re: 2017: who signs / transfers / released

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LF: Breaux (We've had freshman look much worse at the plate and become .300 hitters )
CF: Duplantis (Having lived in the weight room all offseason)
RF: Diechman
3B: Josh Smith
SS: Kramer
2B: Freeman
1B: No clue.... Beau Jordan? A freshman? Could see Lochridge, Wofford, and Dawson battling it out for this spot. At least one of the losers will transfer. I think Dawson will find his bat and play 1st. He's just too big and athletic to suck that much at the plate. That's my surprise pick, Dawson at 1st.
C: Papierski
DH: Ried

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I agree with most, but I think Ried stays at 3rd and Romero DH's. With a full season of AB's Romero could be a 15HR/60RBI type player.

Wofford, Lochridge, or Adams at 1st.

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Next year i hope/think the starting lineup will look like:

CF: Duplantis
RF: Diechman
SS: Kramer
2B: Freeman

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These for sure. Deichmann in RF is obvious. Hopefully they don't leave him at first. He's athletic, he seems to be able to catch a fly ball just fine, he can't field a ground ball to save his life, and he has to have a better arm than our other outfielders.

Catcher should be fine with either Papierski or Romero or some combination of the two.

Left field should be interesting between Beau and Breaux. I tend to lean more towards Breaux because I think he has a better glove, better contact, more speed, and the arms are probably a wash. The only thing Beau really has on him is pop but he didn't really display it consistently enough over an entire season to really justify playing over the guy who is better in every other area. In the end, they will probably split time about like Papierski and Romero will behind the plate.

3B, 1B, & DH are a complete crapshoot. There will be a half a dozen candidates for each of those positions. I just hope we can settle on some guys with some more pop in those spots. It's one thing to sacrifice hitting at C, SS, 2B, CF, and even LF maybe but you got to have power hitters in there somewhere. Even though we were pretty productive offensively this year overall, we didn't scare anybody except Deichmann on his 2 hot streaks and Romero on his 2 hot streaks. So basically we had 1 guy in the lineup who was scary at all times this season.

I also really hope to see a top of the order of Freeman, Duplantis, Robertson, then Deichmann. Freeman is way too good to be stuck in the 9 hole. He got like 40 less at bats than Duplantis, Fraley, and Robertson this year even though he was just as good of a hitter because of that.

I will go with...

1. Freeman 2B
2. Duplantis CF
3. Robertson SS
4. Deichmann RF
5. DH/1B/3B
6. DH/1B/3B
7. DH/1B/3B
8. Papierski C
9. Breaux LF