I hope we have a Friday night guy we can count on. It seems to make a difference in how our season goes when we have a dependable ace. We have had some bad luck with that lately. Opening day starters over the last 10 years: 2025 ?? 2024 Cade Fisher 2023 Brandon Sproat 2022 Hunter Barco 2021 Tommy Mace 2020 Tommy Mace 2019 Tyler Dyson 2018 Brady Singer 2017 Alex Faedo 2016 Logan Shore 2015 Logan Shore
He was a great Gator! I’m sure we all have a favorite! I’ll have to say my favorite 4 are Alan Horne (naturally), Tommy Boss, Logan Shore, and Brady Singer. All great Gators.
At the park for four innings of a 5-inning scrimmage: quick summary and observations: McNellie started for Blue and threw two solid innings. Barlow for Orange was all over the place in the 1st giving up two runs and stranding two and going deep into counts. In the 2nd he made quick work of Blue (many of the proj. starters) on 12 pitches. He also was inconsistent in the Fall. After that --- the bombs started flying out of the Park. Boser (Orange) hit a two-run dinger against McDonald (it came after Mc beaned Evans and then grooved one). No ill effect for Evans. Two batters later, Yost hit a 400 foot 2-run bomb. Then next inning Heyman (Blue) hit one out vs Rowland. Next half inning Cyr (Orange) hit a 3-run shot off of Ong. I left soon after. Pitchers need to up their game-- I think soon we may begin to scratch off some names from Sully's "circle of trust” list. In my view, Barlow may be on the bubble but I sense Sully wants to keep him inside the circle. Had some OK stats at Clemson.
In the recent radio show and again at the Dugout Club event, Sully specifically said Rodriguez will be back sometime after start of the season and the workouts he has been able to do have been promising.
Good question and Boss knows what I know. That said I didn't think to see if he came out and threw in the outfield with the rest of the pitchers. Hopefully anybody else going to practice this week can keep an eye on him.
One thing I forgot to note in yesterday's comments is how Nadeau looks like a real gamer. Knows how to play the game. He opened the game with a perfect bunt to 3rd (off McNeilly)-- he easily beat out... showed good speed by stealing 2nd and in his next at-bat delivered a perfect hit run single to the opposite field. His stats at JU are off-the charts. Sully has a challenge with so many quality players (non-pitchers) to choose from and only 8 slots (9 with DH) to play. Some tough calls and lots of guys to keep engaged.
Really think he could be a leadoff hitter for us if Jones falters at all. Not expecting it but awesome to have options.
Agreed. And I know that nowadays the 2 hole is typically reserved for the best overall hitter who’s usually a power threat but Nadeau would fit that more old school 2 hole niche perfectly.
Not sure if I posted this, but I'm taking my wife to the game for Valentines! Good thing she loves baseball and has poor eyesight. I definitely out-kicked my coverage
Same, thought I was going to have to make a case for why baseball over gymnastics that night and she said she was giving the gymnastics tickets to our friends. And didn’t we all out-kick our coverage!!!
Was at the scrimmage today. Defense was not good on either side. 3 total errors on the scoreboard but there were 2 or 3 more that were called out in order to move things along. There were also a couple hits where the play should have been made (popup to shallow LCF that Myers lost at SS and a slow roller to Boser at 3B). The latter happened in the second inning which prompted Sully to come out of the dugout and the whole team had a come to Jesus meeting on the mound. Clemente’s day was done after the meeting, it was probably his only bad outing between the Fall and Spring preseason. Donay hit a 3 run homer to right field off of him after a couple free passes in the first inning. He allowed 2 more runs in the second but largely due to poor defense behind him. Aidan King looked good in his first two innings then the Orange lineup made some adjustments and got a lot of good contact off of him, scoring 4 runs in total. Shelton drilled a 2 run homer to left center and Boser hit a rocket onto the left field berm. Wilson and Nadeau both had nice hits that inning as well (might be someone else I’m forgetting too). Watching the Orange offense produce that inning was probably the highlight of the scrimmage. Brendan Lawson hit a 3 run homer of his own later after a couple of free passes by Jackson Barberi. Crushed it to right center field. Donay followed it up with a 112 mph missile back up the middle for his second hit. Matthew Jenkins was probably the highlight in terms of pitching. He was sitting 95-96 with his fastball and pitched two scoreless innings. All in all, weird day at Condron Ballpark. Blue won 8-5 if I remember correctly, though Orange out-hit them. They got the win thanks to free passes followed by blasts from Donay and Lawson.
True. His parents are members of the Dugout club and were at the dinner with the team. Michael is recovering from elbow surgery, back in town to finish his degree, and is a new daddy!
He’s probably been brought in to teach the new guys how to leave those drag marks between the mound and the dugout….
I know that errors are part of the game and the best players make them, plus workouts are just starting. BUT the series of bad plays was badly out of character for any Gator team- Bad News Bears level play. In the case of his botch fly ball play, while Myers clearly waved off the outfielders, the ball was too deep for him to play and it fell10+ feet behind him. Brookens simply abandoned the play when Myers waved him off and was far out of position even to pick up the ball after it hit the ground. I don't doubt Myers and Brookens would have played the ball differently in a game, but that may be the most frustrating part. Neither played as if he was fighting to win a position. The second inning errors by Nadeau and Boser were sloppy, but both were routine efforts to make plays that called for something more than routine effort. Neither Astrogator here, or GatorGal in her scrimmage thread mention the at bat that burned me the most. Myers led off with a walk, in which the pitch went to the backstop and ricocheted back onto the field, rolling midway between the mound and 1B to within a few steps of the edge of the IF clay. Myers started to trot to first, but looked back and saw the odd kick and hurried to first while watching for the defense to react to the ball. It seemed the reaction from Clemente was to ignore the rolling ball and try to regain his focus for the next batter. Clayton at first seemed focused on covering !B. Nadeau, playing 2B was farther from the ball than Clemente and Clayton and didn't charge the ball to recover it. Myers was the one guy paying attention, he rounded first, saw that the live ball was lying unattended on the grass and ran to second. I'm not sure if the umpire also had failed to pay attention and made a quick time call or Sully simply had Myers return to first. I have seen a few plays over the years in which Gator opponents botch plays as badly as that, but never the Gators. That play opened the inning and was followed by the two errors. I'm much more ready to forgive the sloppiness today, partly because I feel the players and coaches will make the best of a rude lessom.
