@ NC State Baseball

[Techcaster572]

If you guys go today, come down to the 3rd base line and say hello.

Love chatting with fellow Tech baseball fans...

 

[ibeattetris]

It's great baseball when we win, good baseball when both teams play well and we lose.

The good:

• Team has real momentum since the uGa series and Northeastern game. Talked to in video clip in this: https://ramblinwreck.com/zmarzlak-homers-tech-past-no-13-nc-state/
• Cavemen are back, 4 HRs in a game. Burress 2 HRs in a game, still unbelievable. But Zmarziak 8th inning HR to take lead was one of the most memorable plays of the year. As Zmarziak said in the video clip, he was just trying to damage the baseball. Authentic caveman.
• Comeback wins are more satisfying than holding on to win.
• Defense overall was good especially Jones at 1st (one error cost us 2 runs) and we worked out of a lot of tight positions. Turned another inning ending DP with bases loaded in the 6th.
• New guys to the team gave up 1 ER in 6.0 IP. We have far more depth in pitching than we have had in past years. Need to keep shuffling the deck and keeping the performers.
• Brett Thomas was amazing - 15 pitches for 2.0 to close.
• View attachment 15903
• Coaching was good. Pulling Finateri in T3rd when he loaded bases with no outs was good IMHO.
• Series win over ranked team. (At home, would have been better to play @NC State )

The not good:

• NC State was 0-9 RISP. That was good for us and bad for them; I think RISP works out over time and we were lucky.
• Our strike % was only 54.3%. That won't do it when the cavemen aren't out to play.
• Finateri had a rough outing. Kovala was wild but only gave up 1 ER.

Another positive is NC State played this as a game to win and used some of their best relief pitching trying to hold. Taking down their number one stopper and keeping him away from Sunday was big.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Another positive is NC State played this as a game to win and used some of their best relief pitching trying to hold. Taking down their number one stopper and keeping him away from Sunday was big.

Game underway and we're up 3-0 T2.

For me bigger than the Yunger leadoff HR was catching NC State runner trying to steal T1. D wins games. We also had great baserunning to get a run on an error. Mess with their minds.

Game not over, it's baseball but better to be up than down.

 

[THWG]

Hell of a sweep! Great opening weekend to ACC play. Definitely need to throw more strikes, but I actually really like our pitching depth and starters this year. It was also really nice to see King get a strikeout. We need him going forward.

 

[GT33]

I’ll gloat. I was 1 of only 3 that picked us to win 3.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I’ll gloat. I was 1 of only 3 that picked us to win 3.

You should. I'll introduce the UNC series too.

Now enjoying a beer on the porch. Can't expect any better than we did. NC State may be out of top 20 since they also got blown out by UNCG this week. We've been there.

 

[GTRambler]

I’m going to try not to get excited until about halfway through the conference schedule.

 

[FredJacket]

I’ll gloat. I was 1 of only 3 that picked us to win 3.

I picked 3 wins as well. I did hours of analysis on the matchup. Factored in weather... the home field. Due factor. To name a few.

It was so obvious we'd sweep. Not sure what those "non 3 wins" clowns were thinking.

 

[FredJacket]

I’m going to try not to get excited until about halfway through the conference schedule.

If you're saying this... it's likely too late.

 

[THWG]

I’m going to try not to get excited until about halfway through the conference schedule.

Same here, but I am very excited about the defense and depth of the pitching staff the year. The number of walks this weekend were very concerning but NC State gave up a lot of walks too.

We have 6 guys that can give us solid starting pitching this year in Patel, Finateri, McGuire, Hill, McKee, and Ballard which is something that we have not had in a long time. I believe that Hill and McKee are better suited for the pen this year but both can start if needed. It also looks like we have some main guys in the pen now with Hill, McKee, Barfield, Thomas, and Jones. If King can just pitch like he is capable of and Busse or Brown can become somewhat reliable, we have the potential to have a very good year. Kovala, Gaudette, and Stanford all look like they have good potential as freshmen, but it's clear they are going to be inconsistent this year. I would also like to see more of Jackson Gaspard.

The offense is good as always but is going to have some games where they can't score. One thing that is different about the offense this year though is that the guys walk a lot more than they strikeout, and we have a lot of guys that can steal bases.

We just need to play consistent. There will be ups and downs as we have already seen, but I really like the makeup of this group. We'll see how they play on the road this week.

 

[GT33]

It was so obvious we'd sweep. Not sure what those "non 3 wins" clowns were thinking.

Not clowns, battered GT fan syndrome.

 

[FredJacket]

Leading the horse [old man] to water... it worked!! This is great.

 

[Techcaster572]

Leading the horse [old man] to water... it worked!! This is great.

Absolutely love this.

