SEC Baseball

[RutherfordBHayes]

I feel like we fared well in the draft. In a normal draft, I think we would’ve lost a couple of signees plus Hatcher, Allen, and Rowdy. The dugout will be crowded and the pitching staff is going to be loaded. However, this applies to everybody; everybody, in the SEC anyway,.

So, how did we fare compared to our competition?
Which SEC teams are the biggest winners and losers?

 

[57stratdawg]

I saw the D1 guys saying UF would be #1 in their rankings. They got their Friday & Saturday guys through the draft. I saw Vandy had a couple pitchers drafted yesterday, but one had already said he planned to return. Guessing they back-channeled to a number.

Arkansas had 3 signees drafted and 2 players, but they got Casey Optiz through.

Hopefully Cole Henry signs from LSU. He was rumored to have a really high asking price. They also lost Daniel Cabrera and a couple commits.

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Most pick us middle of pack next year...we should be fine Pitching .... hitting and defense will be question marks....

 

[CochiseCowbell]

I saw Vandy had a couple pitchers drafted yesterday, but one had already said he planned to return. Guessing they back-channeled to a number.

It cannot possibly be overstated how much I hate Vandy baseball & their 17'n whistlers.

 

[hogfan14]

I saw the D1 guys saying UF would be #1 in their rankings. They got their Friday & Saturday guys through the draft. I saw Vandy had a couple pitchers drafted yesterday, but one had already said he planned to return. Guessing they back-channeled to a number.

Arkansas had 3 signees drafted and 2 players, but they got Casey Optiz through.

Hopefully Cole Henry signs from LSU. He was rumored to have a really high asking price. They also lost Daniel Cabrera and a couple commits.

Really surprised Opitz wasn't drafted, but I guess MLB teams didn't think his offense was good enough. He's amazing defensively though.

Arkansas definitely wasn't expecting him back since we brought in 2 grad transfer catchers, including one that was a 1st team all-american this year. Might be a little awkward if he can't play another position.

Florida should be loaded next year. Not sure how they pulled that off!

 

[MSUDC11]

Ginn is not that much of a loss for 2021 because his role would’ve been very limited had he come back.

Foscue is going to be tough to replace, though the grad transfer from Jacksonville U has awesome numbers from his previous school. Different kind of 2B than Foscue and not proven in the SEC, but it sounds like we expect him to be a big contributor.

Westburg was good but not impossible to replace. I still think we’ll be in good shape with James moving to SS and Clark likely taking over at 3B.

We have to replace two of our top four hitters but return everybody else and bring in a couple of instant impact bats. Our pitching staff is going to be very deep. We will be good, as will a lot of teams, so next year may be one of highest quality SEC baseball seasons in memory.

Keep in mind the SEC schedule stays the same opponent-wise as it would’ve been this year. So we miss Florida and Georgia who should be very good and get Mizzou and Kentucky at home. The West is a crap shoot because everybody is good, especially now that Alabama is seemingly not terrible anymore. And we do have to play at Vandy. But I think there’s a lot to be optimistic about.

 

[My Bru]

Ginn is not that much of a loss for 2021 because his role would’ve been very limited had he come back.

I wouldn't go that far on Ginn, but I agree with the rest of what you say. Rowdy, Allen and Hatcher will be a hell of a 123. Tanner and James will make big jumps too. All of those guys have power too, they might not all have Foscue/Westburg power, but they can drop bombs. I'd go Rowdy, James, Allen, Tanner, Hatcher. Pretty nasty.

Back to Ginn, remember, in a closer role, he'd probably be good for 3 strikeouts against anybody, especially when healthy. Think Lindgren. Our pitching staff would be good (maybe national championship good), but he's still a lights out guy. He would have made us better.

 

[MSUDC11]

Back to Ginn, remember, in a closer role, he'd probably be good for 3 strikeouts against anybody, especially when healthy. Think Lindgren. Our pitching staff would be good (maybe national championship good), but he's still a lights out guy. He would have made us better.

I've just learned to not have high expectations for guys the year after Tommy John surgery/whatever major elbow surgery he just had. And the surgery was not until February, so he wouldn't have pitched the entire Fall and there's a pretty good chance he wouldn't have been available when the season started either. I don't think he would have been the closer, I think we would have pitched him in sporadic relief stints when there was a chance to. Similar to how we used Spencer Price in 2019.

Moot point now that he's gone, but I personally was not expecting much from JT next year had he come back.

 

[oxfordrebel22]

Ginn is not that much of a loss for 2021 because his role would’ve been very limited had he come back.

Foscue is going to be tough to replace, though the grad transfer from Jacksonville U has awesome numbers from his previous school. Different kind of 2B than Foscue and not proven in the SEC, but it sounds like we expect him to be a big contributor.

Westburg was good but not impossible to replace. I still think we’ll be in good shape with James moving to SS and Clark likely taking over at 3B.

We have to replace two of our top four hitters but return everybody else and bring in a couple of instant impact bats. Our pitching staff is going to be very deep. We will be good, as will a lot of teams, so next year may be one of highest quality SEC baseball seasons in memory.

Keep in mind the SEC schedule stays the same opponent-wise as it would’ve been this year. So we miss Florida and Georgia who should be very good and get Mizzou and Kentucky at home. The West is a crap shoot because everybody is good, especially now that Alabama is seemingly not terrible anymore. And we do have to play at Vandy. But I think there’s a lot to be optimistic about.

I didn’t realize that about the schedule. That’s a big deal. Missing Florida, who will be preseason #1 is huge. It’s not great news for Ole Miss, but I suppose Georgia losing Hancock and Wilcox will help us some. If I remember right Ole Miss’ 4 East opponents were the 1-4 in preseason in East. And Kentucky and Missouri were expected to be by far the two worst teams in SEC, and obviously they didn’t draw them.

That was the one silver lining in my head to us missing out on this season was avoiding that schedule. Dammit, haha. Oh well, the SEC is a monster every year. Next year it will just be even more so than normal.

 

[MSUDC11]

I didn’t realize that about the schedule. That’s a big deal. Missing Florida, who will be preseason #1 is huge. It’s not great news for Ole Miss, but I suppose Georgia losing Hancock and Wilcox will help us some. If I remember right Ole Miss’ 4 East opponents were the 1-4 in preseason in East. And Kentucky and Missouri were expected to be by far the two worst teams in SEC, and obviously they didn’t draw them.

That was the one silver lining in my head to us missing out on this season was avoiding that schedule. Dammit, haha. Oh well, the SEC is a monster every year. Next year it will just be even more so than normal.

Yeah since no conference games were played I think they’re just going to do the same opponents for everybody. No point in reinventing the wheel if you already have a ready made schedule. That way it doesn’t create a situation where Ole Miss goes four years without playing in Starkville, or State doesn’t go four years without playing in Baton Rouge.

 

[oxfordrebel22]

Yeah since no conference games were played I think they’re just going to do the same opponents for everybody. No point in reinventing the wheel if you already have a ready made schedule. That way it doesn’t create a situation where Ole Miss goes four years without playing in Starkville, or State doesn’t go four years without playing in Baton Rouge.

That makes sense. I just wish they’d also start it with Ole Miss being 17-1 with a series win over Louisville and wins against ECU, USM and Indiana. Because I think we all know that **** ain’t happening again.

 

[Joe Schmedlap]

That was a helluva start