Bruin Baseball Season Preview Part 1

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 12, 2008 1:10 PM PST

Bumped from the diaries. GO BRUINS. -N

As I began writing this season's Bruin baseball preview, I found myself more excited than I've been since I began following Bruin baseball in 1999. This led me to writing a far longer than expected preview that I'm going to split into 5 parts and post over the next two weeks leading to the season opener on Friday the 22nd. Part 1 is a look back at last season and a peak into this season. Part 2 will look into the pitchers. Part 3 will feature the Bruins' position players and Part 4 will be a look at the Pac 10. Part 5 will complete the preview as we take a look around the nation and where the Bruins stand in the national sense.

Last season the Bruins made it to the Fullerton Super Regional, the farthest the program had advanced in the postseason since their run to the College World Series in 1997. This season, the Bruins are ranked #1 in the nation by Baseball America as the program's renaissance under head coach John Savage continues. Returning three of their four starting pitchers, all the key relievers and all their position players, the Bruins are primed for not only a run to Omaha, but also a chance to win a national title.

The Bruins got off to a rough start before the season even began last season when Jermaine Curtis was declared ineligible and forced to miss the first 24 games of the season. In those first 24 games the Bruins went 10-14 which was far below expectations, but once Curtis returned at the beginning of Pac 10 play the Bruins got hot, winning going 12-2 in their next 14 games. The Bruins finished the season 3rd in the conference and earned a #2 seed in the Long Beach regional where they beat Pepperdine, Illinois-Chicago and Long Beach St. in succession to win the regional and advance to the Super Regionals. Despite being a #3 seed, Cal State Fullerton was named host for the Super Regional versus the Bruins because UCLA's Jackie Robinson Stadium was not capable of hosting a Super Regional. The Bruins were swept in two games in the Super Regional, but the young team gained invaluable experience that will surely serve them well this season.

The Bruins enter this season ranked #1 (Baseball America) and #3 (Rivals.com) by what I consider the two best polls and are the favorite in some people's mind to win the toughest conference in the nation this season. Three different Pac 10 teams (UCLA, Arizona St., Arizona) received a #1 ranking depending on the poll you use and the two time defending national champions Oregon St. are also considered one of the nation's better teams. The team that wins the Pac 10 this season will certainly receive a national seed and some expect two Pac 10 teams to get national seeds while a third will likely host a regional.

When asked in a chat about ranking the Bruins #1, Aaron Fitt of Baseball America had this to say.

[UCLA] was just a young team last year, and they overcame all sorts of adversity to reach a super-regional. That's exactly what you hope to see from a young team, and now they're a very experienced, supremely talented team. There's no reason to think they'll be inconsistent again. We realize UCLA is a bit of a bold choice, given their record a year ago and given the more popular choices out there for No. 1, but we think UCLA will be the nation's best team, and we ranked the Bruins accordingly.

The Bruins open the season versus Oklahoma on February 22 at Jackie Robinson Stadium where they will play a three game weekend series. The rest of the schedule features 23 games against teams which competed in the 2007 NCAA Tournament and 11 games against four of the eight teams which advanced to the 2007 College World Series (Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, defending national champion Oregon State and UC Irvine). This difficult schedule continues a trend under Coach Savage after last season's schedule was ranked 3rd toughest in the nation and 2006's was ranked the toughest. The Bruins will play 24 road games this season and 32 at home, including three games versus USC and a key conference series versus Arizona St. in the friendly confines of Jackie Robinson Stadium. The schedule will be far more condensed than usual this season as a new NCAA rule has established a mandatory start date for the season that has pushed the opening of the season from the first weekend of February to the third weekend. This was done to benefit the cold-weather schools that don't have the chance to play and practice earlier in the season when the weather forces them inside. For the first time in decades, UCLA will play five games some weeks, however this could work to their advantage, as they are deeper on the mound than most teams.

Renovations to Jackie Robinson Stadium were completed last week and the team was able to practice on the brand new field for the first time yesterday. The brand new playing surface will allow the Bruins to practice the day after heavy rain and will also provide the team with one of the finer playing surfaces in the nation. Renovations also included the installation of Field Turf in the bullpens, new fencing and padding and the repainting of the stadium. You can see the progress of the renovations in the photo galleries on the official site and the finished product in this gallery.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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In 1999?

