tylerdurden24

Finally opening weekend! Weather appears to be solid for mid February, Friday and Saturday in particular showing highs of 61 degrees and minimal precipitation. Sunday may end up pretty wet so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a doubleheader Saturday as a result.

I’d anticipate Volchko and Scott to be two of our initial starters on the mound, could see Aoki, Vigue, or Ishikawa in the 3rd starter role.

Facing a good Wright State program out of the gate. They went 40-21 last year, winning the Horizon League and bouncing Vandy from the Nashville regional before ultimately falling to Louisville in the Regional finals. All to say they won’t be intimidated by us in our own park.

There have been a number of them, yes, but likely not any more until the first game this Friday. I made it out to a few fall ball scrimmages and a spring scrimmage and there’s just a lot to like about how deep this squad is. To steal a line from Dasher, you likely won’t the see the same starting lineup twice in lead up to SEC play. Just so many guys who can play a lot of positions and who are proven hitters. Lot of guys who can stripe line drive singles and that has been a point of emphasis after last year; can’t get stuck swinging for the parking lot against good pitching in league and postseason play. Big question for Wes is how he manages all the pieces and if he can wring all of the potential out of the arms this year - anticipating that we will likely run into a key injury at some point.

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Honestly, what was the last PLE that delivered?

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Last years elimination chamber with the Cena heel turn. But then it was followed by one of the weakest WMs (and WM builds) in recent history and an absolutely HORRIBLE Cena storyline that quite frankly ruined his retirement tour. So it was a very short lived delivery. Prior to that? WM XL was the last “oh shite” PLE that garnered worthwhile buzz and actually set the table for future programming with some follow through

Tom Crean was a terrible coach.

Mike White is just a better version of Mark Fox.

9/5 - Tennessee State W
9/12 - WKU W
9/19 - @Arkansas W
9/26 - Oklahoma L
10/3 - Vandy W
10/10 - @Bama W
10/17 - Auburn W
10/24 - BYE
10/31 - Florida (Atlanta) L
11/7 - @ Ole Miss W
11/14 - Mizzou W
11/21 - @ Carolina L
11/28 - Tech W

9-3. Bobo retires with his son graduated and Kirby is finally forced to recognize that the program needs to evolve, finally makes some needed changes on the coaching staff and in his schematic philosophies.

frick yeah Smurf

Our inability to hit a timely 3 in Thai game is fricking maddening. Wide open looks and just hitting iron every time

First half summary:
1) Refs ain’t calling shite
2) neither team can hit a field goal

Dawgs lead by 3 at half

Baseball America puts the Dawgs at #6 preseason. Keeps with their theme year over year of really liking and believing in what Wes does.

And they beat UGA so throughly that year that it finally convinced us to fire Richt and hire Kirby after 15 years.

Beats the Crean years when there was no point in tuning in. But this is why I don’t get emotionally invested in this squad; no reason to believe they’ll ever be anything more than fodder for an actual good basketball team making a run through the tourney. Maybe White is basketballs Richt and the next guy down the line will be able to capitalize and advance on a program that is at least back to stable and mostly competitive.

Dawgs open up at #15 in the D1Baseball preseason rankings

Season is about a month away so I figured I'd get this thing started back up.

Another bizarre schedule but can't argue the results as we've been a national seed the past 2 years.

No Clemson, no Mercer, no Ga Southern. Only 1 game against Tech in Truist (though still likely not going to have TV coverage).

We only play 4 road games before April (only 16 true road games total all year). Wes making it a point to play and win inside our own park.

Conference schedule is once again a murderers row. We avoid Texas and Vandy on the schedule but catch every other preseason ranked SEC squad (LSU, Tennessee, Arkansas, MSU, Auburn, & Florida) plus Ole Miss and A&M which will ikely end up ranked at some point (South Carolina and Mizzou are the only two that may reliably suck).

The team is once again full of a lot of new faces. Branch, Phelps, and Jackson all return which is a big deal but, otherwise, we've got a fresh group of portal names to learn - albeit some good ones:
1. Kenny Ishikawa will likely be our leadoff man and could be a midweek starter or bullpen arm, depending on how Wes wants to use him
2. Phelps likely going to be the 2 or 4 hole, depending on matchups
3. Branch may be a solid 3 or 5. 3rd year in the SEC and his final year in college, I expect him to mash
4. Bryce Calloway is already garnering some preseason all-american buzz, start at 1B and can pitch righty as well
5. Jackson could honestly bat anywhere from the 2-5 spot, he knocked the cover off the ball in cape cod and looked friggin great in Fall ball. He'll play C and OF
6. Jack Arcamone is likely going to end up an outfield starter, platooning with Jackson at C. Experienced bat with rare speed on the bases for a Catcher
7-9. Could see a mix of guys in these spots, especially early on: Ryan Black, Ryan Wynn, TL Saxon, Jordy Oriach, Scott Newman, Cole Johnson, Brennan Hudson, Cole Koniarsky, Michael O'Shaugnessy. Lot of options.

Around the horn, I'd guess:

Catcher: Jackson, Arcamone, Hudson
1B: Calloway, Oriach, Hudson
2B: Black, Wynn
SS: Branch, Lujo
3B: Phelps, O'Shaugnessy
LF: Arcamone, Johnson
CF: Ishikawa, Newman
RF: Koniarsky, Johnson
DH: Oriach, Hudson

Pitching will be almost completely new. In addition to Ishikawa, odds on starters are likely to be Joey Volchko and Matt Scott from Stanford, Caden Aoki from USC, maybe Justin Byrd from last year (though he could also be our primary middle relief arm). Would wager Jordan Stephens is our closer, assuming he has his control issues from last year in check. All in all, should be a bit of a front end upgrade at least in experience and stuff. Too, we have a bit better split between Lefty/Right arms - 6 Lefties to 17 Righties. Last year we went a while with only 1 available lefty in Alton Davis after Goldstein went down.

Hard to gauge what this team will ultimately do at this point but fair to set expectations around a host spot again and modify as we gather information. From fall ball, the offensive makeup at least seems to be a lot more reliant on putting balls in play and good base running than just mashing and hoping to out gorilla the other team (and our arms).

Fine I’ll watch Delirious again

We’re toast. Thanks Somto, fricking idiot