TCU baseball drawing buzz, but only ranking that matters is ‘at the end of the year’
The college baseball season is less than one month away and TCU is generating some preseason buzz.
The Horned Frogs checked in at No. 17 in the D1Baseball.com preseason poll released Tuesday, but first-year coach Kirk Saarloos isn’t paying attention to it.
“We don’t spend one second talking about rankings,” he said. “Ultimately those things really don’t matter. It’s mostly for the fans to get some excitement going around programs and it shows what the national media thinks of your program. In general, it’s mostly based on what you did the year before and who’s coming back. It’s neat for people around the program, but here inside the walls, we don’t spend any time with that.
“The one ranking we care about is at the end of the year.”
Saarloos is optimistic that TCU has the pieces in place to make a run by the end of the season. This is a team that won the Big 12 regular-season and tournament championships last year, and has a number of returners for 2022.
From the position player side, TCU’s left side of the infield is back with shortstop Tommy Sacco and third baseman Brayden Taylor. Gray Rodgers is the likely starting second baseman. Elijah Nunez and Luke Boyers return to the outfield.
From the pitching side, junior left-hander Austin Krob is the favorite to be the Friday starter with sophomore right-hander Riley Cornelio expected to lock down another starting spot. The rotation could feature sophomore right-hander Cam Brown, too. Among the versatile bullpen arms returning include Marcelo Perez, Luke Savage, River Ridings and Drew Hill.
But playing time isn’t a given and those players will have to earn it when practices get underway Jan. 29.
The season opener is Friday, Feb. 18 against San Diego State in Scottsdale, Arizona. That season-opening weekend in the desert also features games against Cal (Feb. 19) and Houston (Feb. 20) with the home opener set for Feb. 22 against Stephen F. Austin at Lupton Stadium.
“There’s a lot of things to be excited about. There’s a lot of things we need to get better at,” said Saarloos, who was promoted from pitching coach to head coach once Jim Schlossnagle departed for Texas A&M last offseason.
“But I do think our fans are going to see us play one of the best schedules in the country. It’s super competitive and it doesn’t really let up. We’ve got a road series at Florida State (April 29-May 1), a neutral site series against a top 25 team in Nebraska (Feb. 25-27 at Globe Life Field in Arlington) and the Big 12 is as deep and as strong as we’ve had in my 10 years here.
“It’s going to be a grind the whole season. It’s also an opportunity for our guys to get tested week in, week out.”
Position battles
A few notable position battles to watch going into the season:
Catcher: Zach Humphreys has moved on to the Angels organization, leaving a big void for the Frogs. The Frogs’ top competition for the everyday job appears to be sophomore Kurtis Byrne and graduate transfer Michael Petrie (Washington).
Third outfielder: Nunez and Boyers are penciled in as starting outfielders and Porter Brown is the favorite to join them. But Brown is being pushed by freshman Logan Maxwell.
First base: With Gene Wood, Austin Henry and Conner Shepherd moving on, this competition is open. Among those in the mix include sophomore Reed Spenrath and freshmen Brody Green and David Bishop.
Starting rotation: Krob and Cornelio are expected to win jobs, and Saarloos said he has high hopes for Brown this season. But others in the mix for starting spots include graduate student and right-hander Brett Walker, who transferred from Oregon; JUCO transfer and left-hander Connor Oliver; and freshman right-hander Caedmon Parker.
As Saarloos said, “Those six guys probably get the first crack at starting.”
This story was originally published January 19, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
