To the chagrin of many Tulane fans, including me, Coach Jewett is returning for 2022. Despite my misgivings, I hope he finally succeeds after five seasons of not going at least to the regionals. Of course, we will be without five players who went pro including our overall best player, Collin Burns, whose defense, base stealing, and hitting were a mainstay of the 2021 team. We will also be without all three weekend starters and our closer, so rebuilding our pitching staff will be important. On the plus side, we return all starters except for Burns among position players and DH. So, looking at each position:
Catcher: Clearly Bennet Lee, our best hitter, is a key returnee. Barring injury, he will probably play every game at either catcher or DH. I didn’t think his defense was very good last year so the amount of time he catches vs DHing will probably depend on how our three “new” catchers develop. Blake Dincman, an incoming freshman, hit .400 as a senior in high school and led his team in virtually every offensive category. But, during a summer college league he hit only .102 in 59 at bats—not encouraging. Seth Becksted hit .289 with 9 HRs in two seasons of JC ball and was 7 for 21 (.333) this past summer. Brennan Lambert, another JC transfer, hit .337 with 5 HRs for Delgado last year and shined defensively. Hopefully, one of these three can “spell” Lee effectively as needed. Hard to tell until they play the games.
First Base: After playing catcher most of his life, Luis Aviles became Tulane’s regular first baseman last year. Defensively, it wasn’t pretty, but he also played 1st all this past summer so, hopefully, he has improved. Regardless, we need to see more from his bat. After hitting .394 in the abbreviated 2020 season, he hit only .255 with 7 HRs last year and fared no better this past summer, hitting only .229. Brady Marget and Tracy Mitchem, two left-handed hitting freshmen, split time in high school between 1st base and the outfield. Marget hit .432 and .580 (huh?) his junior and senior years as conference player of the year. Mitchem, was an all-district player his junior and senior year, but I don’t have any reliable statistics on his hitting.
2nd Base, Shortstop, and 3rd Base: We have three returning infielders in 2nd baseman, Chase Englehard (.299, 9 HRs), 3rd baseman, Trevor Minder (.213, 0 HRs), and utility man, Simon Baumgardt (.265, 2 HRs). We clearly need a shortstop and more production at bat from 3rd base. On Paper, we may have that coming in. Morrow is a 3rd baseman from Pensacola JC who hit .304 over two years there. And a freshman, Landry Alligood, a 3rd baseman from Alexandria, La., hit .552 with 8 HRs as a senior while making all district, all parish, all region, and all state. Brady Hebert who played shortstop the past two years for the national JC champion, LSU-Eunice, hit .359 over a 90-game career there. Two freshmen shortstops, Adam Ebling and Gavin Shultz will also compete for time. Ebling was rated a 9.5 by Perfect Game and according to the Tulane site hit 8 HRs his senior year. Based on partial information, he apparently hit over .300 in each of three varsity seasons. Shultz, who played at De La Salle, was named all state and hit .390 over his high school career. Hopefully these newcomers can up our offensive production. Their numbers are encouraging.
Outfield. We return our top four outfielders from last year, Jacob Lapraire (.285, 1 HR), Jared Hart (.277, 1 HR), Ethan Groff (.192, 5 HRs), and Logan Stevens (.211, 0 HRs). Unfortunately, as group, they hit .249 with only 7 HRs. By contrast, our starting outfield as recently as 2019 batted .301 as a group with 28 HRs. In my opinion, that’s more like the production we need. And, like the infield, we may have some kids who could provide it starting with two freshmen who were drafted by MLB but chose to come to Tulane: Teo Banks and Jackson Linn. Both, incidentally, were rated 9.5 by Perfect Game. Ethan Alston, originally from Hammond, La., was also rated highly by Perfect Game (9.0). Three left-handed hitting freshmen round out our outfield prospects. Tracy Mitchem and Nick O’Reilly had ratings from PG of 8.5 and 8.0 respectively. Tulane’s website says Mitchem led his high school team in hitting four straight years and O’Reilly made all-state in Georgia while hitting .416 as a senior. Ben Tate made all state as an outfielder from Teurlings Catholic while hitting .333 with 6 HR’s. But his better potential may be as a LHP.
