Vols Head Out to Summer Leagues

#1

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#1
Members of the Tennessee baseball team have begun to scatter across the country as they prepare to compete in wood-bat summer leagues from California to New Hampshire. In all, 13 Volunteers will play in six different leagues this summer.

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Discuss.
 
#2
#2
Jake Rowland was named Cal Ripken League Hitter of the Night by collegesummerbaseball.net. 4 for 5 with a homer and two doubles.

Link
 
#6
#6
I meant up and coming seniors. What happened to godley and luther?

My mistake. I am not sure about them specifically but not all players decide to play for various reasons usually academics or some pitchers decide to rest their arms if they have pitched a lot of innings or have been injured.
 
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#7
#7
My mistake. I am not sure about them specifically but not all players decide to play for various reasons usually academics or some pitchers decide to rest their arms if they have pitched a lot of innings or have been injured.

Godley is going to train with the USA Baseball team that Serrano is coaching, and may make it as an alternate. He's also in summer school so he will graduate next spring.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
 
#8
#8
Godley is going to train with the USA Baseball team that Serrano is coaching, and may make it as an alternate. He's also in summer school so he will graduate next spring.
Posted via VolNation Mobile

Thats good info. Another thing about seniors not being on summer rosters is many expect to be drafted and signso they don't catch on to rosters until after they aren't drafted.
 
#10
#10
Nick Williams has been pitching quite well in relief and has an ERA below 2.

Zajac pitched twice for his team and was very effective. However, the Texas College League web site shows he hasn't pitched in two week and was released by his team over the weekend. I hope he's not hurt. Anyone know his status?

Most of the other guys I looked up don't have good numbers at this stage of the summer. For a lot of them, getting reps and innings may be more important than the early stats they post.
 
#13
#13
Parker Wormsley and Will Maddox continue to have solid summers. Ethan Bennett tore it up in Laconia. Hit for power and average. Heard he is going to summer school second session. Zajac came home to get healthy. Robbie Kidd and Eric Martin are both getting in some innings in Betheseda and have had some recent solid outings. Jared Allen started a little slow, but seems to be turning it around and Nick Williams has pitched well. Jared has pitch some for Rochester. Heard that another juco signee, Tyler Smart, from South Carolina signed with the Texas Rangers. Good for him, tough for Tennessee.
 
#14
#14
Just checked everyone's summer stats, and it's a little concerning.

Most summer leagues have a mix of players from different divisions and conferences. A lot of leagues have more than a third of their players from lower division schools, and many of the major conference players are younger guys who didn't play much as freshmen or sophomores. You would expect SEC players to tear it up in this competitive situation.

Except for Ethan Bennett (.313, 5 HR, 18 RBI in 18 games) and Nick Williams (1.15 ERA in 15.2 innings of relief work with no decisions or saves), both of whom have apparently cut short their summer playing to go back to school or home, I can't find a single Vol with a batting average above .300 or an ERA below 6.00 this summer. None of them are among their team or league leaders.

I don't want to put too much weight on summer numbers. The season lasts less than two months, and many summer leagues let players be more relaxed and have more fun. I don't want to make this more important than it is. But I sure would have expected some of our guys to step up and show what SEC players can do against generic college competition, especially since so many of them will have to battle to keep their roster spots.

I did see that a couple of guys who were cut or invited to transfer or whatever are doing good. They're probably playing with a little more urgency to find new schools.
 
#15
#15
Both Parker Womsley and Will Maddox were recently named to thier league all star teams. Both have hit around hit .300 all year. Wormsley has started almost every game most at shortstop. Maddox has batted lead-off and played second in all but 2 of his teams 31games. He leads or is near the very top of his team in hits, runs, stolen bases, obp, walks. Leads the league in stolen bases. Both of these teams have been ranked in the top 25 summer teams by perfect game. Maddox's team was high as 5th, currently 23rd. Robbie Kidd and Conner Stevens both started a little slow, but are getting solid innings and numbers are improving. All of these are rising So. experiencing first year in this level of summer ball. Will only make them better.

By the way... as of this morning. Zach Osborne was batting .314 and had started at SS for the last 5 or 6 games. Playing for Tri-Cities Dust Devils, A ball for Rockies. Hope they keep giving him a chance to show what we have all seen. Great ball player, great kid.
 
#16
#16
I love your optimism, but you sort of made my point. A couple guys are batting "around" .300 (actually .292 and 284)? Our best returning hitter has 5 extra base hits in 116 at bats. That's not good news, but you're putting a happy face on it.

