Without having viewed any practices or scrimmages, it’s hard to make anything of fall ball, let alone a three game series. Pitchers are, at most, facing half a lineup of eventual starters and hitters are, for over half of their at bats, seeing guys who won’t pitch much, if any, during the coming baseball season.
Still, I found some interesting statistics (to me at least) in the three box scores published on the official site. First, of course, Kaplan is out and apparently likely to miss the season. Coach Pierce kept Yandel and Gibbs out to preserve them after they threw a lot of innings last year between the Tulane season and their summer league play. And, J.P. France was kept out, I assume, to continue his rehabilitation. Four other roster players did not appear in any of the three games either: Bobby Moscow, a left-handed hitting freshman outfielder, Alex Galy, a RH hitting infielder, and a switch-hitting catcher, Garret Gray. The latter two are bother freshmen also. Chris Holstein, a transfer from Davidson, who is ineligible this year, also did not play.
Returning starters generally hit well in the series, but not universally so. Jackson Johnson (.364), Hunter Williams (.333), Stephen Alemais (.333), and Jake Rogers (.333) had good series. Hunter Hope (.231), Richard Carthon (.231), and Jake Willsey (.085) didn’t fare as well. Neither did Grant Brown (.200), who started early in the season last year but redshirted due to injuries. Willsey was the only one playing out of position, at shortstop, rather than his normal second base. And Hope, despite hitting a HR in the opening game, struck out at least twice in each contest and seven times total in 13 at bats. The opportunity for Matt Rowland at 3rd base seems pretty obvious. And Willsey, who has started 74 games over the past two years hitting .256 and .263, may not have much competition for his second base position despite his tough “series.” Between them, the other middle-infielders, Shea Pierce and Cade Edwards, went 1 for 19 (.053). But, who knows?
Sticking with the “everyday” players, the three transfers who many of us seem to think are most likely to contribute significantly this year, Jarret DeHart, Jeremy Montalbano, and Matt Rowland, all had pretty good series, hitting .273, .333, and .364 respectively. Two freshmen, who didn’t play that much in the “series” also looked good: Anthony Forte, a LH outfielder went 4-9, .444, and Grant Witherspoon, a LH OF/1B/pitcher, went 3-6, .500. The other two freshmen outfielders, Tyler Heinrichs (1-11, .091) and Luke Glancy (0-5, .000) had rough series. And, after Rogers and Montalbano, our two catchers, Cameron Burns (1-7, .143) and Matt Braud, who also played some third base (0-9, .000) didn’t show much at the plate. With Kaplan out, our only left handed hitters who played in the “series” were Jackson Johnson, Richard Carthon, Jarrett DeHart, Forte, and Witherspoon. That’s still more than in the past.
Going to the pitching staff, even with Yandel, Gibbs, and France on the sidelines, Coach Pierce took a look at 18 guys on the mound. The returning starters, Alex Massey, Corey Merrill, and Patrick Duester threw a combined 16 innings, allowed 13 hits, 5 earned runs, walked three, and struck out 19, for a 2.81 ERA. Returnees, Eric Steel (2.1 innings), Dan Rankin (2.0 innings), and Jordan Gross (3.0 innings) only allowed one run, but, between them, walked 8 in 7.1 innings—not good.
On the positive side, Sam Bjorgjeld, a redshirt sophomore, pitched 5.1 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and three walks while fanning five. Last year, in six appearances, he allowed one earned run in 9.1 innings. But, like in this appearance, he was a little wild, walking five in those 9+ innings. Yet, as a left handed pitcher, his showing was encouraging. Another encouraging sign was Evan Rutter, the Rice transfer, who is a redshirt senior in his last season. He faced five batters over two appearances and struck out three of them without allowing a baserunner. Could he be a "set up" man, if not a "closer?"
Chris Oakley, the giant right hander, who has suffered control problems for the last few years, took the mound twice—one good, one bad. Overall, he threw 1.1 innings, allowed 2 hits, 1 earned run, and walked 2 while striking out one. (ERA of 6.75). If he can ever get over his control problems, he could be a big plus.
Alex Massey’s younger brother, Ross, a left handed pitcher, had a rough outing—4innings, 6 hits, 4 earned runs, 3 walks, and no strikeouts for an ERA of 9.00. Other lefthanders given short stints on the mound included Jackson Johnson, Will Johnston, and Grant Witherspoon. Between them, they threw three shutout innings (1 each). Christian Coletti, another left hander and much-traveled senior, pitched 3.1 innings, allowed 4 hits, 4 earned runs, walked 3 and struck out one for a 10.80 ERA. Between Gross, Bjorgjeld and this group, we’ll need to find at least 2-3 consistent “arms” for the coming season. Last year, we only got about 25 innings out of left handed pitchers. That was only about 5% of our innings pitched. We need more than that to contend with all of the left handed hitters people throw up there.
Three others, all right handers, are also worthy of discussion. Brandon Issa, a redshirt freshman returns after not appearing last year. He threw three innings, allowed three hits, one earned run, and struck out two, while not walking anyone. And, our “kickoff specialist,” Trevor Simms, who apparently is being groomed as a possible closer, appeared in two games. In the first, he picked up a save with a perfect inning. In the second, he blew a two run lead by allowing three earned runs on five hits in two innings. According to Coach Pierce, those were the first runs he’s allowed all fall. So, that poor performance might be overlooked.
Finally, in a big surprise to me, senior back-up catcher, Cameron Burns, got a chance to “show his stuff” on the mound. He threw 4 shutout innings, allowing 2 hits and 0 walks while striking out 3. I have no idea if he’s been pitching during the fall, or if this was a “lark” for a fourth year guy who has served well. Interesting, nonetheless!
Of course, none of this has a lot of meaning. The data is too limited; the opposition was our own team; and the coach has much more information based on many days of watching these guys play and seeing how they perform against each other. Who played, where they played, and how much they played probably gives a better indicator of Coach Pierce’s current thinking than specifically how they played in this limited appearance.
Regardless, we’ve got a lot of guys back from a good team. If they can show marginal improvement and some of the new guys can provide additional “fire power” at bat and depth on the mound, we could have a special year. I don’t think hosting a regional and advancing to a super-regional is out of the question by any means. At that point, it’s anybody’s ball game.
Roll Wave!!!
