Looking for improvement in 2024…but Mosiello 2.o kicks off with a challenging for week in the Arizona desert – Boston College, Arizona State, BYU, Grand Canyon, and Arizona State. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
If you’ve got a horse in the race you want to know. If you’re an occasional reader, that’s your fault. But if you’re a casual fan what you’re about to see might make you an everyday devotee’ to Buckeye baseball in 2024.
Scottsdale, AZ – There is no other daily beat source for Big Ten baseball like Press Pros.
There could be, God knows. But there isn’t.
The reason?
Well, for one, it’s work, a commitment…the kind that most schools happily dedicate to football in the fall. And like football, if you do baseball right it takes a staff, and most places have one person assigned to baseball – stats (lots of stats), game recaps, seasonal priority, and whatever attention outside of that they choose to give.
Publisher/Editor Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Buckeyes baseball for Press Pros Magazine.
Aptus Wealth Management proudly sponsors the Buckeyes and Central Ohio sports on Press Pros.
This, by the way, is not an issue of Ohio State University. Rather, Ohio State is just one of thirteen Big Ten Conference members who play baseball; and they all dedicate one person to baseball. There is no ‘staff’, anywhere, except for a handful of Division I programs that live in the South, maybe (?). A gal named Breanna Jacobs is our girl from OSU’s sports information department. She’s wonderful, loves baseball…and I couldn’t appreciate her more.
But for now – this column – let’s pretend that baseball is like football, that proportionately Buckeye Nation is waiting on the eve of the 2024 season to hear. How do the Buckeyes stack up with the rest of the Big Ten Conference? And here it is…what Don Motz, Ken Baum, Buckeye Drew, ‘the Judge’, and William, from Lucasville, have been so eager to read.
Can they flip the script in 2024 from last year’s eleventh-place finish?
Can they win a regular season league title? Can they make the top eight seeds to play in the post-season tournament?
Assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Andrew See oversees the Buckeyes’ talent blueprint for the future.
And what the hell…could they even garner an at large berth in the NCAA tournament?
Brutally honest? I’m talking in baby steps, knowing that if you pitch…David does beat Goliath.
But Rome was not built in a day. However, when Rome was built the architects were bold enough to have a blueprint drawn for a thousand-year reign.
So one…let’s appreciate the fact that Bill Mosiello and his assistants are in the midst of a blueprint – one that can last for the long haul. But they’re going to need some help. In fact, pretty much everyone who plays baseball outside of the SEC needs the same help. The season MUST be moved back at least a month for the sake of better weather, competitive conditions, and to create a new world for college baseball, on the field, and on the bottom line. But again, that’s not an Ohio State thing, it’s an NCAA thing, which at the current rate I have about as much confidence in as I do Congress.
Two…baseball is 80% pitching, so give ‘Mo’ and recruiting coordinator Andrew See credit, again. They went after quality arms with their recruiting last year, and they went after them aggressively. They got some, but but did they get enough…to begin the process of developing those arms into a dependable, winning staff? We’ll know soon enough.
The starting rotation, from experience, will be fluid, a work in progress. In a perfect world, three guys would emerge to take on the job and never look back. But that scenario rarely exists at any level of baseball and the only true returner is Gavin Bruni (5-3, 4.63 era). It’s hoped that Texas A&M Corpus Christi transfer Colin Purcell can take on a share of that load. And then…who among candidates like Landon Beidelschies and Justin Eckhardt, or one of the freshmen might grow into the role like freshmen Garrett Burhenn and Seth Lonsway did in 2019, when the two combined to win 15 games?
The bullpen, at this point, is anyone’s guess. There are quality arms – i.e., a Jaylen Jones and Logan Jones, and the ‘youngins’ – but a great void of quality experience. It could work itself out because of those quality arms. After all, this is college baseball and not the American League East. But it’s the next higher level of baseball, experience does count, and it could be weeks before those roles are established.
Good health…it’s important as junior outfielder Trey Lipsey returns from injury in 2023.
Three…where I feel best is with the position players.
Left, center, and right I didn’t see anyone in the Big Ten last year that was that much better in the outfield, given the fact of good health. Trey Lipsey is a .300 hitter in left. Josh Stevenson is a defensive foundation in center. And Mitch Okuley is as steady as they come in right, but needs to hit earlier in the season than he’s hit in the past.
I’m comfortable with the infield at this point, if not confident.
I believe in the work ethic of junior Tyler Pettorini to become a dependable everyday third baseman. I also believe he’ll hit .300.
