Ole Miss is ranked ahead of us because the baseball recruiting media loved their class a couple of years ago. Their pitching should be good and I think they will be very solid defensively- especially at catcher and SS. I'm not sold on their hitting though. The bad thing for them is they probably will lose most of their pitching to the draft before their hitters fully mature.

We will probably be a little bit better than the baseball recruiting media thinks because Ethan Small is in an unknown to them right now. I think we will start him on Sundays initially because he is just now coming back from Tommy John but if he is dominant as Cann indicates he is- he could potentially move up to Saturday. I think we'll go with Pilkington, France, and Small on the weekends at least initially. I think we'll use Billingsley as our primary midweek guy- but he could be in the rotation if someone doesn't pan out. I think Self will be the closer but we won't work him as much as last year. Cole Gordon will probably pitch a lot out of the bullpen- I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes a star next year and I could see him also ending up being the closer too. Zach Neff is a grad transfer that will help the pen out a lot and maybe Blake Smith too if he's healthy. Spencer Price is another solid arm that can close too. Jared Leibelt reminds me a lot of Justin Pigott and I could see us using him a lot in a long relief role. Trysten Barlow can be a good LOOGY for us. McQuary has good stuff but needs to learn how to command it. I think Ashcraft is hurt again- but I could be wrong. I thought I heard someone say that though.

I kind of like the rumor of Stovall being the catcher. That would help us get another potentially good bat in the lineup at another position. It depends on Marshall Gilbert and Dustin Skelton and how much they adjust to the SEC and improve as players.

I hope MacNamee hits 10 home runs but it will probably be closer to 5-8 at first base. Hopefully LA stays healthy- he has some power and actually could be an upgrade over Gridley if he is healthy. Stovall could certainly be at second but if he isn't I could see Tanner Allen starting there. He's the guy that we flipped from Manieri and will probably start somewhere for us next year. Not sure what we'll do at third base but I like Jordan Westburg's potential there. Could be Allen if Stovall is at second.

Mangum is an All-SEC player. He can hit for average and play plus defense. Needs to play within himself and not try to do too much at times. Vansau is a veteran player that could hit 5-10 home runs. I think Cann will start Tanner Poole because he has spoken highly of him in the offseason. Hopefully Cann works his magic with him- but we'll see what happens. I think Jordan Anderson will start if not play a lot. He's a former UA AA that had some injuries his senior year. Like the other freshmen it just depends on how quickly he adjust to the SEC as to what we get out of him.


I think we're probably a SR team again. Cann has said that this year is better than last years- I think I agree with him. Even though we lost Rooker who carried us at times like the Governor's Cup and the Kentucky game where he hit 3 home runs, our pitching is a lot healthier and should be a LOT better. Last year kind of reminded me of 2011 where we were kind of a patch work team but we made it to the SR at a SEC opponent and played our asses off but ultimately couldn't finish them off because we ran out of arms. Defensively we should be very good with whatever lineup we go with. The hitting is going to come down to how quickly a few freshmen can adjust and also how much our veterans improve. That could be a good bit because Cann didn't make too many major adjustments last year because of the timing of his hire. We may have a little more power than some people think too- depending on how guys progress. We'll see how our offense looks after a full year of Cann.