Dec. 31, 2006
Notre Dame pitchers Wade Korpi and Kyle Weiland have received preseason honors for the 2007 college baseball season, as each was named to the watch list for the Roger Clemens Award (presented to the nation’s top pitcher) while Korpi is on the watch list for the Brooks Wallace national player-of-the-year award. Notre Dame is one of just 13 teams with multiple pitchers on the Clemens watch list. In other preseason news, Notre Dame was included among Collegiate Baseball magazine’s preseason top-40 rankings, checking in at 39th despite losing all three members of its weekend three-man rotation, All-America first baseman Craig Cooper, Academic All-America shortstop Greg Lopez and 12 total letterwinners from the 2006 team that went 45-17-1 and fashioned a team-record 23-game winning streak.
Korpi (Lake Worth, Fla.) is coming off a stellar sophomore season that included an MVP effort at the BIG EAST Championship, en route to finishing with a 2.00 season earned-run average that ranked 17th in the nation while his strikeout rate of 11.1 Ks per 9.0 innings ranked 15th in Division I. The lefthander’s other 2006 season stats included a 7-2 record, a lowly .204 opponent batting average (55 hits allowed), a 3.5 K-to-walk ratio (94/27) and just three hit batters, one wild pitch and one home run allowed in 76.1 innings of work (14 appearances/12 starts). His 2.00 season ERA ranks 16th in the Notre Dame record book and is the eighth-best by an Irish pitcher since the early 1980s. Only six Notre Dame pitchers in the past 15 seasons have registered a lower season opponent batting average than Korpi, whose 11.08 Ks/9 IP represents the sixth-best season rate in the Irish record book (recent closer Ryan Doherty is the only ND pitcher since the mid-1960s with a higher single-season strikeout rate than Korpi).
Weiland (Albuquerque, N.M.) – a lanky 6-foot-4 righthander who finished third nationally with an ND-record 16 saves while compiling a 2.37 ERA for the Irish in 2006 – ranked among the nation’s top freshmen in the ’06 season, receiving top Freshman All-America honors from Baseball America , Collegiate Baseball and the The Rosenblatt Report/rivals.com while also being invited to the annual USA Baseball National Team trials. A second team all-BIG EAST selection in 2006, Weiland compiled a 2.37 season ERA that ranked fourth-best on the Irish staff while his 30 appearances were one shy of the Notre Dame freshman record (31) set by current big-leaguer Aaron Heilman in 1998 (when he led the nation with a 1.61 ERA). In addition to posting nearly a 2.5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk average (48/20) in 2006, Weiland logged 11 more innings (49.1) than hits allowed (39, with only one home run) and limited opponents to a .224 opponent batting average that ranks third-best ever by a Notre Dame freshman behind Heilman’s .198 in ’98 and the .201 allowed by Larry Mohs in ’94. Weiland converted all but one of his save opportunities en route to nearly doubling Heilman’s freshman save record (9) while his 16 saves were three better than the previous overall Irish record (13), set by J.P. Gagne in 2003.
Korpi – who served as the 2006 team’s fourth starter – is expected to front a 2007 rotation that is young but highly promising, with other top options for starting pitcher roles in ’07 including the likes of sophomores David Phelps, Brett Graffy and Sam Elam, junior Joey Williamson and freshman Eric Maust (who joins Korpi and Elam among the staff’s top lefthanders). Weiland likely will return to the closer role but could be tried as a starter, pending various factors including the returns from their respective injuries by senior Dan Kapala and junior Tony Langford (both of whom missed the entire 2006 season).