Don’t expect a sophomore jinx with shortstop Henry Kaczmar (.293, 9 homers, 46 RBIs). In fact, conference coaches I’ve talked to since last May believe he’ll be one of the league’s best players as a sophomore.
Transfer Joe Mershon is going to get a shot at playing second base, and has some solid metrics from the College of Charleston last year that ensures he can.
And first base bodes excitement at this writing, because it’s likely a platoon effort between a returning Hank Thomas and newcomer Ryan Miller (Tennessee transfer), who’s shown parking lot power to right field.
The catching position may be as strong as anyone’s in the conference, given the return of sophomore Matt Graveline (.287, 4 home runs, 35 RBIs) and highly-touted freshman, Mason Eckelman (.402, .700 slugging % at Walsh Jesuit HS). Eckelman will play, which allows Graveline to play other positions, less catching stress, while taking advantage of his bat in the lineup. He’s the most athletic player on the team.
The bench is definitely better, more athletic, and competitive. Talent will emerge, and quickly if someone falters out of the gate…because, if fall baseball showed nothing else it showed this 2024 group has more depth, and will compete.
But, all this said, there remains a lot to be proven, individually.
Iowa’s Rick Heller returns a solid lineup, and a solid starting rotation, as a favorite to win the Big Ten in 2024.
Four….and how they stack up in the league?
My favorite at this point would be Iowa, significantly. They will again be solid, because that’s what Iowa is. They return a great nucleus, they hit, and two-thirds of their starting rotation in juniors Brody Brecht and Marcus Morgan, both high quality. And the third from last year’s trio, Ty Langenberg, is now pitching for the Minnesota Twins.
I also like Indiana, who’s recruited well the last two years, has experience back from their 43-20 team last year, and their pitching will be seasoned, and as talented as you’ll find in the conference.
Maryland, who won it last year, lost a ton to graduation and the draft, including league MVP, Matt Shaw. They also lost coach Rob Vaughn, who’s now the head coach at Alabama.
Rutgers (44 wins) benefited greatly from a bunch of fifth-year seniors playing on their Covid year in 2023, but the Scarlet Knights also recruited well the last two years and return junior outfielder Ryan Lasko, a genuine stud who led the conference in hits last year (90), and runs scored (81). The Knights are ranked, pre-season, 29th in the country.
Michigan is Michigan under second-year coach Tracy Smith. But they suffered from the upheaval of a coaching change in 2023, lost some impact talent as a result of transfers, and fell from the top of the league to finishing .500, overall, and sixth in the conference (13-11).
Nebraska and Michigan State represent my other two favorites to finish in the top six. Michigan State, for that matter, is my pick, along with the Buckeyes…as the two most-improved teams in the Big Ten !
Five…and yes, I give the Buckeyes an optimistic nod at being in the top eight to make the conference tournament. Because…like teams such as Michigan State, Illinois and Purdue, their hopes rest on how quickly their pitching gets settled! No one, outside of Iowa, or Indiana, is apt to run away with things, and top to bottom this Buckeye team is improved that much over last year.
You cannot have too much…pitching, that is, as Texas A&M (Corpus Christi) transfer Colin Purcell hopes to nail down one of the three weekend rotation spots.
By the way, the pitching doesn’t have to strike out the world…it just needs to throw strikes! And to that point, I think the most important flip of stats from 2023 has to be the strikeout to walk ratio (2 to 1 in 2023). It should about 5 to 1.
And here’s another obscure stat from 2023, 21 times they walked the leadoff hitter, and it felt like all 21 of those hitters ultimately scored. There were too many free bases, despite an improved defense and twice the number of stolen bases (offensively) over the previous year.
Simply put, this team is going to average 6 runs per game. It just needs to hold the competition to 5!
Finally, they have to stay healthy. I know you can’t count on it, that there’s no crystal ball, but in the event that someone does go down improved depth could prove to be their blessing. Let’s hope they have others!
And I want to make this point, above the rest. Baseball is hard. It’s the most wonderful of sports, but it’s hard, and it comes to different players in different rates and degrees, even at LSU. No one was born ready to hit 98 miles per hour, and to play the game confidently you have to be patient to withstand some failure.
It’s going to be a better year, regardless of the record – say, 33-23, or 34-22 – because again, those early games out West (USC, BYU, Arizona State, Grand Canyon, Oklahoma) are going to be HARD. But let’s look at it another way. If they pitch…anything is possible! If they had won just three more games last year they finish 34-22; and if they win three more Big Ten games they qualify for the conference tournament. That illustrates the importance to this year’s upgrade on the mound.
Of course, the time for talk is over. It’s David and Goliath out of the chute. They have to prove there is an upgrade.
But until that time…they’re undefeated!
