2022-23 Season

[CINCYMETJACKET]

As a guy who still has a problem the the DH, the notion of a machine calling balls & strikes is a little crazy.

On the other hand, I do not believe it will change (much) how the game flows from a [watching] fan's perspective. Fan's won't really notice much change. Pitchers still need "command" of their pitches... which is more than just throwing strikes.

The DH, interleague play, the pitch clock, banning where players can play...

When will it end!

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

Oh yeah, and they should ban body armor. Those who get hit by a pitch on the elbow, take off their elbow guard, and saunter down to first base with a smile. Yeah, Rubenstien's included in that group. You should not want to get hit by a pitch. It should hurt. You should do everything you can to get out of the way. Sadly, not always the case today.

 

[FittedJacket]

Oh yeah, and they should ban body armor. Those who get hit by a pitch on the elbow, take off their elbow guard, and saunter down to first base with a smile. Yeah, Rubenstien's included in that group. You should not want to get hit by a pitch. It should hurt. You should do everything you can to get out of the way. Sadly, not always the case today.

Then you break a bone and you’re out for the season. Take the ankle and foot guard away as well And break some more bones. Makes sense…..

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Then you break a bone and you’re out for the season. Take the ankle and foot guard away as well And break some more bones. Makes sense…..

There should be consequences for actions. I'd probably prefer calling the batter out if he's hit by a strike, not just calling a strike. But that too would change the purity of the game ......

As Rubenstein said in the interview, we do it too.........

 

[FredJacket]

Massey has already added RPI to his composite rankings list. That's a little crazy. FWIW Boston College has the best RPI in the country.

I like to look through his composite ratings/rankings and note how disparate some of the numbers are. This week's includes 15 different ratings (mostly computer ratings)... only 9 of which compute the full 300+ D1 teams. The Jackets land at 45th in his [average] composite list sporting one of the highest standard deviations in the top 50. Their highest number is 13th (Massey's own computation) and the lowest is 94th (RPI). All that to say... this information is not very good at identifying how good teams are relative to each other ... despite the fact they are listed in an order with numbers next to them.

College {Football|Basketball|Baseball} Ranking Composite

 

[leatherneckjacket]

I have to disagree. Baseball is filled with traditions but the moving strike zone from one ump to another is just ridiculous. Some umps call anything above the belt a ball. Others give the pitcher 4 inches off the plate. Then you have some that are generous with the strike zone at the beginning of the game and then tighten it the last couple of innings. Finally, the recent trend of batters being so close to the plate and wearing all sorts of armor has led to them getting hit and taking first base on pitches that are actually strikes! I would hope that an electronic strike zone could detect when that happens and eliminate it by calling pitches that are in the strike zone as strikes whether the batter gets hit or not. Football uses the instant replay to correct poor calls by the refs (most of the time anyway). No reason why baseball can't use technology to improve the game as well. Tennis even uses it. Finally, anytime you have to use soccer to justify a point automatically disqualifies it as being valid.

The statistic I saw a few years back was that MLB umps are wrong on 33% of close balls/strikes (within 3 inches of the edge on both sides of the strike zone) and wrong on 5% of the non close balls/strikes (more than 3 inches from edge of strike zone). That is horrendous and that is MLB umps. Think how bad it is for college umps. Robo balls and strikes cannot happen fast enough.

 

[GTJon]

I thought I'd pose a question on the positives and negatives so far in the season just to see where people's thoughts are (and not devolve into a never ending discussion on firing CDH and CDB as it seems like every baseball discussion turns into on other GT boards):

Positives:
-offense better than I had hoped coming into the year. Still slugging out some big numbers even with all the lost production of last year (and with Compton without a HR yet)
-unexpected significant contributions on offense of Rubenstein and Finley
-back end of bullpen (Duh!). King and Busse have made leads seem safer in the later innings than any other year in recent memory
-seem to have weathered the storm on injuries. 14-6, 3-3 (having played likely our toughest ACC series) and now have all players back from injury except McGuire.
-seem to have about 7 pitchers you can count on fairly well (Busse, King, Stephens, Finley, Carwile, Schmolke, Brown). Hill may make that 8 now. Maybe McGuire and Finateri can get in that group by May.

