"We're Built As A Player Development Program"
February 15, 2019 | Baseball, #ForBoston Files
A refocused baseball program enters 2019 determined to improve.
The modern era of baseball transformed the game into a statistics-based industry. There are more tangible ways to measure success that its advent created a whole new way to watch a team and predict its performance. It still values success in traditional areas, but it forever altered the way experts analyze offense and defense.
Boston College, however, largely defied that explanation. The Eagles retained traditional baseball values and constructed a core that launched the program into the national consciousness. The team came within a game of advancing to the College World Series in 2016, and it remains the pillar for what BC tries to accomplish every year.
"As a staff, we decided to find 'baseball players,'" head coach Mike Gambino said. "These are the kids that some scouts or other teams could knock for not being big enough, not having enough power or having the right speed. You could go through the list of every kid we've had, and everyone somewhere thought they weren't good enough. But we believe in them, and you look at their success both here and in professional baseball. It's about their makeup as baseball players."
That foundational belief provides the construction and foundation for a hopeful resurgence in 2019. Last year's team finished with a disappointing 17-win season and missed the ACC Tournament for the first time in three years. It provided a necessary reboot for the Eagles, who enter this season appreciating the slim margin of error that exists within arguably the best conference in the nation.
"Every once in a while, you have a couple of things go wrong and you have a year like last year," Gambino said. "You have a couple of injuries, a couple of guys have a bad year. I didn't do a great job (managing) our culture. You go from a 30-win team to a 17-win team just like that (in the ACC)."
It rekindled the fire within the Birdball heart, and the Eagles now enter the season with a burning desire to change any negative perception. The team returned 19 letterwinners from last year, including the potential for a pitching staff that could be loaded with arms.
The Eagles return New York Yankees draftee Dan Metzdorf to the weekend rotation, and midweek starters Matt Gill and Jack Nelson are expected to take the next step in their career journey. Gill in particular could be a welcome surprise for the conference after going 1-1 last season in 14 appearances, including six starts, while Nelson sports a 7-2 career record over three seasons.
They will be augmented by a chunk of young arms that will gain valuable experience over the course of the early season. Mason Pelio was a nationally-ranked recruit last summer, and Travis Lane joins his brother Thomas within the Eagle bullpen. In addition, redshirt sophomore Joey Walsh pitched last summer in the Cape Cod Baseball League after returning from Tommy John surgery last season, and Will Hesslink posted solid numbers in his rookie season.
"There's been a lot of talk, even with the older guys, about how good this freshman class is," Gambino said. "They've done a really good job becoming part of the culture. The upperclassmen talk about how they're good teammates and going about things the right way. That's the foundation of how we've done things with some success. I think there's at least one ace in that class, but it's about how quickly they can adapt (to the college game) and then sustain it over the course of their careers."
The offensive lineup, meanwhile, is where the coaches hope the culture will continue to break through. BC has never been a "power hitting" type of baseball team, eschewing the long ball in favor of a hard-nosed approach to the game. It counters a perceived inability to generate power with a new form of thinking, one based around extra base hits and aggressiveness. Combined with lineup cohesion and chemistry, there's a backbone to score runs in bunches in a redefinition of "power baseball."
"We want to get excited for situational at-bats when there's a guy on third with less than two outs and we hit a fly ball," Gambino said. "That's playing the game of baseball. I understand that there are some guys who can leave the park every swing, and we have guys that can leave. Guys like Gian Martellini, Jack Cunningham and Dante Baldelli can leave to both gaps. Some younger guys will hit some homers throughout their careers. I love home runs, but at the same time, I love our guys taking extra bases."
It's the continued implementation of a strategy that's simply different from the rest of the ACC. The conference is steeped with some of the best individual baseball players in the nation, and every team recruits some of the best singular high school players every season. BC instead does it differently, combining raw, individual talent with development and chemistry. The roster defies individual measurables, which at times defies modern baseball thinking while at the same time proving itself through those same numbers.
"It's not a knock against our talent, but you can't out-talent the ACC," Gambino said. "So we have to find the right talent for us that can play fundamental baseball and can play harder, smarter and have more fun than everyone else (on a baseball field). We found a spot where these kids aren't fazed by (anything). It creates a toughness, and the ones that we bring into this program are the right ones.
"There's a development aspect to that," he continued. "We know the majority of (rookie players) aren't ready immediately for the ACC on day one. I love multiple sport guys, but that means they've played less baseball. They have less of a database. So when you watch what kids can do and what you believe they can do, it takes development. These guys will wind up having strong careers and turn into really good players. That's how we're built as a player development program."
