Hamilton – Page 37 – Nothing But NESCAC

Mid-Season Awards

With a few weekends left before the season draws to a close we thought now was a good time to put forth our awards for the year thus far. We took into account the entire season, but weighted conference performance above all.

West Division

MVP – Mike Odenwaelder ’16 Outfielder/Pitcher (Amherst) – Odenwaelder wins by a thread over many other deserving candidates. Odenwaelder is thumping the ball all over the place with a .447 average and top-notch .697 slugging percentage. He leads Amherst with 21 RBIs and is tied with Connor Gunn ’16 with three homers. All that being said, what puts him over the top is his mound dominance. The sophomore is so talented that he has pitched 20.2 innings for a team loaded with pitching. His 1.74 ERA is the sixth best mark in the NESCAC and he has held opponents to a .123 average. The only runs he has allowed were in his first appearance of the season. Odenwaelder is not one of the weekend starters (yes, Amherst is that talented), but his arm is one of the most electric in the league.

Honorable Mention- Joe Jensen ’15 (Hamilton), Donnie Cimino ’15 (Wesleyan), Alex Kelly ’14 (Middlebury) and Matt Kastner ’14 (Williams)

Most Valuable Pitcher – Dylan Driscoll ’14 (Amherst) – Amherst garners another award because one of the main reasons Odenwaelder isn’t starting is the performance of the Jeffs’ other starters, Driscoll in particular. The only team that has gotten to Driscoll is Williams, who roughed up the righty for six runs. Besides that, Driscoll has allowed one run in four starts which all lasted at least seven innings. A 1.50 ERA through 36 innings is nothing to scoff at. He barely walks anybody, yielding only four free passes on the season, but he still strikes batters out at a 8.50 K/9 rate. The senior is the leader of a staff that is deep in experience and talent.

Honorable Mention- Jjay Lane ’15 (Hamilton), Nick Cooney ’15 (Wesleyan) and John Cook ’15 (Amherst)

Most Improved Player – Joe Jensen ’15 Outfielder (Hamilton) – Last season Jensen was a stolen base savant who got on-base at an about league average rate of .347. This season, however, the Hamiltonian lead-off man has morphed into an on-base machine still capable of wreaking havoc on the base paths. A big reason for his .514 OBP is that he doesn’t strike out often while also drawing a lot of walks. He has as many walks, 10, as strikeouts. That, coupled with speed that earned him a second-place finish in the 400m final at the March NCAA Indoor Championships, Jensen maximizes his chances of getting on-base even when he doesn’t connect with the ball well. He has been carrying the Hamilton offense for most of the season.

Honorable Mention – Andrew Vandini ’16 (Amherst), Luke Pierce ’16 (Williams) and Max Araya ’16 (Middlebury)

Rookie of the Year – Jack Cloud ’17 Outfielder (Williams) – Wesleyan’s Robby Harbison is making a strong push for this award right now, but Cloud’s body of work is better at this point. An OBP of .459 and slugging percentage of .600 would be exceptional for a senior, and to do it as a freshman is almost unheard of. After only striking out only once in his first 11 games, Cloud has been rung up 10 times in his last six contests, but he is still getting on-base, having hit safely in five of those last six. He has not kept up the torrid pace he established at the beginning of the season, but those numbers were almost impossible to continue.

Honorable Mention – Robby Harbison ’17 (Wesleyan), Ellis Schaefer ’17 (Wesleyan), Kenny Collins ’17 (Hamilton) and Jason Lock ’17 (Middlebury)

East Division

MVP – Jason Buco ’15 Outfielder (Colby) – This pick might come as a surprise to some. Nobody in the East sticks out from the crowd, but Buco gets the nod over a number of others. A case could be made that teammate Kevin Galvin ’14 is having a slightly better season offensively. His OBP of .469 is 50 percentage points better than Buco’s, more than making up for Buco’s 48 percentage points advantage in slugging percentage. One big difference is that Buco’s defense has been much better. Galvin plays a more demanding position in third base, but his fielding percentage of .806 is still far too low. Buco’s four home runs is tied for tops in the league. Also a star on the football team, Buco is helping to turn around two programs at Colby that are hitting new heights.

