Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

The official site got an interview with head baseball coach John Savage. It had some good questions and Savage provided some interesting answers.

Q: If you had to name three reasons for fans to be excited in 2009, which would you choose?

 

A: Our pitching staff is as good as any in the country. We bring back two talented seniors in Brendan Lafferty and Jason Novak. We have several exceptional juniors in Charles Brewer, who won nine games, and Gavin Brooks, who looks to rebound off his sophomore season, and Matt Drummond. We bring back sophomores Dan Klein, Matt Grace and Rob Rasmussen. Erik Goeddel missed last season recovering from an injury and looks to be healthy this fall. Right now, we're holding onto Gerrit Cole, a first-round draft pick by the Yankees. This could be an electric staff, both right and left-handed. We're also very excited about our offense. With the return of Casey Haerther, Gabe Cohen and Cody Decker, and the possibility of Brandon Crawford coming back, you're talking about a very explosive lineup. With Jeff Rapoport, Blair Dunlap, Justin Uribe and the newcomers, our offense can be really good. Our outfield is going to be exceptionally deep with guys such as Blair Dunlap, Brett Krill, Justin Uribe and Gabe Cohen. We think that they are an experienced group who can be very good defensively. Those three reasons -the depth of our pitching staff, the potential for our offense and the strength of our outfielders - give us a lot of excitement heading into the 2009 season. 

That pitching staff could be as good as Savage believes it will be, but there are some questions. There is plenty of depth, but who will be the ace? Brooks was supposed to be the ace last season, but never found his form. Brewer was inconsistent all season and is now struggling in the Cape Cod League. The one guy who may emerge as the ace is Rasmussen who missed a bulk of the season with a broken foot, but has been lights out in the Cape.

Q: Both catchers from the last two seasons will not return in 2009 (Ryan Babineau, signed pro contract; Brent Dean, senior). What options does this team have behind the plate next spring?

 

A: Ryan has been our anchor - he had a remarkable career at UCLA, catching three great pitching staffs the last three seasons. He led our program to three postseason appearances. Brent Dean had a stellar senior season. Both of those guys are going to be missed a ton - from their leadership skills to their toughness to their ability to throw people out. That tandem last season was as good as there was out there. We feel confident that there are guys on the roster who can fill those needs - Chris Giovinazzo, Cody Decker, Gino Aielli and incomer Steven Rodriguez. Those are guys who can step in and hold that down. It could be two catchers, but we don't know who is going to be the everyday starter right now. That is a void, other than Tim Murphy on the pitching and catching landscape, that needs to be looked at. It's going to be competitive between when these guys return to campus in the fall and Opening Day. 

The catcher position will most definitely be the Bruins biggest question mark entering next season. Not a single Bruin has an inning of time behind the plate at the college level and replacing Babineau's on field production will be the easy part. Babineau was also one of the team's leaders and is extremely intelligent, allowing for more detailed scouting reports than most catchers can handle.

Q: Next season, Oregon will resume its baseball program (dropped since 1981), creating a true Pac-10. Aside from that trip to play the Ducks, what can you tell fans about the 2009 schedule?

...So, looking at our 2009 schedule, the road portion is the toughest in the nation. Playing at the Houston College Classic on that second weekend of the season, our players are very excited to go up against Rice, Houston, Baylor and Texas A&M. After that, we play consecutive weekends at Oklahoma and East Carolina before opening Pac-10 play at USC. Other Pac-10 road trips include playing at Washington State, Stanford, Oregon and Arizona State. Those are some big challenges that we'll face next season. We do not want to play a soft schedule, and we don't believe in playing a soft schedule - I think the players will back everything I say about that. They want to play the best teams, and they want to play in the toughest environment. That's how you get better in baseball, and that's how you get better as a program. Our schedule next year will be one of the toughest in the nation, if not the toughest.

I cannot begin to tell you how difficult next season's schedule will be. East Carolina is one of the tougher places in the nation to play and Oklahoma qualified for a regional last season despite fielding a very young squad. On top of that, playing at the Houston College Classic will be brutal with four very good Texas teams joining us and the Trojans at Minute Maid Park. It's the nation's biggest college baseball tournament so it will be great exposure for the program, but to play there and follow it with trips to Oklahoma and East Carolina is borderline suicide.

Q: Steele Field at Jackie Robinson Stadium has received several upgrades the past three seasons, including over 1,000 chairback seats, a state-of-the-art backstop net and a brand new natural grass field surface. What improvements are in the works this offseason?

 

A: We have quite a few things that we need to accomplish at Jackie Robinson Stadium. We're looking to install about 500 additional seats above the dugouts, replacing the grass slopes currently there, to get the capacity of the ballpark to around 1,700 seats. We're looking to build a new hitting facility - a state-of-the-art facility that will help our hitters. We need cages and space to be able to hit in. We would like to build a new clubhouse. The clubhouse, the hitting facility and the additional seats are a big priority for our program. Those would be the three biggest additions to Jackie Robinson Stadium that we feel can make it one of the nicest facilities in the nation. We have the best school, we have the best conference and we have the best schedule, so there are a lot of pieces in place. Our next move is to upgrade our facility to be one of the best in the country. 

That's some nice talk, but it looks like only the seats above the dugouts will be done for next season and there is no timeline for the rest of the renovations. On top of that, the playing surface that was installed last season should be ripped out and done over after the pathetic installation job left it a far from suitable surface. I've already articulated my thoughts on Jackie Robinson Stadium in an e-mail to Dan Guerrero and while he was nice enough to respond to me, his e-mail far from assured me that the stadium and program would get the necessary renovations done correctly and in a timely fashion.

If you want more from Savage read the whole interview. The deadline for draft picks to sign with their MLB teams is rapidly approaching (August 15) and there are still three players of interest to the Bruins unsigned. SS Brandon Crawford, a fourth round pick of the San Francisco Giants may return for his senior season after seeing his stock drop significantly with a disappointing junior season; however when I spoke to those close to him at the regionals in Fullerton he seemed intent on signing and I still expect him to do so. RHP Gerrit Cole, an extremely talented recruit was taken in the first round by the Yankees and is represented by Scott Boras. Had any other team drafted Cole I'd expect him to make it to Westwood because Boras is notorious for holding steady to his asking price and for Cole that asking price is very high, but there's no way the Yankees let their first round pick get away. Savage sounds mildly optimistic in his interview that Cole could end up on campus but I don't buy it. 1B/OF Clark Murphy is another recruit who went fairly high (5th round to Texas) and remains unsigned. The lefthander with massive power looks like a better than 50/50 shot to play for the Bruins, but signing with the Rangers isn't out of the question. 

One guy the Bruins will certainly have in 2009 is RHP Trevor Bauer. Bauer is one the top pitching prospects for the class of 2009 and would have likely been a high pick in the 2009 MLB Draft, but he has decided that graduate from Newhall Hart High School in December and join the Bruins early. Last season as a junior Bauer went 12-0, 0.79 in 70.2 innings pitched, striking out 106 batters.

I'll have a post as soon as the August 15 signing deadline passes with updates on who has signed and who will be in Westwood next season and I will also have another post detailing how our Bruins fared in their respective summer leagues. Until then I don't expect much baseball news. GO BRUINS!!!