Auburn Baseball Looking To Find Roles for New Pitcher Additions
Returning 80% of your innings from last season is a good problem to have, right?
"There's some strength to that, yeah" remarked Auburn head baseball coach Butch Thompson last week, previewing spring practice ahead of Auburn's February 16th opener in Plainsman Park.
But it presents some problems, too, with the need to find places for the new additions to the roster to play. "I think our jobs right now is for everybody to have a role, even if they're not getting the innings they want to. [...] I don't just want three or four guys to have a defined role, I want every person on our (pitching) staff to have a role."
There's a variety of ways Auburn can do that, like taking a guy that might be struggling with his command but sports a wipeout slider and using him in the middle of an inning when there's nobody on.
It all starts with Gonzalez and Allsup
But there's going to be some alpha dogs on this pitching staff to open the season, and none bigger than the combo of Joseph Gonzalez and Chase Allsup.
Gonzalez, who reportedly turned down six figures of signing bonus money to return to Auburn for his 2024 season, looks to rebuild his draft stock after a year where he pitched only five scoreless innings before being shut down with a recurring shoulder issue that eventually needed surgery to address.
Thompson says that "Gonzo" is fully healthy, for possibly the first time since high school, and between that and his offseason physical work, is throwing "noticeably harder" than in previous seasons, where his famous sinker sat in the low-90s.
While that could admittedly be cause for concern, as it's tougher to get the same vertical movement on sinkers when they're thrown harder, Thompson's more than optimistic about where Gonzalez could be this season, either way. "Is this a new identity? [..] I'm excited about him."
Allsup, entering his draft eligible year, is looking for everything to click after a sophomore season where he flashed both phenomenal velocity (upper-90s) and inconsistency, putting up a 5.47 ERA and walking 33 batters in his 49.1 innings.
One of the issues with Allsup last season seemed to be getting into disadvantage counts early - 2-0, 3-1, etc - which forced him to attempt to come into the zone and allowed opposing hitters to be more selective with their swings against his premium velocity, often successfully.
As Thompson discussed with us last fall, "College baseball now, as a pitching coach: It's a race to two strikes instead of two balls. The swings are so different when you're in 2-0, 3-1 counts compared to when it's 0-1, 0-2, 1-2."
Early reports from fall and spring practice are that Allsup's both in and around the zone more, especially early in at-bats, and he's the early favorite for the #2 starter's spot in the rotation behind Gonzalez (even if Auburn doesn't use them on Friday and Saturday in that order - in 2022, Auburn sometimes used Gonzalez as the game three starter, giving them the best chance at taking a divided series on Sunday.)
Who is the #3 starter?
The biggest storyline of the early part of the season, to me, will be the battle for the #3 starter's role. Auburn's returned some experience from last season, as well as brought in several new faces that have either the stuff or the experience to slot in behind the Gonzalez and Allsup duo.
Amongst the returners, Christian Herberholz is a guy that needs to be watched in this battle. Making eight starts last season, he finished second on the team in ERA amongst qualified pitchers with a 4.18. In conference play, though, is where things clicked for "Herbie" with a 2.30 ERA in his 31.1 SEC innings, third in the entire SEC.
But it's not just Herberholz vying for that third starter's spot. Carson Myers transferred in from UAB for this season as an accomplished two year college starter (3.52 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 71.2 innings last season); he's a threat to eventually take weekend starts, depending on how long it takes him to acclimate to the conference.
"He might end up being a starter for us, but right now you feel like he's a guy that can come in the middle (innings) and roll you two or three innings, or flip that lineup one time. That's so powerful, to give some help to a (Tanner) Bauman and a (John) Armstrong where you can set them up in shorter outings" said Thomson last week about the veteran Myers.
Sophomore Dylan Watts was selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 18th round of the draft - junior college players are draft eligible at the end of every season - but passed up an unknown signing bonus to come and compete at Auburn. He's a player that Auburn believes "absolutely has enough skill to make us the best version of our pitching staff," and he's expected to compete in the midweek and weekend mix this season.
Bullpen features depth and experience
The back end of the bullpen, unsettled last season after its top two arms in Blake Burkhalter (Braves, Round 2) and Carson Skipper (Rockies, Round 11) were taken in the MLB Draft after the 2022 season, looks to be as deep as it's been in a long time.
Tanner Bauman, named one of Auburn's leadership "Legacy Group" representatives by his peers, leads a back end that returns several key arms in Will Cannon and John Armstrong and adds a new piece with some impressive stuff in freshman Cam Tilly.
Bauman, who was 2nd on the team in innings during conference play, showed his ability to cover multiple roles for the Tigers last year, whether it was going multiple innings (like the 3.1 scoreless he pitched on the road at Ole Miss) or get the team out of jams, like when he came in against Mississippi State in the 7th inning of a tie game with a State runner on 2nd base and got a strikeout to end the threat. He's the unquestioned leader of the bullpen, someone Thompson trusts
Behind Bauman are three pitchers who each have a "signature" pitch, with Cannon featuring an imposing fastball, Armstrong with his unique "UFO" slider, and the freshman Tilly with a splitter that might be the best individual swing-and-miss pitch on campus.
(It's the year of the splitter across baseball, and just know we're going to be talking about it a lot this season. Expect a full breakdown soon when we have a chance to sit down with Tilly and get some game film.)
Auburn baseball is in spring practice now ahead of their February 16th home opener against Eastern Kentucky at Plainsman Park. Tickets are still available for opening weekend at aubtix.com.