Starting the 2009 Baseball Season: Players Lost

by formerlyanonymous on Feb 12, 2009 11:55 PM CST Comment 4 comments


Zach Putnam, Image from MGOBLUE.COM	Adam Abraham, Image from LEISA THOMPSON, THE ANN ARBOR NEWS

With one week left until first pitch, I'm going to start doing a little bit of a build up for the baseball team this week. Today I'm starting with the players that left the team last year. As we get closer, I'll examine who's returning this year and what we might expect as we move closer. I also have previews put together for the BigEast/Big10 Challenge, or at least the BigEast Challengers. I skipped Purdue for the time being, mainly because I just haven't had time. Their sports information department was also very slow at getting information out on their website as well. They just finalized their schedule this month. So, to players lost (all stats pulled from Mgoblue.com):


Nate Recknagel, Image from LEISA THOMPSON, THE ANN ARBOR NEWS	Adam Abraham, Image from BEN SIMON, MICHIGAN DAILY

Offense

Player	POS	AVG	GP-GS	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	SLG	BB	HBP	Ks	GDP	OB%	SF	SH	SB-ATT	PO	Asst	Err	F%
Nate Recknagel	1B	.368	58-58	209	56	77	9	1	23	68	157	.751	33	8	30	3	.465	4	0	5-6	443	45	10	.980
Adam Abraham	3B	.352	60-60	233	44	82	14	3	7	54	123	.528	20	6	26	3	.415	1	1	2-5	36	112	15	.908
Jason Christian	SS	.330	50-48	194	56	64	13	6	7	48	110	.567	39	3	36	2	.445	2	2	16-18	83	113	13	.938
Zach Putnam	DH	.307	55-55	199	47	61	13	2	11	51	111	.558	28	5	29	3	.400	3	0	3-3	5	15	0	1.00
Derek VanBuskirk	OF	.294	60-60	221	53	65	10	1	10	44	107	.484	29	2	36	2	.381	0	4	11-12	107	2	1	.991
Jason Malefakis	PH	1.00	1-0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1.00	0	0	0	0	1.00	0	0	0-0	0	0	0	0
Leaving Totals		.330	60	1056	256	349	59	13	58	265	608	.576	149	24	157	13	.413	10	7	37-44	674	287	39	.961
Team		.315	60	2041	464	643	101	15	75	433	999	.489	252	55	339	26	.401	22	43	78-100	1507	592	73	.966

So that's a lot of loss. We lose nearly 52% of all of our at-bats, 3/4 of our infield, 61% of our runs scored, and about 47% of our stolen bases. That's awesome. [/sarcasm]. What the few many of us Michigan baseball fans must keep in mind this year is that last year's team might have been the best team we have had in over a decade, and while we do recruit well for a northern mid-major, we are no Rice, Tennessee, or South Carolina. Michigan doesn't just reload with extreme quality talent. Last year's team had a large group of upperclassmen who had several years on the field. The group of five starters are probably the best leaving/graduating class Michigan has had since the CWS runs in the 80s. It's never good to lose this many players. Luckily we are in a weak conference for baseball, so while these losses hurt, they aren't going to kill us.

Derek VanBuskirk, Image from MGoBlue

Pitching

Player	ERA	W-L	APP	GS	CG	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	Ks	2B	3B	HR	AB	B/Avg	WP	HBP	BK	SFA	SHA
Zach Putnam	2.58	9-0	12	12	1	0	76.2	62	29	22	23	78	10	1	4	278	.223	2	7	0	0	3
Michael Powers	2.60	6-4	28	1	0	8	62.1	62	18	18	20	62	9	1	1	225	.276	4	3	2	3	7
Sam Yashinsky	0.00	0-0	1	0	0	0	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	4	.250	0	0	0	0	0
Adam Abramham	4.76	0-0	5	0	0	1	5.2	8	3	3	3	5	1	0	0	25	.320	0	1	0	0	0
Leaving Totals:	2.65	15-4	46	13	1	9	145.2	133	50	43	46	146	20	2	5	532	.250	6	11	2	3	7
Team Totals:	4.19	46-14	60	60	6	16	502.1	469	274	234	237	444	74	9	33	1875	.250	42	57	7	20	44

The good news on the pitching front is we aren't losing as many great stars. Last year's pitching was held together by the two aces on the mound, one of which being Zach Putnam. Along with DH'ing for the team, Putnam was also arguably our second best starter in the league (behind returning Wolverine Chris Fetter). Putnam ranked in the top 10 of all 13 pitching categories tracked by the Big10 last year. Our year ending closer was Michael Powers. Powers finished the year one of the top closers in the nation and was nearly unhittable in post season play. What's very worriesome for the upcoming year is the team ERA. The leaving players only allowed 2.65 earned runs per 9 innings while the rest of the team gave up 4.81.