Ongoing UF Baseball Commentary

22—

For me the Miami thing dates back to my playing days, ND because my Dad didn’t like’em, and the Longhorns—well that stems directly to the 2005 CWS when their team sitting together stood up and cheered when Alan went down with the torn hamstring vs ASU (sorry @gtj31)…

 

My dad was a big Notre Dame fan... until we moved to Florida and my first position coach in Pop Warner football was a former Gator LB... He coached me at DB.

 

The beef my Dad had with ND was back in the late ‘60’s they signed a TV contract with NBC to broadcast all of their football games which back then meant the south was more or less forced to watch ND….

 

Yeah, in Florida from the mid '70's it was ND every Saturday. But ABC and CBS did play other teams like the Gators, but they still had OSU and Michigan, USC far too often. The old Blood-bloods.

 

There are several things that can happen across the course of a season, or even a game for that matter.

We have more than proven that the dead red, the 6-run HR’s, and strike outs when we need to put the ball in play do absolutely nothing to help our offense.

We had reached a point where we were hitting it where it was pitched, battling for BB’s, even playing some small ball to push runners into scoring position and across the plate. I’ve always believed that HR’s happen when you’re just trying to hit it good…….

And tonight in Tallahassee apparently we reverted back to plan A. DAMMITMAN!

For the rest of the season pitchers gotta pitch, hitters gotta hit, and defense gotta defend.

I understand no one expected to give it up big time in the first inning—it happened—what I didn’t expect to see was “dead eyes” on our players which led to us just going through the motions…..

Pride—Fire—Passion—Drive—Want To—we really need to figure out how hunger we are.

Let’s get up and go Gators!

 

And the football team too

 

I’d say this:

awful game in which we were dominated by FSU pitching. I’d disagree and say Pogue didn’t have it as he walks the first batter and then gives up 3 hits in a row including 2 rockets. Nesbitt gave up a swinging bunt and a weak single under Calilao’s glove. Nesbitt did his job. Everyone out of the pen did an excellent job. Pogue needs to go to the pen.

 

Let's examine our lineup and it's quality. Just my opinion for what it's worth.....

Our 1B is a 4th year player who should not be starting for an SEC team. His body of work to date shows he is a very avg player at best.

2B - Halter is in his 3rd season. He is a grinder who is an avg SEC type player

SS - Rivera is in his 3rd season. Above avg def with strong arm. Avg at best with bat. Should have turned the corner this year with his bat but simply has not.

3B - Fabian - 1st year. Has done a great job defensively but is not ready for prime time with bat. It's becoming an automatic out in SEC type games.

LF - 2nd year - Got 4 at bats last season. How does that happen based on the disaster we saw last season.? My concern is that it shows a pattern from Sully to stick with same players. Certainly SEC caliber.

CF - 4th year - Graduated a year early but is now in his 4th season playing in the SEC. He will also finish 4 years without hitting .300. He should have taken the money last season as I don't believe he will get that this year. Sure he has cut down on his strikeouts, however he doesn't wow scouts in big moments. Above avg def. He is certainly SEC quality, but is not a game changer.

RF - 2nd season. Somewhat of an enigma. He started off hot but has disappeared as the season has gone on. SEC caliber

C - Riopelle and Guscette - BT is in his 4th season and has been great addition with bat and his leadership. Avg at best defensively. Mac is in his 2nd season and his been up and down on both sides.

DH - Guscette is not SEC caliber.

Bench - Hard to say when you don't use it. Armstrong is still a mystery to me based on his power. Do we have another 'Langford' sitting on the bench like last year? I guess we won't know since they aren't given chances.

When you average out the experience at all 9 of these positions......you get 2.8 years of experience. Too many mental mistakes (see last night) for a veteran type team like this. People like to say we are young......no we aren't.

When you look at this lineup and look at next season, only D Fabian, Langford and Guscette are guaranteed to come back. That's scary.