It's created, for the first time in Gambino's eight-year tenure as head coach, a balance between upperclassmen and younger players. The older players will still remember the 2016 run to the Super Regionals, and the younger players were exposed to BC because of that run. With the new Harrington Athletics Village stadium, it means the program will have new opportunity, starting this year, that it never had before, even if it means the balance will likely be dislodged by success.
"Achieving balance has been important to us," Gambino said. "You're always a couple of drafts from that being out of whack, but we don't have the same attrition that's commonplace in college baseball. We have good attrition from the draft, but we don't recruit 20 players for 10 slots. So you're always trying to look at guys who might get drafted, and it all adds new dynamics to recruiting. But at the same time, I think that balance is important because of our culture."
It's all data proven within some advanced statistics. Boston College posted better SABRmetic numbers than both PIttsburgh and Notre Dame last season. The Eagles' offense was just as good as the Panthers and Fighting Irish on baseball put into play , which subtracts home runs but adds sacrifice hits to accurately measure how an offense plays against a total defense.
Defensive BABIP, meanwhile, is used inversely. It measures team defense against opposing hitters to accurately show how a team plays behind its pitcher. The Eagles once again measure up against Notre Dame and Pitt, the two last teams in the ACC Tournament. In particular, BC was more than 15 points better defensively than the Panthers, who won their pool and advanced to the semifinals of last year's tournament.
There's a translation in there: if BC can control the controllable, it can succeed and make some noise in the ACC. That defies modern baseball standards for a roster looking to redefine what it means to win at college baseball, while at the same time proving that 2019 could see the resurgence of New England's preeminent power baseball program.
"If you break it down in the ACC, 11 wins gets you into the conference tournament," Gambino said. "13 wins gets you into a regional, and 14 wins gives you a chance to host. That's how close it can be in this conference. One year, there can be a swing either way, but if you get into the conference tournament, you have a chance to win it. Virginia had to win two out of three games in the last weekend (in 2015) to even make the conference tournament, and they went on to win the national championship. That's what makes it so hard to make this league's championship, but it's what makes this conference so awesome."
BC opens up this weekend with a four-game series at Jackson State in Mississippi. It plays on Friday at 6 p.m. before a quick turnaround for a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. The series wraps up on Sunday with a 12 p.m. start.
Boston College, however, largely defied that explanation. The Eagles retained traditional baseball values and constructed a core that launched the program into the national consciousness. The team came within a game of advancing to the College World Series in 2016, and it remains the pillar for what BC tries to accomplish every year.
"As a staff, we decided to find 'baseball players,'" head coach Mike Gambino said. "These are the kids that some scouts or other teams could knock for not being big enough, not having enough power or having the right speed. You could go through the list of every kid we've had, and everyone somewhere thought they weren't good enough. But we believe in them, and you look at their success both here and in professional baseball. It's about their makeup as baseball players."
That foundational belief provides the construction and foundation for a hopeful resurgence in 2019. Last year's team finished with a disappointing 17-win season and missed the ACC Tournament for the first time in three years. It provided a necessary reboot for the Eagles, who enter this season appreciating the slim margin of error that exists within arguably the best conference in the nation.
"Every once in a while, you have a couple of things go wrong and you have a year like last year," Gambino said. "You have a couple of injuries, a couple of guys have a bad year. I didn't do a great job (managing) our culture. You go from a 30-win team to a 17-win team just like that (in the ACC)."
It rekindled the fire within the Birdball heart, and the Eagles now enter the season with a burning desire to change any negative perception. The team returned 19 letterwinners from last year, including the potential for a pitching staff that could be loaded with arms.
The Eagles return New York Yankees draftee Dan Metzdorf to the weekend rotation, and midweek starters Matt Gill and Jack Nelson are expected to take the next step in their career journey. Gill in particular could be a welcome surprise for the conference after going 1-1 last season in 14 appearances, including six starts, while Nelson sports a 7-2 career record over three seasons.
They will be augmented by a chunk of young arms that will gain valuable experience over the course of the early season. Mason Pelio was a nationally-ranked recruit last summer, and Travis Lane joins his brother Thomas within the Eagle bullpen. In addition, redshirt sophomore Joey Walsh pitched last summer in the Cape Cod Baseball League after returning from Tommy John surgery last season, and Will Hesslink posted solid numbers in his rookie season.
