Okay, so we know that in addition to the 5 seniors (Troutwine, Vickers, Tyler, Sanburn and Keller) we will no doubt be losing Alec Bohm and Greyson Jenista to the MLB draft. Alec is projected to go in the Top 5 picks. Not sure about Greyson. He may not go in the 1st round but I don't think he will have to wait around too long. Whether or not any of the 5 seniors get drafted is hard to predict but, if they are drafted, I would expect that to be in late rounds. If not some will probably get a look as free agents.
I think the chances of Alec and Greyson returning next year are quite a bit less than the Shockers being selected as an NCAA at-large team tomorrow.
The question I have then is what other draft eligible players on this year's roster could potentially be drafted and move on to pro baseball, if any?
I'm thinking the most likely candidates for that possibility are Codi Heuer, Luke Ritter and Keylan Killgore. These 3 guys in addition to the 7 guys above were all key contributors for the Shocks during this past season. Losing one or more of these 3 would add to the challenges of next year.
Heuer has the arm and the physical stature to attract some interest I would think. His ERA wasn't great at 4.31 but throw out the craziness of the Tulane game and it drops to 3.46. He needs to cut down on his walks a little bit (most college pitchers do) but he only gave up 3 home runs in 79.1 innings which is pretty good.
Ritter was 8 - 49 (0.163) to start this season but finished 68 - 174 (0.391) over the remainder of the seaon to hit 0.341. He also had a strong summer for Santa Barbara. Luke kind of reminds me of Whit Merrifield of the Royals. Whether or not MLB teams want to use a draft pick on a utility player is hard to say.
Not sure I would have listed Killgore prior to the AAC Tournament but the fact is he had an ERA of 2.54 for the season and had the best outing of his career against USF in a must win game for the Shocks. No doubt there were plenty of MLB scouts hanging around the AAC Tournament with Shane McClanahan starting for USF and with Alec and Greyson in the game for the Shocks.
I guess we will find out in about a week and, hopefully, we will have a decision, one way or the other, on whether HCTB will return next year.
I think the chances of Alec and Greyson returning next year are quite a bit less than the Shockers being selected as an NCAA at-large team tomorrow.
The question I have then is what other draft eligible players on this year's roster could potentially be drafted and move on to pro baseball, if any?
I'm thinking the most likely candidates for that possibility are Codi Heuer, Luke Ritter and Keylan Killgore. These 3 guys in addition to the 7 guys above were all key contributors for the Shocks during this past season. Losing one or more of these 3 would add to the challenges of next year.
Heuer has the arm and the physical stature to attract some interest I would think. His ERA wasn't great at 4.31 but throw out the craziness of the Tulane game and it drops to 3.46. He needs to cut down on his walks a little bit (most college pitchers do) but he only gave up 3 home runs in 79.1 innings which is pretty good.
Ritter was 8 - 49 (0.163) to start this season but finished 68 - 174 (0.391) over the remainder of the seaon to hit 0.341. He also had a strong summer for Santa Barbara. Luke kind of reminds me of Whit Merrifield of the Royals. Whether or not MLB teams want to use a draft pick on a utility player is hard to say.
Not sure I would have listed Killgore prior to the AAC Tournament but the fact is he had an ERA of 2.54 for the season and had the best outing of his career against USF in a must win game for the Shocks. No doubt there were plenty of MLB scouts hanging around the AAC Tournament with Shane McClanahan starting for USF and with Alec and Greyson in the game for the Shocks.
I guess we will find out in about a week and, hopefully, we will have a decision, one way or the other, on whether HCTB will return next year.
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