Posted by NoleCC

By Bill Kristoph

Florida State Baseball heads into the 2007 season picked to finish the ACC second to Clemson, and ranked between 13 – 18 in the various preseason polls. The Noles are young, but obviously, the ACC coaches respect both Mike Martin’s coaching staff and the players’ talent. There have been quite a few changes since last year, and many Seminole fans will be surprised by a couple of the highlights.

Buster Posey – The fantastic freshman shortstop is moving behind the plate as FSU’s new starting catcher after Kyle Maxie transferred and Danny Diaz was dismissed from the team. In all fairness, neither of those were a big loss to the offense, Maxie didn’t adjust quickly to college pitching, and to say Diaz struggled at the plate and with throws to second base is kind. Posey offers the best bat behind the plate that FSU has had in years a rocket arm to throw runners out. Posey is also going to see time as the 2nd option at closer, behind Luke Tucker, when Tucker is not available out of the bullpen.

But what about shortstop? Moving Posey behind the plate is a bad idea when he was great at shortstop in 2006, right? Never fear Seminole fans, Mark Hallberg should fill in quite nicely.

One scary note about the defense though, FSU has the slowest outfield in Division I. Fans have been treated to years of Shane Robinson patrolling the Dick Howser Stadium outfield and running down all kinds of would-be hits. Don’t count on that this season, as O’Conner, Guinn and Rye try to run those down. I wonder why / where Mark Gildea is, considering he started off the 2006 season on fire before injuring his hamstring?

The FSU offense is likely to be average again, long gone are the days of “gorilla” ball during the late 1990’s. FSU needs to rely on their speed this season, and hope that defensive genius Tony Thomas, Jr. can cut down on his strikeouts. If Thomas can get on base, he can swipe second with ease and put the Noles in a position to steal a run or two. If FSU can figure out how to manufacture that extra run or two per game, they have a shot to host an NCAA regional this season.

Stay tuned for Part 2, tomorrow. I’ll check out FSU’s projected starting rotation.

Update:  Luke Tucker is out for at least three weeks.