2016 Utah Baseball Season Outlook

2/16/2016 12:00 AM | Baseball

Feb. 16, 2016

With a wealth of experience returning, the 2016 Utah baseball team looks to make an impact in the Pac-12. The Utes return last year's primary starter at every field position. Utah has several three-year starters: Kody Davis and Cody Scaggari in the infield, Wyler Smith in the outfield and AJ Young at catcher. On the mound, the Utes return nearly 77 percent of last year's innings pitched, led by three-year starter Dalton Carroll and 2015 Pac-12 honorable mention selection Jayson Rose. Several newcomers have also stepped up and challenged for starting roles, which could see the coaching staff make several moves early in the year as they work to find the best lineup.

"We have the majority of our position players back and we have a lot of innings by pitchers back from last year," Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg said. "What we're looking for is improvement from those guys, stepping up and improving their game as well as our team's game, but also making sure that the new guys add some value to us as well, and we want them to provide that leadership. At this point, that's gone very well and we think we've made improvements in everyone's individual game which will make our team better."

Utah begins its season with two tournaments in Arizona playing at Surprise Stadium, the spring training home of the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers. The first weekend features games against Minnesota, Ball State and Oregon State before taking on Kansas and Kansas State the second weekend. Utah also faces Houston Baptist and Saint Mary's (Calif.) before beginning the Pac-12 campaign against Oregon on March 18. Five Pac-12 teams are ranked in the D1Baseball.com preseason poll: Oregon State (5th), California (9th), UCLA (11th), USC (12th) and Oregon (14th). The Utes play their first home game of the year against Utah Valley on March 29.

"The first two tournaments feature quality teams," Kinneberg said. "Houston Baptist was an NCAA tournament team last year and Saint Mary's is really improving, so our first four weeks are going to be a huge challenge, but it's also going to get us ready for Oregon and Arizona State. It doesn't get any easier once we hit Pac-12 play. The challenge for us is that we don't play at home until March 29. That is 22 games on the road before we play at home. Surviving that is going to be a task and a challenge, but then we are mostly at home in April so that will be kind of nice."

Infield

In the infield, Davis, Dallas Carroll and Scaggari have been the primary role players through the last three seasons at second, third and shortstop, respectively. An incoming player who has impressed the coaches during the fall campaign is junior college transfer Ellis Kelly, who has the potential to move into a starting role.

"As of today, Ellis Kelly would be our starting shortstop, which gives us some options and some depth in the infield," Kinneberg said. "Not that we won't use Cody Scaggari at short, but there is a possibility that if everyone is healthy and everyone is playing well that Kody Davis would move to an outfield spot. So that's something that we're playing with right now because we feel like we need to have Kody and Cody in the lineup every day and Ellis has come in and gives us options. That could be an interesting transition for Kody as well as for our team."

Davis has started every game at second base over the last two seasons and has 139 career starts over four years, which includes a medical redshirt year earned as a true freshman. Last season he ranked ninth in the Pac-12 with a .423 on-base percentage and was tied for seventh in the league with 15 stolen bases, hitting .275 for the year. Davis was third in the league in assists (184). Scaggari has been a starter at shortstop since his freshman year. Last year he led Utah with five home runs and tied for the team lead with 33 RBI, hitting .252 with eight stolen bases. Kelly hit .286 with a .384 slugging percentage and 10 stolen bases during his sophomore season at Lamar Community College. He was an all-region player in 2014.

In his first full season healthy last year, Dallas Carroll started every game at third base. He led the Utes and was tied for fifth in the Pac-12 with 16 stolen bases. Dallas hit .283 and was tied for the team lead with 33 RBI. He had a .407 on-base percentage.

At first base, junior Hunter Simmons shared the starters role with now-graduated Biss Larsen last season, with sophomore Wade Gulden also making several appearances on first. Simmons hit .209 last year with three doubles and 10 RBI. Gulden, a true infielder who made 23 starts in the outfield last year, was last year's top newcomer at the plate with a .230 batting average, 11 RBI and four stolen bases. Senior Kellen Marruffo, who is in the mix to start at designated hitter, is also available to play first base. Two of Marruffo's four hits last year were home runs, hitting .235 with 17 at-bats.

Also returning is redshirt sophomore Kyle Hoffman, who played in four games with two starts at shortstop as a freshman. He can also play second base.

Three freshmen will also be looking to earn a role on the field. Jacob Portaro was first-team all-state and all-region at Centennial High School, hitting .437 as a senior. Michael Reuling earned first team All-Bay Area honors at De La Salle High School. Connor McNally was an all-league selection at Campolindo High School.

