re: Neal for DH?

I think something that gets lost in the shuffle is how inexperienced Neal is when it comes to plate appearances. He has just hit the point where he has more plate appearances than Milazzo did his freshman season. And I’m talking strictly SEC. Their averages are nearly identical, as well as strikeouts. Neal has just a tick higher OBP but that’s basically where the similarities end. To this point Neal has 4 career HRs in SEC games to Milazzos 0. And the RBIs are 9 to 1 in favor of Neal.

With that said Milazzo has improved every year in the sec and should be our primary catcher going forward. Neal has a higher ceiling, but he is just going to need reps. Same goes for Kling. Getting Neal some at bats in SEC games is going to be crucial to his development. There aren’t going to be a ton of SEC experienced catchers available in the portal, and as we saw with Mac Bingham and Tyler McManus, success in other conferences doesn’t always carry over to the SEC.