Negatives:
-still a total crapshoot on weekend starting pitcher. No horse than you know you can throw out there every week and get you 6-7 innings, save the bullpen, and have you in it every week against a tough pitcher.
-lots of inconsistency in bullpen. King and Busse have been outstanding. After that, you never know with any one else what to get from game to game.
-defense questionable at inopportune times. We've had some key blunders that have cost us some of those losses. Need to tighten that up.
-a little disappointed in how little the freshman class has shown. With all the injuries we had, I was hoping at least we'd see some good development and promise from the freshmen, especially with such a highly regarded class. However, Senese and Schmolke so far are probably the only 2 that come to mind as taking advantage of the opportunity so far.
-along those lines, we are still not showing a lot of depth for the future. Again this year, based on our recent lineups, we are likely to lose 6 of 9 hitters in the offseason for next year, including pretty much all our power.

All in all, about as good as I can hope right now. We may have played our easiest and toughest ACC series of the year already. Glad WF is not on the schedule as that helps a little. Still feel pretty good about making a regional, but hosting doesn't seem likely without some big pitching improvements.

 

[Killerbees]

I would agree with a lot of this. Hitting & Pitching in particular. I think overall the freshman are doing better than you are eluding to. We can argue that Senese and Diamant’s defense (3 total errors) are pretty respectable coming in as freshman and compared to Jadyn when looking at stats. With that, Jadyn has made some incredible plays. Hitting I see no difference between Senese and Jackson. Both have hits that have not been impactful. Jaden and Diamant have low K rates and Senese is pretty close. Diamant’s stats are bad, but majority of those are hard hit balls/out. 4 RBIs with 1 hit. The freshman pitching looks promising. It comes down the the dreaded development conversation

 

[gtbeak]

I would agree with a lot of this. Hitting & Pitching in particular. I think overall the freshman are doing better than you are eluding to. We can argue that Senese and Diamant’s defense (3 total errors) are pretty respectable coming in as freshman and compared to Jadyn when looking at stats. With that, Jadyn has made some incredible plays. Hitting I see no difference between Senese and Jackson. Both have hits that have not been impactful. Jaden and Diamant have low K rates and Senese is pretty close. Diamant’s stats are bad, but majority of those are hard hit balls/out. 4 RBIs with 1 hit. The freshman pitching looks promising. It comes down the the dreaded development conversation

My thoughts...

Hitting: No studs, but more depth than normal. DeLeo has been getting the base hits, but so far zero XBHs in conference play + the UGa series. I believe this is just random, as his average is more than fine, but it will be a great lift when he does start delivering some XBHs. Similarly Dispigna only has two 2Bs, both in the Friday night game vs UGa. When those two guys get that turned around we should see more runs scored. Right now we are at 59 runs in 9 games, so 6.6 runs/game. This is the 2nd season in a row that Compton has just plain not hit the quality pitching. Last season he slashed 210/327/378 against ACC/SEC weekend competition, this year he is at 222/300/296. Need him to get back to 2021 Compton. Reid has been encouraging in the walk rate (5 in 34 plate appearances) while maintaining a >500 SLG.

Middle Infield: I know this is tough to get everyone the playing time they need, but I see five guys who should be getting real PT at the two middle infield slots. Romano, Jackson, Campbell, Senese, and Diamant all need to be getting time. This with an eye to next season when all five will probably be everyday players.

Catching: Hopefully Minnick can get some confidence going mid-week and spell Rubby some, else I fear Rubby will wear down come May.

Pitching: Obviously need at least one starter to take the bull by the horns and become a reliable 6 inning starter. The pen has 6 quality arms down there, when is the last time we could say that? Busse/King/Hill/Vaughn/Carwile/Mannelly (yes, still counting him for now). Hopefully McGuire can return healthy and good. Then get at least one of Finateri/Smith/Siegel straightened out, and that is a pretty good pitching staff, IMO.