Of your pitchers that "are improving," one of them gave up 8 runs in 3 innings his last time out, the other lost his starting job and is walking more than a batter per inning. Their "improving" ERA's are 7.86 and 8.59.

And these are the guys you offer up as doing well. I'm definitely not trying to embarrass any players. Every name I mentioned in this thread was in a positive light, but when you tout specific players as doing well when they really aren't, it's fair for me to straighten out the record.

I'm not calling anyone out. I'm just saying this summer's results don't make me feel better about next spring.

Do you really feel the numbers support a different outlook?

Oh, and please don't talk about all stars. In a league with 6 teams, a third of the players and more than half the starters have to be all stars in order to field two teams for the all star game. Even in the bigger leagues, each team has 4 or 5 all stars. Shouldn't we be concerned that only two of our players are on all star teams?
 
#17
#17
No one is trying to put a "spin" on the results. Much of the success of this team next year will depend on the recuiting class. UT is not returning very many players. The most obvious challenge is pitching. Depth of pitching hurt last year and must be addressed. They are bringing in a bunch of pitchers. My point is that we have several young quality players returning that should continue to improve. However, we will be replacing most of our infield, most of our outfield and a reconstructed pitching staff. We are going to need some of these returning pitchers, along with the new recruits, to step up. I do think understanding and buying in to the new system will pay dividends this year. We can be proud of the progress of the returning players, but still understand that there is much work to be done.
 
#18
#18
OK. I think we have some common ground.

I thought from the beginning we won't see the full results of the "Serrano effect" until spring of 2015 when his 2013 recruits become sophomores. He was hired too late to compete for the 2012 blue chippers.

Until then, we will have to make do with Raleigh recruits hopefully getting better (which is what you're looking for signs of), transfers, and Serrano's young recruits.

I think we're also seeing why he moved so many players out after this season and why he may have to do it again after next season. It's a pretty short list of guys on the current roster who look like they're ready to be key members of an SEC-contending team.
 
#19
#19
OK, maybe summer numbers don't matter that much.

Four 2012 Vols are playing in the Cal Ripken League, two who got cut or invited to transfer and two who are coming back.

Guess which two are on the All Star team. Yep, the ones not coming back.
Jake Rowland: .318, 4 HR, 19 RBI, 7 SB
Joe Vanderplas: 5-0 W-L, 2.70 ERA
 
#20
#20
The Summer Leagues are a time to get some good swings in and work on their skills. I agree not to overanalyze the numbers. There's alot of travel time on buses and they play practically every night and quite frankly can get pretty burned out and not really play as well as they're capable for those reasons. Nick and Ethan are back at UT for second semester summer session, pushing towards their degrees and working out with the players on campus. Both played extremely well and left among team leaders in several areas. Maddox and Wormsley both are playing solidly and are team leaders as well, esp. Maddox. I am looking forward to seeing these guys again on the UT field.
 
#21
#21
Here are the final stats for summer leagues:

Ethan Bennett .313 5 HR 18 RBI
Jake Rowland .299 5 HR 25 RBI
Will Mattox .269 0 HR 16 RBI
Nick Powell .229 0 HR 11 RBI
Parker Wormsley .208 0 HR 15 RBI
Kevin O'Leary .201 1 HR 20 RBI
Jason Manis .200 1 HR 4 RBI
Jared Allen .196 5 HR 17 RBI


NAME............ ERA IP K BB H
Nick Williams 0.0 14.1 18 7 8
Joseph Vanderplas 2.28 46 41 15 38
Brandon Zajac 2.35 7.2 4 4 3
Dalton Saberhagen 4.71 17 15 11 8
Eric Martin 5.58 26.1 22 11 33
Conner Stevens 6.32 37 26 18 54
Blake Thomas 8.02 21.1 25 18 27
Robbie Kidd 8.44 21.1 22 28 20
Jared Allen 9.88 13.2 12 12 17

Rowland, Vanderplas, and Stevens have transferred. I'm not sure how many others have left. We will see how many are in class tomorrow!
 
#22
#22
One more I just stumbled upon:

Nick Blount spent the summer as the closer for the Terre Haute Rex in the Prospect League. 2-1 W-L, 12 saves, 1.42 ERA, 31.2 IP, 37 K, 9 BB.

Named Prospect League's co-prospect of the year and to mid-season and post-season all-star teams.

Perfect Game also named him a top prospect for his summer league and lists him as attending Southern Polytechnic, an NAIA school outside Atlanta.

Nice to see him on a positive path.
 

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