No way around it, this season was a major disappointment. I understand McPherson getting hurt probably cost us a few games but even said we had the material, or so we thought, to be better than we were. Not winning 40 regular season games sucks with the talent we had and only finishing two games over .500 in league play is unacceptable.
Here's a little more insight, starting with our big 3 (Ace, Frei, Sully). Reese has about the same power numbers overall as he had in '25 but his overall BA was down about 20 points this year. The bigger surprise was this, he batted .400 in the league last year and had 15 homeruns in SEC games. Coming into today he was hitting .273 and had 9 homeruns in the league. That's a drastic difference and don't think MLB scouts don't see it. Frei's BA dropped about 20 points too. That's disappointing because coming into the year I thought he may lead the team in hitting. He was better in the field than I expected though so kudo's to him for playing a solid 2B. Sully was solid but showed no improvement from last year. His power numbers declined a bit (fewer HR's and fewer XB hits while K's went up). The K's overall were a major issue for this team. We had 3 guys with over 50 k's (Ace, Sully, Woodson). Teel was a disappointment and we paid him major NIL bucks. His draft stock declined but I'm guessing he'll leave. Nunnalee was an opening day starter and he just never got going. Hopefully he'll get it going next year because I think the talent is there. Shortstop was up/down all year between Woody and Wyers. Neither were great defensively. Wyers was decent with the stick but never could play well enough consistently to overtake Ryder and stay in the lineup. Ryder has to cut down on the K's. He lead the team in that category. The Bevis and Stallman combo at first was solid. Vito was solid and in hindsight probably should've had more P/T from the get go. Parker had a hell'uva frosh season and is gonna be a beast. Needs to cut down on the K's but the potential is there for him to terrorize this league for two more years. Catcher, don't even get me started here. That position alone costs us at least two games that I can remember. Milewski is a K machine. He has one more year, will he return? I could see it. James was decent in limited ABs but terrible behind the plate but that's not his fault. We didn't expect to have to play him there. He's your starting 2B next year.
For the pitching staff. Tico struggled mightily the second half of league play. Just not the same guy he was earlier in the year. I think fatigue may have been an issue w/him. Davis showed no signs of improvement. He has the stuff to be a lock down closer but just couldn't put it together. I get he's struggled after two innings of work but he just didn't improve like we expected. Foster, he needs to leave. Good stuff but can't consistently throw in the zone. Bauer got better as the year went on and the stuff is definitely there. Extremely high ceiling if he can stay healthy and learn to consistently throw strikes. Stone got worse over the course of the year. Fatigue, maybe but I'm not sure. Miller was good. Could he work his way into a starter next year? He was the best of the freshman pitchers. Burns was up and down. Decent numbers but seemed to struggle in high leverage situations. Some pros and cons on the remainder of the guys. Webb was good at times and bad at times. We'll see what he does. Let's hope Parker improves them more from this year to next year as he did from last year to this year. I'm guessing BOC isn't happy with our pitching staff performance overall. I don't think Parker's job is in jeopardy but if we don't see improvement next year it damn sure will be and he can join Lemonis on some podcast.
One last thing. BOC may turn out to be the best coach we've ever had, who knows, but he damn sure makes some strange moves from time to time. There were several head scratchers over the course of the year. Even said I think he's the man for the job. I'm guessing by now he understands that the SEC isn't the ACC.
Here's a little more insight, starting with our big 3 (Ace, Frei, Sully). Reese has about the same power numbers overall as he had in '25 but his overall BA was down about 20 points this year. The bigger surprise was this, he batted .400 in the league last year and had 15 homeruns in SEC games. Coming into today he was hitting .273 and had 9 homeruns in the league. That's a drastic difference and don't think MLB scouts don't see it. Frei's BA dropped about 20 points too. That's disappointing because coming into the year I thought he may lead the team in hitting. He was better in the field than I expected though so kudo's to him for playing a solid 2B. Sully was solid but showed no improvement from last year. His power numbers declined a bit (fewer HR's and fewer XB hits while K's went up). The K's overall were a major issue for this team. We had 3 guys with over 50 k's (Ace, Sully, Woodson). Teel was a disappointment and we paid him major NIL bucks. His draft stock declined but I'm guessing he'll leave. Nunnalee was an opening day starter and he just never got going. Hopefully he'll get it going next year because I think the talent is there. Shortstop was up/down all year between Woody and Wyers. Neither were great defensively. Wyers was decent with the stick but never could play well enough consistently to overtake Ryder and stay in the lineup. Ryder has to cut down on the K's. He lead the team in that category. The Bevis and Stallman combo at first was solid. Vito was solid and in hindsight probably should've had more P/T from the get go. Parker had a hell'uva frosh season and is gonna be a beast. Needs to cut down on the K's but the potential is there for him to terrorize this league for two more years. Catcher, don't even get me started here. That position alone costs us at least two games that I can remember. Milewski is a K machine. He has one more year, will he return? I could see it. James was decent in limited ABs but terrible behind the plate but that's not his fault. We didn't expect to have to play him there. He's your starting 2B next year.
For the pitching staff. Tico struggled mightily the second half of league play. Just not the same guy he was earlier in the year. I think fatigue may have been an issue w/him. Davis showed no signs of improvement. He has the stuff to be a lock down closer but just couldn't put it together. I get he's struggled after two innings of work but he just didn't improve like we expected. Foster, he needs to leave. Good stuff but can't consistently throw in the zone. Bauer got better as the year went on and the stuff is definitely there. Extremely high ceiling if he can stay healthy and learn to consistently throw strikes. Stone got worse over the course of the year. Fatigue, maybe but I'm not sure. Miller was good. Could he work his way into a starter next year? He was the best of the freshman pitchers. Burns was up and down. Decent numbers but seemed to struggle in high leverage situations. Some pros and cons on the remainder of the guys. Webb was good at times and bad at times. We'll see what he does. Let's hope Parker improves them more from this year to next year as he did from last year to this year. I'm guessing BOC isn't happy with our pitching staff performance overall. I don't think Parker's job is in jeopardy but if we don't see improvement next year it damn sure will be and he can join Lemonis on some podcast.
One last thing. BOC may turn out to be the best coach we've ever had, who knows, but he damn sure makes some strange moves from time to time. There were several head scratchers over the course of the year. Even said I think he's the man for the job. I'm guessing by now he understands that the SEC isn't the ACC.
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