College baseball opening weekend has come and gone and what a weekend it was.
There was plenty of action throughout the country, but we’ll be focused on one of the better matchups on the east coast with Campbell hosting Rutgers. We’ve talked before about how good Campbell’s program is, a mid-major powerhouse that schedules hard and knows how to develop. It was tough to find a harder opponent than Rutgers, a surprise team in 2022 that wound up with 44 total wins. Campbell wound up taking the series thanks to strong pitching and a robust offense, though Rutgers finally found its footing in the series finale. Both teams have solid draft talent, including two players who could become day one selections come July.
In this year’s live looks series, we’re going to change things up a bit. Deep Drives will take a deeper dive into prospects from any given week, whether it be high school or college. This means the list of players will subjectively be shorter, but there are enough thoughts to cover the missing bits. At the end, there’ll be a list of players that were noteworthy throughout the weekend, whether they are 2023s, 2024s, or 2025s.
RHP Cade Kuehler, Campbell
Kuehler is now the ace for the Camels after giving the program a solid mid-week option to combat a rather difficult non-conference slate in 2022. Taking the reins from Thomas Harrington is not going to be an easy task, but I’d argue that Kuehler may be drafted higher than Harrington did last summer when all is said and done.
From a pure stuff perspective, Kuehler has dynamic stuff. Kuehler’s fastball has long been his best pitch and that was evident on Friday, coming out of the chute with three straight fastballs for a quick strikeout of Ryan Lasko with two whiffs. The pitch has excellent vertical movement and plays above the 92-96 MPH velocity that he possesses. He did bump 97 MPH with one of those fastballs to Lasko and would wind up holding 92-95 MPH throughout the rest of his five-inning start, rearing back for 96 MPH on a couple of occasions later on.
The fastball does give Kuehler some margin for error with his secondaries, which do lag behind the fastball a little bit. The curveball was ahead of the slider/cutter in this look, though both pitches project average or better. The curveball could be a plus pitch at some point down the line thanks to solid shape, bite, and consistency. It’s thrown hard in the low-80’s, though he did slow it down to the 77-79 MPH range to steal strikes late. The cutter/slider is more average, showcasing tight spin with slight horizontal movement in the 83-88 MPH range, though there were times when the shape became looser. The biggest development was the deployment of a splitter late in the outing. Before, Kuehler had more of a firm change-up in the mid-80’s, but the lone splitter he threw was a 79 MPH pitch that seemed to have good drop and fade away from Rutgers lefty Evan Sleight.
In all, Kuehler struck out eight and recorded eighteen whiffs in his outing, though that doesn’t tell the full story. He did have scattered command at times and worked in and out of multiple jams throughout the outing. That said, he showed excellent poise and found his best stuff to bounce back after allowing runners on base via walks or hits. There will be plenty of scouting heat on Kuehler, as he’s a projected first rounder, but the biggest things to watch will be command improvement and I’d be willing to see how the splitter evolves as the year moves on.
OF Ryan Lasko, Rutgers
Lasko was easily the best bat across both rosters coming into the series, and while it was not the greatest weekend at the plate, there were snippets of why he’s rated so highly.
He’s a gamer in every sense of the word and he exudes plenty of confidence at the field. He’s more of a selective hitter at the plate with a quiet setup at the plate. There’s some loft to his swing with solid power and he has good coverage of the zone. Despite the lack of hits and three strikeouts on the weekend, there were also three walks to his name and showed a solid ability to turn on pitches low and in. The double off Kuehler on Friday was a great piece of hitting, fouling off a good curveball before taking a 94 MPH fastball on the outer half to the opposite field gap for a double, coming off the bat at 92 MPH. The best swing of his weekend was the loud double off Ernie Day on Sunday, tattooing a low and in fastball to his pull-side at 111 MPH, the hardest hit ball of the weekend. Granted, it’s a metal bat, but that gives glimpses of the power Lasko can possess once he fully fills out his frame.
In the field, Lasko admittedly had some bad jumps to start his routes in center field, though they progressively got better as the weekend went on. He’s a quick runner, though as one scout put it, there might be some divisive thoughts on his overall run tool. He does hit his top speed rather quickly out of the gate and while he’s able to cover plenty of ground, he likely grades out closer to above-average than plus.
His arm is a cannon and likely projects as above-average to plus moving forward. It’s strong with good carry and he showed off a couple of great throws throughout the weekend, including a back-pick to first base on a single up the middle on Sunday that nearly got the runner. Should he move out of center field in the future, a likely home will be right field thanks to that arm.
Overall, scouts want to continue to see the bat uptick throughout the year. He can be streaky with strikeouts and he did struggle with high heat in the zone, whiffing a bit on those offerings. There’s some cleaning up to be done, but the potential for a toolsy outfielder are there with Lasko.
