Fall baseball???

[Chop]

You said Hamilton looked great too right?

Not really--in game 3. He showed good stuff, but was punished hard by Gasparino and Powell for leaving some pitches hanging up high in the zone. You can see the talent and the stuff with Hamilton. The pitching smarts will continue to develop. If you leave just 1 pitch hanging up in the zone against a power college hitter, it could be lights out. These pitchers could get by with that in high school. This ain't high school anymore.

Also, I'm not sure why we started Hamilton--he looks more like a promising young reliever to me...? I think he'll be a frequently used reliever, but he could be being groomed for a weekday starter spot???

 

[Chop]

Yes I see DuP and Harrison as team leaders for the pitching staff. Be nice if they can back it up with stellar play.

Andre DuP looks a lot different than I've seen him before. No more meatball fastballs right down Broadway for the Grand Slam. He's not even throwing fastballs (other than cut fastballs/cutters). He's relying on his cutter as his main pitch, and mixing in the sliders. He also has a lot better control (although before the 3rd game, he was in the dirt some). In the 3rd game, I think he faced 7 and downed 6, for 2 innings of scoreless baseball . If he keeps this up, he could be one of our top 3 relievers. Mercer is the best.

 

[Chop]

Friday - LBJ
Saturday - Hurley
Sunday - Witt

As much as we all like him, and are rooting for him, Witt has not yet proven that he's fully back in form since his surgery. He'll probably get it back, but he'll still be limited in innings early in the year. That means, whomever is the first reliever out of the pen behind Witt, may need to typically go 4 innings. Candidates for that role:

Ace W.
Hamilton
Grubbs
?

 

[Chop]

Question marks:
Santos - Duke transfter
Cole Selvig - Freshman
Gage Boehm - Transfer
Hayden Morris - Freshman
Grant Fontenont - Transfer

Fontenot looked quite good in Game 3.

It turns out that Tumis may be the BAMF of our Freshman pitching class--but he still struggles a bit with control. His "stuff", however, looks the best of anyone we have not named LBJ. He also needs to hit the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet 3 times per week.

Morris is supposed to be really good.

Selvig has very good control. The Q is whether his "stuff" will translate against the elite Top 25 level batting lineups we'll face along the way.

Boehm has really good stuff, and certainly does not lack in self-confidence. We'll get to see how he bounces back mentally after he get shellacked the first time by a Top 25 college batting lineup. Those things do happen to Freshmen pitchers--even good ones.

Santos is supposed to be really good. Is he fully healed up though?

 

[Chop]

Coach is still really high on Grubbs. He keeps mentioning Grubbs as a guy who has progressed the most since last year. I see him developing into an Ace Whitehead sort of pitcher this year. We should see Grubbs coming out of the pen a lot early in the year.

 

[Chop]

And Howard. He didn't do much last year (still getting back to full speed after injury), but he looks good in Fall Ball.

Howard might be the mid-week starter.

 

[aUTfan]

As much as we all like him, and are rooting for him, Witt has not yet proven that he's fully back in form since his surgery. He'll probably get it back, but he'll still be limited in innings early in the year. That means, whomever is the first reliever out of the pen behind Witt, may need to typically go 4 innings. Candidates for that role:

Ace W.
Hamilton
Grubbs
?

I didn't say it but I wasn't expecting anything different than what you posted. Witt needs a lot of innings and long toss to get as prepared as he can be for 2024, i think he can do it but everyone responds differently. Hoping we are pleasantly surprised by his effectiveness come the start of the season.

 

[Phil Elliott]

I will start my Ace for Closer campaign now. He has the demeanor, IMO, for that role until I see someone better.

 

[Chop]

I will start my Ace for Closer campaign now. He has the demeanor, IMO, for that role until I see someone better.

He's so reliable. He could be either a set-up man, closer, or long reliever. He could even start.

 

[Chop]

My personal opinion:

The two I was most impressed with in Fall Ball:

At bat: Gasparino

On the mound: Tumis

There's a couple of star players -- this year!



Coach - have a pizza delivered to Tumis' dorm room every night around 10 pm

 

[Phil Elliott]

Coach - have a pizza delivered to Tumis' dorm room every night around 10 pm

Rodney Dangerfield, referring to the pitcher of beer in his hand: Bring one of these every 7 minutes until someone passes out, then bring one every 10 minutes.