Weiland is one of four returning Irish players who received all-BIG EAST honors, with that group also including three second-team honorees: junior shortstop Brett Lilley (who played third base his first two seasons), sophomore DH/first baseman Jeremy Barnes (a possible replacement for Cooper, after playing mostly as a DH/2B in ’06) and senior outfielder Danny Dressman (the top option in center). Senior catcher Sean Gaston also returns for his third season as the starter behind the plate, with junior second baseman Ross Brezovsky back on the right side of the infield. Freshman A.J. Pollock has emerged as the leading option to fill Lilley’s vacated third-base position while the top corner-outfield options include freshman Billy Boockford in right along with sophomore Ryan Connolly (who missed ’06 due to injury) and freshman Brayden Ashdown in left. Switch-hitting senior Mike Dury and former Missouri State player Ryan Weglarz (now an MBA graduate student at Notre Dame) joins Barnes as the leading DH candidates, with lefthanded-hitting sophomore Ryan Sharpley another potential starter at first base.
Kyle Weiland’s Freshman All-America season in 2006 included ranking third in the nation with 16 saves.
|
 |
Three of Notre Dam’s 2007 opponents – Nebraska (9th), TCU (15th) and Michigan (38th) were included on the Collegiate Baseball preseason top-40, with four others (Stetson, Louisville, Central Michigan and Ball State) also receiving votes in consideration for those rankings.
Notre Dame’s 2007 opponents include 16 players who are on the Wallace Award watch list, among them six other players from the BIG EAST Conference: Rutgers shortstop Todd Frazier, St. John’s outfielder Chris Joachim, Louisville second baseman Logan Johnson, South Florida shortstop Addison Maruszak, Cincinnati righthander Steve Blevins and Seton Hall pitcher/DH Dan McDonald. Others include the Nebraska duo of shortstop Ryan Wehrle and pitcher Tony Watson, TCU pitcher Jake Arrieta, Stetson outfielder Shane Jordan, Michigan outfielder Eric Rose, Central Michigan outfielder Bryan Mitzel, Ball State first baseman Justin Rogers, Illinois-Chicago outfielder Larry Gempp, Prairie View A&M pitcher Wrandel Taylor and New York Tech DH/pitcher Joe Esposito.
In addition to Notre Dame, the other 12 teams that feature two pitchers on the Clemens Award watch list include Rice, Texas, Florida State , TCU, Tulane, Arkansas, Wichita State, Virginia, Pepperdine, UC Irvine, Ohio State and Army. Seven pitchers from Notre Dame’s 2007 opponents are on the Clemens watch list, including the TCU duo of Arrieta and Garrison, Nebraska’s Watson, Stetson’s Robbie Elsemiller, Scott Barnes of St. John’s, Michigan’s Chris Fetter and Ball State’s Kyle Heyne. Weiland joins Barnes and Fetter among the 14 sophomores who are on the Clemens watch list.
Five of Notre Dame’s opposing players were named preseason All-Americans by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers, with TCU’s Arrieta and Nebraska’s Watson on the first team while Frazier (Rutgers), Wehrle (Nebraska) and Rose (Michigan) each were named preseason third team All-Americans.
