
Photo by: John Quackenbos
Birdball Best Is Yet To Come On Offense
February 14, 2021 | Baseball, #ForBoston Files
A top-10 offense at Boston College? Say it ain't so!
Boston College has always run a little bit counterculture in baseball.
The Eagles focused on the little nuances of the game and built offensive output in bunches by wearing down opposing pitching. The mentality eschewed personal statistics, but created a difficult lineup of efficient players capable of pounding runs across the plate. It further created an irreplicable style synonymous with toughness, and the fearlessness that went along with it launched BC into the ACC baseball conscience.
It was college baseball's Moneyball born out of necessity, but it laid a foundation for the team's future transformation. Last year, the same BC team once noted for its small ball approach to the game exploded into the national conversation as one of the best offenses in the country.Â
"I thought it was a really good, balanced offense last year," head coach Mike Gambino said, "and I think it's better this year because we're pretty much getting most of the lineup back. These guys have another year of development, and they're going to take some strides. There's power, speed and depth, and you've got young guys coming in that are going to be really good prospects. We have really good players that could be really high draft picks, and that's exciting. It's exciting to see what this offers."
Talking about BC's offense as a top national lineup isn't hyperbole considering the numbers. It hit .316 last year and finished its abbreviated, 15-game slate as the tenth-best offense in the country. Its .393 on-base percentage ranked as one of the 50 best lineups in the country, and the team was 15th in doubles per game.
The Eagles blistered opposing pitching for more than seven runs per game, and the number remained well above five even without the 39 runs produced in two outlier games against Fairfield. They scored at least five runs in over half of their games, including the last three and six of the last seven. They scored at least three runs in every game except for one and used no fewer than six hits to get there and mashed 53 extra base hits, including 12 home runs, a full third of the cumulative tally in 2019 and two less than the entire 2018 season total.
The gaudy numbers turn brighter under the conference microscope. That batting average was third behind only Louisville and NC State, and it finished the shortened season as one of five teams with a .300 or better average. The hits and runs were sixth and eighth, respectively, but only Notre Dame played less games than the Eagles.Â
BC finished fourth in doubles and sixth in triples and posted the fifth-best slugging percentage, while grounding into the least amount of double plays in the league. Yet the Eagles didn't sacrifice their penchant for sacrifice hits, finishing fourth and fifth in the league in sacrifice flies and hits.Â
Even situational analytics crowed over BC's 2020 sample. The team's batting average on balls in play rose to .385 and eliminated the red flags associated with fluke performances by pitchers. Its Runs Created, which estimates the number of runs a team's performance is actually responsible for, leveled off at 98 runs, or 89 percent of the total offensive output, meaning the offense was ultimately responsible for more than six runs, or 90 percent, of its output per game.
"I think this is just the continued growth and development in the program," Gambino said. "It's just continued to get the roster better. The players are getting better, and that makes the depth better. There's just that constant development in progress."
It provides BC with a run-producing offense unlike anything in recent memory. Cody Morrissette and Jack Cunningham both finished last season over .400 in hitting and combined for both nine doubles and four home runs with 24 runs batted in. With Brian Dempsey, they are three individual .300 hitters from last year's team, which lost only Joe Suozzi to a professional contract.
Morissette finished as the second-best hitter in the league and was two percentage points behind Georgia Tech's Michael Guldberg for the batting title. He finished fourth in total hits, four behind North Carolina's Angel Zarate, and tied for seventh with six doubles. In terms of average, Cunningham was sixth at .424, with Suozzi sitting in seventh.
Sal Frelick finished the year with a .241 average, but he crushed the ball with an 11-game hitting streak before going hitless at Clemson. He went 2-for-2 with four runs scored in the third game against Northern Illinois and finished the series with five hits before posting another five at No. 8 Arizona State. The second game against the Sun Devils produced his first long ball, a feat he replicated with one of his two hits against Fairfield.
He also tied for seventh in the conference in stolen bases while Dempsey led the league in sacrifice bunts and tied for second in sacrifice flies.
"We have a lot of really, really good players that have had a lot of at-bats like Jack Cunningham, Brian Dempsey and Dante Baldelli," Gambino said, "and we've got high-end superstars in Sal Frelick and Cody Morissette. But there are so many options with guys like Ramon Jimenez and Cameron Leary and Joe Vetrano, and guys like Lucas Stralman give you options to make a bunch of different moves. Even a guy like Peter Burns, who is primarily known as a defensive guy, continuously gives you really good, quality at-bats."'
Boston College opens the 2021 season with a three-game series at Charleston Southern that starts at 3 p.m. on February 19. The series runs through the weekend and concludes on Sunday with a Noon start after Saturday's 1:30 p.m. first pitch. The Eagles open up their ACC schedule one week later with a three-game series at Duke.
