He hasn’t established the consistency yet, but I think he’s well on his way to that. He has all the other pieces, IMO. I noticed early last season that he just had pretty remarkable composure at the plate for a kid his age. He just has the ability to sit and wait on his pitch, and that can take many players years to develop. He’s still watching too many strikes to suit me, but I love that his main concern is getting on base, not sending a pitch over the fence.

I hate what it says about last year’s squad because with guys like Danks and Russell, there shouldn’t have been such an alarming lack of leadership. But I am very excited about what it says about the potential of this year’s team. The hallmark of Augie’s Omaha squads is that mentally, they were a TEAM, not 9 guys who happened to wear the same uniform.