Jack's Mailbag Ep. 35: Answering your latest South Carolina baseball questions

In one week, a brand-new season begins for South Carolina, with SEC play on deck. But before then, the Gamecocks still have one more series with Morehead State coming up this weekend.

Every week, I’ll be answering questions from you, the fans, in my weekly baseball Q&A series, Jack’s Mailbag. This week, we’ll mostly be discussing certain positions and players that have been seeing some more playing time lately.

If you would like to have a question featured in the next episode, I’ll create a post on The Insiders Forum at the start of every week, and you can ask your question there. Without further ado, let’s get into all the questions for this week.

GivEmDaSpurs: With the play of our freshmen last night, do you think that Hollins will see more time at first with Petry in RF? Any chance we’ll see a change at SS? What are you feeling about our catcher situation (is Braland OK?)

Absolutely. Hollins has been a nice player to have in this lineup as the starting first baseman. Granted, he’s seen some more time due to injuries, but he’s giving Paul Mainieri no choice but to keep playing him. So yes, we will continue to see Hollins at first and Petry in right field.

As for shortstop, Henry Kaczmar has been playing better over these last two games. I know it’s a small sample size, but it’s the best he’s looked so far this season. He’s made some nice plays in the field and even hit the ball well. So, I don’t see any changes coming at shortstop.

The catcher position definitely worries me, especially given that Gavin Braland and Talmadge LeCroy are both out this weekend. Even without the injuries, I just haven’t been super impressed with what I’ve seen. I don’t think they have a fantastic option at that position right now. They’ve all had their moments but nothing more beyond that. This will be a good opportunity for Ryan Bakes and Max Kaufer to show what they can do.

TheKid__2228: Is Eddie Copper going to pitch this season at all?

As of right now, I’m not sure what’s going to happen with him. I would’ve thought he’d be getting closer to being back by now, with SEC play on the horizon. But there just hasn’t been any new information lately. He didn’t pitch at all in the preseason, so it’s not exactly clear how much progress he’s made. If I had to guess, you’d hope maybe sometime before May, he’s able to pitch again. But we’ll see.

FADocCock: This hire was largely called a ‘win now’ hire by those that cover the program. Was this a win-now hire or a rebuild hire? Seems a lot of people are now commenting on the need to overturn the roster and improve in a lot of areas.

I don’t think you hire a 67-year-old coach to lead a full-on rebuild. Mainieri has made it abundantly clear that he’s here to win and win now. I remember him saying at his introductory press conference that he had a one-year plan to win. He’s done nothing but win throughout his coaching career. So no, this isn’t a rebuild hire; South Carolina brought him aboard to try and win it all.

Let’s also keep in mind that South Carolina had one bad weekend. I’ve seen a lot of folks already hit the panic button and talk about what you said. I don’t like to make assumptions about a team based on a three-game stretch where they didn’t play their best baseball. And I wouldn’t recommend doing so because it’s a long season with plenty of more games to go. Let’s save the overreactions for later and see how things shake out.

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Kmart84: When Braland was injured and had to come out of the game, Bakes replaced him. LeCroy was unavailable, and Kaufer had already been replaced as the DH in the lineup. That meant Bakes was the only catcher left. If he had been injured in the 8th or 9th inning, who on the roster would be an emergency 5th catcher?

That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Even talking to Mainieri about it on Thursday, he’s still trying to figure out who his emergency catcher would be with Braland and LeCroy out this weekend. I was talking about this with some media guys during Wednesday’s game and mentioned Will Tippett since he’s played just about every other position in his college career. So, I’m sure he’s had some experience behind the plate at some point in his life. But that was who Mainieri brought up after Wednesday’s game, wondering the same thing that I was. To answer the question, I have no idea right now. Henry Kaczmar said he’s caught some before, but that was back when he was like 13 years old. Hopefully, we won’t need to find out who the emergency guy is because that would mean more injuries happened.

gacock: (Follow up to the question above) Would we have used Meredith McFadden?

Ha. If she were able to suit up, I’m sure Mainieri would think about it since the emergency catcher spot seems a little foggy. But no, she’s the team bullpen catcher. She’s not on the roster as a player or anything.

Imiraz1979: Is Aydin Palmer performing well enough to earn more innings? Would really like to see more of him. He finished great for Flo-Dar last season after a rocky start, lost his first three games, then won his last 9.

He’s been fine so far. He has 0.00 ERA through 1.2 innings with four strikeouts and a walk. So, I’m a little surprised he hasn’t logged a few more innings. I think you could say the same for a few other pitchers who seem to be last-resort options. It’s a long season, though, and things can change to where he pitches more than he is right now.

Bill Brice: What has happened to Cayden Gaskin? I thought he would have been a potential starter based on his offensive numbers last year. I have been surprised we have not seen him given some struggles at 2nd base.

He’s still on the team. He just hasn’t played much at all. If you looked at just those numbers he put up last year and nothing else, I can see why you’d feel that way. However, he put up those great stats at the JUCO level. I’m not saying that makes his stats less worthy or anything. But given Nolan Nawrocki’s struggles as the starter at second base, it makes sense why Mainieri didn’t play him on Wednesday. He gave the start to Jordan Carrion, though. And to be fair to Carrion, he’s been impressive so far. So that’s why Gaskin hasn’t seen the field much.

Rhett: Jack, what’s going on with Roman Kimball? He came out of Notre Dame highly thought of…. I believe he was 4-0 as a Freshman reliever.

To put it simply, he just isn’t getting opportunities. I mean, think about it this way: Kimball was one of South Carolina’s initial weekend starters in 2024. And now, he’s being brought in with one out to go in the ninth inning of a 9-1 game against The Citadel. That’s not some small dropoff in terms of his role. I think he’s a good pitcher. He’s always had the stuff to be a nice piece on this pitching staff. But it just doesn’t seem like he has gotten the chance to prove himself to this new coaching staff in the regular season yet. He struggled some during the preseason, but so did other pitchers. It’s still early enough to where not everything is set in stone with the bullpen, so maybe he will get more chances to pitch here soon. But it’s not a good sign when he’s only pitched one inning so far this year.

Arget: When Omaha?

The 2025 College World Series, located in Omaha, Nebraska, begins on Friday, June 13, and ends with a best-of-three championship series from Saturday, June 21, to Monday, June 23.

Discuss South Carolina baseball on The Insiders Forum!