Observations and Punditry
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Woody's Ramblings
Monday, February 5, 2007
By Woody Peele |
Godwin expects deeper, older
club to excel
By Woody Peele
©2007 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
Billy Godwin has been fired at East
Carolina!
Whoa, don’t get all excited.
Godwin did the firing himself — as
pitching coach.
The Pirates’ head baseball coach, now in
his second year, was thrust into the head coaching position after the
“resignation” of Randy Mazey. Godwin had been hired as Mazey’s pitching
coach and, after taking over, continued those duties.
But after last year’s collapse of the
bullpen, Godwin knew what he had to do — get rid of the pitching coach
and hire another. So he went looking and came up with Bill Jarman, a
17-year veteran of that position.
“He’s been tremendous,” Godwin said of his
new assistant. “I just stay out of his way. I fired myself and brought
in a good one. His philosophy matches mine and, so far, he’s been a huge
asset.”
Last year’s starting pitchers started
slow, and then took off. But at the same time, the bullpen got off to a
good start, then stumbled down the stretch.
“We’ve done some things to shore up the
bullpen,” Godwin said. “As good as our catching was (with Johnny Bench
Award winner Jake Smith), we felt uncomfortable with the way the pen
preformed. So we took Shane Mathews (5-3, 4.73 ERA) and put him in the
closer role. It really makes me feel better his being out there in the
ninth inning.”
Godwin said Jason Neitz (3-1, 2.06) did a
good job last year as the closer, but had to be brought in earlier than
planned on a number of occasions and it overexposed him.
“We needed set-up guys to get to Shane,”
the coach said. “We’re going to have games where we need to bridge the
gap between the fifth and ninth innings.”
Expected to see a lot of that duty are
Mike Flye (1-0, 6.00), Chris Powell (0-1, 5.16), Neitz and Josh Ruhlman,
a junior college transfer.
“They are all juniors and seniors, so I
feel good about that corps of guys,” Godwin said.
Returning and expected to be the weekend
rotation for the Pirates are T.J. Hose (3-4, 3.88), Jeff Ostrander (2-1,
3.67 in 2005) and Dustin Sasser (5-7, 4.55). Ostrander is returning
after missing most of 2005 and all of 2006 due to Tommy John surgery.
“He hasn’t pitched in nearly two years,
but he’s a guy I have a history with,” Godwin said, pointing out that
Ostrander played under him at Louisburg. “He brings to the table what
Brody Taylor (last year’s top pitcher) did. We weren’t expecting a great
fall from him, but he had one.”
This year the Pirates will also try to
guard against arm problems, what hexed them in 2006.
“So must emphasis is placed on pitch
counts today,” the coach said. “But a trained eye is important, too. You
have to get the guy when he starts laboring. Every guy is different, but
when you see him missing up, for example, he’s tired and that’s when
guys get hurt.
"The pitch count is important, but what we
see is more important.”
In losing Jake Smith behind the plate,
Godwin went into the fall with that position as the most worrisome. But
so far, that concern appears to have been unfounded.
Transfer David Forbes, a Greenville Rose
product, moved in from Campbell, and Corey Kemp came in from junior
college. Between the two of them, Godwin feels he has two fine veterans.
Backing them up are a pair of freshmen, Bobby Fowler and Austin Homan.
“Forbes and Kemp have looked extremely
well,” Godwin said, “but we don’t want to compare them to Jake. It’s
rare to get a guy who can hit 13 homers, drive in 65 runs and hit .344,
but what they can give us is most important. They seem to command our
pitching staff and control the running game.”
In past years, East Carolina has
alternated catchers, depending on who is on the mound, and that’s a
possibility this season.
“Some guys get comfortable with one
(catcher),” Godwin said. “We ask our pitchers who they are comfortable
with. We’re not at a point where one prefers one or the other, and we’ll
let that come as the season develops. We have the flexibility that we
don’t have to run one guy down.”
At the infield and outfield positions, the
Pirates will place a number of returning starters or players who have a
lot of experience.
“Last year when we were playing N.C.
State, I looked at our lineup, and we had an all sophomore and freshman
team. I thought I was back at Louisburg,” Godwin said with a laugh.
“This is going to play to our strength,"
he added. "We have guys who are battle tested. We’re also moving guys
around, which shows our versatility. We have some depth.”
The starting lineup isn’t set yet, but
Godwin said he and his staff have some ideas.
“We can play some platooning,” he said.
“The cornerstones are always the guys up the middle. With (Dale)
Mollenhauer (.292, 7 HR) and Drew Schieber (.245) we’re solid. Schieber
has had an unbelievable spring.
“We’ve moved Harrison (Eldridge) (.336, 2
HR) to center from right,” he added. “We’ve just got a lot of candidates
who could be in the lineup.”
Among those who played last season are
Stephen Batts (.336, 1 HR), Brandon Henderson (.326, 4 HR), Jake Dean
(.311, 2 HR), Ryan Wood (.289, 3 HR), Ryan Tousley (.285, 6 HR) and
Jamie Ray (.300).
Newcomers Trent Ashcraft and Mark
Letchworth are also expected to see action.
“We have the potential (for power
hitting),” Godwin said. “Everyone loves the long ball and it’s great.
I’d say that from three to seven we have the potential to hit 10 home
runs each.”
But Godwin prefers solid basic hitting
that produces and advances base runners.
“We have older guys out there and that
makes for quality contact,” the coach pointed out. Sometimes power teams
get shut down.
“But from top to bottom, we have speed and
that excites me since we can run the bases. We’re not counting on the
home run, but a hit could score runs. Speed, executing and quality
contact are what we want.”
The Conference USA coaches have picked
East Carolina to finish fifth — right in the middle of the nine-team
league. And that’s fine with Godwin.
“I like to be the underdog,” he said.
“Last year, I really didn’t have a feel for what the team could do. But
after seeing the league, optimistically speaking, I think we have a
chance to surprise some people.
"This is a good league that will challenge
our players, but I haven’t seen anything that leads me to think this
team won’t excel.”
The season opens for East Carolina when it
opens a three-game weekend series with Liberty on Friday at 3:00 p.m. at
Clark-LeClair Stadium.
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02/23/2007 02:44:54 PM
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