His performance at Ole Miss is a little concerning but he is having a solid summer this year in the MLBD league and he had two seasons of double-digit home runs at Mercer. At minimum, he gives us an experienced bat to compete at LF along with younger and incoming prospects. Based on Szefc's history, I agree with your projection that he will likely be penciled in as a starter but if he struggles then we'll see Locurto or one of the freshmen fill in that slot. I also agree with your current starting projections but I could see some minor lineup tweaks with Pittman batting leadoff and Gibson hitting 2nd behind him with Cherry & Michel in the 3rd/4th spots. But knowing Szefc, I expect we'll see numerous lineup tweaks throughout the season based on performance.

Spent a lot of time thinking about Gibby, and even who would play 3B? Locurto and Tackett still have a shot at a corner OF spot. I put Grady and Pittman as my 1/9 guys. I think they got swung around on either side of the lineup. Szefc loves having a guy to turn over with high contact.

Miss in appx. 75 less at-bats. Hopefully just an adjustment period.

But you can’t assume these transfers are going to step up, they aren’t getting done in the summer, I’m very skeptical of these transfers OF, Watson was a once in a decade transfer. They needed to get better guys than what they got. There were so many top OF in the portal. Plus they have young guys that can contribute that are forgetting about, rising sophomore and the freshman coming in from the Appalachian league. Those two might get a shot. A lot can happen. ** Edited by Hokiefan554455 at 7/11/2024, 11:03:36 AM

But, they've been EXTREMELY successful with outfield transfers over the past 2 years. Enough so that they will likely continue to lean in that direction: Cannizzaro Micheletti Watson The name of the game with the transfer portal across college baseball appears to be that the outfield will be heavily made up of transfers year-year who have proven hit record in college baseball. I say this based on podcasts from D1 and Baseball America who have discussed this model (see link below to BA podcast discussing this). It will unfortunately be tough for freshmen to get plate appearances in the future at SEC and ACC schools unless you're a Drew Burress type. The transfer w/ success in college ball is a far less risky profile than freshmen or even rising sophomores with limited college experience. The team has access to data that will allow them to better project success than most of us can work with for transfers. Ben Watson was no accident. He was on the radar of UVA too. Using poor numbers in the summer to say a player won't be productive in the ACC is a dangerous game. See Ben Watson's summer stats in 2023. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/baseball-america/id... I don't doubt the abilities of incoming freshmen or rising sophomores. I'm simply stating what I believe is likely to happen based on recent roster construction activity. Even summer league success doesn't always translate to ACC success, unless we're talking Cape League. We've had some guys find success in the summer who struggled to produce in the spring. All 3 OF transfers bring a wealth of D1 experience, some against premier competition. In the end I think that will increase their likelihood of getting the starting job.

Let’s hope this all pans out, would be nice to have a complete season and having a strong hitting OF is a must. The first part of last season was exciting. Hope we can have a exciting end of the season as well