2015 a look ahead......

[CloverforkCat]

Let's look at next season, however these things will be relivent to who might leave folling the MLB draft.
Gone : A J Reed, Matt Redia, Michael Thomas, Austin Cousino.
May be gone : Max Kuhn, Thomas Bernal, Chandler Shepherd (not great chance)
Back : Ka'ai Tom .328 avg. 14 sb, Storm Wilson .289 4hr 20rbi, Kyle Barrett .253 1hr 10sb, Javon Shelby .250 4hr, Zack Arnold .542 8rbi, Dorian Hairston .400 7rbi, Marcus Carson .364 9rbi, Greg Fettes .250 5rbi, Conner Heady .133 10rbi
Spencer Jack 4-1 1.16era 4 saves, Andrew Nelson 2-5 3.94era, Kyle Cody 4-0 2.84era, Zach Strecker 0-1 3.80era, Dylan Dwyer 5-3 5.46era, Zack Brown 1-1 5.65era, Taylor Martin 0-0 6.23era, Ryne Combs 1-2 6.55era, Sam Mahar 1-0 9.19era
May be back : Max Kuhn .324 8hr 58rbi, Thomas Bernal .305 32rbi 6sb.....Chandler Shepherd 5-5 3.66era

If Max Kuhn returns, his bat will be a great asset, his glove, not so much. If T Bernal returns he has hit .370, .321, and .305 in his 3 seasons at UK. If C Shepherd returns, he has, in his 1st two seasons at UK shown he can be avery effective pitcher. Hopefully he will get back to that level.

Infielders : M Kuhn, C Heady, J Shelby, T Bernal, would be a solid group, that can all improve in areas of need ie. Offense, defense, stolen bases.
Outfielders : K Tom, S Wilson, K Barrett, M Carson, D Hairston, again a solid group who brings good hitting, defense, and speed as a group.

Catchers : Zack Arnold, Greg Fettes, one guy hit extremely well, .542 in limited at bats 24, the other hit .250 again as he did the year before, difference, 60 at bats in 2013, and 20 at bats in 2014. Both need to work on their defense.

Pitchers : S Jack, C Shepherd, A Nelson, K Cody, Z Strecker, D Dwyer, Z Brown, T Martin, R Combs, S Mahar, most difficult to call of all, Potentially a good group, need a lot of work in summer ball, and in fall ball. A couple in this group would probably be wise to transfer out, some newcomers could possibly help some.

 

[Comebakatz3]

That pitching is scary. The fact that not a single one of our pitchers really projects as a solid and reliable Friday starter scares the crap out of me. I think this is the first time, at least that I can remember, that we don't at least have one guy we can lean on and know that he will be our ace. Usually we have two returning and we lose one and we're comfortable with the two returning and the third to step up we somewhat know who that might be. This year... wide open. The arms are definitely there, but the confidence and the control have to improve in order for this pitching staff to be worth anything.

 

[deuces r wild]

Is it a guarantee that Cousino gets drafted high enough to leave this year.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Originally posted by deuces r wild:
Is it a guarantee that Cousino gets drafted high enough to leave this year.

That is a point of debate. Personally I think that he is gone. Cousino has become a well known player. His problem is that I don't see his ceiling being much higher. He could have better pitch selection and learn to take some walks and that could improve his hitting, but if that doesn't happen then he doesn't project well as a leadoff hitter. So that bumps him down to possible a two hole or maybe a 7 or 8 hole hitter. I don't see him developing more power, but he does already have some so he probably won't be able to move down to a 3 hole hitter. If teams think they can get him to take more walks and become a productive leadoff hitter then he could go in a solid draft round. If they only see him as a solid outfielder with an above average arm, an average bat, and project him as a 7 or 8 hitter in the lineup then I don't see him going very high. However, for him... the minors is where he wants to be and I don't see him coming back here and getting much better. So, he might as well go now before he slides any further. Unfortunately for him, I think he would have been drafted the highest right after his Freshman year when he was named an All American.

 

[CloverforkCat]

Originally posted by Comebakatz3:

That pitching is scary. The fact that not a single one of our pitchers really projects as a solid and reliable Friday starter scares the crap out of me. I think this is the first time, at least that I can remember, that we don't at least have one guy we can lean on and know that he will be our ace. Usually we have two returning and we lose one and we're comfortable with the two returning and the third to step up we somewhat know who that might be. This year... wide open. The arms are definitely there, but the confidence and the control have to improve in order for this pitching staff to be worth anything.

Agree, the Kyle Cody meltdown in the 1st regional game caught me completely off guard. Hendo could have ran him back out there in the late Sunday game, but I think even he lost confidence in him. Zack Brown seemed to come on late in the year, and Salow did very well against UofL. Dwyer may help us out after he recovers, Shepherd....who knows !

As far as hitting, we will have several good sticks back, and no one will have the A J 'shift' applied to them. We could be a pretty good base stealing team also, with Tom, Barrett, Carson, Wilson, and Shelby. Not a lot of HR hitters in this group, but good gap ability.

Defense, and fundamental execution are things each player can work on, and hopefully they will do a LOT of that !

 

[CatsFanGG24]

I'd like to see them ask Jack to workout to be a starter during the offseason...I think he has some of the best stuff on staff, and his arm is as fresh as you will see for someone his age. Hasn't pitched many innings (which also means he lacks starters experience though)

I know they seem to be grooming him as the closer, but I think he has a lot of great innings in him. The MSU game in the tourney shows he can still have good stuff through the lineup again.

