Hey Todd, how about giving your opinion on ...
- Thread starter Shmuley
- Start date
I think your justification lies in a couple of things. How well the pitching staff perfrormed that stayed on campus. And how well our young kids contributed.
I'm encouraged by both. But we rode the back of a DOMINANT pitcher this last year. We will require that to have another year resembling this one. We have a very good staff, but we need a starter that is nearly unhittable and a closer that eliminates the comeback ability of the sec's hitters.
I think we have the closer and a great staff and the young kids. I'm not sure we have the next kick *** starter. ......well, not till I see us play.
17 a recruiting ranking.
I'm encouraged by both. But we rode the back of a DOMINANT pitcher this last year. We will require that to have another year resembling this one. We have a very good staff, but we need a starter that is nearly unhittable and a closer that eliminates the comeback ability of the sec's hitters.
I think we have the closer and a great staff and the young kids. I'm not sure we have the next kick *** starter. ......well, not till I see us play.
17 a recruiting ranking.
I'm not happy about it myself
But the reason for it was because we didn't have very much scholarship money to give out.
There are still some good players in the class- John Marc Shelly will be our closer one day and will improve our bullpen this year, Daniel Garner is going to be a very good catcher for us, and Jacob Robson who was drafted by the Padres and could start for us next year. Kyle Hann is a very underrated player from Canada and also may start for us next year. He just made the IABF All-Star team. (International Tournament) I think Myles Gentry- who is walking on and didn't count in the ranking because we again, didn't have money- will also be a solid pitcher for us either out of the bullpen or as a midweek starter. Losing DuPont and Jacob Shempert hurt- although there is a very good chance we will get Shempert back after he is at ICC for two years.
The biggest reason you shouldn't give a **** is because Cohen's current class that will sign in November is his best class so far. We have four guys that are potential SEC weekend starters- Austin Sexton (5th best player in Alabama per Perfect Game), Dakota Hudson (Possible 5th round pick per Baseball America), Vance Tatum from Southaven who is one of the top five players in Mississippi, and Zac Houston who is the second best player in Mississippi per PG. Then you add in Avery Geyer and Derek Martin and likely Glenn Irby, that's a strong staff. Martin is one of the most underrated players in our class and could possibly be a third baseman as well.
I know we're trying to sign a catcher as well. We should hear something shortly on that. Dylan Ingram is another underrated player- he was named POY in Montgomery, Alabama as a junior, and Trent Simpson is a football signee that may be a better baseball player and he is likely a first baseman. We also have Reid Humphries committed who Perfect Game rated as the number one player in Mississippi and is another potential dual position player. And then we have Dale Burdick in the class of 2014, and Luke Alexander in the class of 2015 and they will both be players that will likely be drafted.
Then as far as the outfield we have Joey Swarzinski in the class of 2014 who is another player that will likely be drafted as well as Brent Rooker who can also play first or third and is going to be a very solid player for us. I think he is going to play outfield for us because he can run.
So, while this last class is not up our standards, our future classes are going to be much, much better.
But the reason for it was because we didn't have very much scholarship money to give out.
There are still some good players in the class- John Marc Shelly will be our closer one day and will improve our bullpen this year, Daniel Garner is going to be a very good catcher for us, and Jacob Robson who was drafted by the Padres and could start for us next year. Kyle Hann is a very underrated player from Canada and also may start for us next year. He just made the IABF All-Star team. (International Tournament) I think Myles Gentry- who is walking on and didn't count in the ranking because we again, didn't have money- will also be a solid pitcher for us either out of the bullpen or as a midweek starter. Losing DuPont and Jacob Shempert hurt- although there is a very good chance we will get Shempert back after he is at ICC for two years.
The biggest reason you shouldn't give a **** is because Cohen's current class that will sign in November is his best class so far. We have four guys that are potential SEC weekend starters- Austin Sexton (5th best player in Alabama per Perfect Game), Dakota Hudson (Possible 5th round pick per Baseball America), Vance Tatum from Southaven who is one of the top five players in Mississippi, and Zac Houston who is the second best player in Mississippi per PG. Then you add in Avery Geyer and Derek Martin and likely Glenn Irby, that's a strong staff. Martin is one of the most underrated players in our class and could possibly be a third baseman as well.
I know we're trying to sign a catcher as well. We should hear something shortly on that. Dylan Ingram is another underrated player- he was named POY in Montgomery, Alabama as a junior, and Trent Simpson is a football signee that may be a better baseball player and he is likely a first baseman. We also have Reid Humphries committed who Perfect Game rated as the number one player in Mississippi and is another potential dual position player. And then we have Dale Burdick in the class of 2014, and Luke Alexander in the class of 2015 and they will both be players that will likely be drafted.
Then as far as the outfield we have Joey Swarzinski in the class of 2014 who is another player that will likely be drafted as well as Brent Rooker who can also play first or third and is going to be a very solid player for us. I think he is going to play outfield for us because he can run.
