COMFORTABLE IN CLOSER ROLE
8/10/2020 11:14:00 AM | Baseball
Boyd Returning for 5th Season, Will Lead Deep Bullpen
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Luke Boyd gave serious consideration to leaving school after his junior season when the Baylor right-handed reliever was taken by the Los Angeles Angels in the 38th round of the 2019 Major League Baseball Draft.
It took a coronavirus outbreak and the fewest picks in the history of the 56-year-old Major League Baseball Draft, but Boyd is coming "Back to Baylor" after tying for the national lead with six saves in a shortened 2020 season.
"After the season got canceled, my immediate reaction was I was scared, just because there was so much uncertainty," Boyd said. "I had no idea if I was going to have the opportunity to come back to Baylor."
That door was partially opened when the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility for spring sports' athletes who had their season cut short because of COVID-19.
But, there was still the pending MLB Draft in June.
The league reached an agreement with the players association to cut the draft from 40 rounds to five this year and 20 rounds in 2021. If there had instead been 10 rounds, which was one of the proposals, "I could have seen (Boyd) easily going in the top 10," Baylor pitching coach Jon Strauss said.
"When you look at metrics and you look at the spin rate on his slider, it's an elite pitch," Strauss said. "For professional baseball, that's what they're looking for. Plus, you add success at the end of the game, I think it's an easy 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th-round pick. He was approached as a free agent sign, but just the opportunity to come back and do this I think intrigued him so much. He has a special bond with those guys in the bullpen."
While quarantined back home in Ojai, Calif., Boyd said he was "getting calls pretty consistently" from several teams. "And then as soon as MLB came out that it was going to be five rounds, my phone got pretty dry," he said.
With teams allowed to sign an unlimited number of undrafted players for $20,000 each, Boyd had plenty of chances to sign a free-agent deal and turn pro. But, when the Baylor coaches came up with an aid package that made it comfortable for him to come back for another year, "that's when I was 100 percent going to come back."
"I want to play for these coaches and no one else," he said. "These coaches are the only ones to give me a chance out of high school in the whole nation. Baylor was my only offer. So, I'm going to give it my all day-in and day-out and definitely take advantage of this fifth year."
As the eighth-inning setup man for All-American closer Kyle Hill in 2019, Boyd was 3-0 with a 2.14 ERA and .170 opponents' batting average in earning honorable mention All-Big 12 honors. That was a big step up from his first two seasons, when he gave up 31 hits and 20 walks in 22 1/3 innings and had a 9.27 ERA in 16 appearances.
"My freshman and sophomore year, I was letting too much of my previous pitches roll over and affect my next pitches," Boyd said. "Coming into my junior year, I had a good talk with Strauss and he just said, 'Take it a pitch at a time. If you throw a bad pitch, so what, focus on the next pitch.' That junior year is basically what changed my whole perspective on pitching."
Strauss said Boyd couldn't have had better role models than Hill and 2017 All-American Troy Montemayor in preparing for the closer's role that he took over as a senior in 2020. Hill was 6-0 with seven saves and didn't allow a run as the closer in 2019, while Montemayor tied the school record with 37 career saves.
"I can't draw it up any better than that, for him to learn from those guys," Strauss said. "I don't even need to be there. He learned from the best, and they passed it on. Obviously, that would be Luke's job this year is to pass it on to someone else."
Clearly comfortable in the closer role, Boyd picked up a win and five saves in his first seven appearances out of the pen before a blown save in the ninth inning of a 2-1, extra-inning loss to Cal Poly. For the season, he was 1-0 with a 0.82 ERA and six saves, allowing just seven hits and one walk with 16 strikeouts in 11.0 innings.
"Honestly, I was comfortable because I didn't change my mentality, at all," he said. "My job was to go out there and take it a pitch at a time and get three outs or however many outs I needed to get. So, it didn't matter. I enjoyed the closer, that's where I want to be. But, if the team needs me to go in in the fourth or the fifth or the seven inning – if I need to open a game – my job is just to get outs. Fortunately for me, the ninth inning is where I strive."
Once again, Boyd will be called on to lead a deep bullpen that includes veteran setup men in Ryan Leckich, Logan Freeman and Daniel Caruso.
"He's got the best slider definitely in our program and maybe in college baseball," Strauss said of Boyd's pitching arsenal. "It's one of those pitches that you know it's coming and you still can't hit it. That's pretty special. Kind of like (Hall of Fame closer) Mariano Rivera, where you the cutter is coming, and you still can't cut it. That makes it really nice when you're not tricking anybody, everybody knows what's coming, and he can still get them out."
After graduating in May with a degree in sports sponsorship and sales, Boyd plans to start working on a master's degree in sport management this fall.
"I know I won't be that attractive, being a 23-year-old entering the draft," he said. "But, all the scouts I talked to, I said, 'Would you guys still be interested?' And they said if I stay healthy and keep getting people out, why wouldn't they want me.' That's my mentality. I'm going to keep working on my shoulder rehab and keep throwing the heck out of that slider."