Team chemistry this year is just different in a much better way.
Coach Hall seems to be more reinvigorated. I know many aren't necessarily fans of coach however I can say with absolutely NO DOUBTS that parents and players (Including the BIG ALUM -Mark Texiera) completely love Coach Hall as I've spoken to many past and current parents. Personally I think this team is slowly being turned over to Coach Ramsey little by little as a future coach in waiting. JMO.

I love the make-up of this team.
Depth and talent.

This sweep says more about Tech than it does about NC State. We just swept a likely tournament team.

Our RPI moved up to 77 from 91 however ugag just got swept and they sit at 33. What a joke.
Before today's sweep, warren nolan's site predicted Tech to go 12-18 in the conference. After the sweep, they now project to go 10-20. What an absolute joke.

I like how this team is playing. Need to keep it rolling against Ga State as midweek games are very important.

I'm not even going to talk about unCheat cause State is next and I'll be at Panthersville to watch tech win 9 straight!!!
go get em BOYS!!!

 

[FredJacket]

Absolutely love this.

Team chemistry this year is just different in a much better way.
Coach Hall seems to be more reinvigorated. I know many aren't necessarily fans of coach however I can say with absolutely NO DOUBTS that parents and players (Including the BIG ALUM -Mark Texiera) completely love Coach Hall.

I love the make-up of this team.
Depth and talent.

This sweep says more about Tech than it does about NC State. We just swept a likely tournament team.

Our RPI moved up to 77 from 91 however ugag just got swept and they sit at 33. What a joke.
Before today's sweep, warren nolan's site predicted Tech to go 12-18 in the conference. After the sweep, they now project to go 10-20. What an absolute joke.

I like how this team is playing. Need to keep it rolling against Ga State as midweek games are very important.

I'm not even going to talk about unCheat cause State is next and I'll be at Panthersville to watch tech win 9 straight!!!
go get em BOYS!!!

Ignore Nolan. His projections (this early) are not accurate. & Ga Tech's post-season prospects hinge on being over .500 in conference play & beating Auburn at least once... twice is better.

 

[gtbeak]

Ignore Nolan. His projections (this early) are not accurate. & Ga Tech's post-season prospects hinge on being over .500 in conference play & beating Auburn at least once... twice is better.

Agree. It is WAY TOO EARLY to care about RPI. We need at least 3 more weeks, probably more like 4 or 5 before RPI becomes reflective of team strength. That said, when it becomes late enough for RPI to matter, the board in general should remember that RPI is simply a mathematical formula. It can be gamed somewhat by playing a really tough schedule (see Notre Dame) with most of those tough games being on the road, but other than the complaint about the "good loss" (no such thing in my mind), it is simply reflective of how good your team has performed and how well your team's opponents have performed, with a little bit of weighting towards playing tough teams away from home. Even with UGa's sweep this weekend they have a better record than us, with more games on the road, and only one series against a laughably bad opponent as opposed to our two. They should be ranked higher than us. As several on this board have bemoaned in the pre-season, our non-conference schedule will not allow us to make the NCAA tournament without at least a .500 record in conference, and likely we need a winning record in conference.

 

[Techcaster572]

Agree. It is WAY TOO EARLY to care about RPI. We need at least 3 more weeks, probably more like 4 or 5 before RPI becomes reflective of team strength. That said, when it becomes late enough for RPI to matter, the board in general should remember that RPI is simply a mathematical formula. It can be gamed somewhat by playing a really tough schedule (see Notre Dame) with most of those tough games being on the road, but other than the complaint about the "good loss" (no such thing in my mind), it is simply reflective of how good your team has performed and how well your team's opponents have performed, with a little bit of weighting towards playing tough teams away from home. Even with UGa's sweep this weekend they have a better record than us, with more games on the road, and only one series against a laughably bad opponent as opposed to our two. They should be ranked higher than us. As several on this board have bemoaned in the pre-season, our non-conference schedule will not allow us to make the NCAA tournament without at least a .500 record in conference, and likely we need a winning record in conference.

Though I agree that his site is relatively worthless, I will say this about RPI.....early or not...It matters.

Problem is we'd have to go 19-11 or 20-10 in conference to even stand a chance at hosting because it puts Tech behind the 8 ball. What you describe above barely gets tech in the tournament.
The same garbage happens in pre-season college football rankings.
Because uga is at 33, they could go 16-14 in the sec and possibly host.
I'm not saying uga shouldn't be above us however 40+ spots...No

I knew uga wasn't that good and if we hold onto a 9-3 lead in the 7th and Charlie Condon doesn't rob Cam Jones of a line drive in the 8th in athens, we could've possibly taken both games from them. In the end, we didn't but uga isn't that good yet they are getting rewarded for playing a relatively weak schedule so far and we are getting punished for an even worse schedule.

First team they play and they get swept with a run rule.

Why is nc state ahead of us? We swept them and have a better record....IJS 20+ spots ahead of us. Their record is 12-6 and swept by us. We're 15-4.
BTW- Notre Dame is 11 in the latest rpi. Overall record is 11-8 0-6 in acc

 

[FredJacket]

Though I agree that his site is relatively worthless, I will say this about RPI.....early or not...It matters.

