Quote Originally Posted by preachermatt83 View Post
Good get. Do we have more JUCO commits this year and last than normal or is it just me?
I think it's about the same. It seems like our philosophy has changed the past two year with JUCO guys in that we have started to turn to them looking for power hitters more than anything because we haven't had as much luck getting our high school power hitting prospects through the draft. We also seem to like to find guys that transferred to a JUCO from another D-I program like a Lowe, Kruger, Vansau, or a Holland and have had some success doing that. Before the bats changed we were going after guys like Alex Detz and Seth Heck that were more contact hitter types.

The other thing is we try to get as many high school guys up front which makes sense because the JUCO guys aren't even in JUCO when we're getting commits from some of the high school guys. But then around this time we seem to try to fill in any gaps with JUCO guys. Jared Liebelt is a pitcher that started out at Villanova that's in a JUCO in Illinois and MacMahan is a pitcher that was drafted by the Pirates. They are two guys that could compete for a rotation spot next year for us or at least a significant part of the pitching staff which we need because we've lost some guys to Tommy John for a little while. Marshall Gilbert is a JUCO catcher that has shown some power and I know that we have been playing Dustin Skelton some at third base in scrimmages so he may figure in next year as well, although we seem pretty deep there to me with Marrero, Skelton, and probably Tyler Lasch and then Stovall could catch as well possibly. We may see Gilbert switch positions possibly but it's too soon to know. Alex Pener is a switch hitter who can play first or DH for us but again I think Cole Gordon will probably be back for his RS junior year. If we get Riviera that would be five JUCO commits if my math is right. I could see us possibly adding some more JUCO guys especially if they think it's someone that could help us out- and we may need to go after a JUCO third baseman if Bragg has a year like Lowe did- although at this way early point I think he comes back for his senior year.

We also have some freshmen that could be instant impact guys potentially if we get them through the draft- Owen Lovell, Jordan Anderson, Quenton Holmes who I think will go pro, and behind that group maybe Josh Hatcher, Chad Bryant, Bryce Hutchinson, Aaron Brown, Zane Stephens, and Jack Owen are all pretty good prospects who may or may not be instant impact but I think they will be pretty good players for us.