Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
Originally posted by CatsFanGG24:
Originally posted by Tskware:
Congrats to the team, looks like they will make the NCAA tourney. Hope that Henderson writes AJ Reed a long thank you note for saving his job.
If the coach gets beat up for the poor performances of his recruited players, he has got to get the credit for someone he recruited turning out to be great.
I don't know if it was AJ Reed himself or a coach or trainer, but whoever encouraged him to really get into shape this year deserves a ton of credit.
Reed has been amazing. I will give Henderson and his staff a ton of credit on certain things. Recruiting top players is one of them. Having teams that are very solid hitters and typically very solid defenders is another. Also for typically at least having one very solid starting guy a year. However, his bullpen development and his overall pitching development has been horrible and a huge downfall of his success. UK has the best batting average in the SEC and yet we have a pitching staff right near the bottom of the league, and but for Reed we'd be solidly at the bottom. I also think that some of his in game decisions and defensive decisions are suspect. Overall, his body of work has just not been enough for me to want to keep him around. I just don't think we're going to ever improve from this. I imagine next year will be a very rough year. We lose AJ, Cousino, Reida, and Thomas. I also wouldn't be surprised to see someone like Max Kuhn head to the big leagues after hitting .327 this year, and on the mound Spencer Jack could find himself getting drafted and heading out as well. Tom has also possible hit his way to a draft spot. If Combs, Dwyer, Nelson, and Cody step their game up some next year then we might finally have a lot of good depth at pitcher, but the first two I listed haven't shown me anything in two years that convinces me they will suddenly turn it around. Not to mention no bullpen guys have really looked like they are going to become solid in the future. So, I just don't see a lot of hope there.
We did an amazing job at the plate this year and a lot of that probably had to do with Reed. Kuhn's numbers may plummet without Reed behind him to protect him, and I mean no offense to Kuhn, he's done outstanding. I just don't see us improving those numbers or matching them next year. So, without similar hitting we could have a long year.