13 days till FSU baseball: Jonah Scolaro to be key bullpen arm for third straight year

Jonah Scolaro heads into his junior year at FSU already logging 53 appearances and 92.2 innings on the mound. After having a strong freshman year and posting a 3.43 ERA, Scolaro had an up-and-down sophomore season. The lefty made 24 appearances in FSU’s first 44 games before not seeing action for nearly an entire month as the ‘Noles made their way to Omaha. Sco finished his season on a high note in the College World Series, as he looked the best he had all season. He faced nine batters in three innings of work, not allowing a single base runner and striking out six batters. Scolaro finished the 2019 season with a 4.69 ERA in 48 IP.

The southpaw’s ERA was surprisingly high compared to his WHIP and batting average against. Scolaro’s .197 batting average against was second on the team behind Chase Haney’s .170 BAA. The Tampa-native also produced a 1.20 WHIP and a 9.75 K/9, but his BB/9 rose from 3.67 to 4.31. The lefty gave up 0 runs in 14/26 appearances, but also gave up 2+ runs in 9 appearances. With more depth in FSU’s pen, he won’t have to eat up so many innings out of the pen and be able to minimize the damage more often.

Scolaro is a crafty lefty, working with a slower fastball but above average off-speed pitches. The fastball comes in at the 86-88 MPH range with two-seam tail from his low arm slot. He throws a high 70’s changeup against righties to get roll overs and constant ground balls. Against left-handed hitters, he throws a nasty slider that is also in the high 70’s and moves more than the width of the plate. He can also throw a slower breaking ball with more depth from time to time. The slider can also be thrown back foot against right-handed hitters for swings-and-misses.

With the three new lefty freshman pitchers, Scolaro should be spared a few more appearances on the mound. To me, the most of his issues in 2019 was fatigue which led to issues with fastball command. When he was given a month off, he came back looking the best he ever had against some of the best teams in the nation. The slider is deadly against LHH’s and he’s shown the ability to also get RHH’s out with the changeup. The junior is just another dependable and veteran arm for Jimmy Belanger and Mike Martin Jr. to use out of the pen in 2020.