Ryan
Waldschmidt

Limited to DH only duties his first 11 games this spring from a knee surgery last fall, Waldschmidt was given full clearance and appeared in the outfield for the first time this season. Leading off and starting in leftfield on Friday night he banged out a pair of hits, and should have had another after laying down a perfect bunt his first at-bat, only to be thrown out on a bare-hand highlight play by Owl third-bagger Isaac Bouton. Waldschmidt ran a below average 3.97 H-1B on this bunt attempt. A bit rusty from game action in the field, he showed a below average arm during warmups and the game. His game throw from medium leftfield was well up the third base line on a play at the plate. In the box his bat speed was most impressive, unleashing it quickly explosively from his righthanded, rotational swing out of a spread stance. His top exit velocity on the weekend was 111 mph on a groundout to third. Overall, it wasn’t the best look at Waldschmidt’s toolset which was down across the board (other than his bat speed), but making a return from injury is never easy, and this one was especially a little more difficult with cool, rainy conditions. Regardless, Waldschmidt is one to keep an eye on, especially with the SEC season starting this weekend.