DeerPark12
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2009
- Messages
- 7,149
- Likes
- 11,257
Guaranteed Lady Vols finish Top 4 in Conference. Book It…. Top 4 will be Oklahoma (Young roster, will have some adjustments to make in the SEC) Texas (Same returning roster not as strong pitching as Florida or Lady Vols) Lady Vols (Sage, Nuggent and Pannell will have a big year. Pickens a lot of strikeouts and Gibson will have a rebound of a year with the new hitting coach) and Florida (To many same position portal pickups will have player issues over it)Texas
Oklahoma
Florida
LSU
Texas A&M
Alabama
Georgia
At least 5 of those will finish ahead of UT
3 will get to WCWS nobody else from SEC will.
Very comparable to Brylee MesusanEager to see how the freshman speedster, Saviya Morgan, from Columbia Tn transitions to the college game. Appears to have skills of a leadoff batter. She set a TSSAA record with 74 steals for a season. PGF Premier 18u national champ with Thunderbolts earlier this month.
The stolen base has zero valve in college softball now days. Karen just needs to quit playing favorites and play the best 9 hitters and they will be just fine. The game is about HRs and not SBsIn 11/12 of the last 15 years we’ve had 3 of the best possible leadoff hitters (Raven, Aubrey, and Kiki). I don’t see that caliber of leadoff on our roster so I think we’ll have to temper our expectations and just hope for a solid performance. As I’m looking at the roster it looks like Kinsey best fits the bill: .411 obp, .336 avg, 7 HRS, 8-11 SB and 30 runs last year. She led off a couple games for UW. Laura had almost identical numbers: .404 obp, 8 HRS, 7-9 SB and 29 runs. But her avg would need to improve from .278. I’m sure Karen will look at several options in the fall. Our offense really got jump started by our previous 3 (1st, 2nd, 3rd in career runs and 1st, 2nd, and 9th in career SB, and their yearly obp ranged from .451 to .555). Any thoughts on 2025 leadoff?
I agree that HRs are the key weapon in today’s game. But I think the best leadoff hitters are versatile: hit for avg, draw walks, have a little pop, have a little speed, steal a base, and be a good base runner. I was just speculating on who on the current roster that might be. I think SBs can still have some value for the right leadoff hitter.The stolen base has zero valve in college softball now days. Karen just needs to quit playing favorites and play the best 9 hitters and they will be just fine. The game is about HRs and not SBs
Manufacturing runs was the problem for us the last couple weekends of the season. We had the power no doubt but it was our ability to get runners on, in different ways, and have the versatility of hitters to move them over and hit em in.AL showed last season you can win with small ball, not championships but make CWS, but don't disagree the power game is where its at. Having said this I would rather have a Kiki than a slap hitter but if you don't then the fast leadoff can cause defensive chaos. Manufacturing a run is still important at times.
WOW, 25 way too many. Should be fun watching who sits to get others playing time.New updated roster of 25 at UT site today. Evenly split classes. 6 sr., 6 jr., 6 soph., & 7 fr., class of 2026 offers will happen soon, who are the LV's courting ? Appears our local prospect over here in W Tn may be headed just down the road to Miss State.
I really don't know what she was thinking. It was/is a disservice to Faw not to mention our other great shortstops. We have had some really great ss. Ivy was quite good and Mealer too and that doesn't even go back to some of our greats.Tough expectations for Faw to live up to. No matter how good a kid looks in the fall/travel, those comments don’t need to be made public.
Absolutely, if anybody hits, they should be in the lineup.I’m looking for Bella to definitely contribute this year. I felt bad for her last year but things are going to be better. It appears Dez is the odd person out at 2B. But if she hits she can get in the lineup somewhere. Looking forward to Doyle and the other freshmen to see their transition.