Feb. 6, 2006
If the preseason polls are any indications, the 2006 season has the potential of being one of the best in recent years for Mizzou Baseball. Preseason publications have the Tigers ranked among the top 15 in the nation, including a No. 10 ranking by Baseball America.
Missouri is coming off its third trip to the NCAA Tournament in as many years. It returns seven of its eight position starters, its top two starting pitchers and three of its top relief pitchers from last year's team that won 40 games.
Among those returning is junior Max Scherzer, the 2005 Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Year and a preseason All-American. Along with Scherzer, junior outfield Hunter Mense has earned preseason All-American accolades.
Head Coach Tim Jamieson, who enters his 12th season at the helm of the Tigers, is the second longest tenured coach in the Big 12 Conference, behind only Larry Hays (20 years at Texas Tech).
Here's a look at what Jamieson's squad will look like in 2006:
PITCHING
The Tigers will have one of the nation's top 1-2 combinations at the front of their rotation as juniors Max Scherzer and Nathan Culp return to lead Mizzou. Scherzer, who was a second team All-American for MU last year, has been named a first team preseason All-American by all major baseball publications.
Last year, Scherzer was the Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Year and a semifinalist for the Clemens Award. Over the summer, he was selected to the USA Baseball National Team. While traveling with Team USA, Scherzer had pitches clocked as high as 99 miles per hour.
Culp was a second team All-Big 12 selection a year ago and tied Scherzer with a team-leading nine wins. The lefthander's nine wins also tied for seventh most in the conference.
Senior Taylor Parker has been one of the Tigers' go-to guys out of the bullpen the past two seasons. He has made 28 appearances in each of the past two seasons and had four saves last year before moving to the starting rotation for the final three weeks of the season.
Another senior, Nick Admire, gives Jamieson the option of sending him to the mound as the starter or bringing him out of the bullpen. He has made 47 appearances in three seasons with MU, starting 13 times.
Senior Travis Wendte is another experienced pitcher on the Tigers' staff, as he had made 58 appearances during his career and is tied for third on Missouri's career saves list with 14.
Brant Combs and Bret Harvel redshirted in 2005 and will be looking to make their first collegiate appearance for Missouri this year.
Returning to the Tigers after a year away is junior Stephan Holst. He was 2-0 with a 4.35 ERA with Mizzou in 2003, but did not pitch for MU last year.
Junior Brett Reynolds transfers to Missouri from Crowder College in Neosho, Mo., where he was 8-3 last year with 72 strikeouts.
Aaron Crow is a talented freshman who earned Kansas All-State honors last year and was impressive in the 2005 Fall World Series, leading his team with a 2.70 ERA.
Freshman Andrew Mueller is a local product, graduating from Hickman High School in Columbia, where he compiled a 28-2 record with a 2.69 ERA.
Another freshman, T.J. Sinovich, was 25-5 with a 1.72 ERA in four years with DeSmet High School in St. Louis, earning two All-State selections. He redshirted last year at Arkansas before transferring to MU.
Sophomore John Thies enter his first year with Mizzou after spending a season at Meramec Junior College. The Cape Girardeau, Mo. native won 24 games and struck out 350 batters during his high school career. Freshman lefthander Rick Zagone was an All-State selection last year as a senior, recording 101 strikeouts and a 1.40 ERA at Prairie Ridge High School in Illinois.
Freshmen David Cales and Ryan Lollis can each play in the field as well as take the mound for Missouri. Cales will also look for time at shortstop and Lollis will challenge for a spot in the outfield.
INFIELD
The infield of senior Derek Chambers (1B), senior Trevor Helms (2B), junior Gary Arndt (SS) and junior John McKee (3B) remains in tact from last season. Those four started a combined 209 games at their respective positions in 2005 and return for the upcoming year.
Chambers started all but three games last year at first base and led the Tigers in hits and runs scored in 2005. His 63 runs scored were fourth in the Big 12 Conference.
Helms has spent most of the past two seasons as the Tigers' second basemen, compiling a career .300 batting average. Quickly becoming one of the top defensive shortstops in the Big 12 Conference, Arndt started 46 games as a freshman in 2004 and 56 more games during his sophomore season.
McKee became the everyday starting third baseman in 2005, starting all but four of MU's games at third and hitting seven home runs, second most on the team.
Coby Arzola and Bill Disselhoff redshirted the 2005 season and will look to earn their first collegiate playing time in 2006.
Brock Bond played 28 games for the University of Arkansas last year, before transferring to MU this year. The sophomore started 20 games for UA a year ago, batting .250.
A pair of freshmen, David Cales and Kyle Mach will also look for playing time in the MU infield.
Cales hit .480 and had 16 home runs in four years at Mount Carmel High School in Chicago.
Mach was a two-time first team All-State selection at St. Louis' Parkway West High School, hitting .494 for his high school career.
