FredJacket
Helluva Engineer
- Messages
- 6,246
- Location
- Fredericksburg, Virginia
Lots of talk in various threads alluding to the state of the baseball program & key things that need to be "fixed".
If I were to generalize/summarize, I'd say the majority have this "worldview" regarding the baseball program...in no particular order (well not really):
---coaching is likely the heaviest contributor to "mediocre" results in recent years. & that's unacceptable.
---injuries are a factor. Some (a few?) injuries must be attributed to coaching or process (i.e. recruiting broken players or teaching damaging techniques). Other injuries to random bad luck.
---our recruiting classes are generally "graded" high & in recent years, the results mean severe underperformance.
---Ga Tech's academic rigor creates burdens in recruiting process that other schools never have to worry about.
---Ga Tech baseball should be as good as it was 15-30 years ago. [foot stomp here...for effect & to setup my question]
Ok... all that for context to pose a serious (potentially depressing) hypothesis. Going forward, has the college baseball (to include recruiting) landscape changed to a point Ga Tech cannot/should not expect to compete "consistently" for 40-win type seasons.
I'm a long distance from the process. But things that jump out to me that this forum seems to just take for granted that I intuitively challenge are:
1) Recruiting rankings & evaluations are not that flawed.
Ok... I bring all that up to solicit good dialogue from folks smarter than I. Folks who I really would like to think big picture beyond the emotional declaration that simply getting new coaches will miraculously send us to OMAHA. The situation is much more complex & nuanced than that.
If I were to generalize/summarize, I'd say the majority have this "worldview" regarding the baseball program...in no particular order (well not really):
---coaching is likely the heaviest contributor to "mediocre" results in recent years. & that's unacceptable.
---injuries are a factor. Some (a few?) injuries must be attributed to coaching or process (i.e. recruiting broken players or teaching damaging techniques). Other injuries to random bad luck.
---our recruiting classes are generally "graded" high & in recent years, the results mean severe underperformance.
---Ga Tech's academic rigor creates burdens in recruiting process that other schools never have to worry about.
---Ga Tech baseball should be as good as it was 15-30 years ago. [foot stomp here...for effect & to setup my question]
Ok... all that for context to pose a serious (potentially depressing) hypothesis. Going forward, has the college baseball (to include recruiting) landscape changed to a point Ga Tech cannot/should not expect to compete "consistently" for 40-win type seasons.
I'm a long distance from the process. But things that jump out to me that this forum seems to just take for granted that I intuitively challenge are:
1) Recruiting rankings & evaluations are not that flawed.
- Just because a guy or group of them say a kid is good or attaches a grade to him... does not make it gospel. I assume others find this information reliable. I just don't. Therefore, I am skeptical about any future value/expectation attached to a recruit or class. Not saying it's useless. Just saying I believe it's not a comprehensive or exact science...filled with flaws.
- It's possible (I don't know), the college baseball landscape has changed in such a way that Ga Tech's "uniquely" high academic standards & fine margins for recruiting "errors" make it nearly impossible to compete with elite programs.
- Who knows if new solves the problem? I assume this... CDH will not be around much longer. Not many coaches in best cases stick around that long.
Ok... I bring all that up to solicit good dialogue from folks smarter than I. Folks who I really would like to think big picture beyond the emotional declaration that simply getting new coaches will miraculously send us to OMAHA. The situation is much more complex & nuanced than that.
