Armed With Knowledge, Talent
February 11, 2021 | Baseball, #ForBoston Files
This might be the deepest staff in BC history.
The cancellation of the 2020 season couldn't have had worse timing for the Boston College pitching staff. Its weekend at NC State was an opportunity to aspire for more, but the tires of the season's wagon blew apart when COVID-19 ended everyone's flight plans for Omaha. Baseball slipped into an unusual hibernation, and a college championship unbroken since 1947 slipped away from the public eye.
It set the game adrift through an empty summer, and diamonds across America shuttered for the first time in decades. Players who lived for the repetitions of fungoes and fly balls sat home and waited, but it wasn't until the autumn wind ushered them back to their campuses that the game finally roared back to life.
It was especially painful for the BC pitching staff hitting its stride at the time of cancellation. The early season challenges against title contenders drifted beyond the rearview horizon, and the final game against Holy Cross was the first necessary local win. It succeeded a pair of one-run games at Clemson which followed a perception tilt when the Eagles pounded Fairfield across a two-game series.
The way the season ended offered few positives, but the prolonged absence only heightened the anticipation for the wild cards in Chestnut Hill. The same staff that gelled at the end of last season returned in its entirety for the 2021 season, and the brimming talent is an unprecedented luxury for the Eagles.
"(Pitching coach) Alex Trezza has done a great job with this staff, especially this fall," head coach Mike Gambino said. "Some guys needed to show that they could command their fastball more consistently, and some guys needed to add another pitch. Every guy does something different, and it's really come together."
The rotation itself is the product of a three-pronged, years-long approach to amassing talent. There are experienced college pitchers in Joey Walsh and co-captain Michael Marzonie and young, budding prospects in Max Gieg, Joe Vetrano, Joey Ryan and John West. The headliners, though, are Mason Pelio and Emmet Sheehan, power pitchers capable of securing a weekend rotation with very different approaches to the game.
Pelio is arguably the most well-known after entering last season as the undisputed Friday night starter. He made four starts in the abbreviated campaign, but still unveiled his potential with three strong outings. He opened the season with a quality start against Northern Illinois and rallied from a rough outing against Arizona State to produce consecutive quality starts against North Carolina A&T and Clemson. Earning a no-decision against the Tigers, he finished the season with a 1-2 record and a 4.09 ERA impacted mostly by the game against the Sun Devils.
He struck out six in that game, but surrendered multiple home runs for the first time in his career. It was only the fifth time over two seasons that a hitter went yard against him, but he still struck out a season-high six batters in four innings of work. Following the game, he mowed down both the Aggies and Tigers with quality-plus starts, though he drew a loss against North Carolina A&T in a 2-1 decision.
"Mason is as driven as anybody I've ever been around," Gambino said. "He's fanatical about his workouts, his diet, his stretching and his arm care. I think the biggest thing, though, is his development and how he's learning. He wants to dominate everybody, all the time, which is awesome. He's competitive, and the guys love him."
Few pitchers match Pelio's range, and the analytics crew learned to love his batter-by-batter approach despite the limited work. His WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) hovered at or near an even 1.00 in his final two starts, and his game score remained above 50 and topped out at 68 against North Carolina A&T.
Game score is used to measure an overall game performance and is based around an average score of 50. Numbers are added for innings and strikeouts with subtractions for hits and runs both earned and unearned. Even in the Arizona State game, when he allowed seven runs and four earned, Pelio's positives still pushed well above 70 - a total glimpse of the potential within his arm.
That pure pitchability is why almost everyone is predicting great things for him. Baseball America, D1Baseball.com and Perfect Game USA all named Pelio as their respective preseason ACC Pitcher of the Year, and MLB.com listed him as the No. 31 overall prospect for the upcoming draft.
"He legitimately has one of the best fastballs and one of the top changeups in our conference," Gambino said. "He has two breaking balls that are developing, but the biggest thing is his maturity and how he's executing one pitch at a time. It sounds like 'coach-speak,' but it's really what he's doing. When he gets himself into trouble, he would try to do too much, and one of the biggest things in his development is learning how to look at a pitch and manage the game because his stuff is electric."
Sheehan is the perfect complement, a second brawler on the bump capable of mowing down hitters with power pitching and blazing velocity. A burly pitcher at six feet, five inches and 215 pounds, he broke out against Fairfield when he threw seven innings of one-run baseball. He allowed only five hits and struck out eight, all career highs.
It was the kind of outing both Gambino and Trezza envisioned when they moved Sheehan into the rotation for his sophomore season. He had been a reliever for most of 2019 and debuted as a strikeout pitcher with raw velocity. He could easily touch the high-90s with his fastball, but struggled overall with his command as a freshman. He averaged approximately a 1:1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio with 21 K's across 14 innings, and the Fairfield game was a stamp after he walked six and five against NIU and Arizona State.
"Early on, it was about his command, but his body was still growing," Gambino said. "He was literally still growing, and he had to grow into learning how to control his pitches. When he was a freshman or sophomore, he would work on repeating his delivery, but he was growing so fast. He's worked really hard at handling all that stuff, and right now, he's already at both 94 to 96 miles per hour (on his fastball)."
That power component will ultimately differentiate BC's pitchers from their peers. Both Pelio and Sheehan are pushing 100 miles per hour on the radar gun, and Gieg was one of the biggest recruiting wins in the 2019 class. He missed his first year at BC with an injury, but the two-time Super 8 Championship winner struck out 35 batters in 23 innings his senior year.
Gieg is one of two Massachusetts natives in the youthful cornerstone, and both he and John West are big bodies with lively arms.
