They say you can never have enough pitching, which might explain why more than half the players on Florida’s fall baseball roster are pitchers. Armed with 17 pitchers on his 33-man roster, O’Sullivan feels he has the depth he needs to go through the grind of a Southeastern Conference season.
O’Sullivan has built his reputation as a developer of pitching staffs both as an assistant and his two years at the University of Florida. The year before O’Sullivan took the reigns of the Florida baseball program, the pitching staff has a 5.27 ERA. In his first year (2008), he lowered the staff ERA almost a full point to 4.39. Last season, staff ERA continued its plummet, this time to 4.29 and that was with two freshmen starting every weekend in the SEC, the nation’s toughest college baseball league.
Most of the pitching staff that got the Gators to a Super Regional in 2009 are back. Stephen Locke and Patrick Keating both graduated but the Gators have plenty of returning veterans and some very good looking replacement arms. Sophomores Nick Maronde and Anthony DeSclafani each made 11 starts last season, including on the road in hostile environments such as LSU and Georgia. Sophomore Alex Panteliodis also made ten starts on the season, proving himself as a viable candidate to start this spring.
O’Sullivan hasn’t seen anything this fall but improvement from his three most dependable arms.
“I was really pleased with the way Maronde and DeSclafani threw Tuesday,” O’Sullivan said last week. “It was the sharpest either has looked all fall. They both look like really, really good front line SEC starters. AP has a little nagging foot injury, but a week and a half ago, he threw the best he has thrown since he’s been here with his velocity and command. I’ve seen flashes of all three of them doing what I was hoping to see this fall.”
Even with more pitching depth than they’ve ever had during the fall, the Gators were without five key arms. Redshirt sophomore Tommy Toledo missed all of last season with a torn labrum, and the Florida staff decided to play it safe and hold him out of the fall workouts. A third round pick by the San Diego Padres out of high school, Toledo is expected to make a run at the weekend rotation in the spring.
Senior Jeff Barfield, who was the closer at the beginning of last season, was also held out of the fall, but should begin his throwing program in the next few weeks. Senior Clint Franklin will also begin throwing soon after not throwing in the fall.
Two freshmen pitchers that the Gators will count on during the spring haven’t thrown yet either. Stephen Rodriguez injured his foot while moving into his dorm in Gainesville and hasn’t thrown a pitch this fall. He will be taken out of his cast soon and be ready to start practice in January.
Michael Heller, who was ranked by Prospect Wire as the tenth best player in the state of Florida last year, tore his ACL over the summer before getting to campus. He will begin his throwing program within a month and is expected to be completely healthy by the first game in mid-February. Heller threw in the mid-90s as a senior at Cardinal Mooney and would be a welcomed addition to a Gator bullpen with no set roles.
“That’s five guys who are very talented that will help us this spring,” O’Sullivan said of his five injured pitchers. “We’ve been very conservative with them this fall because we want to make sure they’re 100 percent come springtime.”
The starting pitching has plenty of options. To go along with Maronde, DeSclafani, Toledo and Panteliodis, the Gators have also welcomed a talented freshmen-pitching class. Left-hander Brian Johnson and right-hander Hudson Randall have already impressed this fall and seem almost certain to be in the starting pitching mix this spring.
But it’s the bullpen where the questions begin. The Gators lost Billy Bullock, who was drafted in the second round (70th overall) during the MLB draft last season. Set-up man Tony Davis was also drafted and left school. The Florida coaches had complete confidence in both pitchers last season during crucial moments of the game, and their search to find new contributors at the back of the bullpen has already begun.
“We’ve got a lot of options,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re going into the spring with some more concrete ideas with what we want to do with the backend. We’ve got a good idea about what we want to do, but we’ll leave it open through the first part of January.”
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Florida coaches spent the spring adjusting to new NCAA rules that allow only 35 players per roster and only 27 players getting scholarship aid (11.9 total scholarships divided among the 27). With fewer players, it was more difficult for the coaches to divide the squad up evenly for practice games. To adjust, O’Sullivan made sure he had a solid defense on the field each inning while rotating players in to hit.
That way there is always a defense on the field that is the caliber of what the Gators might play against in the spring.
The Florida pitchers always work two innings on their scheduled days, but each inning consists of five outs to avoid constant changing of defenses. After the pitcher throws their two innings of work, they are given three straight days away from live action, although this doesn’t excuse them from working out and continuing their throwing program.