The Eagles focused on the little nuances of the game and built offensive output in bunches by wearing down opposing pitching. The mentality eschewed personal statistics, but created a difficult lineup of efficient players capable of pounding runs across the plate. It further created an irreplicable style synonymous with toughness, and the fearlessness that went along with it launched BC into the ACC baseball conscience.
It was college baseball's Moneyball born out of necessity, but it laid a foundation for the team's future transformation. Last year, the same BC team once noted for its small ball approach to the game exploded into the national conversation as one of the best offenses in the country.Â
"I thought it was a really good, balanced offense last year," head coach Mike Gambino said, "and I think it's better this year because we're pretty much getting most of the lineup back. These guys have another year of development, and they're going to take some strides. There's power, speed and depth, and you've got young guys coming in that are going to be really good prospects. We have really good players that could be really high draft picks, and that's exciting. It's exciting to see what this offers."
Talking about BC's offense as a top national lineup isn't hyperbole considering the numbers. It hit .316 last year and finished its abbreviated, 15-game slate as the tenth-best offense in the country. Its .393 on-base percentage ranked as one of the 50 best lineups in the country, and the team was 15th in doubles per game.
The Eagles blistered opposing pitching for more than seven runs per game, and the number remained well above five even without the 39 runs produced in two outlier games against Fairfield. They scored at least five runs in over half of their games, including the last three and six of the last seven. They scored at least three runs in every game except for one and used no fewer than six hits to get there and mashed 53 extra base hits, including 12 home runs, a full third of the cumulative tally in 2019 and two less than the entire 2018 season total.
The gaudy numbers turn brighter under the conference microscope. That batting average was third behind only Louisville and NC State, and it finished the shortened season as one of five teams with a .300 or better average. The hits and runs were sixth and eighth, respectively, but only Notre Dame played less games than the Eagles.Â
BC finished fourth in doubles and sixth in triples and posted the fifth-best slugging percentage, while grounding into the least amount of double plays in the league. Yet the Eagles didn't sacrifice their penchant for sacrifice hits, finishing fourth and fifth in the league in sacrifice flies and hits.Â
Even situational analytics crowed over BC's 2020 sample. The team's batting average on balls in play rose to .385 and eliminated the red flags associated with fluke performances by pitchers. Its Runs Created, which estimates the number of runs a team's performance is actually responsible for, leveled off at 98 runs, or 89 percent of the total offensive output, meaning the offense was ultimately responsible for more than six runs, or 90 percent, of its output per game.
"I think this is just the continued growth and development in the program," Gambino said. "It's just continued to get the roster better. The players are getting better, and that makes the depth better. There's just that constant development in progress."
It provides BC with a run-producing offense unlike anything in recent memory. Cody Morrissette and Jack Cunningham both finished last season over .400 in hitting and combined for both nine doubles and four home runs with 24 runs batted in. With Brian Dempsey, they are three individual .300 hitters from last year's team, which lost only Joe Suozzi to a professional contract.
Morissette finished as the second-best hitter in the league and was two percentage points behind Georgia Tech's Michael Guldberg for the batting title. He finished fourth in total hits, four behind North Carolina's Angel Zarate, and tied for seventh with six doubles. In terms of average, Cunningham was sixth at .424, with Suozzi sitting in seventh.
Sal Frelick finished the year with a .241 average, but he crushed the ball with an 11-game hitting streak before going hitless at Clemson. He went 2-for-2 with four runs scored in the third game against Northern Illinois and finished the series with five hits before posting another five at No. 8 Arizona State. The second game against the Sun Devils produced his first long ball, a feat he replicated with one of his two hits against Fairfield.
He also tied for seventh in the conference in stolen bases while Dempsey led the league in sacrifice bunts and tied for second in sacrifice flies.
"We have a lot of really, really good players that have had a lot of at-bats like Jack Cunningham, Brian Dempsey and Dante Baldelli," Gambino said, "and we've got high-end superstars in Sal Frelick and Cody Morissette. But there are so many options with guys like Ramon Jimenez and Cameron Leary and Joe Vetrano, and guys like Lucas Stralman give you options to make a bunch of different moves. Even a guy like Peter Burns, who is primarily known as a defensive guy, continuously gives you really good, quality at-bats."'
Boston College opens the 2021 season with a three-game series at Charleston Southern that starts at 3 p.m. on February 19. The series runs through the weekend and concludes on Sunday with a Noon start after Saturday's 1:30 p.m. first pitch. The Eagles open up their ACC schedule one week later with a three-game series at Duke.
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