Outfield

Smith and junior Josh Rose are both experienced starters in the outfield. Smith, who has started 129 games over the last three years, mostly in center field, led Utah and ranked eighth in the Pac-12 last season with a .329 batting average. He also had nine stolen bases. Rose, who has started in the outfield the last two seasons, hit .209 last year with 21 RBI and was second on the team with nine doubles.

Freshman DaShawn Keirsey Jr. also made an impression during the fall campaign. He was an all-league and all-county player at Helix Charter High School, hitting .333 for the year with 19 RBI as a senior.

"We are experimenting with playing DaShawn in center and moving Wyler to left or right field, which he can do very easily," Kinneberg said. "Josh Rose has had a very good fall and is a guy who is going to be hard to leave out of the lineup. When DaShawn, Wyler and Josh are in the lineup, we have really good defense and speed out there. Patrick Flynn has also played well this fall and we have Kody Davis in there as well. So we have some options out there, and could have a left-handed lineup and right-handed lineup. It will be interesting to see what shakes out."

Sophomore Patrick Flynn played in 14 games last year, making one start in the outfield and two starts at designated hitter. He hit .231 in 13 at-bats.

Freshman Chandler Anderson, a local product who was a three-time first-team all-state player at Park City High School, will also be looking to earn a role on the field.

Catcher

Young has started 105 games over three years between catcher and designated hitter. Last year he hit .297 and led Utah with 15 doubles. He caught 20 runners stealing, which ranked second in the Pac-12. Redshirt sophomore Cole Taylor played in 24 games last year with 13 starts between catcher and designated hitter, hitting .255 on the year.

A newcomer has also worked his way into the mix behind the plate, freshman Zack Moeller. Moeller was a two-time first-team all-league selection at San Benito High School.

"We have two guys who have some experience, as well as a freshman who is very talented, and at this point you will likely see all three," Kinneberg said. "We feel that AJ's bat needs to be in the lineup so when he's not catching he's a possible designated hitter. But we do want to get Zack some time back there because we feel he is our catcher of the future. He has a chance to be a really good defensive catcher."

Freshman Jared Denning will also be looking to earn a place in the rotation. He was the All-Napa County Baseball Player of the Year at American Canyon High School.

Pitcher

Dalton Carroll has the most experience of any pitcher on the staff with 47 appearances and 37 starts under his belt. He went 5-9 last year with one save and had a 4.94 ERA and 56 strikeouts. Making a splash as a freshman last year was Jayson Rose, who earned honorable mention All-Pac-12 honors after leading Utah with a 3.54 ERA and tying for ninth in the Pac-12 with 68 strikeouts. He had a 3-5 record on the year. Rose was recently ranked as the 36th-best college prospect for the 2017 MLB draft by D1Baseball.com He was a two-way player last year, making several starts in the outfield, but will focus solely on pitching going forward.

"We feel like Jason and Dalton will be our Friday and Saturday guys, Jayson going on Friday and Dalton on Saturday, and that gives us a pretty good 1-2 punch," Kinneberg said. "We feel at this point the depth of our pitching staff is the best it's ever been, and we need to figure out what roles our other pitchers will play - who will be our third and fourth starter and our back-end guys."

The Utes have a number of returning pitchers and several talented freshmen and newcomers. Junior Dylan Drachler and senior Nolan Stouder each made several starts last year. Drachler went 2-3 with three starts in 12 games and a 4.78 ERA. Stouder had 39 strikeouts and a 6.11 ERA over 53 innings. Junior Hunter Rodriguez made 21 appearances in relief last season and had two saves. He had a 5.84 ERA with 29 strikeouts.

A group of sophomores all saw significant playing time as freshmen. Tanner Thomas was strong as a freshman last year, going 2-0 with a 5.68 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 15 games. Trenton Stoltz had a 5.97 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 15 games. Spencer Johnson pitched in eight games.

Sophomore Andre Jackson, who was a starter in the outfield last year, will move to pitcher. He pitched in just one game last year but was drafted as a pitcher in 2014.

The Utes are excited about several newcomers who have the potential to be strong contributors. Sophomore Josh Lapiana is a transfer from Akron who went 2-3 with a 4.40 ERA and 21 strikeouts as a freshman. Freshman Riley Ottesen was the 2013 Deseret News Mr. Baseball and joins the Utes after serving an LDS mission in Japan. Freshman David Appleby helped lead his high school team to a league championship. Freshman Josh Tedeschi is coming off a redshirt year while freshman Lars Lofgren redshirted in 2013 before embarking on an LDS mission.

"Riley Ottesen is a frontrunner to be a front-line starter for us," Kinneberg said. "We're really interested in seeing how Andre Jackson will develop as a pitcher. Tanner Thomas, Josh Lapiana, Hunter Rodriguez and Dylan Drachler are all pitching very well at this point."