 

[78pike]

My thoughts...

Hitting: No studs, but more depth than normal. DeLeo has been getting the base hits, but so far zero XBHs in conference play + the UGa series. I believe this is just random, as his average is more than fine, but it will be a great lift when he does start delivering some XBHs. Similarly Dispigna only has two 2Bs, both in the Friday night game vs UGa. When those two guys get that turned around we should see more runs scored. Right now we are at 59 runs in 9 games, so 6.6 runs/game. This is the 2nd season in a row that Compton has just plain not hit the quality pitching. Last season he slashed 210/327/378 against ACC/SEC weekend competition, this year he is at 222/300/296. Need him to get back to 2021 Compton. Reid has been encouraging in the walk rate (5 in 34 plate appearances) while maintaining a >500 SLG.

Middle Infield: I know this is tough to get everyone the playing time they need, but I see five guys who should be getting real PT at the two middle infield slots. Romano, Jackson, Campbell, Senese, and Diamant all need to be getting time. This with an eye to next season when all five will probably be everyday players.

Catching: Hopefully Minnick can get some confidence going mid-week and spell Rubby some, else I fear Rubby will wear down come May.

Pitching: Obviously need at least one starter to take the bull by the horns and become a reliable 6 inning starter. The pen has 6 quality arms down there, when is the last time we could say that? Busse/King/Hill/Vaughn/Carwile/Mannelly (yes, still counting him for now). Hopefully McGuire can return healthy and good. Then get at least one of Finateri/Smith/Siegel straightened out, and that is a pretty good pitching staff, IMO.

Pitching: On the pitching side I would give the freshmen the innings instead of Siegal and Smith. I have zero confidence in the two of them and, looking at their body language, I don't think they have any confidence in themselves. I believe we will see Schmolke get another weekend start this week and hopefully his upward trend will continue. I would like to see Samol get more opportunities. I noticed he wasn't used this weekend so maybe we will see him get a start against Wofford on Tuesday.

Hitting: On the hitting side I would like to see Campbell move back to leadoff and put Deleo in the two slot. I like Rubenstein to bat third because he always seems to make hard contact. I would put Reid in the cleanup spot and I think we need to move Dispigna down to either 5 or 6 along with Compton. Bat Finley 7th to remove some of the pressure he seems to be putting on himself. I would keep Jackson 9th as he seems to be good at the role of getting on base a fair amount to give the top of the order something to work with. That leaves the 8th spot in the lineup which would be Romano normally.

Fielding: One move I think we need to make is to move Reid to DH. He is too much of a defensive liability. There were several balls this weekend that a better fielder would have made and I think it cost us at least one game and was the difference in us only winning one game instead of taking the series. Plus he has a very poor arm for a right fielder. Personally I would like to see Dispigna in RF where his height and arm could save us some runs. Plus I think he has better speed to get balls in the gap. At times it looks like Reid is just jogging out there. And if we do that I would move Campbell back to 2B and give one of the younger better fielding outfielders (with some speed) a chance in LF. Whether that is Brosius or Jett or someone else I am unsure. Up to this point of the season I had been happy with Romano at 2B but this weekend may have changed my mind.

 

[GTBallfan]

Pitching: On the pitching side I would give the freshmen the innings instead of Siegal and Smith. I have zero confidence in the two of them and, looking at their body language, I don't think they have any confidence in themselves. I believe we will see Schmolke get another weekend start this week and hopefully his upward trend will continue. I would like to see Samol get more opportunities. I noticed he wasn't used this weekend so maybe we will see him get a start against Wofford on Tuesday.

Hitting: On the hitting side I would like to see Campbell move back to leadoff and put Deleo in the two slot. I like Rubenstein to bat third because he always seems to make hard contact. I would put Reid in the cleanup spot and I think we need to move Dispigna down to either 5 or 6 along with Compton. Bat Finley 7th to remove some of the pressure he seems to be putting on himself. I would keep Jackson 9th as he seems to be good at the role of getting on base a fair amount to give the top of the order something to work with. That leaves the 8th spot in the lineup which would be Romano normally.

