Kentucky Baseball 2024
- Thread starter Comebakatz3
- Start date
He's graduated and won't have any more leverage so it makes sense.
Burkes not signing is big. Had a firm number and didn't cave on it.
Burkes not signing is big. Had a firm number and didn't cave on it.
99.9 percent of the time it's because they had a number they would sign for and it was conveyed to organizations. Also, guys like Martin/others who have graduated don't feel the pressure as much to return, should they go that rout in signing. If they're drafted, you can nearly take it to the house they've already to a handshake deal. The ironic thing on Martin is he doesn't care about role at UK. He actually thought he might be the closer. Great kid. Just wanted to win.
Big get. Should bring power bat they’ve been desperately needing.
So Williams didn’t get drafted. Thought he might be a late round choice especially since he was having a strong JR year before he got hurt.
He had two pretty strong years here. The trouble for him was probably age. He's what? 25? The average age of mlb players is probably 28. So, that's really factoring against him and how much he could improve as well. I think that will be an issue for Lee as well, if he returns. Just a tough spot to be that age and coming out of college.
Posted on HOB, but will include here as well:
The competition for spots on the 2024 team is going to be very intense. I am actually pretty surprised at some of the additions given that certain players I believed would have a spot somewhat locked down will have to compete hard in order to have a role, or will even have more bodies to compete with. For instance, McCoy, to my knowledge, played a lot of 1B in the fall last year and looked to possibly be a replacement for Gilliam. That was especially the case with McCarthy/Schramm possibly finding a home in right and Wally and Crittenberger possibly managing LF/CF respectively. Now we have added at least Nicholson at 1B, and there might be more competition there as well. So, that pushes McCoy back out into the OF where he will likely have to compete with McCarthy, Schramm, and Higdon. Daly seems likely to be the plug and play at third. So, that also means that Church will be looking for a home on the diamond somewhere given that his likely spot to play was at third (or possibly first). With those spots being pretty keyed in with some great defensive players, that will mean that Church is likely competing for DH. At that spot, we likely have the same RF guys (McCoy, Schramm, McCarthy) competing to go with Church as well as possibly Nicholson. Not to mention the guys who are probably now backup roles in the IF (Applegate, Fawley, Herrera).
All this before you ever consider any other possible freshmen contributors.
Spreaking of those freshmen, I think an interesting thing to watch moving forward is how this stratgey of use of the transfer portal will effect HS recruiting, if at all. I believe that we redshirted every single freshman in 2023. A few played very limited minutes in 2022 (Pitre?). We redshirted all freshmen in 2023 and three of those are position players. It looks unlikely that two of them will play a major role in 2024 with Applegate still likely behind Pitre and Smith, and with Daly coming in; and with Burkes returning at catcher that puts Fawley on the back burner there (especially with UK seeming to prefer the 1 catcher approach). Then Schramm will have to compete like crazy to win RF/DH. I also don't predict that any of the incoming freshmen will play a factor in the field, and that is 8 guys who are position players who will have to redshirt in 2024. Last year we had 15 guys get ABs... as things stand right now we have at least 15 guys who are not freshmen that are coming back or transferring in. So, the number of spots that a freshman could slot in are very very limited.
Also take into effect that redshirting at UK one year is not really a true indication that you'll lock down a spot in the next year. Burkes redshirted in 2021, but had a pretty limited role in 2022 and would have possibly played even less with a healthy Rubalcaba. McCarthy, very similar... redshirted in 2021 and was limited in 2022. It took both until their third year in the program to really lock down a full starting role. McCoy redshirted in 2022 and while he did play a decent amount in 2023, he wasn't able to lock down a starting role. Kim was a redshirt last year, and didn't get time at all this year and is in the portal. It looks like many will not really contribute fully until their third year in the program. So, I'll be curious to see how many are willing to come to UK knowing that they have to be patient and wait 2-3 years for their turn. The portal playing a big factor in allowing a player to be less patient.
The competition for spots on the 2024 team is going to be very intense. I am actually pretty surprised at some of the additions given that certain players I believed would have a spot somewhat locked down will have to compete hard in order to have a role, or will even have more bodies to compete with. For instance, McCoy, to my knowledge, played a lot of 1B in the fall last year and looked to possibly be a replacement for Gilliam. That was especially the case with McCarthy/Schramm possibly finding a home in right and Wally and Crittenberger possibly managing LF/CF respectively. Now we have added at least Nicholson at 1B, and there might be more competition there as well. So, that pushes McCoy back out into the OF where he will likely have to compete with McCarthy, Schramm, and Higdon. Daly seems likely to be the plug and play at third. So, that also means that Church will be looking for a home on the diamond somewhere given that his likely spot to play was at third (or possibly first). With those spots being pretty keyed in with some great defensive players, that will mean that Church is likely competing for DH. At that spot, we likely have the same RF guys (McCoy, Schramm, McCarthy) competing to go with Church as well as possibly Nicholson. Not to mention the guys who are probably now backup roles in the IF (Applegate, Fawley, Herrera).
All this before you ever consider any other possible freshmen contributors.