Problem is we'd have to go 19-11 or 20-10 in conference to even stand a chance at hosting because it puts Tech behind the 8 ball. What you describe above barely gets tech in the tournament.
The same garbage happens in pre season college football games via rankings.
Because uga is at 33, they could go 16-14 in the sec and possibly host.
I'm not saying uga shouldn't be above us however 40+ spots...No

I knew uga wasn't that good and if we hold onto a 9-3 lead in the 7th and Charlie Condon doesn't rob Cam Jones of a line drive in the 8th in athens, we could've possibly taken both games from them. In the end, we didn't but uga isn't that good yet they are getting rewarded for playing a relatively weak schedule so far and we are getting punished for an even worse schedule.

First team they play and they get swept with a run rule.

Why is nc state ahead of us? We swept them and have a better record....IJS 20+ spots ahead of us. Their record is 12-6 and swept by us. We're 15-4.
BTW- Notre Dame is 11 in the latest rpi. Overall record is 11-8 0-6 in acc

You triggered me. Happens every year. Two things are true...
1) RPI is what matters
2) RPI is flawed ..... & that sucks.

The weighted RPI gives a team waaaay too much credit for road wins & waaay too little for home wins.

Notre Dame? ... they have played ONE (of 19 games) at home. It's flawed. I wish I knew IF the committee (in May) really does try to adjust. Eventually.. ND will play more home games but they will have an inflated RPI simply because they play more road games.

NC State has a road series win at Hawaii who is above .500.

Ga Tech's opponents winning % is not great. Time will tell if UGA, NE, & others help or not.

Just need to win & make it easy for the committee come late May.

RPI needs to be fixed and/or committee needs to call me before they make any rash decisions.

 

[Techcaster572]

You triggered me. Happens every year. Two things are true...
1) RPI is what matters
2) RPI is flawed ..... & that sucks.

The weighted RPI gives a team waaaay too much credit for road wins & waaay too little for home wins.

Notre Dame? ... they have played ONE (of 19 games) at home. It's flawed. I wish I knew IF the committee (in May) really does try to adjust. Eventually.. ND will play more home games but they will have an inflated RPI simply because they play more road games.

NC State has a road series win at Hawaii who is above .500.

Ga Tech's opponents winning % is not great. Time will tell if UGA, NE, & others help or not.

Just need to win & make it easy for the committee come late May.

RPI needs to be fixed and/or committee needs to call me before they make any rash decisions.

View attachment 15904

Fred,

You nailed it.

Exactly my point and thank you for making it.
RPI is completely flawed. You can see the baseball powers and SEC bias all over it.

IMO Road vs Home advantage is minimal at best. Home field advantage is minimal except maybe if your playing at Alex Box stadium in Baton Rouge at night.
Tech didn't sweep NC State cause they were at home. They swept a very good NC State team because they were BETTER. Plain and Simple.

Now because of the flawed RPI calculations, if tech were to take 2 of 3 from #10 UNC on the road, they should sky rocket up the RPI chart. I doubt they'd do that though.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

You triggered me. Happens every year. Two things are true...
1) RPI is what matters
2) RPI is flawed ..... & that sucks.

The weighted RPI gives a team waaaay too much credit for road wins & waaay too little for home wins.

Notre Dame? ... they have played ONE (of 19 games) at home. It's flawed. I wish I knew IF the committee (in May) really does try to adjust. Eventually.. ND will play more home games but they will have an inflated RPI simply because they play more road games.

NC State has a road series win at Hawaii who is above .500.

Ga Tech's opponents winning % is not great. Time will tell if UGA, NE, & others help or not.

Just need to win & make it easy for the committee come late May.

RPI needs to be fixed and/or committee needs to call me before they make any rash decisions.

View attachment 15904

SSDY. At some point we should find the thread where we have killed this topic every year.

I agree it is flawed and like democracy, the least worse alternative. And the 60/40 split for home/away is way too much.

And it very much matters to make NCAAT. Its the "law" and no one should be surprised by it. ( I know you aren't.)

The problem for us is the teams we have played are expected to be so weak at season end that we will have a hard time making tourney unless we win 16 of 30 ACC games. And a much harder time hosting. IIWII

 

[FredJacket]

SSDY. At some point we should find the thread where we have killed this topic every year.

I agree it is flawed and like democracy, the least worse alternative. And the 60/40 split for home/away is way too much.

And it very much matters to make NCAAT. Its the "law" and no one should be surprised by it. ( I know you aren't.)

The problem for us is the teams we have played are expected to be so weak at season end that we will have a hard time making tourney unless we win 16 of 30 ACC games. And a much harder time hosting. IIWII

& like democracy I will jump up & down screaming about how awful the least worst alternative is.