Gator Baseball 2023 Official Roster Tracker/Lineup???

Really surprised that we won over FAU with the combined hitting of Kurland, Cags, Evans, Heyman, and Robertson only produced 2 hits. A few of them were on base several times from walks or HBP. Kurland for the first time as a starter was held hitless after getting plunked a few times with 2 walks. Cags had nothing to show other than moving a couple of runners up. Heyman surprised me with a big zippo and 1 walk. Robertson was lucky to beat out a ground ball to first for his only hit. Rivera, Langford, and Shelnut held the night with multiple hits and helped put lots of runs on the board.
I wonder if Sully will give Lastres the start behind the plate on Wednesday instead of Heyman. I was glad Shelnut was at 3B instead of Halter facing a RHP starting. I think its safe to say Rivera is now the owner of the 4th spot in the order. Its hard to believe he is second on this team in HRs and leads the team by a wide margin in RBIs with 27 now one fourth the way thru the season.

 

The following are the Gator pitchers with an ERA under 5.50....
Caglianone, Jac 2.08
Waldrep, Hurston 4.76
Sproat, Brandon 4.86
Nesbitt, Tyler 0.00
Ursitti, Anthony 0.00
Fisher, Cade 1.74
Hartzog, Clete 4.50
And 3 of them have pitched 2 innings or less. Pretty scary huh. What's sad is they are dropping like flies. Every time out somebody is getting lit up out there. I expect two more will end up above 5 after the second game with FAU. Hang tight Gator fans Coppola is on the way. Plus this is our last 5 game week so better times are ahead.

 

I'm glad you said this Ocala because I've been feeling the same way. I'm sure to go from a weekend starter to now closer hasn't helped his mental progress to be the pitcher he hopes to be. Sure the team needs a closer very badly and he is being asked to close some very important games. But it seems to me if he was allowed to start the mid weeks and be able to chew thru 5-6 innings much like he did last year we would get more out of him and give some relief to our troubled bullpen. Imagine if he didn't pitch last night and he was our starter tonight. Yep I know we lose him for the weekend and we don't have any one other than Fisher to finish. Its a tough call to make that change but he's really isn't contributing many innings as it is on the weekends anyway.

 

Here's a stats comparison for you. Last season Josh Rivera hit 9 homeruns with 32 RBIs. This year Josh already has 7 homeruns with 27 RBIs. We are only 1/4 the way thru the season. I don't think Josh will have any problem exceeding last year's totals, probably by end of this weekend.

 

Wow here's another shocker. Last year by this date Wyatt Langford only had 3 homeruns and 10 RBIs. So far he's almost doubles that with 6 homeruns and 18 RBIs. No telling how high he, Rivera and Cags will go this year.

I must admit I was not on the Josh train before the season other than knowing he was stepping up to be the team leader. I would have been fine if he hit .270 with 10 homeruns. Now Kurland I'm not that surprised at after saying several times before the season saying the kid can put bat on ball and has a knack for getting on base. Sure I'm impressed he's batting over .400 still but I think I guessed he would be around .300 at the end of the season. I can't wait to see how well he handles SEC pitching.

 

I didn't want it to get overlooked but need to give a shoutout to my buddy @gator1977 who has stood in favor of Abner thru all the ups and downs. I tried to find it but a few weeks ago when many of us were worried about several relievers 77 spoke up and said he wasn't giving up on Abner and thought he would be back pitching strong for the Gators this season. Well done sir. He also tipped me off way back in the fall about Fisher being the real deal before anyone else knew better.