This year will be a unique one for Missouri baseball. Steve Bieser acknowledges as much.
The fourth-year head coach is overseeing a team who knows that, no matter how well they perform, postseason play is not an option. Last November, the NCAA upheld its postseason ban on the baseball and softball programs, rendering both ineligible for the conference and national tournaments this spring (among other penalties).
Predictably, it was a devastating blow for the affected players and coaches, none of whom were involved in the scandal that was the impetus for the punishments. No matter how one may feel about today’s players and coaches paying for the misdeeds of their predecessors, the program had to go on.
“Our players have been outstanding,” Bieser told Prospects Live, before last week’s season-opening series win over Jacksonville State. “The initial shock was very difficult. It took some time to push it off to the side. (When) I say time, it probably took them one week. Then they put their nose back down and started working extremely hard to prove a lot of the naysayers wrong…. They’re in great spirits.”
The postseason ban won’t define the Tigers’ season, but it will shape it to some extent. This season, after all, is no longer about building a playoff resume. Other considerations come to the fore. Long-term player development and giving draft-eligible players opportunities to show well in front of amateur scouts are goals every year. This season, though, they take on added importance, particularly in the season’s early going.
“We’ve got a chance to see some guys we might not (otherwise) have seen as much of early in the season,” Bieser noted. “We’ll get a chance to probably get some guys a few more at-bats than we would’ve on a normal year when we (would be) deeply concerned about RPI.”
RPI, one of the top metrics the selection committee uses in setting the NCAA tournament field, tends to penalize teams heavily for losses to mid-major competition. Beating Western Illinois and Southeast Missouri State, for instance, would be more important if the Tigers were eligible for the postseason.
That’s not to say, though, that winning is taking a backseat in Columbia. As competitive spirit takes hold, everyone in the program, from Bieser on down, is fully engaged on winning every game possible. That’s particularly true once SEC play kicks off. Since moving to the nation’s premier conference, MU has never done better than 16-16 in league play. Improving upon that and competing for the regular season title is the team’s main focus in 2020. That’ll be a daunting task; the SEC boasted a nation-leading nine teams in Prospects Live’s most recent top 25, Missouri not among them. The Tigers, though, boast one of their more complete teams in recent memory.
Without hyperbole, Bieser proclaims this the best lineup he’s had over the last four years. There’s not another no-doubt Day One pick, as Kameron Misner was in 2019, although athletic, switch-hitting catcher Chad McDaniel has a chance to play his way into that range. More importantly, this year’s lineup sports enviable depth. Junior second baseman Mark Vierling has proven himself a high OBP leadoff hitter, while senior DH Peter Zimmerman is back as a legitimate middle-of-the-order threat. Joining that trio is corner infielder Brandt Belk, a transfer from Pepperdine whom Bieser called an “offensive force.” CF/RHP Seth Halvorsen is back from Tommy John surgery; he’s hit near the bottom of the order in the early going but could certainly move up if he harnesses his enviable power-speed pairing.
Missouri’s best 2020 prospect, though, is on the mound. Junior Ian Bedell doesn’t have the power stuff of many of the league’s top aces, working 90-93, but his feel for pitching is off the charts. He showed a pair of above-average secondaries last summer on the Cape (where he ranked as PL’s #12 prospect). That repertoire depth should enable him to work through the best lineups in the conference multiple times, while his strike-throwing has long kept his pitch counts manageable. Also catching attention last summer was fellow junior Konnor Ash. As now-Twins scout Jason Pennini noted, Ash worked in a similar velo range with a plus curveball and average changeup out of the bullpen last summer. That stuff has held in his move to the rotation this spring, Bieser confirmed. Those two right-handers give MU a good shot at hanging with the league’s top teams once conference play begins.
Because of the NCAA sanctions, 2020 can’t possibly turn out the way the team had envisioned last fall. That’s unfortunate, because Bieser and his staff have quietly assembled and developed a strong roster. Still, the Tigers aren’t prepared to lay down and take the year off. The future in Columbia, both short and long term, is looking brighter than it has in quite some time.