Vanderbilt university has acquired New Mexico State University. Vanderbilt will now have two campuses, one in Las Cruces New Mexico and one in Nashville, Tennessee.

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All signs pointing to Pavia. Beck bringing his guys in. This guy scored a TD versus Auburn.

Stephen F. Austin.

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Presented by Sutherland & Belk. Get ‘em in.

We’ve talked alot about the portal and the future for the baseball program, but not a lot about the roster or anything specific for next next year, so I figured I would start a thread on that. I was also inspired by the post from @rickgivens about basketball, and since I know I have often been one of the more negative ones about baseball I think it would be good for me to balance that out.

Pitching-
This is an interesting group to look at, because while the two frontline guys are likely leaving, and a couple decent relievers, pretty much all of the guys in the pen they rely on as well as much of Sunday and the midweeks have been the freshman and JD Thompson. JD has been a pleasant surprise and is probably the one guy with a weekend start on lock next year. McIlvain is an elite talent and should be in the mix there too. I would guess Miller Green and Brennan Seiber might start too. Guys like Luke Guth and Alex Kranzler have also shown promise as freshmen.

Two wild cards would are Devin Futrell and The Duke. Dutkanych is an elite talent but has had two season ending injuries. I’m not sure what he’ll do. Futrell doesn’t have the stuff to be a consistent weekend starter but he can be really solid in the midweek at times on the weekend and can go a long time.
I think Levi Huesman is decent too. Then there’s guys like Horn and Hawks who’ve had injuries but have been very poor statistically.
Looking at their incoming class they’ve got some decent pitchers but no surefire elite guy.

I like a lot of the guys here, and I think many of these younger guys can improve too. Portal wise I think they could definitely use some help in the pen, and I don’t think they’d turn down a potential weekend starter if they wanted to come since they won’t be returning a lot of starting experience.

Hitters
Laneve is done, and Espinal and Vastine feel like draft locks. Beyond that there’s a lot of guys that have decisions to make. Polk is a junior and he’s had a decent season. Not sure what he’ll do because I’m not sure he’s gonna get much better than he is now. Bulger has a Covid year and I’m sure Tim would welcome him back. Maldo could go as a draft eligible soph but I would think he’ll come back which would be big. Diaz is a junior and has been liked by scouts as times, but I don’t think he’s actually improved since last season. I wouldn’t mind if he came back but he probably needs to stay in the 9 hole if he does. I like Austin and Kozeal a lot. Austin improved a good bit this year, and Kozeal has flashed a lot as a freshman. Jayden Davis is a solid contact hitter. I’ll be interested to see what they do with Davis and Kozeal in the field too.

I think the group of Davis, Kozeal, Austin, and Maldonado is a really solid group of 4 hitters. I think a couple of those guys could hit 10 plus homers. They’ve got some other younger guys who have power such as Holcomb, Poteet, and Ossenfort. However the fact that none of those guys are in the lineup right now doesn’t lead me to believe that they will be a middle of the order type bat next year. They have some interesting freshman hitters coming (I’m guessing one may play SS) however I dont think you can rely solely on them.

I think this is still a lineup that needs a big bat or two from the portal. I’m not sure they can afford to bet on guys hitting under .200 or older guys like Diaz or Bulger to suddenly become something they’re not. But I don’t think they need a bunch of new hitters. I think you can build a lineup with the main 4, Poteet, a couple transfers, a freshman, and maybe Diaz or Polk or someone else that comes back like Holcomb, Barczi or Ossenfort.

I think if they are able to get some power bats and a few pitchers to add to the decent core that is present, they could have a shot at Omaha.

Women's basketball player Aga Makupat has been selected to play on the Polish National Team this summer. What an honor. Way to go Aga and good luck! Anchor Down.

UT baseball is much better than Vandy baseball. It really isn't close. 18 year Olds vs 22 year Olds.

This baseball season feels exactly the same as last years football season and basketball season.

Blame the bats if you want but follow the money.

Pathetic job Vandy.

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If the VandyBoys could somehow sweep the top-ranked in RPI Wildcats at home this weekend, do we steal a host spot? I’m thinking maybe… which would indeed be crazy. But maybe they’d also need a couple wins in the tourney?

Easily story line for a movie or a 30 for 30, much less the SEC Storied series.

Anyone see or know anything? Need some internet warriors to find this guy.

I found it interesting that Tennessee didn’t play a ton of transfers. Of course, they had Amick at 3rd who is a great player and transfer. The catcher from NC State that got his 2nd homer Friday night doesn’t even start. They played a couple pitchers that transferred in from Jacksonville State and Wichita State.