"We have high end arms," Gambino said. "We have Mason and Emmet, and we have future high end arms like Max Gieg and Joe Vetrano, Joey Ryan and John West. But we have guys down the road that have had success and pitched a lot like Joey Walsh and Michael Marzonie, guys that can help in that aspect. It's a really good surface and the most depth on the staff we've ever had here. It's just part of that continued growth and build."
It set the game adrift through an empty summer, and diamonds across America shuttered for the first time in decades. Players who lived for the repetitions of fungoes and fly balls sat home and waited, but it wasn't until the autumn wind ushered them back to their campuses that the game finally roared back to life.
It was especially painful for the BC pitching staff hitting its stride at the time of cancellation. The early season challenges against title contenders drifted beyond the rearview horizon, and the final game against Holy Cross was the first necessary local win. It succeeded a pair of one-run games at Clemson which followed a perception tilt when the Eagles pounded Fairfield across a two-game series.
The way the season ended offered few positives, but the prolonged absence only heightened the anticipation for the wild cards in Chestnut Hill. The same staff that gelled at the end of last season returned in its entirety for the 2021 season, and the brimming talent is an unprecedented luxury for the Eagles.
"(Pitching coach) Alex Trezza has done a great job with this staff, especially this fall," head coach Mike Gambino said. "Some guys needed to show that they could command their fastball more consistently, and some guys needed to add another pitch. Every guy does something different, and it's really come together."
The rotation itself is the product of a three-pronged, years-long approach to amassing talent. There are experienced college pitchers in Joey Walsh and co-captain Michael Marzonie and young, budding prospects in Max Gieg, Joe Vetrano, Joey Ryan and John West. The headliners, though, are Mason Pelio and Emmet Sheehan, power pitchers capable of securing a weekend rotation with very different approaches to the game.
Pelio is arguably the most well-known after entering last season as the undisputed Friday night starter. He made four starts in the abbreviated campaign, but still unveiled his potential with three strong outings. He opened the season with a quality start against Northern Illinois and rallied from a rough outing against Arizona State to produce consecutive quality starts against North Carolina A&T and Clemson. Earning a no-decision against the Tigers, he finished the season with a 1-2 record and a 4.09 ERA impacted mostly by the game against the Sun Devils.
He struck out six in that game, but surrendered multiple home runs for the first time in his career. It was only the fifth time over two seasons that a hitter went yard against him, but he still struck out a season-high six batters in four innings of work. Following the game, he mowed down both the Aggies and Tigers with quality-plus starts, though he drew a loss against North Carolina A&T in a 2-1 decision.
"Mason is as driven as anybody I've ever been around," Gambino said. "He's fanatical about his workouts, his diet, his stretching and his arm care. I think the biggest thing, though, is his development and how he's learning. He wants to dominate everybody, all the time, which is awesome. He's competitive, and the guys love him."
Few pitchers match Pelio's range, and the analytics crew learned to love his batter-by-batter approach despite the limited work. His WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) hovered at or near an even 1.00 in his final two starts, and his game score remained above 50 and topped out at 68 against North Carolina A&T.
Game score is used to measure an overall game performance and is based around an average score of 50. Numbers are added for innings and strikeouts with subtractions for hits and runs both earned and unearned. Even in the Arizona State game, when he allowed seven runs and four earned, Pelio's positives still pushed well above 70 - a total glimpse of the potential within his arm.
That pure pitchability is why almost everyone is predicting great things for him. Baseball America, D1Baseball.com and Perfect Game USA all named Pelio as their respective preseason ACC Pitcher of the Year, and MLB.com listed him as the No. 31 overall prospect for the upcoming draft.
"He legitimately has one of the best fastballs and one of the top changeups in our conference," Gambino said. "He has two breaking balls that are developing, but the biggest thing is his maturity and how he's executing one pitch at a time. It sounds like 'coach-speak,' but it's really what he's doing. When he gets himself into trouble, he would try to do too much, and one of the biggest things in his development is learning how to look at a pitch and manage the game because his stuff is electric."
Sheehan is the perfect complement, a second brawler on the bump capable of mowing down hitters with power pitching and blazing velocity. A burly pitcher at six feet, five inches and 215 pounds, he broke out against Fairfield when he threw seven innings of one-run baseball. He allowed only five hits and struck out eight, all career highs.
It was the kind of outing both Gambino and Trezza envisioned when they moved Sheehan into the rotation for his sophomore season. He had been a reliever for most of 2019 and debuted as a strikeout pitcher with raw velocity. He could easily touch the high-90s with his fastball, but struggled overall with his command as a freshman. He averaged approximately a 1:1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio with 21 K's across 14 innings, and the Fairfield game was a stamp after he walked six and five against NIU and Arizona State.
"Early on, it was about his command, but his body was still growing," Gambino said. "He was literally still growing, and he had to grow into learning how to control his pitches. When he was a freshman or sophomore, he would work on repeating his delivery, but he was growing so fast. He's worked really hard at handling all that stuff, and right now, he's already at both 94 to 96 miles per hour (on his fastball)."
That power component will ultimately differentiate BC's pitchers from their peers. Both Pelio and Sheehan are pushing 100 miles per hour on the radar gun, and Gieg was one of the biggest recruiting wins in the 2019 class. He missed his first year at BC with an injury, but the two-time Super 8 Championship winner struck out 35 batters in 23 innings his senior year.
Gieg is one of two Massachusetts natives in the youthful cornerstone, and both he and John West are big bodies with lively arms.
"We have high end arms," Gambino said. "We have Mason and Emmet, and we have future high end arms like Max Gieg and Joe Vetrano, Joey Ryan and John West. But we have guys down the road that have had success and pitched a lot like Joey Walsh and Michael Marzonie, guys that can help in that aspect. It's a really good surface and the most depth on the staff we've ever had here. It's just part of that continued growth and build."
Players Mentioned
RHP
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