Fielding: One move I think we need to make is to move Reid to DH. He is too much of a defensive liability. There were several balls this weekend that a better fielder would have made and I think it cost us at least one game and was the difference in us only winning one game instead of taking the series. Plus he has a very poor arm for a right fielder. Personally I would like to see Dispigna in RF where his height and arm could save us some runs. Plus I think he has better speed to get balls in the gap. At times it looks like Reid is just jogging out there. And if we do that I would move Campbell back to 2B and give one of the younger better fielding outfielders (with some speed) a chance in LF. Whether that is Brosius or Jett or someone else I am unsure. Up to this point of the season I had been happy with Romano at 2B but this weekend may have changed my mind.

I agree on most of this but moving Reid out of RF. This past weekend was really the only time we have seen him miss which was on Saturday the day we won, and I was at the game by right field. The wind was so bad that day you couldn’t tell which way the ball was going. I’m unsure where you think we would have won on any of his plays the other two days as I don’t recall any missed on the days we lost. I wouldn’t judge based off just that. He moves fast when needs to and has made some really great plays out there.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I thought I'd pose a question on the positives and negatives so far in the season just to see where people's thoughts are (and not devolve into a never ending discussion on firing CDH and CDB as it seems like every baseball discussion turns into on other GT boards):

............

All in all, about as good as I can hope right now. We may have played our easiest and toughest ACC series of the year already. Glad WF is not on the schedule as that helps a little. Still feel pretty good about making a regional, but hosting doesn't seem likely without some big pitching improvements.

Good post. Only minor things are we have UVa to play and I think they are better than L'Ville, but D1 has L'Ville at 6 this week and UVa at 8. I don't think anyone really knows.

The positives for me are hitting and defense. We are turning a lot more DPs and our fielding % is better than last year. @LVille is not good for the stats but it was colder than any baseball game should be played.

The negative is pitching overall. I really expected us to be in middle or lower middle of the ACC, not dead last. Of course we have some good pitchers, we usually do and they get drafted. Some like Hurter get better in the last half of the last year they play; we need for the guys to get better faster. So I'm in favor of playing younger players with potential than older players who haven't turned the corner yet. I know others have thrown out names consistent with that above.

Also the way we are currently playing, I am not comfortable making a regional. I predicted we'd end up mid ACC (7th or 8th) based the way I hope we would trend. In that spot, we'll make a regional but won't host. I'm still in that spot of expecting mid-ACC with the better hitting and D and worse pitching.

One really hard thing about baseball these years is how much better the players are and balanced the teams are with the COVID extension, larger rosters (again next year) and transfers. To illustrate, if we took our team today and moved them back 20 years in time, I think they would be CWS favorites. But everyone has gotten better and there are about 290 teams in D1.

 

[FittedJacket]

Just another point of clarification: none of the critics here are qualified to coach this team or at this level. I doubt any of you played at or above this level. None of you know all, most, or even some of these young men who work tirelessly year round, and the sacrifices made by them or their families. Further, none of you know the “make up” of these young men. You only know a players‘ injury status if Wiley, Russell or Rod talk about it. I get the fodder and the banter it’s at minimum entertaining, but singling out players is classless. Talk about the adults who are getting paid all you want. Lastly, this team is 14-6 and has a lot of upside. It could be worse you could be Purdue basketball fans. And allow me to preempt the “it’s just my opinion” “I played baseball” blah blah no one really cares. People read these boards and it reflects poorly on you as a fan base and as individuals. It’s easy to write critical negative posts anonymously. Again, I guess the good news is that all of you are rank amateurs in negativity compared to the other GT forums. If you have an issue with this post you may be part of the problem. I assure you that none of you want to win more than the players and the coaches.

