Kristen Young
By Hunt Palmer
First pitch is three weeks away, and Jay Johnson’s team was on the practice field on Wednesday afternoon.
The players battled through a little bit of a mist for portions of the scrimmage. The starting outfield played on one side and what appears to be a lean toward the starting infield played for the other.
EARLY ALIGNMENT
Chris Stanfield, Derek Curiel and Jake Brown are the starting outfield from left to right. All three are proven commodities, and I don’t expect Brown to sit against left-handed pitching this year. He’s a third-year player who is ready to make that jump.
As far as the infield goes, Steven Milam and Trent Caraway manned the left side of the infield for the other team. I expect that to be the left side on Opening Day. Brayden Simpson played first base on the Milam/Caraway team, and Tanner Reaves was the second baseman. Those are options at those two spots, but I think Seth Dardar (2B) and Zach Yorke (1B) are more likely.
Reaves, who lost his role on last year’s team because of defense, had a bad day defensively on Wednesday. He mishandled a routine double play turn that would have ended an inning. In the next frame, he charged a top-spinning ground ball to his left and whiffed it allowing a runner to score from second base. With 300 lbs. Zach Yorke running out of the box, that ball has to be kept in the infield. Defense is a huge emphasis in Johnson’s program, and last year’s was the best ever. Reaves can hit. But he won’t get the opportunity if he doesn’t play better defense.
PITCHING PERFORMANCE
What I believe to be the top four options for weekend starter roles pitched on Wednesday — Casan Evans, Cooper Moore, Cooper Williams and Zac Cowan.
Evans wasn’t at his sharpest. He struggled with command in his first inning, issuing a pair of free bases. Johnson had to end the inning for pitch count before Evans got the third out.
In the second frame, Reaves dropped the double play ball that would have returned the side. The next hitter was Dardar. Evans fell behind 3-1 and Dardar pumped a homer over the wall in right center off Evans. He’ll get back on the horse next weekend, but this wasn’t his best day. Great swing by the Kansas State transfer.
Moore’s linescore was probably pretty good. He battled command in spots, too, though. The fastball sat 93-94 mph in the first inning before they turned off the velocity on the scoreboard. He also features a really hard slider up around 87 mph.
For Cowan, I think the biggest thing is going to be the development of the breaking ball. He’s going to throw strikes, and the changeup will always be there. Can he find an out pitch that spins? He was inconsistent with it Wednesday. He allowed a double to William Patrick and hit Milam.
Williams pitched in some rain and got hit hard.
BLOCKIN’ BIDE
The biggest positive on the day was Cade Arrambide‘s defense. I thought he was outstanding.
On back-to-back pitches early in the scrimmage, he blocked a really tough slider and gunned down Brayden Simpson at second from his knees.
He blocked at least three really tough pitches without allowed a runner to advance. Another time, the runner did advance, but Arrambide still blocked the pitch and made a good throw down to third that looked to be in time. This time last year was a real adjustment for Arrambide, but he’s clearly worked on his defense.
OFFENSIVE STANDOUTS
Stanfield had a couple of hard-hit singles through the infield. Dardar added a line drive single to right field to his homer. It wasn’t a lot of fire power from the offense, but against some of LSU’s better arms, the offense was patient and worked a lot of counts into walks.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I watched five innings. It’s no cause for Omaha reservations or panic. This group has three weeks to work and then will overmatch its opponents for most of February and early March as roles are carved out. It was just really nice to head to The Box without a jacket on to watch some January baseball. Now comes the cold for a few days.
More to come.
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