Spreaking of those freshmen, I think an interesting thing to watch moving forward is how this stratgey of use of the transfer portal will effect HS recruiting, if at all. I believe that we redshirted every single freshman in 2023. A few played very limited minutes in 2022 (Pitre?). We redshirted all freshmen in 2023 and three of those are position players. It looks unlikely that two of them will play a major role in 2024 with Applegate still likely behind Pitre and Smith, and with Daly coming in; and with Burkes returning at catcher that puts Fawley on the back burner there (especially with UK seeming to prefer the 1 catcher approach). Then Schramm will have to compete like crazy to win RF/DH. I also don't predict that any of the incoming freshmen will play a factor in the field, and that is 8 guys who are position players who will have to redshirt in 2024. Last year we had 15 guys get ABs... as things stand right now we have at least 15 guys who are not freshmen that are coming back or transferring in. So, the number of spots that a freshman could slot in are very very limited.
Also take into effect that redshirting at UK one year is not really a true indication that you'll lock down a spot in the next year. Burkes redshirted in 2021, but had a pretty limited role in 2022 and would have possibly played even less with a healthy Rubalcaba. McCarthy, very similar... redshirted in 2021 and was limited in 2022. It took both until their third year in the program to really lock down a full starting role. McCoy redshirted in 2022 and while he did play a decent amount in 2023, he wasn't able to lock down a starting role. Kim was a redshirt last year, and didn't get time at all this year and is in the portal. It looks like many will not really contribute fully until their third year in the program. So, I'll be curious to see how many are willing to come to UK knowing that they have to be patient and wait 2-3 years for their turn. The portal playing a big factor in allowing a player to be less patient.
We’ve got some decent portal adds. I think we will be just as good as last year at least, hopefully improved. I’m anxious for the season to start.
It just got more crowded. Gold glove winning 1B from Samford:
The only potential question mark I see right now for next years team is the bullpen
The guy I was alluding to. Have to imagine he gets 1B for the defense. Then you have Church, Nicholson, McCarthy, McCoy, Schramm all competing for DH and then the last 3 competing for RF.
We have arguably added that. A guy with 21 in juco, a Cincy kid with 16. Several others with 8. Just a matter of how that translates to the SEC.
Freshmen excluded. (Slightly informed) guess on how it shakes out.
C - Burkes/Fawley
1B - Klein/Nicholson
2B - Pitre/Herrera
SS - Smith/Daly
3B - Church/Fawley/Daly
LF - Waldschmidt/Schramm
CF - Crittenberger/McCarthy
RF - McCoy/McCarthy/Schramm
DH - Nicholson/Church
SP - Moore/T.Smith/Niman/Pooser
RP - Hagenow/Hummel/Moore/O'Brien/Hogan/Byers/Hise/Nove
Waldschmidt suffered a knee injury on the Cape and will be pushing it to get back for spring.
C - Burkes/Fawley
1B - Klein/Nicholson
2B - Pitre/Herrera
SS - Smith/Daly
3B - Church/Fawley/Daly
LF - Waldschmidt/Schramm
CF - Crittenberger/McCarthy
RF - McCoy/McCarthy/Schramm
DH - Nicholson/Church
SP - Moore/T.Smith/Niman/Pooser
RP - Hagenow/Hummel/Moore/O'Brien/Hogan/Byers/Hise/Nove
Waldschmidt suffered a knee injury on the Cape and will be pushing it to get back for spring.
Is this more of a predicted depth chart, or are you presenting it as those players are likely competing for those spots in no particular order?
both. But guys will play all over the field in fall. Staff believes in cross-training players.
That is a strong azz team. You would think McCarthy will be in line up somewhere he was knocking the cover off the ball against some top pitching.
He is older and has a young child. So, there was some speculation that he might want to move on and get to the next stage of life. However, he was not drafted, and early indications are that he will return in 2024.
Mag is signing today.
All things considered, UK has to be considered a winner in how the draft played out. Keeping Burkes, Moore, McCoy, etc. is huge.
All things considered, UK has to be considered a winner in how the draft played out. Keeping Burkes, Moore, McCoy, etc. is huge.
Had like 8 innings and an ERA above 14 this year. Really struggled. Pitching well this summer though. I think he did pretty well a year ago, but also didn't throw a ton.
I really like this lineup with the exception of McCoy. I’m not totally sold on him just yet. I do think he has a lot of power but strikes out way too much.
I appreciate the value you add to the board.
Never know. Could be a lot of things. Might have had a bit of a nagging injury. Might have been put in bad spots. Might not have liked the role and had the right attitude. Really hard to say what might have been going on. So far, Roszel has done pretty well with transfers though. So, that gives me a lot of faith going forward.
Given his circumstances, I thought that might happen. Good for him. Came a long way this season.
I know this a stupid question but how many players are on the team and is there a limit?
Do you expect them to add any more transfers or is the roster pretty much set?
Roughly 47 right now. I believe the limit of active players is 40. Redshirts won't count. I expect that we redshirt most freshmen.
Never say never but feeling is it's pretty much set unless Lee pulls a last-second U-turn.
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