This has been quite probably the worst season in UCLA baseball
history.
On the bright side, next year may turn out to be one of the most
exciting.
With his first recruiting class at UCLA, coach John Savage
secured what national collegiate recruiting Web site Rivals.com
ranked as the third-best class in the country.
Savage ultimately expects 15 or 16 new faces on the squad next
season.
“It’s kind of like the basketball situation,”
Savage said. “Coach (Ben) Howland played a bunch of freshmen
this year and everyone saw the promise in his second year.
“We look at other programs at UCLA and see how they
develop players. We’re going to try to follow in their
footsteps.”
If that’s the case, then ““ like basketball ““
Bruin fans can expect a second-year renaissance after a renowned
new coach suffers through a pitiful first year.
It also follows that next season, Savage’s rookies should
expect as prominent a role as Howland’s heralded freshmen
received this season.
“A lot of freshmen will play next year,” Savage
said. “It’s a situation of how the roster was created
and how the roster is going to be created. We’re going to be
very young, but very talented.”
That the Bruins (15-41) suffered through a largely forgettable
2005 season wasn’t a complete surprise, considering almost
every regular starter from last year’s playoff squad left for
the professional level.
While the resulting talent gap contributed to some tough times,
it became a selling point that Savage used to procure many of his
recruits.
“The chance to play right away was one of the issues in
deciding to come to UCLA,” said Brian Kirwan, an incoming
right-handed power pitcher ranked by Rivals.com and TeamOne as the
17th best high school right-handed pitcher in the nation.
“I like coach Savage a lot, plus he has such a good
reputation. He sold me on the idea that I could come in right away
and get a chance at starting.”
However, Savage can’t start penning names into his 2006
lineup and rotation just yet.
The downside of luring such high-profile recruits is that many
will be drafted next week in the Major League Baseball draft and
may rethink moving to Westwood when hundreds of thousands of
dollars are flashed in their faces.
While Kirwan indicated that he has every intention of donning
the Bruin blue, UCLA’s top signee, outfielder John Drennen,
says he is almost certain to sign with whatever team drafts him on
June 7th.
“I want to sign and get out there and get on the field and
get to the big leagues as quickly as I can,” said Drennen,
who Baseball America projects will be picked in the first round,
which would probably mean a contract paying over a million
dollars.
In addition to Drennen, the Bruins are also worried about three
other top recruits who are likely to be drafted high and may decide
to sign pro contracts ““ catcher Ryan Babineau, left-handed
pitcher and outfielder Tim Murphy, and left-handed pitcher David
Huff.
The uncertainty surrounding these players is a common problem
that top programs must consistently deal with.
“College baseball always deals with this, and we’ll
be dealing with this year in and year out,” Savage said.
“We have to make sure we do our homework and get guys
committed to going to college.”
Despite Drennan’s likely absence, next year’s
newcomers are still expected to have a signficant impact.
And while Savage hopes his recruits will render this
disappointing season a distant memory, it’s not one he wants
to completely forget.
“We have to make sure that we get better as a program as
we’re going through this,” Savage said. “It would
be a mistake to sit back and say we haven’t gotten anything
out of this because there have been glimpses of guys really coming
along.
“We still have plenty of reason to be excited.”