2018 Draft & 2019 Team

[GTJon]

It looks like we are going to make it through the draft unscathed. It's a huge boost to get both Bartnicki and Simmons on campus as they will be impact players right away.

This is how I see the team next year, right now:
1st base will be McCann/ English/ Serratos
2nd base will be Waddell
Shortstop will be Wilhite
3rd base will be Simmons/ Serratos
Catcher will be McCann/ Turley
RF will be Colin Hall
CF will be Guldberg, Carter Hall
LF will be Murray
DH will be English/ Serratos/ Radcliffe/ Miller
The wild card for the offense is Carter Hall because if he is healthy, he makes a huge difference in the lineup with his speed. Does anybody know if he will try to come back next year or has he given up baseball?

The Pitching staff is a huge mystery other than a few guys.
I believe the rotation will be the same as last year (Curry, Thomas, English, and Hurter) with Bartnicki being the fifth option here.

There are 3 tiers in the pen imo. Tier 1 is guys that I trust to come in and get us a win in any situation, tier 2 is guys that should pitch and are capable of getting us a save, but won't necessarily be shutdown pitchers. Tier 3 guys should only be used in blowouts.
Tier 1 in the pen is Archer, Carpenter, Shirah, and whoever doesn't make the rotation (probably Bartnicki)
Tier 2 is probably Winborne (righty specialist), Mannelly (lefty specialist), Brace, Lee, Serratos, Chapman, Olson, Combs.
Tier 3 is any of the other freshmen pitchers, Gibson, and Gooden.
The wild card for the pitching staff is Hughes because he could fall into any tier, but hopefully he will get back on track and become a go to guy out of the pen.

I would be in favor of just letting Turley develop as the main catcher and leave McCann at 1st as much as possible. Simmons going in the 6th round could throw a wrench into him getting here. If he's here, I'd think you'd sort out between him, Serratos, Wilhite, and Waddell for 2B, SS, and 3B. If he's not here, then there are your 3 starters on the infield with McCann. From what I read, I would suspect an outfield of Murray, Hall, and Miller with Guldberg, Radcliff, and Wilhite providing depth.

 

[augustabuzz]

I would be in favor of just letting Turley develop as the main catcher and leave McCann at 1st as much as possible. Simmons going in the 6th round could throw a wrench into him getting here. If he's here, I'd think you'd sort out between him, Serratos, Wilhite, and Waddell for 2B, SS, and 3B. If he's not here, then there are your 3 starters on the infield with McCann. From what I read, I would suspect an outfield of Murray, Hall, and Miller with Guldberg, Radcliff, and Wilhite providing depth.

Any thought given to Radcliff at 1st?

 

[THWG]

I would be in favor of just letting Turley develop as the main catcher and leave McCann at 1st as much as possible. Simmons going in the 6th round could throw a wrench into him getting here. If he's here, I'd think you'd sort out between him, Serratos, Wilhite, and Waddell for 2B, SS, and 3B. If he's not here, then there are your 3 starters on the infield with McCann. From what I read, I would suspect an outfield of Murray, Hall, and Miller with Guldberg, Radcliff, and Wilhite providing depth.

I would definitely like Miller in right with Hall in CF. Also, if Simmons does come here, then I wouldn't be surprised if we tried Serratos in the OF. I said this in another thread, but Turley is going to be a very good catcher for us and I think that he could be better defensively than Bart (if he develops). The only reason that he didn't get a lot of time this year was because of Bart and McCann.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Simmons drafted by the Phillies in round 6

My (uniformed and no inside information) is that Simmons is gone. These draft picks aren't made in a vacuum. The MLB teams talk with the players and find out what it will take. So a 6th round pick isn't a throw away.

OTOH, Bartnicki is safe. Maybe because his performance has fallen off and he is more of a risk. Let's hope he says f you, and is a first rounder his Jr year. After being ACC Player of the Year.

 

[THWG]

My (uniformed and no inside information) is that Simmons is gone. These draft picks aren't made in a vacuum. The MLB teams talk with the players and find out what it will take. So a 6th round pick isn't a throw away.

