Baseball coverage this season

[Derek Terry]

Hey guys, hope your Saturday is off to a good start. As you all should know by now Cats Illustrated is going to make more of an effort to cover baseball this year. I covered the team last year for the school newspaper so I've got a year under my belt on the gig.

My question to you all is; what would you like to read this year? What kind of coverage do you expect and what not? I know baseball isn't covered heavily by other outlets so I'm going to do my best to give you all the best coverage possible. With that said, I may be limited somewhat early in the season because of basketball but I'm going to go to every baseball game early on that doesn't interfere with basketball.

The season is just about a month away. Media day should be somewhat soon and we'll have that covered. Thanks.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Leading up to the season it would be great to get some practice reports. They don't have to be daily, but it might be good to hear where players are tending to play. For instance, this year we have a question mark at SS/2nd. It would be nice to read how those competitions are going and who might be competing to take those two positions. Same with catcher, and even in the outfield. Then, if there are any scrimmages, it would be nice to read who is doing well in those scrimmages.

I think that during the season there is a decent amount of information. UK's website typically has a synopsis of the games and sometimes even some video. Twitter often has a good deal of information when it comes to what is going on during the games and updates like that. What we don't see a lot of is information before or after the season, or information such as injury updates during the season.

It would be nice to get at least a tentative roster before February. That might not be possible, but it would at least be good to have something unofficial that fills in some of the blanks. As it is right now we have a partial schedule, but nothing for the SEC. It's weird to me that LSU, MSU, and Georgia know (and published) their schedule for SEC play, but Kentucky doesn't publish their entire schedule. Just simple stuff like that would be great, IMO.

 

[teach them linear]

Who is on the short list to be the new coach.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Who is on the short list to be the new coach.

Can't wait until we actually can legitimately start to discuss this!

 

[teach them linear]

Ok I'll be better D Terry. In the course of the season I would like the coach asked about his pitching strategy which has been erratic and specifically his versions of the roles his pitchers have as he sees it.

On the hitting side he has also been inconsistent. When he has had power he played small ball and vice versa when he didn't have power. Furthermore I would like to know if his hitters are encouraged to adopt the teams approach at the plate or allowed to adopt their own. Specifically first pitch fast ball or work the count. Seems to me several hitters worked their way into the lineup and then quit hitting as effectively in the last few years. I think their aggressiveness was deterred.

What will be the role of coaches pitching and hitting with respect to development?

 

[Derek Terry]

Thanks for the feedback guys. @Comebakatz3, some of your questions about who is competing where etc. should be answered at media day.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Any real hard questions that can be asked of the staff would be amazing. I think this is the only way to really get true answers. I love the radio guys that cover baseball, but most of the time they are just throwing up general softball type questions and aren't really grilling the coaches on anything. I would love to hear Henderson explain why he did certain things during the game, good and bad. Why did/n't he pull a pitcher. Why did he decide to go with a certain player in a certain game, or even in a certain situation. The basic synopsis can be found easily, but really getting a grasp on the game and its management would be a new and fresh take that would outstanding.

Thanks Terry, we appreciate your work. If nothing else it is at least good to have someone trying to provide more coverage.

 

[Derek Terry]

Was able to get a roster. Here ya go.

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

I agree with a lot of what comeback said prior to the season. One thing that seems to be lacking on the information side of things is summer reports. Id like to see some breakdowns of the opponents for the upcoming season, not just the SEC games.

On a side note, thanks for the roster!

 

[Comebakatz3]

The roster is pretty interesting. One of the most interesting things to me is how they have labeled a lot of guys as playing multiple positions. Evan White is listed as 1B/OF and Javon Shelby is listed as IF/OF, while transfer Gunner McNeil is listed as 1B/OF/RHP.

It is going to be interesting to see these new transfers (McNeil, Dudek, Miller, Reks, and Becker). The crazy thing about it is that not a single one of these transfers is a true pitcher. The only one that actually pitches at all, according to the roster, is McNeil. That is pretty unusual.

 

[167Hike]

It would be nice seeing a breakdown of the roster to who will play everyday, who will be in backup roles and who is slated to "redshirt" or not play at all.

 

[Derek Terry]

It would be nice seeing a breakdown of the roster to who will play everyday, who will be in backup roles and who is slated to "redshirt" or not play at all.

I'll put something together soon.

 

[parrott]

I'll put something together soon.

Thanks Derek. Personally I find the lack of info on UK Baseball maddening. I don't do Twitter and/or Facebook so I depend on UK Athletics to produce the info. Not a good idea on my part.

Thanks for the fix.

