I’ve been out of the loop. Who is Nixon? And what are the prospects with Thatcher Hurd?
Printable View
Skenes would be such a big get.
What happened with the Tulane outfielder?
He's the difference in this team being pretty good and being a title contender again.
A legit Friday night ace who can DH.
A rotation of Skenes, Cade, and Gartman would be as good as anyone in the country.
And a lineup of
Larry - 2B
Ledbetter - LF
Hines - 1B
Skenes - DH
Portal CF (Bill Knight?)
Clark - RF
Hancock - C
Alford - 3B
Forsythe - SS
would be pretty stout too.
I didn't think at the beginning of the season James would be back. From what I've heard he's not gonna be drafted high enough to get the money he wants and there's quite a few scouts would like to see him play the outfield more. We'll see how it goes but I believe it's better than 50/50 he comes back.
James in CF doesn't excite me at all. His bat is ok, his defense is not. He's hit his ceiling already.
He's easily the most frustrating kid to me. His ability is obvious. The tools are there. He just seems to have hit the wall. And that's not saying he's bad, just he needs to get it all together. He wasn't great in CF last year. Bad Angie's and doesn't read it well. CF is tough to play.
Yeah I can agree with that. He's got a ton of talent. If he puts it all together he could do very well. Some guys eventually do and some guys never do. CF is tough to play. He's got work to do whether he comes back or goes to pro ball. You know yourself in pro ball you don't last long with just talent, it takes production
Nixon is the closer from Texas who beat us the game before the Tanner Leggett walk off game. Hurd is likely a LSU lean at this point.
Ethan Groff seems to be possibly an either/or with Knight. The one we don't get may end up at Ole Miss.
I think part of the problem was Kam isn't a two hole hitter IMO. He's much better in the 3-6 hole like we had him in 2021. Also part of the problem was lineup construction to a degree. We didn't really have a consistent leadoff hitter for awhile and when Yeager took over he started hitting all those home runs! Poor Kam.
I would kind of be surprised as we are targeting CF in the portal, expect Kellum Clark to be back, and have already added Ledbetter and I haven't heard of any third basemen that we're after. From what I have heard there really isn't a concensus on where he fits. You talk to one scout and he'll say that Kam is an OF. Talk to another and he may say that he is a second baseman. Another may think he's a third baseman. Definitely some moving parts here but the only way I see Kam in the outfield is if he comes back to school which I agree with the 50/50 assessment and honestly it may be more like 60/40 that he comes back. Then the other part is we're going to have to miss on Knight and Groff and I don't think that will happen.
He has the talent to be an alpha male player but I just don't think he is. I don't think he has that "IT" that Rooker, Mangum, Tanner Allen had. He seems to struggle with pressure at times. That's not to say that he's a bad player or can't or won't be productive. I think he's better as a supporting cast player. And we need that too. I also think he needs to focus on one position whatever that is. Once everyone gets back in August and we know what the roster looks like and assuming he is back IF he is going to play the outfield we need to decide that this fall and let him take tons of reps out there. Or if it's 3B for us he needs to stay there and focus on that. The past two years he has started at SS and then moved to 3B and then this year he shuttled between 3B and LF/CF. I think that affected his play some as well.
It also seemed like his hitting approach changed during the season and went from gap to gap to dead pull hitter and it just seems like he constantly has this identity crisis as a player as far as what he is. With his experience I could easily see him hitting .300+ with 10-15 home runs while stealing 20 bases.
Kams best shot in pro ball is in the outfield. He's fast but he doesn't have much range on ground balls. He doesn't react well. His footwork is bad and hasn't improved. His skill set is more suited to the outfield. I haven't talked to one yet who projected him as an infielder. If he stays here i don't know where he'll wind up but there has been discussion about letting him have a shot in cf. There's so many moving parts right now it's really hard to get a grasp on where it's all headed. I would prefer groff or knight in cf myself. I know one thing the staff is busy trying to put this roster together and I believe we're gonna be ok.