Gator Baseball 2022 Roster/Lineup/Batting Order

I've been told it is slow go for Coppola but he is not giving up on the season. I'm not trying to get anyone's hopes up so most of us won't know anything until he shows back up in the bullpen.

 

Here's the batting update as of 3/21 sorted by OB% of our usual starters....

# ---- Player ------------- AVG - OB%
36 Langford, Wyatt ----- .400 - .483
4 Fabian, Jud ------------- .300 - .474
5 Halter, Colby ----------- .355 - .457
15 Riopelle, BT ----------- .328 - .409
23 Fabian, Deric --------- .284 - .400
26 Thompson, Sterlin --- .329 - .387
6 Calilao, Kendrick ------ .302 - .348
24 Rivera, Josh ---------- .277 - .333
34 Armstrong, Kris ------ .273 - .322

Notes
Weird to see how low Sterlin is on this list partly because he only has 9 walks which is not bad but no HBP. Even Deric has a higher OB%.
Wyatt is red hot and thus leads the OB% with even half the walks that Jud has.
BT has improved mostly from getting hits vs LHP and a good sign with Guscette still out.
"One of these players is not like the others, One of these players is still just a freshman." Deric continues to improve with his bat, if only his glove as well.
Props to KC for getting the BA back above .300 and now his 14 RBIs is 4th on the team.
With a really difficult schedule ahead for the next month it will be interesting to see who falls off the most.
Certainly Wyatt, Colby and Sterlin are not expected to keep their lofty averages, but let's see how well Jud, KC and Rivera hold their own.
Its good sign when 6 out of 9 starters at batting .300 or better after the first weekend of SEC play and your not named Tennessee.

 

Different spin on tonight's win against Bethune Cookman.....
1. In the ballpark it seemed like a very lackadaisical win for the Gators. Sure the homers by Jud were nice but no one seemed up for this game. I certainly can't blame them but Sully won't stand for it long. Maybe that's why we didn't put up any crooked numbers on the board.
2. It was a great job by all the pitchers that followed Pogue (notice how I carefully worded that one). I was glad to see Abner, Hartman, and Nesbitt all get in and out without giving up a run. They needed that and probably kept us on the winners side.
3. I was very happy to see Guscette get two hits tonight. That was only his second two hit night in the last year. Man we could sure use an extra catcher that can face LHP and produce at the plate. Sure BT is doing better but options are always good.
4. Errors continue to show up most every game here lately. Halter now leads the team with 4 errors so far this season. Let's hope we get back to a high level of defense this weekend and win the weekend series.
5. Good news on Jud to tell you but I'll wait until tomorrow for an off day stat of the day. I will say, if Jud had gotten one more hit tonight, he would have the third highest batting average on the team of our regulars. Now who would have thought that after last year?
6. I have to agree with Shane, Nesbitt deserves the Sunday start. At this point if not Tyler, then I'm leaning with Slater or Milchin. That comes from a stats perspective. I would think if Sully makes that change for Sunday its easier to do it at home than waiting another Sunday to do it on the road at Georgia.
7. In the last 10 games both Colby Halter and Sterlin Thompson each have 10 hits. Also both only have 2 multi-hit games and both have 2 games with no hits. Now averaging 1 hit every game is not bad but their averages continue to slide unless they can find ways to be more productive. Neither of them are swinging the bat like they were the first 10 games of the year. Have to hope they breakout this weekend for the sake of the top of the order.
8. If you haven't been to the games, you ought to know the attendance continues to remain high for home games. For instance tonight's attendance was listed at 4,400+. I would have guessed something closer to 3,000. A game like this at the Mac would have been somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500.The people seem to enjoy being in the ballpark win or lose. Any more if you hope to park at the stadium you better try to be there at least an hour early for most games and even earlier for Friday/Saturday games.
9. Nothing more to say but number 10 is really important.
10. The absolute best thing about tonight was my good friend John, better known here as @gatorjjh, made it back to the ballpark. It was so good to talk with and enjoy the game with John like old times again. When the seventh inning stretch came and John stood to sing, only he could sing the song like it was meant to be. Harry Carey would have been proud.

