No. 9 FSU baseball team exploring all options as practice begins
After seeing all the stops and starts, pauses and postponements during these college football and college basketball seasons, Mike Martin Jr. is not just focused on prepping his Florida State baseball team for the 2021 season.
He's also preparing for the unexpected.
The Seminoles, who opened preseason practice on Friday as the nation's No. 9-ranked team according to Baseball America, will be led primarily by an extremely deep and talented pitching staff. Of the 42 players on FSU's official roster, 23 are listed as full-time or part-time pitchers.
And Martin Jr. plans to tap into that army of arms to get as many as eight starting pitchers ready, as opposed to the four or five the Seminoles take into a typical season.
*** Don't miss our exclusive FSU sports coverage. 30-day Free Trial***
"We're building up eight this year. We have to," Martin Jr. said during a Zoom call with reporters Friday afternoon. "Because you never know what's going to happen. Thank goodness it's a year that we've got depth, and we've got guys that can do it."
The top three starters will be penciled into the weekend rotation, the No. 4 will get the first crack at midweek games, and the other four can be used in a variety of roles. They will fill in if any of the top four have to miss time due to either the coronavirus or contact tracing, and they also can help out of the bullpen -- either in long relief, in a set-up role or as the closer.
"It's a lot easier to do that than it is to all of the sudden [say], 'Oh no, we need another starter, let's build him up," Martin Jr. said.
The philosophy will be similar for the Seminoles' position players in Martin Jr.'s second season as head coach. When asked which battles will have to be settled during preseason practice, he quickly replied, "Everything."
That's not exactly true. He acknowledged that catcher Matheu Nelson, who is entering his third year as a starter, has that position locked down.
But other than that, the Seminoles are planning to let veterans and newcomers duke it out at every other spot. That's partly to foster competition, as always, but it's also to ensure that the Seminoles have a wide variety of options in case players miss time due to illness or quarantine.
If there are no surprises by the Seminoles' Feb. 19 season opener against visiting North Florida, the starting outfield should look very familiar, led by redshirt junior Reese Albert and redshirt sophomores Elijah Cabell and Robby Martin.
Albert has hit 20 career home runs despite battling through injuries; Cabell has hit 16 home runs in just 75 career games; and Martin was a Freshman All-American in 2019 and then led the Seminoles with a .324 batting average during last year's COVID-condensed season.
Martin Jr. said all three could be poised for career years, and he believes the Seminoles could boast one of the top three or four outfields in the country. Albert is finally healthy, Cabell has bulked up from about 200 pounds to 225, and Martin has dropped 20 pounds to 190.
"I think they can be really good," Martin Jr. said. "I do expect them to produce and lead us offensively."
Cabell is actually nursing a sore hamstring, but Martin Jr. said he expects the slugger to be full speed in about 10 days.
"I can't wait for people to see the transformation [of his body]," Martin Jr. said. "How much better he looks. And his power is immense."
The Seminoles are scheduled to play 50 games this season, which is the limit imposed by the ACC. There will be 14 non-conference games and 12 three-game series against conference opponents.
One non-conference game was added Friday to FSU's originally announced 49-game slate -- May 11 against visiting Florida Gulf Coast. That should complete the 2021 schedule, although Martin Jr. is well aware that there likely will be adjustments along the way.
FSU will start the season with fans filling only 25 percent of capacity at Dick Howser Stadium -- or about 1,700 seats -- and the second-year head coach is imploring whoever buys those tickets to either use them for every game or make sure someone else can.
"We've got to create an environment this year," Martin Jr. said. "Our guys feed off that. They're used to it. Yes, we're at 25 percent. But the fans, we've got to have you. If you can't come, either give them away or get 'em on StubHub. But we've got to get Howser rocking as best we can, because that's a huge advantage as everybody knows."
-----------
Discuss this story with other FSU fans on our Seminole Baseball Message Board