My pre-Adam4848 baseball preview *Update*

These are only the players I saw this past weekend. Also, one of my friends is a student equipment manager. He gave me a little insight on what he has seen in practice.
Pitching
Kevin Gausman #12- The pitcher with the most upside. Hit 96 once or twice on Saturday and once he settled down he was very good. Didn’t look to wear down too much. Overall, very powerful fastball pitcher. I think he may be the Friday night starter. My friend said that he may end up better than AR.
Ben Alsup #47- Don’t really remember too much from his performance. Looked good, nothing different from last year except his fastball seemed to have a little more velocity. I think he will be the Saturday starter.
Ryan Eades #37- Impressed with Eades the most of any of the pitchers. Was hitting the low-mid ninetys and I believe he hit 94 once. Had control of his fastball and his breaking ball was very nice. I think he will be the Sunday starter.
Nick Rumbelow #38- Will be the relief pitcher for the weekends. I believe he can go long relief and get from the starter to Matty if one of the starters has a bad performance.
Kevin Berry #33- Like Alsup’s outing I don’t remember anything spectacular about his performance. Looked to have good location and could start mid-week games or help out in relief on the weekends. Experienced and could take one of the starting spots on the weekend.
Daniel Bradshaw #24- Same player that I saw last year. Did not impress me very much, but when he has a good day he can get us through the tough innings. Probably another reliever or mid-week starter.
Samuel Peterson #9- Has a very flat fastball and got peppered around. One of his innings got stopped by CPM because he was getting crushed. Could come in and eat up some innings in the mid-week games against the weaker opponents.

The position players on the purple team were the starters on Saturday. The order I had them in was the order that they batted. The game was nearly two days ago so I do not remember it perfectly, but it is pretty close.
Purple Team:
Trey Watkins #3(LF): Looks to have healed completely. Same player we had last year at the beginning of the year. Needs to get on top of the ball more. I noticed in his BP sessions that he gets under that ball a little too much for a leadoff hitter. Overall, he is a good leadoff hitter but can improve by squaring up the ball more. Hit two triples in the two games I was there.
Tyler Hanover #11(3rd base): He is hitting the ball very well to both side of the field. He has improved tremendously since last year. He made a diving backhand at third base and then threw the runner out. It was by far the best play of the two games.
Austin Nola #36 (SS): Same story here. Didn’t do anything spectacular, but he did hit the ball well.
Mikie Mahtook #8 (CF): Hitting better than last year. Hit a few out in BP and not letting his head mess with his swing like he did last year. The most consistent power hitter on the team.
Jordy Snikeris #6 (C): Very impressed with Jordy. Did an amazing job behind the plate. I saw somewhere else that Tyler Ross was supposed to start, but from what I saw Jordy would fit our teams style of play better. He hit one out deep to left by the foul pole. Again, very impressed all around with his play behind the plate and at the plate.
Raph Rhymes #4 (2b): The Juco Player of the Year impressed me during his BP session. He hit a few out in the BP session. Also makes good contact on nearly everything he hits. Not going to strike out much. Will really make the pitcher work for an out. Crisp plays at the 2b position.
Mason Katz #5 (RF): Didn’t do anything that surprised me. Pretty much the same player as last year. May hit a little better but could be subbed out for Eades to play since he can switch hit.
Alex Edward #13 (1b): Had a few good hits to the opposite field. Could be subbed out for Didier or Dozar late in the game for a right-handed pitcher. Not sure where he was actually in the lineup at. May have been in the 5 hole, I can’t remember.
Notable Gold Players (second string):
Spencer Ware #2 (CF): A lot of potential here, but his mechanics are not up to par with the other LSU players. He generates a lot of power with his swing, but it is not what he could create with a proper swing. His swing is very long. Of course he has speed, but needs to work on his routes to the ball. Still half a month until baseball season starts and could end up taking the RF position if Katz falls into a slump.
Grant Dozar #7 (UTIL): Could sub in some at 1st or third base just like Didier. Needs to work on being more consistent at the plate as well as generating more power with his swing.
JaCoby Jones #23 (3rd base): I remember all the hype surrounding this guy. Honestly I did not see anything that impressed me in either game or the BPs. He has potential but I guess he still has to transfer his skills from the high school game to college game. Seemed to have that high school cockiness to him which may be limiting him to improving his game. A few games on the bench may humble him.
Jamie Bruno #46 (INF/OF): Wow, this guy has some power. Reminds me of a mix between Clark and Dean. Has some real pop in his bat. Too bad he can’t play this year. He hit three home runs in a row during BP. Friend told me he hit one over the Intimidator with the new bats. He hit one of those three in a row half way up the bleachers. The next one after those three was a line-drive up the middle and then he hit another hr.
Overall, we have great team speed. I think our lineup is very top heavy this year, but could polish out to be a very good offense. We should steal a few more bags this year, but we could hit a lot of doubles and triples this year. The bats made a slight difference in the line-drive home runs but the ones that our home run shots will still go out. Our pitching is going to be very good this year. Alsup, Eades, Jones, and Gausman are all guys that can be an ace. Ott is going to close good again this year and will be a deciding factor in games. Rumbelow is going to be a good reliever and so will Eades. If any of the starters get hurt I do not believe we will miss a beat by having Eades go to a starter role.