Honorable Mention – Kevin Galvin ’14 (Colby), Chad Martin ’16 (Bowdoin), Kevin Davis ’14 (Bates), Griffin Tewksbury ’14 (Bates) and Max Freccia ’14 (Tufts)

Most Valuable Pitcher – Kyle Slinger ’15 (Tufts) – No award is easier to hand out than this one. That is saying a lot considering that the top four and nine of the top 11 league leaders in ERA pitch in the East. Despite that, no pitcher can touch Slinger’s dominance so far. To quickly reiterate what we wrote on Monday, Slinger has a 0.66 ERA and .136 opponents’ batting average for the season. He strikes out one batter an inning and hasn’t allowed a run in his last three starts. The only wart on his resume is the 19 walks he has handed out thus far, but the walk issue is the equivalent of punctuation error in a Pulitzer Prize novel. Slinger has been so good that he garnered consideration for MVP of the East. A plethora of other pitchers are throwing great this season, but nobody can match the Tufts ace.

Honorable Mention: Scott Goldberg ’15 (Colby), Tim Superko ’17 (Tufts), Brad Reynolds ’14 (Bates) and Harry Ridge ’16 (Bowdoin)

Most Improved Player – Scott Goldberg ’15 Starting Pitcher (Colby) – When Goldberg got off to a fast start this season some questioned his ability to maintain it given how much he struggled last season. And yet, Goldberg has actually gotten better as the season goes on. He stumbled a bit against Trinity before tossing a gem against Bowdoin going eight innings while allowing two (unearned) runs. A season after posting a 5.50 ERA, he is the justified owner of a mark five times as low: 1.05. Goldberg is also striking out batters at a prodigious rate of 10.52 per nine innings. This award could just as easily have gone to fellow Mule Kevin Galvin ’14, who is enjoying a huge bump in production as well.

Honorable Mentions: Peter Cimini ’16 (Bowdoin), Brian Wolfe ’15 (Trinity) and Kevin Galvin ’14 (Colby)

Rookie of the Year – Tim Superko ’17 Starting Pitcher (Tufts) – If it wasn’t for how well Slinger has been pitching, Superko would be neck and neck with Goldberg for best pitcher in the East. For now he has to be content with being seen as the understudy to Master Slinger. Keep in mind, he is no slouch of an understudy, the owner of a 1.04 ERA and eye-catching 11.77 K/9. His two wins undersells the impact he has had for the Jumbos as a freshman. Last weekend the bullpen blew a lead after Superko threw five innings of one run ball. One knock of him is that he has only pitched 26 innings while never going more than six in a start. As Tufts takes any restrictions off him, Superko will only continue to improve. As an aside, the East is definitely lacking in impact freshmen overall when compared to the West.

Honorable Mention – Ryder Arsenault ’17 (Colby) and Tom Petry ’17 (Tufts)

Tell us what you think, where we went wrong and who we missed in the comments section.

Stock Report April 14

Stock Up

Robby Harbison ’17 Designated Hitter (Wesleyan) – The DH with the slick locks must have noticed we didn’t talk about him in our First Year Spotlight. In the first game of the weekend his two-run double in the seventh inning broke a 1-1 tie. He followed that up with two 3-4 games in the Saturday doubleheader. On the weekend he totaled three runs and five RBIs. His .410 batting average is the best on Wesleyan, and he has reached base in 13 of Wesleyan’s last 14 games. His hot bat helped Wesleyan to a weekend sweep of Williams. The Cardinals are 6-0 in the NESCAC and look like they could enter the series against Amherst at 9-0.

Scott Goldberg ’15 Starting Pitcher (Colby) – Last season the right hander sported a 5.50 ERA and a .318 opponents’ batting average. This season has been a completely different story for Goldberg. Posting a 1.40 ERA and miniscule .154 opponents’ batting average, he has turned into a bona fide ace for the Mules. On Saturday, he turned in a masterful eight inning performance. Bowdoin only threatened once, in the sixth inning, when they scored two runs, but besides that, Goldberg was all over the Polar Bears. Improvement by returning players has been the key to Colby sitting comfortably in second place in the East right now.

Nick Cooney ’15 Starting Pitcher (Wesleyan) – Wesleyan is getting so much love because their sweep this weekend was the most impressive team performance this season. Cooney was the one who set the tone with his dominance on the mound Friday. He shut down a very good Williams lineup going all nine innings and only allowing one run. Along with Gavin Pittore ’16 and Jeff Blout ’14, Cooney attacked Williams’ hitters early in counts, allowing him to go so deep in the game. Improved pitching has been the key to Wesleyan’s 10-game winning streak since a 24-0 drubbing on March 21 in the Cardinals’ last game in Arizona.

