Auburn rolls in here at 18-5 and off the heels of a stunning home sweep against Florida. There were a couple of eye opening results around the SEC last weekend. I don’t know that it matters which was the bigger surprise between Kentucky’s sweep over Texas A&M and Auburn’s sweep of Florida. Needless to say, both were very loud statements.
Auburn is a good baseball team. They were a good team before they swept Florida. They’ve got another very formidable 1-2 punch on the mound and they’re coached very well. This is going to be a very difficult test this weekend.
Auburn opened the season by taking 3 of 4 from George Washington. They won a mid weeker against Florida A&M and then swept Holy Cross the next weekend. Following a mid week loss to Samford, Auburn took 2 of 3 from our friends at Lipscomb. After getting beaten soundly by South Alabama and then beating Kennesaw State in the midweek, Auburn kicked off their last non-conference by series the opener to Presbyterian. Auburn hasn’t lost since. They rebounded to beat the Blue Hose the next two days, shutout UAB and beat Jacksonville State in the midweek, then swept Florida. Most recently, Auburn went to Atlanta and beat tech on Tuesday night. The trip to tech was Auburn’s first road game of the year.
Friday night, we’ll see Keegan Thompson. This guy is a 4th year junior with a ton of ability. He’s similar to Wil Crowe at South Carolina in that he had a freshman All-American season in 2014 before getting injured in 2015. He missed last season recovering from Tommy John surgery and elected to return for a fourth season despite drawing some interest in the pro draft. Thompson is a righty from Cullman Alabama. His numbers are tremendous this year. He’s 4-0 in 5 appearances, all starts, with a 0.78 ERA. He’s thrown 34 2/3 innings to lead their staff and has 23 K’s and 7 BB’s. The opposition is only hitting .154 against him. Of the 18 hits he’s allowed on the year, 14 have gone for singles. We should see Thompson working in the low 90s and throwing a slider and curve. We can expect to see a lot of strikes and we should put some balls in play against him. Thompson was solid against Florida last week, going 6 1/3 innings and allowing 3 hits and 1 earned run. He collected 8 strike outs and issued two walks.
Saturday, we’ll face off with Casey Mize, lanky righty from Springville Alabama. Mize may be a better pro prospect (albeit for 2018) than Thompson. We should see some mid 90s offerings from him. Mize is a sophomore. His numbers have been great on the year. He’s 3-0 in 5 appearances, all starts, and has a 0.30 ERA. In 29 2/3 innings, he’s a pretty ridiculous 46/5 K/BB. Opponents are hitting only .193 against him. Last weekend, Mize went 7 innings against Florida, and gave up 5 hits, 0 earned runs, while striking out 8 and walking 1.
On Sunday, we’ll matchup with Davis Daniel. I’m skeptical of a guy who has a last name for a first and a first name for last. Daniel is a smallish freshman righty from Montgomery. His numbers aren’t as strong as Thompson or Mize. He has started every weekend for the Tigers and has a 1-0 record with a 5.75 ERA. In 20 1/3 innings (not a ton of work for 6 starts) he has 19 strike outs and 5 walks. Opponents are hitting .279 against him. Between the 24 hits he’s allowed, the 5 walks, and 3 hit batters, he’s been no stranger to pitching from the stretch. Last weekend did not go well for him. Mize was lifted after 2 1/3 innings having allowed 3 hits and 4 runs with 0 strikeouts, a walk, and a hit batter. Stricklin noted this morning that Daniel could have kept going, but Auburn had a lot of bullpen options available.
Offensively, Auburn is lead by Jonah Todd. We should see the left handed hitting CF hitting leadoff this weekend. Todd is a JUCO guy form Birmingport, AL by way of Marion Military College. On the year, he’s hitting .341/.431/.435 with 17 RBIs.
Braves fans may remember Josh Anthony. The JUCO from Columbus GA’s Hardaway High School, by way of Western Oklahoma, was drafted in the 16th round by the Braves last year. After verbally agreeing to a bonus amount, the Braves discovered that signing Anthony for that amount would put them in the penalty, causing Atlanta to withdraw its offer. So Anthony wound up at Auburn, and although they play different positions, I still wonder if this is part of the reason Tucker Bradley wound up here. Anthony is off to a decent start on year, hitting .294/.419/.353 with 14 RBIs. He’s draw 17 walks and K’d 11 times on the year. We should see him at 3B and hitting probably in the middle of their order.