Bio. capsules on Korpi and Weiland follow below:
Wade Korpi UPDATED BIO. CAPSULE (Jr., LHP, 5-11/180; Lake Worth, Fla..) (see roster link on und.com for 2006 preseason bio., including pre-ND info.; roster bio. page also includes link to articles on Korpi and link to his 2006 game-by-game stats) – Named to 2007 preseason watch lists for the Brooks Wallace Award (player of the year) and the Roger Clemens Award (pitcher) of the year) … enters junior season with a 3.44 career ERA and 11-5 record, with 126 strikeouts, 60 walks and 128 hits allowed (.260 opponent batting avg.) in 32 appearances (21 starts) and 130.2 innings pitched (10 hit batters, 5 wild pitches, 4 home runs allowed) … averaging 8.68 strikeouts per 9.0 innings pitched during his career (John Corbin is 12th in ND history with an 8.82 strikeout rate) … his strong sophomore season included posting a 2.00 ERA that ranks 16th in the ND record book and 8th-best since the early 1980s … since ’93, the only ND pitchers to post better season ERAs have included Aaron Heilman (1.61 in ’98; 1.74 in ’01), Tom Thornton (1.81 in ’03), Grant Johnson (1.87 in ’04) and Peter Ogilvie (1.90 in ’01) … his .204 opp. batting avg. in 2006 ranks 7th-best in the ND record book (stat kept since ’91) … his 94 strikeouts in ’06 stand 8th in ND history behind three Heilman seasons (118 in ’99 and ’00; 111 in ’01), Jeff Manship (111 in ’06), Danny Tamayo (106 in ’01), Frank Carpin (102 in ’58) and Tim Kalita (97 in ’99) … recent closer Ryan Doherty (12.18 in ’04, 11.10 in ’05) is the only ND pitcher since the mid-1960s to post a better season strikeout rate than Korpi’s 11.08 in ’06 (good for 6th overall in ND history) … allowed just one home run in 76.1 innings … ranked among the nation’s top-20 leaders in 2006 with his 2.00 ERA (17th; 9th among sophomores/freshmen) and 11.1 strikeout rate (15th; 8th among soph./fr.) … finished among the BIG EAST Conference leaders in several overall categories, including 1st in ERA (2.00), 2nd in low opp. batting avg. (.204, behind the .190 posted by UConn’s Tim Norton) and 5th in strikeouts (94) and strikeouts looking (28) … there were 39 BIG EAST pitchers who logged at least 1.0 inning per team game and only one of those pitchers (Seton Hall’s Dan Merklinger) did not allow a home run while Korpi and Rob Delaney of St. John’s were the only BIG EAST regulars to surrender just one home run … led the Irish staff in four categories (2.00 ERA, 11.08 K/9 IP, .204 opp. avg. and low avg. of 6.48 hits/9 IP) while ranking 2nd in strikeouts (94), Ks looking (28) and pickoffs (5), plus 3rd in wins (7-2), K-to-walk ratio (3.5) and opp. batting by RH hitters (.207) … also was 4th on staff in five categories (12 starts, 76.1 innings, 61 groundouts, 5.2 IP per appearances and .194 batting by LH hitters), along with being 5th in three situational stats (.231 opp. 2-out batting, .255 opp. batting with runner on base and .321 opp. leadoff on-base pct.) … his other 9-inning averages included 3.2 walks (27 total), 7.2 groundouts and 36.1 batters faced … averaged 18.3 outs per 9-innings via Ks or GOs … his other 2006 stats included 55 hits allowed (22 more IP than hits), only three hit batters and just one wild pitch in 14 appearances … made a key improvement in his K-to-BB ratio from 2005 (32 K, 33 BB in 54.1 IP) to 2006 (94 K, 27 BB in 76.1 IP) … nearly had a 9.00 WHIP ratio (walks plus hits per 9.0 IP), finishing at 9.67 … was most dominant as a starter in 2006, with a 1.34 ERA, .188 opponent batting avg, 4.1 K-to-walk ratio (94/23) and 25 more innings pitched (73.2) than hits allowed (49) in those 12 starts … his two relief outings were a different story (32.40 ERA, .667 opp. avg., 2 Ks, 4 BB in 1.2 IP) … allowed just six earned runs in the 