Breaking down our baseball team....

[DowntownDawg]

....and it's easy to see it really is about the players. We can wish Cohen played Butler over Frost or starts Duffy, but it's not like we've got a bunch of All-SEC guys on the bench. Our veterans are not SEC caliber ballplayers and our young guys are young.

Vickerson - Average to below average SEC third baseman. Offense lacks somewhat but very good defensive player.
Adkins - Solid to average SEC outfielder.
Powers - Very good SEC caliber ballplayer.
Sneed - Not an SEC caliber player. It's a joke that he hits 4th. His bat is not that great and he is horrible in the field.
Collins - Not an SEC ballplayer.
Ogden - SEC caliber defense, cancelled out by terrible bat.
Freeman - What a joke. Anybody that wants third base can have it when he is catching. Inconsistent bat.
Butler - Again, what a joke. As Todd pointed out, this guy is supposed to be a leader. Sucks so bad in the field and it's not like he is some great hitter. Shouldn't be playing SEC baseball.
Frost - Hilarious.
Thigpen - Painful to watch at the plate.
Shephard - Again, very nice defensive player, offensive liability.

Reed - SEC caliber middle relief or midweek guy. Nowhere near what you need in a Friday night starter, even though he is improving and did all that was asked of him.
Stratton - On a normal SEC team, he would be our midweek starter, or at best your Sunday guy. He is our best pitcher without a doubt, and should be about our fourth best. He will develop.
Bracewell - Decent SEC caliber closer.
Routt - Who knows this year?

The rest of our staff - Graveman, Girodo, Houston, Collins, Watson, Jones, etc. are young and should be redshirting or getting midweek work or are worthless arms that don't belong on the roster.

So to sum it up, we have, at the most, 3 SEC caliber position players, 1 SEC caliber starting pitcher and 1 SEC caliber closer. Everybody else either doesn't belong on the field or are being asked to do more than they are ready to do. Next year is going to be worse, folks. We are going to lose Powers. Where is our offense going to come from? Cohen has got to sign some immediate impact offensive guys.

 

[Todd4State]

The only one I would change is Adkins. It doesn't show up a lot in the box score, but if you watch him he take HORRIBLE routes to the ball in the outfield. I've seen him turn some long singles into doubles for the opposing team. He is a DH/pinch hitter type of guy.

As far as next year, go ahead and brace yourself, because I think we are going to see a lot of freshmen in the field next year. But in a way, I'm kind of glad because A. I don't have to see most of the ******** that you mentioned "play" baseball anymore, and B. Even though those guys are freshmen, we will actually probably be better defensively next year at every position except maybe first base.

I expect the freshmen- much like the pitchers that are freshmen this year to struggle at times, and also to have moments where you say "Oh, I see why we wanted this guy." I would not be surprised if our power decreases because we are losing Conner Power, but at the same time, I think our overall average may improve. And we'll have some JUCO guys mixed in- the same ones as this year, we only have three JUCO signees in our upcoming class, and one of those is a guy that actually should have been in the last class had it not been for injury. There will also be a couple of freshmen- like Stratton and Bracewell this year, that will adjust a little bit more quickly and have a little bit more of an impact sooner.

I also think that next year, we will see a major change in attitude. Almost all of Polk's guys will be completely gone. I think we will see a more "Cohen-esque" type team next year. The pitching will also probably be better next year as well. All of our freshmen will be experienced So., we will also get Routt back, Devin Jones back, and Caleb Reed back. And we will also have a few more good arms.

This fall and spring, there will be some major competition at pretty much all positions. Likely more than even this year.

It's going to be 1995 all over again.

 

[RocketCityDawg]

And I really wish I could offer a rebuttal.