re: Player SEC stats through four weeks

This team is special. Seems we have as capable a 1-9 lineup we’ve ever had and of our top 5 pitchers surely you could put those combined stats right up there with any other team’s top 5 in the country.

I have faith our bullpen will shape up in time for postseason too. Between Benge, Noot, Ware, Rizy, Schmidt possibly Guidry by the time May rolls around we should be able to count on a few of these guys.

The swing and miss is definitely his biggest struggle, but he's improving fast. One at bat on Saturday, he whiffed at a breaking ball that bounced 4 ft in front of the plate and then barreled a ball up with 2 strikes on the next pitch. I've been very impressed with his defense. He did give up a run this weekend by letting a ball get through on a not so tough pitch to block, but what was considered a concern at the beginning of the season (defense behind the plate) hasn't been much of a problem at all

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Poor burreaux let's see what he bitches about today.

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Hopefully he is out of minutes and can’t get a ride to the dollar general to buy more.

browns ceiling is higher than Pearsons and hes one of the fastest players on the team and plus arm. But his production hasnt dwarfed JP at this point. Both should get at bats.

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My only beef is that it’s limiting the development that a guy like Larson needs. Pearson won’t be back and we have seen what he is over 3.5 years. Hopefully Larson will be back but so far he is missing a season full of at bats. That doesn’t help us.

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Putting Larson into lineups right now because it seemingly will help our future rosters is not the right move. The 2nd team position players and pitcher that don't get run have weekly intrasquads, so I guarantee you Larson is getting a lot of work and if Jay sees a breakthrough he will act on it. For the time being, Larson gets a pinch hit AB in midweeks and strikes out on 3-4 pitches. That is not going to lead to a weekend start, he simply needs to start having better ABs. I have no doubt if Larson sticks around that he can be an opening day starter in 2026 either, everyone just has a different path to playing time.

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- Stanfield haters are punching air right now


Yep. Leads the team in doubles by doubling the next hitter.

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Leads the SEC in doubles at that, in conference play

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I agree. He did have a couple of passed balls this weekend and one of them did cost us a run. I think the thing that goes overlooked the most is that his good framing has stolen us much more called strikes than his mistakes have cost us overall. It is something that isn't quantified in a stat sheet and he definitely can bring it to the table .

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The way he has transitioned from 1B back to C and his bat has been one of the best in SEC play is remarkable. Compare his performance to a Travinski from last year:

Trav went from C to full time DH and hit 5 2B and 7 HR in SEC play. Hit 4th-5th.
Hernandez went from 1B to full time C and has 4 2B and 4 HR in SEC play, 40% of the way through. Hits 7th.

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Putting Larson into lineups right now because it seemingly will help our future rosters is not the right move. The 2nd team position players and pitcher that don't get run have weekly intrasquads, so I guarantee you Larson is getting a lot of work and if Jay sees a breakthrough he will act on it. For the time being, Larson gets a pinch hit AB in midweeks and strikes out on 3-4 pitches. That is not going to lead to a weekend start, he simply needs to start having better ABs. I have no doubt if Larson sticks around that he can be an opening day starter in 2026 either, everyone just has a different path to playing time.

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Yeah for Larson to even think about seeing weekend reps right now, he has to deliver in the mid-week to give Jay reason to do it probably at this point. With Frey having struggled in 2 of the last 3 SEC weekends now, I dont know that Jay will bench him mid-week to give Larson the opportunity much there. Larson got 1 plate appearance the last 2 mid-week games as Frey was doing really well there. So if Larson continues to only get 1 maybe 2 plate appearances mid-week he needs to make the most of them to really get weekend consideration. Unfortunately in his limited opportunities hes shown nothing over the last month+ to suggest he should be in the lineup.

All these run rule mid week games we've been having has really hurt opportunties for guys like Larson and some pen guys frankly. I get why we we have the rule but I dont like it much for reasons like this. If we're constantly run ruling a game or two a week, it's just taking away innings from back end of bullpen and some guys on the bench who otherwise would play 1-2 innings at the end of games and get chances.

It's still not too far gone in the season we couldnt see some significant changes and I hate to speculate with this much time out but to me its trending more and more like Larson could be a portal casualty this offseason as he might not want to risk losing yet another year here on the bench more than playing. Stanfield and Pearson will be leaving the outfield but if we're being honest I dont think Jay sees him as maybe the worst or 2nd worst defensive outfielder on this team so his bat needs to be smoking hot to really see more permanent playing time.

I would have lost a lot of money if early in this season someone would have bet me that Bear would only have 3 walks through the first 4 SEC series

Let's also be honest about a couple freshmen here, who had Casan Evans as the stud pitcher of the class coming into this season over Schmidt? Evans wasnt even looking like the stud he is after fall ball or spring scrimmages. Dude just kind of shined once the lights finally came on and real games started.

I'll be honest, the guys who come in really hoping to be 2 way players I generally write off a bit to some degree thinking they wont have an impact early because they try to do too much to start out. He gave up hitting pretty quick to focus on pitching and its paying dividends now.