Crack of the Bat
By David Rawnsley
Nebraska Baseball Notes
I don’t get to see as much college baseball as I would like to living in Nebraska, but I had the opportunity to see two great college games the past few days.
College baseball is incredibly healthy right now from the looks of it. The two games at University of Nebraska had 8,700 and 6,900 fans and the Cornhuskers had over 12,000 earlier in the season at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha (site of the College World Series) for a mid week game against in state rival Creighton. Everywhere you look, college programs are setting new attendance records, stadiums are being built or renovated and more and more emphasis is being put on college baseball in communities. That’s all great stuff.
Now, if they would just get rid of the metal bats and start using wood, things “would” be even better! That “plink” of the metal bat is just difficult to listen to.
One of the best things about Nebraska’s 4-3 victory over Texas A&M on Friday night and their 4-2 win over Creighton Tuesday night was the quality of pitching and pace of play. The A&M game was finished in about 2:25 and the Creighton game would have been played in less than 2 hours (final time 2:09) if it wasn’t for two long discussions on the field trying to figure out a dropped infield fly and a pitching change. Sometimes those 11-8 games that last over 3 hours have their good points, but I like the style of games I saw much better and I think most of the fans in attendance those two nights would agree.
Nebraska’s team looks like it’s in great position to make a run at a CWS title. In my opinion this is the best team they’ve had over the past few years and they’ve been on the doorstep consistently during that time.
One big difference I see between this Cornhusker team and past teams is in the approach their pitcher’s take. Their former pitching coach, Rob Childress, is now the head coach at Texas A&M and he did a great job with the Nebraska pitchers. He was a stickler for throwing strikes and if you didn’t, you didn’t pitch in Lincoln no matter what kind of stuff you had. But Childress was a proponent of “pitching backwards” and you’d see a ton of breaking balls at all points in the count.
When Childress left last fall, Nebraska hired Dave Bingham as the pitching coach. Bingham was the former long time head coach at Kansas and is a giant figure in Upper Midwest baseball.
Bingham has been outspoken in the media about having his pitchers pitch aggressively with their fastballs and keep pitch counts down and boy, was that obvious from watching those two games. The two starters, LHP Tony Watson and RHP Charlie Shirek (more on them below) both had numerous sub-10 pitch innings. Watson got a couple of hitters looking at called third strikes on 0-2 fastballs inside and Shirek at one point reeled off 10 straight ground ball outs by pounding the strike zone with sinking fastballs. When freshman Erik Bird came in to save the Tuesday game, the first batter he went 0-2 on saw a fastball just off the inside corner.
The K/IP ratios of the Nebraska pitchers, even probably first round pick RHP Joba Chamberlin, are relatively modest for the kind of raw stuff they possess. Their pitch counts have also been very low and that’s going to help Nebraska come late May and June when they have a fresh and aggressive pitching staff.
Below are some comments on some individual players. I was a “fan” at the games and didn’t see any radar gun readings, but will quote what I’ve heard from scouts who have seen the pitchers at other games.
LHP Tony Watson (Nebraska): Watson is a 6-4 red shirt sophomore from the Iowa Perfect Game Leagues who is draft eligible this June. He reportedly turned down $125,000 out of high school from the Marlins, but missed the 2004 season after labrum surgery. He has very good command of a fastball that touches the low 90’s. His curveball and change up flashed good action but didn’t seem very consistent. The A&M left handed hitters got good cuts against Watson and kept the right fielder pretty busy. But Watson worked very quickly, got ahead and pitched a complete game with under 120 pitches while being strong at the end. I don’t know what Watson’s signability is given his status but 6-4 lefties who throw in the low 90’s and can pitch like Watson are few and far between. He certainly looks like a top 5 round talent to me.
RHP Austin Kreps (Texas A&M): Nebraska didn’t hit a ball more than 150 feet in the air until the 7th inning against Kreps sinker. I’m told that the 6-3 right hander has been steady at 90-91 mph all spring and touched 94. His slider and change up are solid pitches as well and he pounds the strike zone with low strikes. Against wood bats he would have thrown a shutout this game but Nebraska got a bouncer over the third baseman’s head and a couple of jam shot ground balls to right field to scrape out a few runs. He’s a pitcher I can easily see going in the top 3 rounds, which is what I’m hearing as well.
RF Luke Gorsett (Nebraska): Gorsett led all Junior College hitters last year with 24 home runs and hasn’t found Division I pitchers much more difficult, as he is hitting close to .400 with 14 home runs already. He’s listed at 6-2, 200 lbs but doesn’t seem that big, more like 6-1, 185, so he’s not a power monster. Gorsett undeniably has an aluminum bat swing, with most of his power to right centerfield, and will have to make adjustments to wood bats and better pitching. But he also has undeniable bat speed and the ball jumps off his bat. Gorsett also surprised me with his athletic ability. He played a very good right field and had what looked to be Major League average type speed on the bases.
SS Ryan Wehrle (Nebraska): Wehrle another PG League player is also a draft eligible sophomore, only by age instead of red shirt status like Watson. He doesn’t have the real speed and quickness to play shortstop at the pro level for me, but he should have all the tools to be a very good third baseman. Wehrle is a top level hitter, though, and has a swing that is better tuned to wood bats than most you’ll see at the college level. He’s short and crisp to the ball and while he has “only” 4 home runs this year, you can see the power and bat speed to project him gradually developing this area of his game. I have no clue to his signability and wouldn’t want to speculate, but with the dearth of quality college position players in this draft, scouts have to take Wehrle very seriously.
RHP Charlie Shirek (Nebraska): Shirek is a red shirt freshman who will be in the same boat as Watson next year. He’s been up to 94 in the past and showed an excellent sinker for 7 plus innings. His slider was sharp at times but not a swing and miss pitch. Until he got tired in the 8th the Nebraska outfielders had the night off. He might be the best prospect out of North Dakota since Travis Hafner.
RHP/LHP Pat Venditte (Creighton): This young man is amazing. He’s a switch pitcher who is Division I quality both ways. Venditte has a special glove and switches arms depending on whether the hitter is left handed or right handed. When he came in from the bullpen, he took half his warm up pitches left handed and half right handed. There was a moment of confusion when a switch-hitter stepped in to hit and Venditte tried to switch arms, but the rules say that a pitcher has to pitch with the same arm he starts a hitter with, so that took a moment or two to straighten out. I’ve read where Venditte is 85-87 right handed and 82-85 left handed and that seemed accurate, he threw a bit harder right handed. He throws from a standard ¾’s release right handed and his best pitch is a big downer curveball. Left handed, Vendette throws more side arm to low ¾’s and throws a slider and sinker, so he has two very different pitching styles. Watching an athlete do this is special, trust me.
1B/3B Zach Daeges (Creighton): The 6-5, 225 Daeges is another Iowa native who played in numerous Perfect Game leagues and events as a high schooler. Back then he was a pitching prospect who threw 90 mph and could really hit. Arm surgery ended his pitching career but now he’s left handed power hitter with some serious juice in his bat. He’ll be a good senior sign draft, Daeges has a chance to have a nice professional career.
This column represents the thoughts and opinions of the author and are not necessarily those of Perfect Game.