Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

now that the draft has come and gone, a brief look at next year's team:

starting pitching: outlook... promising. we've got one more year of kenyon yovan. he'll start and match-up well with all of the pac-12's friday starters, which is something we really missed this year with matt mercer as our friday guy. kolby somers will be back for his sophomore year, probably as the saturday guy. none of his numbers pop out but that goes in both directions. he was a serviceable pac-10 starter as a true freshman, let's hope he can make the jump to above average with a year under his belt. we've had guys in the past who were forced into action and vomited all over themselves, but somers did not do that. as for the sunday or mid-week guys, your guess is as good as mine right now. quality depth is... not... good. james acuna has left the program per steve mims. cole stringer started out as the saturday guy this season but was unimpressive in 3 starts and then never pitched again. injury? i don't know. cullen kafka started 6 games this year but got drilled more often than not. i thought hunter breault (sophomore-to-be) showed promise. he had one start but appeared mostly out of the bullpen. honestly, we probably need one of the incoming freshmen, or perhaps a late addition JC kid, to be serviceable in order to get back to the postseason next year.

offense: outlook... meh. no real surprise here. we have a trio of good hitters (jakob goldfarb, who may move to catcher out of necessity now that ray soderman went pro; 1B gabe matthews; and 3B spencer steer) but it drops off mighty fast after that. johnny deluca started 54 games a freshman in the outfield. he didn't hit consistently well, but he did have 6 HR. evan williams, another freshman, lost his job to taylor travess about the time pac-12 play started. he hit a paltry .132 over 26 starts. ryne nelson started 50 games at shortstop but he hit .171. yovan DH'd 41 games and hit .233 w/ 3 HRs, which isn't anything eye-popping but sadly that line did make him one of our better hitters in 2018. none of our returning bench guys were able to take playing time away from our ineffective starters. we badly need this incoming freshman class to produce 3-4 everyday position players. BADLY. aj miller was drafted in the 37th round, he may be a candidate to start in the OF, but i don't really know much about the rest. i know the coaching staff likes this class, but i don't know what that really means. i'm sure they like most of their classes.

bullpen: outlook... unknown. yovan's a starter, parker kelly is now in the st. louis cardinals farm system. nelson has a cannon for an arm and was a late-inning specialist this year, he may be in line to close next year. after nelson, man. i just don't know. there's a lot of bodies, with 4 incoming freshman as well, but i don't know how it's going to stack up. i'm hoping yovan and somers can both go deep into games.

So, the outlook for 2019 is that the Ducks will pretty much be the same team it's been for the last 6 years or so. It is scary that the staff likes this class and probably liked the previous years. Small ball, while definitely Horton's preference is probably all his teams could do. Former Duck, Tyler Anderson, did a great job against the Mariners yesterday.

buzz around oregon baseball (insomuch that it exists) after the intra-squad fall world series is that our starting pitching may be much better than originally anticipated. horton moved ryne nelson (shortstop/reliever) to the rotation and the yovan/nelson/somers trio reportedly turned a lot of heads.

Hard to imagine this season being anything better than the previous Horton years.
Of course there's people that say we are lucky just to have a team and shouldn't expect anything more out of it.
With that said the season feels like it's finished before it even started. Probably close to the same record as last year, I would assume.

shoparound wrote:Hard to imagine this season being anything better than the previous Horton years.
Of course there's people that say we are lucky just to have a team and shouldn't expect anything more out of it.
With that said the season feels like it's finished before it even started. Probably close to the same record as last year, I would assume.

Hmmm, based on your posts baseball is in the toilet, football is a mess, you doubt Altman's team will make the tourney and Graves can't recruit. That is just in the last week. Cheer up, have a great Thanksgiving and realize Oregon athletics are always a bumpy ride.

Gotta wonder how long Horton will be around.

maxduck wrote:

shoparound wrote:Hard to imagine this season being anything better than the previous Horton years.
Of course there's people that say we are lucky just to have a team and shouldn't expect anything more out of it.
With that said the season feels like it's finished before it even started. Probably close to the same record as last year, I would assume.

Hmmm, based on your posts baseball is in the toilet, football is a mess, you doubt Altman's team will make the tourney and Graves can't recruit. That is just in the last week. Cheer up, have a great Thanksgiving and realize Oregon athletics are always a bumpy ride.

Oh I'm not depressed trust me. I'm realistic.
I am worried about Altman's team, I WANT them to make the tournament.

But baseball is in the toilet and has been for a while, there is proof of that.