D1Baseball is doing some power rankings by position leading up to the season. Here are where UK is featured:
Top 50 Relief Pitchers:
Jimmy Ramsey - 42
Top 100 Outfielders:
John Rhodes - 10
Austin Schultz - 50
Oraj Anu - 92
Top 30 1st Basemen:
TJ Collett - 26
Top 30 2nd Basemen:
Austin Schultz - 6
Top 150 Starting Pitchers:
Mason Hazelwood - 78
Some things I found to be interesting about this is that they seem to put a high premium on hitting over defense. No offense to the guy, but Anu has struggled defensively and hasn't shown much competency to play the defensive outfield. So, while his hitting is/can be very good, the defense is extremely lacking and that is why he is at DH. Schultz being on the list twice is interesting. 6th best at 2nd and yet it seems like Zeke Lewis will beat him out for that position. Hopefully that is a testament to how strong our defense and hitting will be and not the sign of a bad decision by the coaching staff.
I also think that it is weird that Ritter is not on the list of short stops. D1Baseball has called him the best JUCO player to arrive on a D1 campus for 2021 and yet he cannot crack the top 30 on the list. Again, maybe that is because they put such a premium on hitting.
I think if you look at starting pitching you will see why UK will struggle. Just looking at the list of pitchers... UK will face 5 of the top 10 starters in the country. These are the ranking of starters UK will face this year:
Missouri - 33
Auburn - 9, 73, 124
Miss State - 26
LSU - 16, 75, 92
UGA - 4, 7, 125
Bama - 21
UT - 17, 138
UF - 12, 51, 72
USC - 28, 101, 135
Vanderbilt - 6, 19, 52, 85, 95
Louisville - 2, 22, 76 (We aren't likely to face these guys, but you can see where they rank compared to UK).
So... to make this clear... no other SEC team has a pitching staff ranked worse than UK at this point. Missouri and Bama only have 1 on the list, but both are considered much better than our 'Ace.' So, we have to see some major jumps in improvement from our pitching staff, especially starters, if we want to be competitive in 2021.
Top 50 Relief Pitchers:
Jimmy Ramsey - 42
Top 100 Outfielders:
John Rhodes - 10
Austin Schultz - 50
Oraj Anu - 92
Top 30 1st Basemen:
TJ Collett - 26
Top 30 2nd Basemen:
Austin Schultz - 6
Top 150 Starting Pitchers:
Mason Hazelwood - 78
Some things I found to be interesting about this is that they seem to put a high premium on hitting over defense. No offense to the guy, but Anu has struggled defensively and hasn't shown much competency to play the defensive outfield. So, while his hitting is/can be very good, the defense is extremely lacking and that is why he is at DH. Schultz being on the list twice is interesting. 6th best at 2nd and yet it seems like Zeke Lewis will beat him out for that position. Hopefully that is a testament to how strong our defense and hitting will be and not the sign of a bad decision by the coaching staff.
I also think that it is weird that Ritter is not on the list of short stops. D1Baseball has called him the best JUCO player to arrive on a D1 campus for 2021 and yet he cannot crack the top 30 on the list. Again, maybe that is because they put such a premium on hitting.
I think if you look at starting pitching you will see why UK will struggle. Just looking at the list of pitchers... UK will face 5 of the top 10 starters in the country. These are the ranking of starters UK will face this year:
Missouri - 33
Auburn - 9, 73, 124
Miss State - 26
LSU - 16, 75, 92
UGA - 4, 7, 125
Bama - 21
UT - 17, 138
UF - 12, 51, 72
USC - 28, 101, 135
Vanderbilt - 6, 19, 52, 85, 95
Louisville - 2, 22, 76 (We aren't likely to face these guys, but you can see where they rank compared to UK).
So... to make this clear... no other SEC team has a pitching staff ranked worse than UK at this point. Missouri and Bama only have 1 on the list, but both are considered much better than our 'Ace.' So, we have to see some major jumps in improvement from our pitching staff, especially starters, if we want to be competitive in 2021.
