Big weekend for the Gopher baseball team!

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gold04

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The Gopher baseball team plays three top 25 teams in Florida this weekend (Uconn, St. Johns, and Louisville). Last year we played those same teams in the Big Ten/Big East challange and lost all three games. This year I'm hoping we can somehow find a way to win two but that will be a big challange. I think Coach Anderson deserves more credit than he gets. Year in and year out his team is one of the top teams in the Big Ten. This year the possibility is there for a really good year, but time will only tell.
 

gold04 said:
The Gopher baseball team plays three top 25 teams in Florida this weekend (Uconn, St. Johns, and Louisville). Last year we played those same teams in the Big Ten/Big East challange and lost all three games. This year I'm hoping we can somehow find a way to win two but that will be a big challange. I think Coach Anderson deserves more credit than he gets. Year in and year out his team is one of the top teams in the Big Ten. This year the possibility is there for a really good year, but time will only tell.
Click to expand...

http://www.thedailygopher.com/2011/2/16/1935653/time-for-a-gopher-baseball-preview Good read here.
 

It was a good write up but there are some things I will add.

I doubt Rassmussen will be considered as a starter. He's been much more effective in relief and the Gophers need a strong lefty out of the bullpen.

The article didn't mention Juan or Abrahamson. I would be surprised if one of these guys don't find their way into the DH spot. These two guys have huge potential, and could give the Gophers more power in the line up, and that's what we need.

Snelton is another freshmen pitcher who could crack the starting pitching line-up.

I still thought it was a very good write-up.
 

The Gophers are rightfully getting some great Preseason love. Our pitching staff should be the strongest we have had in years. Oakes and Isakasson should be a solid 1-2 with our bullpen returning basically everyone. It will be nice to get Gominsky back in the lineup. Losing Kvasnicka and Knudson from the lineup hurts but 1-9 I believe the lineup will end up being stronger than last years. Should be a fun season
 

kyle crocker from brainerd could force his way into the lineup as well. he was arguably the top prep position player in the state. gold04 is right in that abrahamson and juan could play major roles. big year for abrahamson - he was the top prep out of mn two years ago and is a draft eligible sophomore this year but didn't do much of anything his freshman year.

gominsky is a big kid at 6'4"~ and there might be some power potential in that bat. if so, and if the knee is sound, he has a chance to rocket up draft boards.

been awhile since the gophers had to hold their breath re: the mlb draft - i'm thinking josh oslin (offered six figures to sign w the braves out of hs) and cullen sexton getting picked in the 20's four/five years ago was the last time before this past year when both windle and snelton were picked (28th and 30th round, i believe). both have big upside.
 


btw, i'm a big john anderson fan, but his insistance on using four starters in the postseason cost us advancing into the super regionals last year. rosin was a mature, big bodied kid and could have stood going on 2-3 days rest. we'll never advance, short of a miracle, with that mindset as it will always be the gophers no.4 starter going against a fullerton's no.1 on 2-3 days rest.
 

Two things... Josh Oslin was never offered 6 figures out of high school, thats why he didn't sign and 14 will not be pitching a kid on 2 days rest (that is what it would be in that case) especially with a kid like Seth who had a future in Pro Ball. Maybe a senior, who knows he won't pitch pro ball, but that would just be stupid of 14. He respects his players and knows that their is life beyond U of M baseball.
 


Anderson even said he could not live with ruining Rosin's future just to win one game. I don't blame Anderson for not pitching Rosin. If Rosin didn't have a future in the pros Anderson probably would have pitched him.

After winning one out of three games agianst 3 top 25 teams, I can see that hitting will be our weakness unless some guys are able to turn things around. After giving up 14 runs against St. John's the pitching staff responded quite well and gave up just 2 and 3 runs the next two games. I think half of the 19 runs we gave up were unearned. Pitching will not be the problem. Our starters and relievers should be very good. Hitting will be the issue this year unless some guys are able to turn things around.
 



BoogeyMan said:
Two things... Josh Oslin was never offered 6 figures out of high school, thats why he didn't sign and 14 will not be pitching a kid on 2 days rest (that is what it would be in that case) especially with a kid like Seth who had a future in Pro Ball. Maybe a senior, who knows he won't pitch pro ball, but that would just be stupid of 14. He respects his players and knows that their is life beyond U of M baseball.
Click to expand...

baseball america reported that oslin was offered a significant bonus, rumored to be six figures, by the braves out of high school. that's a pretty good source, but it's second hand info.

say what you will about pitching rosin on 2 days rest, but an awful lot of college teams do it in the postseason and not doing it puts us as a disadvantage given the current format, responsible or not. anderson has lobbied hard to move the starting date of the college game back to give the northern teams a shot but perhaps the biggest disadvantage his program faces in regards to getting back to the cws is the post season format.

btw, the mistake i made in my post was lumping sexton in with oslin - i believe it should have been john gaub, who was picked by the twins out of h.s.
 

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