Techcaster572
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I was a bit surprised not to see Riley.
I would've liked to have seen how his fast ball played against a power hitting team. I think Riley will play a key piece in a regional imo.
Baseball / Spring Classic vs Mutts (4/15)
- Thread starter Ramble1885
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I would've liked to have seen how his fast ball played against a power hitting team. I think Riley will play a key piece in a regional imo.
Techcaster572
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The games blown against Pitt (Game 3), Clemson (Game 3), and the Barn bothered me much more than what happened last night.
Like I said above, the loss of Kyle and Kent was truly felt last night and add to it that we had a bad night at the dish and that's the result. If it was Southern, would last night have bothered as much.
Time to flush the game and move on.
Miami series is what is important. Stay in the top 2 of the Acc regular season and we host with a good possibility of being a national seed.
Fans don't care about the realities of injuries but the committee does take that into consideration. We have what could be an all American and all acc player out.
Like I said above, the loss of Kyle and Kent was truly felt last night and add to it that we had a bad night at the dish and that's the result. If it was Southern, would last night have bothered as much.
Time to flush the game and move on.
Miami series is what is important. Stay in the top 2 of the Acc regular season and we host with a good possibility of being a national seed.
Fans don't care about the realities of injuries but the committee does take that into consideration. We have what could be an all American and all acc player out.
MaconJackets
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It’s funny to me to think about how different Brent Key and Danny Hall approach our rivalry game. Granted they’re two very different sports and the football one recently has been the biggest game on our schedule, I wish baseball had the same passion for beating the mutts as Brent does
stinger78
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Let? To the degree the SECheat competes in basketball the ACC has let them. Part if the reason is ACC acts like these games do not matter. They matter a whole lot.
That said… Yes, they slipped by and won an NC in basketball this year. I prefer to look at it as they lost a record number of games in this year’s NCAAT.
FredJacket
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I just do not buy the notion the team (or coaches) approach the game like it does not matter. There is no evidence of that. And the players wanted to win. It ridiculous to believe they don't.
It was a game between 2 very good college baseball teams/programs... since when does a loss get us to leap to nobody cares and/or everyone thought the game was not important.
It was a game between 2 very good college baseball teams/programs... since when does a loss get us to leap to nobody cares and/or everyone thought the game was not important.
Eli
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I have been behind this staff all season except for starting Barfield last night. He has 9 total innings pitched this year mostly coming in to face left handed hitters and we start him against the #3 team in the country. Same situation against Auburn where we start Swagert and he puts us in the hole 4-0 before we can blink our eyes. We can’t go 0-3 against the SEC and would have preferred a pitch by committee against Miami who is at the bottom of the league. Again that’s my only gripe and it can’t be all on that decision as we only produced 4 hits..
Home Park Jacket
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We aren't as good as them, including coaching. Simple as that. Not until we prove differently. Includes Auburn and Clemson.
FredJacket
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Who's up for the ride where we end up seeded say... 12th.
AND
UGA is seeded say... hmmm.... maybe 5th. ??
We get to Omaha via a super regional series win in Athens. Would that work?
AND
UGA is seeded say... hmmm.... maybe 5th. ??
We get to Omaha via a super regional series win in Athens. Would that work?
Eli
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I want Tech to host the super regional.
DecaturJacket
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I mean one is 1/12 of your schedule and runs on the same type of schedule as the rest of your games (1 week between ignoring byes and Thursday games). The other is 1/55 of your schedule and is a midweek in a structure where weekend series are more valuable.
I will say that CDH obviously doesn't have the same passion for beating the mutts that CBK does, but he didn't play here, isn't from here, and coaches a sport where the game means less overall really. I don't mean that the game isn't important, but moreso than football the "bigger goals" argument makes sense here.
Yeah, I'm sure nobody else was trying. Give me a break. This is baseball. We had a bad offensive night against a good team. I wouldn't have started Barfield, but it's easy to see the thought process and I don't think it was dumb. It just didn't work out.
This.
It's a midweek game. We don't have a go-to midweek starter. Our weekend staff takes priority. We have pitching depth, but not a ton of "go-to" guys. Honestly, I've been more critical of the usage of our pitching than most and I actually think the two that you're complaining about made a lot of sense with the way we've put together this staff. I have more complaints about the bullpen usage last week against Auburn than anything last night.
Either way, whining about a midweek game is mostly just a waste of time. I want to beat the mutts as much as anybody and had we gotten blown out or looked terrible last night I'd be more upset.
Honestly I think there are two sides here and you have to prescribe to one or the other: 1. This should be a weekend series and treated as such (throw your best) or 2. This is a midweek (be it 1 game or 3) and little can be taken away from it. You don't "not try to win," but you're just not going to throw your weekend guys (at least not for long). Another thing that plays into this is what point in the schedule the games fall - midweeks earlier in the season when there's not a conference series coming the weekend give you a little more flexibility. If this is going to be a single game, I wish they'd move it to early in the season for that reason. The way college baseball is set up, conference weekends are just always going to take priority over everything else. That doesn't mean midweeks don't matter, but there's so much more on the line with conference play.
FWIW, I want the mutts to be a weekend series every year.
We all do. I'd simply ask what your expectation of this team was going into this season. Making the postseason was most people's goal. Hosting a regional was my expectation. The fact that we're even in the talks of being a national seed is amazing with the low expectations going in. Beating Auburn last week and the Mutts last night definitely would've been helpful in getting there, but if it was at the expense of losing the weekend series' it'd be all for naught.
