Gator Baseball 2022 Roster/Lineup/Batting Order

Notes after Game 1 with JU 3/8...
1. Not to take anything away from the great pitching tonight but I walked away thinking tonight's game was won with our defense. If Colby, Jud, or Kenny drop any of those balls, it could have put another runner on base and ramped up the pressure on our pitching. Those were three less outs the other team had in a 1 run ball game. Sure its every detail that makes a difference in a 1 run game but this team is impressive with only 6 errors on the year.
2. Great call by Sully on all three of those bunts, the one with BT in particular. We had 2 outs before Langford walked. The bunt by BT was perfect and allowed a runner to move into scoring position. Then it was left to Calilao to come thru with the game winning hit. If not for that bunt call neither team may have scored after 9.
3. Props to Kris Armstrong for getting his BA off the Interstate and raising his average over 70 points going 3 for 3. Most importantly that's two games in a row that he went oppo thru a shifted infield. Hit 'em where they ain't big boy! Its the little things that can make a difference.
4. Alright, Alright.... props to all 3 pitchers for shutting them down tonight, masterful job. Crazy to think but our pitching is starting to sound like a broken record. Then think about last year again and the times we gave up more runs any time a reliever came in. Who would have thunk it!
5. Another poster caught this as well but needs to be said again. In the radio interview after the game Sully said Pogue will be out there this weekend. I don't know if he will be starting, with a bad Seton Hall coming to town my guess is yes, but if he shines for 2-3 innings as well, Katie bar the door. In less than one month we could have gone from one sure starting pitcher to possibly seven with a full bullpen.
6. Very glad to see Sully taking our advice again and moving Kenny up in the order above Rivera as I had suggested would be coming. Again if Rivera had batted in the 6 spot then Josh would have come up with 2 men on and 2 outs in the 6th instead of KC. Oh yeah, JR didn't have a hit tonight.
7. Getting the shut out dropped our team ERA down to 2.16. Sure that won't last long but it keeps getting better. And our opponents Team BA on the season is now down to .193. Another great job by our pitching staff and the coaches that are working with them.
8. Milchin and the rest of the staff should be all set for tomorrow night. Sully said Neely was slated to go second tonight but his back spasmed while in warmups. Watch to see he is good to go tomorrow. Let's hope we get a big lead early to give the less experienced guys some more mound time.
9. With JU lacking their better arms hopefully our bats will get back to more timely hitting. We left 7 runners on base tonight and while that's not as bad as Miami last weekend, it could be an area of concern going into SEC play. JU is throwing out Earl somebody with a 6.75 ERA. Wind blowing out so look for plenty of deep fly balls out of here.
10. Rain looks to be an issue for Wednesday, Friday and into Saturday morning. Let's hope we get the most of what we can to get everyone one last go around before SEC play starts.

 

Interesting batting stat of the day
Ask yourself who are our leaders in On Base Percentage with a minimum of 20 ABs? Most on here without looking would start Halter then Thompson then maybe Riopelle then hhmmm

Well here's the current OB% order on 3/8 after tonight's game

1. Colby Halter - .470 (see I told ya)
2. Jud Fabian - .446 (wait what?)
3. BT Riopelle - .436 (hey you forgot ST)
4. Wyatt Langford - .431 (nah nah nah this is mixed up man)
5. Sterlin Thompson - .422 (are you sure)
6. Deric Fabian - .418 (props to Ocala represent)

 

I'm wondering if Sully goes Barco/Sproat/Manning or Barco/Sproat/Pogue. Giving Pogue the start is intriguing because of the weaker competition but I would think Sully wants his rotation set on the last weekend before SEC starts. It should be an interesting spice blend for Sully to see what he is cooking up this weekend. On the year Seton Hall is 0-10. Their team BA is .215 and their team pitching ERA is 9.00.

 

Another interesting point about our improved defense this year and only 6 errors verses 17 at this point last year. As I recall last year with all the determined errors we also had a bunch of bobbles and bad plays that were deemed to be hits that could have kept our error numbers down more than they actually were. This year there hasn't really been many bad plays that were questionable for an error or not. Again most of our errors this year have been from bad throws. That's how good our gloves have been so far.

 

Brain teaser of the day.....
Without looking which Gator hitter has the lowest strikeouts to at bats ratio so far this year, minimum 20 ABs?
And yes its lookupable.
Jeopardy music playing in the background......

 

Yep and my point with this is, like 77 says, Mac is making contact with the ball. The thing that backs it up is he only has 1 walk. So 18 out of 20 ABs have resulted in contact, Unfortunately he only has 3 hits and a .150 average. Mac certainly has not been making good contact like he started last year but the potential is still there for him to get hot.