Opening Weeknd - UIC/Richmond/WVU

[GTNavyNuke]

I'm very pleased with our pitching this weekend for the most part. The 5 errors today is what did us in vs WVU. Pitchers had one bad inning vs Richmond who is currently up on KSU and about to be 3-0. Xza and Thomas looked great, English was sharp, Gibson and Carpenter came up big, Bartnicki was thrown into a tough situation and came out with a huge K, etc.

Primary concern is our offense. Outside of McCann and English we are looking pretty rough.

Agree.

Pitching overall has enough strength. Need to find another starter or two; disturbing that the coaching staff would throw Roedig in who was clearly unprepared. But they have done that a lot. I think English will need to start. Webb made some nice plays at 1st.

Offense was weak outside of HR. We had a three game .243 average. Bright side is 11 walks which shows more patience at the plate than I think we had last year. The walks doesn't include hit by pitch; I know English was hit 3 times. 12 SOs isn't surprising given the time of season. I saw a hitting approach difference in the WVU game where there was less swinging for the fences. So I think the O will come around.

My biggest concern is 3rd base and in-field fielding. Waddell and Austin made some nice plays but were rusty. Serratos was awful; he needs to be replaced and has sucked up a lot of valuable practice time at that position. His 4 errors don't reflect several lousy throws. Making matters worse, his % had to be awful since our pitchers were doing a great job striking out players and keeping the ball from going into play. (Update: his fielding % is .733.)

 

[LibertyTurns]

We’re one of the elite damn technology Institutes in the whole freaking world & we can’t even manage an App that gives you the score of the game 12 hrs later?

 

[up state jacket]

Played well enough to win only 1 this weekend. Lucky to get 2. The high(er) expectations have taken a big blow.

No, no, no you can't fold this early in the season. You're my rock man.

 

[gtrower]

We’re one of the elite damn technology Institutes in the whole freaking world & we can’t even manage an App that gives you the score of the game 12 hrs later?

Yeah i figured the game had been postponed til I saw the score on d1baseball at 8pm. Even if it is working, you have to close out of it and reopen it to get the updated score each time.

And to top it all off, our live game feed on WatchESPN doesn’t even have a damn score on it. It’s literally just the game feed without a score, inning, batter count, or anything. There were ~15 college games being streamed at any given time the last 2 days and we were the ONLY ones to have this problem. It’s embarrassing.

 

[THWG]

Agree.

Pitching overall has enough strength. Need to find another starter or two; disturbing that the coaching staff would throw Roedig in who was clearly unprepared. But they have done that a lot. I think English will need to start. Webb made some nice plays at 1st.

Offense was weak outside of HR. We had a three game .243 average. Bright side is 11 walks which shows more patience at the plate than I think we had last year. The walks doesn't include hit by pitch; I know English was hit 3 times. 12 SOs isn't surprising given the time of season. I saw a hitting approach difference in the WVU game where there was less swinging for the fences. So I think the O will come around.

My biggest concern is 3rd base and in-field fielding. Waddell and Austin made some nice plays but were rusty. Serratos was awful; he needs to be replaced and has sucked up a lot of valuable practice time at that position. His 4 errors don't reflect several lousy throws. Making matters worse, his % had to be awful since our pitchers were doing a great job striking out players and keeping the ball from going into play. (Update: his fielding % is .733.)

English is on a pitch count, so I like him at closer for now. I like what CDH did with Roedig because I would rather find out what he can do now rather than in ACC play. I expect (or rather hope) the weekend rotation to be Curry, Thomas, Hurter with Bartnicki/Roedig starting weekday games. I like Willingham in a swingman role. He can be the long relief pitcher and 5th starter when we have 2 weekday games.

Like you said, Serratos was awful. There were some plays he should have made but didn't that were not called errors. I'm putting Guldberg or Miller there for the rest of the year.

