Thought I'd give it a couple of days before posting to let the usual baseball bitchfest club a chance to subside some. I'll start by saying I was able to make it to the Friday & Saturday games this past weekend, listened Sunday, and watched the Thursday ESPNU game 2 weeks ago with TN.
This team's talent is definitely improved. There are literally only 2 players from last year that would start this season: Vickerson & Parks. But as one of my buddies said, with this year's injury luck, Parks would be in traction and only able to move his left pinky finger. The only other guy from last year who would play even a limited or similar role is Jaron Sheperd as a late inning defensive sub who starts once a weekend. Injuries have been a killer, but we're seeing some real intestinal fortitude from these guys to keep battling, playing close games, and finding ways to win. I think it says a lot that we've only been swept once this season. *knocks on wood* That's not to say the SEC record is where we'd like it to be, but we're once again competitive and have gotten back into the Top 25. I'm really impressed, considering our injury situation.
Stratton is damn near unhittable right now. Butch deserves a ton of credit. As I pointed out to my buddies, the scariest thing about him right now and that bodes well for his future MLB development imo, is that he's pretty much abandoned his plus 12-6 curveball this season that was his strikeout pitch the last 2 seasons. The slider everyone is raving about was added by Butch AFTER he got on campus. He's using the change, which is his 4th best pitch, as his 3rd pitch this season. It's not often you see a pitcher come out of college with 3 plus pitches, but Stratton will. His mental approach this year also appears to be much more aggressive and he appears to be a guy who wants the ball when it matters.
Graveman didn't have his best stuff, especially early, Saturday. But he's another guy that has improved tremendously under Butch. When he's right, there just won't be many balls in the air. I don't know why so many people think he isn't very good. I've always thought he could be at least a Sunday guy for us. I felt awful for Routt Saturday. He had a nice relief appearance going, made a pitch to get out of the inning, and Norris airmails a routine throw to Rea. I'm really hoping he's getting the kinks worked out in the pen and can return to the rotation soon. We desperately need him to be that quality 2nd/3rd starter we all know he can be. He's been one of my biggest disappointments this season.
Pollo was on fire Sunday. I wish we could use him more out of the pen, but our injury situation in the OF just hasn't allowed it. I'd like to see Ben Bracewell get to pitch more, maybe close once a weekend. But overall, I'm very pleased with the pitching staff as a whole. Bottom line, Butch has proven he was the right hire and deserves credit. He's recruited dramatically better talent and coached it up to be quality SEC pitching.
The D is very solid, especially our middle infield. The game ending double play we turned Friday night was Sportscenter Top 10 Plays quality. I still have no idea how we got it turned. One of the best DP's I've ever seen turned, from Frazier's glove toss, to Frost's turn at 2B, to Rea's stretch. Can't say enough about CT's D in CF this weekend. His 2 diving catches were amazing. Speaking of CT, I hope we shut him down for the season. There's no sense in risking his long-term health after a second injury to his shoulder at this point. I love the guts he's displayed trying to play through it, but he hasn't been the same player, most noticeably at the plate. It had to be affecting his swing.
Norris's nightmare inning at 3B Saturday was awful. But it's hard for me to be too pissed at him when he's out there on one knee because he knows we need him in the lineup. It sucks that Porter apparently is so bad on D we can't put him in the field and DH Norris. Same thing for Brent Brownlee playing on one leg in RF. One area that has dramatically improved under Cohen is toughness and the desire to play through injuries.
Offensively, we're struggling. No way around it. But I don't see it as a talent issue. As I pointed out above, we're definitely more talented this season than any other under Cohen. The problem is inexperience. When you're replacing 8 starters in the lineup, you're going to struggle. Plus, it's a BIG jump for some of these guys. They're essentially facing High A ball pitchers for the first time in their lives. But we're hitting balls hard and having some very good ABs. We also have some decent situational hitting success. Friday night was a great example of that, when we we first-and-third the Bears to death. The guy I'm most disappointed in this season is Hunter Renfroe. For all the hype surrounding him, he clearly hasn't put it together to be a force in our lineup. Other than the Friday Arkansas game, he really hasn't done much. You can see the talent there, but he's got to put it together. But that's part of the problem with a young, inexperienced team in general.