You started following Bruins baseball in 1999? When you were 9 years old? I still think rye is actually none other than Dan Guerrero :)

Very exciting stuff. Wish I was closer to the stadium so I could just walk over and take in an afternoon game on the weekends...

by tasser10 on Feb 12, 2008 2:36 PM PST reply actions

I was 10 actually

and both my grandpa and dad, who went to UCLA, would take me to games all the time.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 12, 2008 4:27 PM PST up reply actions

That's a beautiful playing surface

I know we will be following this season with a lot of interest. These are some lofty expectations and hopefully we will be hosting super regionals soon.

by Tydides on Feb 12, 2008 2:57 PM PST reply actions

Minor Correction

That was Aaron Fitt in the BA chat question, not Jim Callis (Aaron Fitt knows much more about college baseball, in my opinion).

Thanks for the writeups. Despite baseball being my favorite sport, I've never been to Jackie Robinson. I'm going to have to fix that this spring.

by Raisin on Feb 12, 2008 3:28 PM PST reply actions

Thanks for the correction

and I fixed it. Fitt definitely knows more about college. Callis does more draft and prospect work while Fitt is their main college guy.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 12, 2008 4:28 PM PST up reply actions

Great stuff

Last year was incredible. I've never seen a team look so bad early in the year and look so great by the end of the season.

I had heard the season would be starting later, but I didn't realize they were playing 5 games some weeks. A quick glance at other team's schedules shows UCLA's not the only one either. That's got to be brutal on the schedules of the players, who have classes to go to as well.

by gilbert on Feb 12, 2008 3:54 PM PST reply actions

Yeah

I can't stand the start date. I love that there is one because it gives college baseball a true start date, but they need to move it up a couple weeks. Moving the start date isn't helping the cold weather schools like it's supposed to because the cold weather schools still can't practice outside until the snow melts and they would start their season the same time as everyone else anyways. They would just travel south and play in tournaments and road games, something they're going to do with the new start date anyways.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 12, 2008 4:26 PM PST up reply actions

Tighter Schedule

Yes, everyone should be playing a similar tight schedule. The NCAA set it up to aid teams in colder climes who supposedly are at a disadvantage because they have to play more road games early and don't get to play as many games early on because of wintery weather.

by Raisin on Feb 12, 2008 4:27 PM PST up reply actions

question re Renovations

Did the renovations increase the likelihood that we will be able to host a Regional or Super Regional if we're the better seed? Or are we going to once again fight an uphill battle by going on the road against a worse seed with better facilities?

by BruinsRule on Feb 12, 2008 6:41 PM PST reply actions

Doubt it

it's a better facility, but the biggest problem with hosting a regional or super regional is that it only holds 1,250 as opposed to the 1,500 bare minimum (and only done a couple times) and 2,000-2,500 preferred. If they were to put seats above the dugouts where the grass hills are it'd seat almost 1,500. If they also built a grass berm down either foul line or behind right field then we'd have a real shot at both a regional and super regional.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 12, 2008 7:17 PM PST up reply actions

The other issue is

the concessions and restrooms aren't equipped to serve so many people. It's not really even equipped to serve the amount of people the stadium currently holds. The press box is also too small for a regional or super regional. To make it big enough for a regional or super regional they'd have to build an auxiliary press box that would likely reduce the capacity. The press box doesn't even have wireless internet or a space for visiting team radio announcers. All it is is a home team radio box and a game operations room. The people around the program continue to tell me they're going to bid on a regional and if deserving, think they'll get it, but nobody outside the program thinks it's possible for the stadium to host right now.

In reality the stadium needs roughly $3 million in renovations to make it possible to host regionals and super regionals without doubt, $6 or $7 million in renovations to bring it up to par with other quality stadiums and $12 million or so to make it one of the better facilities in the nation. The advantage to the $12 million renovation is it sets the foundation for any other tweaks to the stadium and over the course of the next 10-15 years will save the program money and well as generate more money. If they do a $5 or $6 million renovation they're always going to be renovating to stay up to par and a $3 million renovation is a couple year stop gap before it's a joke again.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 12, 2008 7:28 PM PST up reply actions

The high expectations

Love the high expectations. But I hope our kids are steeled. I think we will end up hitting rough patches early in the season. We will need to do what we did last year. Battle through it and get better as the season goes along.

Great stuff Rye. Looking forward to reading parts 2-5.

by Nestor on Feb 13, 2008 4:38 AM PST reply actions