The Summer may seem quiet for fans but it's a very busy time in the College Baseball calendar. Recruiting is in full swing as there are tournaments everywhere with coaches to attend, prospect camps are being held, the transfer portal is in full swing, the coaching carousel is mostly winding down & summer bridge is just around the corner for the freshman. The draft is also in July and will remain at 20 rounds post COVID. Roster finalization is a completely different animal thanks to all these factors which happen so late in the calendar year. Add in the fact that COVID gave players and extra year of eligibility and the late time frame of coaching changes and the MLB draft and you can quickly see how roster projection is a very difficult part of the sport. NIL has reached down into the College Baseball World as well which has further complicated the roster projection and recruiting calendar.
With that being said we will take a look at what the 2022 roster could look like.
Offensively - Three Hiller, Cam Foster & Nathan Keeter are the top returners from the lineup that we knew would return. Add in Jaylen Guy who will return for a 5th year after being injured this past year. Gray Betts will also return to provide a nice core to build off of. Jake Lazzaro, Adrian Mcneal, Cole Hurtzler & Ryan Shieh will also return. All 4 of those guys got limited action in the 21 season.
Pitching - The Flames will return Horn & Gibson out of their starter group for sure. Joe Adametz is expected to be drafted and sign and Dylan Cumming has exhausted his eligibility. Nick Willard is expected to return as well after an injury limited him to just under 7 innings of work in the 22 season. In the bullpen Cole Garrett & David Erickson will be back to take advantage of the COVID year. Cade Hungate, Ty Germanowski & Landon Riley have graduated and are not expected to return to the roster. Max Alba came on strong toward the end of the season and has made 1 start at Wilmington before moving onto the draft league. His situation could go either way but if he's not drafted it's likely he could end up back in Lynchburg for another year. Mason Fluharty & Trey Carter are both expected to be drafted and sign as well. Nick Moran, Ty Wilson, Ryan Butler & Emmanuel Johnson are other pitchers that are expected back that could have more expansive roles in 2022.
There is a ton of roster flexibility with this 2023 version of the Flames and possibly still some new additions but we will take a stab at some of the position clusters and what the roster could look like. There are also some other freshman that could factor into the situation as well that didn't receive much of a role in 2022.
Starting Pitching : Horn, Gibson, Gainey (WU Transfer), Holmes, Willard, Moran. (Flames will need 4 so whoever doesn't fill the other 2 spots behind Horn & Gibson would be in contention for a bullpen role).
Relievers : Erickson, Beamon, Garrett, Johnson, Butler, Ty Wilson, Grubbs, Graham Edwards (Juco Signee), Hudson (SP or RP TBD), Troyer.
Outfield - Hillier, Guy, Troyer, Hudson, Castillo (Juco Signee), Will Stewart (UNC Transfer), Jenner. Keeter.
1B - Jenner, Hurtzler, Hudson.
2B - Mcneal, Waters, Keeter, Dylan Edmunds (Juco Signee)
SS- Wheatley, Lazarro, Waters (Edmunds Juco Signee)
3B - Foster, Burns.
DH - Hurtzler, Jenner.
Note : Edmunds is a name we had not heard before but is coming in from Arizona Western. He hit .284 with 4 HR's and 44 RBI in 54 games and 11 SB's.
Note : FSU has hired away Link Jarrett from Notre Dame who is fresh off a CWS appearance. If you remember Notre Dame went pretty hard after Liberty HC Scott Jackson last time until he pulled his name out of the running. Could they circle back for another pursuit? Liberty has a great staff right now and a good thing going. If they do I would expect Liberty to step up and keep the staff in place again.
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