What Great News!!
- Thread starter JRock1966
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Comebakaztz3:
What to do you think about CATS for this season? Any SEC Quality newcomers new comers? Afraid I'm down on Henderson!
What to do you think about CATS for this season? Any SEC Quality newcomers new comers? Afraid I'm down on Henderson!
Not comeback, but UK has quality starting pitching with Reed, Shepherd, and Cody for weekends. Also return 3/4 of their starting infield, and 2/3 of their outfield. That along with a veteran catcher, and pretty good back up catcher bodes well.
There could be several candidates for SEC newcomer status, infielders Conner Heady and JaVon Shelby, couple of pretty good pitchers, and a couple of outfielders, Ka-i Tom and Marcus Carson. I believe Henderson needs to get back to the NCAA tournament to keep job security up....Just my opinion.
I am totally unprepared for baseball season this year. I really don't know much of anything about this team quite yet. However, Reed, Shepherd, and Cody should make a pretty solid weekend rotation. Where we struggle is solid experience in the bullpen. Ryne Combs, Zach Strecker, and Dylan Dwyer all return but just being sophomores it is hard to say how they will perform. I also have to believe that the best of those three (Combs) will be a weekday starter. Apparently Jack Spencer looks to take over for Trevor Gott. I haven't seen him, but his JUCO stats don't stand out as being dominating so I don't see him completely filling Gott's shoes (and who could!?).
Sam Mahar returns and that could really help us. Another good thing is that we should have a weekend starter that is not a freshman, and several guys out of the pen that can go deep in games. So IF we make it to the post season we should have a deep rotation to help us through the vigor of the SEC tournament and Regional play.
In the field we have:
1B - AJ Reed/Thomas Bernal
2B - ??? JaVon Shelby?? or Connor Heady??
SS - Matt Reida
3B - Max Kuhn?
RF - Kyle Barrett
CF - Austin Cousino
LF - Ka'ai Tom??
C - Greg Fettes (with Thomas getting plenty of PT as well).
It doesn't look too bad, but we have to improve from last year. I like the names, and the newcomers, but we have to find some guys that can hit. Last year Zellers struggled (.239), McConkey struggled at third (.232), Thomas (.239), Reida (.242), Kuhn (.242), and Cousino (.249). That is 5/6 of 9 hitters that were hitting below .250 last year. Not to mention Lucas Witt hitting below the Mendoza Line at .183. Hard to win without consistent hitting and we didn't have it last year. So we have to see some improvement out of Fettes (.250), Reida, Kuhn, and Cousino.
Also, I am concerned about power. Reed is really our only big stick and he struggled last year in the SEC when opposing pitchers could pitch around him. His BA dropped from .280 overall to .243 so you have to know he did quite well in OOC. Bernal, if he continues on his hot streak, showed some power (5 home runs in 18 games), Kuhn had some, but after that there wasn't much. Even worse was the lack of extra base hits. Only one person had double digits (Cousino with 12). I don't think the newcomers will add much of that considering their size Tom (5-9 180), Carson (5-8 165), Heady (6-0 170), Shelby (6-2 188). Power can come in small packages, but none of these guys stands out as being a 7-10 home run type guy.
On the other side, we should have speed to share. So, I am hoping that Henderson ses it. I would personally feel much more comfortable with this roster and this team but for Henderson. We will see how it works out, but I am excited for the season. Not sure I will get to listen to the game on Friday, but I'll be keeping an eye on it.
Sam Mahar returns and that could really help us. Another good thing is that we should have a weekend starter that is not a freshman, and several guys out of the pen that can go deep in games. So IF we make it to the post season we should have a deep rotation to help us through the vigor of the SEC tournament and Regional play.
In the field we have:
1B - AJ Reed/Thomas Bernal
2B - ??? JaVon Shelby?? or Connor Heady??
SS - Matt Reida
3B - Max Kuhn?
RF - Kyle Barrett
CF - Austin Cousino
LF - Ka'ai Tom??
C - Greg Fettes (with Thomas getting plenty of PT as well).
