re: Neal could be huge down the stretch

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Well no shite. His point is that they have been able to hit midweek pitching all year, but not able to carry that over to the weekend.

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Neal hit a huge home run against the #1 team in the country Sunday to give us a 2-0 lead.

I am not saying to play Neal over Milazzo. I don't think Neal is a great defensive catcher right now. Although I think his back injury has played a big part in that. But he could be a huge bat off the bench. And there will be certain games where, as much as everybody loves Milazzo, having Travinski's and Neal's bats in the lineup will give us a better chance of winning than having Alex back there. As good as he is defensively, at some point, we're going to have to hit the ball over the fence to win. It may not work. But it may be our best chance.

Regardless, Jay said Alex caught too many intense innings last weekend and needed a break Sunday. Obviously, that will likely happen in a regional. Or might not. But Neal being confident and getting it going now would be huge. Even if he's just a bat off the bench to face a RH reliever.

Neal's ceiling is indisputably higher than Milazzo's. Milazzo's ceiling was high enough on last year's team. The year's is so less talented offensively, that we may need some high ceiling/"lower floor" guys to get closest to their ceilings to compete.