Kentucky Wildcats Baseball-Bat Cats 2011 Preview: Part 4

Well we are down to the final week before the 2011 season begins and it has been a busy last couple of days. On Wednesday the Batcats held their annual preseason media day and we got to hear from head coach Gary Henderson as well as players Taylor Black, Braden Kapteyn , Alex Meyer and Chad Wright. It looks like this year’s Cats will be a small ball team from what was said at media day. The talk of the day was on this year’s pitching rotation and the fact that they have three returning starts as well as a successful bullpen. They will be adding six more pitchers to the pitching staff this season. We will go into detail on those guys in a few minutes.

Another big topic with the guys was about two new rule changes for the 2011 season.
This season the team will using a new type of bat for players safety and the second rule change is the SEC adding a 20 second clock on pitchers.

The topic of that new bat has made several coaches complain because it will drop the number of home runs hit. These bats are made to slow the ball down which means you really have to hit the ball in the sweet spot with a little more power to knock one out of the park. This means not as many guys will be hitting cheap home runs and it is possible that there will be several balls caught on the warning track that a year ago would have been a homerun with the old bats.

Coach Henderson’s thoughts on the new bat “The ball is not hit as hard, as frequently to the infield. It’s very obvious. There’s going to be a lot of balls that are caught on the track with two outs that used to go out. The game is going to be shorter. The scores are going to be less, and if you happen to come across somebody that doesn’t throw strikes then obviously all bets are off and that changes the game. But if you’re throwing strikes, I think you’re going to see that the new bat doesn’t have as much power and as much juice and is going to be lower power numbers.”

As for the 20 second clock the purist in me thinks this is a load of crap, but the pitch clock has been added to the game this year. This is meant to speed up the game and not allow pitchers to take as long to throw. It will also stop batters from making distracting time outs or stopping to tie his shoe between every pitch. This should not be a factor to the pitching staff as much as it will be to hitters. Pitchers put themselves in a set routine and go with the flow of the game, while hitters are the ones who go to distract pitchers.

Another big change for this season is that ESPN will be airing SEC baseball on Thursday nights. The Cats have a couple of those games scheduled it should be fun to watch. If you would like a chance to hear player interviews or with the coach just click these links and it will take you to the videos.

Now to finish up our preview of the 2011 freshmen class, we will begin discussing the outfield. This year’s class of outfielders is very small and only includes two players Damon Saunders and Lucas Witt. Both of these young men are Kentucky natives and looking for their chance to make an influence on this year’s team.

First up is Damon Saunders who attended Butler High School. Saunders is a surprising story as he is a walk on player who earned his spot in fall try-outs. He is an excellent athlete who has earned his way on to this season team. In high school he played baseball as well as basketball. An interesting fact on this young man is he spent the 2010 season as a team manager for the football team.

Then you have Lucas Witt the outstanding outfielder for Lexington Christian. It looks as if Witt has earned himself a starting spot this season out of fall ball. He was also considered as one of the top prospects from Kentucky last year. His senior year he was named first team all-state and was also named second team all-state as a junior. Witt will be someone who is remembered at LCA as he holds not only the schools hits record but he also owns the record for most triples. Witt was also a quarterback at LCA and put up some amazing numbers at that but decided that baseball was the path he wanted to continue. Witt was drafted in the 2010 draft in the 37th round by LA Dodgers.

As I mentioned earlier pitching and defense is what this team has put their hopes on for 2011 and the team will be adding five more talented pitchers to the staff. Two lefties Tyler Raymond, Cory Littrell as well as well as three right handed guys Alex Lester, Trevor Gott, and Jonathon Paquet.

South paw Tyler Raymond will provide depth to the bullpen as well as bring his ability to play first base. It is possible that Raymond redshirt this season as he is a candidate for that. Last season at Grove City High School in Ohio, he put up big runs pitching as well as with the bat. Raymond held a 5-1 record with a 3.20 ERA to go with 47 strike outs in 30 innings pitched. Offensively he held a .480 batting average with 25 RBI, scoring 82 runs, with one homer. He is also a very fast player on the base path as he had 15 doubles and stole nine bases.

The most talented lefty of the freshmen is Corey Littrell, who will either serve as a weekend reliever or possibly a midweek starter. The Louisville native out of Trinity High School was named the Louisville Slugger Kentucky Player of the Year for 2010. During that amazing season he held an 8-3 record with a 1.90 ERA, he pitched in 77.1 innings and tossed seven complete games with 101 strikes. Some have compared Littrell to former UK southpaw Chris Rusin, He was also considered the top instate pitching prospect out of the 2010 senior class. Littrell brings an amazing sinking fastball that ranges from 88-92 MPR he also has an excellent change up and a solid curve ball to go with that.

Next up is right hander Alex Lester from West Jessamine High School. He will be used primarily as a bullpen arm to add extra depth. During his senior year he was named All-District as well as All-Region.

The next player was named the Gatorade Kentucky Player of the Year for 2010, Trevor Gott. Gott is a strong right handed pitcher that will be used as a strong arm from the bullpen. He played his high school ball at Tates Creek in his final season there he held a 6-0 record with a 1.12 ERA, with 76 strike outs in 47.1 innings. In his magical senior season Gott only allowed one run all season. On May 29,2010 Gott had 13 strike outs in a shut out win.

The Wildcats have had strong success with Canadian players in the past and hope to continue that with Jonathon Paquet. Paquet will be considered for a possible starting roll on the team. His high school did not put a baseball team on the field so he had to look to other places to continue his baseball career. Paquet played in the Baseball Canada Cup in which he made 2 starts, in his first start he pitched 5 shut out while giving up three hits and striking out five. His second game he pitched a complete game shutout allowing two hits, striking out five guys and not allowing any walks. Paquet has been selected twice in the draft once in 2009 in the 36th round by the LA Angels and again in the 2010 draft in the 22nd round by the Philadelphia Phillies.

This looks to be a big year for the Kentucky Wildcats and look to have a great group of guys. This wraps up the player previews and we are getting clo
ser to the start of the season.

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