Stanford Baseball needs to get their pitching back on track
Stanford baseball had a very disappointing first season in the ACC, going 27-25 overall and 11-19 in league play. They came into the season with a lot of hype thanks to the arrival of freshman Japanese wunderkind Rintaro Sasaki and yet they never were able to get things to click in the way that they wanted to.
While the bats could have been better, it was really the pitching that let the Cardinal down. As a team, they had a 6.42 ERA on the season which is terrible. The only guy with an ERA under 5.00 was righty Nick Dugan, who wasn’t even a regular weekend starter. The three pitchers who were supposed to anchor the starting lineup on the weekend Matt Scott (6.02 ERA), Joey Volchko (6.01 ERA), and Christian Lim (6.75 ERA) all struggled to find their groove. Two of which (Scott & Volchko) have since entered the transfer portal (Scott landing at Georgia). Lim’s season was cut short due to needing season-ending surgery, but even before that he was struggling.
As for the bullpen, to quote the taxicab driver that scared Kevin McCallister in Home Alone 2: “It ain’t much better in here, kid.” The “star” reliver Aidan Keenan had an ERA of 5.59, unable to deliver the kind of consistency that is needed of your top relief pitcher.
To be a national championship level baseball program, typically you need to have two stellar starting pitchers that have ERAs at 3.50 or better. And then a third starting pitcher that isn’t far behind with an era of 4.00 or better. Out of the bullpen, you need to have at least one guy that you can rely on to get you out of a jam and be relied upon in crunch time. Somebody with an ERA that is 2.00 or better.
Stanford didn’t have one pitcher this year that even sniffed that level of play. Not a starter. Not a reliever. When you lack that kind of pitching, you are doomed to fail.
Looking back on Stanford’s most recent College World Series bound team in 2023, the one guy they had that checked off that box was Quinn Mathews, who had an ERA of 3.75. Mathews was a reliable Friday night starter for them and when you combine that with the explosive bats that they had, Stanford was able to mask their pitching deficiencies until the College World Series when they went up against teams that had both the bats and the pitching. As phenomenal as Mathews was, he alone couldn’t will the Cardinal to a title in Omaha. It was amazing they got to the College World Series at all.
The year before that in 2022, Alex Williams for the most part was fantastic as a starter with a 3.20 ERA while Quinn Mathews (3.08 ERA), Brandt Pancer (3.18 ERA), and Ryan Bruno (2.72 ERA) were excellent in their relief roles. But then Drew Dowd (4.54 ERA), Ty Uber (4.99 ERA), and Joey Dixon (3.96 ERA) were just so-so as starters. Going back to Mathews, ideally, he would have been the number two starter, but due to the bullpen being so shaky, Stanford had to have him come out of the bullpen and carry them for long stretches during the NCAA regionals and super regionals. He was sort of a Swiss-army knife that was being used as a long reliever. Once again, with the bats they had, Stanford was able to reach the College World Series, but once they got to Omaha, they hit a wall.
One of the biggest differences between the ACC and the Pac-12 that was very apparent was the quality of the pitching. The ACC week in and week out has strong pitchers across the entire conference. At the top, you’re facing teams that have two strong starters and a third starter that is only a little bit behind them in terms of quality. And the bullpen has at least one if not multiple guys that can be counted on to step up when their number is called.
The Pac-12 wasn’t like that. You could more easily skate by with so-so pitching if your bats were good. I mean, heck, Stanford had that 20-17 victory at Santa Clara in 2023. One of the craziest games I’ve ever seen, but in hindsight a bad sign of what was to come on the mound in the coming seasons. In the ACC, Stanford’s pitching deficiencies were exposed and it should force them to look in the mirror and evaluate what kind of program they really are.
As far as what Stanford can do to fix their pitching issues, there first needs to be serious questions about pitching coach Thomas Eager and the job he is doing. He’s worked with some amazing pitchers in the past, but the drop off in pitching quality must make one ask whether he needs to make some changes to his approach. Being a bit more blunt, I think one could justify a change at pitching coach. But since Stanford hasn’t announced any change at pitching coach, it’s on Eager to prove that he can adapt and make the necessary changes to justify keeping him around.
Secondly, Stanford needs to re-evaluate their pitching lab situation and see if there’s anything more they can be doing to maximize things on that front. For those that don’t know, a pitching lab is a specialized facility designed to analyze and improve a pitcher’s mechanics and performance using advanced technology and biomechanics. These labs are equipped with high-speed cameras, motion capture systems, and force plates to provide a comprehensive evaluation of a pitcher’s delivery and follow-through.
For example, the UNO Pitching Lab at the University of Nebraska Omaha offers detailed clinical and biomechanical analysis to help athletes understand how their movement affects their health and performance. Similarly, the Wake Forest Pitching Lab integrates sports medicine experts with the latest biomechanical evaluation equipment to conduct thorough 3-D motion analyses and develop customized training programs aimed at reducing injury risk and enhancing performance. If you ask any top program that has one, they will tell you that these labs are essential for helping pitchers refine their techniques, prevent injuries, and ultimately improve their game.
While Stanford baseball does have access to such a laboratory through Stanford Medicine (Stanford Baseball Science Core), they need to take a hard look at what the top pitching labs in the country are doing and see what improvements can be made to their pitching lab set up. Pitching labs are like iPhones. They must constantly be updated and improved. At one point, having an iPhone 5 was the latest and hottest phone. Nowadays, an iPhone 5 is outdated and no longer able to run the latest iOS. Perhaps Stanford’s pitching lab situation was fine at one point but now needs improvements.
Third, a combination of a new coaching philosophy and improving their pitching lab situation could result in bringing better pitching recruits to The Farm. Looking ahead, if you have better resources at the disposal of your players, that will attract better talent. It always does.
Ultimately, it’s on head coach David Esquer to evaluate all these things and figure out what is needed to get the program back on track. Perhaps none of my suggestions are at the heart of the problem. Still, what is a fact is the pitching has taken a real dive the last few years and if they want any hope of getting back to the College World Series, especially as a member of the ACC, they’re going to have to flip the switch on the mound. It’s as simple as that.
“We’re getting a good barometer of what it takes to win in this league and we’re gonna make our adjustments and we’re going to figure this out,” Esquer said towards the end of the season. “We’re going to be able to win in this league here in the short term. But right now, it’s a little rough getting through it.
“I think the floor is a little bit higher right now [in the ACC]. There’s no weekends off. Not that there was in the Pac-12. You had to play your best every weekend the same. But, I just think it’s a really talented league and week in and week out you’re playing a playoff opponent. I think it works at every team if they win their games and finish in the right part of their conference are tournament teams. We haven’t faced a slouch yet.
“And so that’s going to make us better and sharper as a program. We’re kind of calibrating our eye of what we need to do to win in this league. We’re not quite there yet. But we’ll get there. We’re going to get there.”
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