Bunk Moreland said:
Lance Uppercut said:
Fairview20 said:
Kash on paper should be an upgrade over Burton, but Ted hit .300 for most of the year and was in the middle of the order all season.
Kash has been picking it up lately but he's barely hitting .250 with only a handful of HRs which was what he was known for coming out of Tech.
Replacing Appel was a huge task and unfortunately we don't have anyone close to him behind the plate or in the batters box.
Losing Montgomery, Appel and Burton was a big deal.
And Aschenbeck and Cortez.
Then Sdao and Grahovac, with no games played by Sorrell.
There's a lot missing from last season.
None of that explains why our offense is so horrendous against anyone with a pulse. That's the infuriating part.
1-8 were a threat to hit to a gap or clear the fence last season. We're realistically in 'manufacture runs' territory after the 4th batter in the current lineup. (And that's including Kash, who isn't on track to have double digit home runs)
Last year's team won 19 games where the opposition scored 5 or more runs. This year's team has won 2 so far, and they were both against Elon.
We're hearing a lot about launch angle and exit speed for a team that is on track to slug/homer at a significantly lower rate than last year's team. We're slugging a full 100 points lower than last year's club. We haven't had the slugging potential to shake off the departure of those players, or even just Grahovac or Sorrell this season.
Montgomery hit .322 with 27 home runs
Grahovac hit .298 with 23 home runs
Appel hit .331 with 10 home runs
Sorrell hit .275 with 11 home runs. He slugged .555, which would be good for 3rd on our current team.
Burton hit .284 with 9 home runs and a .438 OBP
For reference, the last Childress team hit .260 as a team. We're at .264 heading into SEC play after a non-conference schedule that included 9 games against Elon, Cal Poly, and New Mexico State.
