The college baseball season is almost here and I’m sure many of us are anxious to find out how our returning players and “rookies” will perform. Are we headed for the post-season? Or are we headed for more disappointment? I’m expecting the former but always concerned about the latter. Regardless…
We’ll be opening the baseball season this weekend against George Washington University. Some may think this is a “walkover” and easy sweep; hopefully it will be. But GW has improved recently and their head coach was selected to be the hitting coach for Team USA this past summer. That’s not normally awarded to a “clown.” In the past three years they have gone from #209 to #190 to #103 in RPI and look to improve this season.
I don’t expect them to be a great hitting team. They only have four returning starters in the field from last years: We should be wary of All Atlantic 10 Conference DH, Dom D’Alessandro (.318 with 9 Hrs). The others are 3B/OF Steve Barmakian (.310, 0 HR’s), SS Nate Fassnacht (.277, 1 HR) and OF Colin Brophy (.228, 3 HR’s). That leaves five openings. Who will fill them?
They signed five transfers and 11 freshmen for this season, the best of whom seem to be Greg Andbery, a catcher, who hit .313. with 2 HR’s in JC ball and Tyler Hix, an infielder, who hit .393 with 12 HR’s against JC competition. My guess is that both will start though translating JC statistics to Division 1A performance is hard to anticipate. A Virginia Tech transfer and an Arkansas transfer didn’t do much at their previous schools and the fifth guy, a RHP, didn’t show much in JC in my view. Among the incoming freshman, only three were rated by Perfect Game, whose ratings I tend to trust, but only one received more than an 8.0-- Alexander Kobersteen, a right-handed pitcher and outfielder who received a 9.0 rating. By way of comparison, Tulane has four signees who received a 9.0 or better—Hunter Haskins, OF (9.5), Ethan Groff, SS (9.0), Aaron McKeithern, C (9.0) and Zach Goberfield, 3B/OF (9.0). Still, it’s hard to tell how a freshman might contribute.
The strength of their returning team, however, is pitching. Six of their top nine pitchers (based on innings pitched) return, including all three weekend starters and their closer. The starters are Elliot Raimo (3-4) with a 2.76 ERA in 72 innings; Nate Woods (5-3) with a 3.18 ERA in 85 innings; and Jaret Edwards (5-2) with a 3.28 ERA in 82 innings. The closer is Will Kobas (4-1) with 6 saves and an ERA of 1.35 in 53 innings. Between them they threw 57% of the innings last season and I would expect them to be ready this year. Of course, this early I would expect starters to go no more than 80 or so pitches, maybe 5 innings, so we should be able to get into their bullpen. Of course, that goes for them against us as well.
Anyway, it looks like a good first weekend test for the Wave—not an elite team, but not a national doormat either.
Roll Wave!!!
We’ll be opening the baseball season this weekend against George Washington University. Some may think this is a “walkover” and easy sweep; hopefully it will be. But GW has improved recently and their head coach was selected to be the hitting coach for Team USA this past summer. That’s not normally awarded to a “clown.” In the past three years they have gone from #209 to #190 to #103 in RPI and look to improve this season.
I don’t expect them to be a great hitting team. They only have four returning starters in the field from last years: We should be wary of All Atlantic 10 Conference DH, Dom D’Alessandro (.318 with 9 Hrs). The others are 3B/OF Steve Barmakian (.310, 0 HR’s), SS Nate Fassnacht (.277, 1 HR) and OF Colin Brophy (.228, 3 HR’s). That leaves five openings. Who will fill them?
They signed five transfers and 11 freshmen for this season, the best of whom seem to be Greg Andbery, a catcher, who hit .313. with 2 HR’s in JC ball and Tyler Hix, an infielder, who hit .393 with 12 HR’s against JC competition. My guess is that both will start though translating JC statistics to Division 1A performance is hard to anticipate. A Virginia Tech transfer and an Arkansas transfer didn’t do much at their previous schools and the fifth guy, a RHP, didn’t show much in JC in my view. Among the incoming freshman, only three were rated by Perfect Game, whose ratings I tend to trust, but only one received more than an 8.0-- Alexander Kobersteen, a right-handed pitcher and outfielder who received a 9.0 rating. By way of comparison, Tulane has four signees who received a 9.0 or better—Hunter Haskins, OF (9.5), Ethan Groff, SS (9.0), Aaron McKeithern, C (9.0) and Zach Goberfield, 3B/OF (9.0). Still, it’s hard to tell how a freshman might contribute.
The strength of their returning team, however, is pitching. Six of their top nine pitchers (based on innings pitched) return, including all three weekend starters and their closer. The starters are Elliot Raimo (3-4) with a 2.76 ERA in 72 innings; Nate Woods (5-3) with a 3.18 ERA in 85 innings; and Jaret Edwards (5-2) with a 3.28 ERA in 82 innings. The closer is Will Kobas (4-1) with 6 saves and an ERA of 1.35 in 53 innings. Between them they threw 57% of the innings last season and I would expect them to be ready this year. Of course, this early I would expect starters to go no more than 80 or so pitches, maybe 5 innings, so we should be able to get into their bullpen. Of course, that goes for them against us as well.
Anyway, it looks like a good first weekend test for the Wave—not an elite team, but not a national doormat either.
Roll Wave!!!