thoughts on hitting depth

Feb 5, 2025, 5:44 PM

was thinking back to an interview Bakich did on Faxon's show a few weeks ago. EB at the time said he felt like they were 14 deep in terms of position players. Getting a number that specific interested me, and most of the names on that list shouldn't be hard to guess. Starting with the best, I'd loosely rank the obvious ones as such:

1. Cam Cannarella
2. Luke Gaffney
3. Collin Priest
4. Josh Paino
5. Dominic Listi
6. Tristan Bissetta
7. Andrew Ciufo
8. Jarren Purify
9. Jacob Jarrell
10. Jack Crighton

Bakich also specifically mentioned sophomores Tryston McCladdie and Jay Dillard as being a part of that group. Both of them got very little playing time last year, but EB said they had both taken big steps forward over the offseason and should figure to be much more involved this year. So you can pencil them into the next 2 spots:

11. Tryston McCladdie
12. Jay Dillard

After that, it's pure guesswork. I would think redshirt freshman Hideki Prather would be one of the last 2 names. He didn't play at all last season due to injury, and as such he might be easy to forget. But he was a highly regarded recruit, and he plays catcher. Right now, the only other main option at catcher among the names already listed would be Jacob Jarrell. Gaffney also has light experience behind the plate, but the indications I've seen thus far are that the staff wants to keep him at first base or DH, and not see much work behind the dish, if any. There has to be at least one other prominent option to spell Jarrell, and right now Prather almost certainly seems to be the best choice. So I'd put him next for that reason:

13. Hideki Prather

The last one really has me stumped because I don't see any obvious answers from what we already know. For that reason, I'm guessing this would probably be one of the freshmen. The 2 highest-ranked freshmen are Talan Bell and T.P. Wentworth, each of whom can both pitch and play outfield. If I am not mistaken, the hints I've gathered from recruiting info and the 2025 outlook seem to indicate that Bell is probably better as a pitcher and Wentworth is probably better as a hitter. There are several other freshman hitters, but no information I've seen to suggest that one of them has risen above the rest or stood out with his performance. So if I had to take a guess, I'd say Wentworth, but I really don't have much to base that on.

14. T.P. Wentworth???

Anyway, that's my evaluation. I may be wrong, but I just thought the 14-player thing was fun to think about. If anybody has corrections or additional/better info on this, please reply. Thoughts?

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

Re: thoughts on hitting depth

thoughts on hitting depth

Re: thoughts on hitting depth

Re: thoughts on hitting depth

Re: thoughts on hitting depth

Re: thoughts on hitting depth

Re: thoughts on hitting depth

TigerBoard POTD