Wessel won't be recovered till the start of the 2022 season. He was lobbing balls back to the pitcher & eventually the umpire was throwing every pitch back between innings for Drew. He did throw to 1st once, on a K in the dirt & Christy was yelling NOOOOOO. It was funny, had to be there I guess. No SB attempts against Wessel either since he couldn't throw. Everitt was at Schanaman's wedding, returns for today's game I think or maybe it's tomorrows, and Wimmers is hurt so he couldn't play. That leaves us 2 catchers; Wessel & Caron for game one.
Will Walsh is in the sling, non throwing arm. The zone was embarrassingly bad for this level, seems as though I've seen that crew around Nebraska high school games so it wasn't a surprise.
We don't have anyone that can replace Hallmark or Roskum, offensively, for the 2022 season.
Really impressed with Brockett, and to a lesser extent Benson. Brockett has a really good 3 pitch mix with a potential for a 4th pitch. His demeanor isn't that of an underclassmen either. Benson's velo was inconsistent but he got after it which is nice to see from a freshmen. Jelkin is another true freshmen who's done well this fall, even holding his velo after a covid shutdown. Folks will need to pump the breaks on Christo. At this level he's a 2 pitch guy, with a questionable arm slot, flat fastball & easy to pick up secondary pitches. I don't see any way he's a starter in 2022, either midweek or weekend, unless something miraculous happens during the winter break. Coach Christy has his work cut out on this one but I'm anxious to see what this 10-12 week break will do for Drew. He's never had a fall & winter consisting of only baseball, and now he does. Such a great kid, from an even greater family, and he deserves patience from us fans.
Mason is another. Not sure I recall a physical specimen like him as a true freshmen. Well, I guess Christo ha. Chase looks like a 22-year old minor leaguer a month away from being called up to the majors. But looking the part is where it stops, he's definitely a project.
Koty Frank had a phenomenal outing. Wasn't a fan of throwing primarily secondary pitches as that won't work as a starter. He's got to get better at pinning his FB when & where he wants. If he indeed moves to the rotation, which I'm skeptical it'll happen, I pray we have a leverage guy (RH) in the pen that can replace his production from 2021. I believe we'll see Perry today or tomorrow. I guess he threw live last week and did extremely well. Thought someone told me he wasn't going live this fall, but guess that's wrong - or maybe they wanted to limit him till the end of fall. McCarville has had a good fall as well, pretty sure I mentioned in another discussion how well Schanaman has done too.
Banjoff has seemed to of regressed, haven't been impressed with him at any point this fall but maybe just one swing against Christo. Steihl too, he hasn't taken that jump I had hoped he would this fall.
Brice Matthews is a S-T-U-D!!
I'll say it again, we need to keep Core Jackson. This kid has an advanced approach at the dish for his age with a super smooth swing. He's really homesick, but seems to have settled in so hopefully being home for the break doesn't play more mind games with him. We're super athletic, moreso than this past season.
One last thing and sorry for the lengthy post but leadership is missing bigly. Kyle Perry has done an excellent job, but one guy isn't good enough. We really need at least two more guys to step up as it's quite noticeable.
Excited for today, and tomorrow. GBR!