OTOH, Bartnicki is safe. Maybe because his performance has fallen off and he is more of a risk. Let's hope he says f you, and is a first rounder his Jr year. After being ACC Player of the Year.

I would still love to get both, but I'll take a talented pitcher over a talented position player any day of the week (especially when we already have 3 starting infielders returning ).

 

[Rammy]

Big picture- given our remaining players and potential incoming class; how does next year look? Better than this past season? Just curious.

 

[THWG]

Big picture- given our remaining players and potential incoming class; how does next year look? Better than this past season? Just curious.

A lot better. Mainly because our entire pitching staff and 7 of 9 starters return. We should be a better and very experienced team.

 

[ball4life66]

 

[MWBATL]

A lot better. Mainly because our entire pitching staff and 7 of 9 starters return. We should be a better and very experienced team.

I appreciate the optimism, but am less certain. In another thread I did some analysis on the pitching, and most guys didn't improve year over year (with some notable exceptions). I have not looked at the hitting, but the pitching improvement isn't assured of bing at a level to make us highly competitive next year. Better.....? Yes, I think so. But NCAA material? Not so sure myself. We went from a 5.36 ERA to a 4.95 ERA even with adding English to the staff and getting huge improvement from Connor Thomas.....so even if we improve again ..it might only be to around a 4.60 ERA. UGa had a 3.97 ERA this year, while Duke had a 3.91 ERA. That's the range we need to reach to be really relevant again.

 

[THWG]

Reese Olson got drafted in the 13th round.

 

[ball4life66]

Reese Olson got drafted in the 13th round.

 

[THWG]

I don't think that he'll sign, but good for him and I expect him to perform well next year and bolster the pen.

 

[ball4life66]

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Listening to the video, sounds like he is undecided. ...... Probably go pro......?

 

[OldJacketFan]

Wade Bailey drafted by the LA Angels

 

[65Jacket]

Congrats to Wade, a great kid from a great family.

 

[65Jacket]

When I ran track, we had several guys who practiced every day and never got into a meet. I admired their spirit and they were friends. I think the same can be said of about half a dozen of our pitchers. They go to practice and hang out in the club house, but never contribute in a sizable way.

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

My (uniformed and no inside information) is that Simmons is gone. These draft picks aren't made in a vacuum. The MLB teams talk with the players and find out what it will take. So a 6th round pick isn't a throw away.

OTOH, Bartnicki is safe. Maybe because his performance has fallen off and he is more of a risk. Let's hope he says f you, and is a first rounder his Jr year. After being ACC Player of the Year.

From what I have read, I would agree that Simmons is gone and Bartnicki will be on campus. Saw a slightly different video about Simmons on Tech Baseball's twitter page where he talks about Jimmy Rollins inspiring him to become a shortstop and imagining himself in a Phillies uniform as a dream come true (I apologize for my inability to properly post links, but it is on GT Baseball twitter...) :

Add that to the fact that top 10 picks for MLB teams are critical for them - if they don't sign a player, my understanding is that they lose that slot money for signing everyone else in the top 10, or any other player in the draft that they give more than $125K to - makes it even more likely that Philly expects to be able to sign him.

As for Bartnicki, I believe I read that teams were hesitant to pick him high because of what they thought it would take to sign him away from Tech, even though I don't recall the source. And beesball.com has an entry in their tweets feed that Luke indicated yesterday that he plans to enroll at Tech.

No clue on Reese Olson's plans though.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Here's Beesball's summary of the draft results. http://beesball.com/draft2018.html

Brandt Stallings got drafted too. Good for him!

I think Olson is a toss-up. He had to have given indications of wanting to be drafted or he wouldn't have been drafted 13th. It may come down to the size of the signing bonus. Signing deadline July 8th at 5PM EST.

 

[RoosterJacket]

Here's Beesball's summary of the draft results. http://beesball.com/draft2018.html

Brandt Stallings got drafted too. Good for him!

I think Olson is a toss-up. He had to have given indications of wanting to be drafted or he wouldn't have been drafted 13th. It may come down to the size of the signing bonus. Signing deadline July 8th at 5PM EST.

If Olson looks at the other thread about whether our pitchers get better or not, he should sign and begin his professional career.