The official start of the 2024 Florida State baseball season is only two days away.

FSU head coach Link Jarrett made a major step towards before Wednesday's practice when he announced the three pitchers who will begin the upcoming season in the rotation this weekend when FSU hosts Butler for a three-game series.

UCF transfer Cam Leiter will start the first game of the season Friday (5 p.m. on ACC Network Extra) while sophomore Jamie Arnold will start game two on Saturday (2 p.m. on ACCNX) and junior Conner Whittaker will start Sunday's series finale (noon on ACCNX).

"We feel like those guys had a nice progression into this," Jarrett said. "Their stuff has been, although different, really good."

Leiter, a 6-foot-5 sophomore, has what would probably be defined as the most Friday night stuff of FSU's weekend rotation. The nephew of longtime MLB pitcher Al Leiter, his fastball got all the way up to 97 miles per hour during his freshman season at UCF but he has three other pitches to work off as well, with four pitches he can throw for strikes.

After a slow start to his freshman season, Leiter posted a 2.57 earned run average over his final eight appearances of the season.

"Leiter gives us some energy and some intensity," Jarrett said. "I think he has four good pitches in play. A good, lively fastball. Over the top, big breaking ball. Kind of like (Jackson) Baumeister breaking ball. Hard slider. And feel for a change-up. And he’s into every pitch. It’s fun. When he takes the field, you’ll feel that energy and we hope that he continues to develop and do what he’s done leading up to us choosing him to throw on Friday."

Arnold, a sophomore lefty from Tampa, also started the 2023 season in the weekend rotation as a true freshman. However, he didn't stick in the rotation for very long and finished with a 6.34 ERA over 44 innings (24 appearances and eight starts).

After that, though, Arnold had a strong summer showing in the Cape Cod League with a 2.79 ERA, earning a Cape Cod All-Star nod. He's parlayed that into a strong offseason at FSU, with his fastball now into the mid-90s after it sat in the high-80s to low-90s last season.

"Arnold, the lower-slot lefty, as you’ve seen," Jarrett said. "The velocity has been anywhere from 90 to 96. And when it syncs up, it’s a really nice, climbing-type fastball. Change-up to come along with that. A little better feel for his slider. The repeatability. We saw glimpses of it last year. Now you hope after that season and the Cape you start to see more consistent flashes of at times what’s brilliance on the mound."

Whittaker is the most experienced member of FSU's weekend rotation, appearing in 38 games (eight starts) over the last two seasons with 115.1 innings thrown and a career 3.75 ERA.

"Whittaker is just a tough right-hander with three pitches in play," Jarrett said. "Command of the running game. Engaged with every part of what you have to do as a pitcher. And he’s just gotten better. The sense of himself and knowing what to do and getting that ball in on the lefties a little bit and clearly running it in on the righties. I think Micah has done a nice job with his slider, a little more consistent, firmness to the slider. Good change-up."

Last season, he led the Seminoles with 79 innings pitched, throwing 65 strikeouts to 19 walks with a 4.33 ERA.

This season's weekend rotation is much more traditional than last year's, where FSU was forced to keep its two most established arms in the bullpen as high-leverage arms.

This rotation alignment also sets up well to go against opposing offenses with an alternating order of a right-handed pitcher followed by a lefty and then back to a righty.

Jarrett discusses some of FSU's other pitchers as well as infielders and outfielders in an interview with the media on Wednesday:

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