Opponent Preview: Cincinnati Bearcats

Quick Look - University of Cincinnati

The Bearcats are coming into 2016 looking for a fresh start. To say they are willing to put last season behind them is an understatement. They’ve not seen much recent success and haven’t had a winning season since 2011. Their head Coach Ty Neal is optimistic about the future of the program, however if you read between the lines of coach speak you get the sense that Cincinnati might be in for another uphill battle this season. You can catch his preseason interview HERE.

One thing the team is counting on is the progression of their young players. Cincinnati fielded one of the youngest teams in the country last season and is hoping a year of experience can go a long, like really long, way in terms of player development and producing wins. Simply put, the players need to be better; a lot better if they are to improve from a year ago.


Thing to Know:

The Bearcats lose their best player from last year, Ian Happ. Happ is arguably the best player in program history and batted .369 with 14 homeruns and 44 runs batted in. The next best batting average on the team was R.J. Thompson at .274. Yikes!

2015 Team BA: .235
2015 Team BA without Happ: .220



Top returning position players:

OF R.J. Thompson – Jr. (.274 BA, 25 RBI)
C Woody Wallace – Sr. (.269 BA, 15 RBI)
OF Treg Haberkorn – So. (.245 BA, 25 RBI)

Like I said before, those young Bearcats need be a lot better this year if they want to win some games. One positive is … On second thought, let’s hope these kids are at least saying their prayers every night and find the kind of supernatural inspiration they’ll need to be competitive in the American Athletic Conference this season.



Top returning pitchers:

RHP Andrew Zellner – Jr. ( 3.63 ERA, 69.1 IP, 57 SO)
RHP Jarod Yoakam – So. (5.27 ERA, 42.2 IP, 17 SO)
LHP Dalton Lehnen – So. (5.56 ERA, 68 IP, 49 SO)

The pitching situation doesn’t inspire much confidence either outside of Friday starter Andrew Zellner. Zellner was their best pitcher last year and will be the Friday night guy for them. Their coach seems pretty high on lefty reliever Colton Cleary as a solid bullpen guy, and they do return a thirteen game starter in Dalton Lehnen. Look for righty Jarod Yoakam to be their “back end bullpen guy.” Last year the Cincy pitching staff amassed an even 6.00 ERA and had a batting average against of .284. Those numbers are just not very good. As a staff they earned a strikeout about once every 2 innings and walked almost as many. I don’t believe the starters for the upcoming series have been announced, I’ll update if it becomes available.


SUMMARY:

Good: They return 7 position starters
Bad: None of them were very good and they lost the one guy worth a dam

Good: They return a decent upperclassman pitcher to be a Friday night guy
Bad: He’s middle of the road and is still their best arm on staff

Good: They get a fresh start and can forget about last yer
Bad: This season is likely to be a lot like last year

So needless to say, these guys just were not very good last year. I’d look more into the incoming freshman that might help this team but Coach Neal seems to think they’ll just be role players and provide some depth. Again, not really inspiring too much confidence.

Update: a poster below has pointed out that D1 baseball does have them with at least one impact freshman and a couple sophomores with potential. I don't have the premium subscription but if someone would like to add names I'll place them here as well.


Closing Thoughts:

Don’t expect the Bearcats to earn their first winning record since 2011. It’ll probably be a small miracle if they lose less than 30 games this year. This is a completely outmatched team coming into the Box albeit against a very unproven Tiger squad. It might be the exact thing Maineri would like in order to get some much needed experience for his team. However, this series should NOT be used as a measuring stick to prognosticate the potential of this 2016 Tiger team.

The Cincinnati rallying cry is #TheBearcatsAreComing and make no mistake, their baseball team and clown coach will be here this weekend. Coach Neal thinks we’ll be in for a real “cat fight.” Here’s to guessing they’ll actually be more pumped to be on vacation and playing in great weather rather than sitting opposite Alex Lange and the LSU tigers. This is one of those series that is typical of an early season LSU schedule; a really bad team from the north that the tigers should beat blindfolded while sleeping in their own beds at night. It’s likely a series the national media will add to the list of “things that only LSU does do inflate their statistics and lower their strength of schedule.”

Anyway, I’m ready for the season. We could be playing Catholic high and I’d still be pumped up for this one. Geaux Tigers and beat that bearcat arse!