-First, it was obviously great to be back at Foley. Our daughter was born eight days after the 2018 season ended. I didn’t make it to any fall or pre-season scrimmages. Friday was my first time at Foley since June 4. It was funny on Friday to think how it didn’t seem THAT long ago since I was there last in light of how much has changed since then. But either way, it was great to be back. I made the comment during the Friday game that I really do enjoy being at Georgia baseball games more than football. I mean that as a general statement… obviously I’ll enjoy the Notre Dame game next September more than I’ll enjoy the game next Saturday against UMass-Lowell, I’m sure. I do love Georgia football. But I really love Georgia baseball. I like it that I can show up at the park six minutes before first pitch and still be there on time. Try leaving a football tailgate six minutes before kickoff and see what happens. And I like that I can zip right out after the game. But most of all, I like that I can be so close to the field with baseball and see such high level play. I have good seats at Sanford Stadium too, but… I don’t know, I just feel more connected to the game in front of me at Foley. I just love it. And I never forget that, but something about Opening Day just reminds of how special it is.
-But enough about me. Here’s what I saw.
-First, I liked Cam Shepherd leading off. I don’t think that’s a permanent thing… and I don’t think it should be. Tucker Bradley should be the leadoff hitter and I imagine he will be when he gets back. I know what the stat sheet said last year, but Cam is the best hitter on the team. And coming off a down year by his ability, I loved it that we came right out of the gate with him this weekend. Showing confidence in the guy that way was a great move, I thought.
-Really happy for Patrick Sullivan’s big weekend. More than anyone else, I thought that a fast start was important for him. He needs to be the guy at 1st this year. The platoon with Sasser the last couple of years was a weird thing and I’m sure Stricklin would have avoided that if he had to do it over again. I don’t say that because of the attention that the Sasser incident in September brought. I felt that way before all that nonsense happened. Having two left handed first baseman was always a weird thing… and it really took until last year, three years into it, before one guy seemed to get comfortable with the situation. At any rate, it’s just Sullivan now. I think this weekend showed what he can do when he’s relaxed and is able to just go out there and play.
-Emerson Hancock was really good on Friday night. He basically just overmatched the Dayton hitters. The two hardest hit balls he gave up came with two outs and were both caught in the OF. I mean, heck, he carried a no-hitter into the 7th inning. Dayton isn’t great offensively, but they’re not terrible either. I’m interested to check back with them in April and see how Brickman and Pujols are hitting. Both of those guys look legitimate at the plate. Emerson was easily the best guy that we ran out on the mound this weekend. I’d be remiss also if I didn’t note that David Savage was already in mid-season form behind the plate on Friday night.
-I’m not sure if he’s injured. Maybe he is. But I was really surprised that Kaden Fowler didn’t see any time this weekend.
-We’re really solid defensively. It’s not a lot of circus plays that we make, but we make everything look pretty easy and we made all the routine plays. It’s not an adventure when the ball gets hit to a guy as is sometimes the case.
-I didn’t attend game one on Saturday, so I didn’t see Cole Wilcox in person. From everything I heard, his velocity is what it was billed, but his lack of second pitch looked problematic. He’ll develop that, I’m sure, but it’s hard to live in the SEC with only a fastball and change up.
-It was a bit annoying how hard it was to close down that first game on Saturday. But really, that was Dayton’s game to win this weekend. They may have brought the tying run to the plate in the 9th, but it never really felt like they were going to go ahead of us.
-I hope that Tucker Bradley isn’t hurt too badly. I guess time will tell. He really hit the ground hard and you could tell he was hurting pretty bad when he walked off the field. I hate it for that guy, especially with how much time he had to miss late last year, but hopefully it’s nothing too serious. You never want to see a guy get on the field that way, but I was happy to see Randon Jernigan. I really thought that he got that ball out too, and was surprised to see that kind of pop from him. His speed is off the charts… I think we’re going to enjoy watching that guy through his career.
-It was funny to see a freshman in Jack Gowen throw from so many different arm slots. No idea where he learned that and I can imagine it’s not much fun to hit again. Michael Roth at South Carolina would throw overhand to right handed hitters and basically side-armed to lefties. I thought that was pretty cool, but obviously you’d know which arm slot you’d see based on side of the plate from which you hit. I don’t think you know where Gowen is coming from until you see it.
-Tony Locey was good and he had a pretty low-stress outing given the big lead that we had. I love a pitcher who works fast, but I think he goes too fast sometimes. He definitely seemed to be working at a quicker clip than last year. I wonder if that’s here to stay.
-Having to play a doubleheader was probably the worst thing that could have happened to Dayton. They were way out of pitching by about the 7th inning in of the final game. They couldn’t throw strikes and when they did, we squared it up. You kinda wish there could be a run rule in situations like that, sometimes. But then, we have guys who needed the innings, too.
-I realize how this is going to sound given that we scored 28 runs this weekend, but I think that we have taken a step back offensively. Not that it wasn’t foreseeable losing McGovern and Curry, but I don’t think that we’re going to win a lot of games in the league this year with home run balls. I don’t want to see us bunting in the 3rd inning a whole lot either, but I hope that we’ll be more active on the bases. One steal this weekend was a bit of a surprise.
-Hard to imagine a better opening weekend than Riley King. Here’s a guy who has been in the program for awhile and just hasn’t gotten on the field much. Really happy for that guy and he’s a great example of good things happening when you work hard and don’t walk away.