Another problem facing our offense is Dudy Noble itself. I know that sounds like an excuse, but it's just the plain truth. There were at least 2 homers in 10 of the other 11 SEC parks that our guys hit this weekend that just died and didn't get out. The one that immediately comes to mind for me is Slauter's AB after his 2-run shot on Saturday. He absolutely crushed the ball into the RF alley. And there's no doubt in my mind he got it all. My immediate reaction was to jump out of my seat because of how it sounded and jumped off the bat. Then it just absolutely died in the alley. Porter's Thursday extra-inning out against UT 2 weeks ago was the same way. We've got several guys who would have more homers if they played in a different park. I've got mixed feelings about moving in the fences, but I'm moving ever closer to saying it's something we need to do. It blows when you see our guys absolutely murder a ball and have it just die in the OF for an out. Porter & Rea should both be 8-10 homer guys at minimum, but aren't because they play half their games at DNF.
My loen beef is the continued play of Matthew Britton. He's clearly overmatched at the plate. It's to the point where I'm just hoping for a walk or HBP when he's up there, because that's about the best possible outcome. And that's really more a reflection on Cohen's one recruiting failure thus far, signing 2 good middle infield players. I love Frazier. He's going to be a VERY good player for us. But Frost/Britton would barely play, much less start, anywhere else in the SEC. Hopefully we can get that squared away soon, though. I don't know much about Philip Casey (maybe Todd can help me out here), but maybe he's the guy we're looking for at 2B. If nothing else, we should be hard after a JUCO 2B for next season.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with where we are as a program. We're clearly improving and upgrading the talent level across the board. It's going to suck not having Stratton next season, but it's a good problem to have. I normally hate saying "wait 'til next year," but I feel it's true with this team. Our inexperience is killing us. We're playing a lot of close games and coming up a little bit short, which is the mark of a young, inexperienced team. The good news is all the struggles we're going through and PT they're getting will pay off down the road. We're going to fight you every step of the way every night, regardless of who is in the lineup, which is a reflection on Cohen. I've said for a long time that teams tend to take on the personality of their coach, and our team has clearly done that the last couple of seasons. I also don't think anyone is very eager to play us these last few weeks this season. We're starting to find ways to win close games, whether it's timely situational hitting, taking advantage of the other team's mistakes, or having a sensational pitching performance combined with great D. We aren't where we want to be, but Cohen definitely has the ship headed in the right direction.
This team's talent is definitely improved. There are literally only 2 players from last year that would start this season: Vickerson & Parks. But as one of my buddies said, with this year's injury luck, Parks would be in traction and only able to move his left pinky finger. The only other guy from last year who would play even a limited or similar role is Jaron Sheperd as a late inning defensive sub who starts once a weekend. Injuries have been a killer, but we're seeing some real intestinal fortitude from these guys to keep battling, playing close games, and finding ways to win. I think it says a lot that we've only been swept once this season. *knocks on wood* That's not to say the SEC record is where we'd like it to be, but we're once again competitive and have gotten back into the Top 25. I'm really impressed, considering our injury situation.
Stratton is damn near unhittable right now. Butch deserves a ton of credit. As I pointed out to my buddies, the scariest thing about him right now and that bodes well for his future MLB development imo, is that he's pretty much abandoned his plus 12-6 curveball this season that was his strikeout pitch the last 2 seasons. The slider everyone is raving about was added by Butch AFTER he got on campus. He's using the change, which is his 4th best pitch, as his 3rd pitch this season. It's not often you see a pitcher come out of college with 3 plus pitches, but Stratton will. His mental approach this year also appears to be much more aggressive and he appears to be a guy who wants the ball when it matters.
Graveman didn't have his best stuff, especially early, Saturday. But he's another guy that has improved tremendously under Butch. When he's right, there just won't be many balls in the air. I don't know why so many people think he isn't very good. I've always thought he could be at least a Sunday guy for us. I felt awful for Routt Saturday. He had a nice relief appearance going, made a pitch to get out of the inning, and Norris airmails a routine throw to Rea. I'm really hoping he's getting the kinks worked out in the pen and can return to the rotation soon. We desperately need him to be that quality 2nd/3rd starter we all know he can be. He's been one of my biggest disappointments this season.
Pollo was on fire Sunday. I wish we could use him more out of the pen, but our injury situation in the OF just hasn't allowed it. I'd like to see Ben Bracewell get to pitch more, maybe close once a weekend. But overall, I'm very pleased with the pitching staff as a whole. Bottom line, Butch has proven he was the right hire and deserves credit. He's recruited dramatically better talent and coached it up to be quality SEC pitching.
