5PM tonight UK will head to Athen, Georgia to face the Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia is always a bit of a baseball anamoly as they are in what would fully consider a baseball hotbed and yet they seem to always struggle to find success. This year is no different as they come into the weekend series versus the Kentucky Wildcats with a 16-13 record and the 58th best RPI and are just 1-8 in SEC play. Their 1 win was an impressive 24 run performance on a Sunday against Auburn, where they actually had a 16 run 8th inning.
Scott Stricklin is in his 10th year with the Georgia Bulldogs, comfirming that I am old. Stricklin had a lot of success at Kentu State before heading to Georgia and I was one of his believers thinking that he'd turn the program around. While they have had some good seasons, including 2021 where they were in the top 25 for 11 weeks and made it as high as number 5 in the nation, I think that the overall body of work has been disappointing. It did look as though with the hiring of pitching coach Sean Kenny that Georgia might be turning a corner and since his hiring in 2017 they've reached the NCAA tournament 3 times and have been a national seed twice. However, unless things turn around quickly this season, it looks pretty sour.
That being said, there are some bright spots for Georgia. First off, that they are hitting .301 as a team and are especially dangerous with doubles (65) where they rank third in the league and home runs (52) where they are 7th. However, they don't appear to be the most patient team at the plate hitting .400 as an OBP, and being fairly low in the SEC ranking on walks. Strikeouts are pretty low, but they just don't draw a ton of walks. They will not run on UK. They have attempted just 19 stolen bases this season, so Burkes should be pretty comfortable at the backstop. Offensively, UK and Georgia should matchup pretty well. UK ranks 7th in the league in runs scored while Georgia ranks 8th. Just 3 runs separate them. Georgia is 7th in batting average and UK is 5th with just 6 points separating them. However, the two teams couldn't do things more differently. Georgia is 5th in slugging percentage while UK is 13th and Kentucky is 2nd in OBP while Georgia is 12th. That is the basic tale of the tape... Georgia seems to possibly be the classic 3 run home run type team while UK is a manufacture runs with small ball and timely hitting type team. A fun and eye-popping number for UK is that we have 73 steal attempts on the year, 14 more than the next team. Georgia only has 19 on the year.
Charlie Condon who plays first and right field and is hitting .449. This is good for the second best batting average in the league. However, it dips considerably to .290 in SEC play. Condon is a home run threat that already had 11 on the year to go with 6 doubles and a triple. He limits strikeouts pretty well with 15 and has walked 15 times as well. Connor Tate is also hitting at an unbelieably high clip of .414, which is 4th best BA in the league. He too is killing the baseball with 10 home runs and 12 doubles and has a similar walk/strikeout ratio with 18 walks and 19 strikeouts. Tate will play left field and hit second, just ahead of Condon. So, the top of the lineup will be very dangerous. He too sees his average dip a big amount in league play hitting just .263. CF Ben Anderson seems like he'll be the leadoff guy for the Dawgs. He's hitting .290 with 6 dobules and a couple triples and home runs. He seems to have a big tendency to strikeout with 28Ks to just 16 walks, but he is also their biggest threat to steal, but just 5-6 on the year. Corey Collins hits in the middle of the lineup with an average of .265. Collins will play catcher and also some right field has 5 home runs and three doubles and a triple. Will David plays the hot corner and hits 5th with a .284 average, he has 3 home runs and 8 doubles. Parks Harber will also play some hot corner and first base. He is third on the team with a .304 average and has 9 home runs as well as 6 doubles. He has a high tendency to strikeout with 31 and an OBP of just .370. Sebastian Murillo will man short stop, but he is struggling big time at the plate hitting just .242 with 5 doubles and 2 home runs, but the struggle is that he has walks just 8 times while striking out 25. He has the lowest OBP on the team at .307. He has 4 errors on the year and a fielding percentage of .952, so not exactly a wizard at short either as far as I can tell. Cole Wagner will DH most of the time, but I have no idea why. He's hitting just .187 overall and .111 in league play. The home run numbers aren't great with just 2 and he has 4 doubles. He is getting on base with 12 walks to 22 strikeouts, but that OBP of .233 isn't particularly impressive either. Hitting 9th in the lineup is second baseman Mason LaPlante who will help turn the lineup over and is hitting .284 overall. He has 3 doubles, 2 triples and 3 home runs. He has 12 strikeouts to 7 walks. Fernando Gonzalez seems to be the backup catcher and will get probably at least one start this weekend. He is hitting .250 with 7 doubles and 2 home runs while striking out 13 times and walking 6. I don't think that anyone of their backup hitters is worth noting. Everyone with more than 5 ABs is hitting .267 and below and none of them have over 20 ABs. So, they could see some plate time, but it seems like it likely be in a PH role.