Kyle Slinger ’15 Starting Pitcher (Tufts) – The southpaw was scary good in the opening game of the Tufts-Trinity series. The Bantams could not figure him out all game managing only two hits and three walks as he went all nine innings. His seven strikeouts give him 41 on the season. Opponents are hitting a silly .136 against him meaning his 0.66 ERA through 41 innings is no fluke. To top it off, Slinger already has six wins with plenty of games still to play. A 10-win season is not out of question for the junior. Trinity played the Jumbos really tough, taking the middle game of the series, but the Jumbos showed their mettle holding on to win the final game 3-2. If Slinger continues to pitch this way, you can write in a Tufts victory for the first game of every series.

Stock Down:

Bowdoin Defense – The Saturday doubleheader between Bowdoin and Colby featured two well-played close games between two teams clearly very similar in talent level. The difference in the weekend series was on Friday when Bowdoin had uncharacteristically poor defense. The four errors came at critical times as only one of Colby’s eight runs was earned. The costliest error came in the third when a routine groundball with two outs could not be corralled at second base. With the bases loaded Nate Ellis ’14 delivered a clutch single scoring two runs. Tyler Starks ’16 chased Bowdoin’s starter Harry Ridge ’16 with another two-run single as Colby scored five in the third. The poor defense was a reason for the insertion of Sean Mullaney ’17 at shortstop combined with Aaron Rosen ’15 moving to second base. Mullaney is struggling at the plate, but he plays a great shortstop making Bowdoin strong up the middle.

Jjay Lane ’15 Starting Pitcher (Hamilton) – The Continentals needed a big start by their junior ace to avoid tripping up against Middlebury, but the Panthers jumped all over the Connecticut native. Lane only went three innings before leaving with Middlebury leading 8-1. In fairness to him, the Hamilton defense was terrible behind him leading to only one of his runs being earned, but still the righty was hit hard. Lane isn’t striking out many batters this season, and he just hasn’t had any luck with run support. Despite a 2.37 ERA, Lane is 0-2. Consider this more of an opportunity to buy low on Lane than a signal that Lane has regressed from his 2013 form.

Tom Stephens ’14 Right Fielder (Williams) – This spot could go to any number of Williams’ hitters who struggled over the weekend, but the spotlight falls on Stephens because he went hitless in all three games. Overall, a vaunted lineup scored a combined five runs over three games. Stephens couldn’t get anything going at the plate, striking out four times. The amazing thing is that he still sports a nifty .385/.450/.654 slashline. Stephens was one of the few players last week to hit Amherst’s pitching, so expect him to bounce back soon. Williams’ once-promising season will now almost certainly end without them reaching the playoffs.

West Power Rankings April 9

Editors’ Note: Check back later in the day for our East Division Power Rankings.

1. Amherst (14-4, 4-1)- The relationships between the two conferences of the NESCAC this season seems to mirror the two conferences of the NBA, just with the roles reversed. The East of NESCAC and the West of the NBA has talent and parity up and down the standings, with one team standing out (Tufts and the Spurs). And the West of NESCAC and the East of the NBA have two teams standing out at the top, with the rest of the standings looking a little iffier. The teams at the top of the West are Wesleyan and Amherst. Although Amherst (14-4, 4-1) sits below Wesleyan (14-5, 3-0) in the standings, the Lord Jeffs’ frightening combination of excellent pitching and offense places them in a position to dominate the West for the rest of the season. The Jeffs are hitting at a .323 clip, with a NESCAC-leading eight home runs. The power in the lineup is combined with a pitching staff that comes in third in the league with a 3.60 ERA, and is led by NESCAC Pitcher of the Year candidate Dylan Driscoll ’14. To return to the NBA analogy, Amherst is beginning to look something like this year’s Miami Heat, the team with by far the most talent in the conference, and is now ready to assert that talent on the league after coasting for a time.

2. Wesleyan (14-5, 3-0)- Amherst’s chief competitor for supremacy in the West is the Wesleyan Cardinals. Wesleyan is having a great season, sitting at 14-4 and 3-0 in the conference after a sweep of Middlebury. The Cardinals owe most of their success to a solid offense. The team is batting at a .323 clip, with an .813 team OPS. There is not a ton of power up and down the lineup, but Wesleyan is chock-full of solid hitters who get the job done. However, Wesleyan’s pitching has been shaky thus far, to the tune of a 5.12 ERA. Wesleyan’s fundamentals and offense have sustained them thus far, but the pitching will need to improve if they are to keep pace with Amherst in the West.

