will fit in well on a Giants team that has won the World Series in even years of late — 2010, ’12 and ’14 — with some different characters.
“We’ve been called misfits, cockroaches,” Bochy said. “This is as solid as I think we’ve been, and that’s saying a lot.”
In nearby Tempe, the Los Angeles Angels pitchers and catchers reported ahead of Friday’s first practice.
Catcher Yadier Molina and the St. Louis Cardinals got going in Jupiter, Fla., and Pedro Martinez was busy working as a special assistant on the field with the Red Sox in Fort Myers.