Florida baseball is in trouble. For the second straight year, the MLB Draft has sucked the best talent away from Gainesville.
The season ended badly for the Gators, and 2014 is not off to the hottest start – 29-30 and a NCAA Regional appearance might not look so bad next June.
Coming into 2013, everyone knew Florida would be in for a bumpy ride. The power hitters and dominant pitchers who took the Gators to three straight College World Series were all gone, leaving behind a young roster with few upperclassmen.
Now, after a lackluster final season, several of those upperclassmen are gone.
Vickash Ramjit, one of the few consistent bats on a team starved for offense, leaves after a senior season where he hit .277 with four homers – not good enough to draw the attention of a major league squad.
Cody Dent filled a spot in the lineup day in and day out, even if his .169 average didn’t do the trick.
But the offense will be OK. Richie Martin, Harrison Bader, Casey Turgeon, Justin Shafer and Taylor Gushue will all be back.
The real damage is to the pitching.
The offense struggled in 2013, but it was powerful compared to the pitching staff.
Jonathon Crawford was the only consistent arm in the rotation. He’s gone. But don’t worry; he’ll be nearby. Crawford will likely be assigned to the Flying Tigers, Detroit’s Florida State League team – that’s only a little more than two hours from McKethan Stadium.
Crawford struggled in 2013 and only won three games, but he started 15. No other pitcher started more than eight. But Detroit saw enough potential to snap him up 20th overall, higher than several experts had him going. That locks up his future – there is nearly no chance Crawford ever returns to UF.
All the other pitchers who rotated in and out of the bullpen had trouble – whether it be with injuries, command or just bad outings.
Jay Carmichael looked solid in the rotation and was even promoted to Friday starter, but injuries took their toll, and he finished the year in the bullpen.
Eric Hanhold and Danny Young both had promising starts at the end of the season but didn’t prove enough to be guaranteed spots in the rotation next year.
Sophomore right-hander Johnny Magliozzi was eligible for the draft due to a close-in-age rule, and the New York Mets picked him 506th overall. Whether that will be high enough to sway Magliozzi into pitching minor league ball is unknown.
The sophomore had the best season of any Gators pitcher, notching a 2.67 ERA in mostly bullpen appearances. With another similar season or better – especially if coach Kevin O’Sullivan moves him to the rotation permanently – Magliozzi could see his draft stock rise into the first 10 rounds.
But a chance to get a deal done now and jump into the professional ranks might convince the UF closer. If it does, Florida will be in bad shape.
But there is some potential help coming off the disabled list.
Juniors Karsten Whitson and Keenan Kish pitched a combined 5.1 innings in 2013. Kish did not get drafted. Whitson went 1,126th overall.
Whitson will likely come back to Florida for his final year of eligibility to prove to pro teams that he still has gas in the tank. With his injury history, there’s no way he’ll pitch himself back into the top 10 picks, but he has the talent to get back into the first 10 rounds.
If Whitson and Kish come back at full strength, the Gators will have a chance to compete again.
If not, it could get ugly quickly at McKethan Stadium. But I hear Lakeland’s Joker Marchant Stadium is nice.
Contact Adam Lichtenstein at alichtenstein@alligator.org.
Junior Jonathon Crawford throws a pitch during Florida’s 9-8 victory against NC State in Game 2 of the NCAA Gainesville Super Regional on June 10, 2012, at McKethan Stadium.
