Fall Ball Schedule

GT33

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,113
It would be nice if they advertised this months ago. I would have been easy to fly in to Atlanta in the morning and catch the game. Already playing hooky from work, another half day would not have been an issue. I just saw this 2hrs after the game started
 

Killerbees

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
193
The bad thing about injuries and losing the majority of our veterans to the portal is the dependence on freshman. I don’t think we have another Burress on the roster that is an immediate game changer. Feedback on the scrimmages has not been positive with the incoming class. Maybe someone has a better perspective who attended.
 

78pike

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
835
Curious which veterans that were major contributors were lost to the portal? As far as I can tell the only underclassmen we lost to the portal were not getting much if any playing time so they decided to move on to seek playing time elsewhere. The only exception might be Busse who mysteriously lost his mojo last year. Guys like Diamant, Sabathia and Minnick either weren't playing or when they did play were not performing well. Most of the other veterans that didn't run out of eligibility either got drafted or signed to play pro ball.
 

gtbeak

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
524
Curious which veterans that were major contributors were lost to the portal? As far as I can tell the only underclassmen we lost to the portal were not getting much if any playing time so they decided to move on to seek playing time elsewhere. The only exception might be Busse who mysteriously lost his mojo last year. Guys like Diamant, Sabathia and Minnick either weren't playing or when they did play were not performing well. Most of the other veterans that didn't run out of eligibility either got drafted or signed to play pro ball.
Ryan Jaros is probably the most impactful transfer portal loss from last season. He transferred to NC State. I will be interested to see how he develops. On the pitching side Aeden Finateri transferred to Alabama. Those are probably the two biggest impact losses. Personally I would have liked to have seen Diamant and Sabathia get more consistent plate appearances, especially early in the season, but neither did anything to bust the door down and make it obvious that they deserved more time.

Is Graziano still with us? I'll admit I lose track sometimes of who stayed and who left.
 

GTNavyNuke

Helluva Engineer
Featured Member
Messages
10,052
Location
Williamsburg Virginia
.........

Is Graziano still with us? I'll admit I lose track sometimes of who stayed and who left.

Didn't see Graziano here https://ramblinwreck.com/sports/m-basebl/roster/

We have over 25 pitchers.

I was feeling thankful Saturday evening after the ND loss that Danny Hall gave me the ability to flush losses very quickly. Bad losses used to replay in my mind at night; but through years of repetition, that no longer happens.
 

78pike

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
835
Ryan Jaros is probably the most impactful transfer portal loss from last season. He transferred to NC State. I will be interested to see how he develops. On the pitching side Aeden Finateri transferred to Alabama. Those are probably the two biggest impact losses. Personally I would have liked to have seen Diamant and Sabathia get more consistent plate appearances, especially early in the season, but neither did anything to bust the door down and make it obvious that they deserved more time.

Is Graziano still with us? I'll admit I lose track sometimes of who stayed and who left.
I forgot about Jarros. He had a lot of potential and did pretty well when given a chance to play. Unfortunately he found himself playing behind some guys that were not coming out of the lineup because they were also top performers. Had he stayed I feel pretty confident he would have started this year. Did he ever state his reason for leaving? Just wondering if it was playing time, school or something else.

I think Finateri needed a change of scenery. He logged a lot of innings but had an ERA of 6.24 and gave up way too many home runs - 19. The next closest on the team only gave up 9. Add that to the fact that he led the team in HBP's with 11. His tenure at Tech got derailed when he got hurt and he just never seemed to reach the potential he showed early on. I don't know but maybe his departure was a mutual thing to give some of the younger arms a chance to shine. It will be interesting to see how he fares against SEC hitting.

Graziano is not listed on this year's roster. I'm not sure where he went. We do have a talented and highly rated freshman class coming in. Like the other poster said, I doubt any of them will have the impact like Burress but you never know. Guys like Drew Rogers and Ryan Johnson have some hype behind them so it will be interesting to see how they do.
 

Killerbees

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
193
Graz is at Mercer with Busse & Gaspard
Here are the transfer destinations. Sabathia is at Houston. I am not sure about the others who don’t have a team listed.

1729533884549.png
 

gtbeak

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
524
I forgot about Jarros. He had a lot of potential and did pretty well when given a chance to play. Unfortunately he found himself playing behind some guys that were not coming out of the lineup because they were also top performers. Had he stayed I feel pretty confident he would have started this year. Did he ever state his reason for leaving? Just wondering if it was playing time, school or something else.

