Let’s get it started to honor the first day of fall practice. CMo has been playing shortstop. Beam and Russel are locked in as starters. Amick is probably going to play third. Think we are going to have few options at first, including Burke. I think we are better going into this year than we were last year.
Here’s a good summary of Tony’s comments from yesterday: https://247sports.com/college/tenne...all-starting-fall-practice-217050217/#2255757
So Denton as the full time DH if Amick is at 3rd? Maybe it's a range thing, but I didn't remember last year Zane ever being a defensive liability. He hardly ever made an error and his glove stopped the bleeding vs USM when he made that web gem play in the supers while our backs were still pressed against the wall in game 2. (I also believe he won the SEC version of the 3B gold glove when he was a Bammer) At the very least surely we will be including Zane's bat in the daily lineup come spring time.
Maybe, but I do know that he has only ever played 3rd throughout essentially his entire baseball playing life. I would trust his glove enough at second to make the routine plays. But I am just not sure he has the ideal range needed to play middle infield in the SEC. Defensive range and agility traditionally/genetically are not exactly the strongest asset of any of the Denton brothers. Being from a baseball background that grew up in Zane's hometown, I have known the Denton family for close to two decades now. Zane and co. have proven assumptions about him wrong before on a baseball field. For example, I (and most others) initially thought it was a galactic waste of effort when him and his oldest brother decided to transform him into a switch hitter really late on during his HS career. I'm sure his oldest brother that has served as a father-like roll for Zane ever since their dad unexpectedly passed away will have a strong opinion on the matter one way or the other. I'll definitely ask him about the situation next time I see him. He mastered the switch hitting stuff pretty instantly a few years back and showed me (and everyone else frankly who advised against him trying to be a switch hitting bat) what little I knew about his baseball capabilities overall. Zane certainly has proven he can learn new baseball things on the fly in his past. Also perhaps showing he could play elsewhere besides 3rd would go a long way for him with proving to MLB scouts that he is worthy of a pick next year. Maybe him not playing 3rd potentially could be part of the gameplan for his overall development this upcoming year. Just spit balling here. I have not spoken to anyone in that family since this past summer.
I think for right now we should just do whatever it is you do - pray, hope, wish, offer thoughts - for Zane because based on Tony’s comments, it sounds like he’s got some things going on that are bigger than baseball right now.
Playing the fall World Series tomorrow night at Smokies Park and then going to Chattanooga for Saturday and Sunday’s games. These are just split squad scrimmages. I remember when like not even all the parents showed up for these things, and now they take them on the road throughout East Tennessee. And last weekend they play Samford at First Horizon in Nashville. Incredible, really, how far this program has come.
Baseball has always been infused into the culture of average Tennesseans. Dedicating a healthy portion of your childhood playing competitive travel/HS baseball is a way of life for many guys who grow up in this state. There's not a HS sport in the state that produces more widespread talent than baseball does in Tennessee. In the last 10 years alone the state's cream of the crop contains multiple Cy Youngs, MLB MVPs, and perennial MLB All Stars. I'm not gonna pretend we are Texas, Florida, CA good at baseball collectively, but we are a pretty special baseball state in our own right when it comes to the talent that can be found here. It's remarkable really how we allowed the baseball program of the University of Tennessee to be annual SEC doormats for the majority of the program's existence outside of the peak Delmonico years before his asshole schtick finally got old and the past 5 years with Tony.
Season ticket pricing is already out for 2025 and let’s just say they better keep up the winning. Obviously these renovations won’t pay for themselves, but I’ve seen people who are not happy. I don’t know why they didn’t expect it to happen. We just made the decision to relocate now while there was still availability in the area we wanted since our current seats were going to double for 2025.
