This is the first of a two-part feature previewing the Long Beach State Dirtbags’ upcoming season. The first part focuses on team pitching, while the second will go into detail about the field position players.
Call it the year of the pitcher, the bounce-back year or just another season.
Long Beach State baseball’s 2010 campaign could be all of these after a disappointing 2009 where it finished 25-29 — the first losing season for the program since 1989.
“[Last year] is on their minds and they know what they did not do,” Dirtbag head coach Mike Weathers said. “I think they have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
LBSU was picked to finish fourth behind Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and Cal Poly in the Big West Conference preseason coaches’ poll.
Even with conference coaches overlooking the team, Weathers said the expectations for the program remain the same.
“At the start of the year, our expectations are that we should be in a regional and a chance to get to Omaha,” Weathers said. “Anything less than that is a bad year. When you don’t get to Omaha, it’s a pretty disappointing year.”
One noted weakness for the ’09 team was its pitching staff, which posted a combined 5.18 ERA. Losing ace lefty Adam Wilk, along with closer Charlie Ruiz and reliever David Born, could make the Dirtbags’ quest for a trip to Omaha all the more difficult.
Troy Buckley’s manning of the bullpen could be the variable that returns the pitching staff to form.
Buckley, a previous pitching coach for LBSU from 2002-2007, returns to The Beach after leaving to take a minor league pitching coordinator position for the Pittsburgh Pirates. After coaching some of the most celebrated pitchers in the program’s history — Jared Weaver, Abe Alvarez and Cesar Ramos — he will look to cultivate a staff filled with uncertainty.
“I think the challenge is going to mix and match some pieces early on to find out what we have,” Buckley said. “Then [we will] get some roles kind of defined as we continue to move forward into the first month of the season.”
LBSU, however, does have junior Jake Thompson and sophomore Drew Gagnon as the 1-2 punch for its starting staff.
“Those two guys have as good of stuff as anybody in the country, but what they haven’t learned how to do yet is perform and win,” Buckley said. “That’s a step that they’re going to have to take and that they’re going to have to understand mentally, emotionally, mechanically, but they’re going to have to go out and experience [winning].”
Thompson had a 5.61 ERA behind a 4-7 record and 42 strikeouts a year ago. Similarly, his teammate Gagnon went 3-7 with 44 strikeouts and a 6.32 ERA.
Coaches said they feel that Thompson needs to be the one who takes command of the staff.
“Jake, to be quite honest, hasn’t won here,” Weathers said. “He’s had two years where he has not been what they talked about him coming out of high school being this guy. So if that’s pressure he’s put on himself, lack of preparation, our bad coaching, whatever it may be, we can’t have that this year if we’re going to be successful.”
Weathers said that sophomore Branden Pinder likely will throw on Sunday, rounding out the weekend starters.
Despite the starting rotation having its question marks, the bullpen is a bigger unknown.
Ruiz was drafted last June along with Born. Both players didn’t put up staggering numbers but were typically effective when they had the chance to enter the game with an opportunity to win.
Two players who could potentially step into the closer’s role are senior David Brown and Diablo Valley College transfer Kenny Arnerich.
Brown is familiar with the confines of Blair Field and threw 20 innings for LBSU in 2009. On the other hand, Arnerich threw 29.2 innings in his last season with Diablo Valley and chalked up a 1.52 ERA.
Weathers said, “The rest of the bullpen is going to play out. I’m not sure, we don’t know about that until we get under fire.”