Gator Baseball 2022 Roster/Lineup/Batting Order

Well the only hot bat at catcher is BT. Certainly BT is our "starter" so he plays the most by default. Regardless of opposing pitcher Sully's best option is to get BT the start behind the plate 2 out of 3 times or else put BT in the DH spot once or twice as well. Obviously the numbers show BT has very little success against LHP. Another consideration is the opposing teams ability to steal bases. None of our catchers have stepped up to shut it down. So back to your question, Sully will go with BT anytime we face a RHP and watch to see him inserted at DH later in the game if a LHP is the starter or have him bunt otherwise against LHP when needed. No catcher should catch all three weekend games. The unknown is how important is Barco's connection with Guscette? Either way BT is too valuable batting 5th in the order.

 

Watched some weather models which show we do have a thin chance of getting the Friday game in. Not saying I'm betting money on it but it could happen that most of the evening rain on Friday stays north of Gville and doesn't approach until close to 10 PM. The unknown is how much rain we get during the day and the field conditions. I'm wondering if we get only light showers early they will try to see if they can start it on time and hope the rain holds off. On the plus side Saturday looks like the rain pulls through earlier than noon or 1 PM.

 

Now I feel like Sunday is a must to be there. You get to watch 2 starting pitchers, Pogue and Manning, setting themselves up for upcoming opportunities.

 

With wind out of the NW for most of this weekend looks like our lefties (Halter, Thompson, Riopelle, Armstrong) will enjoy lifting one deep. Don't count out Deric and Jud from trying to go oppo, especially Deric.

 

NAME ---------- AVG LHP RHP 2O
C. HALTER------ .390 .550 .308 .333
J. FABIAN------- .288 .286 .289 .400
S. THOMPSON-- .373 .273 .432 .304
W. LANGFORD-- .333 .429 .297 .333
B. RIOPELLE---- .343 .250 .370 .182
K. CALILAO----- .238 .250 .235 .235
J. RIVERA------- .222 .545 .118 .176
K. ARMSTRONG .243 .250 .241 .000
D. FABIAN------ .298 .167 .343 .545

During the first game today I pulled this out of the Live Stats feed so everyone could see our main hitters and their averages against LHP vs RHP. Please know this was early on in the game so the numbers have changed but I captured the info when I could. Start by looking at Halter and how much better he hits LHP than RHP. It amazes me how often another team brings in a reliever that's a lefty to face him. But them Sterlin is what you would think, great against RHP. Riopelle has started hitting better against LHP so that should help him get more ABs into conference play even with Guscette maybe out awhile. Our biggest concern has to be Rivera against RHP. Makes you ask yourself is that wrist still bothering him? But Rivera is still way better against LHP, go figure. Lastly if we have outs and runners on its clear we want a Fabian at bat. You think wow Jud's batting .400 with 2 outs but Deric is killing it batting .545 with 2 outs. And yes they are from Ocala.

 

Driving home after game 2 I decided not to post my normal key points from today's games since these types of games kind of skew the normal picture. Instead I though of three reasons why I think this team will finish much stronger than last year. Thinking it through it made me think of this as a starting point and I know it sounds like some business acronym you could read on some motivational poster. But, it fits this team and my reasoning which is, "Leadership through authenticity allows confidence to thrive." Here are my three reasons this team goes deep.

1. Look at what Jud Fabian, Kenny Calilao, and Kris Armstrong have done.
All three started out really bad, like low .120 BAs or worse, but they all went to work and have improved leaps and bounds in the last few weeks. This is what experienced leadership does. When things aren't going your way you work harder and improve what you're doing. Jud's now batting .304 and leads the team in 6 very important stats by keeping his foot in the bucket. Kenny Calilao is now up to .283 and climbing. The man is hitting line drives almost with every at bat. Unfortunately several have been caught by infielders or that number would be even higher. Kris Armstrong is batting .250 which is way better than .050 just a few weeks ago. More importantly is how often Kris is banging one through the opposite side of the infield against the shift or no shift. Kris had 2 doubles today alone. All three of them are peaking at the right time for conference play and raising everybody's expectation.
2. Defense Defense Defense
Okay so we have now had 8 errors on the year but hardly a one of then is from either booting a grounder or dropping a fly ball. Most of them are bad throws especially from the catchers. The point is this returning group of experienced players have stepped up their performance and are showing the younger guys what's expected, hello young Fabian. Sure it could be said Deric is showing the rest of the infield how its done but together all our fielders are making great plays and minimizing outs for the other team.
3. Leadership has built confidence in our pitching staff.
It was told to me that last year our pitching staff had a few key individuals that were bad seeds and it spread to many of our relievers, but that's not my point. My point is this year's pitching staff has a leader that is leading by example with Hunter Barco. See Barco was here through the troubles so he knows the importance of leadership and the confidence it brings. We all see it. It's been like night and day and you should all know the importance that Hunter has been to this pitching staff. That's part of the reasoning we have Coach Kopp to help flush out the system. Barco realized it early on in the rebuild and took it to heart. So next time Barco leaves the mound at Florida Ballpark after another great performance, make sure you stand and applaud him all the way to the dugout because he represents and leads these pitchers by his example.

Hopefully Sunday is another pleasant day for many of our players to pad their stats, work out some kinks, and get more experience for the younger players. Its even more important to see how Pogue works for a few innings and then Manning hopefully shuts them down for most of the rest. Remember a few weeks ago I said the weekend rotation plan might end up being Barco, Pogue, and Manning. With Sproat still up and down that opens the door for Pogue to step in when he is fully ready. Time will tell.

 

Well Sunday did not go as "planned". I feel like Pogue and Manning both just missed a big opportunity. Sure its just one game and baseball can be fickle but come on. You have to go out there no matter who you are playing and contribute. After the game Sully said the dugout energy did not feel right. He even got everyone together about it but it didn't seem to matter. They were in a hole all day. He expects to hear more chatter and more guys wanting to step up and cover someone's back when needed. That didn't happen.
Twice this season Sully has called them out about what's expected in the dugout. The last time was against Liberty. I certainly agree that's important for team morale and all but I have an issue. I usually sit right above the tunnel leading back from the dugout and in both games we lost because of low morale I saw upset players walking into the batting cages pitching a fit, knocking over trash cans, cursing up a storm, or trying to unleash some frustration with their personal performance. My question, if they are so upset, why don't they go out on the field and do something about it? Hey find a way to get on base, knock a base runner over, hit a fly ball to score a run, and for Sully's sake throw strikes. Sure easier said than done for someone like me but when they do the little things the fans will show they appreciate it. Otherwise it's going to be a long wasted season again.

 

No word yet on Halter or Guscette. I'd be shocked if Halter doesn't play on Tuesday.