Designated Hitter. Last year’s primary designated hitter, Frankie Nieman, returns for his fifth year with the Wave. After batting a combined .294 through his first three seasons, he hit only .263 with 2 HR’s last year. We need more than that. As mentioned earlier, it is likely that Bennet Lee will DH when he isn’t catching and I would expect one or more of our left-handed hitters might also get a shot on occasion.
Pitching. On the mound, five of our top 8 pitchers, based on innings thrown, have left. They had a combined ERA of 3.98. Our other three pitchers in that group (Clifton Slagel (30.1 innings; 3.56 ERA), Zach Devito (27.1; 6.91), and Tyler Hoffman (51.0; 4.51)) had a combined ERA of 4.80. Our remaining returning pitchers (Lane Thomas, Brian Valigosky, Blake Mahmood, Adam Grintz, Kennedy Norton, Keaton Kneupel, and Turner Thompson) threw a total of 19.0 innings allowing 18 earned runs (8.53 ERA). All that suggests to me that barring a major improvement in our returning pitchers, we’ll need some significant success from our incoming guys.
Hopefully, those “new” guys will be up to the task. Among the “newbies” are a transfer from Central Arizona who also played at Virginia, RHP Cristian Sanchez; Mississippi State transfer, LHP Dylan Carmouche; LHP Cameron Van Hoorebeke, a Lehigh transfer; and Carter Robinson, a RHP, who spent time at both Mesa Community College and ULL. Sanchez is a redshirt sophomore who played briefly at Virginia and appeared in 18 games in 2021 for Central Arizona College, a powerhouse in the community college ranks. His ERA of 5.95 and 26 walks in 19 innings suggest major control problems, though he also struck out 36. Carmouche, who will also be a sophomore, had better results at National Champion Mississippi State though he generally appeared in “laughers” against weak opposition. Still, in 7.1 innings, he only allowed 1 earned runs (1.23) while walking 3 and striking out 11. I think a lot is expected of him. Van Hoorrbeke is a graduate student whose four years at Lehigh were not impressive (6.64 ERA in 27.1 innings). Robinson is another graduate transfer, but with far better numbers. As a freshman in 2018 at Mesa CC, he threw 57;1 innings with a 2.51 ERA. The next year he threw 112 innings with a 1.53 ERA while striking out 126 and walking only 17. He spent the last two years at ULL where he threw a combined 69 innings, walking 18, striking out 54 while allowing 2.61 earned runs per 9 innings. He would appear to be another really good addition, who actually throws strikes.
Of course, we also have a number of freshmen who need to compete for time on the mound.
Kyle Beaty, a RHP, comes to the Wave from New Hampshire where, as a senior, he threw 59 innings, allowing only18 hits and 5 earned runs (0.76 ERA) while striking out 106 (over 16 per 9 innings. He threw a perfect game in the first game of the state playoffs and a no hitter in the championship game. I don’t know the level of competition but those are obviously spectacular numbers.
Michael Massey is another kid rated 9.5 by perfect game. He’s a RHP who played in the highest level of Georgia baseball and, during his senior year, threw 41.2 innings with a 1.73 ERA. At 6’5” he has been clocked at 92 MPH.
Chandler Welch, yet another RHP, is a local boy who played at Holy Cross. He had a tough senior year on the mound with an 8.57 ERA in 16.1 innings. The coaches must see something other than those numbers.
Grant Siegler is another RHP from Florida where Tulane reports he had a 1.40 ERA over his high school career. He was one of few freshmen who played in a college summer league where he threw 17.1 innings, allowed 14 hits and 8 walks, while striking out 21. He only allowed 4 earned runs for a 2.07 ERA—damned fine for a freshman in that environment for the first time.
As mentioned earlier, Ben Tate, from Teurlings, was an all-state outfielder his senior year, but prior to that, he was considered one of the best left-handed pitchers in the state. With our lack of left-handed arms, it wouldn’t surprise me if he spent more time on the mound than the outfield.
Overall, at least on paper, it looks like we had a good recruiting year and fall ball should feature a great deal of competition at most positions as well as the mound. Last year, 10 players accounted for 90% of our at bats and 8 pitchers threw 85% of our innings. I think we need to count on at least 12 position players and 10 pitchers to feel comfortable in the coming season. Hopefully we can find them among the 40+ roster spots. If anyone has insights on what happens during fall ball, I, for one, would appreciate it.
Roll Wave!!!
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