Thursday, April 22, 2010

Meet the Minnesota Gophers

Record: 14-23 (4-5 in Big Ten)

Projected Starters:
Friday-Seth Rosin. According to Rosin's bio, he is a "power pitcher who throws strikes and mixes in a curve ball." After being named Third-Team All-Big Ten last year going 7-1 with a 4.21 ERA while striking out 65 batters in 77 innings of work, Rosin (pictured on right) was invited to the prestigious Cape Code league where he flourished finishing with an 1.87 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 33.1 innings for the Hyannis Mets. So far this year, Rosin is 3-3 with a 4.15 ERA. While those numbers are not overly impressive, he has struck out 49 batters compared to only 2 (yes, only 2) walks on the year. He propensity to throw strikes, however, has gotten him into a little trouble with the longball as he has given up 6 on the season. IU's sluggers will need to capitalize on this.

Saturday-TJ Oakes. As a 6'5", 215 freshman, Oakes (3.94 ERA) has stepped in as the regular Saturday guy and has performed very well. He has a solid K/BB ratio with 31 to 13 and is holding hitters to a .277 batter average.

Sunday-Phil Isaksson. Although Isaksson is the Sunday guy, this may be the one IU hitters should fear the most. I say this for two reasons: 1) He is lefthanded and 2) He has a good curveball. With our #1, #3, #4, and #6 hitters all batting from the left side, look for Isaksson to utilize the curve early and often to keep the IU sluggers off balance. For the season, he has a 3.95 ERA with 35 Ks in 43.1 innings pitched.

Best Hitter: Michael Kvasnicka
The switch hitting Kvasnicka (.352 BA) leads the Gophers in nearly all major offensive categories including batting average, hits, doubles, homeruns, RBIs, and slugging percentage. To make matter worse, he sports a 28-10 walk to strikeout ratio.

Key Matchup:
Scott Matyas (Minn) vs. Chris Squires (Ind)
With arguably the two best closers in the Big Ten facing off this weekend, the Hoosiers must get the lead early so we see Squires rather than Matyas on the mound in the ninth. Matyas is a very good strikeout pitcher striking out 25 in 18.1 innings pitched for the season. He is not unhittable, however, allowing more than 1 hit per inning and 3 homeruns in only 18.1 innings.

Interesting Stat:
Alex Dickerson is tied at 16 homers with Minnesota's entire roster.

5 comments:

  1. Who is going to tell Skip that "the artist formally known as Prince" - is now known as Prince again - yeah it's confusing...

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  2. Hoosiers need the sweep and should get it looking at the Gophers record, but Minny has solid pitching that I hope does not hurt our very good offense.

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  3. Any sweep is very tough...but def want to see the Hoosiers take the series. Hopefully our pitching will be up to the task...

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  4. How about both? Our hitting and pitching struggled REAL bad.

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