3. Hamilton (7-6, 0-2)- Although Hamilton sits at 0-2 in NESCAC, the only team that they’ve played in the league thus far is Amherst, while Williams had a three game sweep of Middlebury to bolster their record. The Continentals have had some offensive struggles so far, hitting only .274 as a team, despite an absurd .465 average from outfielder Joe Jensen ’14. Their pitching has been solid with a 4.15 ERA. With a series win this weekend against Middlebury, they could firmly plant themselves as the third best team in a somewhat weak Western side of NESCAC.

4. Williams (7-7, 4-2)- Williams is having a crazy season thus far. If you looked at just their offensive statistics, you’d believe it if you heard they were undefeated. They are leading the NESCAC in batting average, on base percentage AND slugging percentage, as well as being third in runs. However, Williams’ team ERA sits high above the rest of the league at 8.33. Williams cannot hope to improve their standing if this paradoxical existence continues. If their pitching can improve to being even average, their offense could carry them to make a run at Hamilton. But, if the pitching remains where it is, the offense will fall due to the intense pressure. It’s almost impossible to score nine runs a game against NESCAC pitching.

5. Middlebury (2-11, 0-6)- It was a general consensus in the pre-season that 2014 would be a re-building year for the Panthers. They lost three of their top five offensive players to graduation, and then the two remaining ones left the team soon before games started. This season is about the future for Middlebury, and there have been positives in that direction. First-year Jake Stalcup ’17 has posted a 2.79 ERA over 9.2 innings pitched. Young players like John Luke ’16 and Max Araya ’16 have been showing great potential in the lineup. Struggles like this can often serve to unify a young team in the years going forward. The team showed their mettle by playing Wesleyan tight in all three games of their series last weekend. Like the Ephs, Middlebury has had problems with the pitching staff, although defensive issues have fed into that. This year may be something of a lost season for Middlebury, but the positives from it should reverberate for years to come, and lead to greater successes soon.

Hamilton Season Preview

Hamilton (16-21, 4-8 in 2013)

What they lost:

Gabe Klein will certainly be missed as he left with the best career on base percentage (.469) in Hamilton history. Thankfully, he and Sam Fuentes are the only starting position players that left the team, meaning Hamilton has an experienced group of everyday players this spring. Hamilton is only losing two pitchers, Mike Williams and Steve Wright, who both struggled with ERAs over 7.00 in limited action last year. Other than Klein, Hamilton has not lost a lot which means their entire team should be used to playing together which will only help in terms of chemistry.

2014 MVP: SS Zack Becker ’16

Starting in 29 games last year, Hamilton’s sophomore phenom is looking to build on an impressive batting average of .323 to go along with a .434 on-base percentage. With the loss of Klein, Becker will have to step up and lead the team into 2014. That can be a daunting task for a sophomore who will likely move up from fifth to third in the lineup this year. However, Becker’s previous stats show he’s up to the challenge. He will set the pace for an offense that does not hit a lot of home runs (only five total last year, four by Klein), and focuses on average and base running to score. Look for Hamilton to move up in the standings if Becker can pick up where he left off.

2014 Pitcher of the Year: J.J. Lane ’15

Lane had a tough freshman year, going 2-6 with a 7.80 ERA over nine starts. He gained confidence and turned everything around in his sophomore campaign, at 1-2 with a 1.46 ERA over eight starts. While some falling off is expected, anything near Lane’s 2013 dominance would be impressive. He will head up an experienced rotation that includes fellow junior Alex Pachella ’15 along with senior Colin Henneberger ’14 and sophomore Cole Dreyfuss ’16. If Hamilton’s offense can improve their run support, Lane should win most of his starts this year.

Season outlook:

Despite four straight finishes at last or tied for last in their division, Hamilton has improved it’s NESCAC record each year from 1-11 in 2010 to 4-8 last year. They won one game against each NESCAC opponent, and will look to change that into winning serieses in 2014. The season hinges on a number of juniors who will need to step up in their first year as upperclassmen. Production from Becker and Lane should be expected, but players such as Andrew Jaffoni ’15, Tyler Reinhold ’15 and Alex Pachella ’15 could make or break Hamilton’s season.