Just some random thoughts on a couple different baseball topics to get you prepared for the weekend.
HEADING INTO THE WEEKEND
No. 8 Ole Miss (4-0), coming off a sweep of top 25 TCU and a midweek rout of UT-Martin, hosts Rhode Island at 4 p.m. Friday, 1 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Looks like the bad weather has moved out. The highs are 55 degrees, 53 degrees and 62 degrees the three days, respectively.
Rhode Island (0-3) opened the season at Florida State and was competitive all weekend but fell 11-6, 6-2 and 8-6. The Rams had a lead throughout Sunday's game but faltered in the late innings. Rhode Island was 33-25 last season with an RPI of 133. The Rams return six starters defensively, one weekend starter and five pitchers who logged more than 15 bullpen innings last season.
They are expected to run a decent amount, so it should be a nice matchup against Ole Miss catcher Stuart Turner, who threw out the only two attempts last weekend. He DHed on Tuesday, as Will Allen got a game behind the plate. They stole 122 bases last season.
From a pitching standpoint, it's command and ground balls. I can't find any big strikeout numbers, so Ole Miss will need to just spread the ball around and sit back. I expect a heavy diet of offspeed stuff and fastballs down in the zone. Saturday starter Sean Furney struck out 5 'Noles in 4 innings but also walked 7. That could be interesting.
Ole Miss is obviously better, but RI isn't a pushover. The Rebels will have to play well.
QUICK THOUGHTS ON WEDNESDAY
The temperature and the opponent made it difficult to get too much of a read, and one outing wouldn't allow that anyway, however there were some promising things from the freshmen pitchers seeing their first action. With the samples sizes so small, it's a tough thing to really analyze, but here's a little bit.
Matt Denny is the interesting one to me. I think it's still really early in his development, and he's only going to get better. Though he's a lefty, I'm reminded of Phillip Irwin a little bit. He was 84-86 or so in the bitter cold Wednesday. I think he'll settle around 88 before it's over. He spotted up well with both pitches, and his breaking ball was quite good. He also shook off the double and got out of the inning. Denny went full on three batters but threw out pitches each time. For a first inning, lot of positives. He can help in spots now, and he's going to be a really good college pitcher before his career is over.
Brady Bramlett pushed his fastball into the low 90s and overpowered UT-Martin, striking out all three hitters swinging. Slider seemed good. Only three pitches in the inning were balls. Not much of a sample size but perfect so far. Just need to see him more in a game to have much more evaluation.
Lefty Austin Blunt threw a scoreless inning, but I didn't think he was particularly sharp. He gave up a single that could have easily been a double to start the inning. A caught stealing and a couple groundouts ended the inning, the last on a 3-1 count. Again, just one outing. No big deal. And it was the eighth inning of a 15-2 game with the temperature around 35 degrees. Not exactly pumped up territory.
Sam Smith threw three innings to start, and other than being up in the zone too much early, he was good. Probably some nerves causing that more than anything. Not sure what his ceiling is, but I definitely think he can win games for Ole Miss on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and that's a pretty important role. Fastball had good life, and he was pretty solid all the way around.
Scott Weathersby was also good again. That fastball will sit low 90s when the weather warms, and he's commanding each arm slot with multiple pitches. So far he looks like a really good option to go one time through the order.
Cameron Dishon can really run. He'll be valuable late in games.
EARLY DRAFT THOUGHTS
I posted this below regarding the potential MLB Draft casualties in Ole Miss' 2013 signing class. It's a brief, early synopsis. Things will change prior to June's Draft.
Overall this class sets up like the one a couple years ago when the Rebels got pretty fortunate and got 9 of 11 drafted players to campus. Not sure that'll happen again, but it's possible. There aren't the top 20 picks in this group.
129 JB Woodman
Woodman has soared up the prospect charts, moving into the top 100 before settling at 129 in the latest Perfect Game update. He's an outfielder with a bat and will be coveted by many teams, but Ole Miss has a pretty decent chance here since he's a position player and should fall outside the first few rounds. Collective bargaining agreement could be a very handy thing here.
139 Dalton Dulin
Dulin is the mystery, in my opinion. I hear that he'll entertain offers, even in rounds where you'd think college is a certainty. He's extremely aggressive and will put the ball in play and out-scrap you. He's a dirtbag, in a positive baseball way. The arm is weak, and he's probably a second baseman at that level. To me, he's a hell of a college player, but he'll be gobbled up at some point, and I expect some drama.
155 Evan Anderson
Big-time LHP from Oklahoma. His family is all about college, and it'll take a huge number. I'm not ruling out a big number, and it may be very close, but my gut says college. I'll probably flip flop that prediction a few times before June though. Ole Miss signed the top pitcher in Oklahoma in two straight classes. Random and impressive.
255 Cheyne Bickel
Big buddies with Dulin. That could play a factor. His scouting readings have been all over the place and inconsistent, but the good days are really good. It's a coin flip with an edge to the pros for now.
240 Carlos Williams
Williams isn't polished and doesn't have advanced tools past speed, but boy does he have speed. He has the fastest 60 time in the nation for his class at 6.18 seconds. Yeah, 6.18 (Golson was a 6.38) during a Perfect Game combine. Dude can absolutely fly. The speed will make a team overpay, and it feels like a Ryan Bolden deal.
204 Errol Robinson
Athletic shortstop from Maryland. Sister is at Ole Miss I think. Does everything really well. Complete player. I don't have a good read on him yet. I've heard it's going to be close, but I could also see him slip a couple rounds for whatever reason.
Brantley Bell, son of Jay Bell, is ranked 218, but I haven't heard much buzz. He told me it'd take top two rounds to skip.
A few other draft possibilities, but those are the ones I'd worry about.
