March 4th is a special day for Javi Salas. This year, it marked the 10th anniversary of his perfect game. He threw the opening pitch against the Gators the day before, and came away from the weekend more optimistic on the future of the Canes.
“You hang tough on Friday, you beat Florida on Saturday. And then on Sunday, you get Jack Caglione, right? And that's kind of the story of the beast of University of Florida. They had the best player on the field all three nights. And on Sunday, he pitched and hit himself to a Florida victory. So I mean, look, does Miami want to lose two or three? You don't want to make that a habit, right? Obviously, Florida's our biggest rival. It's the barometer of the early point of the season. But I think there are positives to build on.”
One of those positives was the starting pitching.
“Saturday and Sunday starting pitching held their own against Florida. Obviously, Herrick Hernandez would want to have a better start. Unfortunately, you spot Florida an error in the first inning, they take full advantage of it, two runs right on the board, right off the bat. So it's kind of one of those things where there's building blocks Saturday and Sunday. Grace Schlesinger pitched really well, I thought on Saturday afternoon. And then there's some young guys in the bullpen that you can sort of hang your hat on. Nick Robert came in late in the game on Saturday, pitched again on Sunday, did really well. Jordan Vargas had a nice outing, his first outing in the midweek role. Gets put into a high leverage situation on Saturday, works himself into some trouble, but obviously building blocks, something that you're gonna see him get much better in these situation.”
Salas and DMoney both pointed to Jason Torres as someone who has impressed early.
“Torres is one of those guys, too, where anything, he's like a volume shooter. He's gonna swing a lot. There's gonna be some swing and miss, but the power is what is gonna set him apart. I really do see 15 to 20 home runs from this guy, right? There is a ton of upside. Obviously, you mentioned we didn't see a whole lot of them last year. He's playing behind CJ Kayfus and Yo-Yo Morales, two guys we're gonna see in the major leagues pretty soon. Canes fans don't really know Jason Torres, but he's a really, really solid baseball player.”
Despite these positives, this was still a loss to a hated rival. And it fits with a trend of inconsistent play from the Canes.
“You know, we've lost two midweeks in a row. We lost UCF, lost the Florida Gulf Coast. So you want to make sure that yes, we hung tough. There's a lot of building blocks, but ultimately losing a series to the Gators is just one of those things you never want to see in an in-state rival like that. It's tough to swallow as a Canes fan.”
There were numerous correctable issues that will likely cost head baseball coach J.D. Arteaga some sleep.
“Number one, you want to clean up the errors. You don't ever want to spot teams runs. Friday night, first inning error, Florida gets a run. Sunday afternoon, first inning error, Florida gets a run. Two runs on a home run. So you gotta clean up the errors. I think the other area you gotta clean up is the defining of roles in the bullpen. I talked about some freshmen that got some key innings, pitching some really tight situations. Now, how do we start defining those roles and say, this is my middle relief guy, this is my setup guy, this is my closer? That's what JD, Coach Gutierrez are gonna really harp in on the next couple weeks. As you get into the meat of ACC play, that's gotta be nailed down.”
Perhaps the biggest source of confidence going forward is the emergence of freshman 3B Daniel Cuvet, who is hitting .548 with 6 home runs and a 1.119 slugging percentage.
“He's an absolute monster. He's physically imposing, which you don't really see for freshmen. I mean, he's 18 years old. He's right out of high school. This guy is six months removed from his prom. And all of a sudden, he's thrust into batting third at the University of Miami. So for me as a pitcher, I'm beyond impressed with what he can do at the plate. He's not afraid. As a pitcher I saw Friday night, Kevin O'Sullivan hit him twice. One of them was after a mound visit. So I can imagine that conversation said hey miss in and not in for a strike, and if you hit them will live with it. So, I saw a kid that gets hit twice, wasn't scared. Saturday he comes and hits a huge home run in a clutch situation. So for me as a pitcher, man, that guy's got all the makings of a superstar and you hear his quotes after the game about work ethic and what he wants to be. For all intents and purposes, if he answers the phone on draft day last year, I'm sure he's drafted in the top couple rounds. He's in a minor league organization right now working his way up to a full season club. And we've talked to guys that say that Daniel could play in our minor league organization right now and be super successful. So Miami got a really good one.”
The Canes resume against Stonehill College at 6 PM on Wednesday at the Light. CanesInSight will continue to ramp up its Canes Baseball coverage and give you the absolute latest on the CanesInSight Live Podcast, running Monday-Friday all year.
