Baseball / Spring Classic vs Mutts (4/15)

[MWBATL]

Just win the next game…..

 

[Eli]

No, I’m not suggesting we go undefeated. Maybe I’m wrong. We’ll see.

Ironically looking at our losses we should only have two loses

2 loses to Marshall (early season the 12-8 game was out of character for this team)

2 loses to Clemson where Hernandez makes an error in the top of the 9th of game two that was detrimental to the outcome.

1 loss to Auburn without Schmidt and Lodise and I felt we were still the better team.

1 loss to Pitt when we were up 7-0 and decided to pitch the entire staff


UGA and Va Tech (game two) are the only games I felt we just got beat.

 

[DecaturJacket]

Ironically looking at our losses we should only have two loses

2 loses to Marshall (early season the 12-8 game was out of character for this team)

2 loses to Clemson where Hernandez makes an error in the top of the 9th of game two that was detrimental to the outcome.

1 loss to Auburn without Schmidt and Lodise and I felt we were still the better team.

1 loss to Pitt when we were up 7-0 and decided to pitch the entire staff


UGA and Va Tech (game two) are the only games I felt we just got beat.

100%

And really never felt like we were out of those two.

L1 - loss to Marshall 4-2; cold game, early in the season, bats were just not awake yet; Ballard gave up 3 in the 7th
L2 - loss to Marshall 12-8; bats woke up in some slightly warmer weather, but the bullpen collapsed late; were up 7-3 in the 7th.
L3 - loss to VT 8-5; only got 2.0 from Brady, was 5-3 in the 5th and the offense went cold
L4 - loss to Pitt 12-10; up 6-0 after 2 and gave up 10 runs in a three inning stretch
L5 - loss to Clemson 9-7; 6-6 after 6; 3 unearned runs and Patel's worst outing; no Schmidt
L6 - loss to Clemson 4-3; up 3-2 going into the 9th and got the error bug; no Schmidt
L7 - loss to Auburn 9-8; up 7-6 in the 8th; down 4 before getting an out; super weird pitching decisions in this one; no Lodise or Schmidt
L8 - loss to the mutts 5-2; I don't think we need to rehash this one; no Lodise or Schmidt

No blowout losses. Tied or ahead late in several of them.

Outscored 63-45 in the 8 losses, so 18 runs, or 2.25 runs per loss.

 

[FredJacket]

Ironically looking at our losses we should only have two loses

2 loses to Marshall (early season the 12-8 game was out of character for this team)

2 loses to Clemson where Hernandez makes an error in the top of the 9th of game two that was detrimental to the outcome.

1 loss to Auburn without Schmidt and Lodise and I felt we were still the better team.

1 loss to Pitt when we were up 7-0 and decided to pitch the entire staff


UGA and Va Tech (game two) are the only games I felt we just got beat.

You gotta do the exercise the other way.

ODU could have squeaked out at least 1 or 2 wins over us... had we not rallied late. Similar deal at VT... we went 2-1; but 0-3 was in play.

Over the course of a season, these 'hindsight' W/L exercises tend to even out. When it all settles... our record will be an accurate resume.

 

[DecaturJacket]

You gotta do the exercise the other way.

ODU could have squeaked out at least 1 or 2 wins over us... had we not rallied late. Similar deal at VT... we went 2-1; but 0-3 was in play.

Over the course of a season, these 'hindsight' W/L exercises tend to even out. When it all settles... our record will be an accurate resume.

Valid point.

We're still 4th in country in runs scored, 2nd in BA, 7th in OBP, 7th in SLG, 1st in doubles, 8th in hits, etc and we've outscored our opponents 365-169 (+196) though. Add in 3 ACC sweeps and the 10-5 vs tier 1 (with the wins vs the low tier 1 teams) too.

Point continues being - despite a couple of close losses to other top teams, our resume looks pretty damn right now. And we're continuing to do damage without two of our top hitters (literally the guy leading the team in BA and the other guy who's leading the county in WAR).

 

[78pike]

As to getting a top 8 national seed, I think the bigger issue than losing a couple of mid-week games to other potential top 8 seeds is that 4 of our 6 ACC series have been against the bottom 4 teams in the ACC as it stands right now (nod to Fred and his astute comments earlier). Yes, the two California schools are at the bottom in large part because we swept them, but Notre Dame and Pitt have just plain not been good. The good news is that we have a chance to fix that in our last 3 ACC series, but if someone made the argument right now that we are at the top of the ACC because of our schedule, I couldn't push back very hard against that. I am very confident that, if we have the best record in the ACC on May 20th, we will be a top-8 national seed.

I wonder if those teams are in the bottom four because they lost their weekend series or got swept by us? If they had played a lesser team maybe they would have been able to sweep that series and they might not be in the bottom 4.

 

[gtbeak]

I wonder if those teams are in the bottom four because they lost their weekend series or got swept by us? If they had played a lesser team maybe they would have been able to sweep that series and they might not be in the bottom 4.

Well, like I said, the two California schools are at the bottom in large part because we swept them. Otherwise Stanford is 6-9 and tied with Miami for 11th and Cal is 6-10, half a game behind those schools. But Notre Dame is 4-11 even if you ignore our series, which would be good for last place still, and Pitt is 4-9 if you ignore our series, better only than Notre Dame.

 

[bensaysitathome]

Well, like I said, the two California schools are at the bottom in large part because we swept them. Otherwise Stanford is 6-9 and tied with Miami for 11th and Cal is 6-10, half a game behind those schools. But Notre Dame is 4-11 even if you ignore our series, which would be good for last place still, and Pitt is 4-9 if you ignore our series, better only than Notre Dame.

I think you could consider "are they broken because we broke them" if they'd be top half of the conference without the whooping we gave them. That is true of none of theses teams.

I'm proud of the team's performance this year. I objectively think we were the better team vs Clemson, and we can do some serious damage in the postseason. But until we have a few more meaningful wins on the resume, I'm not willing to pencil us in as a top-8. And I'm not sure we'll have a lot of chances given the dilluted schedule of an oversized conference.

So instead I'll continue to enjoy the ride and expect us to beat everybody. Baseball is fun, especially when you're winning.