Wondering if folks have thoughts on how we project for next season. Here's my sense of how things look, based on my relatively modest understanding of the roster:
-hitting: we lose three big bats in Brueser, Tawa and Robinson. However, with everyone else seemingly returning, my assumption is that we should still be one of the better hitting teams in the conference.
-defense: considering we return our catcher, third baseman and shortstop, I'm feeling pretty good. Brueser is a loss at first so hopefully his replacement is a sold defensive player. As for second, Troy should take over for Tawa - I have no idea how he is defensively.
-pitching: here's the big question mark in my mind. Beck leaving is a major loss and Grech (and likely Palisch) hurt too, especially Grech. The big variable here is Williams. If he returns, we have a good Friday night starter to build around. If not, then our starting pitching could really be in trouble. Seems to me that the success of the 2022 season will largely by determined by how much this past year's freshmen pitching class (e.g. O'Rourke, Pancer, Dixon, Dowd et al) improve in the off-season. I do see we bring in at least one freshman pitcher, Nick Dugan, who looks extremely highly rated (assuming he doesn't enter his name into the MLB draft), so maybe he can help.
Another question mark for me is the mystery wrapped in an enigma known as Vincent Martinez. I assume something happened behind the scenes that dissuaded Esquer from using him after a certain point. I don't think a simple slump explains it. Man, could we use his bat back.
All that said, one of the announcers said during the CWS that Esquer thinks the team may actually be better next season, which has to count for something.
Thoughts?
-hitting: we lose three big bats in Brueser, Tawa and Robinson. However, with everyone else seemingly returning, my assumption is that we should still be one of the better hitting teams in the conference.
-defense: considering we return our catcher, third baseman and shortstop, I'm feeling pretty good. Brueser is a loss at first so hopefully his replacement is a sold defensive player. As for second, Troy should take over for Tawa - I have no idea how he is defensively.
-pitching: here's the big question mark in my mind. Beck leaving is a major loss and Grech (and likely Palisch) hurt too, especially Grech. The big variable here is Williams. If he returns, we have a good Friday night starter to build around. If not, then our starting pitching could really be in trouble. Seems to me that the success of the 2022 season will largely by determined by how much this past year's freshmen pitching class (e.g. O'Rourke, Pancer, Dixon, Dowd et al) improve in the off-season. I do see we bring in at least one freshman pitcher, Nick Dugan, who looks extremely highly rated (assuming he doesn't enter his name into the MLB draft), so maybe he can help.
Another question mark for me is the mystery wrapped in an enigma known as Vincent Martinez. I assume something happened behind the scenes that dissuaded Esquer from using him after a certain point. I don't think a simple slump explains it. Man, could we use his bat back.
All that said, one of the announcers said during the CWS that Esquer thinks the team may actually be better next season, which has to count for something.
Thoughts?