 

Interesting stat of the day....
With Jud's two homeruns last night, he is now up to 10 homers on the season. Based on the other SEC games last night, his 10 homeruns put Jud Fabian alone in first place in the SEC individual standings for homeruns this season. Jud is also tied for the SEC lead in runs scored.
If you don't know where he's from by now, you must love cricket instead.

2022 SEC Baseball - Individual Statistics
Home runs
---------
1. Jud Fabian, UF............. 10
2. Trey Lipscomb, UT.......... 9
3. Jacob Berry, LS............ 8
Tim Elko, UM............... 8
Wyatt Langford, UF......... 8
6. Sonny DiChiara, AU......... 7
Chase Estep, UK............ 7
Corey Collins, UG.......... 7
Christian Moore, UT........ 7
Zane Denton, UA............ 7
11.9 tied at.................. 6

 

^^^^^^
I wonder if they have ever thought about flipping the cameras????

 

This weekend I'll be focusing on Sterlin Thompson at the plate and the bottom of the order guys. We need contributions from as many of them that we can get. Sterlin has a chance to get off to a good start against their RHP on Friday. Josh, Kris, and Deric all are coming off a good weekend and need to continue to get on base if we want to put many crooked numbers on the board. Sterlin hasn't been driving as many balls like he was a few weeks ago. I don't know if the shift is messing with him or too much tinkering with his swing. But a few good line drives will be a good sign for him to have a good weekend.

As for LSU, their Friday arm Earl Money has given up 20 hits and 8 walks in 28 innings. If he averages a base runner an inning then we might be able to take advantage of moving the runners around. So a little small ball could be an ongoing way to score a few runs early. If they send out Ty Floyd a RHP with 5 starts on Saturday or Sunday this should be very good for the Gators. In 23 innings Ty has given up 18 walks, with 6 doubles and 4 homeruns so far. That seems like a recipe for crooked numbers.

 

At last night's game I couldn't figure out what this has to do with baseball.

 

I'll keep it short. I was intrigued that Sully stayed with Barco into the 7th and then stayed with Nick Fic to finish. Probably not so much into the game strategy and being up 7-0. It was more about making sure he held Purnell and Slater for Saturday and/or Sunday. By trusting Barco and Nick Fic Sully set up us for even better things to try and sweep. Obviously we don't want another Sunday loss and giving away the sweep. So all hands on deck for Saturday to seal the win and the series but hold in reserve all we can for Sunday it seems.

 

I think Fic might be a little more situational since he tends to give up a run here and there. When we are up 4+ runs then leave Fic in as long as you can to save the other arms. But if we are only up 2-3 then Fic for short 1 inning relief then go to Purnell to close. Either way I agree with your point to save the staff and still have Fic for another chance if needed that weekend. I wouldn't be surprised at the end of the year if Fic has the most appearances since we see him during the midweeks as well.

 

It just hit me, I was glad to see Sully going the bunt in the 5th with Deric and even had Halter try to lay one down. Instead Halter was able to move the runner with a sac fly. This opened things up and eventually led to a crooked run inning.

 

It seems the top teams in the SEC so far might be Tennessee, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Mississippi, Florida and maybe Georgia. This probably isn't the order of finish but who plays who may have something to do with it. That made me wonder who plays who in the conference schedule. Here's a breakdown with the top 6 for now.....

Florida - @Georgia, Arkansas, @Vanderbilt, Tennessee
Arkansas - @florida, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt
Tennessee - @Ole Miss, @Vanderbilt, @florida, Georgia
Vanderbilt - Tennessee, Florida, @Georgia, @Arkansas
Mississippi - Tennessee, @Arkansas
Georgia - Florida, Vanderbilt, @Tennessee

Certainly somebody else might replace Georgia in the top 6 later but for now it looks like Mississippi has the easier path thru.