What to expect from T.J. Sikkema
As I discussed a few days ago, the Missouri Tigers’ offense is… a bit rough around the edges. It’s reasonable to expect just about every hitting category to at least marginally improve this year, but the true strength of this Missouri team lies in the arms of its pitchers.
Look, Missouri’s recent baseball history isn’t great. If you want to look at the grand scope of their historical performance, the Tigers haven’t appeared in the College World Series since 1964. More recently, they haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since they joined the SEC. It hasn’t always been so bad — Missouri had a seven-year run of making the tournament every year from 2003 to 2009. But the team has fallen on hard times.
So when comparing the 2018 team to those from years past, some perspective is definitely needed. But improvement is improvement, and Missouri’s pitching has gone through just that as of late.
A season ago, the Tigers pitching staff put up an earned run average of 3.67, the team’s best since 2008, almost a full decade ago. Their ERA stood over a full run lower than their collective opponents’ 4.89. Their starters were mostly reliable, and when they weren’t, the bullpen arms were there to put out the fires.
Similar to its offense, Missouri is returning a vast majority of its pitching production from 2017. It lost one of its frontline starters in Tanner Houck to the Boston Red Sox, who nabbed him in the first round of last year’s MLB draft, but the squad is still a recognizable force.
Missouri finished sixth in the country in WHIP (Walks plus Hits per Innings Pitched) — an indicator of how well a pitcher limits base runners — with 1.20. The team is expected to have one of the better pitching staffs again this year, and one, big reason is returning for his sophomore year.
T.J. Sikkema can pitch — that much is clear. As a freshman in 2017, he went 8-2, recorded four saves and bolstered a 2.72 ERA in 22 appearances. The southpaw allowed a run before getting his first out, but immediately after went 29.2 innings without allowing a run while striking out 48 and only allowing 16 hits.
Need more? Sikkema’s 0.88 WHIP was second in the country, his 2.72 ERA was eighth in the SEC and he won SEC Freshman of the Week twice. He also received All-SEC Freshman Team honors.
Sikkema is one of the premier sophomore throwers in the NCAA — he was dubbed a Preseason Second Team All-American — but what can we expect from him this season? He was second on the staff last year in innings pitched with 79.1, but we might see that rise a tick due to the departure of Houck, who led the Tigers with 94.2.
Despite logging loads of innings, only three of the lefty’s 22 appearances as a freshman came as starts.It’s fair to tentatively expect a fair increase in starts for a few reasons. For one, Houck’s 14 starts last year was the most for Missouri, so Sikkema could be due to receive some of the starts Houck can no longer fill. But more importantly, when Sikkema was given the chance, he showed he was capable of filling the role.
During the tail end of the 2017 season, he was slotted into the Missouri rotation. His first start was bumpy: he surrendered three earned runs in four innings against South Carolina in a 4-3 defeat. But in his second career start against Tennessee, Sikkema shined.
On May 18th of last year, he threw a complete game shutout which included seven strikeouts, no walks and only four hits. The gem brought him SEC Freshman of the Week honors. His third start was more like the first — five runs over five innings against LSU in the SEC Tournament. But LSU is a powerhouse and was the runner-up in the College World Series last year, so it’s tough to criticize him too heavily for that one.
Those two rough starts may worry you, but the Tennessee outing showed the smallest glimpse of what we may see from the southpaw this year.