After this year, I feel like he has to!
2 Likes
I would definitely agree. We made out like bandits! I have a hunch we may not be finished yet.
2 Likes
Updated the roster picture post to reflect the draftees. By my count if you assume that all our drafted players will sign, and don’t include Didawick, we’re at 40 guys right now for our roster.
1 Like
Lineup projection post-draft:
- AJ Gracia (CF)
- Joe Tiroly (2B)
- Eric Becker (SS)
- Aiden Harris (LF)
- Sam Harris (DH)
- Jake Weatherspoon (C)
- Antonio Perrotta (1B)
- Noah Murray (3B)
- Griffin Enis (RF)
There’s a lot of shuffling you could theoretically do to this lineup, I think outside of Gracia/Tiroly/Becker/Sam Harris there’s a ton of changes you can make. Players not included here who could realistically factor in for playing time are: Jayden Stroman, LJ Edwards, RJ Holmes, Thomas O’Connell, Will Mahala, Noah Jouras, Kyle Johnson, Zack Jackson, Tommy Roldan, and Harrison Didawick. I’m honestly going out on a pretty major limb projecting Aiden Harris to not only start, but hit cleanup in our order. Am just very high on him as a prospect, maybe a little too high but we’ll see.
11 Likes
Pitching staff projection post-draft:
Fri: LHP Kyle Johnson
Sat: LHP Henry Zatkowski
Sun: RHP Noah Yoder
Midweek: RHP Jayden Stroman/RHP Tyler Kapa/RHP John Paone/LHP Frank Willius
Middle relief LHP: Max Stammel
Middle relief RHP: Drew Koenen
Setup LHP: Ryan Ure
Setup RHP: Matt Augustin
Closer: RHP Lucas Hartman
Chances are this is gonna end up being very wrong, at least in terms of the placements of where everyone is. We’ve got a lot of pitching talent but I think it’s gonna take some time to put all the pieces together, the main question mark being who emerges as our three weekend starters. My guess is that Johnson and Zatkowski will get the first crack at it, and our coaching staff will try out Yoder to see how he does but honestly I wouldn’t be surprised with anyone in that third spot. Guys not mentioned who could or very likely will contribute a good amount of innings for us are: Kevin Jaxel, Nate Bassett, Michael Yaeger, and Christian Lucarelli.
13 Likes
Outstanding posting and commenting from you guys. Seriously. I don’t know much about these players but trust that you will break it down for us. I’m feeling great that we’ve come out the mess very strongly!
9 Likes
How do you feel about this staff? I’m not super familiar with them and find it hard to get a good read on college pitching in general.
Thanks for all the work you do to keep us informed!
1 Like
Would Didawick really not start?
2 Likes
More that he’s not confirmed yet. If he does in fact come back I think he’ll either be in LF or a DH, though it wouldn’t be a 100% guarantee.
I think the main concern of this entire team is starting pitching, would feel a lot better if we had another guy on the staff with proven experience and solid numbers as a starter in 2025. There’s a lot of ‘maybe’ for the weekend rotation right now. Johnson was solid as a freshman and has the stuff to be an ace of a staff but really struggled last season, Zatkowski was steady last season but doesn’t have the overall profile that you typically find in a top of the line guy in your rotation, Kapa’s advanced analytics look good but the raw numbers haven’t, Willius is coming from D3 so who knows what you get, Augustin we know is talented but coming off a major injury, and then you’ve got the incoming first years who are all super talented but it’s tough to rely heavily on guys who don’t have the requisite experience.
My prediction is that we’re gonna take our fair share of lumps on the mound at least to start the season, and Pollard is gonna be much more willing to experiment and throw guys into the fire than O’Connor was. Our bullpen should be deep and anchored by guys like Hartman or Koenen or Jaxel who should be enough to gut us out some wins, we just might have to stomach some ugly performances where we throw 7-8 pitchers in a game in order to get it or go to our bullpen way earlier than we’re accustomed to. But it’ll inevitably help us figure out what our formula is for success in the postseason.
2 Likes
That is why I was hoping Moore would return. Things would look so much better if he had. I wonder why he decided to go with to FSU. NIL? Didn’t jell with the new staff? Felt that FSU would help develop him better?
Could be all of the above.
We know that Pollard had a conversation with Moore based off his comments from the press conference, but I wouldn’t be surprised if FSU made him a pretty hefty NIL deal.
2 Likes
Got a chance to talk to the FSU baseball SID this year and they are devoting a lot to baseball. Maybe more than basketball from the looks of it.
1 Like
Yeah it would be nice to have one more steady guy that could eat innings. I’m hopeful Jaxel could end up filling that role.
Johnson, Stroman, Yoder, Paone are 4 future professional pitchers, so that is certainly worth something. But obviously they’re all going to be somewhat of a work in progress. I do think we’ve had a lack of raw talent across the pitching staff for some time. I’d rather let talented guys play through it and get better vs throwing guys out there who clearly hit their ceiling against better competition.
There are 100% going to be games where we’re going to need to outscore the opposition with our bats but I kinda think Pollard is perfectly fine with that.
1 Like
Yeah losing Moore stings. He’s kind of the missing piece (or Blanco though I have a little bit of concern with where his game is at the moment).
2 Likes
https://x.com/mlbdraftleague/status/1945137393654264213
Portal commit Ryan Ure signs as a UDFA with the Royals. His tenure with us lasted three days.
We already could have used another lefty in the bullpen, probably need two now.
4 Likes
If he’s signing UDFA, we must not have had much to offer in terms of scholarship money (24 fulls) and/or NIL.
3 Likes
Where are we going to find any?
1 Like
Any who were in the Portal and also in the Draft but didn’t like where they were picked?
You can get 150k as a UDFA
1 Like