 

[78pike]

I agree on most of this but moving Reid out of RF. This past weekend was really the only time we have seen him miss which was on Saturday the day we won, and I was at the game by right field. The wind was so bad that day you couldn’t tell which way the ball was going. I’m unsure where you think we would have won on any of his plays the other two days as I don’t recall any missed on the days we lost. I wouldn’t judge based off just that. He moves fast when needs to and has made some really great plays out there.

I wasn't basing the change on just his play this weekend but all season. But with regard to this weekend the wind was blowing across the entire outfield and I don't recall our other outfielders having near the trouble Reid had. Sure he can make the routine plays but one thing that I really take issue with is his arm. The opposition scores from third on even medium fly balls to right. I can't recall him EVER throwing a runner out at any base much less home for the last couple of years he has been out there. His value to the team is his bat not his glove nor his arm. So I think we should just use him for his bat and DH him and put someone out there that can chase balls down and have a chance of throwing a runner out. I just feel it would make our team stronger all around.

 

[GTBBFAN]

Pitching: On the pitching side I would give the freshmen the innings instead of Siegal and Smith. I have zero confidence in the two of them and, looking at their body language, I don't think they have any confidence in themselves. I believe we will see Schmolke get another weekend start this week and hopefully his upward trend will continue. I would like to see Samol get more opportunities. I noticed he wasn't used this weekend so maybe we will see him get a start against Wofford on Tuesday.

Hitting: On the hitting side I would like to see Campbell move back to leadoff and put Deleo in the two slot. I like Rubenstein to bat third because he always seems to make hard contact. I would put Reid in the cleanup spot and I think we need to move Dispigna down to either 5 or 6 along with Compton. Bat Finley 7th to remove some of the pressure he seems to be putting on himself. I would keep Jackson 9th as he seems to be good at the role of getting on base a fair amount to give the top of the order something to work with. That leaves the 8th spot in the lineup which would be Romano normally.

Fielding: One move I think we need to make is to move Reid to DH. He is too much of a defensive liability. There were several balls this weekend that a better fielder would have made and I think it cost us at least one game and was the difference in us only winning one game instead of taking the series. Plus he has a very poor arm for a right fielder. Personally I would like to see Dispigna in RF where his height and arm could save us some runs. Plus I think he has better speed to get balls in the gap. At times it looks like Reid is just jogging out there. And if we do that I would move Campbell back to 2B and give one of the younger better fielding outfielders (with some speed) a chance in LF. Whether that is Brosius or Jett or someone else I am unsure. Up to this point of the season I had been happy with Romano at 2B but this weekend may have changed my mind.

I have to disagree with the moving Reid from RF- this weekend was the only time he had two times where he didn’t see the ball. It was very clear if you were at the game the ball was blown around like crazy that day in right field. I’m not sure anyone would have had an easy time out there. So to judge off that one day is crazy. Otherwise he’s been great out there with no issues.

 

[GTBallfan]

I wasn't basing the change on just his play this weekend but all season. But with regard to this weekend the wind was blowing across the entire outfield and I don't recall our other outfielders having near the trouble Reid had. Sure he can make the routine plays but one thing that I really take issue with is his arm. The opposition scores from third on even medium fly balls to right. I can't recall him EVER throwing a runner out at any base much less home for the last couple of years he has been out there. His value to the team is his bat not his glove nor his arm. So I think we should just use him for his bat and DH him and put someone out there that can chase balls down and have a chance of throwing a runner out. I just feel it would make our team stronger all around.

Not going to argue your thoughts, but I have been watching him for years and there have been many times his throw was in time- our catcher couldn’t get the tag though. That’s not on him. Quite frankly the opposition has scored from third for years from anywhere medium fly balls hit in the outfield. We have also subbed him out so far this year at the end of games when we are up by enough and every single person they have put out there did not get any job done, I can recall yelling at the tv of Reid was still out there it wouldn’t have happened. So the young ones aren’t ready for out there, but I think you need to rethink your thoughts. He’s also one of the only ones on the team that hasn’t had any errors all these years.

