Gator Baseball 2024 OFFICIAL ROSTER/Transfer Tracker/Lineup???

100% on Albert. Kid is just a baseball player!! Garrison defensively is a major asset. With the strikeouts, that concerns me because they are just flat out giveaways at the plate and as we saw with Miami if you put bat on ball teams will mistakes. Way too many strikeouts in the series for sure.

 

Good points!! Garrison looked very solid behind the plate. I’d like to see him catch more. Hoping to find someone to hit behind Cags. I like Shelton or Shelnut.

 

The issue right now with Garrison is that he has just 1 hit in 11 ABs (.091 avg). His defense is solid, but if he can't get his bat going, Sully is going to find it hard to play him consistently.

 

McNeillie gets the start tonight against UCF... hopefully he can turn it around after getting lit up against Stetson and Miami... (9 ER in 5.1 innings...)

 

I though he pretty consistently put the ball in play during fall and spring. I was certainly expecting more from him at the plate.

 

I was thinking about the amount of strikeouts this team has accumulated. As a whole this team seems to have a high swing to miss rate.
In the last 4 games, Miami series and UCF, the Gators have struckout 48 times. That’s not fly outs, double plays or ground outs just pure swing and miss or called strike. In two of those games the team did not bat in the 9th inning because of the score.
So here is the terrifying part. These numbers equateto 48 strikeouts in 34 innings OR a strikeout rate of 1.42 strikeouts per inning in the last 4 games…

Current
Batting averages
Garrison .100
Guy .111
Donay. .192
Thomas. .206
For the Robertson people. .302

just some quick numbers and facts but the Strike out rate is certainly high having not seen Friday night SEC pitchers

 

Some thoughts about last night...
1) Gators probably win that game if Sully started Jameson instead of McNeillie... I mean, the 4.1 no hit innings and 4Ks speaks for itself...
2) 3rd straight appearance for McNeillie... and showed no signs of any improvement. (5 ER in 0.2 IP against Stetson... 4 ER in 2.0 IP against Miami... 5 ER in 1.0 IP against UCF).
3) Donay and Thomas have been a big disappointment so far. Both seem like they want to go yard with every swing... i.e., homerun or nothing... I'd like to see Albert get a start at 3B at some point... especially since he's a bit more patient at the plate...
4) I think we should put Robertson back in the leadoff spot (against RHP, at least)... I know Kurland missed some time bc of his hand... but 7Ks (5Ks Sunday against Miami & 2Ks last night) in 2 games is not great for your leadoff guy.
5) I've had this feeling before, but... I think not adding any pitchers via the transfer portal is going to haunt us. Especially when SEC play starts and undefeated A&M comes to town... still a ton of games to be played... but I just don't think we are going to get far with such an inexperienced bullpen.

 

https://247sports.com/college/flori...-gators-ucf-knights-recap-rankings-228233878/

 

Of our 97 strikeouts, here are the players with the most:
Kurland - 13
Shelton - 12
Shelnut - 11
Evans - 11
Donay - 11
Robertson - 9
Thomas - 8
Heyman - 7
Yost - 5
Caglionone - 5

 

Unrelated to strikeouts... but an interesting note: Cags, Shelton, & Shelnut are tied for the team lead in RBIs w/ 15. Shelton leads the team in HRs w/ 6... Cags right behind him w/ 5. Also, Kurland not having any walks in 35 ABs is certainly something.

 

Donay and Thomas need to sit. We have enough HR in this lineup. We need guys that get on base. Both of these guys have one swing pattern. They would serve better coming off bench late in games if we need a HR. This shouldn't be difficult for Sully to figure out.

 

Agreed on Robertson, he got robbed of a 2 hit game yesterday. Make him a mainstay in the lineup even when we face lefties. I’ll take him against a LHP over any of our struggling right-handed hitters any day. Though I am curious if Russell can play CF with his speed. Same with him at 3B. I’ve only ever seen him play middle infield and corner outfield. I wouldn’t mind Russell playing in LF this weekend to get some more ABs and moving Shelnut to 3B or even DH. Personally I’m hoping for something like this.

