Baseball is coming up next weekend (19th), so it’s time to polish off the team preview. We’ve looked at an overview of the offense, now it’s time to take a look at the pitching staff. I’m not going to get terribly heavy into the stats here, but rather will just throw out the key names. Last season, the move of Jimmy Gilheeney into the rotation had an unwanted side effect; namely, the bullpen struggled to find an identity—and consistency—during the season. The Wolfpack bullpen manged 9 saves over the season, and managed to cough up numerous games (including a very deflating pair of early conference games against Miami, after an unlucky 27 innings in two days right before the conference series). A young offense plus an unstable bullpen provided the perfect recipe for a very disappointing season. Pack pitching gave up 123 runs in the seventh inning and later, something that will have to change this season.
The 2010 pitching starts with a familiar name, Jake Buchanan. The 2009 version was statistically bad, with a 6.54 era. However, the numbers I like to look at are K/BB ratio, which at 72:21 is quite good (over 74 innings) and a number I pointed out over a year ago: Batting average against on balls in play. This was over 100 points higher from 2008 to 2009. Some of this is luck, and some of it is probably related to defense (which should be better this year). So, the “real†Buchanan is probably somewhere in the middle, and he should be a nice pitcher. Buchanan also had an excellent summer campaign, which is hopefully a sign of better things to come.
Other returning arms include Cory Mazzoni and Mike Russo, who should both see some starts. Incoming freshmen Danny Healey, Felix Roque, Dane Williams, Chris Overman and Ethan Ogburn should see some innings as well; we’ll have to wait and see who cracks the rotation first, but I’d say it will likely be one of the first three on the list, a trio of highly touted Florida prospects. Rey Cotilla is another pitcher who looks to snare some innings, probably in the bullpen. Cotilla came to the Pack by way of Miami Dade CC.
One thing that will be interesting to track is how the bullpen shapes up this season. Not a lot of 2009 relief innings return, and some of the returning innings come from individuals who should work their way into the rotation. I don’t think we’ll see a bullpen disaster this year, but it may take a few weeks to get things settled nicely. One factor that should help is the offense, which I expect to be much more potent and consistent than last years version. Overall, I expect the Pack to be back in the NCAA tournament this year, and finish in the upper half of the ACC (more on that later).
For complete stats, look here.
