Florida State Seminoles
Overall Rank: #7
Conference Rank: #2 ACC
Florida State embarks on an interesting transition as Mike Martin Jr. takes over the reins of the Seminoles baseball program from his father Mike Martin Sr. who was the winningest coach in the history of college baseball. Florida State had a tremendous run in the NCAA Tournament last season as they went to the Athens Regional and Baton Rouge Super Regional and won those to get to Omaha. It will be interesting to watch this transition unfold in 2020.
2019: 42-23, 17-13
2019 Postseason: NCAA
Coach: Mike Martin Jr.
Key Departed Players:
Mike Salvatore, INF, .340 BA, 7 HR, 51 RBI
Drew Mendoza, INF, .308 BA, 16 HR, 56 RBI
JC Flowers, OF/P, .266 BA, 13 HR, 53 RBI, 11 SB, 1.69 ERA, 26.2 IP, 11 BB, 25 SO, 13 SV
Drew Parrish, P, 4.67 ERA, 9-5 W/L, 94.1 IP, 32 BB, 125 SO
Key Returning Players:
Robby Martin, OF, .315 BA, 4 HR, 54 RBI
Matheu Nelson, C, .282 BA, 6 HR, 29 RBI
Nander De Sedas, .231 BA, 4 HR, 32 RBI
CJ Van Eyk, P, 3.81 ERA, 10-4 W/L, 99.1 IP, 41 BB, 129 SO
Shane Drohan, P, 3.66 ERA, 3-1 W/L, 51.2 IP, 48 BB, 71 SO
Chase Haney, P, 2.41 ERA, 2-2 W/L, 37.1 IP, 11 BB, 36 SO
Conor Grady, P, 3.64 ERA, 9-6 W/L, 64.1 IP, 26 BB, 71 SO
Clayton Kwiatkowski, P, 4.00 ERA, 36.0 IP, 16 BB, 40 SO
Antonio Velez, P, 4.17 ERA, 5-2 W/L, 45.1 IP, 11 BB, 50 SO
Projection:
Pitching should be the strength of the 2020 Florida State team as C.J. Van Eyk will most likely be the Friday night starter in the weekend rotation. Van Eyk is a workhorse that threw 99.1 innings, struck out 129 batters and walked just 41. Shane Drohan should be in the weekend rotation as well. Drohan put up solid numbers in 2019 as he went 3-1 with a 3.66 earned run average and struck out 71 batters in 51.2 innings. One point of emphasis for Drohan in 2020 will be to balance out the walks to strikeouts ratio. Conor Grady and Chase Haney will provide depth to the rotation that will set up the Seminoles to consistently win series. Robby Martin and Matheu Nelson are the experienced returning position players this year as Martin and Nelson did hit a combined ten homeruns and drove in 83 runs between them. Florida State will play Florida Atlantic and Texas Tech in rematches from the postseason last year along with annual games with Florida. The ACC schedule is a bit favorable with Georgia Tech, Louisville, NC State, and Miami coming to Dick Howser Stadium this spring. The Seminoles will be back in the Super Regional/College World Series conversation if they can find a closer to replace JC Flowers and can find quality replacements for Drew Parrish and Drew Mendoza.
Projected Postseason: NCAA Baseball Tournament