1) Robertson - CF
2) Kurland - 2B
3) Caglianone - 1B
4) Heyman - C
5) Shelton - SS
6) Shelnut - DH/3B/LF
7) Evans - RF
8) Albert - 3B/DH
9) Russell - LF/DH

Put Robertson in the 9 hole and move everyone up one against left-handed starting pitchers. Figuring out the 3B/DH situation is crucial right now. And with how quiet Donay and Garrison’s bats are I wouldn’t mind putting Shelnut at 1B on Sundays so we keep Heyman behind the plate.

 

I have to agree with you on the majority of your post shy of one point. With Cags producing with both average and power—no way do I think moving him out of the 2-hole will be beneficial to our team.

 

From the beginning of fall '22 workouts through the '23 season, I felt the team was exceptional and ready for championships. Since the start of fall '23 workouts, I've believed the current team is very talented, dependent most of all on the development of young pitchers and the sort of development of lineups and offense that's necessary every year. Given all four losses have followed those frosh pitchers giving up 4-7 runs in the opending innings, my hair has not caught fire.

As always, the offense is different because it's composed of different players and some returning players playing differently. The single biggest change this year is no Wyatt Langford. Other than that, younger players have replaced critical veterans reasonably successfully.

While some frosh pitchers have performed poorly, others have had mixed performance and others have pitched very well- as frosh are supposed to do.

For a program like ours, the early season often has lots of wins to develop a resume, but it is more important in a season like this one in which newcomers have to find their roles and earn playing time. Our resume doesn't need the same sort of development UCF, Stetson and scUM need for theirs.

I've attended every inning of every game so far, and I've hated every loss, but my approach has been to look for signs of hope for success in June. UCF, Stetson and scUM LOVE to pick up a win against the Gators and will talk about those glorious wins from their couches while the Gators play to get to Omaha. Nothing I've seen- YET- leads me to panic. I'm sure Sully is grateful for the advice and I'm confident he'll continue to give us success.

 

Yeah that’s something I was thinking about as well but I wasn’t sure about moving Kurland further back and starting with two left-handed bats.

 

I get what you’re saying but I let Kurland figure it out in whatever other spot Sully wants to move him—no way do we want to disrupt what Cags has got going on.

He moves to the 3-hole and comes up with two outs—they just pitch around him.

 

Robertson needs to be in the lineup all of the time. That defense, that’s speed and his ability to help the team in so many different ways in general, makes him very valuable.

Short of a monster performance tonight and if Cags is good again, Sunday, I would like to see Cags possibly become our number one. No one on the team has better stuff and no one on the team has the ability to completely shut a team down. When you have a generational talent like him, you need to showcase him and use him as much as possible. Sully has done a fabulous job of bringing him along and so far this year from what I have seen. He is ready to take the next step as our Friday night guy. 20% of our season is over and I don’t think we can wait until it is 40% spent to make these changes in our weekend. Rotation

 

Great post. The Trenton Thumper is a huge loss for sure, no way to replace him. Can’t replace him, but we could do some things to fill-in, like making more consistent contact. The striking out is obviously giving away at bats but it’s the number of strikeouts that is concerning as the margin for error this year is much less.

On the pitching front, losing some veteran transfers is really tough. Can’t replace the experience a kid like Nesbitt had.

 

Do you really think Cags needs to be "showcased"....are you under the impression there is a scout on the planet that isn't aware of him?
"Use him as much as possible".....you know he can pitch just as many innings on Sunday as he can on Friday?
And of course completely ignoring the toll a full start on the mound takes on the kid and the impact for the remainder of the weekend on our best player. There is a reason Sully is doing what he is doing.

 

I’m trying to follow the impact you’re talking about on Nesbitt with regards to the “veteran transfers is really tough” — by our own stats he only threw 24 innings for the year last year. I have no idea how much improvement or impact he would have had this season…..