Ragin' Cajuns' options are plentiful

[NewsCopy]

  Of all the questions facing UL baseball this season, coach Tony Robichaux knows one of the biggest involves his pitching staff.

Gone are five seniors, including former all-Sun Belt Conference throwers Hunter Moody, Danny Farquhar and Buddy Glass. Moody, the program's all-time wins leader, and Farquhar were both drafted by Toronto over the summer.

Two of the top arms for the Cajuns do return in right-handed starter Mike Cook and righty closer Justin Robichaux, a preseason all-conference selection. But UL's pitching staff has some growing to do going into Friday's season opener against Nebraska with its returnees combining for only 20 starts last season.

The rest of the story

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • February 17, 2009

[CajunKahouna]

"Gone are five seniors, including former all-Sun Belt Conference throwers Hunter Moody, Danny Farquhar and Buddy Glass. Moody......."

Does anyone really believe our hitting can make up for loosing these three guys? I doubt it, but maybe between better hitting this year and a couple of the 'new guys' stepping up we can make up the difference.

[ZuluCajun]

it won't be easy for sure, but with any improvement on defense, and a more
aggressive approach at the plate, i think we can be successful. I like what i
see in the hitting. I think we will be pleasantly surprised.

[LifeTimeCajun]

i am also suprised so for with the hitters. just hope we can protect a bunch of inexperienced arms early on so they can develope. If not it is gonna be a challenging year.

[TuffGuy84]

_ Does anyone really believe our hitting can make up for loosing these three guys? I doubt it, but maybe between better hitting this year and a couple of the 'new guys' stepping up we can make up the difference. _

I think that if we are a good hitting team, I don't think it will be that big of a problem. Remember, Farq got relegated to bullpen at one point last year, and buddy spent last year in large part coming out of the pen due to a few rough performances early. I know both are better than what they showed last year, but neither had a good year. The one that we will truly miss is Moody.

With that said, the bigger question to me is not whether or not our pitching staff will be okay, but whether these new players can hit like everyone has said they could. I do think that we'll hit better than last year, but that's not very hard because of how bad we hit as a whole last year.

[wcd35]

_ I think that if we are a good hitting team, I don't think it will be that big of a problem. Remember, Farq got relegated to bullpen at one point last year, and buddy spent last year in large part coming out of the pen due to a few rough performances early. I know both are better than what they showed last year, but neither had a good year. The one that we will truly miss is Moody.

With that said, the bigger question to me is not whether or not our pitching staff will be okay, but whether these new players can hit like everyone has said they could. I do think that we'll hit better than last year, but that's not very hard because of how bad we hit as a whole last year. _

Very good points. Bottom line is we need to hit and pitch better than last year as a whole. Hopefully Mike Cook continues to progress, but we need the Broussards, the Wilborns, the Osbornes of this team to become solid D-1 players and be consistent.

Bats have to come alive some as well, but I think we will have a better chance of that happening in my opinion.

[rhineaux]

_ Very good points. Bottom line is we need to hit and pitch better than last year as a whole. Hopefully Mike Cook continues to progress, but we need the Broussards, the Wilborns, the Osbornes of this team to become solid D-1 players and be consistent.

Bats have to come alive some as well, but I think we will have a better chance of that happening in my opinion. _

I think that what's more important than pitching and hitting is improving the horrible defense from last year, when they had a .95 Fielding Percentage, good for being ranked #248 out of 286 teams. Don't get me wrong, offense does need to improve from it's 282nd ranked performance of a .248 average, but if they make the outs they're supposed to make, then they'll take a lot of heat off of this inexperienced pitching staff and this questionable offense.

75 hours and 37 minutes remaining until first pitch.

[wcd35]

_ I think that what's more important that pitching and hitting is improving the horrible defense from last year, when they had a .95 Fielding Percentage, good for being ranked #248 out of 286 teams. Don't get me wrong, offense does need to improve from it's 282nd ranked performance of a .248 average, but if they make the outs they're supposed to make, then they'll take a lot of heat off of this inexperienced pitching staff and this questionable offense.

75 hours and 37 minutes remaining until first pitch. _

Damn I didnt even mention fielding. That was much worse than in past seasons.

[TuffGuy84]

_ I think that what's more important that pitching and hitting is improving the horrible defense from last year, when they had a .95 Fielding Percentage, good for being ranked #248 out of 286 teams. Don't get me wrong, offense does need to improve from it's 282nd ranked performance of a .248 average, but if they make the outs they're supposed to make, then they'll take a lot of heat off of this inexperienced pitching staff and this questionable offense.

75 hours and 37 minutes remaining until first pitch. _

Well, fielding is a problem, but I don't think its team wide. I thought we fielded sufficiently everywhere except where it really matters, 2nd and short. I've been saying that all offseason. Will Long is serviceable, but not great at second or short, but outside of him, I didn't see ANYONE fielding either of those positions that I would leave there with any confidence.

[CrazyCajun]

i can think of several occasions where we made errors when the inning should have ended and teams went on to have 3 and 4 run innings. You will not win baseball games when teams can take advantage of your errors. From what i saw at fan day i think Bostick is going to be great at second. I would like to see benzel at 3rd, hicks at short and bostick at 2nd. Masch and harst rotate at 1st, smith in right bowman in center and whipple in left. Griffen i think will be the starter at the plate,maybe not right away but eventually. i think we will be overall a better baseball team than last year.

[cajun2bag]

I hear Bowman will be redshirting!

[CajunProud]

_ I hear Bowman will be redshirting! _

Why?