2015 Canes baseball primer

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Gonna play devil's advocate to some of the points in hopes of getting a discussion going, solid preview though man. Good work. Will post my preview sometime towards the end of January.

Suarez is one of the best in the ACC. Behind him, a lot of question marks. Beauperez was a big name coming in and as mentioned, had a nice spot start against A&M in the regional. IMO, if Woodrey is in our top 3, expect to see a lot of crooked numbers on Sundays. Haven't done much research into what we have coming in, but hopefully we get to learn one of their names very quickly. This has to be the most velo the weekend rotation will have in quite some time....

I'm just so thankful Garcia closed last year and not another 85MPH sidewinder. Solid numbers and a solid season, but there just always seemed to be the tying run on 2nd when he got the 27th out... I want to buy into the Cooper Hammond hype, but Adam Sargent and other sidewinders in recent years have me jumping off that train. Woodrey was pretty fantastic out of the pen last year, but "dominant lefty" is one of the last things I would call him.

I would give Johnny Ruiz the starting gig at third just because of how he was able to solidify that spot defensively when no one could after 30 games last year. Not a bad hitter either. This Iskindarian kid is very intriguing though... As mentioned, Ruiz to 2nd could be the move.

Still waiting for Lopez to take that next step at SS....

You're absolutely right that Collins and Thompson SHOULD be the most feared 3/4 hitters Miami has had since O'Brien/??? Yasmani/??? .... lol maybe even before that....

Amazing how Thompson went from pop-up machine in the Regionals to Cape Cod All-Star/MVP or whatever in a matter of a month...don't care how/why, I just want to see Cape Cod #DAVEYBASEBALL come February.

The outfield is stacked as in terms of quantity.... Willie Abreu was abysmal in the postseason last year, I want to say he ended the season like 1-22 or something around there... I hope this Chester guy is the goods, but sometimes speedsters like that have a tough time adjusting to the quicker pace of the game. Eusebio is a very good defender but will slash .250/.350/.300, hopefully Eusebio ends up a poor man's Chester this year. I never have been, and never will be that high on Heyward, a slow bat who lives off his brother's name. Haven't looked much into this Smith guy. Barr will play the smartest baseball of anyone around, but his physical limitations will not let him hit over .250, let alone slug .250, but I can almost guarantee his OBP will be 100 points higher than his AVG.

The OF is a real concern for me and I know Morris and staff will look at every player on the roster and will not be afraid to try people in their non-traditional positions if need be.

Tyler Palmer is gone everyone, more high fives all around!!!!

It will be interesting to monitor the catching situation...can Kennedy hit well enough to push Collins to 1B/DH? Can Collins keep taking steps forward improving his defense and be the everyday starter like what happened at the end of last year? Do you want your best hitter to also be your number 1 catcher if his defense isn't superior?

52 days till the Canes open up at The Light against Rutgers.

Shout out to Dan here with the only number 52 I could find, Eric Whaley. What a disappointing senior year he had.

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Well I guess it's a good thing that this program has built such high expectations. It is impossible to get to Omaha every single year. Even FSU, who has no academic standards, great facilities, and a notoriously gets an easy road to Omaha can't break through and win it. Having Gino Dimare back has been big. He has brought in and developed a ton of talent that was just lacking while he took time off. This year seems to be where we see the results. We will see. 2008 was rough, maybe the greatest (or 2nd) best team we have ever had. Gino left after that and so did the development and talent across the board.

I thought I heard something like this before...

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At this point, I guess I'll take 1 in every 5 years???
 
I agree with your points. And yes I may have came across as a "glass half full" kind of guy but I did mention that after Suarez that the rotation is up for grabs and nothing is certain or dominant but that Beauprez did have a good regional start (vs Texas Tech) and was a big time prospect. Lets hope he makes the next move. As for Woodrey, I hope he is able to stay in the bullpen. Was he a "dominant" guy? No. But in that 6th/7th/8th inning he was great and did everything we could have asked him to do. I agree to a certain extent on Cooper but Bellamy was a dang good side arm guy and Cooper was only a freshman. Lets see what he can do.

In regards to Blake James' comment. That was football. Come on, baseball is nothing like that. If you win every game in baseball then wow. (ha, I know you know this, just giving you a hard time back).

I will stick with Ruiz at second base because I really think Iskenderian is going to solidfy third.

You are 100% correct on the outfield. When I said it was stacked I meant quantity with the potential for quality. I am hoping Carl Chester and Justin Smith can take the other two spots. I am confident that Chester will but Smith still may be a little raw. Abreu did struggle at end of season but again he was a freshman. He also had a great 2/3 of the season. Again, I am hoping he can take that next step.
 
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