Sophomore catcher Mason Eckelman is hitting 80 points higher than a year ago, solid behind home plate, and a candidate for most improved through 25 games. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
At the halfway point of the season come this weekend, the record is disappointing and the reasons why can be found in proverbial grades on their test(s) so far.
It’s not brain surgery…like what they’re teaching, and doing, at University Hospital, just a mile or so south of Bill Davis Stadium.
And that’s what I told an usher at Bill Davis Tuesday night during the Buckeyes’ 9-6 loss to West Virginia, their 17th of a now rapidly-progressing first season under Justin Haire. And Haire, of course, has been around the college game long enough to know…there’s a parallel to baseball and that which they’re teaching in every other classroom on campus.
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“We just have to keep working,” Haire has said so many times one might suspect that he has a heart-shaped tattoo somewhere with those words indelibly.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and the Buckeyes for Press Pros Magazine.
“It’s what we have to do to get better, and we just don’t do enough of the little things,” he reiterated on Tuesday night, as WVU boarded the bus back to Morgantown. “And they (WVU) do. There’s a reason why they’re 23-4.”
The reason for 8-17, of course, can be found in the numbers. And again, it’s not unlike a class in Engineering, just more public.
And to that point, someone shared this week that they’re tired of our writing about the numbers.
“I don’t care about the numbers,” this person said Tuesday. “I care about them,” meaning the players.
That’s ‘fan talk’, of course. But let it be a sport of higher priority, and then you’ll see…it’s all about the numbers.
And, “Just win, Baby,” Al Davis once famously said.
So, we make the following points:
Point one…the veterans on this roster, Pettorini, Graveline, and Lipsey, are all hitting .300 or better, and Pettorini ranks 14th in the Big Ten at .359. That’s a tribute to experience and growing up in the game.
The next tier, in terms of experience, Ellis, Miller, Eckelman and Bussey, are all in that .260 to .280 range. Eckelman would be a candidate for most improved in my book.
So this team can hit a bit and score runs – .265 cumulative average and 7.2 runs over 25 games.
Point two…they’re average, defensively, with 35 total errors over 25 games, and about on par with many Big Ten teams. But if you want to compare…Oregon has 21 errors in 27 games. And 23 of the Buckeyes’ 35 errors are infield errors. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Baseball is 80% pitching, and pitching takes time to develop at this level of college baseball.
Point three…and it’s always down to this – the Buckeyes rank last in the Big Ten in pitching, with a team ERA of 9.32. the game is 80% pitching. And if you want more comparison here, Iowa leads everyone with 3.89. And of the twelve current teams in the race for the conference tournament, only one of them (Penn State) is pitching above the 6.00 mark.
To Haire’s point about the little things, walks (free bases) have been, and continue to be their Achilles heel, and one that glows bright red. Their strikeout/walk ratio is nearly 1 to 1 (8 strikeouts per game to 7 walks), and no other team in the conference is currently averaging more than 5.4 walks per nine innings. And when you consider how many of those free bases (164) have ultimately scored, it’s simply hard to not recognize the impact on their 8-17 record.
Again, if this was football or basketball, much would be made of seven fumbles per game in football, or shooting 50% from the foul line in basketball? There would be billboards about in on 315.
Comparing, football suffered just 15 fumbles (5 lost) during the past season…and the men’s basketball team shot 74.8% from the free throw line. Those little things, if you will.
And why the sudden drop from the eighth seed in last year’s Big Ten Tournament?
Well coaches and scouts will mention the fact of coaching turnover, three in four years. Out of respect for the opinions of the knowledgeable, I say…yes, that stability, and development of program expectation does matter. If Justin Haire stays five years this picture will be significantly different, which only means that the aberration of 2025 IS NOT Justin Haire’s fault. I stand on that.
But there will be some significant changes to come – that have to come – not unlike those seen at Penn State (18-10) and Northwestern ( 13-13), two schools that have known the depths of Big Ten baseball as long as most can remember. At this point it’s too soon to speculate on those changes, but recruiting, via high school or the portal, will be front and center, along with the time it takes for player development and maturity. And unless you’re Paul Skenes, pitching at this level takes time.
It’s also important to note…there is young talent on the current roster, significant freshmen who will find their way with playing time and adjustment to the first real competition in their baseball lives. This ain’t high school, and it sure ain’t ‘Travel Ball’.
So for the here and now – the next 25 games – 7.2 runs per game is plenty of offense with which to play winning baseball, what we wrote in February…for those who write to question. But when you’re scoring 7 and giving up 9 because you walk one for every one you strike out, well, it doesn’t take Casey Stengel to figure that out.
And it was Stengel who once famously said about the 1962 expansion New York Mets and their 40 win, 120 loss record: “Can’t anyone here play this game?”
The following year they were 51-111, and by 1967 they were 61-101.
Two years later, they won the National League pennant and beat Baltimore in the World Series. when their pitching (Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, and Jerry Koosman) was better.
My point? It takes patience, and you have to work – play the game – to master those little things.
Will I be here to see it? I hope so. If not, I hope Justin Haire is.
He’d be deserving.
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