SNAFU
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Tennessee lefty Liam Doyle was at No. 1 in my first draft ranking (Law), a reflection of his unhittable fastball and the absence of anyone better on the board at that point. He started on Friday night in the Vols’ home series against Texas A&M, pitching Tennessee to their only win of the series by throwing six no-hit innings, which turned out to be the highlight of Tennessee’s weekend. I was in Knoxville for all three games, where the Vols won handily on Friday but got smoked — pun intended — in a doubleheader on Saturday.
Doyle dominated Texas A&M largely with that invisiball heater and his plus splitter, although he did show a solid-average slider as well. He was 95-99 on the fastball and got seven whiffs on the pitch out of 28 swings, throwing 59 total fastballs out of 95 pitches, which is actually a low fastball percentage for him this year.
His splitter gets some late downward action, but mostly it plays because it looks so much like the fastball out of his hand, while his 87-90 mph slider has some tilt and gives him something to move away from lefties. He threw a handful of low-80s curveballs as well, but it’s a clear fourth pitch for him.
His outing ended when he developed a blister with one out in the sixth inning, after which he walked Jace LaViolette and hit Wyatt Henseler before Caden Sorrell bailed him out, swinging at ball three and later grounding into a double play to end the inning. The delivery is funky, and his arm is somewhat late relative to his front leg, which may be why his slider is his worst pitch and is definitely why I have heard plenty of concerns from scouts that he might be a reliever in the long run because of how the arm works. I didn’t see huge red flags beyond how unorthodox the delivery is; he seems to repeat it, hard as that may appear to be, and he threw plenty of strikes in this outing until the blister issue (66 percent of pitches for strikes).
Tennessee infielder Dean Curley was the Vols’ best hitter on the weekend, going 5-for-12 with a homer and a walk, although he swung and missed more than I expected, especially since the right-handed hitter faced mostly lefties all weekend. It’s a really good swing that produces low line drives, and he’s had strong peak-end velocities throughout his career. His home run was an opposite-field blast (99 mph exit velocity) on an 86-mph fastball from Prager. He also made some adjustments in the middle of at-bats on Saturday even when the games were out of hand. He played third and second in the series, and he’s probably better suited to third. His one misplay came at the hot corner, though, when he got a ground ball with one out, a runner going home, and the Vols already down a couple of runs; he chose to get the safe out at first rather than trying to stop the runner from scoring, and then airmailed the throw so a
It’s first base-only for Fischer, so he has to mash, and despite the lower strikeout rate this year (12.2 percent versus 21 percent last year), I don’t think he’s changed materially as a hitter, and I expect the whiffs to increase now that they’re in SEC play. He should be an early Day 2 pick.
Unfortunately I didn’t see red-hot Tennessee infielder Gavin Kilen, who hurt his hamstring on March 18 and has had just one at-bat since. Dalton Bargo has picked up some starts in Kilen’s absence and has made the most of it, hitting .349/.438/.783 on the season, with nine homers, tying him for third on the team behind Fischer and Kilen.
Tennessee first baseman Andrew Fischer, a transfer from Mississippi like Doyle, has easy plus power and swings for the fences every single time; I don’t think he has a two-strike approach or particularly cares about striking out. He’s swinging uphill, trying to pull the ball in the air, and he has the juice to make it count, homering in consecutive innings on Friday and nearly homering again on Saturday, only to be robbed by Aggies right fielder Terrence Kiel II.
Right-hander Marcus Phillips started the second game for the Vols. He’s been on a run recently after they moved him to the third base side of the rubber. He comes from a low three-quarters slot and is very online, without a lot of visible effort to the delivery even though he’s 95-98. The slider is 86-88 with a lot of horizontal break, and it’s probably his best secondary pitch. He mixed in a very occasional changeup and what I think was a cutter around 92, but they’re after-thoughts. His success streak came to an abrupt halt against the Aggies, unfortunately — he’d allowed two homers all season, then gave up three in 4 2/3 innings on Saturday, including the one LaViolette hit that got zero help from the wind. (Any well-hit fly ball to left field on Saturday ended up in the Great Smoky Mountains.) Phillips’ low slot and lack of a real pitch for lefties drives a modest but growing platoon split that I expect will be even wider at the end of the season now that he’ll face SEC teams from here on out. There’s starter upside here in the body, delivery, and two pitches, but someone has to give him a better changeup or a split for him to be able to get lefties out.
Right-hander Nate Snead pitched in relief of Phillips for Tennessee and really struggled, giving up five runs in two innings thanks in part to two walks, two wild pitches (one of which came on a third strike with two outs, allowing a run to score), and Curley’s error. He was 92-95 with a sharp curveball at 82-85, but he was in the upper half of the zone with most of his pitches and the Aggies were all over those, only missing his fastball when he was on the edge of the zone or out of it entirely.
Right-hander Tegan Kuhns started the third game for Tennessee, and the freshman from Pennsylvania was 92-95 with an above-average curveball at 78-79, but he had his worst outing of the year and didn’t get out of the third. He walked three batters, his highest in any game to date, and gave up a long homer to a right-hander when he hung a curveball. Vols manager Tony Vitello had a quick hook, which surprised me a little given how badly they’d lost the first game of the doubleheader, but I believe he made the right call for Kuhns even if it might have hurt their chances of winning a little bit.
