re: 2016 [23-33] Auburn Baseball Season Thread Tigers fail to make Hoover.

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AUBURN | Newcomers are expected to make up the majority of Auburn’s pitching staff this season including junior college transfer Ben Braymer.

The 6-foot-2, 222-pound hard-throwing left-hander from LSU-Eunice should fill a key role on the staff.

“He's 88-92 as a starter and we think he's a bull,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “Braymer is a perfect name for him. He's strong, powerful, left-handed, everything you'd want in an SEC pitcher.”

The question Thompson must answer over the next nine days before the season opener is how to use Braymer.

“Is he at his best as one of our starters or could he come in for one or two innings and instead of being 88-92, could he be 93, 94 and go get three to six outs,” Thompson said. “One of the things I mentioned to the ball club today is championship teams usually shorten ballgames.

“Two of our five best pitchers may be in our bullpen because if you can shorten a college game to six or seven innings if you've got the lead and you've got real stuff to shorten it down, sometimes you can sprint and show more than starting.”

Braymer was used as a starter at LSU-Eunice last season compiling a 9-1 record with 138 strikeouts in 94.2 innings but he’s open to a move to the bullpen.

“My main goal is to help the team win anyway that I can,” Braymer said. “If that's going to be as a weekend starter, that's great. I feel confident that I will have success in that role. If my role ends up being somewhere out of the pen and that's the best role that I can help the team win, them so be it. I'll embrace it. The most important thing is that we win.”

Braymer is still in the process of building his relationship with Thompson, who served as a pitching coach at Mississippi State before being hired by Auburn Oct. 22.

“Just picking his brain and hearing what he has to say after my outings has been very helpful and insightful,” Braymer said. “I just can't wait to continue to work under him throughout the course of this season. I feel like he's going to help me out tremendously and he's going to help the other pitchers on our team out as well.”

Braymer’s repertoire includes a two-seam and four-seam fastball, change-up, curve ball and slider. It didn’t take him long to make a positive impression on his teammates.

“I think he's awesome,” senior Justin Camp said. “He throws four pitches, if not five, and he throws them for strikes. He works off his fastball. He competes. Day in and day out, he just wants to win. That's all he cares about and however he has to do it, he's going to out there everyday and give you his best.”

Auburn hosts Sacramento State for a three-game series at Plainsman Park beginning Feb. 19.

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Ben Braymer.

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AUBURN | Justin Camp had a team-high eight saves as Auburn closer last season. This year, the senior could be one of the Tigers’ weekend starters.

“I've been working at starting,” Camp said. “I started this summer when I went off to California and played so I kept doing it. I like it. You get on a routine, you know when you're going to throw so that part of it is nice. It's definitely different than coming out of the pen.”

Camp was 2-1 with a 2.33 ERA in 28 appearances last season. He struck out 48 in 46.1 innings mainly using his fastball and slider.

As a starter, he plans to mix in his changeup.

“I always threw my changeup even when I was just in the pen just because I wanted to have it,” Camp said. “Now I'm able to incorporate that a lot more, especially with the extended innings I'm able to go to that changeup, especially to lefties on fastball counts I'm able to throw it for strikes and get it over.”

Camp has impressed so far during preseason practice. In last Saturday’s scrimmage he pitched four scoreless innings.

“Camp just did a great job of establishing the strike zone and really flying, getting us through the first half of the ballgame,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said.

Camp doesn’t have overpowering stuff but he does a good job of keeping the ball down and getting a lot of ground balls.

“Everything was working. I was able to throw three different pitches any count I wanted to and my defense played good,” Camp said. “I knew all I had to do was get ground balls. That makes it a whole lot easier when you keep them in the game and you don't have to worry about getting a strikeout every at-bat.”

Camp is part of a revamped pitching staff that includes a number of junior college transfers and true freshmen.

Cole Lipscomb is back after an All-SEC sophomore season but junior college transfers Ben Braymer, Gabe Klobosits, Andrew Mitchell and Tavo Rodriguez, along with true freshmen Casey Mize and Daniel Sprinkle are expected to be a big part of the staff.

“I feel like we can do good,” Camp said. “We've got a lot of junior college arms, a lot of freshman arms and a lot of them are pitching a lot and they're competing. I think they're going to play a big role in what we're going to do.

“We don't have a ton of guys returning, we don't have a ton of SEC experience but we've got guys that are willing to compete and they just want to get out there and pitch. I think that competitiveness is going to keep us in a lot of games.”

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Mid-week guy to start the season.

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Didn't they just recently say Braymer was going to be in the pen this year? I thought i read that literally just yesterday in an interview and Thompson mentioned that Braymer's stuff was just on a different level when he could go max-effort.

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