Notre Dame, Baseball

[randerto]

A REALLY ugly Game 2 this evening. Pretty much everyone of our pitchers got drilled. I guess the depth we thought we might have in pitching is wafer then. One excellent starter, one serviceable starter, and maybe 4 reliable guys out of the bullpen (King, Mannelly, Vaughn, Busse) and one project who may or may not come around to be productive (Schmolke). Two other guys with potential who apparently are hurt (Hill, McGuire). That adds up to at best 2-1 weekends in ACC play, and likely as many 1-2 weekends (like we had against UGa). The third game starter will be a sad thing, in two games where neither Brown nor Jackson started, we have given up 16 and (at last count) 17 runs.

I now have come to see the light that we are about a 0.500 team in league. We simply (still) don't have the pitching to do much damage.

Agree with this - not clear on likelihood of Hill or McGwire coming back this season but if they can, we could be better than .500. If not we'll likely finish below .500 in ACC unless another starter (or two) develops into that role quickly...

 

[GTNavyNuke]

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” @CharlesDickens
"Love-Hate" @FredJacket
"Flush It" @GTNavyNuke

Well the hell, its baseball. Just worry about the next game; you couldn't project game 2 from game 1. I still think we are a 500 ACC team and there will plenty of highs and lows, hope we end on the highs.

 

[FredJacket]

"No time table. Hill's a little further along than McGuire, right now." -CDH

I didn't see much of yesterday's action, but probably a good indication we can expect some big "swings" (excuse the pun) this season game-to-game & series-to-series. Two 13-run blowouts in one day between the same 2 teams with each winning one.

 

[GT33]

Damn near every pitcher they threw at us all weekend had a low ERA, not so mich any more. Looks like they have 3 pitchers with decent stuff (Spivey, Findlay, Tyrell) the rest were batting practice.

That Tyrell kid just killed us until he got tired. Probably that plus we were swinging wild all game because we were tired and/or the immediate deficit got us on our heels. Frankly, I thought we hung onto starting line up way too long in game 1 Saturday.

We’re 2-1. Let’s win next weekend’s series and go from there.

 

[eokerholm]

What happened to Hill and Logan?

 

[GT33]

What happened to Hill and Logan?

Injured

 

[eokerholm]

what kind? Arms? Elbows? hopefully nothing serious or requiring surgery.

 

[GT33]

what kind? Arms? Elbows? hopefully nothing serious or requiring surgery.

Hill- Oblique
McGuire- Shoulder

The fact that Hill’s recovering faster is pretty promising. I was fearful he’d miss
the season.

 

[Lone Star Jacket]

Time to give Ben King a start? May have to gradually stretch him out, but if he could give us maybe 4 innings and avoid the big holes some of these other guys have been putting us in, it would be worth the downside of losing him as a set-up guy.

 

[THWG]

Time to give Ben King a start? May have to gradually stretch him out, but if he could give us maybe 4 innings and avoid the big holes some of these other guys have been putting us in, it would be worth the downside of losing him as a set-up guy.

I'd hate to lose him as a set-up man though. It's been a long time since I've trusted 3 guys at the back of the pen. The last time we had 2 was Isaacs and Clay. It just feels different when we have a lead this year because of Mannelly, King, and Busse. I'd really like to see Hall move Smith to the weekend and have Finateri start the midweek games or maybe even go back to Schmolke if he builds on yesterday's performance. At least until Hill and McGuire are back for us which will hopefully be at the beginning of April.

 

[GTRambler]

Time to give Ben King a start? May have to gradually stretch him out, but if he could give us maybe 4 innings and avoid the big holes some of these other guys have been putting us in, it would be worth the downside of losing him as a set-up guy.

I like this idea. Start King as a hybrid “starter set-up guy for the first 5 innings.”

Might work? It could.

 

[78pike]

I like this idea. Start King as a hybrid “starter set-up guy for the first 5 innings.”

Might work? It could.

I agree. At this time of year we rarely see starters go past the 5th inning anyway. Let King have that 3rd starter spot until the other guys you mentioned come back from injury. Right now I don't think we have seen him more than once on any weekend. We might lose his innings during the midweek but I would much rather have him performing well on the weekend than on a Tuesday. I like the idea of him getting us the lead at the beginning of the game than trying to hold the score after us falling behind. I still think with Samol or Schmolke will be a weekend starter before the year is out. Between those two guys with Hill and McGuire we should be able to get another starter or two out of the bunch. We better.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I agree. At this time of year we rarely see starters go past the 5th inning anyway. Let King have that 3rd starter spot until the other guys you mentioned come back from injury. Right now I don't think we have seen him more than once on any weekend. We might lose his innings during the midweek but I would much rather have him performing well on the weekend than on a Tuesday. I like the idea of him getting us the lead at the beginning of the game than trying to hold the score after us falling behind. I still think with Samol or Schmolke will be a weekend starter before the year is out. Between those two guys with Hill and McGuire we should be able to get another starter or two out of the bunch. We better.

I used to be more optimistic about pitchers developing during the season. To us it seems like a long time, but there are only 10 weekend series until the ACC Tourney. That's not a lot of time to develop since these guys have been at developing their craft for years.

That said, the guys who have the largest potential to get noticeably better would seem to be the ones who can benefit the most from another month of experience and then give us a month + of results. That would be Samol and Schmolke. Then Finateri who is in his second year. I think Vaughn could settle in well since this is his first D1 year. Siegel is in his fifth year so I hope I'm wrong but less likely. And there may be others who show out, but if the staff thought so, they would have been putting them out there more.

All said, I think these guys are solid, but not enough to cover 27 innings on the weekends:
King
Finley
Brown
Busse
Mannelly
Carwile

And we're sitting at a 6.45 ERA after the ND series. I don't want to see how it compares since I know it's bad and the relative bad doesn't matter much, we have to get better to make a run.

 

[eokerholm]

(all currently better than last year)

ERA is currently 168th...

NCAA College Baseball DI current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA Division I Baseball leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.

www.ncaa.com

WHIP is 161st

NCAA College Baseball DI current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA Division I Baseball leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.

www.ncaa.com

Walks per 9IP is 180th

NCAA College Baseball DI current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA Division I Baseball leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.

www.ncaa.com

K/BB 112th

NCAA College Baseball DI current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA Division I Baseball leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.

www.ncaa.com

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

(all currently better than last year)

ERA is currently 168th...

NCAA College Baseball DI current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA Division I Baseball leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.

www.ncaa.com

WHIP is 161st

NCAA College Baseball DI current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA Division I Baseball leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.

www.ncaa.com

Walks per 9IP is 180th

NCAA College Baseball DI current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA Division I Baseball leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.

www.ncaa.com

K/BB 112th

NCAA College Baseball DI current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA Division I Baseball leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.

www.ncaa.com

I would like that, but considering the competition we have played so far this year...

It's about to get a lot harder.

 

[MWBATL]

Team stats will improve if we can avoid giving up 16 or 17 runs once a week.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Team stats will improve if we can avoid giving up 16 or 17 runs once a week.

While it's tough to be a GT fan, try being a Buffaloes fan for a weekend: