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With there being no news on the football front and me having too much time on my hands tonight, I took a stab at creating my own preferred batting order for next year including our new transfers and incoming freshmen. I also gave my best shot at projecting how they would perform next season.
A few things I thought I should clear up before I talk about anything else. Yes, there is clearly some rounding going on with the batting averages - I had too much time but not THAT much time. There is also a clear assumption of jumps being taken by our rising sophomores. However, all of the projected production is statistically/mathematically based (I even did the best I could with projecting what kind of jump our rising sophomores would take). With the transfers I didn't really consider them taking any jumps and more so focused how they performed against high level competition at their previous stops. With the incoming freshmen (there's only one) it's hard to really know but I looked at his performance in the appalachian league, all american game, and other high level games to try and get a decent idea.
Anyway, if this turns out to be even remotely close to how things pan out it bodes very well for the offensive production next year. We would be batting somewhere around .307 and would hit 103 home runs, marks that would put us at 2nd and 6th, respectively, in the SEC last year. The teams who were in the top 6 of both categories last year were Tennessee, Georgia, Texas A&M, and LSU (good company to be in). If this is our lineup next year we would also maintain a dangerous amount of speed on the basepaths. 3 of the listed players have stolen over 20 bags in a season and will likely do so again next year. In my projection we total exactly 100 stolen bases (which would have been 3rd behind Kentucky and ourselves last season) but if you add Jacob Humphrey into the mix that'll probably go up to around 110.
When I actually sat down and looked at all this I'm really, really impressed with what Corbs has cooked up this offseason, and the best part is that I don't think he's quite finished yet. As things stand right now we will not only have the high batting averages and speed on the basepaths that we've come to know with Corbin, but finally above-average power to go with it. I honestly think that this lineup would be good enough to go into a season with, but would still really like to bring in another reliable power bat.
Would love to hear any thoughts, critiques, or changes y'all would make to the lineup, order, projections, etc.
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