What I saw at Gator Baseball practice

[gatorbogey]

practice report 2.2.13
didn't stay for the scrimmage though. maybe someone else can post on the scrimmage results. (i went to watch the women's tennis match vs baylor)

lots of new faces that's for sure.
to me it seems we have alot of interchangeable players.
not sure how sully will decided on the line up - they all seem about the same in many respects.

lots of emphasis on driving the ball. really trying to hit those liners to the gap. for some outfield drills the coach called on gushue to hit some to the wall. so he may be our one power hitter in the lineup.

lots of emphasis on bunting. from year's past the time spent in practice on bunting was a few balls at the end of bp. this year, they led off w/ bunting, then during bp, they had a bunt drill set up behind home plate. guys alternated from bp to the bunting and back again...

they had crawford and a few other pitchers hitting grounders for infield practice. other pitchers alternated playing 1st. thought that was unusual.

they had a few game situation scrimmage drills too. lots of coaching going on. they were working w/ the pitchers on their pick off plays during this scrimmage. but it also included base running. and making base running 'mistakes' to have the pitchers and catchers get their work in. but that seemed to be quite instructive in their own right.

everyone on the roster participated in some way.

baserunning was practiced alot too. specifically the turn at 2nd. then how to link turns at 2nd and then at 3rd to get you home to score.

some specifics: the had roberson running to first alot to start. don't know if he missed a drill and they wanted to time his sprint. also him leg out a few doubles to time his runs.

gushue and stypulkowski got the bulk of the work at catcher.
guys that played 1st: zack powers got some work during the drill. they emphasized he needed to stretch out more to make the 'bang-bang' plays. stypulkowski played some 1st too during other drills.
2nd - exclusively turgeon.
SS - exclusively martin.
3rd - Dent - really looked good during the drills. tobias. powers.
RF - a host of OF during the OF drills. other drills had Ramjit there.
CF: a host of OF (ratliff played the bulk of it during one of the main drills) Andrades was out there too
LF: a host of OF's. the one main drill - harrison bader was out there in LF.

nobody really caught my eye at the plate. maybe a few guys do have some power but the emphasis was on hitting the liners.
lots of guys w/ some good rips
bader, mitchell, stypulkowski, powers had some really strong deep gappers.
Andrades did nicely - i was curious about him. but he struggled at bunting.

others that may be contributors: dicks, reid, fulton. the coaches called a few of them out for good plays.

surprised they didn't have more catchers getting some work. but the other C's were in the mix for bp and some misc fielding, but nothing behind the plate. they may have been getting some work in the bullpen though.

during alot of the pitcher's fielding work, the others were in the batting cages getting more bp. coach bell was in there w/ them.

gonna miss fontana and zunino. just from their leadership qualities,...and, of course, their game. but, in another year, these guys on the roster now may prove to be able to fill their cleats adequately.

suspect we'll really treat homers as special this season. rare and special.

seems the team is speedier this year, though. that could help in the OF and on the bases.

staff really worked hard. they were in and out of different drills, moving equipment around. fast paced practice too.

expectations, no doubt, are alot lower this season. but it looks like a quality group of players.

[dadx4]

Thanks for the report. It seems about right with what most of us are expecting this season.

[gatorbogey]

handed out a roster to folks attending - which was really nice of them! a few scouts were there watching.

still had tyler thompson on the roster though - andrades now has the #18 uni.

the guys on the squad you recognize - really only a handful:
Dent, Ramjit, the only 2 seniors.
Crawford, Gibson, Whitson, Kish are about it as juniors. Haskel (c) is it as a junior. taylor ratliff - a newcomer is also the only other junior.

the squad is predominately freshmen and sophomores. when this group gets a couple of years in the system, they should be pretty good.

of course, alot of the sophomores are recognizable too:
tobias, turgeon, shafer, powers (redshirt sophomore), gushue, mitchell.
some of the pitchers like poyner and harris and magliozzi saw action last season.

seemed like the coaches grouped the newbies w/ one or two of the "vets".
noticeable leaders: turgeon and crawford.
ramjit was another providing some help
shafer another.
ramjit though, was needing some coaching out in RF. telling him to hit the cutoff man, etc. so even the vets are being coached constantly - especially in a new position. (like powers at 1st).
newcomers that could be leaders - ratliff, bader.

new pitchers that took lead roles in the drills:
danciu, carmichael, vinson, simpson, hanhold
stump and magliozzi also helped in hitting grounders.

dent looked a bit frustrated at times in his bp/bunting practice. looks like he's working on specific things and just a bit off w/ them.
shafer too, really did a nice job bunting but was a bit off on nailing those line drivers. when he did, they were hit hard.
Reid was another. frustrated at times, ripped a few those. he looks like one that could knock a few out of the park.

dicks and andrades should make good contributions. they are athletic and had a few ripped at-bats.

[orlgator]

It stinks Ratliff will not contribute this year. Could have really used him.

