Justin Parker is no stranger to building good pitching staffs, putting together well-rounded groups over three different stops at Wright State, UCF and Indiana.
Now, he’ll take the next step and try to build on momentum at South Carolina with a very similar formula to his other stops.
“Obviously you want to build off of elite starting pitching. You want strike throwers, you want competitors, you want adjustment makers. At the end of the game, I’ve always thought, ‘Man, if you can have a stable of five or six guys in the bullpen,’” Parker told GamecockCentral.
“We have three or four or five different guys we feel good interchanging as setup or closer type of roles. They create a nucleus out there and a pride out there as a bullpen to where if we have a lead in the sixth inning this game is over.”
Dating back to 2014, the eight staffs Parker’s had his hands on have a 3.51 ERA and 1.267 WHIP and he’s maintained success over the course of his career.
Now, Parker takes over a Gamecock staff coming off a tremendous 2021 season but needing to replace a hefty chunk of innings with the departures of guys like Thomas Farr, Brannon Jordan, Brett Kerry, Daniel Lloyd, Andrew Peters and losing Jack Mahoney and Jackson Phipps to injury.
What he does have—integral to building around starting pitching—is Will Sanders and Julian Bosnic, two pitchers expected to anchor the rotation this year.
“I think putting guys in the best role for them and not out of necessity. I mentioned Sanders and Bosnic having starter traits, starter traits in their personality, starter traits in their work, starter traits in the way they tick,” Parker said. “They make adjustments, they’re detailed, they're sharp, they’re thoughtful. They have the repertoire to do through the lineup multiple times.”
Now comes the part where Parker has to figure out the other roles between a group of newcomers headlined by transfers James Hicks, Michael Esposito and Noah Hall and a group of returners.
Outside of Bosnic and Sanders, who combined for 104 innings, South Carolina returns five healthy pitchers who made at least five appearances last season: John Gilreath (15), Wes Sweatt (10), Parker Coyne (7), CJ Weins (6) and Josiah Sightler (5).
“A lot comes with getting to know them and getting to know them as players and who they are as people,” Parker said. “Somewhat the perfectionist guys, who love table-setting and all those circumstances, that guy needs to go through an hour-long pregame routine, he needs to be out there in the first inning and that’s his comfort zone. There are some guys that don’t like that and like to be thrown into the fire, into the middle. They’ll inherit the circumstances and away they go. Learning those things about a person is part of it, too.”
South Carolina will start spring scrimmages soon, a big measuring tool for Parker and the rest of the staff to help figure out which pitchers fit best in what roles and build the pitching staff around that.
“Being able to build those roles out and understand there might be young relievers in those roles who might be future starters. That’s OK,” Parker said. “But getting them to be really invested to whatever their strengths are be really good at those strengths.”
----
• Not a subscriber? Learn more about Gamecock Central here!
• Watch our live show and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Sign up for Gamecock Central's FREE news alerts and daily newsletter.
• Subscribe to our podcast on whatever podcast platform you prefer!
• Follow us on Twitter: @GamecockCentral, @GCChrisClark, @WesMitchellGC, @CollynTaylor and @Mike_Uva.
• Follow Gamecock Central on Instagram @GamecockCentral.