RHP Drew Conover, Rutgers
Rutgers was excited to get Conover on campus after a solid summer in the Cape Cod League and not signing with the Tigers, who drafted him in the twentieth round last July. A Seton Hall transfer, Conover had just one start in college before Friday night and despite the rough outing, the stuff is quite loud.
Conover’s first pitch of the night gave you a glimpse of the nastiness. His cutter was arguably his best pitch on the night, a mid-80’s offering with tight spin that gives Conover an extra weapon with solid horizontal movement and some depth. It showcased backfoot abilities and can easily be his best swing-and-miss offering. It’s a great compliment to his mid-90’s bowling ball sinker, which tops out at 96 MPH. However, that’s about where the positives ended for Conover’s outing. He got two quick outs before struggling to record the last out of the inning and in the second inning, a lead-off double and four straight walks plagued his outing. Granted, Conover was not squared up regularly by Campbell’s offense, but they did capitalize on the free passes. Conover’s low-80’s slider, a pitch with a ton of sweep, had very little feel, as well. The pitch was rather loopy and he could not find his release point, hitting a batter with one offering in the first inning before ditching the pitch the rest of the outing.
With Conover’s delivery, there are a ton of moving parts, starting with the long arm stroke and trying to get everything else to work properly in the kinetic chain. While he’s got a whippy arm and a low release, he struggled to find a consistent release point and with the nature of his arsenal, he had a hard time landing his stuff for strikes. He’s likely a reliever long term, which isn’t a bad thing with the kind of stuff he possesses. A right-handed Brad Hand is the first comparison that comes to mind. He’ll be a big follow for northeast guys for the remainder of the spring and hopefully there are better outings ahead.
RHP Ty Cummings, Campbell
With the kind of depth that Campbell has, it’s no shock that a couple of highly touted arms missed out on starting opportunities. Ty Cummings, a workhorse a year ago out of the bullpen, is expected to be one of Justin Haire’s most valuable weapons again this year, but I like to think that a starting opportunity could arise for Cummings at some point this year.
Conover and Cummings have similar sinkers. It’s another bowling ball offering with plenty of sink in the 93-96 MPH range, topping out at 97 MPH a couple of times later in his outing on Saturday. As you’d expect, it was a ground-ball machine, generating five ground ball outs over the course of three scoreless innings. The slider is a sweeper with high spin in the 2,700-2,800 RPM range that was tough on batters throughout, sitting in the 81-85 MPH range. It was his go-to swing-and-miss offering, generating four whiffs on eleven pitches thrown. He did flash a decent change-up at 83 that generated a whiff to Xavier Vargas, as well.
It’s an easy delivery with a low slot that’s relatively under control through release, falling towards the first base side of the mound to finish out. It’s a tough at-bat with some deception. Due to team depth, it’s likely that he’ll stay in the role he has now, which is the late-inning threat that can close out games, though a swingman position should not be ruled out with him. There should be plenty of heat on him throughout the spring and there’s a solid chance this is the kind of arm that could go early on Day 2.
RHP Ernie Day, Campbell
If there’s anything that Haire’s staff does well, it’s recruiting well on the JUCO trail. One school in particular is a popular spot for the crew, that being Iowa Western Community College. Three players came over to Campbell from that school, including Trenton Harris and Logan Jordan. But newcomer Ernie Day may be the highest rated of the bunch.
The former Mississippi State recruit made his season debut on Sunday after starter Cade Boxrucker struggled in a short outing. Day ate up a majority of the middle innings in what turned out to be a blowout loss, but he caught scouts’ interest with his solid arsenal.
He pitches downhill with some effort to his delivery, but the crossfire is now gone and he’s more linear to the plate. The fastball has good ride and run, sitting in the 92-96 MPH range and topping out at 97 MPH with good command throughout. He did give up some hard hits, including the aforementioned Lasko double, with the heater, but he held velocity with high spin. The slider is a gyroball of sorts, a tight-spinning pitch with good depth and stays short to the plate. The spin is quite ridiculous, peaking at the 3,000 RPM threshold and consistently sitting in the 2,800-2,900 RPM range and doubled down on it as the outing went along for whiffs. He did flash a change-up in the high-80’s that was firm, too.
Much like Cummings, he’s one that could see starts down the line for Campbell, but the team’s pitching depth makes it difficult to find a spot presently. However, he showed his ability to work deep into outings, pitching 5.1 innings with six strikeouts. He’s another arm that could be a Day 2 sleeper in July and he’ll be an interesting follow as the spring continues.
Other noteworthy players: SS Trenton Harris, Campbell; OF Trevor Cohen, Rutgers; INF Jarrod Belbin, Campbell