ANALYSIS: Kennedy Jones Gives Gamecocks Another Dangerous Bat In Lineup

With the addition of UNC-Greensboro transfer Kennedy Jones, the batting lineup for South Carolina's baseball team just got deeper.

On Wednesday evening, Mark Kingston and South Carolina's baseball team landed arguably their most notable commitment out of the transfer portal to date in the form of UNC-Greensboro transfer Kennedy Jones. Gamecock fans shouldn't let the lack of name recognition with UNC-Greensboro's baseball program fool them regarding how they should react to the addition of Jones.

As his career stat line indicates, Kennedy is a right-handed batter who can do a little bit of everything at the plate in terms of putting the ball in play, driving the ball over the fence, and driving in runs.

Career Stat Line

Batting Average: .361

On-Base + Slugging Percentage: 1.026

Homeruns: 25

Runs Batted In: 117

When diving even further into Jones' stats from his freshman and sophomore campaigns, multiple things stood out. In 2023, Kennedy had five fewer hits in six fewer at-bats compared to his freshman All-American season, which led to 29 fewer runs being batted in. This indicates that Jones was getting little help from the guys in front of him and behind him in the Spartans' batting lineup in 2023.

Kennedy was also hit by a pitch on fourteen different occasions this past Spring, which could lead one to infer that pitchers across the Southern Conference tried to pitch inside Jones due to the presence he brought to the plate. Another thing that was noticeable when looking at Jones' career stats was his progression in the field, as in his freshman season, he committed six errors in 100 fielding opportunities but only had one error in 118 opportunities in his sophomore campaign.

The overall reason the pickup of Kennedy Jones is so significant for South Carolina's Baseball team is that the Gamecocks are set to lose two power bats from their 2023 lineup in Will McGillis and Braylen Wimmer. There's also some doubt as to whether or not Gamecock first baseman Gavin Casas will return for the 2024 season, as the Vanderbilt transfer could elect to go ahead and test the MLB Draft waters.

If no moves were made this offseason, South Carolina would've been left with an extremely top-heavy batting lineup this next season in terms of their power-hitting. Adding Jones now eliminates any concerns regarding this possibility.

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