Butch Thompson is previewing this weekend's tournament in Jacksonville, Fla.. Here's a summary..
** Gives us the opportunity to get experience for a road trip. We're playing good competition, helps the RPI and lets us know where we stand early in the season. Three great head coaches, three good friends.
** We'll see a 100 mph fastball Friday from Brody Brecht, who projects as a top draft pick. We've seen a lot of velocity and work on it everyday in the cages. It will prepare us for our league. These are the kind of guys you face in the SEC.
** This weekend is a great measuring stick.
** We're going to stick with a pretty consistent lineup. We have to be ready to play the No. 1 team in America and the No. 200 in the same way.
** Stealing bases has been a point of emphasis since fall once we evaluated out personnel. We've got guys that have a knack for stealing bases.
** The bullpen is very important. They've played well this first week. Super excited that four guys had their first appearance Tuesday and performed well. Griffin Graves was very good.
** I don't think four games is enough to measure (.246 average). Cooper McMurray is going to hit, so is Javon Hernandez. We're not into the numbers. We chased too much Tuesday night but the effort and approach has been good at the plate. We struck out too much but also got 13 free bases, which made the difference in the game. I have full confidence we'll hit better.
*****THAT'S ALL*****
** Gives us the opportunity to get experience for a road trip. We're playing good competition, helps the RPI and lets us know where we stand early in the season. Three great head coaches, three good friends.
** We'll see a 100 mph fastball Friday from Brody Brecht, who projects as a top draft pick. We've seen a lot of velocity and work on it everyday in the cages. It will prepare us for our league. These are the kind of guys you face in the SEC.
** This weekend is a great measuring stick.
** We're going to stick with a pretty consistent lineup. We have to be ready to play the No. 1 team in America and the No. 200 in the same way.
** Stealing bases has been a point of emphasis since fall once we evaluated out personnel. We've got guys that have a knack for stealing bases.
** The bullpen is very important. They've played well this first week. Super excited that four guys had their first appearance Tuesday and performed well. Griffin Graves was very good.
** I don't think four games is enough to measure (.246 average). Cooper McMurray is going to hit, so is Javon Hernandez. We're not into the numbers. We chased too much Tuesday night but the effort and approach has been good at the plate. We struck out too much but also got 13 free bases, which made the difference in the game. I have full confidence we'll hit better.
*****THAT'S ALL*****
