The Daily Nole

FSU Baseball: Preseason Offensive Preview

Ken Lanese/FSU athletics

The Florida State Seminoles will enter the 2018 season as a consensus top-5 team and the favorite among league coaches to repeat as Atlantic Coast Conference champions. We took a look at the guys that be tasked with getting the job done on the mound for the Noles in December.

You can check that out here. Some big-time arms on the mound will be accompanied by some serious sluggers in the Florida State lineup that will look to make a return trip to the College World Series, and make head coach Mike Martin the all-time winningest coach in college baseball history.

Replacing key bats:  While juniors Taylor Walls and Dylan Busby decided to forgo their senior season and entire the Major League Draft, FSU fared pretty well when it comes to having to restructure the lineup. Walls was taken by the Tampa Bay Rays, and Busby was selected nine picks later by the Pittsburgh Pirates. FSU also lost seniors Matt Henderson who graduated in May, and Quincy Nieporte, who was then taken by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 26th round.

Newcomers: Two transfers will look to fill the gap in the middle of the infield this year. Community College transfer Mike Salvatore and Belmont graduate transfer Rafael Bournigal will fight to make an immediate impact up the middle of Mike Martin’s lineup. Salvatore played junior college baseball at Northwest Florida State where he led the team in almost every offensive category. The 5-foot-11 righty hit .293 and swiped 12 bases in his sophomore season. Salvator hit a 2-run home run off of Cobi Johnson in one of two fall scrimmages.

Bournigal will follow in his fathers’ footsteps as a Seminole for at least one year. A Belmont University graduate transfer, Bournigal hit .337 with 31 runs batted in before deciding to play his last season in Tallahassee. Bournigal played second for the Noles in the fall and will look to replace Henderson who led the team in on-base percentage last season.

Reese Albert is a highly-touted freshman from Jupiter. Rhett Aplin played right field before a broken foot ended the majority of his season. Albert will likely push Aplin into the designated hitter role in “11”‘s lineup. Albert was ranked by Perfect Game as the 18th overall prospect in Florida, and second among outfielders in the state. Albert’s outfield velocity was clocked at 90 mph in a Perfect Game showcase.

Jonathan Foster is another junior college transfer that could see playing time at first when ace Tyler Holton is pitching. After spending his freshmen season at Auburn, Foster transferred to Chattahoochee Valley Community College where he hit 10 home runs and racked up 60 RBIs.

Returning bats: The Florida State lineup has the potential to be one of the most productive in the country with a majority of the past season’s order remaining intact. Jackson Lueck, Cal Raleigh, Drew Mendoza, and Rhett Aplin will all be a force in the middle of the order. Tyler Holton will see his time at the plate increase significantly this season also, with him spending time at first base when he is not on the mound.

Lueck, Raleigh, Mendoza, Aplin, and Holton combined to hit 36 home runs last season with a .277 average and 159 runs driven in.  Those five bats make Florida State a team that can make a deep run into the postseason and with the addition of Bournigal and Salvatore, FSU has a lineup with few holes in it from the top spot in the order to the seventh.

J.C. Flowers will return to center field for the 2018 season after hitting .250 in his freshman campaign. With a year of college baseball under his belt, seeing his average jump into the .270’s would allow him to jump to the top of the order and replace Taylor Walls.

Flowers was hit by 13 pitches last season, tied for the lead on the team, so even if he does not see his average climb near the .270’s, he will still be a threat at the top of the order because of his speed. Flowers did not lead the team with stolen bases. Busby and Walls both swiped three more bags than the freshman, but when Flowers was given the green light, he was a perfect 7-for-7.

Kyle Cavanaugh is a guy that would like to see his name in the lineup more heading into his senior season at FSU. Cavanaugh has not made much of an impact to this point, but the big 6-5 slugger has an ample amount of power. If he can put the bat on the ball early in the season, he could make a push for designated hitter role along with first base, depending on the pitching match-up.

With an experienced weekend rotation coming into the 2018 season, the Seminoles appear to have a solid team from top to bottom. With a mix of power and speed in the lineup, the Noles will be able to produce runs in several different ways.

Florida State will kick off the season at home on Friday against Xavier.

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