2019 ACC Baseball

[GTRambler]

Once, Yogi’s wife Carmen asked, “Yogi, you are from St. Louis, we live in New Jersey, and you played ball in New York. If you were to go before I do, where would you like for me to bury you?”

Yogi replied, “Surprise me.”

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

And VT and Pitt are bottom two in Coastal where they belong. Can't lose those series!

And BC is bottom of Atlantic. Gotta go 2-1 everywhere...it’s nice that our remaining series aren’t NC State ish teams and that we’ve already played Louisville, UNCheat, Virginia... we have built the foundation for this season and now just need to take care of business.

uGA and Auburn have everything to lose. Any further wins against them are gravy. If we want to host, we’ve gotta take another one here and there though.

The thing that concerns me is that @BC and @VT are on plastic, I believe. Not sure how we've done there lately, and too lazy to look it up, but those series scare me. As does our bullpen.

 

[MWBATL]

As does our bullpen.

There's the issue.....

 

[senoiajacket]

Yep. Anyone who can get into our bullpen has a chance to beat us. Also, just looking through the season results in the ACC, it’s really hard to sweep. I think between both BC & VT they have only been swept once (VT by Clemson @ VT). OTOH, I don’t think eithER VT or BC has won a series. So it’s essential we go 2-1 against both, but very unlikely we seeep either. If we have our starting pitching back, I like our chances to take both series.

 

[Female Jacket]

https://data.ramblinwreck.com/stats/baseball/2019/teamcume.htm

Current stats for GT. I wonder how that compares to other teams? Are we in the mix? Or will pitching be our downfall.

 

[FredJacket]

https://data.ramblinwreck.com/stats/baseball/2019/teamcume.htm

Current stats for GT. I wonder how that compares to other teams? Are we in the mix? Or will pitching be our downfall.

http://web1.ncaa.org/stats/StatsSrv/ranksummary
In very broad terms...

Nationally, we are above average. Offense is our strong suit. Top 40 in most major offensive stats.
Pitching still good (nationally) but closer to average. [Of course, we all know the devil is in details of our starters compared to the bullpen]

Compared to ACC, we are more like in top 3rd right now.

The good news we are not bad at anything. & our offense gets on base & scores very consistently against good competition. Unlike previous seasons... there was usually something that really stuck out as a major statistical problem.

 

[THWG]

Our offense gets on base & scores very consistently against good competition. Unlike previous seasons... there was usually something that really stuck out as a major statistical problem.

I'm attributing this to James Ramsey. I love the new approach and I have more faith in our offense than previous years. We use to just solely rely on the home run, but now guys are working counts, getting on base, taking what the pitcher gives them, and we have more clutch hitting. I also love that we will probably only lose 3 guys (English, Murray, and McCann) from the offense. We should really see the benefits of the new approach next year.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

ACC did a bit better mid-week. But still solidly in 4th conference RPI.

Tuesday - 9 of 11. We lost and so did @ND to Mich State.

Wednesday - 7 of 9. @NCState's horseshoe dropped out of the location it was lodged when Coastal hit a 2 run HR T9 to win by 1. And @ND lost 12-2 to Western Michigan.

NC State is still clearly the best in the ACC. ND doesn't have the depth to compete.

 

[gtrower]

ACC did a bit better mid-week. But still solidly in 4th conference RPI.

Tuesday - 9 of 11. We lost and so did @ND to Mich State.

Wednesday - 7 of 9. @NCState's horseshoe dropped out of the location it was lodged when Coastal hit a 2 run HR T9 to win by 1. And @ND lost 12-2 to Western Michigan.

NC State is still clearly the best in the ACC. ND doesn't have the depth to compete.

State also has a horrid SOS so far. Only 4 of their 34 games have been against Top 50 RPI teams. In contrast to 16 of our 33 opponents being Top 50.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

State also has a horrid SOS so far. Only 4 of their 34 games have been against Top 50 RPI teams. In contrast to 16 of our 33 opponents being Top 50.

