Clemson

[RoosterJacket]

Game 1 was a very good game where we just didn’t get enough hits at the right time.

Game 2 we made bad decisions on the basepaths and errors in the field. Pitching was pretty good for us.

Game 3 was just bad. We walked 8, they walked 0. We had 4 errors, they had 1. We pitched 6 guys and only one didn’t give up a run.

Game 1 and 2 gives me some hope for the rest of the season that if we can clean up the defense and play smart, we will have a chance to win 2/3 every weekend series. Clemson may well be one of the best teams we play all season based on talent and coaching combined.

 

[up state jacket]

Too many boneheaded plays, yes. It's frustrating to watch. However, there is improvement with this team. Ignoring or disregarding the positives isn't fair. On the road @ Clemson to start ACC play is a tough draw. We can still get out with a 1-2 weekend.

Bottom line... we're still better/improved IMO. 2 games into conference play is way too early to declare otherwise.

We have 2 really good starting pitchers in Curry & Thomas. They'll win way more than lose as we progress. It is a shame neither produced wins today.

Baseball is tough on the heart.

I admire ur optimism, but I have lost hope that until the coaching staff sees big changes we be forever waiting on next year.

Game 1 was a very good game where we just didn’t get enough hits at the right time.

Game 2 we made bad decisions on the basepaths and errors in the field. Pitching was pretty good for us.

Game 3 was just bad. We walked 8, they walked 0. We had 4 errors, they had 1. We pitched 6 guys and only one didn’t give up a run.

Game 1 and 2 gives me some hope for the rest of the season that if we can clean up the defense and play smart, we will have a chance to win 2/3 every weekend series. Clemson may well be one of the best teams we play all season based on talent and coaching combined.

Clean up the defense? 10 yrs of error filled baseball and you think he'll get together now? The couches are not doing their jobs. The free ride should be over for the whole staff.

 

[65Jacket]

Am I the only one who thinks we need another SS. The latest boo boo came when the SS tossed the ball to second for a force out for the third out of the inning. Problem was that the runner from first ran on the pitch and was already at second base, and he was safe. Then Clemson capitalized by scoring more runs.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

So far, Todd seems to have a good head on his shoulders. I’m going to keep rooting for a home sweep next and a good year. If CDH is on the hot seat, it won’t matter if he wins 20 games or 35 games. The actual play of the team will show through.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Am I the only one who thinks we need another SS. The latest boo boo came when the SS tossed the ball to second for a force out for the third out of the inning. Problem was that the runner from first ran on the pitch and was already at second base, and he was safe. Then Clemson capitalized by scoring more runs.

Going around the infield, I think SS and 3rd are out weak positions. That's what we expected.
Catcher - damn good.
1st - English damn good, McCann good. English has dug out or stretched or tagged out after being pulled off bag by bad throws from SS and 3rd. 1.000 fielding %
2nd - Bailey damn good. .971 fielding %
SS - Wilhite - erratic fielding % .933. Last year he was .936. I would have expected better by now.
3rd - Waddell has bad fielding % .848 but many really nice plays. As a Fr, I'm not surprised and think he'll come round.

 

[Home Park Jacket]

So far, Todd seems to have a good head on his shoulders. I’m going to keep rooting for a home sweep next and a good year. If CDH is on the hot seat, it won’t matter if he wins 20 games or 35 games. The actual play of the team will show through.

The only decision he didn't have to make he botched (extending Hall). I realize this isn't rock bottom, but in some ways it might be worse.

 

[THWG]

Going around the infield, I think SS and 3rd are out weak positions. That's what we expected.
Catcher - damn good.
1st - English damn good, McCann good. English has dug out or stretched or tagged out after being pulled off bag by bad throws from SS and 3rd. 1.000 fielding %
2nd - Bailey damn good. .971 fielding %
SS - Wilhite - erratic fielding % .933. Last year he was .936. I would have expected better by now.
3rd - Waddell has bad fielding % .848 but many really nice plays. As a Fr, I'm not surprised and think he'll come round.

