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2020 Iowa Baseball

Jan 30, 2019
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I know there have been some threads about next years baseball team already but I decided to start another. I think this team has the potential to be Hellers best team yet. As always in baseball the key is pitching. I think we all would expect the 3 man starting rotation to be judkins, baumann and dreyer If they are all healthy in no particular order. Hopefully Judkins and Baumann improve from last year as they get a year older and Dreyer returns healthy and is also solid. I think if one of these guys is injured or really struggle we could see Duncan Davitt get a chance to start and maybe even Trenton Wallace although I see him as our likely midweek starter. The bullpen should be a lot better this year. We essentially lose no one that contributed out of the pen last year. Leonard and Hoffman should be solid again which is a good place to start. I think if Ben Probst comes back healthy he could be our third reliable reliever. We will also have Davitt and Wallace which should give us 5 decent relievers. I am very excited about the Juco kid Nedved coming in and contributing but I could see him in the lineup every day. Hopefully he can help us out in the pen as well. Well also have irvine and ketelsen for depth. The bullpen does not scare me like it did this year. Other than Leonard and Wallace we had no one I had faith in. I think the big key will be the 3 starters (judkins, baumann and Dreyer) all improving and pitching to their capability. Judkins has a solid year ERA wise but had a few bad starts where he couldn’t give us length. In my opinion he should step up next year as a senior and be an all conference type of guy in his second year in the rotation. I am confident baumann will make great strides from 2019 to 2020 like Cole McDonald did from 2016 to 17. In my opinion he was not quite ready to be a big ten weekend starter last year but he was serviceable and definitely showed glimpses. Jack Dreyer is unproven but all signs show that he should be a solid weekend starter as he’s looked great as a hawk in his limited action. That takes me to the lineup....finally. It will hurt losing Whelan and to a lesser extent boe but we have everyone else back. We obviously need the returnees to improve from last year. My prediction on the lineup in no particular order is
C: Martin
1B: Fullard/adreon
2B: Nedved or Sosa
SS: Nedved or sher
3B: sher, Elion or Sosa
LF: Norman
CF: Jenkins
RF: Adreon/mccafrey
DH: Padgett or adreon

Our outfield depth kind of scares me. Especially until we get Connor back from basketball. Zeb adreon is a great hitter and needs to be in the lineup but he is not an outfielder. It would be nice to have a third solid defensive outfielder to go along with Jenkins and Norman until Connor comes back. Our infield appears to be crowded. Maybe one of the infielders could hold the fort down until connors back. Connor improving and turning into a legit power threat would be huge for our offense. I expect Norman to go out with a bang as a senior. He hit a lot of balls right at people last year. Hopefully Martin can duplicate what he did last year and izaya fullard should have an absolute monster year. I see sher and Nedved being solid at the plate and zeb adreon could be a great hitter for us as well. It would also be nice If Padgett could hit for some power like he did in juco. I don’t expect much out of Elion or Sosa but they may be in there for defensive purposes. Hitting has never been Justin Jenkins strength but I see him as a solid on base guy possibly in the 9 hole. I’m not saying we’re going to have an incredible offense but the potential is definitely there for it to be solid with improvements from returnees. I just really feel this could be rick hellers best team. If you look back at hellers teams his best year we had nothing but an average lineup in 2015 but we had 3 great starters. I’m not trying to say judkins, Dreyer and baumann are on the level of Peyton, Hickman and Matthews but this is really the first year since 2015 where we have 3 starting pitchers that should all be pretty solid. I can not wait for Iowa baseball in 2020. I definitely see us as an NCAA tournament team and a top 25 to 40 team in the country but we have to go out and do it. Sorry about the length of this post and go hawks!
 
I don't see a post on it but former Hawkeye Jake Yacinich is now a volunteer assistant under Heller. He spent last season at Xavier.

Robin Lund is officially the team's pitching coach. Tom Gorzelanny is no longer with the program.
 
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Not sure if it's true, but I heard that Jake Hilmer was now planning to be a walk on baseball player at Iowa in the fall. Scholarship offer wasn't what was promised at Upper Iowa where he was planning to play basketball and baseball. Again, not sure if true. May just be a rumor.
 
Not sure if it's true, but I heard that Jake Hilmer was now planning to be a walk on baseball player at Iowa in the fall. Scholarship offer wasn't what was promised at Upper Iowa where he was planning to play basketball and baseball. Again, not sure if true. May just be a rumor.

I can't go a weekend without reading about him in The Gazette. What position does he project at in college?
 
I'd guess pitcher and pinch runner. I've only seen him play live once, but it seemed to me that his offensive abilities are primarily due to his speed, which doesn't always translate to D1 baseball well, but Iowa is a developmental program, so I could be wrong.

The game I saw him pitch, he was probably mid to upper 80s with 3-pitch control. He stayed away from the heart of the plate and walked one batter, and he only walked four all summer.
 
Haven’t been in this forum since baseball ended. Now I’m ready for it to start again.
Dreyer will finally be at 100% after his surgery and will be a great replacement for McDonald. I expect Fullard to push the 20 HR Mark. He was really crushing the ball the last half of the season.

Padgett being healthy should provide a lot of power. He was projected to be one of Iowa’s best bats until he got hurt.

When does the schedule come out?
 
Iowa always seem to release their schedule later than most schools. Based on hosting Northridge and Irvine last year, I expect a West Coast swing...perhaps during spring break.
 
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