Ole Miss baseball: We've missed you...a little bit

by One Man To Beat on Feb 7, 2009 8:32 PM EST

The grass at Swayze is getting that near Spring green hue to it even though temperatures aren't quite right for sitting leisurely in the stands. Baseball is very nearly here, but let's not forget the shortcomings of last year's team before we look at next year.

With Lance Lynn and Cody Satterwhite as our 1-2 punch on the weekends, there should have been a good chance to make it to Omaha. These guys had been with the program for a couple years and were going to lead us to the promised land. Unfortunately, there just weren't enough bats in the line-up last year along with Satterwhite's pitching inconsistencies that settled the Rebels into an uncomfortable situation, making it to the Coral Gables regional against one of the strongest college baseball programs- the Miami Hurricanes. We won't relive all of the gory details, but with the return of Scott Bittle, I have a feeling that fans are thinking this could be a strong team yet again. That feeling is raw common sense.

Let's take a gander at pitching first.

Bittle was awarded the best player in the state award last year by Cellular South. He's got a pitch called "The Thing" and has been the closer for the past two years with a few spot starts from time to time. Bittle's finishing pitch drops as it approaches the plate and bears strong resemblance to Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn's "Decimator." When the ball is in his hands late in the game, early in the game or at any point, I'm confident he'll get the outs needed to keep Ole Miss in the game.

Along with the Bittler comes Drew Pomeranz, one of the great freshmen from last year's team who struck out over 80 in 70 innings while only walking 30. Pomeranz took over in mid-season for Satterwhite in the weekend rotation and went through some freshmen growing pains. He got a DUI during the offseason, but as Mark Wright proved, you can still have a decent college career and move on to obscurity. Pomeranz should be the Friday starter in my opinion to give him a great chance to prove his worth, develop his stuff and prepare for next season when he'll be the go-to guy.

Phillip Irwin hasn't gotten a lot of pub, not only because he's only got about 35 innings to his credit at Ole Miss, but they aren't really fantastic innings either. He was used mainly in relief roles last year but did have a couple starts and should compete for a weekend role if he's improved in the offseason.

Aaron "Erik the Red" Barrett and Kyle Barbeck are two new faces to the Rebel pitching staff that will get playing time early on. Barrett is a juco transfer that was drafted in the 20th round by the Minnesota Twins. He's going to be looking to improve his draft stock in one year and will push for PT. Barbeck is a freshman southpaw from Missouri who had a Maddux like ERA through high school. He could be one of our pitchers who grabs a mid-week start against teams like Central Arkansas or Belmont.

Brett Bukvich and Nathan Baker will battle it out for a weekend spot as well as two names who Rebel fans should be fairly familiar with. I'm not crazy about either one, but I'd feel better about having Baker on the mound as Bukvich might have a Tommy Baumgardner-like senior year.

Weekend rotation we'd like to see:

Friday: Drew Pomeranz- L, Soph.

Saturday: Nathan Baker- L, Jr.

Sunday: Aaron Barrett- R, Jr.

Next up: A look at the other end of the frame- hitting.

P.S. We won't necessarily miss Cody Overbeck.

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Comments

I think pitching will be a real problem for us during the first part of the season.

I do like that Jake Morgan played well at the end of the season. I think if a weekend starter isn't pitching so well, he could come in and give some solid innings until the 8th or so and keep us from wasting Bittle's arm for an entire weekend.

by JimHalpert on Feb 8, 2009 12:49 AM EST reply actions

Halpert,

He was the one player who I failed to mention in the post that I think could contribute this season. He played well especially in clutch situations during the Regional, so I'd like to see him get some innings early to get more confidence in his stuff.

by One Man To Beat on Feb 8, 2009 10:47 AM EST reply actions

While I am not a huge Nathan Baker fan, I would rather see him throw before Pom on the weekend (if he has to start on the weekend). It is harder to go from a soft tossing lefty to a hard throwing one than vise-versa.

by Alex on Feb 8, 2009 3:07 PM EST reply actions

I think Baker will beat Bukvich for the starting job at the begining of the season. I believe Bukvich is more valuable to us out of the bullpen. I could see this changing once conference play begins but for now I think Baker starts.

PS - Does Buk still have the porn 'stache? It always made me laugh when I saw him "in focus" on the mound with that thing!

by OleMiss06 on Feb 8, 2009 9:21 PM EST reply actions

The porn stache was his secret weapon. He hasn't been the same without it.

by JimHalpert on Feb 8, 2009 11:54 PM EST reply actions

I really hope Baker isn't a weekend guy.

The guy needs to be midweek and midweek alone. Maybe he's gotten better this off-season, but from what I saw of him, he doesn't overpower you from the left side, and his fastball is a little flat.

So he ends up throwing meat to the right-handers. Hopefully he's picked up some new things this off-season, because I just feel like he serves it up on a tee way too often to be a weekend guy. Starting midweeks is his best role.

I think our biggest problem (unless someone steps up) is that we don't have many sure thing weekend starters. We have a bunch of guys that can be good enough to throw on weekends, but are more suited for Sunday pitching or midweek pitching.

I could see us mixing up the rotation all year, never settling on a firm 1-2-3. I just get the feeling we're going to have to win it with our bats this year.

by RebelBruiser on Feb 9, 2009 2:09 PM EST reply actions

Bruiser, i agree with you almost 100%. this year's staff could be a lot like the 06 staff. anyone remember the opening weekend rotation for 06?

fri baumgardner (sp?)
sat nick hetland
sun satterwhite

mid season:
fri craig rod
sat buk i think
sun lance

end: kline, buk, lance

i expect opening rotation to be
pom
irwin
baker

but by year's end i expect corrigan to be in there somewhere. irwin gets smashed a lot, but so did kline, and so did eric fowler. Bianco will keep giving guys chances if he knows they've got good stuff. i don't think pitching will be our problem this year. i think scoring runs will be the problem. we don't have the speed like we did in 06 to create runs, and we don't have the power like we did in 05 or 07 to wait on the big inning. just like last years team, i'm worried about the offense. also, ferguson will start the year on the bench, and he will replace the infielder who gets off to a bad start. i predict he'll be our everyday 2nd baseman before league play starts

by CoolHandLuke on Feb 9, 2009 4:47 PM EST reply actions

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