2015 Season: New Impact Players

From an everyday standpoint, John Holland was a great get by the coaches. He bats left, leadoff and a great defender in the middle of the field.

Right behind him is CF Michael Smith. He is super fast. He will run down balls where ever he plays. He can pressure the defense when he runs the bases.

True freshman RHP Jesse McCord will start and pitch us in a lot of games. He has the ability to get people out. A highly rated player coming out of HS.

You can't forget about a backup catcher. This one position is a grind. JC transfer Josh Lovelady really impressed in the fall. A tough kid who blocks pitches. Had a pretty good offensive fall too.

I think Luke Reynolds will get even better by the end of the season and will have many big hits along the way.

2015 Season: Right Handed Pitchers

This group is led by the bearded wonder. Senior Trevor Fitts, 6-2 223 will hold down the closers role in 2015. Vast experience from Fitts. He is a tremendous leader also. Junior redshirt Preston Brown had a great fall. Expect him to be an SEC starter on the weekends. Let's hope he is injury free in 2015. Junior Myles Gentry, 6-0 190, a side arm reliever will come out of the pen and put any fires out. Great movement on his pitches. Redshirt sophomore Paul Young, 6-2 205 is the ace in the hole this year. He is coming off surgery from last spring. Drafted by the Indians coming out of junior college, I had hoped he would pitch last year and be dominating. I hope he starts slow to get in game shape and comes on late in May and June and give us that mid-90's heater we need out of the bullpen. I see him being a major contributor in 2016. A trio of superb true sophomores will pitch a lot in 2015. Austin Sexton, 6-2 180 from Alabama, is still in the hunt for a weekend spot. He had a nice summer and fall. Big and tall, Dakota Hudson, 6-5, 207 has tons of ability. A non-arm injury set him back in the fall. I would love for him to dominate and take the Friday night starter role. We shall see what the early spring holds for him. Another huge player is Zac Houston, 6-6 234 from Mississippi. He is slated for reliever duty in 2015. Maybe a set up role for him. He throws in the mid-90's. JC transfer sophomore Logan Elliot, 6-1 175, another side armer, will vie for relief duty. Freshmen redshirts, Jacob Billingsley, 6-1 178 and Levi Mintz, 6-3 190 are still competing for reliever roles. A trio of true freshmen, led by phenom Jesse McCord, 6-2 185 who by all accounts will be a major contributor to the staff. He may be a weekend starter as a freshman. No one can hit his pitches will regularity. Aaron Dominguez, 6-1 190 from California is set to compete for reliever duty. A very tough kid on the mound. Dual player, Cole Gordon, 6-6 240 may get a few innings in relief. He had surgery in the last few months so it might be 2016 before he will make a pitching impact.

2015 Season: Designated Hitter

Right

Reid Humphreys: when he is not playing outfield, I see him being the starter here. Once he gets experience, he will be a force.

Brent Rooker: a fantastic athlete. When Humphreys is in the OF and we need a right handed DH, I think he is the guy. Again, he just need some experience.

Joey Swinarski: he will be more of a pinch hitter than a DH this year, I think. Still has tons of potential as a hitter (not a bad throwing arm either).

Left

Luke Reynolds: he is known as a good hitter. He is yet another new player that needs experience. I expect him to really be good at the end of the season.

Cole Gordon: big power hitter. When he turns on a pitch, it will be hit hard. But he is a true freshman and needs experience. I see him as a pinch hitter also from the left side.

2015 Season: Outfielders

Center

This should be a two headed monster. Both players are in there 3rd year of college baseball. Sophomore redshirt Jacob Robson, 5-10 175 from Canada. He started slow in 2014 then got hurt and was redshirted. He played well in the summer league and continued that surge in the fall. Bats left. He really put the ball in play and pressured the defense, on the base paths too during fall scrimmages. Junior Michael Smith, 5-10 170 comes from a JC in Tennessee. He is really fast. He bats right. Did not make an error in the OF during his JC career and stole over 20 bases each year. Both these guys are real fast. I can see a platoon situation here.