So, while this last class is not up our standards, our future classes are going to be much, much better.
I think Brandon Woodruff
Has that kind of potential to be a legit SEC ace. I think Jacob Lindgren has that potential too. I also think that Will Cox and Trevor Fitts are guys that will be drafted one day provided they stay healthy.
I think we will be better next year so long as we stay healthy. Yes, we rode Stratton a lot- but we lost a few SEC series early mainly because we were banged up. And Caleb Reed also blew a couple of games early in the SEC season before Holder emerged. We are also going to have a much more experienced team next year as well- lots of juniors. I do think the pitching will probably be a little bit worse than it was last year- but still very good, but I also think that our hitting will be much better over last year and we will likely have a little bit more power and hopefully now that we are healthy we might be able to do some more things in the running game to manufacture runs other than just bunt. Having more experienced players will hopefully allow us to do some things like hit and run and put even more pressure on the other team. That was an issue last year because we may have had a guy that was a freshman and we would call a hit and run and the batter would swing through and then the runner would get gunned down and probably pull a hamstring muscle. Being healthy should improve our defense a little bit too. Also, being healthy will make our bench deeper.
Has that kind of potential to be a legit SEC ace. I think Jacob Lindgren has that potential too. I also think that Will Cox and Trevor Fitts are guys that will be drafted one day provided they stay healthy.
I think we will be better next year so long as we stay healthy. Yes, we rode Stratton a lot- but we lost a few SEC series early mainly because we were banged up. And Caleb Reed also blew a couple of games early in the SEC season before Holder emerged. We are also going to have a much more experienced team next year as well- lots of juniors. I do think the pitching will probably be a little bit worse than it was last year- but still very good, but I also think that our hitting will be much better over last year and we will likely have a little bit more power and hopefully now that we are healthy we might be able to do some more things in the running game to manufacture runs other than just bunt. Having more experienced players will hopefully allow us to do some things like hit and run and put even more pressure on the other team. That was an issue last year because we may have had a guy that was a freshman and we would call a hit and run and the batter would swing through and then the runner would get gunned down and probably pull a hamstring muscle. Being healthy should improve our defense a little bit too. Also, being healthy will make our bench deeper.
On a related note, at least baseball related.
Buddy of mine said he was listening to a podcast last week from, I believe Baseball America (could have the wrong organization but it was a national entity), discussing collegiate baseball. The guys on the podcast predicted the most exciting player this coming season in the collegiate ranks would be none other than.....Hunter Renfroe. Pretty cool to get that kind of recognition on a national level. I really hope they are right and based on his summertime performance, they just may be.
Buddy of mine said he was listening to a podcast last week from, I believe Baseball America (could have the wrong organization but it was a national entity), discussing collegiate baseball. The guys on the podcast predicted the most exciting player this coming season in the collegiate ranks would be none other than.....Hunter Renfroe. Pretty cool to get that kind of recognition on a national level. I really hope they are right and based on his summertime performance, they just may be.
Hunter
Is a legit five tool player. It's just a matter of him putting it all together and finding a position in the pros. He's really coming along very nicely and I wouldn't be surprised if he has a huge season. You just never know when a guy like that is going to bust out. We'll probably see him in MLB one day. I think Wes Rea could bust out too- he just has to stay healthy and make a few adjustments at the plate. The power is there and he moves very well for someone his size and he is a plus fielder.
Is a legit five tool player. It's just a matter of him putting it all together and finding a position in the pros. He's really coming along very nicely and I wouldn't be surprised if he has a huge season. You just never know when a guy like that is going to bust out. We'll probably see him in MLB one day. I think Wes Rea could bust out too- he just has to stay healthy and make a few adjustments at the plate. The power is there and he moves very well for someone his size and he is a plus fielder.
Hudson was mentioned and didn't think it needed a new topic..his school's regular season finished a couple of days ago due to weekend rainouts. His numbers, and true it's against school ball competition, but still strong-5-2 record, 44 IP, 2 earned runs (0.32 ERA), 85 strikeouts, 8 walks, 12 hits given up. One of his losses, he gave up 1 hit and no earned runs, the other he gave up 4 hits and 1 earned run to the regular season dist. champ, probably should have been out of the inning anyway though not directly losing by error. At his games there have been anywhere from 5 to 20+ major league scouts, with fewer generally there on days the games were in question due to the weather. Guns I've noticed have gone to 94, and he generally is still 90+ into the seventh.
Todd, can you give us your thoughts on how next year's class should rank, based off of what you already know?
I think a lot of it is going to hinge on whether we get Dakota Hudson or not. He seems to be the main one people are worried about losing. It's easily a top 15 class IMO though.
Perfect Game has us at 18 at the moment (includes Cord Sandberg), but they don't include our JUCO recruits.
Perfect Game has us at 18 at the moment (includes Cord Sandberg), but they don't include our JUCO recruits.