 

[augustabuzz]

I'm not yet concerned about the bats because pitching is always ahead of hitting this time of year. That being said, I expect this weekend's performance to be the ground floor with demonstrated improvement over the next several weeks.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

We’re one of the elite damn technology Institutes in the whole freaking world & we can’t even manage an App that gives you the score of the game 12 hrs later?

Yeah i figured the game had been postponed til I saw the score on d1baseball at 8pm. Even if it is working, you have to close out of it and reopen it to get the updated score each time.

And to top it all off, our live game feed on WatchESPN doesn’t even have a damn score on it. It’s literally just the game feed without a score, inning, batter count, or anything. There were ~15 college games being streamed at any given time the last 2 days and we were the ONLY ones to have this problem. It’s embarrassing.

Check this out (but don't let anyone know I told you about it). It's the best I've found live (or dead). Only works for about 40-50 schools that subscribe but we are one of them.
http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statmonitr.php?gid=geot

 

[FredJacket]

Embedded in this recap. Audio from CDH, CT, & N.Wilhite. Post-game. Listening to the players is all I need to get re-energized as to why I care. Vicariously...I want them to succeed.

CT on N.Wilhite: Very happy to see him get big walk off hit. Nobody has worked harder & put in the time Nick has.

The meat from CDH:
1) Seemed satisfied to be 2-1. Not a lot of context; but I hope he "expected" to be 3-0; & like many of us, will take 2-1 after realizing how close we were to only 1 win.
2) Hurter starts Tues.
3) Guldberg is not physically (shoulder) ready to play defense, yet.
4) CDH & Howell are pretty sure Roetig walked more guys in 1.1 innings yesterday than he had all fall & spring combined.
5) There was enough jawing between teams (WVU game)...the umpires had to issue warnings.
6) Re: Serratos... "he'll get better" [my editorial: many of us want a change at 3rd...I doubt we'll see that, YET. CDH seems to be way more patient than that. There are other words (besides patient) I could use.]

https://ramblinwreck.com/jackets-walk-off-wvu-in-extra-innings/

 

[up state jacket]

Embedded in this recap. Audio from CDH, CT, & N.Wilhite. Post-game. Listening to the players is all I need to get re-energized as to why I care. Vicariously...I want them to succeed.

CT on N.Wilhite: Very happy to see him get big walk off hit. Nobody has worked harder & put in the time Nick has.

The meat from CDH:
1) Seemed satisfied to be 2-1. Not a lot of context; but I hope he "expected" to be 3-0; & like many of us, will take 2-1 after realizing how close we were to only 1 win.
2) Hurter starts Tues.
3) Guldberg is not physically (shoulder) ready to play defense, yet.
4) CDH & Howell are pretty sure Roetig walked more guys in 1.1 innings yesterday than he had all fall & spring combined.
5) There was enough jawing between teams (WVU game)...the umpires had to issue warnings.
6) Re: Serratos... "he'll get better" [my editorial: many of us want a change at 3rd...I doubt we'll see that, YET. CDH seems to be way more patient than that. There are other words (besides patient) I could use.]

https://ramblinwreck.com/jackets-walk-off-wvu-in-extra-innings/

How about clueless? It fits for me.

 

[senoiajacket]

Yeah i figured the game had been postponed til I saw the score on d1baseball at 8pm. Even if it is working, you have to close out of it and reopen it to get the updated score each time.

And to top it all off, our live game feed on WatchESPN doesn’t even have a damn score on it. It’s literally just the game feed without a score, inning, batter count, or anything. There were ~15 college games being streamed at any given time the last 2 days and we were the ONLY ones to have this problem. It’s embarrassing.

You can go to ramblinwreck.com and let the game feed

 

[gtrower]

You can go to ramblinwreck.com and let the game feed

I assume they’d be the same feed. Surely espn isn’t sending camera crews to all these games.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Embedded in this recap. Audio from CDH, CT, & N.Wilhite. Post-game. Listening to the players is all I need to get re-energized as to why I care. Vicariously...I want them to succeed.

CT on N.Wilhite: Very happy to see him get big walk off hit. Nobody has worked harder & put in the time Nick has.

