re: Into the wild (N2daWild) wild baseball predictions

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suspect whatever assurances he gave to Berry last year he also gave to White this year.

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Not exactly the same situation. He isn’t immediately draft eligible and if he hits like he has, being a power hitting 1B (the position he played the most last year) does nothing to hurt his profile.

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There is 1 scenario Morgan moves to the OF and that’s to get Beloso at 1st if he’s absolutely mashing in the fall and spring scrimmages.

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Dude….

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What would have been the reasoning for making either of those moves last year? Was there another 1B/DH type that needed to be in the lineup, but wasn’t? Was there not a spot in the lineup to fit Dugas in? Was Dugas a better second baseman than Doughty?

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The reasoning last year would have been the same as it is this year. It would move Berry/White off 3B to “hide” them at 1B instead. Last year it would have resulted in Doughty at 3B and Dugas at 2B. This year it would be Thompson at 3B and Dugas at 2B (if Young had stayed or if Guidry earns his way into the lineup). I agree it’s a moot point for now this year unless/until Guidry earns a starting spot. Where the disagreement comes in is in who Johnson would move if that does happen. I think he’ll use multiple lineups, but I think he’ll use Dugas in the OF and White at 3B more than he uses Morgan in the OF and White at 1B.

Sammy, what do you do if white sucks at 3B and you have to put Skenes & White in the lineup at the same time?

Skenes at catcher isn't really an option. It's a last resort if you can't find 1 out of the other 5 you have, or you run into an in-game situation that it requires. I've warmed up to the idea that he really doesn't need to catch - we have options to maximize the lineup without him there. If he catches much, it's because ALL of those options blew up.

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First Either Skenes or Neal would hve to play catcher in that scenario.

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What if Skenes is scheduled to pitch surrounding then?

You see there are more scenarios than cade Beloso

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Every move he made last year revolved around Berry being in the field in order to fulfill a promise and to boost draft stock.

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At 1st, for sure. But once Pearson hit his way into the everyday lineup and Jobert emerged as the power bat DH, Berry at 3rd was the only way to get all 3 of those in the lineup.

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It ended up being a complete failure.

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I disagree. Berry was pretty dependable at 3rd by the end of the year. He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t a liability trying to hide. And again, it allowed for the best offensive lineup. Doughty at 3rd would have forced Safford or Merrifield into the lineup at 2nd. And we know Merrifield can play 2nd, but there was obviously something about his offensive game Jay didn’t like as he basically disappeared after the 1st month of the season. But the biggest success of playing Berry at 3rd was Jay honoring his promise to him to help him get drafted, because I think that helped him land White.

Jay’s primary plan with White was to just get him on campus so he could slide in behind Crews in the order and allow him to try to win the Golden Spikes award next year. And to do so—cause wasn’t Florida State the favorite?—he likely had to promise White the 1st opportunity to win the job at 3rd. And he could point to Berry to show him how successful that was with him.

The difference is, Berry was only going to be here for 1 year, while White will be here for 2. If he turns out to be a liability in the field, he’ll stick him at DH and let him continue to work and at least play 1B his draft year in ‘24 after Morgan leaves. But White could wind up being able to handle 3rd. He has a terrible baseball body, especially for an IF, but with LSU’s S&C program combined with the nutrition center, there’s plenty of time to reshape his body before February to where he’s got a lot more lateral movement than he did this year.

Our lineup was best with Berry at 3B. Jay tried to hide him in RF and I really thought he was going to catch one in the mouth out there. Our lineup could've been better without Berry at 3B, but we didn't have an option better than the sum of the parts otherwise (especially as the season unfolded). Berry's draft stock was not reliant on defense at all. And I think the same will be true with White. Mostly 1B/DH, playing poor defense, or playing good defense will not move the needle much. Probably need to have something, some innings here or there, on tape but it otherwise won't matter much.

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But not having Berry in the field could have improved the defense by 20-25% between runs saved & errors, In my opinion.

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Not sure where you’re getting those numbers, but I’ll concede them. But that takes Jobert’s bat out of the lineup. And despite his slumps, he still was 2nd on the team in home runs with 19(?) and didn’t he lead the team in RBI?

But Jay’s not just playing for 1 season and probably knew we didn’t have the pitching to make a legit run at the NC. So would having Berry at DH—and I was the main one screaming from the rooftops at the 1st of the season to move him there, there was nowhere to hide him in the field he was so terrible—been worth maybe not being able to get White this year? There’s zero doubt he pointed to what he did with Berry as a selling point to get White here. And will be when he tries to get a portal bat next year. And hopefully he can point to both Berry and White when he’s going after a guy for the ‘25 season, etc…