6 days and counting....

[CloverforkCat]

till the 2015 opening day for UK baseball down in Wilmington N C. Cats take on Ball State on friday, at the UNC-Wilmington stadium.
Saw the media day presser on UKathletics.com, and Hendo was very high on 1st baseman Evan White, and a couple of pitching newcomers, one a junior college player, and one a HS prospect. Also said his outfield would be a team strength with 3 lefties, and Hairston from the right side hitting.
He was pleased to also have an OLDER bullpen, and was looking forward to playing 2 catchers aja Maile and Williams, to avoid either catcher being worn out over the course of the season.
He emphasized this would not be a Home run hitting team, but said they would score runs, also praised hitting coach Rick Eckstein. He said they would be more of a hit and run, gap hitting, base stealing team. He believes they will be very good defensively, Bernal will be at 3rd, Heady and Mahan will share time at SS, and Shelby if fully recover from knee surgery, will be at 2nd, with the very promising Evan White at 1st.
Lets get it going................ !!!!

 

[1977 Cat]

Wife and I were just talking about this, also. If I didn't have so much going at work I would go down for the games this weekend.

 

[CloverforkCat]

Originally posted by 1977 Cat:

Wife and I were just talking about this, also. If I didn't have so much going at work I would go down for the games this weekend.

Great, should be an interesting 3 day tourney !

 

[Comebakatz3]

I am pretty excited to see the new changes. Our team last year was a pretty special one. Hopefully this year our guys can learn a new style and continue to impress. One concern I have is that we will have a lot of speed, but will Hendo use it? We had a pretty speedy team last year and I think we only stole 36 bags. Compare that to Louisville and Vandy who had over 100. I know last year's team didn't rely on stolen bases like this year will, but I think we had the talent to do it last year and we rarely used it. Hopefully this isn't like Tubby Smith saying he will runner a faster paced offense every year and then he doesn't actually do it. lol

 

[CloverforkCat]

Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
I am pretty excited to see the new changes. Our team last year was a pretty special one. Hopefully this year our guys can learn a new style and continue to impress. One concern I have is that we will have a lot of speed, but will Hendo use it? We had a pretty speedy team last year and I think we only stole 36 bags. Compare that to Louisville and Vandy who had over 100. I know last year's team didn't rely on stolen bases like this year will, but I think we had the talent to do it last year and we rarely used it. Hopefully this isn't like Tubby Smith saying he will runner a faster paced offense every year and then he doesn't actually do it. lol

I think they will have to use their speed, ie. hit and run, flat out steal, double steals etc. No more boppers like AJ, Kuhn, Thomas, and Cousy. Hearing great reports regarding Coach Eckstein, whom Hendo should turn over the offense to, that the players love him and his vast knowledge of hitting. Can't wait to see how they do early on !

 

[Comebakatz3]

Originally posted by CloverforkCat:

Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
I am pretty excited to see the new changes. Our team last year was a pretty special one. Hopefully this year our guys can learn a new style and continue to impress. One concern I have is that we will have a lot of speed, but will Hendo use it? We had a pretty speedy team last year and I think we only stole 36 bags. Compare that to Louisville and Vandy who had over 100. I know last year's team didn't rely on stolen bases like this year will, but I think we had the talent to do it last year and we rarely used it. Hopefully this isn't like Tubby Smith saying he will runner a faster paced offense every year and then he doesn't actually do it. lol

I think they will have to use their speed, ie. hit and run, flat out steal, double steals etc. No more boppers like AJ, Kuhn, Thomas, and Cousy. Hearing great reports regarding Coach Eckstein, whom Hendo should turn over the offense to, that the players love him and his vast knowledge of hitting. Can't wait to see how they do early on !

Actually, I was wrong. I believe I looked at our opponents SBs last year. I believe we attempted 86 and swiped 67. So, those are much better numbers than I thought. I don't know how much hit and run we used, but I definitely believe we'll have to rely more on it. This new approach at the plate should make things very interesting.