2024 Roster

Ruben may be considering an opportunity for more playing time.  He hinted at that in a brief conversation in June. 

Well understood, considering possible/likely return of McDowell and Kasper (plus Turley...and ...?). 

Cedillo had a great summer, and would definitely be welcomed by any number of D-1 teams.  He deserves a shot...somewhere.

Yes the outfield will be crowded with McDowell, Kasper, Turley all returning starters and Reeder and Macias coming off good summers as the outfield rotation pieces.

I believe this 2024 roster of returnees is solely based on the 2023 official roster. Trosky was not on that roster, nor was Brandon Forrester

What with the MLB draft (i.e Wilson), and competition from other universities, left handed pitchers have become a scarce item on the Beavs.

Beavs entered the 2023 season with just one returning LHP (Thorsteinson, 15 ip in 2022).

They appear to be set to enter the 2024 season with two returning LHP (Mejia and Keljo, a combined 47 ip in 2023), and (so far) no new LHP's.

On the 2018 team LHP's pitched nearly 1/2 of the total innings for the season (288 innings of 607 total innings).

I'm no expert at all but it seems like they just want a good mix of pitcher types. High velo killers for day to day, tricky contact guys for the SEC and always the hope of a location guy that can drive a nail at 90 ft.

Left/right seems to be more of an MLB issue these days where margins for success are tighter.

Oregon State might have been happy to have the LHP's LSU had, I can't speak to that. I do think they would have been ecstatic to have LSU's RHP's Skenes, Floyd and Heard.

Most college teams have a LHP or two that are valuable contributors - to an extent, we had that this year with our freshmen, Keljo and Mejia.

LHP's are certainly welcome but they are a rare commodity. In this year's MLB Draft there were
six pitchers selected in the first round - Skenes, Lowder, Dollander, Meyer, Waldrop and Eldridge. Eldridge was the only southpaw. In most drafts or player rankings I look at, 80-85% of the pitchers are right handed.

In Perfect Games 2024 Class rankings, there are 5 LHP's ranked in the Top-50, which is a bumper crop. In order to recruit one of these 5, OSU would have had to beat LSU for Cam Caminitti, UCLA for Schoffelbein, TCU for Brassfield, Arizona for Russell and the uncommitted Bateman. Boston Bateman is 6'9" and will play basketball.

In the 2025 class there are six LHP ranked in the Top-50. None of the six are located in the west. The Beavers can recruit LHP's successfully but how many are are available that rank anywhere near a Zach Swanson, Adam Haight, Zach Edwards, Jake McKowen or Oscar Hyde. Do you compromise or go with the best prospect?

We had a highly rated Lefty committed this year and lost him in the draft. I agree with the notion that if we find one that checks the evaluation boxes, we will recruit him. My point is simply this; This fall we will welcome 10 new pitchers to OSU. All of them are right handed. In 2024 we will bring 9 new arms to Corvallis, 8 of them are right handed. In 2025, we have 8 pitchers committed, 7 are right handed. In 2026, we have 2 pitchers pledged and both are RHP. Two of the 26 pitchers in those 4 classes are left handed.

The questions I have are, 1) Based on those factual numbers, how important is it to this staff to recruit left-handed pitchers? It doesn't appear to be a priority. 2), I understand matchups, percentages, pitch shapes, etc. so what is it that is so important with these LHP's? A serious question that I'm hoping to have answered.

In 2023, Oregon State lefties threw 11.56% of all innings, approximately 1.03 innings per game.  That is the lowest percentage of innings that Oregon State lefties have thrown since 1995.

In the past half-century, 50 seasons, you just saw a combined pitching performance that rates 41st out of 50.

Statistically, a lefty pitcher even more effective against lefty batters than a righty pitcher is against righty batters.

LSU's lineup was R, R, L, R, L, R, L, R, and L.  After the rain delay in the Sunday game, Keljo started the third and pitched to the 4-7 hitters, hitting one but not allowing any of the others to reach.

In the Monday game, it was 4-2 in the fifth with the game very much in the balance.  Instead of throwing a fully-rested Mejia, they trotted out Keljo again to start the fifth on no rest to throw to the 3-8 hitters.  Keljo got the first lefty, but the righty and lefty that followed each homered on the first and second pitches, respectively.  Keljo struck out the second righty, but the third lefty and righty each singled to chase Keljo.  4-2 became 6-2.

Braden Boisvert pitched a good sixth, but his second pitch in the seventh wound up over the left centerfield fence.  Boisvert recovered to get the next batter.  8-4.  AJ Hutcheson, who had gotten shelled in his last three appearances, including the day before, got the call on no rest.  Hutch did not record an out, giving up a base hit, base hit, walk, and base hit to run it to 10-4 with one out and runners at the corners.

Mejia finally got the call, to face the 3-8 hitters.  Mejia threw a wild pitch to score Crews.  Mejia then got the first lefty to ground out.  The first righty, though, got a base hit to make it 12-4.  Mejia struck out the second lefty.  The second righty reached on an infield base hit that was reviewed and upheld.  Mejia struck out the third lefty.  Mejia then got the third righty to ground into an inning-ending double-play.

If Mejia goes in, instead of Keljo, maybe the game turns out different.  But it was hard only having two real lefties to turn to in that spot, especially after the loss.

I will say that Jaren Hunter's stuff tends to play better than almost all (if not all) of the other righties against lefty batters.  Losing Hunter made the team very susceptible to lefties.  That and the fact that Justin Thorsteinson fell apart over the final six weeks exacerbated that specific problem.