#9 Georgia State Panthers Last year 25-31 (11-19, 10th SBC)

Head Coach: Greg Frady (9th season)

The Basics: Georgia State was an interesting case last year. Going into the year, many actually predicted the Panthers to finish in the top half of the league. I saw some even put them 2nd. They finished last. Ultimately, The Panthers had 4 very good hitters, which formed a very good lineup, but they had real pitching issues. The fact is...many times, Georgia State beat themselves. There were moments in which they gave teams all sorts of trouble, but they just couldn't do enough to get the win

Returning Stars: Last year's .350 hitting Chase Raffield is gone, as is Nic Wilson and his 18 homeruns. Returning are Matt Rose (.312, 11 HR's) and Joey Roach (.301) An Interesting note on the panthers is of their 60 home runs last season, 32 belonged to the Raffield and Wilson, who are both gone. That means while they have several hitters back, much of their power and middle of the order threat is not. On the mound, both primary starters in Nathan Bates and Kenny Anderson return. Bates, when on, was a decent pitcher, pitching to a 4.27 ERA. The problem is that he struggled with his control, and often pitched into jams he couldnt get out of. Anderson was even worse, failing to get his ERA below 6, and finishing with nearly as many walks as strikeouts on the season. High walk rates mean lots of pitches, and lots of relief help...and you're just not going to be able to win on Friday's in this league without a true lockdown ace. You can win a few games, but odds are, someone will get you.

New faces: the real question is who isn't new? Over half of the Panthers current roster is a new recruit. While the Panthers got key players back, when half your roster is brand new, it means that you will have a lot of new face4s trying to win in conference play with no D1 experience. The biggest name of the bunch is Freshman Will White, who perfect game rated in the top 150 of Georgia prospects. The lefty had 2 no hitters in High school last season. Still, asking a True Freshman to deliver in league play is a lot.

Outlook: One of the things about the bottom half of the league this year is many are interchangeable. Of my 7th-11th ranked teams, I feel that any one of them could feasibly finish 7th, it's just that team's like Georgia State have so many unknowns, that I ultimately have to question whether or not a team that finished last last year, and lost its best two players, can somehow come back and compete in the middle half of a better league the next year. The jury is still out on Georgia State, however, with so many freshman on roster, this team has the potential to be much better in a couple seasons.

Team #8 will be released around 6pm CT tomorrow.

Georgia State's Home park: GSU Baseball Complex









Chiefsfan's Analysis: First, I would be remiss if I didnt point out the 385 foot fences in dead center field. This is a small ballpark in every sense of the word. It caters to power hitters. GSU's home vs road splits last year prove that out.

My biggest issue is that the park is not on campus, nor is it anywhere really near campus. It's just a difficult to attract fans to an off campus park. Also that chain link fence might be slightly damaged after a run away school bus crashed onto the field yesterday. Might have done some improvement to the facility itself.

Lets be clear, the Panthers badly need this Turner Field thing to work otu so they can take care of the facility issues they have in both football and baseball. Until then, make sure your pitchers understand that the ball does fly out of there, and it's not the great place to inspire confidence in a young pitcher.

I accidentally included a projection of what a new GSU park would look like. Its fixed now.

Nic Wilson was a beast. The GSU park may be small, but he could hit them out anywhere and did (Tigue Moore field included).

Ya, I was at GSUs ball park last year.... Very high school.

It's 20mins from campus and its parking lot is a HS bus barn yard.

(02-05-2015 10:26 AM)Atlanta Trojan Wrote:  Ya, I was at GSUs ball park last year.... Very high school.

It's 20mins from campus and its parking lot is a HS bus barn yard.

That explains why the school bus crashed into their field yesterday.

(02-05-2015 10:55 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(02-05-2015 10:26 AM)Atlanta Trojan Wrote:  Ya, I was at GSUs ball park last year.... Very high school.

It's 20mins from campus and its parking lot is a HS bus barn yard.

That explains why the school bus crashed into their field yesterday.

WUT

(02-05-2015 10:55 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(02-05-2015 10:26 AM)Atlanta Trojan Wrote:  Ya, I was at GSUs ball park last year.... Very high school.

It's 20mins from campus and its parking lot is a HS bus barn yard.

That explains why the school bus crashed into their field yesterday.

Lmao.

There's also a HS football stadium right next to their field.

Assuming they absorb GPC's baseball team, they could use their facilities which are much nicer. Unfortunately, that is 40+ miles away.

No one will argue about Georgia State and their facility.

Their team was an enigma to me last year. Yes, their pitching was most definitely suspect. But they could really rake.

I think what happened was the offense faced better pitching once they got into conference play. If you look at their first baseman's overall vs. conference stats you'll see what I mean.

I think their returning hitters can actually hit in the SBC. They can make the tournament if a pitcher or two can step up and show they are Sun Belt caliber.

(02-04-2015 11:43 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  #9 Georgia State Panthers Last year 25-31 (11-19, 10th SBC)

Head Coach: Greg Frady (9th season)

The Basics: Georgia State was an interesting case last year. Going into the year, many actually predicted the Panthers to finish in the top half of the league. I saw some even put them 2nd. They finished last. Ultimately, The Panthers had 4 very good hitters, which formed a very good lineup, but they had real pitching issues. The fact is...many times, Georgia State beat themselves. There were moments in which they gave teams all sorts of trouble, but they just couldn't do enough to get the win

Returning Stars: Last year's .350 hitting Chase Raffield is gone, as is Nic Wilson and his 18 homeruns. Returning are Matt Rose (.312, 11 HR's) and Joey Roach (.301) An Interesting note on the panthers is of their 60 home runs last season, 32 belonged to the Raffield and Wilson, who are both gone. That means while they have several hitters back, much of their power and middle of the order threat is not. On the mound, both primary starters in Nathan Bates and Kenny Anderson return. Bates, when on, was a decent pitcher, pitching to a 4.27 ERA. The problem is that he struggled with his control, and often pitched into jams he couldnt get out of. Anderson was even worse, failing to get his ERA below 6, and finishing with nearly as many walks as strikeouts on the season. High walk rates mean lots of pitches, and lots of relief help...and you're just not going to be able to win on Friday's in this league without a true lockdown ace. You can win a few games, but odds are, someone will get you.

New faces: the real question is who isn't new? Over half of the Panthers current roster is a new recruit. While the Panthers got key players back, when half your roster is brand new, it means that you will have a lot of new face4s trying to win in conference play with no D1 experience. The biggest name of the bunch is Freshman Will White, who perfect game rated in the top 150 of Georgia prospects. The lefty had 2 no hitters in High school last season. Still, asking a True Freshman to deliver in league play is a lot.

Outlook: One of the things about the bottom half of the league this year is many are interchangeable. Of my 7th-11th ranked teams, I feel that any one of them could feasibly finish 7th, it's just that team's like Georgia State have so many unknowns, that I ultimately have to question whether or not a team that finished last last year, and lost its best two players, can somehow come back and compete in the middle half of a better league the next year. The jury is still out on Georgia State, however, with so many freshman on roster, this team has the potential to be much better in a couple seasons.

Team #8 will be released around 6pm CT tomorrow.

Im expecting good things from TROY this year--with it being Pierce's last season.