The meat from CDH:
1) Seemed satisfied to be 2-1. Not a lot of context; but I hope he "expected" to be 3-0; & like many of us, will take 2-1 after realizing how close we were to only 1 win.
2) Hurter starts Tues.
3) Guldberg is not physically (shoulder) ready to play defense, yet.
4) CDH & Howell are pretty sure Roetig walked more guys in 1.1 innings yesterday than he had all fall & spring combined.
5) There was enough jawing between teams (WVU game)...the umpires had to issue warnings.
6) Re: Serratos... "he'll get better" [my editorial: many of us want a change at 3rd...I doubt we'll see that, YET. CDH seems to be way more patient than that. There are other words (besides patient) I could use.]

https://ramblinwreck.com/jackets-walk-off-wvu-in-extra-innings/

Compared to basketball, baseball did great yesterday. I listened and didn't hear anything other than a casual discussion. Hall just takes it as it comes. He never got excited publically as last season slipped away from us going to the NCAAs. "It is as it is" comes to mind; like CPJ. I'll be glad when we get someone who generates some excitement. But that isn't who Hall is. To his credit, like CPJ, he just keeps on keeping on.

Nick is one of my favorite players. He's one of the best OF we've had; his bat is getting better through hard work it seems. Glad he got his first walk off.

Wiley came by for the Nick interview. I heard he was doing Women's Softball. As previously noted, the second game stand-in announcer made me appreciate Wiley so much more.

 

[tkh74]

Hope for more, expected less. Not as good a weekend as I would hope for, but not as bad as it came close to being, and not as sad as I've come to expect.
Don't know where this should go, or if anyone even cares, but Kel Johnson hit 2 HRS for the bears this weekend. Wish that young man a lot of good luck going forward. I know he never lived up to some fans expectations of him here as a ballplayer, but as a SA he met mine. I'll be pulling for him all year minus a couple of games.

 

[FredJacket]

Hope for more, expected less. Not as good a weekend as I would hope for, but not as bad as it came close to being, and not as sad as I've come to expect.
Don't know where this should go, or if anyone even cares, but Kel Johnson hit 2 HRS for the bears this weekend. Wish that young man a lot of good luck going forward. I know he never lived up to some fans expectations of him here as a ballplayer, but as a SA he met mine. I'll be pulling for him all year minus a couple of games.

Thank you for the Kel Johnson update. I feel exactly the same way.

 

[ramblinwreckguru]

Thank you for the Kel Johnson update. I feel exactly the same way.

What was the story on Kel? Must have slept through the transfer.

 

[tkh74]

What was the story on Kel? Must have slept through the transfer.

Grad transfer to Mercer. In Med. school I think. I have a granddaughter that started Med school there this year. May ride down to see her when we play in Macon later this year.

PS. Yes we're very proud of her!!!

 

[crl85]

Grad transfer to Mercer. In Med. school I think. I have a granddaughter that started Med school there this year. May ride down to see her when we play in Macon later this year.

PS. Yes we're very proud of her!!!

He’s playing baseball while in Med school?

 

[tkh74]

He’s playing baseball while in Med school?

Don't know for sure, but did read that somewhere at sometime. Or maybe that was a goal of his going forward. Either way you made me go look at his Bio on the Mercer page which didn't help me answer that ?, but did show he was a fine student while here.

https://mercerbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6630

 

[CuseJacket]

 

[senoiajacket]

FIFY(in bold)
Good summary, Nuke!

1BB from entire staff. None from Curry. Great sign. ...& like you said, that walk resulted in immediate pitching change.

...also the lineup "smelled like" analytics to me. McCann batting 2nd would be exhibit A. Those of you who hate SAC bunts (esp early in games) will love him in that spot.

The analytics lineup didn’t last long ......... post game from Saturday CDH said it just felt right (might be paraphrasing) having mccanns power after English and muury’s On base avg at the top. Can’t say that I disagree I guess.