Kentucky Wildcats Baseball – Bat Cats 2011 Preview: Part 1

In two weeks the boys of summer will be back in action and taking the field of the first time in 2011. The smell of the park, the wonderful sound that an aluminum bat makes, and the taste of cracker jacks only means one thing … it is baseball time in the bluegrass.

The Bat Cats are coming off of a mediocre season at best where they finished 31-25 and 13-17 in the SEC.  Some say that the 2010 season was the toughest schedule in years, but all that is in the past and 2011 brings in a new look. The 35 man roster is made up of 17 freshmen and 18 upper classmen. Looking at this you would assume experience is at a shortage with this year’s team but they are returning four starting position players and three starting pitching, as well as seven bullpen arms. There are several other guys who are on this team with experience as well so let’s break down the team by position and see where we stand with the returning guys starting with the catchers and the infielders.

Catchers:

There are three returning Catchers on this year’s squad:  redshirt junior T.J. Daugherty, junior Michael Williams, and sophomore Luke Maile. Together these guys played in 45 game but only had 21 starts.

The most experienced catcher of 2010 in this group is Maile.  As a freshman he started in 12 games and appeared in 26 other games. He has the ability to play first base and well as fall into the designated hitter which makes him an important piece to victory. Maile had 35 at bats, with six runs on seven hits with six RBI while knocking out three homers. He is an on base guy with 11 walks and has two stolen bases. He has the most experience of any catcher on the squad and with  the most at bats.  His batting percentage will go up from the even .200 he had in 2010. Maile was also drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 43rd round in the 2009 draft.

The next player with experience is junior Williams who shared the backup spot with Maile, he appeared in 16 game while starting nine. According to  the schools website,  that due to his play this summer in the New England League and his play in Fall ball,  he has emerged the starting catcher for the team. Williams also has the ability to make spot starts at third base and well in the DH spot. Last season he had 29 AB with three runs and seven RBI, he also had four walks. I am looking forward to see the improvement of Williams in 2011.

The only pure catcher on the team is Daugherty who only appeared in three games last season. He has not had a lot of experience with the team but only one hit in two AB so we don’t really have anything to judge him on. He will be competing for playing time but is an important piece to the Cats bullpen and has experience preparing them to come into the game. Playing time is important but being a team player and helping your other teammates goes a long way in my book.

Infield:

The infield has some amazing talent returning this year including one of the best two-way players in the game. The returning players are redshirt senior Neiko Johnson, senior Taylor Black and Junior Braden Kapteyn,.  They will also be joined by JUCO transfer junior Thomas McCarthy. Out of this group of guys you have three returning starters who have shown they can perform which will be needed with so many
younger guys on the squad.

First we will take a look at Kapteyn.  He is considered one of the best two-way players in the game who makes starts at first base and is an amazing bullpen arm. Kapteyn played in 43 games in which he started 40 of those as well as making 18 pitching appearances. With 153 AB he scored 31 runs with 45 hits and 28 RBI.  Hhe also knocked in six homers. Kapteyn finished the season with a .294 batting average, he is also quit the defensive player seeing he only had one error on the season. He is also was extremely useful from the pen as he put in 22.0 innings pitched with a 4.09 ERA. He allowed 11 runs and gave up 20 hits. With the experience Kapteyn has received this summer playing in the Cape Cod league, which in my opinion is the best in the country, he has become a beast in late inning relief. He has been the starting first baseman last year and with him being a junior this season I would not be surprised to see him making more pitching appearances as well .  Kapteyn is listed as the 51st best prospect from the Cape Cod league as well has being drafted in 2008 by the San Francisco Giants in the 39th round.

Next up is Black who was the starting short stop for last year’s team.  He played and started in 55 games last year. Black’s amazing first year with the Cats last season as he batted .270 in 178 AB. He scored 44 runs with 48 hit with 37 RBI, 11 of which was home runs with 10 of those in SEC play. Like Kapteyn Black, he spent the summer in the Cape Cod league to improve and get more playing experience and is hoping to have a better start this season as last year began with a bumpy road offensively and defensively. He had a .182 average and had eight errors in his first 12 games as a Wildcat last season  so he hopes to have a better start. We are lucky to have him on this season squad as he was draft in the 2010 draft to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 28th round. Most guys if drafted in their junior season decided to forgo their senior year to play pro ball.

Next up is Johnson who I cannot find a lot of info on but I do know that he played in 33 games, 22 of which he started. Johnson had 76 AB with 24 runs on 13 hits with an extremely low .171 batting average. I’m assuming with that many games in he will be a starter on this year’s team but I’m not for sure.

Last we have the transfer junior in McCarthy who played his 2010 season at Feather River College.  He  put up some big numbers there batting a overwhelming .415 percentage with 59 hits, 39 runs and three home runs. He also had 36 RBI, he hit 14 doubles and drew 11 walks.  In this incredible year,  he won first-team selections to the Golden Valley Conference. McCarthy has played amazing in fall ball and has earned the starting third basemen job this season. The coaching staff has praised his ability to lead this team as well as being a hard worker.

This wraps up today’s preview of the veteran infielders and catchers and plan to check back as we continue our 2011 preview as we finish off the roster and take a look at the games ahead throughout the next couple of weeks before baseball season begins. If you are a UK baseball fan or just a fan of the game this is the place to be on Monday and Friday at noon.

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