Horton tidbits

[oregontrack]

most of our offseason threads pegged a lot of his comments. if i had to take a stab at the line-up based on his comments from media day:

CF Brett Thomas, soph
RF Aaron Jones, soph
1B Ryon Healy, soph
DH Shaun Chase, fr
LF Kyle Garlick, soph
SS JJ Altobelli, junior
3B Thomas Walker, fr
C Brett Hambright, sr
2B Aaron Payne, soph

well... i really like the first 1/3 of the order. thomas had an +.400 OBP as a freshman in 31 starts. he's fast as hell and had a good contact rate. jones was our first half MVP last year... yeah, he hit the freshman wall, but i still expect big things. ryon healy was our best all-around hitter last year when you add power into the equation. he hit .320 and led the team in HR.

after that it's kind of a free-for-all. chase is our 3rd catcher, but horton was so impressed by his bat he's going to DH and has a place in the middle of the order. garlick has some pop and had a respectable freshman season. i don't think he's a lock to start, but i guess i'd give him the nod simply because i'm familiar with him. walker is going to take over 3rd from alto, who is moving over to SS. alto needs a bounce back year: he was better as a freshman. hambright is our catcher, payne is taking over second simply because, by my estimation, he's the only one who can play the position. he only made 4 starts last year, i don't know if he has any kind of bat. pulfer was kind of the exception to the rule, often your 2B doesn't carry much of a stick.

did billy flamion enroll in school? he was drafted in the 25th round and i thought he passed it up to come here, but no one has mentioned him, at all. i thought he'd be a candidate for playing time.

starters:

rhp alex kuedell, sr
rhp jake reed, fr
rhp brando tessar, so

kuedell's on a pitch count initially, but we know what we're getting from him. he's improved every year. horton said jake reed will "definitely start", and said he hasn't made up his mind about our other guys, so that leads me to believe he'll start out as our #2. big spot for the freshman. i like tessar, i thought he was our best arm out of the 'pen last year. he made one mid-week start and did well. horton said jeff gold (soph), jimmie sherfy (soph), and tommy thorpe (fr) are all possibilities to start as well, i guess we'll find out with all these early 4-game and midweek series.

bullpen:

i will assume joey housey (jr) will close, at least initially, until he proves he can't. after that... it's anyone's guess. all those guys above who don't start will find a role.

in short:

anything over .500 would be a success, imo. the pre-conference schedule is very, very difficult, and the pac-10 is always loaded. the state of our pitching probably means we'll have to rely on our bats more, and we're not exactly known as a high scoring team. things could get rocky. BUT... if we keep our head above water, we could make a splash in 2013. we're young.

[oregontrack]

also regarding next year, steven packard could theoretically return. he hit .366 his freshman year (2010), then left for a church mission. he'd be a big addition to the line-up. he said he wanted to come back when he left, hopefully he does.

[oregontrack]

ONE WEEK TO GO!