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D1 Baseball preseason poll #3

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Wow, that's a lot of confidence they have in this team. I would probably rank us in the 5-7 range. Maybe if we had Eskew and Hall I'd say 3-4.

Regardless, that's 3 pre-season polls now, and we're 3, 4, and 7 in them. This team has the talent and experience to win. Now they need to show they can handle the expectations, both as a team and as a lot of these guys are going to be heavily scouted for the draft at every major series we play
 
Interesting that D1 has the starters slotted in the order Van Belle, McMahon, Cecconi. It really wouldn’t surprise me if Van Belle was the Friday starter to open things up, with McMahon having the shakiest fall of the three and Slade being more unproven.
 
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Gino with Zagacki

Gino Dimare with Joe Z 1-13-20

University of Miami Baseball Manager Gino Dimare joins Joe Z to talk about the upcoming season and the Canes #3 national Ranking
wqam.radio.com wqam.radio.com

-Expects the lineup to be the strength.
-Will need to decide the order of the starters with JD relatively soon. Slade had the best fall, Van Belle was the best last season.
-Bullpen is the question mark. Federman to close, rest of the roles TBD and partially dependent on midweek starter.
-Expect Lala and Vilar at the top of the lineup. Lala made the biggest jump this fall.
-Repeatedly mentioned Thomas as the top freshman. He will get time at catcher alongside Del.
 
Here's the grades D1 Baseball gave Miami in their preview, using the 20-80 scouting scale:

Hitting: 65
Power: 70
Speed: 60
Defense: 55
Starting Pitching: 65
Bullpen: 55
Experience/Intangibles: 60
 
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Thomas playing catcher on Sundays with Del at DH. Maybe this will be a thing?

Allows Gates to focus on pitching on those days he's not in the lineup.
 
Del also has gotten practice reps at 3B. Trying to put together the perfect lineup both offensively and defensively amounts to quite a sudoku puzzle to say the least.
 
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I'd just have Thomas catch McFarlane on midweek games, and put Del in RF, Lala in CF, and Rivera in LF those days. Let Del catch the weekend guys and let Thomas get his reps in with a fellow frosh on the mound.

@rokulika seems like Gates is going to be used in a setup/bullpen role, so I'd think he just stays at DH until you need him in the late innings. Next year I'm guessing Gates will be a starter and then I agree to keep him out of the lineup on days he's a SP
 
rokulika said:
Thomas playing catcher on Sundays with Del at DH. Maybe this will be a thing?

Allows Gates to focus on pitching on those days he's not in the lineup.
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I’d expect him to catch at least once a week be it Sunday or midweek. I think he’s the better defensive catcher of the two in the long run.
 
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tcgrad1014 said:
If our hitting gets a 65, who's better?
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I think the offense and pitching ratings are low. Both should be our strengths this year. Don't get me started with the experience. We have a lot of guys who are now juniors that played a lot as freshman and sophomores. Last years freshman got a lot of experience as well. That's why we're a top 5 team.
 
Number1CanesFan said:
I think the offense and pitching ratings are low. Both should be our strengths this year. Don't get me started with the experience. We have a lot of guys who are now juniors that played a lot as freshman and sophomores. Last years freshman got a lot of experience as well. That's why we're a top 5 team.
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The thing that worries me is our lack of postseason experience. If we reach the Supers, I would hate to be paired with one of the regulars.
 
ThePurpleHunter said:
The thing that worries me is our lack of postseason experience. If we reach the Supers, I would hate to be paired with one of the regulars.
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I'm not worried. The experience last year at Miss St. was invaluable. No tougher place to play. Secondly, I'm expecting the Canes to be playing at home throughout the postseason.
 
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