2004 Baseball Season Preview: Team Scouting Report
2/13/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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University of Alabama head coach Jim Wells is looking for bigger and better things from the 2004 edition of the Crimson Tide baseball team this spring.
For one thing, the Crimson Tide has more numbers than they did a year ago. And, secondly, there are more quality players than the team has had in the past couple of years.
The Crimson Tide finished 38-24 last season and advanced to the eighth NCAA Regional under coach Wells, but not without a late-season turnaround that saw Alabama win its second straight SEC Tournament championship and sixth under Wells, to secure the league’s automatic berth into the 64-team NCAA post-season field.
Alabama must replace three everyday starters and the school’s most prolific closer, but the numbers are there for Wells and his staff to work with this season.
Gone of last year’s team are right fielder Beau Hearod (.346, 20 HR, 82 RBI), who led the SEC in home runs and RBI and was named the National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s District III Player of the Year; center fielder Travis Garner (.365, 2 HR, 29 RBI, 19-24 SB), who led the team in hitting; shortstop Adam Pavkovich (.338, 11 HR, 55 RBI), who led the SEC with 27 doubles; and pitcher Brian Reed (30 G, 2-2, 4.07 ERA, 12 saves), the school’s all-time saves leader with 21 career saves.
The 2004 baseball team returns nine position players, including three everyday starters, and seven pitchers off last year’s team.
“We just have more to work with,” Wells, who begins his 10th season at Alabama, said. “I think it’s a chance to be a really good team, I really do. The thing is in our league everybody has a really good team. We will hit better. I think we will be a little better in all phases of the game.
“A couple of years ago we had a really good club, but fell a little short. I think there are more quality players on this team than there were two years (2002) ago and that team won a bunch of games (51-15 record).”
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The numbers begin in the Alabama infield where three everyday starters return with first baseman Zac Welch, second baseman Allen Rice and third baseman Carlos Sosa (a 2002 starter who missed the entire 2003 season with a torn ACL in his right knee).
Welch and Rice are the Crimson Tide’s leading returning hitters, in terms of average, home runs and RBI. The duo combined to hit .298 with 11 home runs and 89 RBI last season as sophomores. Sosa, who was one of the Tide’s best hitters before his injury last spring, continued to show the ability to be a middle of the lineup hitter for the Crimson Tide this season, too.
Junior college transfer Mark Haske is expected to fill the void left by the departed Adam Pavkovich, who was taken in the 11th round of the Major League Draft by the Anaheim Angles last June and advanced to the Triple A level for the Angels this past summer.
The infield will also get some needed help from some very solid and capable backups.
Greg Paiml, Aaron Tennyson and Rocky Scelfo, who joined the Alabama team in January after spending the 2003 season at Chipola Junior College, should give the Crimson Tide some flexibility in the infield.
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Bush can play second and third base, while Downs and McIlwain are backups to Sosa at third base.
Matt Bentley and Spencer Pennington will also compete for time at first base. Nathan Meiners was penciled in as the backup at first base, but did not not return to school in January.
“We are looking to have good defense and trying to put together good defense without giving up much offense,” Wells said.
“A real nice surprise was Aaron Tennyson, who is a second baseman. He is a guy with good speed and brings a lot to the table. There are four guys working in the middle infield that will battle for those positions. But I thought coming out of the fall that Haske really improved his status and showed to be a lot better player at the end than in the beginning.”
The Crimson Tide also returns its everyday catcher, Charlie Lyons, who gained valuable experience in his 44 games behind the plate as a true freshman last year.
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Tuscaloosa natives Bo Hannah and Nick Richardson are also working behind the plate. Richardson is a senior transfer from Troy State.
“Lyons is a solid catcher with experience,” Wells added. “We needed some help after the fall and Ferazza was a solid additon to the club in Janaury. We feel like we have two very capable catchers this year.”
If there is one place the numbers will really show up this year for the Crimson Tide it has to be the outfield. Last year, Alabama had only a handful of options in the outfield, but this year there are as many as eight quality players who will battle for time.
The starters are expected to be Matt Grooms, Michael McCallister and either Brandon Belcher, a 2003 Louisville Slugger/Collegiate Baseball High School American selection or another rookie, Emeel Salem.
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“We have some options in the outfield because Salem and Belcher are two guys that can run and are centerfield-type players that are both in position to play centerfield. The one that plays will be the one that shows to hit more than the other.”
The outfield will also have the services of Chad White, Gabe Scott, Morrow Thomley and Ryan Beagle.
White returns to the Crimson Tide lineup after a one-year absence from the team. He was was one of the Crimson Tide’s most productive players in the 2002 post-season and was a projected starter last year before missing the season due to disciplinary reasons.
“We have gone from having not much of an outfield with no depth to a pretty solid outfield with quality depth,” Wells added. “At all levels of baseball teams win with pitching and defense. “
While the Crimson Tide seems to have shored up those defensive problems of the past with more quality numbers, the pitching depth is also improved.
Alabama returns four starters from last season and blends in a number of talented newcomers to make this a deeper pitching staff than ever before.
The work on the mound beings with 2004 National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s Association Second-Team preseason All-American Brent Carter, who was clearly the ace of the staff last year, setting sophomore records for wins (10), innings pitched (122.2) and strikeouts (105).
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Also returning are three other left-handers Taylor Tankersley, Jeffrey Norris and Beagle, along with right-handers Allen Ponder, Seth Johnson and Eric Mennen.
“Tankersley has improved after a tough sophomore year. He is the type of kid that can bounce back and have a really good year and not let that bother him. He has shown improvement this fall.
“Norris has also improved and is a good guy to have on the staff as a weekend starter or spot starter or a guy to get a left-hand hitter out.”
A trio of newcomers will also get serious consideration on the mound this season, including Wade LeBlanc, a 2003 Louisville Slugger/Collegiate Basbeall All-American and Co-High School Pitcher of the Year, Belcher and junior right-hander T.J. Large. Other candidates on the mound include Downs, Thomley, Andrew Walker, Doug Denson and Jason Elwell.
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“We have two legitimate starters and two legitimate guys out of the bullpen,” Wells said. “I don’t think we have said that in a long, long time.”
Downs, who is one of three two-way players for the Crimson Tide, is the projected closer, taking over for the departed Brian Reed, who was the school’s all-time saves leader.
There is plenty of depth on the Alabama roster this season, which includes a wealth of experience and many talented newcomers
That combination could give Coach Wells a bigger and better reason to celebrate his 10th anniversary with the Crimson Tide.
