Saturday, February 16, 2013

College Corner: First Friday Highlights

Friday nights are special in college baseball.  That is the night all the college teams put their #1 SP out there and they often go head-to-head with each other making for some very dramatic baseball.  Let's check out some of the highlights from college baseball's first Friday of the 2013 season.

Ryne Stanek, Arkansas.  4 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K's.  Several mock drafts have Stanek going #1 overall.  He's off to a cautious start as Arkansas downed Western Illinois 9-1.

Kent Emmanuel, UNC.  9 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K's.  UNC blanked Seton Hall 1-0 behind their big LHP.

Aaron Nola, LSU.  6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K's.  Nola is a sophomore RHP of interest for the 2014 draft.  LSU downs Maryland 1-0.

Kevin Ziomek, Vanderbilt.  6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 7 K's.  Ziomek is a polished college LHP.  Vandy topped LBSU 10-4.

Tom Windle, Minnesota.  4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K's.  Windle takes on Adam Plutko of UCLA and comes out the winner.  John Klima did a post on him yesterday and he looks like he has copied Barry Zito's delivery.

Adam Plutko, UCLA.  6.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 6 K's.  This line shows just how tough it is to pitch in Friday nights in college.  Nice line, but a losing line.

Mark Appel, Stanford.  5 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K's.  Appel lost to Austin Kubitza of Rice.  Performances like this may make him regret not signing with Pittsburgh.

Austin Kubitza, Rice.  6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 12 K's.  Kubitza takes on the vaunted Stanford lineup and outpitches Mark Appel.

Jake Reed, Oregon.  6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K's.  Reed is a sophomore. Oregon shuts out Hawaii 3-0.

Bobby Wahl, Mississippi.  6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K's.  Ole Miss edges TCU 1-0 on an unearned run.

Jonathan Crawford, Florida.  3.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 4 K's.  Duke tops Florida 4-3.  Crawford has a less than stellar opening Friday.

Dillon Overton, Oklahoma.  7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K's.  I did a post on Overton for Scouting the Draft recently.  This performance came against Hofstra who Oklahoma beat 10-4.

Michael Cederoth, SDSU.  5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 5 BB, 6 K's.  Cederoth is a sophomore who reportedly hits triple digits on the radar gun. He shut down San Diego's tough lineup in this one, although he may need to tone down the walks.

Buck Farmer, Georgia Tech.  8 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 14 K's.  Farmer chose to stay in school for his senior season.  He got off to a great start last year too.

Scott Frazier, Pepperdine.  7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K's.

Not much to report on hitters, except Philip Ervin went a combined 4 for 8 with 2 HR's for Samford against Youngstown St.

10 comments:

  1. I watched the Hawaii game on TV. The most impressive thing about Jake Reed was he didn't walk anybody until the 5th + 6th inning. His velocity was 90-92 mph for his entire outing. He was pitching like a polished upperclassman getting out of a couple of jams throwing a great changeup. Ryon Healy had 1 hit last night, a solid single to left field and was robbed of another on a great catch down the right field line. I'm hearing Oregan has a bunch of pitchers who throw 90+ mph! Frustrating game to watch for Hawaii fans because they had chances to score. Hawaii has a freshman lefthander who from reports throws in the low 90's making his debut tonight. Too bad I'll miss the game.

    LG

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    1. Drb, since you brought the Ryon Healy article to our attention, I'll mention that he had a great weekend collecting 8 hits in 15 abs 1 hr 5 rbis. I'm no scout but he's an impressive hitter who uses the whole field, and should go fairly high in the draft. Thanks, I didn't know he has the arm to play 3rd base until reading the article. I'm sure that raises his draft stock. I'll be shocked if Healy isn't in pro ball by this time next year.

      LG

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    2. Yes, I noticed that Healy had a sensational weekend. If he keeps that up, his draft stock is going to go way up.

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  2. I continue to be completely unimpressed by Appel. Those Rice pitchers are interesting. Overton gets off to a nice start! He is a definite follow.

    Minor league ball put up a profile on Phil Ervin. I can't shake the feeling teams won't believe he can stick in Cf and he will drop. I like him a lot for us at 26 if he does.

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    1. Interesting fall out from the Appel non-sign for the Pirates, Mets, Bourn.

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  3. Good point about keeping an eye on Rice pitching. Rice has been an outstanding baseball program for years, with a hall of fame coach Wayne Granham. They use to torment Hawaii when both played in the WAC conference because they had outstanding pitchers such as Jeff Nieman, Philip Humber, former Giant David Aarsdma... It wouldn't surprise me at all if Wayne Granham is developing more pitchers for professional baseball. I'm mixed about Rice playing in Hawaii next weekend because I like watching Hawaii playing good competition but I want Hawaii to win some games too..

    LG

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  4. http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/16/mets-manager-terry-collins-confirms-zack-wheeler-will-start-the-season-at-triple-a-las-vegas/

    “He needs to go to Triple-A and pitch,” Collins told reporters at Mets camp in Port St. Lucie, Florida. “He wants to be on the staff? Go be the best pitcher in Triple-A. Force us to call him up.”

    collins will be the first manager terminated during 2013...

    i didnt know that the mets switched affiliations to the pcl...kinda dumb as they will now have to fly guys across country and wont be able to use vegas as a rehab stop

    but collins knows nothing about the pcl or vegas....if wheels has an era below 4, he should be automatically called up

    and we all know that he is being sent to aaa so that the clock doesnt start ticking yet

    bacci

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    1. Yep, Collins probably doesn't have much of a say about where Wheeler starts the season.


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  5. Phil Ervin goes yard 3 times opening weekend. This won't get him dropped to the 26 spot.

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    1. Yep, especially with most of the other top college hitters stinking it up.

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