Wilhite is a 2nd baseman. We really need Simmons to make it through the draft next year which would allow Wilhite to move to 2nd. I'm not worried about Waddell, I think he will be a really good player.

 

[LongforDodd]

Stansbury will let him coach-out through his sons’ career and if things are no better stans will coax Hall into retirement.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I am personally embarrassed for fooling myself again about this team. We played so bad that others outside the program feel sympathy for the program. We were the worst in the country. Wretch. Here's what D1 said.

"THREE DOWN
The worst of the day in college baseball

"1- Georgia Tech
Egad. Poor Jackets. As you might remember I had the Techsters as one of my “Lucky Seven” teams to watch this weekend as having a chance to make a big impression against a ranked opponent. Well things went south for the Jackets today as they dropped a pair of games at Clemson and neither game was even close as the Tigers pounded the Rambling Wreck pitching to the tune of 7-3 and 13-2 losses. Coupled with Friday’s 3-2 loss, Tech took a very tough sweep on the chin."

The season isn't over; we may still eek out an NCAA regional bid as 3 seed. But we have to sweep VT to make that plausible in my mind. After VT took 2 of 3 (4-1, 3-1, 10-15) from Pitt over the weekend, that doesn't look likely.

 

[RoosterJacket]

I admire ur optimism, but I have lost hope that until the coaching staff sees big changes we be forever waiting on next year.

Clean up the defense? 10 yrs of error filled baseball and you think he'll get together now? The couches are not doing their jobs. The free ride should be over for the whole staff.

I can’t disagree with anything you wrote. I’m just not quite ready to throw in the towel on this team just yet. I may completely change my tune after next weekend though. I’m hoping our players can overcome our coaching...

 

[GtBaseball3]

Stansbury will let him coach-out through his sons’ career and if things are no better stans will coax Hall into retirement.

We shouldn’t let him coach it out. Stansbury should fire him if we don’t make it to a super regional. Danny should be coaching for his job this season.He continues to get worse and doesn’t develop pitching. Who cares if sons are on the team? Roof had his son on the team and you see where he’s at. Another thing, our attendance is god awful. Clemson had fans sitting in the outfield, while were over here having less fans than my high school games.

 

[FredJacket]

I admire ur optimism, but I have lost hope that until the coaching staff sees big changes we be forever waiting on next year.

Clean up the defense? 10 yrs of error filled baseball and you think he'll get together now? The couches are not doing their jobs. The free ride should be over for the whole staff.

Yeah... Upstate, your "position" or state of mind or whatever it is... is reasonable.

I'll accept the "optimism" label. But really I just like baseball & the team too much to back off on the attention I give it. I also have an extremely "long view" on things. I try to pay attention to process as well as results. Without applying some unreasonable current expectations on this team based on how good the were 10 years ago. Can't snap my fingers & suddenly make the team something they aren't.

I have ZERO control over hiring & firing the staff. I won't care more or less when/if there are changes. As a fan of sports, I find college baseball unique in that it's played by very young men at a relatively high level for the right reasons (mostly). The result (for me) is a very entertaining product & redeeming in too many ways for me to get into here.

Meanwhile, regardless of final results... I'll follow the "process" & I still am encouraged we'll be better than we were this weekend...& better than we were in 2017. But I could be wrong about that.

EDIT: I consider parts of the process frustrating & in need of much improvement. Other parts seem to be on track.

 

[FredJacket]

Am I the only one who thinks we need another SS. The latest boo boo came when the SS tossed the ball to second for a force out for the third out of the inning. Problem was that the runner from first ran on the pitch and was already at second base, and he was safe. Then Clemson capitalized by scoring more runs.

That play was pretty infuriating.

