Really impressed with your pitching.
The bottom of our lineup is BAD right now, and I suspect that after 1-4, it will look nothing like this by the end of the year. For example, if our 8 and 9 guys are still in the lineup in May, something will have gone very wrong.
That said, our 1-4 is legit. Wallner is a likely first-round pick. Slater and Guidry will have outstanding years and get drafted in higher-to-middle rounds (Slater will, at least). And Montenegro is a really solid, high IQ, pesky hitter. The fact that your pitchers have shut them down is REALLY impressive.
Your hitting: This is probably going to be our worst staff in the last several years...and pitching is always one area where we will never be able to match top conferences. I see a lot being made about last night. I don't think the problem was that you were swinging early in the count. The problem was the swings that you were taking. You got a few hard hit, at 'em balls early and decided to try to knock the cover out of every ball because he was throwing strikes that didn't have a ton of velo. Problem is that he has a lot of sink and run on his pitches, and the wind was blowing in. Your hitters tried to do too much. I think your lineup will be fine but wouldn't be surprised if Powell is the type of pitcher who gives you guys some issues this year.
We will probably be a middle-to-low 2-seed in a regional this year (rather than a 1 or high-2 seed like the last few years). If you guys win tomorrow, this will probably have gone how I expected (with the exception of us winning a low-scoring game).
The bottom of our lineup is BAD right now, and I suspect that after 1-4, it will look nothing like this by the end of the year. For example, if our 8 and 9 guys are still in the lineup in May, something will have gone very wrong.
That said, our 1-4 is legit. Wallner is a likely first-round pick. Slater and Guidry will have outstanding years and get drafted in higher-to-middle rounds (Slater will, at least). And Montenegro is a really solid, high IQ, pesky hitter. The fact that your pitchers have shut them down is REALLY impressive.
Your hitting: This is probably going to be our worst staff in the last several years...and pitching is always one area where we will never be able to match top conferences. I see a lot being made about last night. I don't think the problem was that you were swinging early in the count. The problem was the swings that you were taking. You got a few hard hit, at 'em balls early and decided to try to knock the cover out of every ball because he was throwing strikes that didn't have a ton of velo. Problem is that he has a lot of sink and run on his pitches, and the wind was blowing in. Your hitters tried to do too much. I think your lineup will be fine but wouldn't be surprised if Powell is the type of pitcher who gives you guys some issues this year.
We will probably be a middle-to-low 2-seed in a regional this year (rather than a 1 or high-2 seed like the last few years). If you guys win tomorrow, this will probably have gone how I expected (with the exception of us winning a low-scoring game).
