Marvin said:
Belton-
I always appreciate your posts and I respect your opinion as you are obviously closer to the program than I am. I'm just a retired bucket sitter of 18 years who sweated/froze through a gazillion games from pixie through college. I got the basics but am not an expert by any means. I still watch games when I can but only from the comfort of my sofa, haha.
My point, maybe overstated, is that other coaches expect A&M to be one of the worst teams again. I hope our AD expects much more, and does so this year.
And I respect your points, too.
I don't want to come across as dismissive of your views because you're obviously invested - both in money and emotional capital - as am I.
I'm not as attached emotionally to the other sports at Texas A&M as I am softball & baseball (I don't post all that much about baseball because there are others here who know more about the sport than I could learn who post what I'm thinking anyways - and more articulately).
It's true the other coaches don't expect much from this program this year & it's disappointing that we're in this position. What matters most though is what the girls in our program expect of themselves, and what the coaching staff expects from themselves and their players. I'm positive their goals haven't changed because of this and from looking at it I just don't see what the SEC coaches are seeing.
In the circle, we should see Kendall Potts pick up where she left off. Remember, at the beginning of the year last year she was coming off a 2 year recovery and was very inconsistent, but she regained her form throughout the year and at the end was pretty salty in the circle. I expect an offseason of training will have helped even more. Herzog will likely be the no 2 and had a 1.56 ERA in 20 appearances last year at Florida State. McBride will probably slide back into the long relief role she had prior to last season, which is her strong suit. Add into the mix a veteran arm in Poynter and a couple of Top 100 recruits and the new rotation should be vastly improved over last year.
Offensively the Ags lost a lot when Sartain graduated, she had the highest OB% in the program. They also lost a lot of
potential with the transfer of Klingler, but her numbers last year aren't exactly hard to replace. The addition of Snider is probably the most intriguing storyline this year, he's pretty respected in the softball world and it was a nice coup when he came over from Florida State. There are 3 or 4 pretty good hitters returning and at least one that is dymanite in Campbell coming in. Overall the Ags hit .273 last year which was their lowest output in 5 years. With the pitching they face in conference I can easily see that average increasing as they will manage to duck
most of the best staffs in the league (like LSU). It would be nice to have at least one elite batter like Fortenberry touch the .400 range; that's probably the biggest hole in the lineup - the lack of 1 or 2 elite hitters like we've had in the past in Vidales. Campbell is one that has that potential.
Defense is the biggest question mark to me. I feel like first base will be set with McBride, second with Garcia and shortstop with Campbell (an elite recruit), but I don't know who will play the hot corner. We might see Campbell play there with shortstop manned by Walls or one of the newcomers. Lee will start at Catcher, and she's a good one. Fortenberry is entrenched at CF and I'd look at some of the speedier players like Sinnie or Fritsch to play the other OF positions.
Last year, going into the season there were numerous holes in the program that I was dreading to see. I was really down and wasn't at all surprised to see what we saw last year. This year is completely different. I genuinely expect us to make a run at hosting a regional. I know we want more out of this program. I get it. I want more too.
Even though some people complain about the record, the stadium
is paying off in the form of recruiting, and I think this year is the first year you will start to see it translate to wins. Next year and the following is when it will begin to kick in fully as the recruits it's helping with get on campus. Evans has proven that she wins a lot with elite talent, and elite talent is beginning to come into the program in a way it hasn't in the past. It might take another year for it to bear real fruit but I think we'll see some of it this season.