Gator Baseball 2024 OFFICIAL ROSTER/Transfer Tracker/Lineup???

Pitching will be fine. Maybe add a starter for next season.

Sully needs to focus 90% of his attention on filling SEVEN different positions.
1B, SS, 3B, 3 OF positions and DH

 

"Maybe" add a starter for next season?????

Hopefully, several underclassmen step up, but at this point id say a minimum of 2 experienced starting pitchers is needed and maybe even a closer.

 

Nope. Pitching will be fine. We will get a transfer and then spend the majority of our time and money on bringing in actual hitters to fill at least 6 positions.

 

I sure hope you're right. Since the 11th "best" transfer class this season has been extremely disappointing (Other than Shelton, who lately seems like he's figuring things out again). Also, what did Florida see in Dale Thomas? Honestly, the guy has done nothing since he's been here. Also, also... what was the idea behind adding Jaylen Guy? I know his stats at Liberty weren't anything spectacular, but both he and Robertson have both been disappointing offensively (overall & in SEC play) and they've both been pretty much equal defensively.

 

I'm with you on this. Whoever made that ranking needs to be let go. This transfer class was weak once we lost the ucla pitcher. Thomas transferred in two years ago by the way. Outside of a big mouth, he's done nothing. I could see at least 10 players (not including seniors and those that are draft/sign) transferring out.

 

Gators had the 11th best transfer class according to D1Baseball:

• Colby Shelton (Alabama) - 39 games played: .276 avg, 36 RBI, 15 HR, 19 BB, 49 K.
• Brody Donay (Virginia Tech) - 23 games played: .261 avg, 15 RBI, 6 HR, 5 BB, 30 K.
• Armando Albert (FAU) - 19 games played: .194 avg, 3 RBI, 0 HR, 9 BB, 9 K.
• Tanner Garrison (Coastal Carolina) - 19 games played: .241 avg, 6 RBI, 1 HR, 4 BB, 9 K. (Sucks he got injured... easily our best catcher this year).
• Jaylen Guy (Liberty) - 23 games played: .171 avg, 2 RBI, 0 HR, 9 BB, 6 K.
• Landon Russell (Gulf Coast CC) - 10 games played: .120 avg, 2 RBI, 0 HR, 2 BB, 8 K.
• Ashton Wilson (Charleston Southern) - 9 games played: .000 avg, 0 RBI, 0 HR, 3 BB, 2 K.

Also, with how inconsistent this team has been of late (particularly offensively) I'm not sure Kelly Austin would've changed much for this team. With that, I think I remember reading somewhere that Florida was going to use him as a closer and he wanted to start (which may have been one of the reasons why he went pro instead of playing at Florida). Not sure how true that was, but it's just something I vaguely remember.

Regarding Dale Thomas, yeah I know he transferred here 2 years ago. But you covered my point perfectly, outside of being a big mouth... he just hasn't contributed at all to this team.

This team will need to hit the transfer portal hard next year. Especially if they want to get back to Omaha.

 

Compare that to Florida State's and you will see why they are much better this season. What's funny is Link wasn't a fan of transfer portal. The AD had to step in and tell him what he needed to do.

 

The truth is this—if Sully’s going to count on the transfer portal then he’s going to have to learn to recruit like he’s recruiting for a JUCO program. Every other year you (as a team) are starting over. It is the end of the three year players you are able to get coming outta HS. It will be what it is. So be it…

 

One of things that I always loved about college sports is that you got to watch and come to know players in all sports who were in your program for 3-4 years. Sad to see that going away.

 

Interesting change up to pitching strategy this weekend vs ARK. Coppola, TBA, and Cags. I guess Sully is hoping Coppola can hold Ark for a few innings. Then if the bats can get a couple runs vs the Ark ace, Neely will come in to see if we can get a Friday night win. If we get down early on Friday, then he'll save Neely for Saturday.

 

This weekend could get ugly....

 

Ugly in more than one way: Fayetteville, AR 10-Day Weather Forecast | Weather Underground

If the SEC were smart (yeah, I know), they'd already be declaring a Saturday doubleheader. Arkansas's Sunday starter is out this week, so they'd probably rather not play the home game with their #4 or worse against the Gators' #1.

 

If they don't declare a doubleheader I almost want to say we should start Cags game 2. Otherwise he might not pitch at all. It'd be better to do everything we can to win game 2 than it would be to conserve and end up not playing due to weather.

 

Now that I think about it, if there's a doubleheader tomorrow Cags would probably pitch the first of those two games anyway. That's what we did last year against Bama. He has to be well rested for his starts, so being on his feet for 3 hours in a game beforehand would not be good. Either that or he doesn't play first base during the doubleheader and is DH instead in order to conserve energy for the last game.

 

OK people. We're 22-21, 9-12 in the SEC. We have 2 midweek games left - FAU & USF. Winning those is an absolute must, IMO. We have Tennessee & Kentucky coming to Gainesville the next 2 weekends and then we finish up at Georgia. Assuming we win the midweek games, I think we need to go at least 4-5 the next 3 weekends to get in the NCAA tournament. Agree or disagree?

 

Seems like pretty easy math. If we stay above 500, we’ll most likely squeak in.

 

Fun (sad) fact: Michael Robertson now has a higher batter average than Cade Kurland and is just .001 behind Tyler Shelnut and .003 behind Colby Shelton. Very glad to see Robertson have some better ABs lately as I think he was below .230 a week or two ago. Heyman also seems to be seeing the ball a little better. But those other guys really need to turn it around.

 

On a more positive note Yost has moved above all those guys and his bav is up to .289 and its even higher in sec play.

 

But
We
Still
Have
To
Run
The
Bases….

 

And hit the cutoff man, and not run into each other trying to catch a foul pop and make accurate routine throws to first base, etc., etc., etc.