The Florida baseball team has high expectations entering the 2016 season.
The Gators are ranked No. 1 in every preseason poll imaginable, and with the season starting with a three-game series against Florida Gulf Coast on Feb. 19, here are four predictions heading into the 2016 season.
Buddy Reed will sustain success from 2015: Junior outfielder Buddy Reed had a fantastic 2015 season for the Gators.
Reed set career-highs in almost every offensive category, posting a .305 batting average to go along with a team-leading 86 hits and 18 stolen bases.
Reed was also a member of the 2015 Southeastern Conference All-Defensive team for his stellar defense in center field.
In 2016, Reed will be even better and will take his game to another level, especially at the plate and on the base paths.
Reed will once again lead the team in hits, but he’ll also lead UF in batting average and stolen bases, and be a top candidate for SEC Player of the Year.
JJ Schwarz will regress: This isn’t a knock on JJ Schwarz. He was sensational last year as a freshman.
But as outfielder Ryan Larson said on Friday: "The secret is out on JJ Schwarz."
Schwarz will not be sneaking up on anyone this season, and opposing teams will key in on the sophomore.
I’m not saying that he’ll have the dreaded "sophomore slump," but he won’t put up the same numbers that he put up last year.
He’ll need first baseman Peter Alonso to provide protection for him to have any chance to replicate the numbers he put up last year (.332 batting average, 18 home runs, 73 RBIs).
Schwarz will still be good enough to find himself on one of the All-SEC teams at the end of the season, but he wont be as good as he was a season ago.
Logan Shore will lead the staff again: Junior left-hander A.J. Puk has gotten a lot of the preseason media attention for the Gators.
Puk is the No. 1 draft-eligible college prospect, according to Baseball America.
But Puk was the Saturday starter last season — basically the No. 2 starter — because Logan Shore was the better pitcher. And he will be again this year.
Shore went 11-6 with a 2.72 ERA in 2015 and if the indications coming out of fall practice hold true, Shore has taken on more of a leadership role, which could translate to more success on the mound for the Coon Rapids, Minnesota, native.
Puk will be good this year, and he might be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft, but Shore will be leaned on by coach Kevin O’Sullivan to lead the staff and will reap the rewards because of it.
Florida will not win a national title: To me, this is simple. The Gators will not win a national title this season.
All those preseason rankings are meaningless once the season gets underway, and normally, the most talented team doesn’t win a national title when they get to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Take a look at last year’s champions and the team that eliminated the Gators, the Virginia Cavaliers.
Virginia was just 15-15 in conference play, but they got hot at the right time and at the expense of the Gators.
That’s how most of these postseason tournaments across all sports works.
It’s almost always the hottest team that comes out on top, and this year, it won’t be Florida.
Luis Torres is the online editor. Contact him at ltorres@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @LFTorresIII.
UF’s Logan Shore pitches during Florida’s 14-3 win against South Carolina on April 10, 2015, at McKethan Satdium.