OUTFIELD
Junior Hunter Mense will anchor the outfield as he returns for his third season with Missouri. He was a second team All-Big 12 Conference selection last year and has been named to preseason All-American teams by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball. Mense joined Scherzer on Team USA last summer, hitting .259 in 17 games with the National Team.
2005 Freshman All-American Jacob Priday also returns to the outfield. He spent most of his freshman season in right field, but saw time at catcher late in the year. Priday, who led the team with nine home runs last season, is likely to see playing time both in the outfield and behind the plate this year.
Senior Zane Taylor is one of the most valuable players for Missouri because of his ability to play several positions. He has played third base, shortstop and second base in his first three years at Missouri and will move to the outfield for his senior season.
Sophomore Evan Frey made several highlight reel catches for Mizzou during his freshman campaign, starting eight of the 28 games he played in.
Senior Bryson LeBlanc played in 38 games last year in his first season with the Tigers after transferring from Delgado Community College and returns for his final season.
Matt Wulfers redshirted in 2005 and was forced to sit out the Fall 2005 season due to an injury, but will look to return in 2006.
Another redshirt freshman, John Kruse will also be looking for his first playing time for Missouri in the outfield. Sophomore Kurt Calvert hit .360 last year for St. Louis Community College at Forest Park before transferring to MU this season. He was a first team All-State player for Lafayette High School in St. Louis in 2004.
Freshman Ryan Lollis was a first team All-State selection from Houston (Texas) Christian High School, where he hit .520 with 10 home runs, while going 10-1 on the mound with a 1.11 ERA. He was No. 32 on Baseball America's Fab 50 Freshmen list.
CATCHER
Senior J.C. Field made the most starts of any Tiger behind the plate in 2005 and returns in 2006. Field played in 43 games, starting 33 times at catcher.
Sophomore Dan Pietroburgo started 11 of the 20 games he played in and began his collegiate career with a home run in his first career at-bat last season.
Priday moved from the outfield to catcher during the final week of the regular season in 2005. Priday, a catcher in high school, adapted so well to the new position that he earned a spot on the All-Big 12 Conference Tournament Team in just his second week behind the plate.
Freshman Dan Wise was named to the Kansas All-State team as a senior at Olathe North High School, where he hit .408 with 15 home runs during his career.
SCHEDULE
The 2006 schedule features matchups with three of the eight teams that advanced to Omaha for the 2005 College World Series and both of the teams in the National Championship series.
Once again, the start of the season will see the Tigers hitting the road. Mizzou opens 2006 in Charleston, S.C. where it will play in the Buccaneer Classic hosted by Charleston Southern.
MU will take on East Tennessee State in the season opener on Feb. 9. Kennesaw State, Washington State and host-school Charleston Southern are also on the opening weekend slate.
The Tigers will spend the next weekend in Monroe, La. for a three-game series with Louisiana-Monroe.
The following week, Missouri will head to Gainesville, Fla. where the 2005 National Runners-Up Florida will host the Pepsi Baseball Challenge. MU will take on the Gators on Feb. 24, then matchup with Wake Forest and Ohio State.
Missouri will host Illinois State on March 1 in the home opener at Taylor Stadium. That game is the first game in an eight-game homestand which includes a three-game series with Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a three-game set with Purdue, along with a game against Saint Louis.
As usual, the Big 12 Conference will be one of the top conference's nationwide. Mizzou will open up the conference portion of the schedule with a trip to College Station, Texas for a series with Texas A&M.
The following weekend, Kansas State will visit Taylor Stadium for MU's Big 12 home opening series.
The Tigers will host Nebraska on April 7-9. The last time the Cornhuskers visited Columbia, Mizzou took two of three in the series.
Oklahoma State, who Missouri swept the last time it visited Taylor Stadium, will be in town on April 21-23 and Baylor will be in Columbia on April 28-30.
The Tigers close out the regular season with a three-game series at home against defending national champion Texas.
The Midwest Ford Dealers Border Showdown will continue when the Tigers head to Lawrence, Kan. on March 31-April 2 to take on Kansas.
Missouri also has Big 12 Conference road trips to Oklahoma (April 14-16) and Texas Tech (May 12-14). The Tigers will play two wood bat games, taking on Saint Louis (April 19) and Illinois (May 17) in O'Fallon, Mo.
Mizzou will also participate the Best of the Midwest Tournament in Kansas City on April 25-26.
The Big 12 Conference Tournament is back at Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City for the second-consecutive year. This year, the Big 12 Tournament will adopt a new format, which will involve pool play for the first four days of the tournament with the winners of the two pools playing for the Conference Championship on Sunday, May 28.
The NCAA Tournament begins on June 2 and concludes with the College World Series June 16-24 in Omaha, Neb.