Baylor Bear Insider
Luke Boyd gave serious consideration to leaving school after his junior season when the Baylor right-handed reliever was taken by the Los Angeles Angels in the 38th round of the 2019 Major League Baseball Draft.
It took a coronavirus outbreak and the fewest picks in the history of the 56-year-old Major League Baseball Draft, but Boyd is coming "Back to Baylor" after tying for the national lead with six saves in a shortened 2020 season.
"After the season got canceled, my immediate reaction was I was scared, just because there was so much uncertainty," Boyd said. "I had no idea if I was going to have the opportunity to come back to Baylor."
That door was partially opened when the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility for spring sports' athletes who had their season cut short because of COVID-19.
But, there was still the pending MLB Draft in June.
The league reached an agreement with the players association to cut the draft from 40 rounds to five this year and 20 rounds in 2021. If there had instead been 10 rounds, which was one of the proposals, "I could have seen (Boyd) easily going in the top 10," Baylor pitching coach Jon Strauss said.
"When you look at metrics and you look at the spin rate on his slider, it's an elite pitch," Strauss said. "For professional baseball, that's what they're looking for. Plus, you add success at the end of the game, I think it's an easy 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th-round pick. He was approached as a free agent sign, but just the opportunity to come back and do this I think intrigued him so much. He has a special bond with those guys in the bullpen."
While quarantined back home in Ojai, Calif., Boyd said he was "getting calls pretty consistently" from several teams. "And then as soon as MLB came out that it was going to be five rounds, my phone got pretty dry," he said.
With teams allowed to sign an unlimited number of undrafted players for $20,000 each, Boyd had plenty of chances to sign a free-agent deal and turn pro. But, when the Baylor coaches came up with an aid package that made it comfortable for him to come back for another year, "that's when I was 100 percent going to come back."
"I want to play for these coaches and no one else," he said. "These coaches are the only ones to give me a chance out of high school in the whole nation. Baylor was my only offer. So, I'm going to give it my all day-in and day-out and definitely take advantage of this fifth year."
As the eighth-inning setup man for All-American closer Kyle Hill in 2019, Boyd was 3-0 with a 2.14 ERA and .170 opponents' batting average in earning honorable mention All-Big 12 honors. That was a big step up from his first two seasons, when he gave up 31 hits and 20 walks in 22 1/3 innings and had a 9.27 ERA in 16 appearances.
"My freshman and sophomore year, I was letting too much of my previous pitches roll over and affect my next pitches," Boyd said. "Coming into my junior year, I had a good talk with Strauss and he just said, 'Take it a pitch at a time. If you throw a bad pitch, so what, focus on the next pitch.' That junior year is basically what changed my whole perspective on pitching."
Strauss said Boyd couldn't have had better role models than Hill and 2017 All-American Troy Montemayor in preparing for the closer's role that he took over as a senior in 2020. Hill was 6-0 with seven saves and didn't allow a run as the closer in 2019, while Montemayor tied the school record with 37 career saves.
"I can't draw it up any better than that, for him to learn from those guys," Strauss said. "I don't even need to be there. He learned from the best, and they passed it on. Obviously, that would be Luke's job this year is to pass it on to someone else."
Clearly comfortable in the closer role, Boyd picked up a win and five saves in his first seven appearances out of the pen before a blown save in the ninth inning of a 2-1, extra-inning loss to Cal Poly. For the season, he was 1-0 with a 0.82 ERA and six saves, allowing just seven hits and one walk with 16 strikeouts in 11.0 innings.
"Honestly, I was comfortable because I didn't change my mentality, at all," he said. "My job was to go out there and take it a pitch at a time and get three outs or however many outs I needed to get. So, it didn't matter. I enjoyed the closer, that's where I want to be. But, if the team needs me to go in in the fourth or the fifth or the seven inning – if I need to open a game – my job is just to get outs. Fortunately for me, the ninth inning is where I strive."
Once again, Boyd will be called on to lead a deep bullpen that includes veteran setup men in Ryan Leckich, Logan Freeman and Daniel Caruso.
"He's got the best slider definitely in our program and maybe in college baseball," Strauss said of Boyd's pitching arsenal. "It's one of those pitches that you know it's coming and you still can't hit it. That's pretty special. Kind of like (Hall of Fame closer) Mariano Rivera, where you the cutter is coming, and you still can't cut it. That makes it really nice when you're not tricking anybody, everybody knows what's coming, and he can still get them out."
After graduating in May with a degree in sports sponsorship and sales, Boyd plans to start working on a master's degree in sport management this fall.
"I know I won't be that attractive, being a 23-year-old entering the draft," he said. "But, all the scouts I talked to, I said, 'Would you guys still be interested?' And they said if I stay healthy and keep getting people out, why wouldn't they want me.' That's my mentality. I'm going to keep working on my shoulder rehab and keep throwing the heck out of that slider."
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