-This was a much better opening weekend than last year. Different competition I know, but think back to that first series last year against Ga Southern. We won huge on Friday night, but that was a bit misleading as we were trailing about halfway through before exploding against some of Ga Southern’s b-guys in their bullpen. We lost Saturday and were trailing heading into the 9th inning on Sunday before we rallied. We were very close to losing that series and were a few innings away from getting swept (we were also very close to sweeping, to be fair). We never really had to sweat this weekend and we didn’t have to play with our hair on fire to win pretty easily, either. There’s something to be said for that. I thought that this was a very mature, business-like approach to the weekend against an opponent that we knew was inferior. I enjoyed that. Lot of good things this weekend.
-But enough about me. Here’s what I saw.
-First, I liked Cam Shepherd leading off. I don’t think that’s a permanent thing… and I don’t think it should be. Tucker Bradley should be the leadoff hitter and I imagine he will be when he gets back. I know what the stat sheet said last year, but Cam is the best hitter on the team. And coming off a down year by his ability, I loved it that we came right out of the gate with him this weekend. Showing confidence in the guy that way was a great move, I thought.
-Really happy for Patrick Sullivan’s big weekend. More than anyone else, I thought that a fast start was important for him. He needs to be the guy at 1st this year. The platoon with Sasser the last couple of years was a weird thing and I’m sure Stricklin would have avoided that if he had to do it over again. I don’t say that because of the attention that the Sasser incident in September brought. I felt that way before all that nonsense happened. Having two left handed first baseman was always a weird thing… and it really took until last year, three years into it, before one guy seemed to get comfortable with the situation. At any rate, it’s just Sullivan now. I think this weekend showed what he can do when he’s relaxed and is able to just go out there and play.
-Emerson Hancock was really good on Friday night. He basically just overmatched the Dayton hitters. The two hardest hit balls he gave up came with two outs and were both caught in the OF. I mean, heck, he carried a no-hitter into the 7th inning. Dayton isn’t great offensively, but they’re not terrible either. I’m interested to check back with them in April and see how Brickman and Pujols are hitting. Both of those guys look legitimate at the plate. Emerson was easily the best guy that we ran out on the mound this weekend. I’d be remiss also if I didn’t note that David Savage was already in mid-season form behind the plate on Friday night.
-I’m not sure if he’s injured. Maybe he is. But I was really surprised that Kaden Fowler didn’t see any time this weekend.
-We’re really solid defensively. It’s not a lot of circus plays that we make, but we make everything look pretty easy and we made all the routine plays. It’s not an adventure when the ball gets hit to a guy as is sometimes the case.
-I didn’t attend game one on Saturday, so I didn’t see Cole Wilcox in person. From everything I heard, his velocity is what it was billed, but his lack of second pitch looked problematic. He’ll develop that, I’m sure, but it’s hard to live in the SEC with only a fastball and change up.
-It was a bit annoying how hard it was to close down that first game on Saturday. But really, that was Dayton’s game to win this weekend. They may have brought the tying run to the plate in the 9th, but it never really felt like they were going to go ahead of us.
-I hope that Tucker Bradley isn’t hurt too badly. I guess time will tell. He really hit the ground hard and you could tell he was hurting pretty bad when he walked off the field. I hate it for that guy, especially with how much time he had to miss late last year, but hopefully it’s nothing too serious. You never want to see a guy get on the field that way, but I was happy to see Randon Jernigan. I really thought that he got that ball out too, and was surprised to see that kind of pop from him. His speed is off the charts… I think we’re going to enjoy watching that guy through his career.
-It was funny to see a freshman in Jack Gowen throw from so many different arm slots. No idea where he learned that and I can imagine it’s not much fun to hit again. Michael Roth at South Carolina would throw overhand to right handed hitters and basically side-armed to lefties. I thought that was pretty cool, but obviously you’d know which arm slot you’d see based on side of the plate from which you hit. I don’t think you know where Gowen is coming from until you see it.
-Tony Locey was good and he had a pretty low-stress outing given the big lead that we had. I love a pitcher who works fast, but I think he goes too fast sometimes. He definitely seemed to be working at a quicker clip than last year. I wonder if that’s here to stay.
-Having to play a doubleheader was probably the worst thing that could have happened to Dayton. They were way out of pitching by about the 7th inning in of the final game. They couldn’t throw strikes and when they did, we squared it up. You kinda wish there could be a run rule in situations like that, sometimes. But then, we have guys who needed the innings, too.
-I realize how this is going to sound given that we scored 28 runs this weekend, but I think that we have taken a step back offensively. Not that it wasn’t foreseeable losing McGovern and Curry, but I don’t think that we’re going to win a lot of games in the league this year with home run balls. I don’t want to see us bunting in the 3rd inning a whole lot either, but I hope that we’ll be more active on the bases. One steal this weekend was a bit of a surprise.
-Hard to imagine a better opening weekend than Riley King. Here’s a guy who has been in the program for awhile and just hasn’t gotten on the field much. Really happy for that guy and he’s a great example of good things happening when you work hard and don’t walk away.
-This was a much better opening weekend than last year. Different competition I know, but think back to that first series last year against Ga Southern. We won huge on Friday night, but that was a bit misleading as we were trailing about halfway through before exploding against some of Ga Southern’s b-guys in their bullpen. We lost Saturday and were trailing heading into the 9th inning on Sunday before we rallied. We were very close to losing that series and were a few innings away from getting swept (we were also very close to sweeping, to be fair). We never really had to sweat this weekend and we didn’t have to play with our hair on fire to win pretty easily, either. There’s something to be said for that. I thought that this was a very mature, business-like approach to the weekend against an opponent that we knew was inferior. I enjoyed that. Lot of good things this weekend.
