Josh Elander Breaks Down New Pitching Coach Hire Josh Reynolds

Image: Dan Harralson/Vols Wire

By Aidan Sidoti

Tennessee Baseball has officially filled its pitching coach vacancy, and Josh Elander couldn’t be more confident in the hire.

Following Frank Anderson’s departure to join Tony Vitello with the San Francisco Giants as Director of Pitching Performance/Coordinator, the Vols moved quickly to bring in Josh Reynolds.

Elander joined Sports Talk on 99.1 The Sports Animal Thursday morning to break down the hire and offer insight into what Reynolds brings to the table.

“He's been great. A big fan of Ren (Reynolds), of course, and then coming from being an interim head coach at Northwestern and also a power four assistant at Cincinnati, they were a great program last year, as we know. They were a tough draw in the regional, but again, his just ability to connect with players. But like upstairs, kind of behind the scenes, the organization and attention to detail when it becomes like, 'hey, how do we schedule these things for these pitchers? What's the best way to be able to adjust like we have to at times when again, that's pitching, right?' Whether it's weather or whatever, you're going to have to make some adjustments. But to me, the cool thing is he was excited about recruiting. Really wanted to be involved. The bulk of the recruiting was kind of K (Ross Kivett), V (Tony Vitello), and I doing the deal. So, with having him involved, that was a huge, huge win. And I know he's established some real relationships with the 26s and also the 27s. A guy that's got a good feel. He was a high draft pick and knows what it's like to have his spikes on the rubber and go out there to compete in both college and professionally. No ego is really the thing I'm excited about. Whereas he's not afraid to catch a flat ground and some of those guys are throwing cheese from pretty close. Some of that stuff is pretty dangerous, but he'll play catch with the guys.”