Cats have great experience ....

[Black Diamond Cat]

returning in their every day position players. If in the season opener down in Chapel Hill opening weekend, they could run out a lineup of E White, R Mahan, C Heady, L Becker in the infield.
They could then go with Z Reks, T Pompey, and S Wilson in the outfield, and K Cottam at catcher. that is quite a number of games played over the last couple of seasons.
There are several good sticks ie. White, Mahan, Reks, Wilson, etc. Cottam, and G Mcneill also can have their moments, and Pompey could be spectacular as well.
Defense, other than White, is not as good however. Heady is pretty good, as is Wilson and Pompey. Hopefully Mahan, and Becker will improve this season, and Cottam had several very good outings in 2016.

 

[parrott]

Will be interesting to see with the new staff what the hitting philosophy will be. Just didn't really appear as if the Cats had an identity over the last couple of years at the plate. IMO

Would imagine handling the pitching rotation and in-game decisions will be much different?

 

[Comebakatz3]

Here is a batting average for each player over the course of their careers here:

Wilson: .266
White: .348
Heady: .183
Mahan: .289

Reks .283 (if you include freshmen numbers, which I know isn't that fair, but still)
McNeill .255 (includes FIU stats)
Becker .241
Cottam .278
Pompey .233

There are some guys to be pretty excited about, but the question will be who can help UK to hit consistently. Will White, Reks, and Mahan continue to lead the team with strong hitting over .300, or will any of them come back down? Can guys like Heady be someone who is doing more than filling a spot and actually hit somewhere above at least .230? Will the first year players have slumps back or will they improve?

The hitting and defense has to be good this year, IMO, if we want to compete. The pitching is just too bare in terms of experience, and we need to, at least early on, rely on some solid hitting and defense to help those pitchers.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Will be interesting to see with the new staff what the hitting philosophy will be. Just didn't really appear as if the Cats had an identity over the last couple of years at the plate. IMO

Would imagine handling the pitching rotation and in-game decisions will be much different?

We can only hope that all of this is much different and much better. I know that Henderson was a pretty highly thought of pitching coach, but his decisions really did not make sense to me, and I can't overly say that he ever proved to me to be a good coach.

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

Here is a batting average for each player over the course of their careers here:

Wilson: .266
White: .348
Heady: .183
Mahan: .289

Reks .283 (if you include freshmen numbers, which I know isn't that fair, but still)
McNeill .255 (includes FIU stats)
Becker .241
Cottam .278
Pompey .233

There are some guys to be pretty excited about, but the question will be who can help UK to hit consistently. Will White, Reks, and Mahan continue to lead the team with strong hitting over .300, or will any of them come back down? Can guys like Heady be someone who is doing more than filling a spot and actually hit somewhere above at least .230? Will the first year players have slumps back or will they improve?

The hitting and defense has to be good this year, IMO, if we want to compete. The pitching is just too bare in terms of experience, and we need to, at least early on, rely on some solid hitting and defense to help hose pitchers.

I for one would be thrilled if Heady could hit .230 or better, and play a solid SS defensively. Mahan has the bat, but not the glove to play short.
McNeill could improve as DH, if he can handle the slider on the corner, unlike last season.

 

[Comebakatz3]

The weird thing is that we don't really have a true leadoff man.

Wilson would fit the mold of the traditional leadoff guy more than most, but he hasn't shown a whole lot of consistency hitting.

Mahan is a guy that can possibly do it, but he really kind of is a 3 hole hitter or a 5 hole hitter with the power that he displays. One of the biggest issues I have with Mahan leading off is that he strikes out at a very high rate and doesn't walk a lot. Last year he had the 2nd most strikeouts on the team at 51 and only walked 11 times. Compare that to Wilson, who didn't hit very well, but still walked 16 times and struck out just 15 times. You also have the fact that it is still hard to tell what kind of a hitter Mahan is. He hit just .255 in league play last year. I don't know if that was a product of better pitching, getting moved up in the lineup, or both, but he struggled at times in SEC play. Only Carson and Heady had lower on base percentages than Mahan in SEC play. New year... could be different, but it is tough to say right now.

White could do it, but you don't want to give up the ability that he's shown to hit in guys from the 3 hole?

Reks hasn't shown a lot of extra base ability and would be a good leadoff, but he also hit 7 home runs, so he is kind of one you want to be hitting with guys on. He even showed this power in SEC play with 5 of those home runs coming on the weekends against league pitching. However, in league play, he only hit one extra base hit in league play outside of those 5 home runs.

So, who do you put at the top? No one fits the mold perfectly, and last year as I recall we kind of had a musical chairs of leadoff hitters.

Then the next problem is that we also haven't really shown anyone who is a true home run power. We have several guys that can hit home runs, but I don't know that many of them are really that type to hit one anytime they come up.

Pompey is that guy, but he also only hit .233 last year and struck out 48 times, third most on the team. Can he reel it in and start hitting for average and for power, or will he be a guy that is kind of all or nothing?

McNeill was a hitting machine early on in the season last year. If you take out league play he was hitting .280, and that includes the mid-week games late in the year where he was also struggling. So, he was very hot early on. Then someone threw him a slider. Game over. If he has adjusted I think he'll be an outstanding 5 hole hitter. If not... he drops to maybe 7th. Not sure how many home runs he can hit because I feel like he became almost entirely ineffective due to the slider, but if he has learned to lay off that pitch or to handle it then maybe he could fill the four hole gap.

It is an interesting lineup no matter how you shake it.

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

^^^^ Agree that Wilson is the best choice for leading off. He also has speed, and can steal a base, he needs to stop running into OF walls, and teammates, his injuries and time missed hurt the team.
I see Mahan hitting anywhere between 3rd and 5th, he has power and speed,and could have a Big season. Reks really came on late, and should continue that trend hopefully.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Ohh, and the wildcard in all of this could be that Mingione may be better as a hitting coach and better at ensuring our players take an overall better approach at the plate, and that may help the entire team hit more effectively.

 

[Comebakatz3]

^^^^ Agree that Wilson is the best choice for leading off. He also has speed, and can steal a base, he needs to stop running into OF walls, and teammates, his injuries and time missed hurt the team.
I see Mahan hitting anywhere between 3rd and 5th, he has power and speed,and could have a Big season. Reks really came on late, and should continue that trend hopefully.

I would really love to see this team run more. White did it quite a lot last year, but I would like to see Wilson and some others really get their SB numbers up. I think it is always good to put pressure on a defense and make a pitcher think. You risk some outs and maybe we can't do that with this pitching staff, but you also force some errors and can really change the game with your wheels.

 

[Jdhays21]

I'm really excited about Pompey this year. A buddy and I are thinking about making the trip to Chapel Hill but I don't think the work schedule is going to allow it.

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

I would really love to see this team run more. White did it quite a lot last year, but I would like to see Wilson and some others really get their SB numbers up. I think it is always good to put pressure on a defense and make a pitcher think. You risk some outs and maybe we can't do that with this pitching staff, but you also force some errors and can really change the game with your wheels.

I also would love to see more aggression on the base paths. Also, some hit and run, delayed steals etc. Getting the defense moving, and out of position is always good !

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Hitting philosophy: take in fastball counts, look silly swinging at off speed, trot back to dugout.

Sure hope they change that.