FSU Baseball ready to begin prepping for 2021 season
His first season at the helm was called off in March -- less than a month after it started.
His second season is right around the corner, but FSU head baseball coach Mike Martin Jr. knows it's not likely not going to be a smooth track throughout 2021.
To that point, he was hoping his players could begin their NCAA-allowed individual training sessions on Thursday afternoon. That was derailed, though, because the team hadn't gotten back its results from mandatory COVID-19 tests taken on Wednesday.
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So, now, Martin is hoping those sessions can begin today, and that his entire team will be available for the start of actual team practice on Jan. 29.
It's an uneasy start to what promises to be a season full of adjustments on the fly.
"I just hope it happens," the second-year head coach said with a laugh earlier this week.
The ACC's athletics directors voted to conduct a 50-game regular-season schedule for baseball, which is six games less than both the Big 12 and the SEC, who appear to be sticking with the normal number of games.
That means FSU will be playing its lowest number of regular-season games since 1977 (unless, you know, you count the 17 the Seminoles played last season). Martin Jr. also said he's been told the maximum capacity at Dick Howser Stadium, at least to start the season, will be 1,200.
Those aren't the only aspects of this season that will be different.
Because of an NCAA rule overriding player limits for 2021, Martin Jr. has 43 players on the roster. He said 23 of them are pitchers. And there's a chance half of them could get drafted in 2021 if Major League Baseball goes back to the standard number of rounds from normal years (last year, due to the pandemic, there were just five rounds instead of 40).
No matter how it shakes out, the Seminoles appear to be loaded on the mound.
Which is why these next three weeks are critical, Martin Jr. said, for getting his team ready for the grind of a regular season, even one that's slightly shorter than usual.
"The conditioning is by far our biggest thing," he said. "They're college kids. They jog to the mailbox and feel like that's enough for the day. That's the biggest issue we're ready to tackle. And then we'll gradually work them in with their arms.
"The juniors and seniors (on the pitching staff) will be ready to go with their arms. ... But the freshmen have no idea what it's like to condition their arms."
Virtually the entire offense and pitching staff are back from last year's 12-5 team. And the number of quality arms the Seminoles have could perhaps be even more important than normal in a season like this.
By ACC rule, a team must have two catchers and 10 pitchers on its active roster to participate in a game. There are no doubt going to be some positive tests among ACC teams this spring, and we also know that with positive tests come contact tracing. So, one pitcher testing positive could turn into several others not being available to play in a series.
That's why depth on that front could be extra valuable in 2021.
Martin Jr. knows he has it. And he knows he's got some electric arms that can rack up strikeouts. What he wants to find out is just what kind of defense he's going to have backing up those arms.
"Strikeouts are the name of the game, sure," he said. "But that said, if guys are worried about the ball being put in play [because the defense is suspect], they end up walking more and it ends up burning them. So, that's obviously what you're trying to avoid."
Martin Jr. pointed to the Tampa Bay Rays model, led by former Seminole Kevin Cash at manager, as an example of what can happen with a dominant staff and a terrific defense.
The goal is always Omaha, of course. That doesn't change at Florida State.
Even in a season that promises to look nothing like any that's come before it.
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