Other than that, those are dudes that they got out of high school and JUCO. I agree about needing to get studs out of the portal to fill gaps, but we don’t have to sign 10+ transfers to compete. Our high school recruiting needs improvement as well. That or we aren’t getting developed when they get here which to me is a big problem right now.

I love stories of "Classical Redemption". The true story of JD Thompson going from being vilified by all the Vandy hater TV network talking heads to the current SEC Pitcher Of The Week in less than a month is the stuff that would make a great made for NETFLIX movie.

I will never believe that JD "knowingly" broke the "substance abuse" rule. Did he put rosin on his forearm? Yes. Did he have on sunscreen? Probably, he's a fair skinned blond working in bright sunshine. Is rosin sticky? Yes, and it's allowed and has been for decades. Is rosin on top of sunscreen sticky? Yes, well duh !!!. The current MLB rule interpretation as of April 2023 is "Players may not INTENTIONALLY combine rosin with other substances to create ADDITIONAL tackiness. The issue, then, is not the substance; it's the stickiness". So how does an SEC official in another state, on a phone line, determine the degree of "tackiness/stickiness" ???

I applaud JD for silencing "most" of his critics with a spectacular pitching performance against the much ballyhooed ut bawls. His forearm and fingers gesture toward the visitor's dugout after the 6th inning was "CLASSIC REDEMPTION".

ANCHOR DOWN YOUNG MAN !!!!!!!!! (That's 9 exclamation marks. One for each ut batter JD struck out on Sunday)

Thanks

... and scored 39 runs.

Just gonna throw that out there, Vanderbilt isn't the only staff that's just getting mercilessly hammered by some of these teams.

What's the deal with Braden Holcomb? He's hit it well as of late, and he's now no longer in the lineup. Is he hurt? He's a guy that we definitely need in the future. We need as many power bats as possible.

I know we're still waiting to fill one more scholarship, but it seems like we're in a pretty good place with Hoggard from Michigan State. So, I was thinking about Chris' post a couple weeks ago about how you need 8-9 guys that you're pretty sure can play at this level to compete. Regardless of how we fill that last scholarship, it seems like we'll have that. Not that basketball's a "math" problem like baseball (obviously, defense & roster construction matter). But if you start thinking about how to project out our offense, I think it might be pretty good. Would love to hear people's thoughts on if I'm being overly optimistic. I don't think I am.

Guards (ppg projection & what they averaged last year)
Jason Edwards - 15 (19.1 at North Texas)
AJ Hoggard* - 12 (10.7 at Michigan State)
Grant Huffman - 6 (12.8 at Davidson)
MJ Collins - 6 (7.4 at Va Tech)
Tyler Tanner - 1
Karris Bilal - 1


Wings
Tyler Nickel - 8 (8.8. at Va Tech)
Chris Manon - 8 (12.5 at Cornell, but on only 22 mpg)
Alex Hemenway - 4 (6.9 at Clemson in 22-23, his last full season)
JQ Roberts - 2 (2.3 at Vandy)

Forwards/Centers
Jaylen Carey - 8 (7 at James Madison, but on only 15 mpg)
Devin McGlockton - 8 (10.2 at Boston College)
Kijani Wright - 6 (3.9 at USC, but on only 12 mpg)

Again, obviously Hoggard is an asterisk at this point, but I think we'll get someone who can score 10-ish ppg to fill that last spot if we don't get him. But if my projections are close to accurate, that's 85 ppg, which would've put us Top-10 nationally last year. So what do y'all think? Am I being overly optimistic/borderline crazy?

I am thinking around 2 and they go for OLs

Most of our guys transferred down a level. Meaning our roster was G5 level kids.

That was 3 really really good starts. I’d have to look but that’s might be , just from a starting pitching standpoint , the best anyone has pitched against TN in a three game series. And of course Futrell was great today in a RP roll but I think of him as a starter. VU easily could have swept this weekend , evey game really came down to just a play here and there for both teams.

As I’ve said in some other posts if VU had just average hitting (and they hit into a lot of bad luck that last inning yesterday) and road defense was better than it has been, all this whining and complaining would mostly be non existent.

And all the posts about Corbs (and this comment doesn’t change if VU had of got stomped this weekend) changing or whatever. I just shake my head. It’s amazing to me both fans unrealistic expectations and if they have all the answers why aren’t they coaching and making millions and winning nattys every 2/3 yrs. Evaluate the team I’m fine with but man. I hope Corbs wants to coach another 10 yrs and if so I sure hope that is at Vanderbilt. It would go down if it wasn’t him.