Between Barco, Milchin, Sully and staff he should be fine. Handling the same lineup three days in a row is a tall order for even a veteran guy. He’s gonna be fine IMHO.
Sully needs to recruit more quality pitchers. Our hitter to pitcher talent ratio this year is very skewed. We have Fabian, Thompson, Langford, BT, Rivera, Calilao, Armstrong, Halter, D. Fabian, Guscette. Only Barco, Blake and Coppola for pitcher.
Abner & Neely came in very highly rated and most thought they would sign MLB contracts. They just have not lived up to the hype yet. But I agree that this is the best hitting lineup we've had in a long time. Hopefully reliable pitchers will emerge soon. Manning, Sproat & Pogue are veterans who were supposed to be ready for the big time as well. Pogue is just coming into live action from Tommy John surgery, so who knows how that will turn out? When Sproat & Manning have control they're great. Otherwise, not so much. The talent is there, IMO. Just not the results so far.
Every fanbase in the country could say this. We’ve become spoiled and entitled with Sully. Hope he doesn’t decide to move on anytime soon.
Analysis Good win against a scrappy team. The Good…… A night when guys that don’t get much recognition made the big difference beyond Jud of course…. Jud- wow, talk about a difference maker this kid is having a year!!! Guscette- on base 4 times and laugh all you want or say all you want but his sacrifice bunt may have been the turning point in the game. Venice kids so fundamentally sound!!! Have a night kid!!! Rivera- As Nick Belmonte said he takes a backseat to nobody at shortstop. The kid flat out is solid all day long and love to see him bunting now. His ability to bunt will be worth 7-8 extra hits this year. Nesbit- the forgotten guy for some reason. 13 innings spread out over 2 years and no earned runs. Another shut down inning tonight in which he struck out the side. This came at a crucial time. Can’t deny his talent. Kid needs chances/innings. Hopefully we will see him this weekend. Fic- Fic being Fic. Kid is solid and never wavers. Great job!!!! Abner- nice work tonight!! If he can harness his talent look out!!! Big time help tonight and deserves a lot of credit for his mental toughness. Sterlin- starting to swing it again!!!!
Great analysis Shane. Out hit them 11-1 and only win 3-2. Scary, but a win. Jud is so much improved as a disciplined hitter over last year. He may be making himself a couple extra million up front by coming back for another year. 2 solo HR's and a double tonight. Great to see Philip Abner have 2 solid innings. When he gets his confidence, he can be a difference maker down the road. Guscette did have a big night, not only at the plate, but handling the young pitchers.
And what I really liked about watching him was he seemed to be moving around without any noticeable hamstring issues.
Heading into this weekend's series vs. #21 LSU (15-6), the #8 Gators (16-5) are 5th in the SEC in batting average at .309, 9th in on base percentage at .394, 3rd in hits with 227, 8th in runs scored with 164, 2nd in home runs with 43 (Tennessee has 59!), 12th in walks with 92, 6th in strikeouts with 166, 2nd in sac. bunts with 9, 8th in stolen bases with 18, and 2nd with most double plays grounded into with 12. LSU is 7th in batting average at .306, 4th in on base percentage at .426, 7th in hits with 221, 4th in runs scored with 186, 5th in home runs with 31, 6th in walks with 111, tied with UF at 6th for K's with 166, tied with Florida with 9 sac. bunts, 13th in stolen bases with 11, and 7th in double plays grounded into with 8. The Gators are 3rd on defense with a .982 fielding percentage, while LSU is last in the SEC at .951. On the pitching side, Florida is 4th in ERA at 3.07, LSU is 5th at 3.32. UF is 4th in lowest opponent batting average at .213, LSU is 5th at .218. LSU is 5th in strikeout with 219, UF is 11th with 195. Gator pitchers are 6th in hits allowed with 145, LSU is 6th with 154. UF is 7th in walks with 73, LSU is 9th with 78. Pretty even statistically, so it should make for an exciting series
Defense could be the difference. Maybe just my perception that we walk a lot of guys, but interesting that we are only 7th. Must be more guys throwing strikes than I think. Still, better than last year.
The National leader, Elon, issues 2.10 walks per 9IP. UF is 50th at 3.51. To put 50th in perspective, there are 293 teams so 50th is around 83rd percentile. Similar to 23rd-ish in football.
It's been just a handful of guys having trouble finding the strike zone consistently - Manning has 11 walks in 14 innings, Abner 9 in 6.2 innings, Pogue 7 in 2.1 innings, Finnvold 4 in 3.1 innings, Hartman 7 in 8.2 innings. That's 38 walks in 35 innings by these pitchers. The team has 73 walks in 187.1 innings, but 52% of those walks were issued by these 5 guys in roughly 18% of the total innings pitched by the team. So most of our pitchers are doing pretty well in that area.
Love that breakdown and it shows how good Sproat has been on avoiding walks until last weekend. Only had 6 on year prior to last Saturday where I think he had 3 in just a couple innings.
I like Barco on Friday, but if he does not win we are in a bad place. Sproat has great stuff, but he is not always up to it.
Lurk— Just goes to show how important the Saturday SP’s are—1) Your Friday guy wins you’re set up to win the series. 2) Your Friday guy loses it’s on your back to right the ship and set up winning the series on Sunday. It could be considered the crucial start of the weekend—maybe…
And even more what it can mean for a regional or the first games in a CWS. Having FOUR good starters is huge.