Also- Saturday the other outfielders did have issues on our team.

 

[78pike]

Just another point of clarification: none of the critics here are qualified to coach this team or at this level. I doubt any of you played at or above this level. None of you know all, most, or even some of these young men who work tirelessly year round, and the sacrifices made by them or their families. Further, none of you know the “make up” of these young men. You only know a players‘ injury status if Wiley, Russell or Rod talk about it. I get the fodder and the banter it’s at minimum entertaining, but singling out players is classless. Talk about the adults who are getting paid all you want. Lastly, this team is 14-6 and has a lot of upside. It could be worse you could be Purdue basketball fans. And allow me to preempt the “it’s just my opinion” “I played baseball” blah blah no one really cares. People read these boards and it reflects poorly on you as a fan base and as individuals. It’s easy to write critical negative posts anonymously. Again, I guess the good news is that all of you are rank amateurs in negativity compared to the other GT forums. If you have an issue with this post you may be part of the problem. I assure you that none of you want to win more than the players and the coaches.

Ok I will take the bait. But let me start by saying I agree with you on the points that nobody wants to win more than these coaches and players. I will also agree that there are a lot of negative posters that don't know what they are talking about. But you will see that on any message board in any sport for every team in the nation. I also don't agree with posters calling players names, etc. However, message boards are also a place where fans offer their opinions on changes they would make based on what they see on the field. And none, or at least very few of us, have any insight to what goes on in the clubhouse or behind the scenes, we just share comments based on what we see. Personally, I have watched every inning of every baseball game we have played over the past twenty years or more either in person or on TV. Does that qualify me to coach the team? Of course not. But I do think it allows me to offer my opinions based on what I am seeing. Message boards are here for us fans to share our support and our opinions with other like-minded fans. And finally, not everyone on here spends all their time bashing and downgrading the team. Many of us are supportive and point out the improvements we see. And I think those of us who see others acting improperly call them out on it. You have to understand that frustrations will come out when the same issues persist year after year. Sure there are a few trolls here and there but most of us just want to win as much as the players and coaches do.

 

[78pike]

Not going to argue your thoughts, but I have been watching him for years and there have been many times his throw was in time- our catcher couldn’t get the tag though. That’s not on him. Quite frankly the opposition has scored from third for years from anywhere medium fly balls hit in the outfield. We have also subbed him out so far this year at the end of games when we are up by enough and every single person they have put out there did not get any job done, I can recall yelling at the tv of Reid was still out there it wouldn’t have happened. So the young ones aren’t ready for out there, but I think you need to rethink your thoughts. He’s also one of the only ones on the team that hasn’t had any errors all these years.

Also- Saturday the other outfielders did have issues on our team.

I respect your opinion and like you don't want to argue the point. I just don't see it the same as you do. I like Reid and respect his efforts and everything he does for our team. I don't recall any of the late game substitutions we have made for him "not getting any job done" as you state. I don't really recall any of them having the opportunity to show what they have. But I will say that CDH has subbed for Reid on occasion when the game has been close in the last inning or two and we are trying to protect the lead which tells me he also must think that his defense is not particularly his strong suit. And again I respect your opinion. I just don't agree with it in this case and that's ok.

 

[Home Park Jacket]

Personally, I have watched every inning of every baseball game we have played over the past twenty years or more either in person or on TV.

Wow, quite impressive, sir. And I thought I was a fan.

 

[78pike]

Wow, quite impressive, sir. And I thought I was a fan.

Used to live in Atlanta after graduating from Tech and raised my sons and grandson taking them to as many baseball games as possible sitting down the third baseline grabbing as many foul balls as possible then hanging around after the games to get them autographed. Very fond memories for all of us. Later on moved away from Georgia but that has allowed me to watch all the games (even those broadcast on Bally) using the ESPN app. If I can't watch them live I watch the replay later that same evening. My rule is to never follow the score for any of the Tech sports on my phone. That way when I watch the replay it's like watching it live. I'm weird that way. Guess I prefer the suspense of the unknown.