Gator Baseball 2023 Official Roster Tracker/Lineup???

Sully held his best arms out tonight against FSU in the last midweek game of the season. Using Hartzog, Fic, Purnell, and Abner showed we didn't need our best to get the win and Sully is now prepping for the post season. Guys like Slater, Nesbitt, Neely, Fisher, and Tejeda got their rest and will focus on the weekends and the SECT. Abner only went 1 inning on 15 pitches to build his confidence back after a few less than hopeful appearances. Now let's see how the bullpen does this weekend with plenty of fresh arms that have rested since Sunday.

 

Stat of the Night...
Don't look now but the Gator pitcher with the second best ERA from in conference games is Blake Purnell at 3.60 with 10 innings.
2023 Baseball Cumulative Statistics - Florida Gators

 

A couple bits of tid on TA&M....
1. Their batters get walked more than most teams and lead the conference in SEC games at 133 walks.
2. Any of their pitchers that have started more than 1 conference game have an ERA higher than 8.50 in SEC appearances.
Dettmer - 7 SEC starts 8.58 ERA
Wansing - 4 SEC starts 9.69 ERA
Lamkin - 3 SEC starts 13.78 ERA
Cortez - 2 SEC starts 15.00 ERA
3. They are second to last in SEC team pitching ERA.
4. TA&M is second in steals in conference games.
5. Their hitters lead the conference in sac flies.

 

And jump on their starting pitchers before they get a chance to take them out.

 

If I could set the batting order it would be...

R-Rivera - best base stealer on team, second highest OB%, second best BA, second most walks, fewest strikeouts of starters
R-Langford - hottest bat on team right now, team leader in BA-OPS-Runs-Doubles-Walks-OB%
L-Caglianone - HR King period, amongst many other reasons
R-Heyman - in conference games second best hitter on team including BA, OPS, Slugging, OB% (much better than Riopelle and can backup Cags)
L-Robertson - second best batter on the team with runners on base and in scoring position, better BA than Riopelle, so move him up
R-Kurland - not good enough for leadoff from this point on but still a key batter on this team with 13 HRs
L-Riopelle - SEC average below 200 but continues to find a way on base, putting it nicely, 55 strikeouts so far (20 more than any other starter)
R-Shelnut - a shot in the arm to the lower half of the order so keep him producing where he is at
L-Halter - good base stealer can accentuate the top of the order from the 9th spot, has more steals and experience than Robertson, good bunter as well

I feel Rivera could really be the most effective at leadoff proving his abilities in so many different ways. His patience alone would increase his walks and good hitting counts to start the game. Our best hitters as a whole are hitting from the right side. Cags is the one shining spot from the left. Riopelle must move lower until he shows improvement. Shelnut's bat could probably bat higher in many other teams in the SEC but our RHH continue to exceed all expectations. I believe Robertson could drive in more runs if he was higher in the order and his numbers show it. I've tracked his approach at the plate over the last month and with runners on he tends to hit more line drives and ground balls to help him get on base. But with no one on he tends to hit fly balls. Thus he did not show good numbers as a leadoff. Halter is doing better than last year but with so many good bats ahead of him, he drops to the 9 spot. His aggressiveness and experience on the base paths could end up more effective than Robertson with the top of the order.

 

Last year's leading SEC pitcher ERAs on the season compared to this year....
1. Chase Dollander-UT 2.32 this year 4.24
2. Sean Harney-UK 2.62 ????
3. Hunter Elliott-UM 2.70 this year 10.50
4. Drew Beam-UT 2.72 this year 3.13
5. Chase Burns-UT 2.91 this year 5.09
6. Carter Holton-VU 3.14 this year 4.11
7. Joseph Gonzalez-AU 3.22 this year injured
8. Devin Futrell-VU 3.41 this year 2.56
9. Brandon Sproat-UF 3.41 this year 4.84
10. Will Sanders-SC 3.43 this year 5.75
11. Connor Noland-AR 3.65 ????
12. Dylan DeLucia-UM 3.68 ????
13. Brandon Neely-UF 3.76 this year 3.86
14. Cade Smith-MS 3.86 this year 5.63
15. Jonathan Cannon-UG 4.02 ????

My point is, out of the top 15 SEC pitchers from last year and the 11 that came back, this year only 1 has improved his ERA. So when you think about Sproat and Neely, you have to keep their ERA into context with the rest of the league and the tighter strike zones the SEC has mandated. You can pick it apart individually if you want, but as a whole everyone knows the overall numbers are up, and this shows how hard its become even for the best SEC pitchers that returned. That said Skenes at LSU has had a remarkable year but he's an anomaly in all this against the greater numbers here.

My bigger issue here is, the SEC has gone too far with their tighter strike zone or the umpires have taken it too far. At times when pitchers are getting squeezed it seems that a pitcher almost has to knock a softball off a t-ball stand sitting dead center on the plate to get a strike. I don't care what MLB wants or what the SEC thinks the MLB wants. The tighter strike zone is affecting the game, the stats, the homeruns, our pitchers ERAs, and the back and forth challenge between the batter and the pitcher at the plate. Sure you can say the pitcher has to try harder but too many batters are sitting dead red fastball at the end of games waiting to take advantage of what the umpires are giving them. I hope the SEC expands the zone some for next year. And lay off of Sproat, Neely and the rest of our pitchers. Keeping an ERA under 3 anymore in this league is an anomaly.

 

You flipped it. Last year 2022 number 10 was Will Sanders at 3.43 and this year number 10 is Tommy Vail at 3.80. Another comparison last year 13 pitchers were under 3.78. This year only 8 are under that. Granted we are only looking at pitchers that have enough innings to qualify for the top list.
For the record 2022 combined SEC teams ERA was 4.56. This year combined teams ERA is 4.98.

 

Here's another take. Looking back at the last 9 years of data as to the total SEC teams combined ERAs for the season you find a slow climb....
2015 - 3.72
2016 - 3.78
2017 - 3.97
2018 - 4.13
2019 - 4.13
2020 - XXX
2021 - 4.41
2022 - 4.56
2023 - 4.98
From 2015 to 2022 that was a 12 point average yearly increase. But this year that climb has increased by 42 points. Something has changed and added to the hitters ability to score runs by 3 1/2 times the normal rate of increase. That's the unusual in this year that has added more pressure to what the SEC pitchers are facing. Is that across all of college baseball? I think not. Will it give the SEC an advantage in the CWS? Unknown but either they will feel relieved with wider strike zones or they will still pitch them over the middle because that's what they are used to. I don't know why the second one would happen but I hope our pitchers find that they get more strike calls than what they are use to and start to expand they pitches.

 

Even though some of you are still geared up for the Gators winning the SEC regular season, I've been focused on winning each series we can and finishing with an SEC winning record at a .667 clip. That is win 2 out of 3 overall and finish in the top 4 of the SEC for a good NCAAT host ranking. I'd love to still win the SEC but for awhile now I've been showing the games left and LSU has by far the easiest second half league schedule to close it out. Since they already lead the conference, there's little to do but hope LSU chokes badly. All the while Florida, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina all finish the last two weekends playing each other or other ranked SEC opponents. Arky and Vandy have the toughest schedules so keep your focus on Florida trying to finish 2nd or 3rd in the conference in the end. Even though we lost today, the last 7 regular season games will have a big impact on the tournament selections. That's still a great accomplishment, especially since LSU has been #1 ranked since the beginning.