Sorry for the lack of posts today, everyone. Been working on a rather large item for much of the day in between some interviews. I’ll have a couple of posts up in a little bit.

In the meantime, check out a one-on-one interview Kendall Rogers of Yahoo! Sports had with baseball head coach Gary Henderson. Rogers talks with Henderson about the opening weekend, the status of James Paxton and the improvement of the bullpen.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the interview:

Rogers: After going through spring workouts and such, what were your biggest concerns entering the first weekend of the season?

Henderson: The biggest concern for me was who would step up out of the bullpen and get some hitters out. You know, what roles were going to be filled by which guys out of the bullpen. The next concern was how the guys that have never started a game – Taylor Rogers and Logan Darnell – would do. But overall, I was just most concerned with fulfilling some bullpen roles.

R: Speaking of Rogers, the freshman hurler threw an absolute gem in the second game against West Virginia. Thoughts on his performance? What makes him so effective?

H: The No. 1 thing about Taylor is that he throws strikes. He throws low strikes, and just knows how to throw strikes all over. He did a great job of pounding the strike zone in that game against West Virginia. He threw three pitches for strikes and had some action on his fastball. He also showed to be a very calm competitor while also working ahead of the count and keeping balls down in the zone. I liked what I saw.

R: You mentioned Darnell and his lack of starts. He made 28 appearances and no starts last season. Why the move to the weekend rotation this season?

H: In terms of moving him to the weekend rotation, I just think he’s the guy. He is a veteran and really was the clear-cut option as far as I’m concerned. He is a junior and has a lot of experience pitching. He started at the Alaska League last summer really did a nice job, so that’s another reason we looked at him a little closer as a starting pitcher.