1st-4th innings of his 2006 appearances (1.13 ERA, .191 opp avg., 58 Ks, 16 BB, 32 H, 48 IP) … also did not allow an earned run (1 UER) after the 6th inning in ’06 (7 IP, 10 Ks, 2 BB, 2 H/.080) … capped stellar season by being named MVP of the BIG EAST Tournament (Jack Kaiser Award) … became the sixth player in the event’s 22-year history to post two wins in the same BIG EAST Tournament … was the youngest player to earn the Kaiser Award since 2000 (Rutgers freshman RHP Bobby Brownlie) and the first pitcher to be named the tournament’s MVP since Seton Hall closer Isaac Pavlik in ’01 … former Seton Hall DH Mo Vaughn (’87) and former St. John’s 3B Mike Dzurilla (’97) are the only other freshmen ever to receive the tournament MVP … other sophomores to receive the award have included UConn 2B Craig MacDonald (’90 and 1B Chris Bisson (’94) and West Virginia RHP Chris Enochs (’96), with the other 15 recipients including five seniors and 10 juniors … the other five pitchers to be named the tournament’s top player include Villanova LHP Rafael Novoa (’89), St. John’s RHP Mike Maerten (’93), Enochs (’96), Providence RHP Marc DesRoches (’99), Brownlie and Pavlik … ND’s five previous recipients of the award: senior CF Steve Stanley (’02), junior C Javi Sanchez (’03), junior 3B Matt Macri (’04) and senior 1B Matt Edwards (’05) … his combined stats over the two BET starts included a 2-0 record, an 0.82 ERA (1 run), 13 Ks, 5 walks and 7 hits allowed (.184 opp. batting avg.) … won the BIG EAST title game vs. Louisville (7-0), the fifth shutout in a BIG EAST tournament final game and was the first since Rutgers edged Seton Hall in 2000 (1-0) … his stats in that game included three hits and two walks allowed, with a pair of strikeouts in the 5-inning, 92-pitch outing as he held back a Louisville team that entered the game with a .477 batting average in the tournament … earlier beat South Florida on first day of tournament (3-1; 6.0 IP, 4 H, R, 3 BB, 11 Ks) … matched career-high with 11 Ks in dominant 7-inning stint to help beat Purdue, 2-1 (H, UER, BB, HB) … earlier had 11 Ks in 3-hit shutout of Western Michigan (2-0; 2 BB) … had no-decision as starter in series finale at UConn that ended in 1-1, 13-inning tie (7 IP, 6 H, R, 2 BB, 5 Ks, HB) … logged 8.0 strong innings to beat Toledo (8-2; 4 H, UER, 3 BB, 6 Ks) … had no-decision in 6-4 battle with Ball State (5.2 IP, 3 H, R, 3 BB, 8 Ks) … pitched well enough to win but had no-decision in opening-week, extra-inning loss to Memphis (6-7; 5 IP, 3 H, 7 Ks).
Kyle Weiland UPDATED BIO. CAPSULE (So., RHP, 6-4/190; Albuquerque, N.M.) (see roster link on und.com for preseason bio., including pre-ND info.; roster bio. page also includes link to articles on Weiland and link to his 2006 game-by-game stats) – One of nation’s top young pitchers, among 14 sophomores named to the preseason watch list for the Roger Clemens Award … others include Alabama’s Tommy Hunter, Virginia’s Jacob Thompson, Tulane’s Shooter Hunt, Pepperdine’s Brett Hunter, Wichita State’s Aaron Shafer, San Diego’s Brian Matusz, UC Irvine’s Scott Gorgen, Scott Barnes of St. John’s, Michigan’s Chris Fetter, Ohio State’s J.B. Shuck, Santa Clara’s Mark Willinsky, Winthrop’s Alex Wilson and Eastern Kentucky’s Christian Friedrich … one of 15 players named by Baseball America to its elite first team Freshman All-America list for the 2006 season, in addition to being one of 16 named a first team Freshman All-American by The Rosenblatt Report/rivals.com … also named by Collegiate Baseball magazine to its 2006 Freshman All-America team while being one of 36 players invited to official tryouts for the 2006 USA Baseball National Team … one of just six players (and two pitchers) who were BA and RR first team Freshman