Daniel Robert is a big left handed hitting senior 1B from Hoover Alabama. On the season, he’s at .326/.438/.500 with a team leading 2 HRs and a team leading 19 RBIs. He’s also 3-3 in stolen bases. We should see him hitting 3rd or cleanup.
Auburn’s hitting coach is Doug Sisson, who served in the same capacity under David Perno in 2006 and 2007. Perno had quite a few hitting coaches during his tenure and I thought that Sisson was easily the best. He’s an old school baseball lifer. I chuckled last night in reading their coaching bios, he’s the only member of their staff who doesn’t have a twitter handle. It’s hard to believe it’s been more than a decade now, but I remember the jumps that Joey Side, Josh Morris, Bobby Felmy, Jason Jacobs, and Jonathan Wyatt made under Sisson. It was Sisson in late fall 2005 who, I’ve heard, convinced Perno that Gordon Beckham should ditch switch hitting and only hit from the right side. It takes a guy with a lot of confidence and competence to do that a few months into the job with a budding superstar like Beckham.
Offensively, Auburn is about what you’d think under a pro like Sisson. Collectively, they’re hitting .304/.402/.418. They don’t hit a ton of home runs (7 on the season), but they’ve managed to draw 114 walks on the year, against 121 strikeouts. By way of comparison, our OBP is .350. Three times through the lineup, Auburn is going to get almost 11 guys on base. Three times through for us, that number is a bit over 9. Despite hitting a third as many HRs as we have, Auburn has scored 44 more runs than we have, playing in one more game than we have. Auburn has hit 20 more doubles and slugs at a higher percentage than us, so I don’t want to make it sound like they hit for zero power… they just don’t hit a lot of HRs. We can expect to see a disciplined approach by Auburn at the plate this weekend. They don’t run a ton, but have been successful they do, going 20-26 in steals on the year.
Auburn finished in 13th place in the league a year ago. They won’t finish there this year. I know there was a lot of negativity around Sonny Golloway, but he has a good coach and did know how to recruit. They went from that a guy like Butch Thompson, who I think everyone respects, Sisson, and another outstanding assistant in Brad Bohannan. If you give coaches like a talented roster and a full year, they’ll win. It was no secret that Butch Thompson was interested in our job when it came open in 2013. We obviously went a different direction and I don't believe that we ever interviewed Thompson. I'm sure that's not lost on him, either. It’s going to be a big challenge for us this weekend.
Auburn is a good baseball team. They were a good team before they swept Florida. They’ve got another very formidable 1-2 punch on the mound and they’re coached very well. This is going to be a very difficult test this weekend.
Auburn opened the season by taking 3 of 4 from George Washington. They won a mid weeker against Florida A&M and then swept Holy Cross the next weekend. Following a mid week loss to Samford, Auburn took 2 of 3 from our friends at Lipscomb. After getting beaten soundly by South Alabama and then beating Kennesaw State in the midweek, Auburn kicked off their last non-conference by series the opener to Presbyterian. Auburn hasn’t lost since. They rebounded to beat the Blue Hose the next two days, shutout UAB and beat Jacksonville State in the midweek, then swept Florida. Most recently, Auburn went to Atlanta and beat tech on Tuesday night. The trip to tech was Auburn’s first road game of the year.
Friday night, we’ll see Keegan Thompson. This guy is a 4th year junior with a ton of ability. He’s similar to Wil Crowe at South Carolina in that he had a freshman All-American season in 2014 before getting injured in 2015. He missed last season recovering from Tommy John surgery and elected to return for a fourth season despite drawing some interest in the pro draft. Thompson is a righty from Cullman Alabama. His numbers are tremendous this year. He’s 4-0 in 5 appearances, all starts, with a 0.78 ERA. He’s thrown 34 2/3 innings to lead their staff and has 23 K’s and 7 BB’s. The opposition is only hitting .154 against him. Of the 18 hits he’s allowed on the year, 14 have gone for singles. We should see Thompson working in the low 90s and throwing a slider and curve. We can expect to see a lot of strikes and we should put some balls in play against him. Thompson was solid against Florida last week, going 6 1/3 innings and allowing 3 hits and 1 earned run. He collected 8 strike outs and issued two walks.