I think Finateri needed a change of scenery. He logged a lot of innings but had an ERA of 6.24 and gave up way too many home runs - 19. The next closest on the team only gave up 9. Add that to the fact that he led the team in HBP's with 11. His tenure at Tech got derailed when he got hurt and he just never seemed to reach the potential he showed early on. I don't know but maybe his departure was a mutual thing to give some of the younger arms a chance to shine. It will be interesting to see how he fares against SEC hitting.

Graziano is not listed on this year's roster. I'm not sure where he went. We do have a talented and highly rated freshman class coming in. Like the other poster said, I doubt any of them will have the impact like Burress but you never know. Guys like Drew Rogers and Ryan Johnson have some hype behind them so it will be interesting to see how they do.
Jaros also had some injury problems that (I think) ended his season early. As to why he transferred, no, I don't think that info is public knowledge. Finateri, I normally would agree that it was mutual except that we don't seem to have much depth on our pitching staff. But that's OK, because we seem to make up for that lack of quantity by not having much quality pitching either. :( I wish I could be more optimistic on this front.
 

MWBATL

Helluva Engineer
Messages
6,466
we don't seem to have much depth on our pitching staff. But that's OK, because we seem to make up for that lack of quantity by not having much quality pitching either. :( I wish I could be more optimistic on this front.
Sounds like the football coach who bragged that his team “wasn’t very fast, but they sure are small”…..
 

Killerbees

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
193
Curious which veterans that were major contributors were lost to the portal? As far as I can tell the only underclassmen we lost to the portal were not getting much if any playing time so they decided to move on to seek playing time elsewhere. The only exception might be Busse who mysteriously lost his mojo last year. Guys like Diamant, Sabathia and Minnick either weren't playing or when they did play were not performing well. Most of the other veterans that didn't run out of eligibility either got drafted or signed to play pro ball.
Hypothetically, players in the GT system should be better than 99% of the freshman coming in, assuming we are developing them. Can we agree to that? Second, let’s not put the hard press on “not performing well” when none of those mentioned above ever started a full series last year that I can recall. You are judging them off how many ABs?
 

78pike

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
835
Hypothetically, players in the GT system should be better than 99% of the freshman coming in, assuming we are developing them. Can we agree to that? Second, let’s not put the hard press on “not performing well” when none of those mentioned above ever started a full series last year that I can recall. You are judging them off how many ABs?
I have to disagree with your "hypothetical". No matter how well the GT system develops players there will always be some freshmen that are coming in that are simply more talented or might develop faster than the upperclassmen. That was evidenced last year when we had as many as 4 or 5 freshmen starting some games. If guys have been around 2 or 3 years and they still aren't starting there is a reason for it and this happens with all teams not just Tech. If players aren't starting "a full series" as you put it, you have to assume they haven't shown they are ready or capable based on how they perform at practice. I am not judging them on AB's though in some cases when they got their chances they just didn't "perform" and their stats show that. I don't know if you are trying to imply that these players we are talking about did not play for other reasons besides how they performed in both practice or during games. Any coach that is doing that is going to lose his team quickly. The guys on the team can tell who is playing well and who isn't. And coaches are going to put the players on the field that give them the best chance to win. Some players will obviously disagree with those decisions and want to look elsewhere for playing time.

And some of the blame goes to the transfer portal as well. In this day of instant gratification we often see players using the portal the minute they don't see the field, rather than working on their skills to earn that starting spot which may take a year or two. I'm sure it's tough for these young men who came to Tech as "stars" at their respective high schools then get to college and don't play right away. They have their friends and family and social media trolls telling them to run away to another school to find playing time rather than staying around to get better and earn those starting roles. Gone are the days where players hang around and finally earn that starting role in their junior or senior year. The transfer portal is a huge reason we don't see a lot of these players "developing" to earn that starting role. They are also pressured to get their stats ASAP in order to get drafted and make the League. In their mind and the minds of everyone close to them they have to get on the field right away so they can have something to show the scouts. With teams of 35 players and only 8 positions plus the pitcher you can see through simple math that it can't happen for all of them. The portal now gives them the chance to try and make it happen elsewhere right away. But notice most of these transfers are not ending up at other Power 4 programs. Most of them end up playing for teams that are considered lesser competition by most people. That happens for a reason.
 
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