I am curious as to whom Coach Iwasaki at Austin College has found. He now has an acceptable field on which to play, and there is plenty of talent in that part of the state.
Does Trinity have anyone that we have not heard of?
Coach Iwasaki is a really really good coach, and I respect him and his coaching ability more every time I see him in action, and what he's able to get out of guys that I generally don't consider as talent-laden as other teams.
As for Trinity, they were a mystery last year. I would point to the lack of a middle infield last year, and the fact that guys that HAVE to step up and be major players weren't. I loved the way Zabor, Samulski and a few others competed, but they really missed Ryan Cavan. Hoover going down hurt them defensively, but I'm still not convinced he can swing it.
The reason TLU has seemed to be the ASC power the last couple of years is primarily pitching, don't get me wrong. Newman (until this last year), Enloe and Besa, and prior to that Hunn, Paras and others were a BIG part, but it seems like every year they have a new guy that just steps up and contributes in a BIG way... Who saw Kyle Harvey coming last year? Also, FR Ryan Nokelby had a solid season -- Much in the same way we saw Yurchik, Weston Franco fill holes for McMurry.
ANYWAY, back to Trinity's pitching. Prior to the start of last year i would've said they had the BEST pitching staff in the West. They still have guys like Bronson, Bignall, Poffenroth and Oates on that roster. Then they have guys that were freshman last year Hunter and Bukowski.
Starting with the youngest guys I think that Hunter has the ability to be the real deal, but like so many of these Trinity guys have command issues. Hunter throws HARD, but he's got to have better command. Bukowski I felt like was a little bit of smoke and mirrors last year. He had pretty decent breaking stuff, but I don't know. I just don't think he's as good as his stats.
Poffenroth and Bignall throw it in there pretty well also. Bronson is a little more of a finesse guy than those two, but I think all three had issues with working from behind some last year -- and you just can't do that against the elite hitting teams in the West.
Finally, Oates. What can you say about Oates? IF he has a full year completely healthy he's capable of being mentioned next to Kitchens and those guys, but there's so many IFs the last couple of years. He hasn't been healthy for a full year since his freshman year. He's got plus velocity and a good slider. He carved up UMHB in his first start last year, then seemed tender in his next outing. He had 55 Ks in 39 innings his sophomore year.
What can he do when he's healthy?
7-0 2.62 ERA 70 Ks in 55 IP, .187 against his freshman year.
Gilbair, I'd be interested on hearing why you think Mandelblatt is the 3rd best pitcher in the west? I'm not necessarily disagreeing, just interested in an opposing opinion.
JSG