 

[Derek Terry]

OK, this is my guess based off of things I've heard but mostly from watching last season. It's hard to project how Henderson will decide to do things but my best guess at a projected lineup on opening day is as follows:

Infield
C- Zach Arnold
1B- Evan White
2B- Connor Heady/Trey Miller/Zeke Lewis/Luke Becker
SS- Riley Mahan
3B- JaVon Shelby/Trey Miller/Luke Becker

I listed the likely starters first in the order. I think every infielder listed on this will play a role though with Zeke Lewis being the exception. He's smallish (5-9, 160-pounds) but is fast and really solid defensively. Also hit the ball pretty well when I watched him. He impressed me this fall. My thinking is he could help the team this year but a redshirt wouldn't be a bad idea either. Miller is a transfer from Michigan and Becker was signed out of junior college.

I liked the potential Mahan showed last year but the numbers aren't friendly to him. He made six errors in just 22 attempts last season but he wasn't always playing shortstop. He spent some time at third base. My early season prediction is Mahan will have the most improved season of any everyday starter but we'll see if that comes true.

I don't think it's all that surprising that Mahan will be taking over for Heady, who struggled for the most part last season. He only hit .211 in 152 at bats and made 20 errors last season. He graded out at .907 in fielding percentage. It's hard to keep a guy in the lineup that really doesn't do anything well. He was highly rated in high school and played some his freshman year so maybe he'll see a big jump his junior season.

White and Shelby are the two best hitters on the team this season and are manning the corner infield spots. I haven't got to see Shelby at third but I assume the staff is confident putting him there. Personally I think his professional future is in the outfield and didn't think it'd be a bad idea to put him there this season but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Outfield
LF- Tristan Pompey
CF- Marcus Carson
RF- Storm Wilson/Dorian Hairston
DH- Dorian Hairston/Gunner McNeill

Outfielders were tougher to call. The two best hitters on the team last season, Ka'ai Tom and Kyle Barrett, both went pro leaving Wilson, Carson and Hairston as the only guys with any real experience. Carson is an ideal leadoff guy because of his speed. Hairston hit pretty well in his opportunities last season and Wilson took a step back from his freshman year but is still an experienced guy who will help the team. Pompey has a ton of potential and everything you'd want physically but he's raw. Regardless he'll probably be too good to keep off the field.

Starting rotation (Fri-Sun.)
SP- Zack Brown
SP- Dustin Beggs
SP- Kyle Cody

One of the most experienced starting rotations in the SEC. There's a few other teams with more talent overall but you have to love this staff that's coming back. Cody didn't have a great season in 2015 but he's a power arm who could still go in the first round in 2016. Brown emerged as one of the best young pitchers in the conference and Beggs won more games than anyone else on the staff (7-4).

I think you'll see Zach Logue as a midweek starter. The plan was to have Logue as a starter this season but that was before Beggs and Cody both returned to school. If any of the starter's don't live up to expectations then I could see him getting a crack at the weekend rotation.

Right-hander Zach Pop (sophomore) seems like an ideal middle reliever to me but we'll see how he's used. Zach Strecker will be one of the main guys in the bullpen. He's a righty with a lot of experience. Logan Salow is a lefty who's a junior. He's going to be relied on a lot this season. Didn't really have a bad year last year but wasn't all that great either. He'll need to be better this season. Brad Schaenzer could be a long reliever or middle reliever.

There's a lot of freshman pitchers on the roster. They'll have to rely on some of them but I don't know who yet. That'll play its way out throughout the season. That's about all I've got right now.

 

[Derek Terry]

Was told today to keep an eye out on Zach Reks. He's a transfer from Air Force who has impressed the coaches up to this point. Could see him contend for time in the outfield.

 

[parrott]

Was told today to keep an eye out on Zach Reks. He's a transfer from Air Force who has impressed the coaches up to this point. Could see him contend for time in the outfield.

Thanks Derek -- really good info here. Appreciate you taking the time to post it. Looks like hitting could be a struggle this year unless a couple of the young guys step up.

Last year Evan White was the big surprise/addition. Do you anticipate that being Pompey or you have something else in mind?

 

[Comebakatz3]

I see on his Bio page for Air Force that he played as a freshman and hit .210 in 100 at bats. He played in 37 games and started 21. However, there is no mention of him on the stat sheets for 2014. I imagine he transferred in 2015 and sat out and is now playing as a redshirt junior in 2016.

Was he injured in 2014?

 

[Comebakatz3]

Some things definitely need to change for Kentucky this year. First off, we should have one of the deepest and best pitching staffs in all of college baseball. I don't know if it will pan out to be one of the best, but on paper it is excellent. We return almost everyone from last year, but we have to greatly improve on our ERA from last year. We were 137th in the country in team ERA at 4.36. That's just terrible. Compare that to Louisville who was 7th in the country at 2.61. We might not be too great at the plate, and if we aren't then the pitching better step it up.

