The Go Joe Bruin UCLA Baseball 2017 Preview
After a phenomenal 2015 season, UCLA Baseball entered last year anticipating a rebuild; what they got instead was more of a demolition. The task for the Bruins in 2017 is to regroup and resume their winning ways.
The precipitous drop from first in the country to tenth in the conference was the result of departing talent (such as pitching stars James Kaprielian and David Berg) as well as key injuries to returning players (eg., Darrell Miller and Nick Valaika). In their absence, Head Coach John Savage was forced to rely on role players, first-time starters, and freshmen.
The result was an inexperienced squad that hit .250/.352/.337 and scored 270 runs while allowing opponents to hit .312/.351/.389 and gave up 312 runs. Thus a season record of 25-31 (12-18) and no playoffs.
Heading into this season, the pitching staff largely consists of returning guys, minus the curveball stylings of Grant Dyer, while the position players have undergone another significant bout of turnover.
Here are the last three years’ lineups (including projected starters for this year) for comparison purposes:
| Position | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1B | Luke Persico | Sean Bouchard | Sean Bouchard |
| 2B | Trent Chatterton | Brett Urabe | Kyle Cuellar (f) |
| SS | Kevin Kramer | Trent Chatterton | Nick Valaika |
| 3B | Chris Keck | Luke Persico | Jack Stronach (f) |
| RF | Brett Stephens | Eric Filia | Jake Pries |
| CF | Christoph Bono | Christoph Bono | Daniel Amaral |
| LF | Ty Moore | Brett Stephens | Brett Stephens |
| C | Darrell Miller | Daniel Rosica | Gavin Johns |
| DH | Kort Peterson | Kort Peterson | Zander Clarke (f) |
| SP1 | James Kaprielian | Griffin Canning | Griffin Canning |
| SP2 | Grant Watson | Grant Dyer | Jake Bird |
| SP3 | Cody Poteet | Kyle Molnar | Justin Hooper |
| SP4 | Griffin Canning | Jake Bird | Jon Olson |
| RP | Davig Berg | Brian Gadsby | Brian Gadsby |
The offense is a complete unknown quantity. The lineup collectively has only 186 starts over the last two years, out of 1,053 opportunities. Other than Bouchard and Stephens, it’s an inexperienced group without a consistent track record from which to draw projections of what this year’s performance might look like.
More from Go Joe Bruin
- UCLA Football: It’s time for the nation to meet Dante Moore
- UCLA Football: Where are they ranked heading into week 4
- UCLA Football: Position battle breakdown for Utah showdown
- UCLA vs. Utah: Location, time, prediction, and more
- UCLA Football: Highlights from Chip Kelly’s appearance on the Jim Rome Show
Until earlier this week, the smart take on this Bruins team was that they would have to rely on strong pitching.
With Griffin Canning on national award watch lists and Kyle Molnar looking to continue his breakout effort from last year, UCLA looked to ride this pair of horses back to the postseason.
However, we found out midweek that Molnar will be sidelined this year after undergoing Tommy John surgery and will return in 2018.
That tests the depth of an already shaky pitching roster, forcing Savage to rely on Bird, Olson, and Hooper – all guys who underwhelmed in limited opportunities last year.
The Bruins had been picked to finish fifth in the conference, behind only Arizona, Washington, Stanford, and Oregon State.
D1Baseball.com projected the Bruins to make the postseason as a regional three-seed, meaning they would be somewhere in the 33-48 range, nationally. All this is up in the air now that Molnar’s departure means question marks on both offense and defense.
Congrats to RHP Griffin Canning on being named to the @USAGoldenSpikes Preseason Watch List!
— UCLA Baseball (@UCLABaseball) February 15, 2017
Story: https://t.co/1fcFkhLX29#GoBruins pic.twitter.com/kn9T3a0rWo
Next: Five UCLA Football Players Invited to NFL Combine
Hopefully they can surprise us and make the postseason. But either way, consider this season as an opportunity to watch next year’s players round in to form and the last chance to see Griffin Canning as he makes his case for a professional career. Go Bruins.