 

[LongforDodd]

We shouldn’t let him coach it out. Stansbury should fire him if we don’t make it to a super regional. Danny should be coaching for his job this season.He continues to get worse and doesn’t develop pitching. Who cares if sons are on the team? Roof had his son on the team and you see where he’s at. Another thing, our attendance is god awful. Clemson had fans sitting in the outfield, while were over here having less fans than my high school games.

I wouldn't let him coach-out either if this team stinks again but I believe there is this thing about Tech and not pulling the string when it should be pulled too often. DH's decision may just fall into that category.

 

[MWBATL]

If I was told Tech would have 29 hits to 28 for Clemson over 3 games... I would have thought that would translate to 1 win for sure... possibly 2. The fact we lost all 3 & were outscored 23-7 is a little hard to conceive.

Keep in mind we gave them 13 freebies in the three game series and only got 4 in return (BB & HBP) and we also committed 6 errors to their 2. This are the reasons we got beat.

For some odd reason, I can no longer locate the balls and strikes data...it was available on the app Clemson uses for live game stats, and I recall that in Game 1 they threw over 71% strikes (!!!) but I cannot find the data for Games 2 and 3. If anyone knows where to find it, I'd like to compile it. Someone mentioned that we might need to be more patient at the plate and run up the pitch counts on the Clemson pitchers. That's awfully hard to do if their guys are throwing 71% strikes!

If it makes anyone feel any better (and I doubt it will) last year's series at Miami was actually MUCH worse. We gave up 13 freebies in this 3 game series, compared to 33 in last year's opening series. We committed 9 error last year vs 6 this year. We had two competitive games vs Clemson but only one vs Miami. We gave up 32 runs vs Miami and 23 vs Clemson. I'm not saying we are going to win any trophies, but I am saying that demonstrably, it wasn't as bad as last year's debacle of an opening weekend.

I didn't get to see much of the series in TV (hardly any, in fact) and maybe that's why I am not as depressed as everyone else appears to be.

In case no one else has noticed, UVa appears to be down this year (or Duke is up) as the Blue Devils took 2 of 3 at home vs the Wahoos. VPI&SU (our next opponent) took 2 of 3 at home vs Pitt. FSU dropped 2 of 3 on the road at Wake Forest. (Anyone noticing a trend here about winning on the road?) Notre Dame lost its only game at Miami. UNC dropped the only game they got in at Louisville, and N C State won the only game they got in vs BC...so if my math is correct, home teams went 12-3 on the weekend.

I am REALLY hoping to see a big turnaround at him next weekend vs Virginia Tech. I think this team can do it and (if they haven't lost their confidence) should do it.

 

[RoosterJacket]

I think we gave up 3 walks in Game 1 and 0 in Game 2. Game 3 was bad.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Keep in mind we gave them 13 freebies in the three game series and only got 4 in return (BB & HBP) and we also committed 6 errors to their 2. This are the reasons we got beat.

For some odd reason, I can no longer locate the balls and strikes data...it was available on the app Clemson uses for live game stats, and I recall that in Game 1 they threw over 71% strikes (!!!) but I cannot find the data for Games 2 and 3. If anyone knows where to find it, I'd like to compile it. Someone mentioned that we might need to be more patient at the plate and run up the pitch counts on the Clemson pitchers. That's awfully hard to do if their guys are throwing 71% strikes!

If it makes anyone feel any better (and I doubt it will) last year's series at Miami was actually MUCH worse. We gave up 13 freebies in this 3 game series, compared to 33 in last year's opening series. We committed 9 error last year vs 6 this year. We had two competitive games vs Clemson but only one vs Miami. We gave up 32 runs vs Miami and 23 vs Clemson. I'm not saying we are going to win any trophies, but I am saying that demonstrably, it wasn't as bad as last year's debacle of an opening weekend.

I didn't get to see much of the series in TV (hardly any, in fact) and maybe that's why I am not as depressed as everyone else appears to be.