"There's been a lot of talk, even with the older guys, about how good this freshman class is," Gambino said. "They've done a really good job becoming part of the culture. The upperclassmen talk about how they're good teammates and going about things the right way. That's the foundation of how we've done things with some success. I think there's at least one ace in that class, but it's about how quickly they can adapt (to the college game) and then sustain it over the course of their careers."
The offensive lineup, meanwhile, is where the coaches hope the culture will continue to break through. BC has never been a "power hitting" type of baseball team, eschewing the long ball in favor of a hard-nosed approach to the game. It counters a perceived inability to generate power with a new form of thinking, one based around extra base hits and aggressiveness. Combined with lineup cohesion and chemistry, there's a backbone to score runs in bunches in a redefinition of "power baseball."
"We want to get excited for situational at-bats when there's a guy on third with less than two outs and we hit a fly ball," Gambino said. "That's playing the game of baseball. I understand that there are some guys who can leave the park every swing, and we have guys that can leave. Guys like Gian Martellini, Jack Cunningham and Dante Baldelli can leave to both gaps. Some younger guys will hit some homers throughout their careers. I love home runs, but at the same time, I love our guys taking extra bases."
It's the continued implementation of a strategy that's simply different from the rest of the ACC. The conference is steeped with some of the best individual baseball players in the nation, and every team recruits some of the best singular high school players every season. BC instead does it differently, combining raw, individual talent with development and chemistry. The roster defies individual measurables, which at times defies modern baseball thinking while at the same time proving itself through those same numbers.
"It's not a knock against our talent, but you can't out-talent the ACC," Gambino said. "So we have to find the right talent for us that can play fundamental baseball and can play harder, smarter and have more fun than everyone else (on a baseball field). We found a spot where these kids aren't fazed by (anything). It creates a toughness, and the ones that we bring into this program are the right ones.
"There's a development aspect to that," he continued. "We know the majority of (rookie players) aren't ready immediately for the ACC on day one. I love multiple sport guys, but that means they've played less baseball. They have less of a database. So when you watch what kids can do and what you believe they can do, it takes development. These guys will wind up having strong careers and turn into really good players. That's how we're built as a player development program."
It's created, for the first time in Gambino's eight-year tenure as head coach, a balance between upperclassmen and younger players. The older players will still remember the 2016 run to the Super Regionals, and the younger players were exposed to BC because of that run. With the new Harrington Athletics Village stadium, it means the program will have new opportunity, starting this year, that it never had before, even if it means the balance will likely be dislodged by success.
"Achieving balance has been important to us," Gambino said. "You're always a couple of drafts from that being out of whack, but we don't have the same attrition that's commonplace in college baseball. We have good attrition from the draft, but we don't recruit 20 players for 10 slots. So you're always trying to look at guys who might get drafted, and it all adds new dynamics to recruiting. But at the same time, I think that balance is important because of our culture."
It's all data proven within some advanced statistics. Boston College posted better SABRmetic numbers than both PIttsburgh and Notre Dame last season. The Eagles' offense was just as good as the Panthers and Fighting Irish on baseball put into play , which subtracts home runs but adds sacrifice hits to accurately measure how an offense plays against a total defense.
Defensive BABIP, meanwhile, is used inversely. It measures team defense against opposing hitters to accurately show how a team plays behind its pitcher. The Eagles once again measure up against Notre Dame and Pitt, the two last teams in the ACC Tournament. In particular, BC was more than 15 points better defensively than the Panthers, who won their pool and advanced to the semifinals of last year's tournament.
There's a translation in there: if BC can control the controllable, it can succeed and make some noise in the ACC. That defies modern baseball standards for a roster looking to redefine what it means to win at college baseball, while at the same time proving that 2019 could see the resurgence of New England's preeminent power baseball program.
"If you break it down in the ACC, 11 wins gets you into the conference tournament," Gambino said. "13 wins gets you into a regional, and 14 wins gives you a chance to host. That's how close it can be in this conference. One year, there can be a swing either way, but if you get into the conference tournament, you have a chance to win it. Virginia had to win two out of three games in the last weekend (in 2015) to even make the conference tournament, and they went on to win the national championship. That's what makes it so hard to make this league's championship, but it's what makes this conference so awesome."
BC opens up this weekend with a four-game series at Jackson State in Mississippi. It plays on Friday at 6 p.m. before a quick turnaround for a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. The series wraps up on Sunday with a 12 p.m. start.
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