Vanderbilt comes in with a slightly surprising record of 23-15. They are 7-8 in the SEC. The Commodores opened the season by taking two of three against the San Diego Torreros out in San Diego. They came home and very surprisingly dropped a weekend series to Illinois Chicago, although both of Vanderbilt’s losses came in extra innings. They followed that up with another home series loss against Cal State Northridge before taking 2/3 from the Gaels of St. Mary’s.
Vanderbilt kicked off league play by dropping a series at Oxford, which I think was the only non-sweep in the league that first weekend. Vanderbilt returned home to Nashville and took a series from Texas A&M before dropping a road series at Kentucky. Vanderbilt won their next series at South Carolina and most recently dropped at home series to Florida, allowing 30 runs over the weekend, but also carding a shutout, which obviously doesn’t happen often.
At 7-8, this is really nothing unusual for Vanderbilt. They were 8-10 when we showed up in Nashville in 2014 and were 10-8 when we played them last year. They swept us both times and wound up winning the national championship in 2014. It’s really not that uncommon for them to be around .500 at the halfway point in league play.
Friday night, we’ll see Patrick Raby, a big sophomore righty from Farragut HS in Knoxville. The former Farragut Admiral is off to a strong start on the year with a 5-3 record in 9 appearances, all starts and a 2.78 ERA. His 55 innings lead the staff. He has a 53/16 K/BB and the opposition is hitting .221 against him.
Kyle Wright goes on Saturday and he’s coming off maybe the best start of his career last weekend against Florida (13 K’s, no walks, no runs in a complete game effort). Wright is a big junior righty from Huntsville Alabama. On the year, he’s 2-4 with a 3.98 ERA in 9 appearances, all starts. He’s thrown 52 innings on the year and has a 55/19 K/BB. Opponents are hitting .259 against him.
Vanderbilt has left things TBA for Sunday. On that note, I’m sure you remember the tragic drowning death of Vanderbilt freshman pitcher Donny Everett last season. Baseball America put together a fantastic article on Everett and how Vanderbilt has handled the situation. Here is the link. It’s very, very long, but worth the read.
Vanderbilt can really pitch. They’ve got a staff ERA of 3.75 and collectively only allow a .226 average against. Their staff average just a hair over a strikeout per inning.
Jaren Kendall may be the highest drafted position player we see this year (although Brent Rooker out at Miss State may pass him). The junior CF hails from Holmen Wisconsin and is a true five tool player. We’ll see him in CF and probably hitting at the top, although Vanderbilt look at some different things lineup wise this weekend. Kendall is hitting .309/.380/.586 with a team leading 11 HRs and also leads their team in steals at 13/17. He has 31 RBIs on the year. He does have 49 strikeouts in 162 Abs, which is a pretty high percentage, but 20 of his 50 hits on the season have gone for extra bases, which is also a pretty high percentage (and a good way to slug .586).
Julian Infante will play 1B this weekend and probably hit 3rd or 4th. Infante is a big right handed hitting sophomore from Miami. He’s hitting .349/.434/.566 on the year with 8 HRs and 35 RBI. He’s their only regular who hasn’t attempted a steal this year.
A lot of these SEC East teams have a guy who it seems like has played baseball there most of the last decade. Will Toffey is that guy for Vanderbilt. Somehow only a junior, Toffey hails from Barnstable Mass and The Salisbury School. After a bit of a sophomore slump, Toffey is back on track, hitting .326/.480/.508 with 5 HRs and a team leading 37 RBIs. We’ll see Toffey at 3B and hitting probably in the top third, maybe cleanup.
Jason Delay is the Vanderbilt catcher. Delay is a senior from Johns Creek, by way of Northview. I’d forgotten that he and Sean McLaughlin played together a few years in HS. Delay is hitting .289/.381/.438 with 2 HRs and 20 RBI.
Those four players have combined to start 524 games at Vanderbilt. That kind of experience is obviously an incredible asset to take with you on the road and is a big reason why I’m sure there is no panic over 7-8 at the halfway point.
As a team, Vanderbilt is hitting .282/.388/.424. They’ve hit 33 HRs as a team. They don’t run as much some Vanderbilt teams we’ve seen in the past at 32/50 on the year. They actually run a lot less than Florida, which is very surprising. You can bet they’ll put some guys in motion this weekend, though. Vanderbilt looks to be a pretty good defensive team at .975 fielding with 36 errors on the year.
We haven’t beaten Vanderbilt in a game since Jared Walsh overcame Todd Henderson behind the plate in the series opener in 2013. Stricklin is 0-9 against Vanderbilt and they’ve won 11 straight overall against us. We haven’t beaten them on a weekend since 2008. At some point, we will win another game against them and even another series against them. This feels like a bad matchup to me. Florida has enough issues scoring runs that we may be able to hang around and get a game or two next weekend if we play clean baseball. Vanderbilt has some real weapons at the plate and they also pitch at a very high level. They’ve typically matched up well against us through the years and I imagine this time will be more of the same. That’s not to say we can’t win, but this is going to be a very tall test for us.