Scott Stricklin is in his 10th year with the Georgia Bulldogs, comfirming that I am old. Stricklin had a lot of success at Kentu State before heading to Georgia and I was one of his believers thinking that he'd turn the program around. While they have had some good seasons, including 2021 where they were in the top 25 for 11 weeks and made it as high as number 5 in the nation, I think that the overall body of work has been disappointing. It did look as though with the hiring of pitching coach Sean Kenny that Georgia might be turning a corner and since his hiring in 2017 they've reached the NCAA tournament 3 times and have been a national seed twice. However, unless things turn around quickly this season, it looks pretty sour.
That being said, there are some bright spots for Georgia. First off, that they are hitting .301 as a team and are especially dangerous with doubles (65) where they rank third in the league and home runs (52) where they are 7th. However, they don't appear to be the most patient team at the plate hitting .400 as an OBP, and being fairly low in the SEC ranking on walks. Strikeouts are pretty low, but they just don't draw a ton of walks. They will not run on UK. They have attempted just 19 stolen bases this season, so Burkes should be pretty comfortable at the backstop. Offensively, UK and Georgia should matchup pretty well. UK ranks 7th in the league in runs scored while Georgia ranks 8th. Just 3 runs separate them. Georgia is 7th in batting average and UK is 5th with just 6 points separating them. However, the two teams couldn't do things more differently. Georgia is 5th in slugging percentage while UK is 13th and Kentucky is 2nd in OBP while Georgia is 12th. That is the basic tale of the tape... Georgia seems to possibly be the classic 3 run home run type team while UK is a manufacture runs with small ball and timely hitting type team. A fun and eye-popping number for UK is that we have 73 steal attempts on the year, 14 more than the next team. Georgia only has 19 on the year.
Charlie Condon who plays first and right field and is hitting .449. This is good for the second best batting average in the league. However, it dips considerably to .290 in SEC play. Condon is a home run threat that already had 11 on the year to go with 6 doubles and a triple. He limits strikeouts pretty well with 15 and has walked 15 times as well. Connor Tate is also hitting at an unbelieably high clip of .414, which is 4th best BA in the league. He too is killing the baseball with 10 home runs and 12 doubles and has a similar walk/strikeout ratio with 18 walks and 19 strikeouts. Tate will play left field and hit second, just ahead of Condon. So, the top of the lineup will be very dangerous. He too sees his average dip a big amount in league play hitting just .263. CF Ben Anderson seems like he'll be the leadoff guy for the Dawgs. He's hitting .290 with 6 dobules and a couple triples and home runs. He seems to have a big tendency to strikeout with 28Ks to just 16 walks, but he is also their biggest threat to steal, but just 5-6 on the year. Corey Collins hits in the middle of the lineup with an average of .265. Collins will play catcher and also some right field has 5 home runs and three doubles and a triple. Will David plays the hot corner and hits 5th with a .284 average, he has 3 home runs and 8 doubles. Parks Harber will also play some hot corner and first base. He is third on the team with a .304 average and has 9 home runs as well as 6 doubles. He has a high tendency to strikeout with 31 and an OBP of just .370. Sebastian Murillo will man short stop, but he is struggling big time at the plate hitting just .242 with 5 doubles and 2 home runs, but the struggle is that he has walks just 8 times while striking out 25. He has the lowest OBP on the team at .307. He has 4 errors on the year and a fielding percentage of .952, so not exactly a wizard at short either as far as I can tell. Cole Wagner will DH most of the time, but I have no idea why. He's hitting just .187 overall and .111 in league play. The home run numbers aren't great with just 2 and he has 4 doubles. He is getting on base with 12 walks to 22 strikeouts, but that OBP of .233 isn't particularly impressive either. Hitting 9th in the lineup is second baseman Mason LaPlante who will help turn the lineup over and is hitting .284 overall. He has 3 doubles, 2 triples and 3 home runs. He has 12 strikeouts to 7 walks. Fernando Gonzalez seems to be the backup catcher and will get probably at least one start this weekend. He is hitting .250 with 7 doubles and 2 home runs while striking out 13 times and walking 6. I don't think that anyone of their backup hitters is worth noting. Everyone with more than 5 ABs is hitting .267 and below and none of them have over 20 ABs. So, they could see some plate time, but it seems like it likely be in a PH role.
