JaVon Shelby Tabbed Preseason All America

[Derek Terry]

JaVON SHELBY NAMED PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA

Kentucky Third Baseman Tabbed Third-Team Preseason All-America

LEXINGTON, Ky. --Kentucky junior third baseman JaVon Shelby has been tabbed third-team preseason All-America by Louisville Slugger, it was announced by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper on Tuesday afternoon.

Shelby marks the fourth consecutive season UK has had a preseason All-America selection. In 2014, righty Kyle Cody, a senior in 2015, was tabbed a preseason All-American by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball.

A native of Lexington, Ky., Shelby is coming off a dynamic 2015 season as UK’s second baseman, earning first-team All-Southeastern Conference honors. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound right-handed hitter, finished with a .312 average (63-for-202) with nine homers and 44 RBI as a sophomore in 2015. Shelby had a .525 slugging percentage and ranked ninth in the SEC with a .442 on-base percentage. Defensively, Shelby led all SEC second baseman for the second consecutive year in assists. As a freshman in 2014, Shelby earned SEC All-Freshman Team honors, hitting .250 with four homers and 21 RBI.

JaVon comes from a baseball family that includes his father John T., an 11-year MLB veteran and the first-base coach for the Milwaukee Brewers, and his brother John, who belted 33 homers and drive in 131 runs during 2004-06 for the Wildcats. John earned All-SEC honors in 2006 after leading UK from a last-place finish in 2005 to the first SEC Championship in school history. Combined, the Shelby family has hit 46 home runs for the Kentucky program, driving in 196 runs. The youngest of the Shelby brothers, slugging outfielder Jaren, signed his National Letter of Intent with Kentucky in November and is regarded as one of the top 50 high school players available for the 2016 MLB Draft.

 

[CloverforkCat]

Great to see, so they have moved Javon to 3rd for sure ?

 

[Comebakatz3]

Sounds like he is definitely going to play third. Which begs the question, who the heck plays second/short? Are we going to see Heady and Mahan? That's going to put quite a strain on us offensively. Further, who are our backups at these positions if we need them? We have one kid coming in, Isaiah Lewis, who could play the role, but whoever we use will be a guy who has never actually taken an at bat against SEC pitchers.

There are a lot of question marks for this team. Who steps up out of the pen? Who catches? Who fills in for Kai Tom and Kyle Barrett in the outfield? Who is the DH? Who pitches during the mid-week? Luckily we don't have a question on who pitches during the weekend or who plays first, but other than that we should have fun seeing how everything plays out. I'm ready for February.

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

Not that it should happen, but Evan White could play in the outfield if needed. I would rather see him at first all year. As for catching, I think you'll see Arnold most of the year with the kid from Tennessee backing him up. Cole Kottum I think is his name. The outfield could be Hairston, Carson and the new kid from Georgia. Pompey I believe. As for your infield, it's a crap shoot.

Pitching is one thing I'm not overly concerned with. I think the weekend guys could be special. Especially if Cody pitches the way he did at the end of the year. Zach Logue could be your best mid week guy. There's talent on the pitching staff, but will Hendo get the best out of it.

 

[Comebakatz3]

At catcher our options are Zach Arnold, Marshall Gei, and Kole Cottam. Arnold was pretty terrible defensively, but he did show some signs of consistency at the plate. Gei has been impressive in the fall camps he's participated in and he could be the guy either at catcher or as a DH. Not sure about Cottam, but I would think that we would go with an older player.

In the outfield, the most likely candidate to step in and stick around either at left or center is Storm Wilson. Hairston seems a likely candidate to play right field, but he could also DH at times. That leaves us with filling a hole in left/center (depending on where Wilson falls). Carson is one that makes sense and could very well be the centerfielder. The concern here is that you then have 3 guys in the outfield that all hit under .300. Two of which hit under .250 (Carson at .226 and Wilson at .242). You also may want to find someone in the outfield that might be able to provide a bit more power. Bryce Bastien is a guy that has played sparingly and could step up into an outfield role, but that doesn't seem extremely likely considering he had just 2 at bats last year. Tristian Pompey is the next guy and he's slated as an outfielder. He could be the guy to come in, but again, you're relying on a freshman. You do have the possibility that Hairston is a DH, Evan White plays right, but then you have to find someone to fill the role at 1B. That could possibly be the freshman catcher Kole Cottam.

At short/second you might see another competition between Heady and Mahan. Whoever wins gets to start at short. The next logical option is to have the loser play second. It is also possible that Marshall Gei plays second. It isn't likely, but he has had some time there. You also have the freshman, Lewis, coming in as well as several backups from last year such as Troy Squires and Tyler Marshall. Either way, there isn't a whole lot to be optimistic about offensively.

Pitching should be interesting. We have a lot of potential starters. Justin Lewis and Zach Logue are both very highly thought of. Robert Zeigler also had several starts last year. So, one of these guys may be the midweek. Personally, I would like to see maybe Lewis pitch midweek with Logue being some sort of long relief, or possibly the closer. We had 6 non-weekend guys throw over 20 innings last year. I believe 5 of the 6 return for this season. Bo Wilson turned it on last year at the end of the year and could possibly be the closer. Dwyer had the 2nd best ERA on the team in almost 30 innings of work. Then you have Pop, Strecker, Zeigler, Salow, and Schaenzer that have all thrown a pretty significant amount of innings. Unfortunately, none of the bullpen guys really make me feel extremely warm and fuzzy inside except for maybe Wilson and Logue. You also have at least 6 new arms coming in. It's hard to say where they will be projected.

Ideally, I'd love to see a Logue and Lewis start the midweek during the first half of the schedule. Once SEC play starts and UK plays just 1 midweek game then I hope a freshman steps up. I would like it this way because once the post season starts we will need a lot of guys capable of starting. You could then lean on Brown, Beggs, and Cody for three starts. Then you may need help, especially if you lose, an having Lewis, Logue, and a freshman (or two) ready to start is essential. I think this is one of the reasons Louisville does so well at the end of the year. They almost always have at least 4-5 good starters.

My best guess at the lineup:

LF: Wilson .242
C: Gei DNP
1B: White .318
3B: Shelby .312
RF: Hairston .281
DH: Arnold .283
CF: Carson .226
2B: Mahan .232
SS: Heady .211

If this is our lineup it has some serious offensive issues. I'm not sure who we can plug in to fix things, but unless there is some significant improvement by some of these guys then we're going to really struggle to score runs.

 

[Derek Terry]

Greg Fettes is no longer with UK. He's actually a head coach at a high school in Michigan now.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Thanks for the update Terry. I'll edit accordingly. Oddly enough I don't believe that it changes how my lineup pans out. I only put Fettes in there over Arnold because I thought the lineup really needed another bat with home run power. Still, I think Arnold fits in the 6 hole.

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

Greg Fettes is no longer with UK. He's actually a head coach at a high school in Michigan now.

On a side note, I met Greg Fettes at the Louisville regional and was highly impressed with him. Super nice guy who you could tell had a lot of baseball knowledge.