This post was edited on 2/22 9:05 AM by Chase Parham
HEADING INTO THE WEEKEND
No. 8 Ole Miss (4-0), coming off a sweep of top 25 TCU and a midweek rout of UT-Martin, hosts Rhode Island at 4 p.m. Friday, 1 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Looks like the bad weather has moved out. The highs are 55 degrees, 53 degrees and 62 degrees the three days, respectively.
Rhode Island (0-3) opened the season at Florida State and was competitive all weekend but fell 11-6, 6-2 and 8-6. The Rams had a lead throughout Sunday's game but faltered in the late innings. Rhode Island was 33-25 last season with an RPI of 133. The Rams return six starters defensively, one weekend starter and five pitchers who logged more than 15 bullpen innings last season.
They are expected to run a decent amount, so it should be a nice matchup against Ole Miss catcher Stuart Turner, who threw out the only two attempts last weekend. He DHed on Tuesday, as Will Allen got a game behind the plate. They stole 122 bases last season.
From a pitching standpoint, it's command and ground balls. I can't find any big strikeout numbers, so Ole Miss will need to just spread the ball around and sit back. I expect a heavy diet of offspeed stuff and fastballs down in the zone. Saturday starter Sean Furney struck out 5 'Noles in 4 innings but also walked 7. That could be interesting.
Ole Miss is obviously better, but RI isn't a pushover. The Rebels will have to play well.
QUICK THOUGHTS ON WEDNESDAY
The temperature and the opponent made it difficult to get too much of a read, and one outing wouldn't allow that anyway, however there were some promising things from the freshmen pitchers seeing their first action. With the samples sizes so small, it's a tough thing to really analyze, but here's a little bit.
Matt Denny is the interesting one to me. I think it's still really early in his development, and he's only going to get better. Though he's a lefty, I'm reminded of Phillip Irwin a little bit. He was 84-86 or so in the bitter cold Wednesday. I think he'll settle around 88 before it's over. He spotted up well with both pitches, and his breaking ball was quite good. He also shook off the double and got out of the inning. Denny went full on three batters but threw out pitches each time. For a first inning, lot of positives. He can help in spots now, and he's going to be a really good college pitcher before his career is over.
Brady Bramlett pushed his fastball into the low 90s and overpowered UT-Martin, striking out all three hitters swinging. Slider seemed good. Only three pitches in the inning were balls. Not much of a sample size but perfect so far. Just need to see him more in a game to have much more evaluation.
Lefty Austin Blunt threw a scoreless inning, but I didn't think he was particularly sharp. He gave up a single that could have easily been a double to start the inning. A caught stealing and a couple groundouts ended the inning, the last on a 3-1 count. Again, just one outing. No big deal. And it was the eighth inning of a 15-2 game with the temperature around 35 degrees. Not exactly pumped up territory.
Sam Smith threw three innings to start, and other than being up in the zone too much early, he was good. Probably some nerves causing that more than anything. Not sure what his ceiling is, but I definitely think he can win games for Ole Miss on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and that's a pretty important role. Fastball had good life, and he was pretty solid all the way around.
Scott Weathersby was also good again. That fastball will sit low 90s when the weather warms, and he's commanding each arm slot with multiple pitches. So far he looks like a really good option to go one time through the order.
Cameron Dishon can really run. He'll be valuable late in games.
EARLY DRAFT THOUGHTS
I posted this below regarding the potential MLB Draft casualties in Ole Miss' 2013 signing class. It's a brief, early synopsis. Things will change prior to June's Draft.
Overall this class sets up like the one a couple years ago when the Rebels got pretty fortunate and got 9 of 11 drafted players to campus. Not sure that'll happen again, but it's possible. There aren't the top 20 picks in this group.
129 JB Woodman
Woodman has soared up the prospect charts, moving into the top 100 before settling at 129 in the latest Perfect Game update. He's an outfielder with a bat and will be coveted by many teams, but Ole Miss has a pretty decent chance here since he's a position player and should fall outside the first few rounds. Collective bargaining agreement could be a very handy thing here.
139 Dalton Dulin
Dulin is the mystery, in my opinion. I hear that he'll entertain offers, even in rounds where you'd think college is a certainty. He's extremely aggressive and will put the ball in play and out-scrap you. He's a dirtbag, in a positive baseball way. The arm is weak, and he's probably a second baseman at that level. To me, he's a hell of a college player, but he'll be gobbled up at some point, and I expect some drama.
155 Evan Anderson
Big-time LHP from Oklahoma. His family is all about college, and it'll take a huge number. I'm not ruling out a big number, and it may be very close, but my gut says college. I'll probably flip flop that prediction a few times before June though. Ole Miss signed the top pitcher in Oklahoma in two straight classes. Random and impressive.
255 Cheyne Bickel
Big buddies with Dulin. That could play a factor. His scouting readings have been all over the place and inconsistent, but the good days are really good. It's a coin flip with an edge to the pros for now.
240 Carlos Williams
Williams isn't polished and doesn't have advanced tools past speed, but boy does he have speed. He has the fastest 60 time in the nation for his class at 6.18 seconds. Yeah, 6.18 (Golson was a 6.38) during a Perfect Game combine. Dude can absolutely fly. The speed will make a team overpay, and it feels like a Ryan Bolden deal.
204 Errol Robinson
Athletic shortstop from Maryland. Sister is at Ole Miss I think. Does everything really well. Complete player. I don't have a good read on him yet. I've heard it's going to be close, but I could also see him slip a couple rounds for whatever reason.
Brantley Bell, son of Jay Bell, is ranked 218, but I haven't heard much buzz. He told me it'd take top two rounds to skip.
A few other draft possibilities, but those are the ones I'd worry about.
This post was edited on 2/22 9:05 AM by Chase Parham