 

[DubyaT]

Any of y'all have much info on this year's class os signees and any immediate impact type of kids set to join the team in the fall. Obviously, they need more SEC caliber pitching, so hopefully they've signed same.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Originally posted by DubyaT:
Any of y'all have much info on this year's class os signees and any immediate impact type of kids set to join the team in the fall. Obviously, they need more SEC caliber pitching, so hopefully they've signed same.

Hard to tell until after the draft and all that good stuff. Somebody on here said we had commitments from 2 of the top 5 pitchers in the country last year, only to lose them to the draft.

 

[DubyaT]

Originally posted by CatsFanGG24:

Originally posted by DubyaT:
Any of y'all have much info on this year's class os signees and any immediate impact type of kids set to join the team in the fall. Obviously, they need more SEC caliber pitching, so hopefully they've signed same.

Hard to tell until after the draft and all that good stuff. Somebody on here said we had commitments from 2 of the top 5 pitchers in the country last year, only to lose them to the draft.

Jon Hale has an article up on TOS (247) discussing UK players who might hear their name called in the draft, and he mentions pitcher Zachary Pop as one of the signees who is rated fairly high by Baseball America (somewhere in the 300's). And yes, they did have some stud pitchers in last year's class who opted to go pro. The LHP from Warren East (first or second round pick, IIRC), the RHP from Woodford County, and another pitcher from just outside of Knoxville.

 

[law1127]

Need better pitching and fundamental execution on all aspects of game, seems to reflect on coaching,or lack thereof !

 

[Comebakatz3]

Originally posted by DubyaT:

Originally posted by CatsFanGG24:

Originally posted by DubyaT:
Any of y'all have much info on this year's class os signees and any immediate impact type of kids set to join the team in the fall. Obviously, they need more SEC caliber pitching, so hopefully they've signed same.

Hard to tell until after the draft and all that good stuff. Somebody on here said we had commitments from 2 of the top 5 pitchers in the country last year, only to lose them to the draft.

Jon Hale has an article up on TOS (247) discussing UK players who might hear their name called in the draft, and he mentions pitcher Zachary Pop as one of the signees who is rated fairly high by Baseball America (somewhere in the 300's). And yes, they did have some stud pitchers in last year's class who opted to go pro. The LHP from Warren East (first or second round pick, IIRC), the RHP from Woodford County, and another pitcher from just outside of Knoxville.

Yep... last year we had Clinton Hollon committed to play for us. He was definitely a top 5 pitcher all year and the other was Trevor Clifton from my home town, Maryville TN. They were both lefties. We also had Hunter Green, from Warren East, who came on late and shot up the draft board . Hunter was taken in the 2nd round by the Angels, Clinton was taken in the 2nd round by the Blue Jays, and Trevor was drafted in the 12th round by the Cubs. So, we had 3 extremely talented pitchers singed up to play for us last year, but they all went pro. That being said, you have to anticipate those things happening if you're a baseball coach and have great backup plans available. We did okay, but I don't think we found a real ace in last year's class after losing those big 3.

 

[cat_in_the_hat]

I found a list of 2014 commits on perfectgame.org. Of the 10 players they have us as having commitments from, 7 are listed primarily as pitchers. There were a couple of short stops and a catcher, but the rest were listed as pitchers. That doesn't mean we recruited all of them as pitchers, but they were listed that way. So it looks like the every day players next year will pretty much consist of what we already have on the team. Hopefully, some of these pitchers can make an immediate impact. I couldn't find anywhere that said if the class is fairly well thought of or not.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Originally posted by cat_in_the_hat:
I found a list of 2014 commits on perfectgame.org. Of the 10 players they have us as having commitments from, 7 are listed primarily as pitchers. There were a couple of short stops and a catcher, but the rest were listed as pitchers. That doesn't mean we recruited all of them as pitchers, but they were listed that way. So it looks like the every day players next year will pretty much consist of what we already have on the team. Hopefully, some of these pitchers can make an immediate impact. I couldn't find anywhere that said if the class is fairly well thought of or not.

Unfortunately almost every service for baseball makes you pay to see most of the information. Luckily Perfect Game will at least give you a commitment list at some point. They have current team rankings, but the final ones don't come out until around October when everything settles down and the kids are on campus. So, we won't really know where we rank until then. Looking at the PG list of commitments I am not sure that we've got an amazing class, but we will also likely supplement that class with some JUCO players so hopefully we improve with that.

 

[CloverforkCat]

Originally posted by Comebakatz3:

Originally posted by cat_in_the_hat:
I found a list of 2014 commits on perfectgame.org. Of the 10 players they have us as having commitments from, 7 are listed primarily as pitchers. There were a couple of short stops and a catcher, but the rest were listed as pitchers. That doesn't mean we recruited all of them as pitchers, but they were listed that way. So it looks like the every day players next year will pretty much consist of what we already have on the team. Hopefully, some of these pitchers can make an immediate impact. I couldn't find anywhere that said if the class is fairly well thought of or not.

Unfortunately almost every service for baseball makes you pay to see most of the information. Luckily Perfect Game will at least give you a commitment list at some point. They have current team rankings, but the final ones don't come out until around October when everything settles down and the kids are on campus. So, we won't really know where we rank until then. Looking at the PG list of commitments I am not sure that we've got an amazing class, but we will also likely supplement that class with some JUCO players so hopefully we improve with that.

Some of our best recruits have been jucos, Ryan Strieby, Sawyer Carroll, Thomas McCarthy, Tim Peterson, and now Ka'ia Tom and Spencer Jack. The current class PG shows doesn't wow me in the least. This is one year we really need a couple more jucos !