It doesn't look too bad, but we have to improve from last year. I like the names, and the newcomers, but we have to find some guys that can hit. Last year Zellers struggled (.239), McConkey struggled at third (.232), Thomas (.239), Reida (.242), Kuhn (.242), and Cousino (.249). That is 5/6 of 9 hitters that were hitting below .250 last year. Not to mention Lucas Witt hitting below the Mendoza Line at .183. Hard to win without consistent hitting and we didn't have it last year. So we have to see some improvement out of Fettes (.250), Reida, Kuhn, and Cousino.
Also, I am concerned about power. Reed is really our only big stick and he struggled last year in the SEC when opposing pitchers could pitch around him. His BA dropped from .280 overall to .243 so you have to know he did quite well in OOC. Bernal, if he continues on his hot streak, showed some power (5 home runs in 18 games), Kuhn had some, but after that there wasn't much. Even worse was the lack of extra base hits. Only one person had double digits (Cousino with 12). I don't think the newcomers will add much of that considering their size Tom (5-9 180), Carson (5-8 165), Heady (6-0 170), Shelby (6-2 188). Power can come in small packages, but none of these guys stands out as being a 7-10 home run type guy.
On the other side, we should have speed to share. So, I am hoping that Henderson ses it. I would personally feel much more comfortable with this roster and this team but for Henderson. We will see how it works out, but I am excited for the season. Not sure I will get to listen to the game on Friday, but I'll be keeping an eye on it.
Hendo had his press conference yesterday, he said the starters are very good, wondering about his bull pen. Thomas will be starting catcher, Fettes will catch also, and both could fill in some at 1st base. Bernal will play some 1st base and DH, Fettes will also DH some.
He said UK has 6, yes 6, left handed hitting OF's, looking for RH bat and mentioned Dorian Hairston, and Shelby also playing some OF. He said Tom had a slight hamstring issue, and said they has good team speed, looking to take advantage of that.
He said Sam Mahar and Taylor Martin are back, but neither has the velocity yet that they had pre injury. He mentioned they have had Great success with juco players over the past several years. Looking VERY MUCH forward to opening up with Number 1 ranked Virginia. Also said worst winter in his 11 years at UK, not much outside work at all yet.
He said UK has 6, yes 6, left handed hitting OF's, looking for RH bat and mentioned Dorian Hairston, and Shelby also playing some OF. He said Tom had a slight hamstring issue, and said they has good team speed, looking to take advantage of that.
He said Sam Mahar and Taylor Martin are back, but neither has the velocity yet that they had pre injury. He mentioned they have had Great success with juco players over the past several years. Looking VERY MUCH forward to opening up with Number 1 ranked Virginia. Also said worst winter in his 11 years at UK, not much outside work at all yet.
^^^Thanks guys. ^^^Know I need to get over my Henderson thing, maybe some warm weather & sunshine will help!
It does seem like the batting averages have been dropping instead of climbing, didn't realize it was most of the team.Originally posted by jhammons:
I have not been able to see Ky play baseball since my college days back in the late 80's. I just saw where they play in Norfolk, VA (which is a 30 min drive from where I live) in a couple weeks! Looking forward to going and supporting the Bat Cats!!!
Cousino came in about as highly rated as possible and did great for a while, and now he is batting around 250? Slumps happen to all players though, maybe they all catch fire, I hope so.
A lot of players seem to experience a sophomore slump. Cousino started the year off very poorly but in SEC play good batting average was around .280 if I'm not mistaken. So he obviously isn't afraid of good competition. I think he bounces back with no problem this year. My concern is those who have never really shown that they have the ability to hit at a high level. Thomas and Kuhn for insurance. Neither has played a lot but they also haven't shown us they have the ability to be strong hitters. Bernal is also a bit of a curiosity to me. Did he confine in the hiring tear he was on before the injury or did he just have a hot bat early on and his hitting really isn't all that great? We will Judd have to stay tuned to answer a lit of these questions.
I don't know if your "hoping" had anything to do with it or not but no one could have asked for a more dominating performance against the #1 team in the nation Could have easily avoided the two runs in the ninth which would have left them with only one for the game, but great overall and great offense.