Formula for Success
May 11, 2007 10:50 AM | General
May 11, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Because of the major league draft college baseball hasn’t been a sport that lends itself to redshirting, but West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant has discovered success giving some of his players an extra year. His plan is to continue to redshirt players when necessary.
 |
|||
| West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant believes redshirting may hold the key to a brighter future for the Mountaineer baseball program.
WVU Sports Communications photo/Nathaniel Zinn |
This year Van Zant has a handful of freshmen he’s keeping out of action including 2006 state player of the year Grant Buckner from Herbert Hoover High School, promising Westlake, Ohio, outfielder Mark Dvoroznak and talented catcher Tyler Scruggs. Years ago these three would have just seen mop up duty.
“We’ve got Grant Buckner sitting over here that can hit. (Catcher) Tyler Scruggs can hit,” Van Zant said. “Mark Dvoroznak is going to be our next center fielder it looks like whenever Adam leaves whether it’s this year or next year. We’ve got some players in the dugout that can help us.”
Van Zant says redshirting freshmen isn’t always an automatic decision. Two cracked this year’s lineup.
“We don’t redshirt people if they can help us win right now,” he reasoned. “Vince Belnome came out in the fall and led our team in hitting so he played third. Chris Enourato has helped us on the mound. If we’ve got guys at their position, I just don’t see the point in using them for a little bit and then burning a year of eligibility.”
Several players on this year’s team have benefited from the extra year. Center fielder Adam White earned freshman All-America honors last season after sitting out 2005. First baseman Jordon Yost redshirted last year and that has helped him to a team-leading 11-home run season so far; Yost is ranked third in the Big East in that category.
Right-handed pitcher Josh Whitlock sat out last year and has since earned a spot in the conference rotation where he will get the starting nod in one of this weekend’s key games against UConn. Whitlock is 6-4 with a 3.77 earned run average in 57 1/3 innings of work.
Justin Parks is the team’s starting catcher and is hitting a solid .285. Billy Gross was the winning pitcher Wednesday night against Ohio to improve to 4-1 on the season. Both had redshirt years.
“We have mainly northern kids and sometimes it takes them a little bit of time to learn the game,” said Van Zant, now 375-320-1 in 13 seasons at WVU. “We’re not getting the best player out of the state of Florida here. We’ve got excellent athletes but they have more football-basketball backgrounds.
“Look at Adam White for example, he came in here as a freshman and had ability but we had Lee Fritz out there in center field. Why put Adam in the game for just a little bit? Why not let Fritz -- who was a heck of a player – play and then Adam steps in and becomes a freshman All-American.”
Justin Jenkins didn’t redshirt at WVU, but he sat out a year in junior college with an injured shoulder and a fifth year has helped him develop into one of college baseball’s top hitters. The senior is putting up All-America-type numbers, taking his .405 batting average, 10 home runs and 34 extra base hits into this weekend’s Connecticut series.
Other schools have used this formula with success. One that immediately comes to mind is Ohio State, which has taken the developmental route instead of focusing mainly on draft-quality players and running the risk of losing most of them before they even get on campus. The Buckeyes under veteran coach Bob Todd have been to 11 NCAA regionals since 1991.
“Our first option is not to redshirt players but if a kid is not ready to help us win just putting them into a game to get experience … he can get his experience in the summer and the fall,” Van Zant said. “He can get his experience playing the game mentally over here in the dugout.”
In the past Van Zant used players that were only marginally prepared to play college baseball because of the draft, meaning he potentially had them for three years of service instead of two with a redshirt. So far he has yet to lose a draft-eligible sophomore to the draft (outfielder Stan Posluszny returned to school after being picked by the Angels in the 21st round in 2004), although that may change this June with Adam White.
“We’ve had some guys that would have 10-15 at-bats during the season and you’re scratching your head when they’re fourth-year seniors wishing you had them for another year,” Van Zant said. “We weren’t able to redshirt (senior) Trent Ridgley and now he’s just coming into his own as a hitter. I wish we had him back next year but we we’re not able to redshirt him.”
Van Zant points out that the most experienced teams in the conference this year are the ones at the top of the league standings.
“To win our league a lot of times you’ve got to have a lot of experience. I think Louisville had seven or eight seniors in their lineup,” he explained. “They were a veteran, experienced team. St. John’s came in here with five seniors and three juniors in their lineup and those boys had played together for a while.”
Despite its youth, West Virginia has locked up another winning season this year and is still in contention for a Big East playoff spot. But Van Zant expects his team’s conference record to improve in the coming years.
“We’ve got some young kids not playing that I think are going to be really, really good players. We’re down to like 12-13 usable players right now and we’ve got six or seven position players that we’re redshirting. I’m not going to put them in there for the last six games of the year,” Van Zant said. “Regardless of what happens in the next six games we come back next year and we have a lot of returning players and a lot of players that have redshirted.
“I think we’ve recruited really well. We just had an eighth pitcher sign (Wednesday) so we’ve got a junior college lefty from Tennessee and seven right-handers. With everybody coming back I think we’re going to see this team improve in the conference,” he said.