All-Americans while also being named to the CB Freshman All-America teams and receiving an invite to the Team USA trials … the other freshmen on that elite list included Eastern Kentucky’s Friedrich, UNC catcher Tim Federovich, Miami 2B Jemile Weeks, Vanderbilt 3B Pedro Alvarez and Washington State OF Jared Prince … joined Virginia’s Thompson, Winthrop’s Wilson and UCI’s Gorgen as the four pitchers named by Baseball America as 2006 first team Freshman All-Americans … named second team all-BIG EAST Conference … one of four Notre Dame players ever to be a BA first team Freshman All-American and a CB Freshman All-American … finished 2006 season ranked 3rd in nation with 16 saves, trailing only Oregon State’s Kevin Gunderson (20) and Don Czyz of Kansas (19) … ended up 13 innings shy of the NCAA minimum for the national ERA leaders (his 2.37 would have ranked 36th on that list) … among BIG EAST pitchers, his 16 saves were nearly double the total by the next player on that list (Georgetown’s Daniel Kennedy had 9 saves) … his 30 appearances ranked 3rd among BIG EAST pitchers, behind South Florida’s Chase Lirette (36) and Louisville’s Griffin Bailey (34) … Lirette (30) was the only BIG EAST pitcher to finish more games than Weiland (29) … if Weiland had met the inning minimum, his 2.37 ERA would have ranked 3rd-best in the BIG EAST (behind the 2.00 posted by teammate Wade Korpi and the 2.04 by UConn’s Tim Norton) while his .224 opp. batting avg. would have been 5th, behind Norton (.190), Korpi (.204), Scott Barnes of St. John’s (.218) and another ND teammate, Jeff Manship (.223) … his 16 saves blew past the ND freshman record (9, by Aaron Heilman in ’98) and then bested the ND overall season record (13) set by J.P. Gagne in 2003 … already ranks 4th in ND record book for career saves, trailing only John Corbin (20; ’97-’00), Ryan Doherty (20; ’03-’05) and Gagne (19; ’00-’03) … surpassed 40 innings in the 2006 season and thus qualified for the ND single-season ERA charts … his 2.37 season ERA ranks 25th in the ND record book and 8th-best since 1995, behind Heilman (1.61 in ’98; 1.74 in ’01), Korpi (2.00 in ’06), Tom Thornton (1.81 in ’03), Grant Johnson (1.87 in ’04), Peter Ogilvie (1.90 in ’01) and Darin Schmalz (2.23 in ’96) … Mike Coffey (37, in ’89) and Heilman (31, in ’98) are the only ND pitchers ever to log more appearances in a season than Weiland (30; one shy of Heilman’s freshman record) … three other ND pitchers – Corbin (’00), Gagne (’03) and Doherty (’04) – also had 30 GP in a season (each of those former closers had the chance to see Weiland pitch this season) … limited opponents to a .224 batting avg. that ranks 3rd-best ever by an ND freshman (13th-best by any ND pitcher, since ’91) behind Heilman’s .198 in ’98 and the .201 allowed by Larry Mohs in ’94 … his 49.1 innings are among the most by an ND closer in recent history and most since Gagne logged 53.0 in ’03 (he also had a 7-inning start that season) … played a lead role in helping ND rank 21st nationally in staff ERA (3.52), 27th in Ks per 9.0 IP(7.9) and 12th in win pct. (.722; 45-17-1) … led ’06 staff in saves (16) and GP (30) while his 2.37 ERA was 4th-best, behind LHPs Korpi (2.00) and Mike Dury (2.17) and RHP Jess Stewart (2.31) … compiled 4th-best opp. batting avg. on staff (.224), behind Korpi (.204), Dury (.208) and Manship (.224) … totaled 5th-most strikeouts (48) and innings (49.1) on staff (also 5th with 15 Ks “looking”) … had the most wild pitches (6) and hit batters (8) on staff, with his other stats including a 2-4 record (2-1 in final three decisions, with loss coming in 16-inning NCAA game) … his 1.71 groundout/flyout ratio (58 total GOs) was 2nd on the staff behind Manship’s 1.82 … allowed 9-of-16 inherited