2022-23 Season

[gtbeak]

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.

Speaking for myself only, I will say that I have never doubted any player or coaches work ethic or desire to win. I have not one iota of doubt this is more important to them than it is to me. That is a complete strawman on the disgruntled poster's part, trying to say that anyone is questioning those facts. I don't see an issue with speaking facts and attaching names to those facts. I would be shocked if the same points are not made to them x10 by the coaches. And, TBH, I don't know of a single poster on this board who acts improperly towards any player.

I've gone back and re-read my post and the others and I would score the overall sentiment as positive. Not 100%, of course, but clearly well above 50%. That's pretty good for a topic that is WTTE "What are your positive and negatives for the season so far", especially coming off a week where we lost 3 out of 4. I think we all see that this team is performing at least to expectations, probably above a little, and that the potential is there for even more positives as we move forward.

 

[GT33]

We're about what I expected record wise at 14-6, not as good as I hoped (17-3) nor as bad as feared (12-8).

We lost a lot of talent and it was hard to tell in many cases what we were replacing it with. Damn, I'm not sure how we couldn't be pleased with DeLeo, Dispigna, Rubenstein, Finley (hitting & pitching), Senese, Romano. I think we all knew what we had in Jackson, Reid and Compton.

I'm not displeased with pitching, but am critical of in game management. We seem not to know when to yank a tiring arm, we yank King every time we blink. All that being said, Finley and Busse have done very well. KIng has been great, Vaughn as well. Carwile and Finatieri seem to be improving. I even see improvement in Brown and he will pitch much better as the season goes along. Schmolke seems to be being coached well, too.

There's lot of bright signs in the pitching ranks. Our defense is solid and hitting above average. Unless injuries kill us, we'll finish above .500 in ACC and should host a regional. Maybe I'm crazy but I like this team.

 

[MWBATL]

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.

My momma taught me if I didn't have something nice to say to keep my mouth shut. I'm not perfect at doing that, but that is exactly why I have gone silent on these message boards the last week.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I was reading the D1 chat for this week. It's clear we are going to need some signature series wins. So far we are doing what is expected but will need to pull off some unexpected series wins or better yet sweeps. This weekend @Clempy is a good place to start. But have to beat Wofford first. We've beat the teams we were "supposed" to beat but lost to the likely tourney teams (uGag, Auburn, LVille).

Boyd's World has us at 66. http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html As does Warren Nolan (similar methodology). To make the NCAAs comfortably, we'll need to be top 35. To make it with some luck above 45. So we have work to do, which was my earlier point. (And yes I recognize that RPI is more flawed early in the season and less flawed in the end of the season.)

And some background for a later BC series, also pointed out elsewhere they are very old.

 

[GTRambler]

Long way to go. There are 35 games left in the regular season. Then the ACC Tournament.

We will see what happens. I support all of the players 100% and I enjoy watching them play. They are a good and resilient bunch.

 

[GT33]

Long way to go. There are 35 games left in the regular season. Then the ACC Tournament.

We will see what happens. I support all of the players 100% and I enjoy watching them play. They are a good and resilient bunch.

You can’t help but like this team. Great group of kids.

I do hope we’re done with the cold weather. Must have been miserable in Auburn and Louisville, really tough on fielders and horrible for the pitchers. We had a couple balls thrown behind batters, the ball had to have slipped out of their hands. I’m not sure how they “warmed up”.

 

[gtbeak]

Tough loss for UGa last night to Auburn in 11 innings. UGa was up 6-3, bottom 9th, 2 out, no one on base, 2-2 count on the batter, but couldn't put it away. Still up 6-5, the tieing run scored from 2nd base on an error by the shortstop.

 

[senoiajacket]

Tough loss for UGa last night to Auburn in 11 innings. UGa was up 6-3, bottom 9th, 2 out, no one on base, 2-2 count on the batter, but couldn't put it away. Still up 6-5, the tieing run scored from 2nd base on an error by the shortstop.

And a walk off based loaded walk for Aubbie in the 11th. They said it was the 8th come from behind win for them this year but their first win in conference (only the second series though). Hate it for the dwags.

 

[gtbeak]

LSU/Arkansas (both ranked in the top 5), are playing an afternoon game to beat the rain. Anyway, neither team could muster any offense throughout the game, and it was 1-1 at the end of the 9th. Well, in the 10th, Arkansas has hung an 8 spot with a 3 run homer and a grand slam. The score is going to look like a lopsided win (9-1), but the game was anything but lopsided.

That's baseball, right Nuke?

ETA: FSU/UVa are also tied at 1-1 in the 9th.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

LSU/Arkansas (both ranked in the top 5), are playing an afternoon game to beat the rain. Anyway, neither team could muster any offense throughout the game, and it was 1-1 at the end of the 9th. Well, in the 10th, Arkansas has hung an 8 spot with a 3 run homer and a grand slam. The score is going to look like a lopsided win (9-1), but the game was anything but lopsided.

That's baseball, right Nuke?

ETA: FSU/UVa are also tied at 1-1 in the 9th.

Slow Hook made a guest appearance in the 10th? (tic) I should have put a poll on the game tonight as to the over/under for how many ER Dawson will give up before he gets pulled.

