Question marks.
You see a whole lot of them when glancing at Florida’s roster.
And with less than three weeks to go until the No. 3 Gators take the field in their season opener, the team will address those issues in practices and scrimmages.
The most glaring of the uncertainties: the bullpen.
Led by closer Shaun Anderson and his 90-mph cut fastball, UF’s bullpen was one of its strongest assets in 2016.
But Florida lost the likes of Anderson, lefty specialist Kirby Snead and flamethrowers Dane Dunning and Scott Moss — a quartet that combined for a 1.96 ERA and 212 strikeouts — to the MLB Draft last year.
Yes, relievers like Frank Rubio, Nick Horvath and Michael Byrne are returning, but coach Kevin O’Sullivan isn’t quite ready to name his go-to guys for the end of games.
“We’ll mix and match. If you look back from last year, we didn’t know Shaun Anderson was going to be our closer,” O’Sullivan said. “But we’ll see. I’m confident enough that we’re gonna be able to find some guys out of the pen that are gonna be able to help us.”
O’Sullivan has a number of newcomers at his disposal, including hard-throwing left-hander Andrew Baker. The freshman, who throws from a three-quarter arm slot, will likely receive the first taste of the closer role.
“We’ve got a lot of answers to the questions, we think,” O’Sullivan said, “but we’ve still got a lot more to go.”
Replacing Pete: a battle for first base
Replacing a position player is never easy for a coach.
It’s an even tougher task when said position player is your best hitter.
I’m talking, of course, about first baseman Peter Alonso, who led the Gators in nearly every offensive category last season.
Alonso’s .374 average, 14 home runs, 18 doubles and 60 RBIs were all team-highs. Teammates and coaches also valued his underrated defensive abilities around the bag.
But UF now has to fill the hole left by him after the New York Mets took him in the second round of the draft.
As of now, junior JJ Schwarz is the clear favorite to slide from catcher and man first base. But O’Sullivan also has options in junior Christian Hicks and freshmen Keenan Bell and Garrett Milchin.
“I think all four of them are good enough defensively that it will probably come down to the bat,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re certainly not going to sacrifice anything defensively.”
Starting pitchers need to step up
Florida’s ace, Alex Faedo, is set to start Friday nights.
There should be no hiccups there.
But where there might be uneasiness is in Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar, the team’s other two starting pitchers.
The pair of talented tossers compiled decent freshmen campaigns last year. Kowar finished with a 3.37 ERA, while Singer trailed with a high 4.95 ERA.
But SEC play wasn’t kind to the two, who combined to allow 20 earned runs in just 16.2 innings, most of which came in Singer’s 15 frames.
Kowar and Singer certainly have the stuff — electric mid-90s fastballs and devastating off-speed pitches — to compete in the SEC. But only time will tell if they can put it together and replace Logan Shore (second in UF history with 30 career wins) and A.J. Puk (6th overall pick in 2016 MLB Draft and strikeout machine).
Expect O’Sullivan to keep a short leash on his talented sophomores.
“Well those guys, they need to pitch good,” O’Sullivan said. “…I respect them, and I expect them to pitch as well as anyone we’ve had here.”
Contact Patrick Pinak at ppinak@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @pinakk12.
Coach Kevin O'Sullivan and the Gators dropped their first home game since March 23 in an 8-4 loss against Jacksonville Tuesday night. “We’ve gotta clean up some mistakes,” O'Sullivan said.