[gatorbogey]

stopped by sunday's practice too before the women's hoops game.

same sort of practice structure; duplicate drills etc. i left before bp.

shafer puts in extra time bunting like he did saturday. while others were doing the ball toss warm up in the outfield. just watching the toss, i noted i liked one guy's form. turned out to be cody dent.

there wasn't much actual physical baserunning but the coach was lecturing more this time around. going over strategies, i presume w/ each 'fungo' (is that the proper term?)

guys looked better bunting as a whole. even andrades who seemed to struggle a bit yesterday.

the fungo's were a game of pepper in RF, bunting practice and the base running lecture. the groups cycled thru those drills.

guys like the new helmets, btw

fielding drills:
C: Fahrman got the bulk of the work today (i think gushue and stypulkowski were in the bullpen w/ the pitchers) didn't see crawford at all, so maybe he was one of the featured pitchers in the scrimmage.
RF: Ramjit, Mitchell, Reid, Dicks?
CF: Dent, Ratliff, Andrades
LF: Bader, Fulton, Shafer...Haskel?
not sure if i caught everyone out there and in the proper field
1B: Powers
2B: Turgeon
SS: Martin
3B: Tobias

some crisp fielding, some not so good. a few issues: miscommunication w/ the OF's on which base to throw the ball. not presenting themselves properly as the cut off person, or not aligning well enough. some high throws to 1b and missed throw from C to 2nd. extra work was done before everyone involved got it done right.

some of those issues were in the game situation drills too.

then the pitchers came out for the game situation drills to give them some work along w/ Fahrman at C....and, of course, all the fielders too, naturally.

1b Ramjit
2b Turgeon
SS Martin
3b Powers
RF Bader
CF Dent
LF Tobias
(outfield pretty much totally different from yesterday's drill)
P - they all rotated a few plays each cycle
line up of about 8 that rotated, each getting a swing. the emphasis was grounders and liners: no fly balls. each cycled thru their at-bats and basically it was one swing, one hit.
Dent had a really good throw in from relatively deep CF that nailed the running coming home. he may have won the starting spot w/ that one!
Dent had a good sliding catch. but botched another (an almost spectacular catch).
Sully yelled at roberson to hit a gapper and he did on cue. they were working on hitting behind runners and stuff like that and almost every one did what was asked of them. i thought that was noteworthy.

then pitchers hits some grounders to various infielders. karsten whiffed on one and immediately handed the bat to Stump. Hanhold, Vinson, and harris did the bulk of the batting.

seems that alot of cross training is being done. even the pitchers were doing some infielding. various P's and C's at various infield positions, too.

meanwhile other coaches were working w/ the outfields having them sprint from a set position to catch lobs over their shoulders at full sprint. they would cycle thru the OF's and then move to another location to repeat. some were high lobs, some more direct, some over left shoulder throws, some over the other shoulder. etc.

seems 2b and ss are locked up.
tobias looks solid again at 3b. dent too (yesterday), but dent was working w/ the outfielders today.

seems like there's some pretty good comraderie. guys helping each other, etc. they're competing too: heard some had some side bets on who would do better at bunting; stuff like that....

beautiful weather this weekend in g'ville for the practices. bit chilly in the morning but by 11 am it was really nice. cloudless blue skies. the Mac ospreys were loving it.

[Juggernautz]

Excellent reporting.

[brewerhouse]

Love reading your practice reports! Thank you for your effort! Great stuff!!

[BigOlGator]

Thanks Bogey. I caught the Saturday practice, but missed Sunday's. I liked how they practiced choking up on the bat and faking a bunt, then slapping the ball at the last second.

I think we've got a special one in Martin. He covers really well, just needs to get his throws to come down. Tobias looks about the same with his glove as last year. Wish he could field like Cody.

I also liked the emphasis the coaches placed on "running lanes" when on the base paths and using the inside of the bag for better push-off.

It was beautiful weather to be at the park, wasn't it.

[gatorbogey]

yes, spectacular weather.
did you stay for the scrimmage? who pitched? anyone stand out?

running seemed to be stressed alot on saturday. in year's past they really worked on the steal from 1st - going on first move, getting a good lead, making a well-timed first jump, then run like heck, etc. they didn't work on that much at all this weekend.

Richie looks solid w/ the glove and coverage, i do worry a bit about his arm. but it may be a case that we got spoiled in retrospect w/ fontana.

guys seem to be handling the bat pretty well. of course it's just "bp" level drills, but they seem to be able to bunt pretty competently and able to direct the liners to RF or LF. strong emphasis on hitting liners or grounders this past weekend. the bunt and slashing was extensively practiced.

[penleydr]

I think Ramjit has a ton of potential. If he can work on the off speed stuff and get some protection from the top of the lineup I think he could be a nice surprise in the 5-6 hole

[60sDCGator]

Why can't Ratliff contribute this year. I must have missed something.

[gatorcal]

Originally Posted by 60sDCGator

Why can't Ratliff contribute this year. I must have missed something.

DI transfer - has to sit out a year.

[taxman22]

Excited to watch these guys, totally different group this year. Hoping the will be a scrappy team and find a way to get into post season and maybe make a little run
with pitching. If Whitson and Crawford stay healthy and pitch as they can....should win a decent amount of games.

[austingator]

if dent is an everyday starter, we are in trouble. Anticipate lots of low scoring games.