I'll wrap up by saying, I think we can all be a little upset about the Auburn game. It didn't feel like we (the coaches) were trying to win that one. I don't feel that way about last night though.
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Eli
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Why did we move away from Chicole being the midweek guy? He had some very good outings early in the season and has proven worthy out of the pen again last night. I don’t like our current midweek strategy of starting a relief pitcher for the 1st inning and praying he doesn’t get rocked. We did the same thing last year in the regional and it cost us game 1 because the guy couldn’t get out of the 1st.
You are right though it’s a combination of this game and Auburn that has me frustrated. I honestly had very high hopes of this team preseason and thought we could be a top 5 team in the ACC with the amount of talent assembled. Pitching has exceeded my expectations and I think I’m most frustrated with I think we are better than Auburn and equal to UGA we should have split these games at worst.
Techcaster572
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Couldn't agree more.
Both coaches had a pitching strategy.
Wes went with a pitching change every single inning and it paid off. That normally would backfire, but it worked last night.
Hall went with a hunch/gut feeling to start Bret. It didn't pan out. Hall/Taylor brought in Buresma that the mutts didn't have tape on and he performed very well. Buresma has some of the best stuff on the staff but lacks control and why he hasn't pitched much this year. It was a great move imo.
That's baseball between two very good teams.
It had NOTHING to do with the coaches or team not concerned about winning last night! Believe me the players want the rivalry game just as much as the fans do.
The tech players noticed and acknowledged the great tech fan support last night. Trust me. I was there and they noticed.
They wanted to win that game.
I continue to point out that we finally faced the reality of not having Lodise and Kent in the lineup last night.
gtbeak
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Looking at the bright side last night:
1) We lost because we didn't hit the ball. I think we should all agree that this is almost certainly an anomalous result that happens sometimes in baseball. We only scored 4 runs Sunday against Cal, not a whole lot of difference and mainly driven by the fact that Burress had a good game Sunday and didn't last night. But that's baseball. I do hope it doesn't indicate that the team as a whole is going to hit a slump, but if it does, better to get it out of the way in April as opposed to May or June.
2) The pitching staff looked strong except for two small stretches in the 1st and 4th. And this from our 3rd and 4th tier pitchers against a really good hitting club. If I'm on the regional committee, that impresses me, knowing that #1 above isn't real.
Takeaway...I'd love to win, but last night had some good datapoints for the selection committee to consider.
1) We lost because we didn't hit the ball. I think we should all agree that this is almost certainly an anomalous result that happens sometimes in baseball. We only scored 4 runs Sunday against Cal, not a whole lot of difference and mainly driven by the fact that Burress had a good game Sunday and didn't last night. But that's baseball. I do hope it doesn't indicate that the team as a whole is going to hit a slump, but if it does, better to get it out of the way in April as opposed to May or June.
2) The pitching staff looked strong except for two small stretches in the 1st and 4th. And this from our 3rd and 4th tier pitchers against a really good hitting club. If I'm on the regional committee, that impresses me, knowing that #1 above isn't real.
Takeaway...I'd love to win, but last night had some good datapoints for the selection committee to consider.
DecaturJacket
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I think Chicoli showed a lot in those early games (again I wish this game would've been one of those early games) and earned himself a more valuable role in the weekend pen rotation. Therefore, his midweek usage is more limited now. Granted, despite the lack of innings I'll give you that Barfield also has a set role that is valuable in the weekend pen, so I'm not sure what the overall plan was last night. I don't mind starting the lefty to go against the guys in that lineup though. I'm firmly in the camp of the mentality is completely different between being a starter and a reliever, but I'd be willing to bet this plan was set in motion in plenty of time for Barfield to get his mind right. I'll also give you that the strategy hasn't worked out great for us in recent times. I think that's more just the pitchers not executing than it is strategy though.
I was as mad as anybody about the Auburn game. I felt a little differently with a seemingly easier opponent looming last weekend than this coming one. Also, just weird moves imo (taking out Riley after the quick inning, going to Lankie in a close game when others were seemingly available, not bringing in Gaudette earlier in the game). I didn't have a problem with the Swygert start though, despite the outcome.
Let's get our full lineup back and close out ACC play with a few more series wins. We're 5-1 right now and could very well end up 9-1. Even 8-2 (and really even 7-3) puts us in great shape though.
I don't think we're done questioning pitching decisions, but I do think Taylor is doing a great job overall and piecing it together the best he can. Like I said, we have a lot of solid depth, but not a lot of the standout "go-to" type guys. Some guys who have been solid all season are going to have bumps and we're going to have to adjust. That's just the way the game goes.
Ramble1885
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Two years in a row we lose to the mutts in all three major sports.
Sick of this crap.
Sick of this crap.
78pike
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I looked back to try and find your concern about Barfield before the game started. I couldn't find anything other than a comment that you thought maybe we would start Stanford. I didn't really see your concern in that statement. Anyway, I too was concerned about Barfield starting now that I see he didn't do well.
MWBATL
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it’s the internet. That’s what happens on the internet.
Eli
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I don’t like starting a relief pitcher for one inning. I really don’t get the point. I guess innings are innings but he’s been a situational reliever who has pitched a complete inning maybe twice all season..
And I made a comment the day before the game “Are we really starting Barfield.”
My apologies for not going into details as to why I was concerned, but it’s over just need to win the ACC.
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stinger78
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It's kind of like Haynes King's statement after the UGAg game, wtte: I hate continuing to lose. That man felt it in his bones. Literally. But he knew for sure his coaches felt it, too, especially his HC.