runners to score (56%) while first batters hit 8-for-26 (.308) vs. him (3 BB, HBP, 6 R, 7 Ks) and opposing batters reached 50% of the time (21-of-42) when leading off any inning (the rest of the staff allowed just 33% of leadoff batters to reach) … despite those rocky starts to his appearances, he led the staff with a lowly .183 opp. batting avg. when runners were on base (17-for-93) and also had the lowest 2-out opp. batting avg. on the staff (.145; 9-for-62) … after facing the first batters in his outings (.308, 8-for-26), he held opposing hitters to a combined .210 batting avg. (31-for-148) … his 9-inning averages: 8.8 Ks (3rd-best behind Korpi’s 11.1 and Manship’s 10.6), 3.6 BB, 7.1 H (3rd-best, behind Korpi’s 6.5 and Dury’s 6.5), 10.6 GOs and 39.0 batters faced … averaged nearly 20 outs per 9.0 IP via Ks or GOs (19.4) … limited RH hitters to .198 batting avg. (23-for-116) … the only Irish pitcher with better success v. RH hitters actually was a LHP (Dury, .167) … his opp. batting avg. by LH hitters was .276 (7th on staff) … his season ERA stood at 4.60 in early April, with a .259 opp. batting avg. (14-for-54), nearly as many walks (12) as Ks (13) and almost as many hits allowed (14) as innings (15.2) at that point (10 GP) … his impressive second half of the season included a 1.34 ERA and .208 opp. batting avg. in final 20 GP, with better than a 4-to-1 K-to-walk ratio (35/8) and just 25 H in 33.2 IP … converted first nine save chances and final seven save opp.’s … only failed save came in series finale vs. St. John’s on April 15, but the Irish rallied (7-5) to give him the win (2 IP, 2 R/1 ER, 4 H, BB, K, WP, 2 inher. runners scored) … helped ND staff allow just 18 home runs all season … allowed a costly HR in his second appearance (pinch-hit blast in extra innings of loss to Memphis) but he did not allow a long ball in his final 28 GP (40 IP) … led the way for an ND bullpen that allowed just 3 HRs all season (in 102 IP) and none in final 21 GP (79 IP) … was part of amazing 25-game stretch in which the entire ND pitching staff did not allow a home run (spanning nearly 1,000 BF) … his signature outing came in NCAA Lexington Regional, logging season-high 7.0-plus innings before heartbreaking 5-4 loss to College of Charleston in 16 innings … the ND and CC pitching staffs combined to throw 19 straight zeroes up on the scoreboard before the decisive rally … threw 103 pitches (60 strikes), with his 21 outs including 7 Ks and 9 GOs … allowed four leadoff batters to reach but limited CC to 1-for-9 batting with runners on base and 0-for-8 with 2-outs … his clutch pitches in that game included: blowing an 0-2 pitch by Jess Easterling in the 10th (runner on 3rd; 2-outs); striking out Chris Campbell in the 12th (runner on 2nd; 2-outs; behind 0-2 before four straight breaking balls and full-count K) … inducing 1-out flyout and groundout in 13th (with runners on 1st and 2nd); and a rightside groundout from Campbell to end the 14th (with a runner on 3rd) … his only other extended outing came in finale of showdown series at UConn, logging 5.0 IP as game ended 1-1 after 13 innings due to the travel curfew (0 R, 2 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks) … picked up wins over St. John’s (2.0 IP, 2 R/1 ER, 4 H, BB, K; 7-5) and IPFW (1.2 IP, K; 4-3) while his top saves included shutout outings vs. then-#15 Texas A&M (2.0 IP, 4 BB, K; 5-4), Illinois (0.1 IP; 4-2), Central Michigan (2.0 IP, 2 H, 3 Ks; 11-9), Ball State (0.2 IP; 6-4), South Florida (1.0 IP, H, 2 Ks; 9-6), Rutgers (2.2 IP, 2 H, 4 Ks; 14-12), Purdue (1.0 IP, H; 2-1) and UConn (0.2 IP; 7-6) – plus pair of saves at BIG EAST Tournament vs. USF (1.1 IP, H, 2 Ks; 3-1 opener) and in 5-3 elimination game vs. SJU ( 2 IP, R, 3 H, BB, 3 Ks).