re: Props to Pearson, but let's not forget

Did Neal, who you admit is a catcher 99% of the time, get starts in RF earlier in the season while Jay Johnson was trying to find someone to take the RF spot?

Your original comment was telling me to look at the fall stats. Which I did and Neal “the sophomore” preformed worse than a true freshman at the plate in the fall. If you want to say that Neal preformed better in the Spring than Larson that is fair, but then Larson also preformed better than Brown in the spring so there is that.

My whole argument wasn’t that Larson should have been given first crack over brown. I don’t even think it was unreasonable to give Pearson a shot over Larson. I was simply curious why 4 other guys, one being a full time catcher and one of the worst hitters in the sec last year, got looks in RF before Larson.

And when you look at it even further, Larson had the 2nd lowest K rate in the spring at 7%. He improved from 35% in the fall. Everyone else that got chances before him were from 23% to 30%. When the team struggles to move runners and even have productive outs, I think it’s fair to question these things. His overall stats in the spring might not have been great but he wasn’t striking out either. I’m not sure what goes into determining if a guy is ready or not, but it feels like not striking out is a decent indicator.