He will have to prove it, but I've heard very good things about Austin Fawley from his time in his summer league. He's made strides and has produced a solid summer for a guy who hasn't played above the high school level. But with Zo gone and Durand injured and likely out for the season, I do think he'll have to be ready to go as the backup.
Bosma should be a fixture in the weekend rotation. They have to hope Cotto can be the Pitcher he’s been in the Cape this summer. I would include Travis Smith as a pitcher with weekend rotation ability. He has returned from surgery and has pitched pretty well in his first few outings in the Great Lakes league.
I think Mason Moore could have weekend potential with the way he has pitched this summer as well. It definitely seems like the combo of Bosma and Cotto are pretty likely the Friday/Saturday pieces
Do you think there will be any more Portal additions or is the roster pretty much set?
I'd guess it's pretty much set unless there's a thumper like McGeary who's available or Plastiak signs.
I don’t think this team can afford any bad mid week losses like we saw this year. Will be interesting to see how much PT all the freshmen get in those games.
)Bottom line they do not have a SEC roster. There’s not a single guy on the roster who is a sure fire draft pick. Cotto as you mentioned has been improved in terms of his Summer outings. Hope it Carrie’s over because he couldn’t pitch for South Carolina and he wasn’t good this spring for the Cats. I’m all for them but the overall status of the roster is poor. When your relying on transfers from low D-1 schools, D-2 and D-3 that often doesn’t translate to success in the SEC.I'm going to say that I agree with most of what you are saying, except that I think Bosma and Cotto coming back could be 2 of the better weekend starters in the SEC this year. If Bosma can be healthy, we saw what he was capable against TCU, UGA early and obviously LSU in the SEC tourney. Cotto has always shown flashes of brilliance and just hasn't even put it together consistently, but it seems like based on his performance in the cape, he may be there. Bosma and Cotto were weekend starters to start the year last year, and Williams will be back at some point, so I think actually our weekend rotation could be the strength of the team this year.
Most likely there will be some hits and some misses with transfer portal guys, just like there was last year, but generally speaking I would say our portal guys from last year were the life blood of the team and performed pretty well. So if we can get a similar performance and get them to gel earlier in the year we could see them playing to start next year, just like they ended this year. (Here's hoping!
I promise you the scouting community views Mag Cotto as a sure-fire draft pick.
Best learn to throw strikes. Don’t matter what stuff you have if you can’t throw strikes it doesn’t matter. I hope he goes in the first round. He wasn’t even a weekend guy for the Cats this season.
For sure he is. And there are others who would have been and could have been drafted this year if they had been willing to sign. Just because guys didn't go out this year doesn't mean they couldn't have. Guys like Bosma and Plastiak had the option of being drafted and signing for less than slot or coming back and improving their stock. If Bosma can have a healthy year there is no doubt he goes top 10 rounds. Cotto could be top 5 rounds if he can harness his potential this year.
If you are talking about being a draft pick, he doesn't need to throw strikes at all. Teams will take him because he is a lefty that throws high 90s and they'll work on his control in the minors. Guys like him cam start throwing hard early without being able to control it and over time as they get used to throwing hard they can develop better control. If he does, he's almost unhittable.
He was more 94-96. I’d say he’s 21-22. If he hasn’t figured out how to consistently not only throw strikes but locate he’ll get eaten alive moving forward. Use to 94-96 was rare. Turn on a MLB game now and they are a dime a dozen. But they not only throw hard but they locate. Not just strikes but pin point location.
Bosma and Williams seemed pretty consistent as SEC weekend starters when they were healthy, no?
I hope so.
I think offensively they could be pretty good as some of the transfers have been very successful elsewhere but again SEC pitching is a different animal. I think there is also a chance they could add Griffin Merritt 1B/OF from Cincinnati. He was the AAC player of the year this year and I think there is significant interest at least on the UK side.
