FSU Baseball: Stat regarding new pitching coach leaves room to worry

FSU baseball has a new man leading the pitching staff for the 2020 season, and it’s someone who had quite a rocky road at his last major school.

For the first time in over three decades this coming season, the FSU baseball team will have something new on their coaching staff: no, I’m not talking about new head coach Mike Martin Jr. but instead about the school’s new pitching coach – someone who did not pitch for the Seminoles during his time in college.

After 30 seasons of names like Jayme Shouppe, Mike Bell and Clyde Keller taking their personal love for the Seminoles and attempting to turn it over to the next generation of pitchers for the Noles, it’s going to be someone who never played for the garnet and gold and hasn’t coached that much against them at other stops.

This past week, Martin Jr. hired Jim Belanger as the man who will lead the pitchers for FSU baseball starting in the 2020 season – a move that came after the new head Seminole said he was going to take his time before hiring assistants in an effort to get the best on his staff.

Florida State Seminoles

A New York native, Belanger comes to the Seminoles after playing his college ball at now ACC foe Louisville before heading into the coaching game – with his last two stops being at Maryland, where he coached twice against the Noles, and spending the last three seasons at Kentucky.

While the Terrapins never won a series against FSU baseball in the two seasons Belanger coached there, they did win one game each season and actually pitched pretty well the first season in 2013 while the wheels started to come off in 2014.

Now, there is still plenty of time to see what he is going to do with the Seminoles, but if what took place in Lexington of late is an indication there might be a slight area of concern – especially when you look at one main stat that is pretty important for any pitching staff.

Last season, Belanger was in charge of a pitching staff for the Wildcats that had an ERA on the season of 5.10 a game – nearly a run higher than what the Seminoles had during the 2019 season – as part of a season that saw Kentucky finish the season with a 26-29 record that ended with just seven conference wins on the season.

Now, that was not written to send a panic into any FSU baseball fan – but more as a slight warning that things might be a little bit rougher next season for the Seminoles, especially considering the fact that both the team’s No. 1 starter and closer are both playing pro baseball at this point.