Vanderbilt kicked off league play by dropping a series at Oxford, which I think was the only non-sweep in the league that first weekend. Vanderbilt returned home to Nashville and took a series from Texas A&M before dropping a road series at Kentucky. Vanderbilt won their next series at South Carolina and most recently dropped at home series to Florida, allowing 30 runs over the weekend, but also carding a shutout, which obviously doesn’t happen often.
At 7-8, this is really nothing unusual for Vanderbilt. They were 8-10 when we showed up in Nashville in 2014 and were 10-8 when we played them last year. They swept us both times and wound up winning the national championship in 2014. It’s really not that uncommon for them to be around .500 at the halfway point in league play.
Friday night, we’ll see Patrick Raby, a big sophomore righty from Farragut HS in Knoxville. The former Farragut Admiral is off to a strong start on the year with a 5-3 record in 9 appearances, all starts and a 2.78 ERA. His 55 innings lead the staff. He has a 53/16 K/BB and the opposition is hitting .221 against him.
Kyle Wright goes on Saturday and he’s coming off maybe the best start of his career last weekend against Florida (13 K’s, no walks, no runs in a complete game effort). Wright is a big junior righty from Huntsville Alabama. On the year, he’s 2-4 with a 3.98 ERA in 9 appearances, all starts. He’s thrown 52 innings on the year and has a 55/19 K/BB. Opponents are hitting .259 against him.
Vanderbilt has left things TBA for Sunday. On that note, I’m sure you remember the tragic drowning death of Vanderbilt freshman pitcher Donny Everett last season. Baseball America put together a fantastic article on Everett and how Vanderbilt has handled the situation. Here is the link. It’s very, very long, but worth the read.
Vanderbilt can really pitch. They’ve got a staff ERA of 3.75 and collectively only allow a .226 average against. Their staff average just a hair over a strikeout per inning.
Jaren Kendall may be the highest drafted position player we see this year (although Brent Rooker out at Miss State may pass him). The junior CF hails from Holmen Wisconsin and is a true five tool player. We’ll see him in CF and probably hitting at the top, although Vanderbilt look at some different things lineup wise this weekend. Kendall is hitting .309/.380/.586 with a team leading 11 HRs and also leads their team in steals at 13/17. He has 31 RBIs on the year. He does have 49 strikeouts in 162 Abs, which is a pretty high percentage, but 20 of his 50 hits on the season have gone for extra bases, which is also a pretty high percentage (and a good way to slug .586).
Julian Infante will play 1B this weekend and probably hit 3rd or 4th. Infante is a big right handed hitting sophomore from Miami. He’s hitting .349/.434/.566 on the year with 8 HRs and 35 RBI. He’s their only regular who hasn’t attempted a steal this year.
A lot of these SEC East teams have a guy who it seems like has played baseball there most of the last decade. Will Toffey is that guy for Vanderbilt. Somehow only a junior, Toffey hails from Barnstable Mass and The Salisbury School. After a bit of a sophomore slump, Toffey is back on track, hitting .326/.480/.508 with 5 HRs and a team leading 37 RBIs. We’ll see Toffey at 3B and hitting probably in the top third, maybe cleanup.
Jason Delay is the Vanderbilt catcher. Delay is a senior from Johns Creek, by way of Northview. I’d forgotten that he and Sean McLaughlin played together a few years in HS. Delay is hitting .289/.381/.438 with 2 HRs and 20 RBI.
Those four players have combined to start 524 games at Vanderbilt. That kind of experience is obviously an incredible asset to take with you on the road and is a big reason why I’m sure there is no panic over 7-8 at the halfway point.
As a team, Vanderbilt is hitting .282/.388/.424. They’ve hit 33 HRs as a team. They don’t run as much some Vanderbilt teams we’ve seen in the past at 32/50 on the year. They actually run a lot less than Florida, which is very surprising. You can bet they’ll put some guys in motion this weekend, though. Vanderbilt looks to be a pretty good defensive team at .975 fielding with 36 errors on the year.
We haven’t beaten Vanderbilt in a game since Jared Walsh overcame Todd Henderson behind the plate in the series opener in 2013. Stricklin is 0-9 against Vanderbilt and they’ve won 11 straight overall against us. We haven’t beaten them on a weekend since 2008. At some point, we will win another game against them and even another series against them. This feels like a bad matchup to me. Florida has enough issues scoring runs that we may be able to hang around and get a game or two next weekend if we play clean baseball. Vanderbilt has some real weapons at the plate and they also pitch at a very high level. They’ve typically matched up well against us through the years and I imagine this time will be more of the same. That’s not to say we can’t win, but this is going to be a very tall test for us.