In case no one else has noticed, UVa appears to be down this year (or Duke is up) as the Blue Devils took 2 of 3 at home vs the Wahoos. VPI&SU (our next opponent) took 2 of 3 at home vs Pitt. FSU dropped 2 of 3 on the road at Wake Forest. (Anyone noticing a trend here about winning on the road?) Notre Dame lost its only game at Miami. UNC dropped the only game they got in at Louisville, and N C State won the only game they got in vs BC...so if my math is correct, home teams went 12-3 on the weekend.

I am REALLY hoping to see a big turnaround at him next weekend vs Virginia Tech. I think this team can do it and (if they haven't lost their confidence) should do it.

Overall stat site - need to click on "View Stats Feed" not "Final stats": http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statmonitr.php?gid=geot
Game #2 - go to Visitor Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=207840
Game #3: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=207841

I'm hoping for a sweep of VT. They and Pitt are the weakest teams we play. If we only take 2 of 3 at home, we are still 2 below 500. I think we have to make 500 in ACC play to go to the NCAAs .....

I didn't watch any of the games but listened to parts of them while doing other things. So fortunately I don't have a lot of mental damage either. Plus, when the game gets out of hand, I can listen to other things. I felt sorry for Wiley in the Game #3 ......

As I posted after two batters in Game #3, that debacle was entirely on Hall. There was no reason to keep Hurter in after a walk and HBP; we have lots of better performing pitchers who could eat innings. Like Jake Lee. I hope to update the pitching summary before VT again ..... but we have many competent relievers.

 

[FredJacket]

Ok... I want this to be my last post on this thread. Need to move on. The sweep still stings...and I'm still in the "denial" phase..

When the schedule came out... I was pretty concerned about how we'd fair opening up ACC play AT Clemson. The worst-case scenario was a sweep. Still stings. On the upside... we've just completed our toughest road series in conference play...although, there is no EASY weekend. Tech has dug and deposited themselves in a rather significant hole. There is a HUGE difference between 1-2 and 0-3. Sucks... because we played well enough to get a win. There is plenty of time to fix some of the immediately fixable problems (i.e. smart decisions on the base paths) and work to improve those things that will require time (i.e. key freshman getting experience and confidence). I'm looking forward to seeing how well we rebound/respond against a team (VT) that provides us a real opportunity to "get right".

 

[up state jacket]

Ok... I want this to be my last post on this thread. Need to move on. The sweep still stings...and I'm still in the "denial" phase..

When the schedule came out... I was pretty concerned about how we'd fair opening up ACC play AT Clemson. The worst-case scenario was a sweep. Still stings. On the upside... we've just completed our toughest road series in conference play...although, there is no EASY weekend. Tech has dug and deposited themselves in a rather significant hole. There is a HUGE difference between 1-2 and 0-3. Sucks... because we played well enough to get a win. There is plenty of time to fix some of the immediately fixable problems (i.e. smart decisions on the base paths) and work to improve those things that will require time (i.e. key freshman getting experience and confidence). I'm looking forward to seeing how well we rebound/respond against a team (VT) that provides us a real opportunity to "get right".

You keep saying we have time to fix the mental errors and work on the physical errors. Haven't these kids been playing baseball since they could probably walk? With that being said, the basic and complicated fundamentals in baseball doesn't change from peewee ball to the majors. Yet we as a team can't get them down on a yearly basis. Who is to blame? The players for forgetting and playing bad fundamental baseball or something else.

 

[FredJacket]

You keep saying we have time to fix the mental errors and work on the physical errors. Haven't these kids been playing baseball since they could probably walk? With that being said, the basic and complicated fundamentals in baseball doesn't change from peewee ball to the majors. Yet we as a team can't get them down on a yearly basis. Who is to blame? The players for forgetting and playing bad fundamental baseball or something else.

I keep saying it...and it's definitely "wishful" thinking. Call it my 'therapy" Your points are spot on. The fundamental mistakes kill me. I'd love to know who to blame. ...and I'm being as honest as I can be.. I do not know who to blame. I'm willing to spread the blame thickly across the entire roster/staff.