I won't bother with the pitching. Barco is a late 1st but more likely 2nd rounder. Sproat will get taken between 4-7 rounds because of his fastball. Outside of that we don't possess anyone else that would be drafted right now in first 20 rounds. Let that sink in. Obviously we have freshman who have potential, however even those who are in their '2nd or 3rd' season and still considered freshman are not SEC quality. I've yet to see anyone else throw a fastball higher than 93. Most all sit at 89-90. That is not cutting it any longer, especially when you don't have command. Outside of Purnell, I don't know who else would have even made the roster on some of our past teams.

 

Per the above post....
KC is a career 275 hitter, I' hard pressed to say that isn't an SEC starter. I would agree it isn't an elite starter, but the league is full of guys hitting a lot less than that.
Similar sentiment on Mac, although a smaller sample size at this point. He's pretty much a 300 hitter on his career despite injuries and that abysmal start to this season. Can't agree he isn't SEC caliber

 

JD, appreciate your input. I think when people speak of being young, they are speaking to the pitching side. Coming into this year, our pitchers had a total of 254 prior IP. Sounds like a lot, but let's break it down:

Barco (102.1):

2021 - 83
2020 - 19.1

Milchin (49):

2021 - 21.2
2017 - 27.1

Pogue (45):

2020 - 10.1
2019 - 34.2

Sproat (27.2):

2021 - 21.2
2020 - 6

Manning (15):

2021 - 15

Nesbitt (11.2):

2020 - 11.2

Ficarrotta (3.1):

2020 - 3.1

Or lets break it down by year, and I'll leave Barco out as he's our most experienced and trusted pitcher:

2021: 58.1 IP (3 players: Milchin, Sproat, Manning)
2020: 31.1 IP (4 players, 2 coming back from injuries)
2019: 34.2 IP (1 player, coming back from injury)

Such numbers are useless without context, let's look at the team we are chasing in the SEC...

Tennessee has a total of 8 guys pitching this year that racked up a total of 285.1 IP just last year alone, and a transfer that pitched nearly 50 IP last year. Of course, add that to the fact that they've got one of the best freshman pitchers in the country, and it's clear to see why they are doing so well.

So while "young" may not be the right word, we're clearly inexperienced.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

Last two seasons, SEC-only (29 games, 26 starts):

KC - .309 BA, .893 OPS, 1 3B

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

In response to a few of the replies.....

My point re KC is this is his 4th year and his numbers remain the same. At this level, if you have guys at key positions who have yet to get drafted or won't be drafted that is a problem. Its never easy to discuss a kids flaws, however an elite program should be filling this gap.

It is important to note that one of our top incoming freshman was Jac Cagilianone is out for the year. Jac is a 1B and LHP. PG had him ranked as the nations top 1B and 4th best LHP.

Agree to disagree re Mac G.

Re our pitchers.....thanks for further analysis with stats. I will stick with my initial post by saying right now we are severely lacking quality arms. It will be interesting to see what next years staff looks like.

 

Don't ruin a perfectly good argument with facts, Wes.

 

We have some players on this team that perfectly illustrate how batting average isn't necessarily the most important metric when evaluating a hitter's impact. It's a matter of percentages. Unless you're an all time legend like a Boggs or a Gwynn, a bunch of lazy singles for a .275 hitter doesn't mean all that much.

 

I've mentioned it before, but KC was a late starter last year in SEC play. After the Vanderbilt series, he hit .405 with a .690 SLG in 12 games (he had only played in 9 SEC games up to that point).

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

It will be interesting to see if he’s drafted as he wasn’t last year. I guess scouts aren’t seeing what others might be. With less rounds and teams, I doubt he does.

 

Not sure anyone is claiming he has a future in pro ball. Just that he hasn't been anywhere near as bad as some here like to make him out to be.

 

I don't get the continued criticism of KC. Yea, he's not a first round draft pick, but he is a solid player. Looking at the other options, I don't see anyone better. Evert player is not going to be a future MLBer.