Corner

These two positions will a mix and match situation. Who bats left or right? Who will bat DH when not in the OF? Sophomore phenom Reid Humphreys, 6-2 210 played his first OF duty in the fall and did well. Coaches have to find a spot for him to bat. So for a lot of the games he will be playing in left. He bats right and will hit in the middle of the lineup, probably at clean up. Sophomore redshirt Cody Brown, 5-10 185 will probably play more in right. He is a gamer. He bats left. Senior Jake Vickerson, 5-9 184 is another one to put in either spot. John Cohen redshirted two freshmen last year that will have an offensive impact this year. Super athlete Brent Rooker, 6-4 210 can really run and hit. He bats right and I see him as a DH also. The youngest of the bunch is Floridian Joey Swinarski, 6-2 190. He skipped his senior year in HS last year, so in essence he is a true freshman. He came on late in the fall offensively. He will only get better.

We have 7 OF's and three bat left and 4 bat right. You will see platoon situations among them including the DH spot. This now has become a bright spot and a deep position.

2015 Season: Catcher

The starter is sophomore phenom Gavin Collins, 6-0 200. He was thrown to the fire because we were searching for a catcher last year and by the end of the season he was good. He garnered All-SEC freshman honors. He is a middle of the order hitter who can throw out runners. He is from California. He should be even better this year. Junior Josh Lovelady, 6-0 190 backs him up. He is a JC transfer from Alabama. He is a very tough kid who swings a good bat. He really came on in the fall. Senior Cody Walker, 5-10 204 continues to battle for the back up role. He was a JC transfer last year.

2015 Season: Corner Infielders

First Base

I am going to start with a 5 year senior and a captain and a leader. Wes Rea, 6-5 270 has been the starting first baseman going on 4 years. He had shoulder surgery is true freshman campaign and was redshirted. Really from the start of last year, he struggled at the plate offensively. Pitchers would throw inside on him, still had some big hits in spots. We all cheered for him in the SEC tournament. He worked hard over the summer and fall to correct this. By all indications, he has greatly improved. He should start every 2015 game. Behind him are 2 newcomers to the program. Jr college transfer, Trent Waddell, 6-3 210 is battling true freshman Cole Gordon, 6-6 240 for the back up role. Both bat from the left side and both can pitch, Waddell is a lefty while Gordon is a righty. Waddell is a grinder and a tough kid. Gordon has a huge frame and has a lot of potential as a two way player. Both should get playing time at both positions in order to get ready for expanded 2016 duties.

Third Base

Senior Matthew Britton, 6-1 195 while injured most of the fall should be the favorite to man the hot corner. He has vast experience over the 2 newcomers. Britton also bats left. He has struggled to find a consistent offensive stroke in the preceding years. He found a home at 3B last year and made dazzling play after play. He has the strongest arm on the infield too. If he could make strides offensively, he would surely be drafted in June. Again, like 1B, there are two brand new newcomers behind Britton but they are both JC transfers who bring college experience to the team. Junior Matt Spruill,6-1 190 hails from Virgina but played JC ball in Texas. His older brother pitches in the Major Leagues. Sophomore Luke Reynolds, 6-2 180 is from Mississippi. Spruill bats right while Reynolds bats left. Reynolds really impressed the coaches with his dirt bag play at third and strong throwing arm. He came to State as a good hitter. I do foresee both these guys getting playing time at other infield positions too. Reynolds because he bats left has a real good chance to be the left handed DH. Reynolds when he gets some experience might turn out to be a really good player.

Getting there-January 12th

The holidays are behind us and now we focus on the upcoming baseball season. Collegiate Baseball has released their preseason poll and we start the year 20th. Perfect Game will release college related articles over the next several weeks and I will glean anything from those and post.

Other than that, no really big news since the end of fall practice. I know the players have worked hard in the weight room, etc. Practice will start at the end of January.