Double dip at the Blatt

It’s been some good baseball today, honestly it couldn’t really get any better.

With Stanford attempting to stave off elimination today, things looked pretty bleak entering the ninth. Georgia’s offense was high-powered, led by shortstop Gordon Beckham, who was drafted in the first round by the White Sox. Stanford left-hander Jeremy Bleich did display the stuff that I thought got him drafted by the first (compensation) round—44th overall—of the draft by the New York Yankees.

Chasing six runs, Stanford closed the gap to two after Ben Clowe’s pinch-hit three run jack to make it 10-8. Making this all the more improbable was much of the scoring came off of Georgia’s All-American closer Joshua Fields, who was throwing some serious 95-96 mph gas.

However, with it being a non-save situation, Fields wasn’t feeling it—leaving a lot of pitches up in the zone. This happens a lot, even with big-league closers. The non-save situation doesn’t jump start the adrenaline. The concentration isn’t there. Sometimes it isn’t there until it’s too late.

After Clowe’s clout, Stanford looked like they might just squeak this one out. But Fields bared down and closed it out.

Fields is one of a growing trend in college pitching. Traditionally, the concept of a closer has been a major-league one, with the theory being young pitchers shouldn’t be groomed to go short innings, because it’s harder to stretch a guy out instead of shorten him up. In college, just being a closer limits work necessary for building arm strength and refining pitches.

However, in today’s baseball, with so much specialization prevalent, that theory has been tested. Like Huston Street, Joey Devine, Craig Hansen before him, the college closer like Joshua Fields has become more common. These days these kids can come up to the majors quicker and be slotted in right away to the bullpen, saving the players mileage on their arms and the team money. There’s no need to develop more than two pitches because that’s all they’ll need in a major-league bullpen. Of course, the argument against it is teams will do the player a disservice by not developing the pitcher to be able to go back to starting if needed, thereby limiting his versatility.

But honestly, what player is going to say no if offered a quick path to the majors?

In Game 2, North Carolina and Fresno State battled it out eclipsing the Game 1’s excitement if that was even possible. Fresno State was on the verge of finishing its Cinderella season as the lowest seeded team ever to reach the series. The Tarheels, however, had lost in the finals the last two years to Oregon State.

Down 3-2 in the eighth, Chad Flack’s two-run homer sealed the Bulldogs’ fate as the Tarheels lived to play another day—on Sunday.

A couple of kids caught my eye today, though. UNC sophomore right-hander Alex White, who was Atlantic Coast Conference’s Pitcher of the Year went 10-3 with a 2.75 ERA. Significantly, he struck out 101 men in just 88.1 innings pitched.

Tonight I understood why. Coming on in relief for the second night in a row, White blows easy 96-98 mph cheese and earned the win, his third of the College World Series. . He shut down Fresno State, mixing a dominant fastball with a above-average slider, White mowed down the Bulldogs.

Only a sophomore, White should be a high pick, if not the first in next year’s draft.

Also catching my attention was first baseman Dustin Ackley. A sweet-swinging left-handed hitter, Ackley was 2007’s National Freshman of the Year. After hitting .417 in 2008, he reminds me of Will Clark or Mark Grace. If his power develops, he’ll be more like Clark, if not, he’ll be more like Grace. Either way, the kid can make contact.

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