Auburn baseball sets opening weekend rotation, makes roster cuts
Just days away from Opening Day, here's a look at where Auburn baseball stands entering the 2023 season:
Rotation
Your probable starters for this weekend are RHP Chase Allsup on Friday, RHP Joseph Gonzalez on Saturday, and true freshman LHP Drew Nelson on Sunday.
UPDATE: The program confirmed the starters via tweet on Thursday morning.
The first men up in a "piggyback" situation would be, in no particular order, LHP Tanner Bauman, LHP Tommy Sheehan, and RHP Chase Isbell. Allsup and Nelson are expected to have up to five innings available, while Gonzalez, slowed in spring by a shoulder injury, is expected to only go two to three innings in his season debut.
True freshman Zach Crotchfelt, while ostensibly available out of the bullpen this weekend, is expected to be the Tuesday starter when Auburn takes on North Alabama in Huntsville's Toyota Field, home of the Rocket City Trash Pandas (Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels, and most recent home of former Auburn slugger Sonny DiChiara).
Schedule
The Tigers play in what Butch Thompson calls the "highest level of amateur baseball" in the SEC, but their non-conference schedule is historically strong as well. A year after finishing 6th in total RPI during a 2022 campaign that saw Auburn host a Regional in Plainsman Park for the first time since 2010, Auburn again projects to have a healthy RPI that would help determine postseason seeding and hosting for Regionals, with a preseason projection of #33, based off of a projected 35-21 record.
(Refresher: RPI, or "rating performance index", is the NCAA's measurement of wins and losses while accounting for strength of schedule. Put simply, it uses your winning percentage (weighted at 25%), the winning percentage of your opponents (50%) and the winning percentage of your opponents' opponents (25%) to deliver a total score. Just like runs allowed by your starting pitcher, lower is better.)
For non-conference weekends, the four opponents finished last year with RPIs in the low-100s:
- Home: Indiana (27-32, #106 in 2022 RPI), Lipscomb (35-23, #145), Southeastern Louisiana (30-29, #105)
- Away: at USC (25-28, #111)
In midweek games, Auburn faces some quality opponents, highlighted by a home and away against Georgia Tech and four in-state neutral site games, mostly played in minor league parks (or in Hoover, site of the SEC Tournament).
- Home: North Alabama (12-41, #288), Florida A&M (29-30, #210), UAB (30-25, #92), Samford (28-29, #123), Jacksonville State (27-28, #173), Georgia Tech (34-22, #21), Troy (32-24, #98)
- Away: Jacksonville State (27-28, #173), Georgia Tech (34-22, #21)
- Neutral: North Alabama (12-41, #288), South Alabama (31-23, #73), UAB (30-25, #92), Samford (28-29, #123)
Auburn's two lowest-RPI matchups are the home and neutral site matchups with North Alabama, who is in their third season of the transition to Division 1 as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Obviously, the difficulty of the conference slate is the real boost to RPI. After finishing with a Top 20 RPI in three of the last four seasons, this season will be just as difficult. Having all five of your road conference matchups be against ranked teams is a tough draw, but that's life in the SEC. Two of Auburn's biggest tests, Top 5 Texas A&M and preseason #1 LSU, are at home and due to other events in Auburn on those weekends, Auburn should be able to safely project sellouts and rowdy atmospheres inside Plainsman Park for both matchups.
Former Tigers in the Pros
Auburn coach Butch Thompson is proud of how many players his program has sent to the pros in the last few years, and those players are steadily making their way to the bigs. 12 former Auburn Tigers will be represented in MLB Spring Training camps, with a few others (like rehabbing Tigers starter Casey Mize) opening the season on the injured list.
Of particular interest on this list are two players, Blake Burkhalter and Edouard Julien.
Burkhalter, a 2022 2nd round (supplemental) pick by the Atlanta Braves, is only one season removed from collegiate action, finishing the 2022 season with 16 saves, 2nd most in the NCAA. The non-roster invitee to Braves spring training is seen as potentially a fast mover in the system, owing to the polish on his cutter and the Braves history of developing fastball/slider pitchers.
Edouard Julien is in a great position to contribute for a Minnesota Twins organization that just traded away AL batting champ 1B Luis Arraez. Julien opens 2023 as a top ten prospect in the Twins organization, an infielder affectionately called the "Canadian Prospect God of Walks" and primed for a big 2023 after excelling during the 2022 season and again during the Arizona Fall League.
Rule changes
The SEC has announced several rule changes for the upcoming 2023 season, including expanded use of pitch clocks, a mercy rule, and a new inclement weather policy.
Roster changes
Auburn baseball is required to make cuts this week - the roster, currently at 44, must be down to 35 by opening day. Up to five additional spots can be given to players who were on the roster during the lost 2020 season, of which Auburn has three: CF Kason Howell, LHP Tommy Sheehan, and LHP Tommy Vail.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the following players have been removed from the online roster: RHP Ben Schorr (reported to have undergone Tommy John surgery, per his Instagram), RHP Caleb Pittman, RHP Ben Bosse (previously reported as out for the season after Tommy John surgery), LHP Jackson Hilton, LHP Will Turner, and OF Alex Wade.
The roster now stands at 38.
Opening Day
Auburn opens the 2023 season on Friday, February 17th with a three-game series against Big Ten foe Indiana, with Friday's first pitch moved up to 4 PM. The game will be available for streaming on ESPN+, and the radio call with Brad Law can be heard on AuburnTigers.com or locally on 93.9 FM.
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