Saturday, we’ll face off with Casey Mize, lanky righty from Springville Alabama. Mize may be a better pro prospect (albeit for 2018) than Thompson. We should see some mid 90s offerings from him. Mize is a sophomore. His numbers have been great on the year. He’s 3-0 in 5 appearances, all starts, and has a 0.30 ERA. In 29 2/3 innings, he’s a pretty ridiculous 46/5 K/BB. Opponents are hitting only .193 against him. Last weekend, Mize went 7 innings against Florida, and gave up 5 hits, 0 earned runs, while striking out 8 and walking 1.
On Sunday, we’ll matchup with Davis Daniel. I’m skeptical of a guy who has a last name for a first and a first name for last. Daniel is a smallish freshman righty from Montgomery. His numbers aren’t as strong as Thompson or Mize. He has started every weekend for the Tigers and has a 1-0 record with a 5.75 ERA. In 20 1/3 innings (not a ton of work for 6 starts) he has 19 strike outs and 5 walks. Opponents are hitting .279 against him. Between the 24 hits he’s allowed, the 5 walks, and 3 hit batters, he’s been no stranger to pitching from the stretch. Last weekend did not go well for him. Mize was lifted after 2 1/3 innings having allowed 3 hits and 4 runs with 0 strikeouts, a walk, and a hit batter. Stricklin noted this morning that Daniel could have kept going, but Auburn had a lot of bullpen options available.
Offensively, Auburn is lead by Jonah Todd. We should see the left handed hitting CF hitting leadoff this weekend. Todd is a JUCO guy form Birmingport, AL by way of Marion Military College. On the year, he’s hitting .341/.431/.435 with 17 RBIs.
Braves fans may remember Josh Anthony. The JUCO from Columbus GA’s Hardaway High School, by way of Western Oklahoma, was drafted in the 16th round by the Braves last year. After verbally agreeing to a bonus amount, the Braves discovered that signing Anthony for that amount would put them in the penalty, causing Atlanta to withdraw its offer. So Anthony wound up at Auburn, and although they play different positions, I still wonder if this is part of the reason Tucker Bradley wound up here. Anthony is off to a decent start on year, hitting .294/.419/.353 with 14 RBIs. He’s draw 17 walks and K’d 11 times on the year. We should see him at 3B and hitting probably in the middle of their order.
Daniel Robert is a big left handed hitting senior 1B from Hoover Alabama. On the season, he’s at .326/.438/.500 with a team leading 2 HRs and a team leading 19 RBIs. He’s also 3-3 in stolen bases. We should see him hitting 3rd or cleanup.
Auburn’s hitting coach is Doug Sisson, who served in the same capacity under David Perno in 2006 and 2007. Perno had quite a few hitting coaches during his tenure and I thought that Sisson was easily the best. He’s an old school baseball lifer. I chuckled last night in reading their coaching bios, he’s the only member of their staff who doesn’t have a twitter handle. It’s hard to believe it’s been more than a decade now, but I remember the jumps that Joey Side, Josh Morris, Bobby Felmy, Jason Jacobs, and Jonathan Wyatt made under Sisson. It was Sisson in late fall 2005 who, I’ve heard, convinced Perno that Gordon Beckham should ditch switch hitting and only hit from the right side. It takes a guy with a lot of confidence and competence to do that a few months into the job with a budding superstar like Beckham.
Offensively, Auburn is about what you’d think under a pro like Sisson. Collectively, they’re hitting .304/.402/.418. They don’t hit a ton of home runs (7 on the season), but they’ve managed to draw 114 walks on the year, against 121 strikeouts. By way of comparison, our OBP is .350. Three times through the lineup, Auburn is going to get almost 11 guys on base. Three times through for us, that number is a bit over 9. Despite hitting a third as many HRs as we have, Auburn has scored 44 more runs than we have, playing in one more game than we have. Auburn has hit 20 more doubles and slugs at a higher percentage than us, so I don’t want to make it sound like they hit for zero power… they just don’t hit a lot of HRs. We can expect to see a disciplined approach by Auburn at the plate this weekend. They don’t run a ton, but have been successful they do, going 20-26 in steals on the year.
Auburn finished in 13th place in the league a year ago. They won’t finish there this year. I know there was a lot of negativity around Sonny Golloway, but he has a good coach and did know how to recruit. They went from that a guy like Butch Thompson, who I think everyone respects, Sisson, and another outstanding assistant in Brad Bohannan. If you give coaches like a talented roster and a full year, they’ll win. It was no secret that Butch Thompson was interested in our job when it came open in 2013. We obviously went a different direction and I don't believe that we ever interviewed Thompson. I'm sure that's not lost on him, either. It’s going to be a big challenge for us this weekend.
