Auburn baseball: February practice observations of the pitching staff

We're finally at game week and have a little more certainty as to the shakeout of the pitching staff

Auburn baseball's been busy over the last three weeks, playing as many squad games as possible in an attempt to figure out who should be starting (and closing) in this new look rotation and bullpen. After watching some Orange vs Blue action, here's some observations and predictions of what we might expect when the season opens this Friday against Indiana

Previous: February observations for the infield, January observations

Rotation

Losing 3/4ths of your starting rotation to MLB in Hayden Mullins (Red Sox), Trace Bright (Orioles), and Mason Barnett (Royals) is never easy, but thankfully Auburn keeps some continuity with #1 pitcher Joseph Gonzalez. After being slowed this winter by a scapula injury, a recurrence of the same injury he had last winter, he finally faced live hitters in Sunday's squad game. He threw two innings, flashing his usual low-90s sinker and inducing weak groundballs. Didn't appear to be too rusty, and is reportedly good to go for a start this weekend. Look for "Gonzo" to be the Saturday starter in week one, both for timing/routine reasons (he threw on Sunday thanks to Saturday's rainout, and a Friday start would technically be short rest for him) as well as the flexibility to move him to either Sunday or Friday for the trip to Los Angeles next weekend with only one day difference in his routine. 

Auburn Athletics

Friday night's starter should be sophomore Chase Allsup. The big righty out of Dothan features big velocity, sitting 94-96 with his fastball, while also mixing in both a mostly-horizontal breaking slider in the low 80s and a curveball in the high 70s with more two-plane break. After working strictly as a reliever in 2022, the coaching staff has plenty of faith in his stuff translating to a starting role, provided the mindset of a starter that needs to go deep into a game comes along with it.

Eric Starling/Auburn Daily

Said new pitching Daren Schoenrock, when asked about Allsup, "It's major league stuff and it's a matter of landing the stuff consistently. Chase is a guy that is going to be a high pitch count guy, because there's so many foul balls. I told Chase 'look, I've never had the physical ability to throw a ball 97 miles per hour. It would be hard for me, if I could throw 97, not to try and throw it 99" and sometimes that creeps into Chase. That high volume of velocity does lead to some longer at-bats where he's still ahead in the count and he's just got to learn to end some at-bats earlier. If he does, he'll be able to unfold some lineups quickly. We're gonna really commit to that early in the season before we consider putting him back into the back end of the pen." 

The third starting spot for the weekend is the one drawing lots of questions and speculation. This weekend, as coach Butch Thompson told Andy Burcham on the weekly "This Week in Auburn Baseball", the 3rd starter will be Drew Nelson. The true freshman lefty out of Troy has had plenty of opportunities to compete with fellow freshman lefty Zach Crotchfelt, and has embraced the mentality of starting behind a defense that Thompson wants to "dominate the routine play". His fastball sits in the higher 80s, typically 86-88, along with a slider and curveball that induce lots of weak groundball contact. In a squad game on February 5th, the coaching staff instituted a rule for both Nelson and Crotchfelt that two balls equaled a walk - in an attempt to get them to pitch to contact and "learn how to get hit" in the SEC - and Nelson responded with four scoreless innings. 

Trey Lee / Auburn Daily

Said Schoenrock, "Drew's got unbelievable gamesmanship, a lot of moxie, and knows how his stuff plays." 

Crotchfelt is still in the starting mix, possibly in midweek but more likely rotating between a starting and "piggyback" role on the weekend. Schoenrock expounded on how the college game has evolved in that regard. "You pair starters together - you put a piggyback guy with the starter and try and create a different look. If that starter can get through the lineup twice, that's unbelievable. And then you hand it to a piggyback guy that may be a different arsenal, maybe a lefty behind a righty or a righty behind a lefty, and then you try and get it to the four guys emerging in the pen right now to be your seventh inning and on guys."

Eric Starling/Auburn Daily

More options for piggyback outings (and Tuesday starts) are true freshman Hayden Murphy, as well as veterans Tommy Sheehan, Christian Herberholz, Tanner Bauman, and others.

Bullpen 

Auburn's bullpen will consists of mostly two groups: piggybacks/long relievers that can work extended stretches in the middle innings, and your back-end "Four Horsemen". 

Auburn's facing a similar situation with their bullpen as they are with the rotation: Replacing big contributors in Blake Burkhalter and Carson Swilling from last season. Auburn's narrowed the high-leverage group down to four: 6th year lefty Tommy Vail, senior righty Chase Isbell, sophomore righty Will Cannon, and sophomore righty John Armstrong. 

Each pitcher brings different weapons and skills to the table, but the main appeal of that group is possessing what Schoenrock refers to as "two-strike weapons". 

"The elite pitching staffs as this level, and the best ones I've ever coaches, have the ability to create swing and miss. [...] Will Cannon is a back-end bullpen guy that does possess some two strike weapons. Tommy Vail is a guy that does possess two strike weapons. John Armstrong - you know, he has an unbelievable mind for pitching and relieving. He dissects his stuff and understands his stuff as well as anybody on the staff." 

Grayson Belanger/Auburn Athletics

The specific order those four are used may vary from game to game, depending on matchups with the opposing lineup and recent workload. I'd expect Will Cannon to be the first man up in a save situation (should one arise) this weekend against Indiana. Armstrong's reportedly been working on a 4-seam fastball to compliment his high 80s 2-seam fastball and insane "frisbee" slider - if that 4-seam fastball starts ticking up into the low 90s, he may end the season as the closer and the undisputed leader of the bullpen. 

Auburn opens the 2023 season on Friday, February 17th with a three-game series against Big Ten foe Indiana, with Friday's first pitch moved up to 4PM. The game will be available for streaming on ESPN+, and the radio call with Voice of the Auburn Tigers Andy Burcham and Brad Law can be heard on AuburnTigers.com or locally on 93.9 FM. 

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