When Millburn’s baseball team enters the spring season in less than a week, it starts with a clean slate and a new beginning, featuring new head coach Brian Chapman.
Chapman will bring a championship pedigree with him from Cranford High School and an open mind with no preconceived notions about this Miller team.
Whether you were a senior, a freshman, a starter, a bench warmer or a junior varsity player, everyone is getting a chance to show the new coach what they can do this season. Chapman is keeping an open mind and has no idea who is in his starting lineup or in his rotation.
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“I’m very excited to be here in Millburn,” Chapman said. “Millburn baseball has a great reputation, a great history and tradition. It’s a great town and I’m happy to be here.”
He served as an assistant coach for 12 years at Cranford High School. During that time, he helped guide the Cougars to six Union County titles, six state sectional titles (including last year’s section with Millburn in the field) and one Group 3 Championship. If any of that success can transfer to Millburn, there will be some very happy Miller fans who have not had a winning record since winning the section in 2008.
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“I get to tell the kids a lot of stories,” Chapman joked. “What we did in Cranford is what we did in Cranford. …I’m not nervous. I really bided my time. I’m 41 years old, this is a really unique situation. I feel fully prepared.”
Part of the reason there has not been as much success for the boys over the last two seasons, however, was the change in conference a year ago, moving the locals from the Northern Hills to the Super Essex Conference American Division. Essex County’s top division is thought by many to be the best division in the state, containing the likes of Montclair, Livingston and Seton Hall Prep.
“It’s very difficult to say at this point (where we fit in the conference),” Chapman said. “I know we have potential, I know we have a very tough conference. I don’t know where we fall yet, we’re just really focused on trying to get better every day.”
A year ago, the locals finished 13-16 in an up-and-down spring, and placed in the bottom half of the division, as they won only three of their final 12 games. Millburn reached the quarterfinals of both the Greater Newark Tournament and of the North II Group 3 State Sectional playoffs.
But the team lost some star graduating players, including their best hitter, Chris Benedict, their best pitcher, Peter Han, leadoff hitter A.J. O’Leary and cleanup hitter Dylan Bailey, just to name a few. While they don’t have much experience returning to the lineup, offense wasn’t exactly a team strength in 2010.
The Millers went as their offense did. In the 11 games in which they scored five or more runs a year ago, the locals were 8-3. In the 17 games in which they scored four or fewer runs, Millburn was 5-13. While it’s fairly obvious that scoring more runs will generally lead to more wins, it does show that this was not the type of team that was winning many 3-1, or 1-0 games a year ago, which are the types of games played in playoff and tournament situations.
The number one strength for the locals this season is their pitching staff, which has racked up an uncanny amount of experience. The quartet of seniors Ian Barry, Dan Frischman, Stephen Near and Clayton Elder have racked up well over 100 innings of pitching experience and are likely closer to 200 innings.
Chapman will be relying on those arms to guide the locals.
“I’ve coached for over 15 years and I’ve never seen that before,” Champman said of his pitching experience. “That could be our advantage.”
On the offensive side of the ball, it’s tough to say what the team will be able to do, especially with so many unknowns in the lineup. Will Fitzgerald and Tim Swanson are the two biggest returning names for the Miller lineup.
“I like what our lineup has been able to do both in scrimmages and in practices. Right now there’s a real healthy competition.”
Chapman’s coaching strategy will be all about focusing on the basics and fundamentals. Putting the ball in play, limiting strikeouts and being aggressive on the basepaths is the offensive philosophy.
On the other side of the ball, limiting teams to three outs per inning, pitchers throwing strikes and not compounding physical or mental errors with other errors will be the focus.
As far as team goals, Chapman said the only goal is to try and improve with each game, adding his limited knowledge of the team makes it hard for him to put set goals like making the playoffs or getting deep into the county tournament.
Fair or unfair, Chapman may be under a bit of pressure t0 produce results relatively quickly. Chapman replaces former head coach Daryl Palmieri who resigned last year, citing intense and relentless harassment from team parents, after failing to produce a winning season in his first and only two seasons as a head coach.
“I wasn’t here, I don’t know what happened with coach Palmieri,” Chapman said. “All of the parents I’ve met with so far have been respectful and they’ve followed the protocol of when they have a question. I don’t think that parents being really into it is exclusive to only Millburn.”
The Millers get their season kicked off on Friday at Eastside, and then are home for the next four games to start the spring campaign.
