Early Look at Next Season

Just a guess at how the SEC could shape out next season - this off the top of my head so please excuse any errors - this is meant to be a discussion primer not a published body of work.


1. Florida
Returns Singer, Kowar, Byrne, Dyson, India, Maldanado, Langworthy, Schwarz, etc. Florida is Florida. They as usual should have several impact freshmen.
2. Arkansas
Should return virtually everyone except Stephan and Spanberger. Expect huge improvement from the likes of Fletcher, McFarland, Koch, Knight – should have healthy Campbell and McKinney to replace Stephan/Alberius.
3. Mississippi State
Should get everyone back except Rooker & Gridley & Lovelady – including the 7+ injured players from this year plus incomers.
4. Louisiana State
Losing a lot from this team but will reload/replace – lineup should be awesome despite losing 4 starters s Bryce Jordan will be back + expected development of Watson, Smith and Slaughter. Add in Walker, Hess, Gilbert, Bush and some instant-impact arms and LSU should not experience a ton of drop-off.
5. Vanderbilt
Expect a ton of roster turnover/attrition but they’ll have, as usual, the nucleus to compete nationally and I think overall the East is going be very down.
6. Ole Miss
Returns virtually everyone – expect a lot of improvement from last year’s freshman class in year 2 i.e. the bats of guys like Johnson & Kessinger to compliment their elite gloves and the arms of the likes of Rolison, Roth, Ethridge, Holston + Stokes, Woolfork & company.
7. Auburn
Returns a good bit of their lineup and should have several impact bats and arms in their class to go along with the maturation/development of guys like Anthony, Davis, Johnson, Estes, Holland. You’ll still have Mize, Daniel, Coker, Mitchell plus the newcomers.

8. South Carolina
Returns a great deal of talent from a squad that was hit with injuries and bad luck – no coach right now but whoever takes over should have a fairly decent proverbial cupboard

9. Missouri
I think they seem pretty well coached an will be interesting to see what Beiser does in year 2 without Houck and a few others – some good talent that returns and will improve. Cornelius, Misner, Harris, Bartlett*, Sikkema, Plassmeyer, etc.

10. Kentucky
Will return Tristan Pompey (possible SEC POY), Sean Hjelle, Thompson, Becker, Machmacher and others but they simply lose too much to not take a pretty big step back next year- never mind who all is coming in – of course I could be wrong.

11. Texas A&M
Simply losing too much pitching to not have a down year, I’d expect – but they continue to prove me and plenty others wrong year-to-year. I fully expect Braden Shewmake to have a Soph slump – he has been way too hyped this year.

12. Alabama
No clue what the roster will look like come next spring but should have a good bit of players back – and nowhere to go but up – need a lot of pitching help but the offense should be pretty decent with the likes of Chandler Taylor and Cobie Vance leading the way. Could just much higher in year of Coach Bohannon if several JUCO pitchers such as Sam Gardner, Sage Diehm, Mason Duke get to campus and exceed expectations to compliment Walters, Vainer, Duarte, Medders returning. Sam Praytor behind the plate could be an x-factor as Alabama's catching defense was horrendous this past year.

13. Georgia
A lot of young talent but I’ll believe they can develop pitching when I see it – we’ll see if a new pitching coach helps.

14. Tennessee
They are going to suck

ALL-SEC CANDIDATES
SP - Casey Mize/Auburn
SP - Brady Singer/Florida
SP - Konnor Pilkington/Mississippi State
SP - Ryan Rolison/Ole Miss
C - Grant Koch/Arkansas
1B - Julian Infante/Vanderbilt
2B - Hunter Stovall/Mississippi State
3B - Jonathan India/Florida
SS - Cam Shepherd/Georgia
OF - Tristan Pompey/Kentucky
OF - Dominic Fletcher/Arkansas
OF - Chandler Taylor/Alabama
UT - Hunter Coleman/Texas A&M