FSU Will Bring a Complete Pitching Staff Into 2017

As we previously reported, Florida State stands to have a potent offensive arsenal in 2017, but that shouldn’t be the team’s sole strength. The Seminoles also boast a pitching staff that is loaded with both young and veteran arms that will be fighting for innings.

Returning eight guys that regularly saw the mound and all three weekend starters is incredibly rare. While all three starters have experience pitching under the lights, collectively they are still a young staff.

The oldest out of the three starters, junior Drew Carlton, will likely toe the rubber on Friday nights to start the year. Then the ball will be handed to back-to-back sophomores on Saturday and Sunday.

Cole Sands will be the Saturday guy after starting the year in the Sunday slot during his freshman campaign. Tyler Holton is the only one out of the three that did not start last season in the rotation before eventually taking the job from struggling senior Mike Compton.

Carlton showed how dominant he can truly be in his final start last season against Florida in the first game of the Gainesville Super Regional. Carlton threw a complete game, 2-hit shutout retiring the last 19 batters he faced and just one over the minimum for the evening.

Sands and Holton are both entering the season with a confidence they did not have last season. They know they can compete at this level now. Sands was able to play with Team USA over the summer, and Holton played in the extremely competitive Cape Cod League. Both should build on impressive freshman campaigns in the starting rotation.

“I would love to start the year with this rotation, and it finish that way.” FSU pitching coach Mike Bell said. “It just doesn’t happen that way in the college game. Whether starts don’t go well, or you have injuries, it just does not happen.”

As for long relievers, Andrew Karp was projected to be a starter before he was involved in a car accident which resulted in him missing his freshman season. Since his return, he has been improving his game from the pen while trying to get back to where he was before his injuries. Karp started for the Gold team in both fall scrimmages — another reassuring sign that he will see a lot of innings with the potential to also start in some midweek games early.

Another long reliever that should see some starts this season is Ed Voyles. The twin brother of Jim Voyles, Ed started four games his sophomore season for Florida State while being one of the first guys called upon out of the bullpen all season. Voyles worked 47 1/3 innings last season with a 2.66 earned run average.

Andrew Karp and Ed Voyles are just two guys that are capable of eating up innings if a starter is struggling; both guys have the stamina to go deep into games and will get the opportunity to start a few midweek match-ups.

As for more situational relievers, Jim Voyles and Alec Byrd will be the main guys. Jim Voyles was the go-to guy last season as he worked 51 innings with a 3.16 ERA and an opponents batting average below .200.

“You saw the innings that Jim took on (last season),” Bell said. “The weekend innings, and key strikeouts that Jim put up were phenomenal.”

Byrd, a lefty, was a very reliable arm out of the bullpen last season and plans to expand on his role as a senior. Byrd worked 32 innings last season in 28 appearances with a miniscule opponent batting average of just .159.

“Our hitters make our pitchers better.” Bell said, “Our hitters won’t chase pitches that others teams will.”

J.C. Flowers is a guy that has garnered a lot of attention early. The true freshman will play center field when he is not pitching, but head coach Mike Martin plans to get Flowers on the mound too.

Flowers’ primary focus will be center field, although Flowers is an overpowering pitcher that will challenge every batter he faces with his plus fastball. Martin said that using Flowers as the team’s closer is an option.

Injury wise, the pitching staff has had more luck than the offense. Cobi Johnson will unfortunately miss the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in the middle of last season. Johnson would have likely been the fourth starter on the team this season.

Other than Johnson, the staff as a whole should be healthy and ready to go in February when FSU opens the season. With a powerful lineup, the run support should be plentiful. These Seminoles are one of the most complete teams in the country, with the offense and defense to make a real run at the College World Series come June.