Surprisingly enough our team batting average was actually not that bad at .288. It was ranked 69th in the country. Again, compare that to Louisville who hit .275, 127th in the country. However, the huge meat of our hitting came from Kai Tom, Kyle Barrett, Evan White, and JaVon Shelby. Our returning team batting average is .269. If we only take out Tom and Barrett it drops to .264. Without our top two hitters we drop from 69th in the country to 200th. We now have to replace those guys. That's going to be very hard to do. Especially if we are possibly now putting both Heady and Mahan into the lineup as well as Carson. We're basically asking Mahan to replace the output of Bernal and get at least 34 points higher in his batting average. Carson may be taking the place of Barrett. Carson is going to be a junior and has not played any significant time while here. It is hard for me to believe he'll be able to get anywhere near the production of Barrett. Then you replace Tom with a true freshman. Whew... scary.

I want to be very optimistic about this year, and we should be with the possible pitching that we're going to have. However, we are going to have to really have some guys step up if we want to improve upon what we did last year. The pitching needs to be outstanding because the hitting may have a long way to go before becoming something we can rely on. We'll obviously see how things go, but this should be Henderson's last chance. Well, technically I think his last chance should have been about 5 years ago, but that's just me.

 

[Derek Terry]

Some things definitely need to change for Kentucky this year. First off, we should have one of the deepest and best pitching staffs in all of college baseball. I don't know if it will pan out to be one of the best, but on paper it is excellent. We return almost everyone from last year, but we have to greatly improve on our ERA from last year. We were 137th in the country in team ERA at 4.36. That's just terrible. Compare that to Louisville who was 7th in the country at 2.61. We might not be too great at the plate, and if we aren't then the pitching better step it up.

Surprisingly enough our team batting average was actually not that bad at .288. It was ranked 69th in the country. Again, compare that to Louisville who hit .275, 127th in the country. However, the huge meat of our hitting came from Kai Tom, Kyle Barrett, Evan White, and JaVon Shelby. Our returning team batting average is .269. If we only take out Tom and Barrett it drops to .264. Without our top two hitters we drop from 69th in the country to 200th. We now have to replace those guys. That's going to be very hard to do. Especially if we are possibly now putting both Heady and Mahan into the lineup as well as Carson. We're basically asking Mahan to replace the output of Bernal and get at least 34 points higher in his batting average. Carson may be taking the place of Barrett. Carson is going to be a junior and has not played any significant time while here. It is hard for me to believe he'll be able to get anywhere near the production of Barrett. Then you replace Tom with a true freshman. Whew... scary.

I want to be very optimistic about this year, and we should be with the possible pitching that we're going to have. However, we are going to have to really have some guys step up if we want to improve upon what we did last year. The pitching needs to be outstanding because the hitting may have a long way to go before becoming something we can rely on. We'll obviously see how things go, but this should be Henderson's last chance. Well, technically I think his last chance should have been about 5 years ago, but that's just me.

Carson's played in 70 games and started 26 of them in his career. He also has over 100 career at bats so it's not like he hasn't seen any time at all. He'll likely be a drop off from Barrett but that would've been the case for about anyone. Barrett had a great year.

I agree with most of the other things you said. Offense will be suspect early but we'll just have to see how it plays out.

 

[Derek Terry]

Thanks Derek -- really good info here. Appreciate you taking the time to post it. Looks like hitting could be a struggle this year unless a couple of the young guys step up.

Last year Evan White was the big surprise/addition. Do you anticipate that being Pompey or you have something else in mind?

Yeah, Pompey would be my best guess right now. Maybe Lewis if he gets time but he's not going to have the offensive production White had last season. I just exited out of the document and am about to head out but I want to say White probably had one of the best freshman seasons of any UK player in history so it's going to be hard for anyone to match that this season.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Carson's played in 70 games and started 26 of them in his career. He also has over 100 career at bats so it's not like he hasn't seen any time at all. He'll likely be a drop off from Barrett but that would've been the case for about anyone. Barrett had a great year.

I agree with most of the other things you said. Offense will be suspect early but we'll just have to see how it plays out.

You're right. Carson did play a more significant role this past year. He pretty much hit as the DH in about 18-20 games and filled in the outfield from time to time. He had an increased role this past year, but struggled. Not sure if that is the sophomore slump because his freshman year he did hit well. We'll see how he does. Hopefully he is a bright spot.

 

[CloverforkCat]

Thanks Derek for all you are doing for us Baseball info starved UK fans. My pick for a big bounce back year is Storm Wilson. He has a better bat than he showed last year, he is solid defensively, and can hit 6-9 dingers and steal 15-20 bases.
He had a great summer this year, and I expect him to hit 280-290 range. He is also a LH bat, which we will be short of as compared to years past.

 

[pump4uk]

Would like to see box score posted on site after each game, if possible.

 

[Derek Terry]

Would like to see box score posted on site after each game, if possible.

Of course. Won't be a problem.