The D is very solid, especially our middle infield. The game ending double play we turned Friday night was Sportscenter Top 10 Plays quality. I still have no idea how we got it turned. One of the best DP's I've ever seen turned, from Frazier's glove toss, to Frost's turn at 2B, to Rea's stretch. Can't say enough about CT's D in CF this weekend. His 2 diving catches were amazing. Speaking of CT, I hope we shut him down for the season. There's no sense in risking his long-term health after a second injury to his shoulder at this point. I love the guts he's displayed trying to play through it, but he hasn't been the same player, most noticeably at the plate. It had to be affecting his swing.
Norris's nightmare inning at 3B Saturday was awful. But it's hard for me to be too pissed at him when he's out there on one knee because he knows we need him in the lineup. It sucks that Porter apparently is so bad on D we can't put him in the field and DH Norris. Same thing for Brent Brownlee playing on one leg in RF. One area that has dramatically improved under Cohen is toughness and the desire to play through injuries.
Offensively, we're struggling. No way around it. But I don't see it as a talent issue. As I pointed out above, we're definitely more talented this season than any other under Cohen. The problem is inexperience. When you're replacing 8 starters in the lineup, you're going to struggle. Plus, it's a BIG jump for some of these guys. They're essentially facing High A ball pitchers for the first time in their lives. But we're hitting balls hard and having some very good ABs. We also have some decent situational hitting success. Friday night was a great example of that, when we we first-and-third the Bears to death. The guy I'm most disappointed in this season is Hunter Renfroe. For all the hype surrounding him, he clearly hasn't put it together to be a force in our lineup. Other than the Friday Arkansas game, he really hasn't done much. You can see the talent there, but he's got to put it together. But that's part of the problem with a young, inexperienced team in general.
Another problem facing our offense is Dudy Noble itself. I know that sounds like an excuse, but it's just the plain truth. There were at least 2 homers in 10 of the other 11 SEC parks that our guys hit this weekend that just died and didn't get out. The one that immediately comes to mind for me is Slauter's AB after his 2-run shot on Saturday. He absolutely crushed the ball into the RF alley. And there's no doubt in my mind he got it all. My immediate reaction was to jump out of my seat because of how it sounded and jumped off the bat. Then it just absolutely died in the alley. Porter's Thursday extra-inning out against UT 2 weeks ago was the same way. We've got several guys who would have more homers if they played in a different park. I've got mixed feelings about moving in the fences, but I'm moving ever closer to saying it's something we need to do. It blows when you see our guys absolutely murder a ball and have it just die in the OF for an out. Porter & Rea should both be 8-10 homer guys at minimum, but aren't because they play half their games at DNF.
My loen beef is the continued play of Matthew Britton. He's clearly overmatched at the plate. It's to the point where I'm just hoping for a walk or HBP when he's up there, because that's about the best possible outcome. And that's really more a reflection on Cohen's one recruiting failure thus far, signing 2 good middle infield players. I love Frazier. He's going to be a VERY good player for us. But Frost/Britton would barely play, much less start, anywhere else in the SEC. Hopefully we can get that squared away soon, though. I don't know much about Philip Casey (maybe Todd can help me out here), but maybe he's the guy we're looking for at 2B. If nothing else, we should be hard after a JUCO 2B for next season.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with where we are as a program. We're clearly improving and upgrading the talent level across the board. It's going to suck not having Stratton next season, but it's a good problem to have. I normally hate saying "wait 'til next year," but I feel it's true with this team. Our inexperience is killing us. We're playing a lot of close games and coming up a little bit short, which is the mark of a young, inexperienced team. The good news is all the struggles we're going through and PT they're getting will pay off down the road. We're going to fight you every step of the way every night, regardless of who is in the lineup, which is a reflection on Cohen. I've said for a long time that teams tend to take on the personality of their coach, and our team has clearly done that the last couple of seasons. I also don't think anyone is very eager to play us these last few weeks this season. We're starting to find ways to win close games, whether it's timely situational hitting, taking advantage of the other team's mistakes, or having a sensational pitching performance combined with great D. We aren't where we want to be, but Cohen definitely has the ship headed in the right direction.