ANAHEIM “”mdash; UCLA baseball coach John Savage’s cooking didn’t necessarily woo the judges at the second annual Coaches Cook-off Friday in Anaheim, but it could have been a lot worse.
Just ask USC’s Chad Kreuter, the defending top chef whose last-place pasta dish earned him a prize package that included a bottle of heartburn medication, a cookbook, a children’s baking oven and a fire extinguisher.
Needless to say, the scene at Easton’s California College Baseball Media Day at ESPN Zone was unique.
The event was not held at a fancy conference room inside a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport ““ which has become a staple of recent Pac-10 football and basketball media days.
No suits and ties, either. Instead, baseball caps and cooking aprons.
No sight of briefcases or swarms of television cameras. Instead, each coach got hands-on with a spatula, pans and a table stacked with ingredients.
Pepperdine’s Steve Rodriguez eventually beat out 10 other coaches from Southern California schools to take home the title of top chef.
Following the friendly competition, Savage was ready to talk some baseball.
“The offseason has gone as well as it can go,” Savage said. “We stayed healthy, and the players came back with a hungry attitude.”
No word on whether any of them would actually try their luck at Savage’s cooking.
But UCLA must be starving heading into its season, which starts in less than a month.
Following a disappointing 27-29 2009 campaign, the Bruins failed to reach the postseason last spring for the first time since 2005.
“It was a year of transition, to be honest,” Savage said. “I anticipated it a little bit.”
UCLA still finished in third place but was unable to shake off the effects caused by an early, and eventually lethal, 10-game losing streak.
“Every game in college baseball is a playoff game,” Kreuter said. “I saw John get a third-place finish but not get in because they lost midweek games. You hate to see that a third-place team in the Pac-10 doesn’t get to a regional.”
The departures of leading hitters Cody Decker to graduation and Casey Haerther to the MLB draft is sure to make it tougher to reach a regional this season, but Savage believes that his young team has completely bought into assistant coach Rick Vanderhook’s small-ball offensive philosophy.
Expect UCLA to be more gritty. Without Decker and Haerther’s power ““ the two combined for 30 home runs ““ the Bruins will bunt runners over and steal bases. Savage also likes that his team is much more left-handed at the plate, a facet that was missing last spring.
Having standout sophomore right-handed pitchers Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer won’t hurt, either.
“We love our pitching,” Savage said. “We feel that we have as good a pitching staff as there is in the country.”
Even with the loss of closer Gavin Brooks and weekend starter Charles Brewer, a pair of juniors who signed professionally?
“I’ve been fortunate to be around very good Omaha staffs,” Savage said. “From top to bottom, this is about as deep a pitching staff as I’ve been around. It’s my job to establish roles and make sure that they pitch up to their ability.”
Cole had perhaps the best summer of any other college baseball pitcher in the country while competing for Team USA. Bauer, selected as the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year last season, was also on that team.
The duo has already been selected to preseason All-American teams by various publications.
“Those guys are beasts on the mound,” Kreuter said.
Perhaps Kreuter will need that heartburn medication after all.
After opening the season Feb. 19 against Southern, UCLA is slated to play a nonconference game against USC in the Dodgertown Classic on Feb. 28 at Dodger Stadium.