Yup, NC State's RPI is in the 20s. No reason for them to be ranked #3 in the country when they haven't hardly played anybody.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Weekly ACC guesses:

• #17 GT (13 rpi) @BC (74 rpi). GT 2-1 or better. I am trying to not get my expectations too high. But seeing D1 Baseball Eric Soreneon picking GT in the 8 for Omaha this week is not helping keep my expectations down.
• #20 L'Ville (10) @#3 NC State (21). L'Ville 2-1. This is the marquee Atlantic game without question. NC State has just dropped two in a row (@BC & Coastal) and lost the horse shoe jammed up an orifice. Somewhat of an upset pick given @NC State where they are 16-3 this year. But they have lost most of their 5 games at home. (I can use stats to justify whatever I want.)
• WF(96) @Pitt (210). WF 2-1 or better. Pitt is bad. The crappy Pitt field should help them but they are 2-7 @ home. WF is coming on & has a good pitching staff.
• #21 UNC (18) @ND (124). UNC 2-1. Hard to sweep ND.
• #16 Clemson (19) @ FSU (97). Clemson 2-1. This will be close. I think it's ironic Martin's last season coaching is probably going to end without an NCAA bid for the first time. Looking at his record is amazing; even given the talent he had. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Martin_(baseball_coach)
• VT (40) @Duke (79). Duke 2-1. This is an upset pick. @Duke swept a bad Pitt team last week, although one game was a 2-0 and another 10 inning win. Mostly from how VT has been dropping close games. They stop being the Chokies could easily win the series. I enjoy looking down on both these Coastal teams (in more ways than one).
• Miami (32) @ UVa (88). UVa 2-1. Another upset pick. Young Miami talent versus UVa coaching @home (16-4 @ home this year). This is probably more an aspirational pick since I want UVa to win; since it's so close I'd rather pick UVa and be wrong than pick Miami and be wrong.

 

[MWBATL]

Weekly ACC guesses:

• #17 GT (13 rpi) @BC (74 rpi). GT 2-1 or better. I am trying to not get my expectations too high. But seeing D1 Baseball Eric Soreneon picking GT in the 8 for Omaha this week is not helping keep my expectations down.
• #20 L'Ville (10) @#3 NC State (21). L'Ville 2-1. This is the marquee Atlantic game without question. NC State has just dropped two in a row (@BC & Coastal) and lost the horse shoe jammed up an orifice. Somewhat of an upset pick given @NC State where they are 16-3 this year. But they have lost most of their 5 games at home. (I can use stats to justify whatever I want.)
• WF(96) @Pitt (210). WF 2-1 or better. Pitt is bad. The crappy Pitt field should help them but they are 2-7 @ home. WF is coming on & has a good pitching staff.
• #21 UNC (18) @ND (124). UNC 2-1. Hard to sweep ND.
• #16 Clemson (19) @ FSU (97). Clemson 2-1. This will be close. I think it's ironic Martin's last season coaching is probably going to end without an NCAA bid for the first time. Looking at his record is amazing; even given the talent he had. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Martin_(baseball_coach)
• VT (40) @Duke (79). Duke 2-1. This is an upset pick. @Duke swept a bad Pitt team last week, although one game was a 2-0 and another 10 inning win. Mostly from how VT has been dropping close games. They stop being the Chokies could easily win the series. I enjoy looking down on both these Coastal teams (in more ways than one).
• Miami (32) @ UVa (88). UVa 2-1. Another upset pick. Young Miami talent versus UVa coaching @home (16-4 @ home this year). This is probably more an aspirational pick since I want UVa to win; since it's so close I'd rather pick UVa and be wrong than pick Miami and be wrong.

I predict that UNC will sweep ND. Why? No solid reason, just a gut feel that as the season wears on that UNC is getting better and ND...not so much. Other than that, I really agree with all your other picks. I think UVa is better than Miami and they are at home. I think Duke is better than VT and again they are at home. And I think Louisville is the best team I have seen so far this year.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Weekly ACC guesses:

• #17 GT (13 rpi) @BC (74 rpi). GT 2-1 or better. I am trying to not get my expectations too high. But seeing D1 Baseball Eric Soreneon picking GT in the 8 for Omaha this week is not helping keep my expectations down.
• #20 L'Ville (10) @#3 NC State (21). L'Ville 2-1. This is the marquee Atlantic game without question. NC State has just dropped two in a row (@BC & Coastal) and lost the horse shoe jammed up an orifice. Somewhat of an upset pick given @NC State where they are 16-3 this year. But they have lost most of their 5 games at home. (I can use stats to justify whatever I want.)
• WF(96) @Pitt (210). WF 2-1 or better. Pitt is bad. The crappy Pitt field should help them but they are 2-7 @ home. WF is coming on & has a good pitching staff.
• #21 UNC (18) @ND (124). UNC 2-1. Hard to sweep ND.
• #16 Clemson (19) @ FSU (97). Clemson 2-1. This will be close. I think it's ironic Martin's last season coaching is probably going to end without an NCAA bid for the first time. Looking at his record is amazing; even given the talent he had. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Martin_(baseball_coach)
• VT (40) @Duke (79). Duke 2-1. This is an upset pick. @Duke swept a bad Pitt team last week, although one game was a 2-0 and another 10 inning win. Mostly from how VT has been dropping close games. They stop being the Chokies could easily win the series. I enjoy looking down on both these Coastal teams (in more ways than one).
• Miami (32) @ UVa (88). UVa 2-1. Another upset pick. Young Miami talent versus UVa coaching @home (16-4 @ home this year). This is probably more an aspirational pick since I want UVa to win; since it's so close I'd rather pick UVa and be wrong than pick Miami and be wrong.

