Christian Little

[GooseJones15]

Was surprised and pleased to see Christian Little on the roster. Our pitching staff should be dynamite i.

[commadore]

Why was this kid not a high draft pick? Seems he was very highly rated. Happy for us, but seems strange, unless he said he was not signing under any condition.

[HAILMURY]

I believe he would be a high draft pick. He is graduating high school early and joining Vanderbilt's team. This is in lieu of competing in his high school senior season.
He would have been in the 2021 draft class.
Unless I misunderstand.
Can't wait to see what this pitching staff can acomplish.

[Commodoredave]

Yes, he should be in HS this spring. From what I read, he has an advanced approach and will be ready to compete day 1. This is one of our most talented and deepest pitching staff's ever, so it's hard to predict how many reps a new guy will get, but Little is a first round talent, and those guys seem to find a way to make an impact over the course of a season.

[oakparkDore]

This is one of our most talented and deepest pitching staffs ever

We should all stop and contemplate this for a second. It’s absolutely true and yet think about how utterly incredible some of our pitching staffs have been over the years. Man are we a lucky bunch of fans!

[Versus75]

This could be a championship team with just average offense and I believe ours will be much better than it was last year.

Isaiah Thomas was just starting to break out last season (4 HR in 62 AB) and is now projected #27 1st Round draft choice.
Cooper Davis is back with his .338/.435/.416 slash line of last year.
Jayson Gonzalez is back after skipping a season following his 2019 .357/.471/.446 slash line in platoon play.
Carter Young started all 18 games last year and batted .328.
Freshman Enrique Bradfield Jr. is said to have world-class speed. He and freshman Jack O'Dowd were on some MLB draft boards.
A rare JC-transfer, Javier Vaz, has 2 years of eligibility after batting .364 and then .365 with OBP over .500 both seasons at LSU-Eunice. He also stole 46 bases in 54 attempts.

And look at some of these numbers from the fall Black-Gold Series batting against the best pitching staff in the NCAA:

Player ....... AVG .... OBP ..... SLG
Thomas ...... .700 ... .727 ... 1.500
Romero Jr. .. .444 ... .500 ... 1.111
Gonzalez .... .429 ... .636 .... .571
Bulger ...... .375 ... .545 .... .375
Keegan ...... .333 ... .455 .... .778
Kolwyck ..... .286 ... .545 ... 1.143

Granted, it was a small sample of games, but I'm looking forward to more of the same coming soon to a ballpark near you!

[Commodoredave]

Certainly some potential in the offense, but I am concerned that they didn't get enough live reps because of the short 2020 season and limited summer ball opportunities. We were off to a shaky start last year, and that was with the best hitter I've ever seen in a VU uniform leading the charge. This is one of those teams that will be carried by pitching, and you hope the offense is much better in May after 50 games.

[PinkFloyd]

Hello fellow VandyBoys fans.... let's see.....

The hitting early on has not been stellar by any stretch .... it's a concern.... not consistent at all.... has to to improve....

Pitching only Rocker, Fisher and Smith have any SEC innings and last spring in LA was not a great trip against USC, TCU and ULCA if memory serves. But the pitching is strong with Rock, Leiter, Smith , Fisher, and there are some that can break out. Murphy, Pat Riley comes to mind as well as Hliboki , Schultz, Doolin, Maldonado

Defense should be solid, outfield with Davis , EBJ and IT. Likely Keegan at 1st , Kolwyck at 2nd, Young at SS and Noland at 3rd. CJ catching. Now I am not knocking Little but he isn't ready for any SEC time.... great talent 89-91 will be awesome in a year or two of the weight room and learning how to pitch, better dream on him this season.

Corbs has a way to have them ready by May... but we have some tough road series... Tenn is always tough there stock is ticking up, Florida, Missouri who wants to play at Missouri... no one....., LSU and Ole MIss right now probably 8-7 there

Alabama, Kentucky , SC, Miss St and Georgia at home... likely 11-4 for an SEC record of 19-11 that's my guess.... will host a regional, with the pitching should win the super and head back to Omaha.... any key injuries and we are in trouble.

I love IT , he's no Martin or Bleday.... CJ likely not Clark, plus Duvy and Scott ? Not saying this team cannot get back..... they can ...... ranked 4-6 in most polls, Look for Corbs to manufacture some runs.... hoping like hell it all comes together.

[PinkFloyd]

I would add, better go back this year.... losing a ton of talent after this season . It's apparent the Covid year hurt the incoming frosh the most. The one thing no one ever talks about is Coach Jewett.......... this junior class is his last recruiting class......

[geeznotagain]

I'm sure that any baseball player signed by an SEC school, or most any college for that matter, has put in a lot of hours and a ton of energy working on his conditioning and honing his skills. That is particularly important during the prior pre-season, due to its length if nothing else.


