In a move that seemingly defied all baseball logic, coach Steve Traylor decided to shift his three most-often used starters from last season to the bullpen and insert two freshmen into the starting rotation at the beginning of this season.
Perhaps that's why Traylor gets paid to coach the team.
That commitment to youth in starting pitching has produced a 17-1 start this season and an all-time high No. 13 national ranking. Duke's three primary starters-junior Stephen Cowie and freshmen Patrick Hannaway and Brent Reid-have combined for a 11-1 record and a 2.71 earned run average.
"We want to be strong in the pen, we want some experienced pitchers there and the guys we chose to come out of the gate as starters have just done a very good job," Traylor said. "When you're playing a three-game series against a top-25 team every weekend [in the Atlantic Coast Conference], you're going to go deeper in your pitching staff. We wanted to get our younger pitchers some experience early in the year before we went in to the ACC schedule."
The two younger pitchers in question, Hannaway and Reid, made immediate impressions with stirring performances in Duke's season opening three-game set in Florida.
The hard-throwing Hannaway has not tailed off since that opening weekend. After his complete game yesterday, albeit in an abbreviated five-inning game, Hannaway sports a 3-0 record and 1.25 ERA, and opponents are hitting a measly .179 against him.
"Patrick's just a very talented guy-a big, strong and raw pitcher who we want to get out there as much as we can and has done all we could've asked him," Traylor said. "He needs to challenge hitters; he's not a guy who's going to go out and try to locate all of his fastballs and try to be crafty. We're trying to get him to throw strikes, challenge hitters and when he does get the ball in the strike zone, he's tough to hit."
Equally as tough to hit as Hannaway in his first three starts, Reid (4-1, 3.95 ERA) has suffered through two straight rough outings, including last Friday's loss to Liberty in which he was knocked out in the fourth inning after allowing five runs.
"That's the nature of pitching. He's going through a time right now where he's just not making good pitches," Traylor said. "I think he's probably trying to be a little bit too fine and too crafty instead of just going after people which he did early on. I think he just needs to get back to that... but that just comes with the territory of being a freshman pitcher."
Of course, with the emergence of these two freshmen, along with the return to health of staff ace Stephen Cowie (34.0 IP, 4-0, 2.65 ERA, 31 K, 7 BB), a veteran is inevitably pushed to the rear of the bullpen. In this case, it's sophomore Chris Capuano.
Although Capuano pitched the second-most innings on the team last season and averaged 8.5 strikeouts per nine innings, the lefthander has only hurled six innings in four appearances this season.
"I think what happened is he came in and had a really good spring and went into his first outing in Florida and struggled a little bit," fellow sophomore Brad Dupree said. "That kind of moved him down in the order, but he's come back the last few times and dominated. He's definitely going to be throwing a lot more.
"He's actually stayed very positive about it. Obviously we both want to be throwing as much as we can and help the team as much as we can. When it comes time to throw, he really wants to throw. Some guys you see mope and grope about it; he's always stayed positive about it."
Dupree (17.1 IP, 2-0, 5.29 ERA), who rooms with Capuano, was also moved to the bullpen this year after starting 12 games as a freshman. He has been an integral part of Traylor's vision for experience in the bullpen. The workhorse has been extremely effective out of the bullpen, save for one rocky appearance against Liberty on Friday.
"Brad's like a great insurance policy," Traylor said. "He's such a bulldog-he's so physically sound, he could throw day after day without arm problem. He has great stuff and great composure. Velocity is not the key for him, his location is key. He's a guy that goes out there with an idea of how to pitch to the hitter. He is a workmanlike pitcher who knows how to pitch."
Despite earning the title of the team's Most Valuable Pitcher last year, senior Clayton Connor was also moved to the bullpen this season. Last year, Connor compiled the fourth-lowest ERA (4.40) on the team and held a pivotal role as a fill-in starter when both Cowie and Atlanta Braves draftee Richard Dishman went down with injuries.
"He's a guy who's done so much for our program over the last three years," Traylor said. "When we went with our philosophy of going with our younger starters and trying to get some veterans in the bullpen, he was a guy we chose to go down there. If one of the young guys falters in an early inning, Clayton will go right in there, in essence like a starter."
Even though his three top starters had pitched less than 70 collegiate innings combined entering the season, Traylor feels his pitching staff is well-stocked for the rapidly approaching ACC portion of the schedule, thanks to the strength of his experience-rich bullpen. If the results so far are any indication, it's better to trust Traylor than to doubt him.
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