Yeah, he's gonna be good. I'm hopeful for a .370 or so season though. Like to see him hit .350 like Jake is right now
Printable View
Alexander now has a 10 game hitting streak
In other words, our pitchers still really like to walk people.
I'm not too concerned about that. I'm just happy that Ford and Hughes are on the mound and pitching right now. Ashcraft is rehabbing his groin and Self, Price, and McQuary aren't pitching this summer. Unless JP France is pitching somewhere else he's resting too. Barlow and Billingsley will benefit from pitching in the Cape. Ethan Small is rehabbing as well.
We're going to have a potential first round pick ace in Pilkington followed up by two fifth year seniors in France and Billingsley- and I thought Billingsley pitched very well at the end of the year. Hopefully one of either Ashcraft or McQuary will step up and take a weekend spot, but if not we're still in decent shape as far as the weekend rotation is concerned. A bullpen with Ford, Small, Self, Price, Barlow, and I really like Jared Leibelt who is a JUCO guy that we have coming in should be much better than what we had this year- even if a couple of those guys don't pan out.
Since some of those guys aren't pitching this summer, this fall is going to be very key to their development.
I'm hoping that Stovall and LA have seasons similar to what Gridley had this year. If not better. I'd like Jake to hit .400 again and not hit any walls. We need a couple of freshmen to at least have a season like Josh Smith had for LSU at the plate this year. If a freshman can come out of nowhere and have a huge season like Mangum had his freshman year- that would be incredibly helpful.
I think Mangum, Stovall, Alexander, Vansau, & Macnamee will provide a solid core to the order....but we need some guys to step up to provide some power. I may be in the minority but I think Skelton will have a good season next season....and by good, I'm only talking like .275+ with 4-5 bombs but a real good defensive year. I think if we can get .275+ out of him in addition to controlling the running game, it will be a huge shot in the arm.
Mangum CF
Macnamee LF
Vansau RF
Stovall SS/2B
Alexander SS/2B/3B
Skelton C
Who will fill the remaining spots? We need another middle infielder or 3rd baseman plus a 1st Baseman. We also need a DH, although I'd be fine with us finding a great outfielder and DHing Vansau
I think our pitching staff has to take a lot of responsibility for us not controlling the run game very well this past season.
Probably a combination of pitchers not doing a great job and Lovelady just didn't have a great arm behind the plate. The guy was a warrior back there but he didn't have a plus arm. He also probably had to worry more about framing pitches to help out also. The amount of people we gave free bases to was a worse problem than the running game.
Ethan Small will be back and will be a huge factor.