I mean, our RPI is #13 - we should have high expectations. Think for a minute - out of like 33 games, how many bad baseball games have we played? I think the Richmond game was bad, our 4 error game against ND was bad, our first game against UNCheat was bad, and our game this week against uGA was bad. We've really only played 4 bad games all year in my view. I know we've given up some leads at the end, but I would say we've had a few bad innings, but not that many bad games. All baseball teams have bad innings...and bad games too.

From a personal greed standpoint, I'd love Louisville to beat NC State (RPI purposes). I'd also love to see ND steal some from UNCheat - just to give us more breathing room against the tarholes. I'd love to see FSU beat Clemson so they can grow some more self-doubt before we play them. Duke and VT it would be nice if they play 90 innings before someone wins and everyone's arm is thrown out and they have to take a month off to recover, resulting in water boys having to pitch.

 

[Squints]

I think we've set ourselves up well going into the second half of the conference season. Our schedule was front loaded and to come out of that at 9-6 is real good. Better than I thought if would be. If we can go 3-2 over the last five conference weekends that puts us at 17-13 in conference play (assuming no sweeps for either side) with a solid hosting chance.

That seems like a totally reasonable goal to me and I think we're more likely to do better than that than worse. Let's cross our fingers.

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

I mean, our RPI is #13 - we should have high expectations. Think for a minute - out of like 33 games, how many bad baseball games have we played? I think the Richmond game was bad, our 4 error game against ND was bad, our first game against UNCheat was bad, and our game this week against uGA was bad. We've really only played 4 bad games all year in my view. I know we've given up some leads at the end, but I would say we've had a few bad innings, but not that many bad games. All baseball teams have bad innings...and bad games too.

I would include the Sunday game against Miami as a bad game. Were down 9-2 and cut it to 9-6 with the tying run at the plate in the 9th. But overall, didn't really do much other than English's 2 run HR in the first and 4 runs in the 9th. Showed a lot of fight to try to come back from a 7 run deficit in the 9th on the road to bring the tying run to the plate though.

 

[FredJacket]

Need UVA to beat Miami today. & avoid being swept at home.

 

[FredJacket]

Still have our work cut out for us now that we can "see" a possible 1st place finish in Coastal. Miami has tiebreaker... just swept UVA in Cville. Frankly, I am still more concerned about UNC... even though we have tiebreaker over them. Here are remaining ACC series:
GT (11-7): at VT, CLEM, at Duke, PITT
UNC (10-8): BC, UVA, at PITT, NCST (3 home series & 1 at Pitt...this is easier than Ga Tech's remaining schedule)
Miami (10-8): at LOU, VT, at WF, Duke

19 wins probably takes Coastal. A single sweep in these last 4 ACC weekends probably gets us there.

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

I'm not concerned about UNC or MIA. Just the teams on our schedule for the rest of the year...

That being said, I like our schedule. Certainly wouldn't want to play PITT on their plastic. Happy to have them at home this year. And I'm not sure UNC has a better schedule than we do. I'd say Clemson and NC State at home are comparable. At VT for us versus @ PITT for UNC. See prior statement. We don't play well on Pittsburgh plastic. @ Duke for us versus UNC getting BC at home. I'd take the at Duke since we just managed to survive at BC and they seem to be the tougher team between Duke and BC. That leaves UVA for UNC and PITT for us at home. I'll take that matchup for us.

MIA may be a different story, as they seem to be heating up.

 

[FredJacket]

Here is the list of ACC teams yet to sweep a conference series after 6 weekends:

Ga Tech (11-7)
WF (9-9)
ND (8-10)
BC (7-11)
VT (6-12)
PITT (3-15)

I'm not complaining...but which one of these is not like the other ones.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Clemson never scored more than 2 runs in any game this weekend against FSU, were outscored 22-6, yet still managed to not get swept.