The Athletic
Doyle dominated Texas A&M largely with that invisiball heater and his plus splitter, although he did show a solid-average slider as well. He was 95-99 on the fastball and got seven whiffs on the pitch out of 28 swings, throwing 59 total fastballs out of 95 pitches, which is actually a low fastball percentage for him this year.
His splitter gets some late downward action, but mostly it plays because it looks so much like the fastball out of his hand, while his 87-90 mph slider has some tilt and gives him something to move away from lefties. He threw a handful of low-80s curveballs as well, but it’s a clear fourth pitch for him.
His outing ended when he developed a blister with one out in the sixth inning, after which he walked Jace LaViolette and hit Wyatt Henseler before Caden Sorrell bailed him out, swinging at ball three and later grounding into a double play to end the inning. The delivery is funky, and his arm is somewhat late relative to his front leg, which may be why his slider is his worst pitch and is definitely why I have heard plenty of concerns from scouts that he might be a reliever in the long run because of how the arm works. I didn’t see huge red flags beyond how unorthodox the delivery is; he seems to repeat it, hard as that may appear to be, and he threw plenty of strikes in this outing until the blister issue (66 percent of pitches for strikes).
Tennessee infielder Dean Curley was the Vols’ best hitter on the weekend, going 5-for-12 with a homer and a walk, although he swung and missed more than I expected, especially since the right-handed hitter faced mostly lefties all weekend. It’s a really good swing that produces low line drives, and he’s had strong peak-end velocities throughout his career. His home run was an opposite-field blast (99 mph exit velocity) on an 86-mph fastball from Prager. He also made some adjustments in the middle of at-bats on Saturday even when the games were out of hand. He played third and second in the series, and he’s probably better suited to third. His one misplay came at the hot corner, though, when he got a ground ball with one out, a runner going home, and the Vols already down a couple of runs; he chose to get the safe out at first rather than trying to stop the runner from scoring, and then airmailed the throw so a
It’s first base-only for Fischer, so he has to mash, and despite the lower strikeout rate this year (12.2 percent versus 21 percent last year), I don’t think he’s changed materially as a hitter, and I expect the whiffs to increase now that they’re in SEC play. He should be an early Day 2 pick.
Unfortunately I didn’t see red-hot Tennessee infielder Gavin Kilen, who hurt his hamstring on March 18 and has had just one at-bat since. Dalton Bargo has picked up some starts in Kilen’s absence and has made the most of it, hitting .349/.438/.783 on the season, with nine homers, tying him for third on the team behind Fischer and Kilen.
Tennessee first baseman Andrew Fischer, a transfer from Mississippi like Doyle, has easy plus power and swings for the fences every single time; I don’t think he has a two-strike approach or particularly cares about striking out. He’s swinging uphill, trying to pull the ball in the air, and he has the juice to make it count, homering in consecutive innings on Friday and nearly homering again on Saturday, only to be robbed by Aggies right fielder Terrence Kiel II.
Right-hander Marcus Phillips started the second game for the Vols. He’s been on a run recently after they moved him to the third base side of the rubber. He comes from a low three-quarters slot and is very online, without a lot of visible effort to the delivery even though he’s 95-98. The slider is 86-88 with a lot of horizontal break, and it’s probably his best secondary pitch. He mixed in a very occasional changeup and what I think was a cutter around 92, but they’re after-thoughts. His success streak came to an abrupt halt against the Aggies, unfortunately — he’d allowed two homers all season, then gave up three in 4 2/3 innings on Saturday, including the one LaViolette hit that got zero help from the wind. (Any well-hit fly ball to left field on Saturday ended up in the Great Smoky Mountains.) Phillips’ low slot and lack of a real pitch for lefties drives a modest but growing platoon split that I expect will be even wider at the end of the season now that he’ll face SEC teams from here on out. There’s starter upside here in the body, delivery, and two pitches, but someone has to give him a better changeup or a split for him to be able to get lefties out.
Right-hander Nate Snead pitched in relief of Phillips for Tennessee and really struggled, giving up five runs in two innings thanks in part to two walks, two wild pitches (one of which came on a third strike with two outs, allowing a run to score), and Curley’s error. He was 92-95 with a sharp curveball at 82-85, but he was in the upper half of the zone with most of his pitches and the Aggies were all over those, only missing his fastball when he was on the edge of the zone or out of it entirely.
Right-hander Tegan Kuhns started the third game for Tennessee, and the freshman from Pennsylvania was 92-95 with an above-average curveball at 78-79, but he had his worst outing of the year and didn’t get out of the third. He walked three batters, his highest in any game to date, and gave up a long homer to a right-hander when he hung a curveball. Vols manager Tony Vitello had a quick hook, which surprised me a little given how badly they’d lost the first game of the doubleheader, but I believe he made the right call for Kuhns even if it might have hurt their chances of winning a little bit.
The Athletic
