University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Spotlight: TJ Oakes
4/23/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 23, 2012
Holding the Big Ten Conference's best earned run average at 1.54, TJ Oakes has continued his dominance against his opponents. As the Gopher Friday starter, Oakes has a team-high 58 strikeouts, and a 6-2 record in 10 appearances. Earlier this season, the junior from Jordan, Minn., pitched 7.0 scoreless innings against UW Milwaukee and allowed just two hits en route to a 1-0 win. He was later named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week for his performance. In his last two starts, Oakes has struck out a career-high nine batters each game.
Q: Talk about your decision to come back and play your Junior season here for the University of Minnesota after being drafted by the Minnesota Twins last year.
A: "I was drafted pretty late by the Twins, in the 41st round, so I did not feel it was the right opportunity for me to enter into the draft at that point. I decided to come back for my junior year with the Gophers and I could not be happier about my decision. I love this program, I love this group of guys, and I love the coaches, so I know it was the right decision for me to come back and be a part of the Gopher program for another year. There was a couple weeks' process where there was some thinking involved about the situation, but when I was in the 41st round I pretty much knew right away that I was going to come back and be a part of this team."
Q: Last summer you didn't play summer ball, and took the season off from pitching. How has that impacted your performance?
A: "I threw a lot of innings last year as a starter, close to 90 innings so I felt my arm needed a break. I took the summer off after my freshman year and my arm felt well that following fall, it felt like I had a fresh arm. So I wanted to keep the same routine this summer. I lost some weight this past summer and really worked out, and worked on my other areas of the game other than throwing the baseball and I felt that has really helped out. I have gained some velocity this year, and my arm is feeling fresh so hopefully it will continue to feel that way. Majority of people do go play summer ball, but some starting pitchers prefer to take the summer off because of how many innings they pitch. They give their arm a break, which you need you because you can't just pitch for 12 straight months."
Q: Your Dad is the pitching coach or the Gopher baseball team, talk about your family dynamic growing up around the game.
"I have always been around the game of baseball. My dad was coaching with the Giants organization when I was little so I was always around their ball park, while also watching their games with my mom and two brothers; I learned a lot from the game by doing that. My dad took the job with the Gophers 13 years ago; I have been around this program for thirteen years, so I also learned a lot from watching the games here too. We as a family learned a lot from watching the games, being involved with baseball and being around the game for so long, it really has carried over. We used to play backyard baseball together, me and my brothers, we got our competitiveness from that since we were always trying to beat each other, but I think we got each other better too."
Q: How often do you get to watch your younger brother Tanner play his first season at Augsburg?
A: "I have watched three of his games this year. They play here at the Metrodome usually, sometimes after our games, or our practices I stick around. I actually got to see him throw a no-hitter this season and that it was fun to watch.
Q: Did you give him any advice for his first season, knowing your collegiate experience?
A: "Just trust the stuff that he has, and go out there and compete like he always has before. He did that in high school, so it is the same game, it is the same game we have always been playing, so just trust what you have and get people out."
Q: What goals did you begin the season having in order for you to be successful?
A: "The goal of the starting pitcher is to always give your team a chance to win every time you are on the mound. So that is the mentality, every time, what can I do to give our team the win. Limit the opposing base runners, and limit how many runs they score. That is always a good mentality to have, even if you give up a couple runs, trust the offense that they are going to score more runs than the other team. We do not have any team goals as a whole, we just try to stick to the process of taking one game at a time, and hopefully doing that will hopefully lead to success at the end of the year."
Q: How do you approach a situation in a game when some of your pitches are hitting the mark?
A: "I think that when you are struggling to find the location when you are the pitcher, or when you are struggling with a certain pitch, it is a good opportunity to step back and take a deep breath to refocus. Trust that that pitch is going to be there for you. Also another thing you can do is go to another pitch, and if that one is working then hopefully that will lead to the one you were struggling with to come back."