Maybe I'm viewing this through black and gold tinted glasses, but I'd like to believe that any kid who has accepted the challenge to play at Vandy, and perhaps even more importantly any kid who CTC has faith in enough to award him a Vandy scholarship, is a special kid. And he is special in a way that he will put in at least as much off-season work, and most probably more work, than the other kids he will be competing against. So I maintain, again maybe with some prejudice, that a long preseason can only help us relative to our competition.

[PinkFloyd]

With all due respect , I have no idea what you are talking about


I hope the team wins the national championship..... but the reality is if they cannot hit... they cannot win. bunch of low scoring games this season.

From what I seen, don't expect too much too soon.... hoping by May they have it all together and with the pitching and defense they can make a run.

It is what it is, the current hitters have not had enough AB's ... maybe they prove me wrong.

[PinkFloyd]

Christian Little was very good in innings one and two of the scrimmage. Due to age and strength he lacks endurance as velo fell sharply in innings three and four. Adrenaline likely early on. Could be a solid reliever this season. Maybe a once through the order guy. Which for his age is very good. bright future

[commadore]

With all due respect , I have no idea what you are talking about


I hope the team wins the national championship..... but the reality is if they cannot hit... they cannot win. bunch of low scoring games this season.

From what I seen, don't expect too much too soon.... hoping by May they have it all together and with the pitching and defense they can make a run.

It is what it is, the current hitters have not had enough AB's ... maybe they prove me wrong.

With all due respect, the team that couldn't hit anything scored 104 runs in 18 games last year. That is an average of 5.78 per game. With our pitching, if we average that this year, we WILL make Omaha.

[Commodoredave]

With all due respect , I have no idea what you are talking about


I hope the team wins the national championship..... but the reality is if they cannot hit... they cannot win. bunch of low scoring games this season.

From what I seen, don't expect too much too soon.... hoping by May they have it all together and with the pitching and defense they can make a run.

It is what it is, the current hitters have not had enough AB's ... maybe they prove me wrong.

With all due respect, the team that couldn't hit anything scored 104 runs in 18 games last year. That is an average of 5.78 per game. With our pitching, if we average that this year, we WILL make Omaha.

Against tournament level competition- Michigan, UCLA, USC, TCU, we went 1-3 and scored 9 in four games. That was with the best hitter I've ever seen at VU and a couple of veterans who are not back. Putting 9 or 10 on Illinois Chicago to inflate the average doesn't mean much.

I'll be surprised if we stay in the top 10 through the early part of the season, and it will take the best our pitching can offer to do it. The goal for this program is always June, so let's just see how they develop over 50 games worth of reps. The 2019 team was such a great squad, but get ready for the return of Vander-bunt in 2021.

[commadore]

With all due respect , I have no idea what you are talking about


I hope the team wins the national championship..... but the reality is if they cannot hit... they cannot win. bunch of low scoring games this season.

From what I seen, don't expect too much too soon.... hoping by May they have it all together and with the pitching and defense they can make a run.

It is what it is, the current hitters have not had enough AB's ... maybe they prove me wrong.

With all due respect, the team that couldn't hit anything scored 104 runs in 18 games last year. That is an average of 5.78 per game. With our pitching, if we average that this year, we WILL make Omaha.

Against tournament level competition- Michigan, UCLA, USC, TCU, we went 1-3 and scored 9 in four games. That was with the best hitter I've ever seen at VU and a couple of veterans who are not back. Putting 9 or 10 on Illinois Chicago to inflate the average doesn't mean much.

I'll be surprised if we stay in the top 10 through the early part of the season, and it will take the best our pitching can offer to do it. The goal for this program is always June, so let's just see how they develop over 50 games worth of reps. The 2019 team was such a great squad, but get ready for the return of Vander-bunt in 2021.

We started slow, but came on as the season progressed. I expect that this year.

[Commodoredave]

With all due respect, the team that couldn't hit anything scored 104 runs in 18 games last year. That is an average of 5.78 per game. With our pitching, if we average that this year, we WILL make Omaha.

Against tournament level competition- Michigan, UCLA, USC, TCU, we went 1-3 and scored 9 in four games. That was with the best hitter I've ever seen at VU and a couple of veterans who are not back. Putting 9 or 10 on Illinois Chicago to inflate the average doesn't mean much.

I'll be surprised if we stay in the top 10 through the early part of the season, and it will take the best our pitching can offer to do it. The goal for this program is always June, so let's just see how they develop over 50 games worth of reps. The 2019 team was such a great squad, but get ready for the return of Vander-bunt in 2021.

We started slow, but came on as the season progressed. I expect that this year.

This is simply not true. There was really no time to progress in a 4 week season. The data shows that we didn't hit good teams. The last weekend of our season, we went 1-2 and scored 7 runs total in the Southern California Classic while hitting a whopping .163. We bookended that weekend with 10 runs vs Central Arkansas and 11 vs Toledo which is evidence of absolutely nothing other than those two teams are lousy.

[commadore]

yes, it is.