'He was flat-out out of shape' — Tony Vitello has brutally honest take on Tennessee Vols LHP Liam Doyle's ascent to a top five pick in the 2025 MLB Draft

Tony Vitello is in attendance for the event as a guest analyst on the MLB Network broadcast, and he gave - in true Tony Vitello fashion - a very honest account of just how far Doyle came physically from when he transferred from Ole Miss through the 2025 season. 

"Last year, when he was pitching at Mississippi, he would often just kind of beat himself," Vitello said. "Guys wouldn't get to him, he would run out of steam because he was flat-out out of shape. And also, he'd run out of pitches because he didn't throw enough strikes. This year, he loses 19 pounds of body fat, gets to work, gets in shape, throws a ton of strikes. Two of the things that showed up this year, often times other teams had his grips, just like in pro ball. Guys will look for that stuff.

And then the other thing was, again, that Boston strong spilled over into a little too strong sometimes. As he continues to evolve and mature, eventually hitters are going to have to flat-out beat Liam Doyle, and that is not going to be very easy to do because he's got phenomenal stuff and is an unreal competitor.

When asked about his conversation with Doyle to get him in shape, Vitello gave a lot of credit to Tennessee strength and conditioning coach Quentin Eberhardt. 

"Quentin Eberhardt was our guy, and if you would have [seen] August and September when they first report to school, you would have thought, 'this kid may transfer out of this place, it's not going to work.' But he bowed up, just like he bowed up here - just a little too much - he bowed up to our strength coach and Q and he now are best of friends because of the conditioning level that Liam's in.

And he had to work for it. It's a great story for kids that are out there. Everybody's got something to work at, and even though he was a good pitcher, he attacked his weaknesses, and he elevated his status."

Doyle isn't the first transfer player to talk about the terrific work that Eberhardt has done in 2025 with conditioning. INF Gavin Kilen - also potentially a first-round pick on Sunday - previously mentioned how Eberhardt helped him gain significant muscle after coming over from Louisville. 

Doyle's selection is a terrific selling point for the Tennessee program - not just because of where he was drafted, but for how the Vols clearly got him in the best position to succeed as a professional.  That likely won't be lost on recruits and transfer portal targets considering coming to Knoxville.