The Chris Pollard Era of UVA baseball officially begins this Friday at The Dish against Wagner (weather permitting).
Hoos are coming out unranked by D1Baseball but ranked in the 14-25 range pretty much everywhere else. We were also picked to finish 7th in the ACC by the coaches.
https://twitter.com/coachchris14/status/2020912087157899491?s=20
I cannot fathom that it’s almost baseball season with this weather. I guess the good news is that when we play games in 30-40 degree temps it’ll feel warm for what we’ve experienced the last month.
Final starting lineup and rotation projections:
Fri: Kyle Johnson LHP
Sat: Henry Zatkowski LHP
Sun: Max Stammel LHP
Closer: Tyler Kapa
I expect we’ll see Zach Jackson and Griffin Enis get time in RF when Johnson is on the mound. And we’ll also see Antonio Perrotta get AB’s as a backup 1st baseman and also a DH. Tons of depth all around the diamond so there’ll be a lot of lineup tinkering and guys getting playing time.
Rotation is all lefties which is unusual, especially given the lack of overall LHP we have on the staff. But it seems like Johnson, Zatkowski and Stammel are the three guys who have stood out the most to Pollard and staff. Midweek is gonna be fun to watch this year, could be a ton of different arms getting starts from Yoder to Paone to Yeager to Augustin to a lot of other guys. I expect Lucas Hartman to eat up a ton of innings for us in relief, and Kapa is reportedly gonna be the closer so he’ll be used a good amount as well.
Also just as a heads up, I don’t think there’s gonna be much if any full blown PBP from me for this year’s games. Will still provide score updates and maybe do PBP for the final inning or two of close games, but I just don’t have the availability this season to do it consistently for 2-3 hours of game time. Am also gonna hold off on doing weekly game threads, should be easier to keep everything confined to one thread with less spamming.
Teddy Cahill at TA selected Gracia 2nd team preseason all-American. Also Ford.
Glad to see you back around! Hope you’ve been doing well. Enjoy the season!
A few guys are a little nicked up so expect a bit of a shakeup in the starting 9.
I think 2B and 3B are probably the question marks for me right now. Seems like Tiroly, Aiden Harris, and Noah Murray are all vying with maybe RJ Holmes and Jayden Stroman serving as backup options. Tiroly has been working his way back from a broken foot but as far as I know is ready to go opening day. They might like his glove better at third compared to a guy like Harris, but I’m not sure how Murray handles the field.
When Joe gets healthy, he will be at 2B. This weekend, I expect Murray at 2B and Harris at 3B.
Kapa feels like a big wildcard. Clearly has the stuff but hasn’t put it together yet.
Did Gracia bat leadoff at Duke?
Kapa was near the top of our staff in terms of velocity in fall ball, but yeah the raw numbers weren’t great last year. Hopefully the change going from a SP to a reliever helps him reign in whatever issues he had.
Also to the Gracia question, I think he was hitting 2nd in their postseason run. Am probably gonna end up being wrong about the batting order but having him lead off made sense in my head given how I think the lineup shakes out.
Becker is going to lead off. Gracia 2 hole.
Could switch as the season progresses.
Kapa is going to be much more effective in 1 inning stints where he can empty the tank. He’s really a 2 pitch guy with his FB and slider. He can run it up to 97. As a starter he was more 91-92.
https://twitter.com/monty2740/status/2021965920311366136?s=46
Ugh, no Kyle Johnson on the mound for us to start the season. Was projected to be our Friday night starter, will be interesting to see who fills the third slot in our rotation.
Does say he’ll still be playing the field so I’d expect him to start in RF.
What the heck is a Kinetic chain issue?
Typically it means something in the bottom half of your delivery is putting strain on the top half.
Yes, in baseball,kinetic chain issuesrefer to**a breakdown in the sequential transfer of energy from the ground through the body to the hand or bat**. Because high-velocity pitching and hitting are whole-body movements, a “break” in this chain—such as weak hips or poor core stability—forces the smaller muscles in the shoulder and elbow to overcompensate.
Pure AI
After reading this, I’ve had a kinetic chain issue my whole life. If I can fix it… watch out MLB! 
Sounds like disability to me brother!