Time for a beer and figure that out. Yup, it's baseball. Of the three sports, football, basketball and baseball, the sport with the lowest probability of calling the winner is baseball.

 

[78pike]

And Louisville losing to Notre Dame 4-3 in the bottom of the 8th.

 

[FredJacket]

And Louisville losing to Notre Dame 4-3 in the bottom of the 8th.

Louisville is swooning. Obviously... their coaching sucks.

 

[gtbeak]

The ACC is looking well balanced so far. Yes, it's early still. Best record is 5-2 (four instances of this) and only three teams are more than a game below .500. Of those three, two were ranked pre-season. Clemson may be the bottom of the barrel in the ACC this year...we need to do our part in getting them rooted down there.

In SEC news amongst teams on our schedule, Auburn took another from UGa. UGa is now sitting at 0-5 in SEC play, but a very good 14-4 out of conference.

 

[FredJacket]

Through 30% of the conference schedule with 5-4 record. Comfortably in the top half of ACC standings. That could change, of course... still early. But I'd expect 8-10 ACC teams to make the tournament. Do that & all you have to do is win 3 (or 4) games before losing 2 in a regional. This team is capable of all that. (along with about 50 other teams)

GO JACKETS!!

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Through 30% of the conference schedule with 5-4 record. Comfortably in the top half of ACC standings. That could change, of course... still early. But I'd expect 8-10 ACC teams to make the tournament. Do that & all you have to do is win 3 (or 4) games before losing 2 in a regional. This team is capable of all that. (along with about 50 other teams)

GO JACKETS!!

We're still in limbo but controlling our destiny. Since we are so young and had 7 drafted (how good would we be if 3 or 4 had stayed?), I figured we start slow and then hope to get better as the season goes on. I hope the second part is right.

BC shows what age can do, they are a very old team with old transfers. Not great anywhere but just win - #12 batting ACC, #9 pitching, #5 fielding leading to a 17-5 record so far and weekend series win over NC State. Were ranked 17 and will probably move up.

We are at 62 RPI and were at 66 last week. Each week the RPI gets less inaccurate. We've won two ACC series against mid-range ACC teams and lost a series to an upper range. If UVa keeps up (#1 batting ACC, #2 pitching, #1 fielding) we have yet to see the best this year. But we can reasonably take home series from any of the others and have a shot at away series. And maybe a sweep of Pitt (again).

 

[senoiajacket]

We're still in limbo but controlling our destiny. Since we are so young and had 7 drafted (how good would we be if 3 or 4 had stayed?), I figured we start slow and then hope to get better as the season goes on. I hope the second part is right.

BC shows what age can do, they are a very old team with old transfers. Not great anywhere but just win - #12 batting ACC, #9 pitching, #5 fielding leading to a 17-5 record so far and weekend series win over NC State. Were ranked 17 and will probably move up.

We are at 62 RPI and were at 66 last week. Each week the RPI gets less inaccurate. We've won two ACC series against mid-range ACC teams and lost a series to an upper range. If UVa keeps up (#1 batting ACC, #2 pitching, #1 fielding) we have yet to see the best this year. But we can reasonably take home series from any of the others and have a shot at away series. And maybe a sweep of Pitt (again).

RPI is still just goofy still. Norte dame @ 28 w an overall 12-9 record (4-5 in conf). Ugag @ 32 with 1-5 conf record. Xavier @ 20 w 11-12 record?

Just off the cuff I would guess we will underdogs against BC, UVA, and Miami. Favored against VT, Pitt. Toss up against UNC & DUKE.

Win the ones we “should” and avoid sweeps and we will finish above .500 in conference.

I think BC is a wild card and we could win that series. I just can’t believe they are that good. OTOH, @VT is a wildcard too. I don’t believe they are as bad as their record shows.

UVA is legit and Miami on the road will be tough.

All in all we gotta punch above or weight imho to have a shot at the field of 64

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Over in the football forum there's a post about NIL Killing the Beauty of College Sports and I posted this baseball focused view:

I remember one of Stoudamire's first interviews he was asked about how he would handle NIL and he said that it was like the NBA salary cap where you had to manage payroll. Of course for NCAA, the salary cap is whatever a school (sic) can provide, but there will be some limit to funds which a school will provide to different sports.

Stoudamire also said something to the effect that paying players has been going on for a while and NIL just brought it into the open. Fortunately he wasn't asked if he ever got paid since we have nice reporters asking questions. But as they say in Casablanca, "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"

For the important sport of college baseball it's there too; Tommy Tanks was bought by LSU from NC State's CWS team. The only difference is that in baseball, there is probably less money that football or basketball. I naively think that there has been less pay for play for college baseball in past years; being able to be drafted out of HS by MLB makes a difference. Now though, baseball players can make a lot in NIL and then get the MLB signing bonus. Shortening the time in the minors should be every players goal since the working conditions and post bonus pay suck there.

I think the SEC slogan should be "The SEC, it just costs more."

 

[FittedJacket]

 

[FredJacket]

Knowing EVERY rule gives you an advantage. Not knowing... can cost you [runs] & [games]

 

[Buzzbomb]