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The Gators will be replacing four of the eight positions this season, but the Gators have recruited well enough where the transitions shouldn’t see much dip in production, if any at all.
In fact, O’Sullivan has already seen improvement from this fall compared to his previous two.
“I remember our first fall here from the start to end of it, pitching dominated because of the wood bats,” O’Sullivan said. “Now you’re looking at the stats, and going into this weekend we’re hitting close to .250 as a team. That’s been really good. It’s not like the pitching has been bad either. They’re usually low scoring games, but the at-bats and approaches have been good.”
In order for the offense to pick up where it left off last season, it will rely on a few freshmen playing key roles. Lucky for the Gators, these freshmen are part of a group ranked as the #1 recruiting class in the country. Loaded with starts from around the state of Florida that could have signed professionally for six-figure contracts, O’Sullivan knows his young players have to step up early in their careers.
Shortstop and catcher are the two spots they will be most heavily relied on. The battle at shortstop currently seems between two newcomers, Nolan Fontana and Cody Dent, son of former New York Yankee, Bucky Dent.
At catcher, two freshmen, Austin Maddox and Mike Zunino, will share time with sophomore Ben McMahan.
Another freshman, Kamm Washington, will provide depth in the Gator outfield after leading the team in batting average this fall at .353. He is the likely candidate to start in center field next year when Matt den Dekker leaves.
“They’ve all fit right in,” O’Sullivan said of his freshmen crop. “I don’t think very many, if any, have been over matched. For the most part, I’ve been very pleased with them fitting in. Even with the expectations put on these freshmen from the outside, they’ve been through everything low key. It’s a very mature group.”
Counting on young players isn’t as bad when you have a lineup littered with veterans at the other spots. One of those players is Matt den Dekker, a four-year starter in center field. He was expected to sign professionally last season but his draft status dipped so he decided to return to school for his senior season.
So far the decision looks to be a great one. O’Sullivan has seen tremendous improvement from den Dekker’s swing, and there isn’t another center fielder in the country he would rather have on defense.
“den Dekker has been swinging it well this far,” O’Sullivan said. “I think he’s going to have a break out year. He’s worked extremely hard, and he’s much more comfortable with his swing. There’s no question in his mind that he made a great decision in coming back for his senior year. Having him out there in center field makes a completely different club. It’s defensively first, but I’ve really been pleased with the way he’s been swinging the bat. He’s made a few adjustments in his swing recently.”
The Gators will count on Young Harris College transfer Bryson Smith to play third base this spring. He was named the National Junior College Player of the Year for his tremendous offensive numbers last season, leaving no doubt in O’Sullivan’s mind that he can be plugged into the middle of the Florida lineup. It’s the defense that was an issue for Smith at Young Harris, but the Florida coaches have focused on it this fall and already seen improvement.
“He had a wrist injury in the summer, so it’s been a little slow,” O’Sullivan said. “It doesn’t take juco players to get into their groove at this level as maybe a freshman would, but our biggest focus with him this fall is defense. There isn’t any doubt that he’s going to hit. He’s gotten a lot better defensively.”
Regardless of improvements at other positions, there is no doubt the Florida offense will be centered around sophomore first baseman Preston Tucker. He was named the Freshman Hitter of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and broke the school record for RBI during a season during his first year.
But you may see him at a different spot this season. The Gators have toyed with him in the outfield this fall, in order to help get the best number of bats in the lineup as possible, allowing one of the backup catchers to play first base. Tucker played the outfield in high school, and it’s a position you may see him at during the spring.
“He’s a threat every time he comes to the plate, whether he’s got a wood bat, aluminum bat or newspaper in his hand,” O’Sullivan said. “He’s one of those guys that swings hard and consistently makes hard contact. He doesn’t swing and miss a lot. Sometimes with those power hitters, they live and die with strikeouts and homeruns, but Preston puts the ball in play.”
Tucker’s impact for the Florida offense this year may actually depend more on the hitters around him. If the batters in front of him in the lineup are getting on base, opponents will have no choice but to pitch to Tucker instead of being able to walk him.
“You start adding those guys up in the order to hit around Preston,” O’Sullivan said. “If those guys in front and behind of Preston do their jobs, then hopefully we can force teams into pitching to him. He’s probably the guy going into the season that they don’t want to give a lot to hit, but if those guys have good years around him, they might not have a choice.”
If opposing teams are forced to pitch to Tucker, it spells good things for the Gators’ season.