Though it made the postseason last year and finished with an
admirable 35-29 record, the UCLA baseball team is being shown none
of the respect usually afforded a playoff team.
Then again, this team is quite different than the playoff team
from last year.
With only two returning starters and a coach not named Gary
Adams at the helm, the Bruins that trot on to the field this Friday
are not your father’s Bruins, nor are they your older
brother’s Bruins.
When the team’s season commences this weekend as the
Bruins face Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Friday through Sunday at
Jackie Robinson Stadium, it will undoubtedly mark a new era in
Bruin baseball.
“There are really six to seven brand new faces that will
be playing a majority of the innings,” said new UCLA coach
John Savage. “It’s a transition, a challenge for the
team, but that doesn’t mean that there’ll be a
dropoff.
“We feel good about our offense. There are a lot of
questions yet to be answered because we haven’t played a
game.”
Catcher Chris Denove, one of the returning starters from last
year’s team, believes this year’s squad will fare much
better than many of the preseason polls indicate. UCLA was picked
to finish eighth out of nine teams in the Pac-10.
“I don’t think (the ranking is) fair at all,”
said Denove. “After seeing how some of the teams finish, the
preseason polls don’t matter.
“That’s them not giving the benefit of the doubt. We
have a lot of stuff that they don’t know about in our
freshmen group.”
For Denove, starting first basemen Brett McMillan, and the other
returning players from last year’s squad, a lot of this
season will be spent adapting to a marked shift in coaching
philosophy. While Adams believed in letting his players play,
Savage is much more hands-on, as the current coach has already said
he will be calling each pitch from the dugout.
“It’s just two different philosophies,” said
Denove. “I’m used to calling my own game and I like to
do that. I put my trust in (Savage) and that’s all I ask for
him.”
Entering the season, the pitching staff remains the one unit
that has the most questions surrounding it. Both No. 1 starter
Hector Ambriz and No. 2 starter Bryan Beck were hurt last
season.
“It looks like Ambriz, Beck and (Brant) Rustich will be in
our rotation to begin with, with (Daniel) Miltenberger or (Brian)
Schroeder starting on Tuesdays,” said Savage. “If Beck
and Ambriz can stay healthy, we can have real good pitching. But if
we get banged up, it could be scary.”