Just looked at stats from last year. Brown was fourth on the team in homeruns. Behind Walsh, Erickson and Wallace. In no certain order. Pretty good company. People in here are writing her off fast. Competition is going to be good. Gators are going to be solid.
Has it been announced? I heard a rumor that the newest price is 1.5… I just don’t see that kind of money in softball
What conversation does CTW have with current players and incoming freshmen about the transfer portal? Does he talk with them and explain why he is accepting these transfers, or does he let them deal with it themselves? I want to be a fly on the wall during these discussions.
What a difference a year makes. Last year many of us were worried about a lack of pitching depth for the upcoming season and the need for more players from the transfer portal. This year the discussion is about how TW is going to deal with this abundance of super talent.
MaxPreps 2024 National POY, plus 1st & 2nd Team All Americans. Of the 5 Gator signees, only Katelynn Oxley and Taylor Shumaker are on the list. 2024 MaxPreps All-America Team: Jayden Heavener of Pace headlines high school softball's best
Very true. And she accomplished that with 20% fewer ABs, making her HR total even more impressive. But the thing about Ava is that it's feast or famine. Her average was more than .140 lower than the other players you mention.
I'm obviously very green here, but I felt like Ava was under a lot of pressure for the games I was able to watch at the end of the season. CTW didn't act like he had the confidence in her and constantly went with Keagan even when it was clear she needed a break and should maybe not have started every game, and then he would bring in Ava in the last couple of innings after Keagan had slipped and the pitching became more urgent. It kind of felt as an observer that if Ava couldn't pull them back then it would all be on her, and a few times you could see she looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Ava is a fantastic pitcher, and I would have liked to see her start more. Maybe the new pitching coach will be just what she needs. Keagan is an outstanding pitcher but she was worked so hard, although I'm sure she wanted the ball everytime, it just didn't always seem like the best decision. Ava's batting did seem off but I wonder if that's because subconsciously she always had a little bit of her on standby just incase she needed to pitch, but she knew she wouldn't be called on to pitch unless Keagan was in trouble. Or I could be talking complete nonsense because I'm still learning
I think Ava had a solid freshmen year is poised to make a big hump with both pitching and hitting. She came through so many times for us and being a two way as a freshmen is not easy. I think she will be just fine.
For gymnastics, I put a bow on the old year and start a new thread for the new year, usually the end of August when we have an understanding of UF's final roster for the coming year and after the US Championship which is usually in August. Think the US Championship got bumped up due to the Olympics. Annually starting a new thread makes it easier to keep track of older information that you don't want to lose.
My best advice....stop paying attention to these various and typically meaningless rankings. That said, nice to see someone finally understands Taylor's elite status, but that isn't enough to change the usual absurdity.
So, I took the time out of curiosity to look at the Max Preps list. There are 84 players listed. Out of 84 players, I have only some knowledge of 11 of them. And that includes Red, Taylor and Heavener. As I have said before, I had a list of 21 players I felt we were interested in getting last recruiting cycle. Every one of them ended up at at Power Five school. Oklahoma flat cleaned up with 6 of the best off that list. Two are on this list. Our class is exceptional. Two are on this list. Yet on this list you have commitments to: Cornell, George Mason, UNLV, Texas-Tyler, FGCU, Providence, Penn State, Peru State (is that in the U.S. or South America?...never heard of it), Williams College, McNeese, and Troy. Just don't pay attention to these things.
While I am in the mood to rant about all of these rankings, I'll toss out two totally unrelated examples. There are more others than I can count. There is a pitcher out of Illinois by the name of Berkley Zache that I am pretty sure Tim would have crawled on bloody hands and knees to Illinois to get her. Oklahoma got her. She is listed as an honorable mention. The other, and unrelated to the first, is someone I am not trying to pick on but simply stating facts. Lexie Delbrey was listed by several services as the #1 pitching recruit in the country when she committed to us. That was the same class as Jordy Bahl among others. I don't need to go into her two years at UF....so she left for a mid-major (a very good one but still a mid-major) to resurrect her career. In her junior year the two prime pitchers for the Cajuns threw 327 innings, one is going to be a junior, one is going to be a senior. Both left after Clasco left. One when Glasco left and the other after a head scratching hire of the unemployed Allyson Habetz. Lexie was a non-entity in her junior year. She threw 36 innings or 11% of the work the prime two got. Prospects for her senior year, though, have to be improved since, unless Habetz can pull off a miracle in high school recruiting or in the portal, highly unlikely, there is only one other left on the staff and she got 34 innings compared to Lexie's 36.
I started this thread in February of 2022 and kind of like the idea that enough people have a year around interest in softball to keep the conversation going. It's one of the oldest threads on the board.
MaxPreps did name Rothrock their POY in 2022 and Brown POY in 2023. All of these services have people who watch a ton of softball and provide their input. Sometime they are spot on, sometimes they miss. Some kids peak in high school, other keep getting better and better. Very subjective and gives us all something to talk about. You certainly watch a lot more high school and travel ball than I do, as I see almost none. So your perspective is much appreciated.
2024 Johnny Bench Awards Winners Top male NCAA baseball catcher - Cole Messina – University of South Carolina Top female NCAA softball catcher - Jocelyn Erickson – University of Florida
Well, they can't be wrong all of the time. Top couple of picks are usually a no-given as with Addison Fisher in some and Heavener in some this year. But, the lists, overall, are pretty much useless and I don't lose a minute of sleep if someone I know is elite level, regardless if they are coming to UF, and they are not on the list. I just laugh and ignore it. While we can only hope for a diamond in the rough, and that is entirely possible since there are far too many quality players in the country these days to make the lists, our 2025 class was lean and entirely expected given what is ahead of them in '23 and '24. I hope for better this year in the 2026 class but would not be shocked if it is another difficult year. For the 2026 Class, they are still looking at a wealth of very young talent already here and established.
