Hope you guys are right and all turns out well. I blew a great chance to go to CWS when Schwarber Travis et al made the trip and am anxious to make amends.
Just the number of new kids & late additions plus 3 grad transfers and 3 JC’s indicate things are unsettled going into fall ball. Recruiting the last few years of Coach Lemonis, especially the 18 grad class (the 19 season freshmen), was off & it shows now, IMO.
Catching is a major question mark, and ironically the recruiting there seemed pretty good if not deep. Holtz was highly regarded and didn’t pan out. Hopefully he rights his ship at Madison CC. We had another commitment for for last season Kurtis Byrne, who flipped to TCU, but now doesn’t appear in their 2019 stats or their 2020 roster. Before that we had Jake Metheny who started off well 3 seasons back but didn’t last the year and Wyatt Cross who did contribute. Recruiting can be a crap shoot. Holtz was the rated #2 coming out of Wisc. behind Alex Binelas, Byrne was Perfectgame’s #2 rated catcher, as was Cross when he came out of HS going to North Carolina.
Back in B’town I believe all 3 of our guys will play, Combs hit over 300 at Logan but some defensive stats raise some ?s, Hopkins had better defensive numbers but hit 200, Voth looks like a solid prospect but has some filling out to do and it is a big jump from HS at catcher.
Houston has always shown potential, Coach Lemonis likened him to UL’s Corey Ray offensively, and he has made some great defensive plays at IU. However after hitting 232 as a FR he has fallen off to 206 and 210. Also his fielding percentage fell from 960-970 his first 2 years to 930 this year. Ideally shortstop should be a strong position, for example this year the Bloomgren kid at Michigan (2nd team All B1G as a So.), hit over 300, with over 45 RBI & a fielding percentage of 965. Bottom line I hope Jeremy has the year everyone thinks he has in him, but I don’t think you bring in a grad transfer and not plan to give him a good look. Either way let’s hope for a better year at short. BTW there were decent looking freshmen the past 2 years, Caleb Balgaard in 18 season and Sam Jones for this past this season. Caleb was on the team but played little if any in 18 and ultimately went JC. He now has committed to Old Dominion I believe. Jones was involved in the 18 fall practice but was not on the 19 roster. I do not know where he is now. I believe a wide open SS competition will begin in about a month and last into 2020.
Skrine is a tough kid who has really worked, I think his bat will get him PT this year. I hope his hard work pays off for him! Nonetheless I don’t think they brought Fucci in to join a suddenly overcrowded outfield room, he will get a good look at 1B IMO. Both grad transfers appear to have some links back to the current staff and I think they are somewhat known quantities with respect to potential and not flyers.
There are a lot of outfield options and I believe that will sort out and be a positive. It is great to have a prospect like Vercrumba. Garret Manous has jets and could get PT.
It’s baseball and pitching is key. We have a lot of good arms, do we have any who will be strong weekend starters? Bierman and Sommer are gritty kids who had many good moments. Can they handle the grind?As the year went along Scott progressed. Franklin was highly regarded coming out of HS but didn’t see a lot of action. Who knows what Sharp could be after setting out a year then dominating in the State Tourney. He is an exciting prospect if for no other reason when was the last time we had a pitcher turn down draft $ out of HS. Hopefully Krueger is healthy and returns to early form and Manous can avoid the bad pitch that seemed to crop up at the most inopportune times last season. The list goes on, there will over 20 pitchers in camp this fall. Coach Parker can get solid pitching out of the group, if so, it would go a long way to having really nice team next May/June.
Hopeful. Mixing all this together and having a successful year following last year’s B1G regular season championship would bode well for a bright future with this staff. I am confident in the long run but at my age anxious for quick success.
