Miami had a winning weekend, taking two out of three from the BYU Cougars. Javi Salas, who threw the 23rd perfect game in D1 history for the Canes, joined the CanesInSight Podcast with his thoughts on Miami’s potential building blocks for the future:
On the strong finish of 3B Daniel Cuvet: What would this team be without Daniel Cuvet? This weekend, you saw exactly the kind of lift he can give a struggling ballclub. We miss Blake Cyr and Jason Torres, so Cuvet is on the island by himself. Seventeen home runs and 55 RBI. He won the Thursday and Friday games for Miami. On Thursday, he hit a huge walk-off single in the 12th. And then on Friday night, two mammoth home runs including a grand slam. If I were BYU, I wouldn't have pitched to this guy. There's just no way.
He navigated those midseason struggles. Now it seems he got past it. You see his quotes in the postgame. He’s been working really hard to figure out what was wrong and to assess it. As a freshman, he’s problem-solving in a really tough conference. Credit to the kid. He's a superstar. We're really lucky to have him. In a year that's been difficult for Canes fans, this is by far the biggest bright spot.
On evaluating Gage Ziehl as a potential pro: I like to sit up close when I go to Canes games. I like to watch the pitchers and see how their stuff moves. With Gage, he just pours in strikes. He’s not going to beat himself. He's really confident throwing three pitches that he can throw for strikes in any count. Really advanced feel for the breaking ball and the change.
As you get to that professional level, the next step is, “How do you get guys out over the plate?” That's the biggest adjustment from the collegiate level to the professional level. Guys start swinging at less balls. Gage has a really good understanding of how to do it already.
Gage also understands how to navigate a lineup. He's really efficient and economical with his pitches. Thursday night, he looked like he had his best stuff in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. And he's just a bulldog. He’s up there with Cuvet, 1A and 1B. Where would this team be without those two guys?
If Miami makes the ACC Tournament, they're going to be one of the last seeds in. They're going to face one of the top teams. If you're one of the top teams, you don't want to face Gage Ziehl. He’s a great teammate, great player, great steward for the program. He was ranked within the top 100 MLB Draft prospects a couple weeks ago. I think he's going to have a long and fruitful professional career. He's done everything right while he's been a Hurricane.
On RHP Brandon Oliveira: Oliveira has had some bright spots and some down moments, which is to be expected as a freshman. All these guys came into the pitching rotation as starters in high school. Oliveira had been a tremendous prep star, and then comes into this Hurricane pitching rotation and finds himself in this middle relief role. He hasn't necessarily got his footing.
The stuff is there. I've talked to a lot of baseball guys, professional guys. He’s got a good feel for the breaking ball. He just hasn't really learned how to pitch yet. We’ve seen a lot of walks from Oliveira. We’ve also seen a lot of hitter's counts, and that's where you really get burned.
The biggest jump you make from one level to the next is you’ve got to throw strikes. It's got to be strike one. It's got to be strike two. The one-and-one counts and the two-and-one counts are swing counts. Averages jump in one direction or another depending on whether you throw a strike in some of those swing counts.
I was in those shoes as a freshman and really struggled. I got sent to summer ball. That's a big building block for some of these guys. It's a tremendous opportunity and life experience for a guy like Brandon Oliveira.
On OF Jake Kulikowski: I like what I see of him. He had a great high school prep career at Tampa Jesuit. He hasn't really gotten the regular at-bats that I thought we'd see out of him, especially when the season took a turn.
He got a big hit on Friday and drove in a run. I like the tools he has. I like what he brings to the lineup as a left-handed bat. He just needs more at-bats.
On the Portal strategy in light of #1 Texas A&M taking 10 transfers: You’ve seen it in football with Mario building the trenches. We need to get better up the middle. Center field, shortstop, second base, catcher. Those are really the meat and potatoes of your lineup. We've got to get better there.
You hit the nail on the head. We've talked about Florida State. You mentioned Texas A&M. There is a path to get better in the transfer portal. There's not going to be a shortage of guys entering.
It's all about sifting through those names and understanding who we have on our roster. That’s going to be the first piece. The next couple of weeks are big for that. We've got seven guaranteed games left. That's a good-enough sample size to say, “Hey Antonio Jimenez didn’t have the best season but he hit .300 over his last 30 at-bats.” There is enough time left to evaluate what you currently have on the roster.
Looking forward, we're going to need a Texas A&M-style haul to get into contention next season. Miami is not comfortable being under 500. This is not a comfortable space for the coaching staff, for former players, for fans. Everybody wants to see this roster get better. The quickest way to do that is through the transfer portal. I anticipate there's going to be some aggressiveness shown by the staff. You've got to get better quickly.
There's still enough love for the program locally in South Florida. Any top prospect would be lying if they said they wouldn’t answer the phone from the University of Miami. The name brand is still there. It’s just identifying, “Hey, we may have missed a kid.” There's guys at the big league level who played at Miami-Dade high schools and did not go to Miami. Those opportunities are going to be there.
People are going to look at Miami and say they had a down year. Miami is not going to be down forever. This program has way too much of a storied history. It's in a way too desirable of a location. It's a tremendous ballpark and atmosphere. Miami is going to have some opportunities to make some moves here.
They're going to have to be aggressive. They're going to have to go after the right type of player and players that can make an impact right away. Make the calls, do the homework, do the due diligence, get the right players and understand that if you come to play at Miami, you're going to be able to play Day One.
On whether the bunting is a result of team philosophy or lack of faith in the hitting: We just haven't seen consistent performers. There hasn't been anyone at the bottom of the lineup that has stepped up as a force. I'm a pitcher, so I like to navigate lineups. I’d say to myself, “If I can get through the 3-4-5 of this lineup, circling Daniel Cuvet, I know I can get outs at the bottom of the lineup.”
So I think the way the coaching staff is approaching these games is to keep it close. Early on in the year, we saw balls flying out of the park. At this point in the season, you’ve had some key injuries and a bottom of the lineup that hasn't performed well. I think that's why we're seeing a lot more bunting and trying to execute in some of the phases of the game.
On the only path to the NCAA Tournament: You’ve got to win the ACC. Miami hasn't really done enough in conference. And they’ve got to get into the ACC Tournament first. There are two weekend series coming up this weekend at Virginia Tech and next weekend at Pitt. Miami and Pitt are basically vying for that final spot. It's going to come down to that last weekend against Pitt.
