2012 Boston College Baseball Statistical Review

With the conclusion of the 2012 Boston College baseball season, it’s time to take stock of what the team actually accomplished. This is a year that began with a little bit of optimism as the Eagles got off to a 6-2 start against some quality opposition and played a representative game against the Boston Red Sox, but from there, the whole thing fell apart. BC’s final record was 22-33 (10-20), meaning they went 16-31 since that day in Fort Myers and lost control of their season. The Eagles finished in a last-place tie in the ACC Atlantic with Maryland, against whom BC won their series.

As hard as it may be to believe in a .400 season, 2012 actually showed a respectable amount of improvement in certain areas of the team. The numbers:

Boston College’s offense has come a long way since its NCAA Tournament season in 2009, cratering at only a .258 average last year before coming back up to a more respectable .277 this season.

In 2009 and 2010, both of which were decent Boston College teams, the Eagles mashed. Last year, the offense completely collapsed, but like with the team batting average, the runs per game bounced back somewhat. They were nowhere near the top of the ACC, but they pushed a few more runs across the plate.

Last year’s home run total is as shockingly bad as it looks. They averaged one home run for every three or four games in 2011, which is about as bad as it gets. This season, their total rose to something a little more tolerable, but it’s nowhere near what BC had in 2010 with a guy like Mickey Wiswall in the lineup.

If you’re not slugging, you’re not going to have a high OPS, and BC was not slugging last year. This is yet another offensive statistic that pales in comparison to previous successful years, but rebounded from a disastrous 2011.

Team pitching is the best it’s been since 2009. The fact that BC won 30 games in 2010 with pitching that extraordinarily bad (despite having some good individual pitchers) speaks to how well they were able to compensate offensively. The 2012 Boston College Eagles didn’t have the same pop as that team, but the pitching is improved nevertheless.

Opposing batting average is also heading in the right direction.

Defense is one area where BC clearly got worse this year. There were a few games where multiple errors in an inning helped the game unravel, and these mistakes bit the Eagles all year.

22 wins is nothing to write home about, but it beats 17.