Pitching

[MWBATL]

Has anyone else noticed we have an ERA of just over 6.0 in ACC games this year?

Georgia has an ERA of just over 5.7 in the SEC.

Have they passed us?

Just happen to be watching them match Florida pitch for pitch through 6 innings in a 1-0 game. Cannot imagine GT in a 1-0 ACC game.

 

[RoosterJacket]

Has anyone else noticed we have an ERA of just over 6.0 in ACC games this year?

Georgia has an ERA of just over 5.7 in the SEC.

Have they passed us?

Just happen to be watching them match Florida pitch for pitch through 6 innings in a 1-0 game. Cannot imagine GT in a 1-0 ACC game.

The UGA pitcher will be a first round pick. They always seem to have 1 pitcher that is extremely talented. I have a friend whose son pitched for UGA within the last few years and he was very high on the UGA pitching coach (not so much on the head coach). I'd be interested to know how much our P coach does with our guys.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Yes our pitching has become dismal again this year. It didn't look that way with King and Hughes doing well...... Hopefully we get injuries out of the system and we have pitchers who should be capable of pitching shutouts next year ..... Hughes, English and some other young guns could do the 1-0 ACC games.

This year we are wasting elite hitting and defense. Those may be enough for us to struggle into the ACC / NCAA tourney on sheer brute force alone, but not enough to go deep into either tourney without pitching depth. With top 40 pitching we could have gone deep in the tourneys. IIWII.

The draft is key for next year's pitching.

• Gold and maybe Gorst should go to MLB as Jrs for the $$. Parr is the only Jr that has shown real promise to me this year that is >50% likely to return (Ryan, Shelton, Phillips, Schniederjans and Parr haven't). I don't expect King to return after two season ending injuries.
• The commits will hinge on Gooden and Curry (unlikely to come to GT) as well as Jolliff, Shadday, Wilhite, Thomas, Wilson (more likely to come).

And for Fr Combs, Gauvereu, Gibson Lee and Dulaney have shown me a lot of promise.

But do we have the pitching coaching to develop this talent? I don't know the answer since I don't follow other teams closely, but UVa seems to develop talent better. I'm sure all teams have lots of heartbreaks on losing great pitchers to injuries; what I don't know is if our pitchers were at UVa that they would develop any better.

 

[Squints]

Has anyone else noticed we have an ERA of just over 6.0 in ACC games this year?

Georgia has an ERA of just over 5.7 in the SEC.

Have they passed us?

Just happen to be watching them match Florida pitch for pitch through 6 innings in a 1-0 game. Cannot imagine GT in a 1-0 ACC game.

Passed us in what context? Last I saw we were projected to make a regional at the end of the year and they weren't so I'm leaning towards no on this one. They had a well pitched game from their future first-rounder. No more no less.

 

[RoosterJacket]

This year we are wasting elite hitting and defense.

But do we have the pitching coaching to develop this talent? I don't know the answer since I don't follow other teams closely, but UVa seems to develop talent better.

We have hit well, but our defense overall has not been good. Yes, we lead the nation in double plays, but we make so many errors. I think we already have 1 or 2 tonight. I think they said the other night that Justus and Bailey have combined for something like 23 errors.

Good question on developing pitching talent. I'm not sure on that answer. It seems a lot of our pitchers don't greatly improve during their time here.

 

[Squints]

We have hit well, but our defense overall has not been good. Yes, we lead the nation in double plays, but we make so many errors. I think we already have 1 or 2 tonight. I think they said the other night that Justus and Bailey have combined for something like 23 errors.

Well errors and fielding percentage aren't a great way to evaluate defense. It's too bad there's not real alternative for college. I think our guys are pretty good defensively which is what makes the errors frustrating.

Good question on developing pitching talent. I'm not sure on that answer. It seems a lot of our pitchers don't greatly improve during their time here.

I'm going to keep beating the drum on this until my arm falls off but how many of our pitchers have gone through their time here without getting hurt and losing development time? You can't develop if you can't pitch. The guys we've had who've actually been able to throw have shown pretty good progress for the most part from what I recall.

 

[RoosterJacket]

Well errors and fielding percentage aren't a great way to evaluate defense. It's too bad there's not real alternative for college. I think our guys are pretty good defensively which is what makes the errors frustrating.

I'm going to keep beating the drum on this until my arm falls off but how many of our pitchers have gone through their time here without getting hurt and losing development time? You can't develop if you can't pitch. The guys we've had who've actually been able to throw have shown pretty good progress for the most part from what I recall.

Ha, I actually just wrote a post in the Clemson thread kind of touching on this---we have the ability to be a very good defensive team and we showed it the past two games. I think Kel is the only player that probably is an average to below average defender.

So do our pitchers get injured because of something that is in the training program at GT for the pitchers or is it just fluky?

 

[Squints]

So do our pitchers get injured because of something that is in the training program at GT for the pitchers or is it just fluky?

It very well could be something we do here. But like I said in another thread a few weeks ago these kids are basically abused for years before they ever get here. We'll probably never know for sure.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Is this a way to figure out how good a pitching staff is?

Look at individual players ERA and WHIP by year at school.
Take the improvement or degrading by year.
Develop a metric for whole team.
Compare whole team metric between teams.

It would seem that doing that would show how an individuals talent was developed. Some players, like Hughes, are very good to start with. Others aren't but should improve a lot........ or stop playing.

I didn't follow the UGAg game last night to check score occasionally. After 2 my comment with the disaster known as Cole Pitts was that we should pitch a Fr, any Fr. Turns out to be right as the Fr gave up very few runs. But something has happened mentally and / or physically with Cole. He needs a long rest for whatever it is. Why did the pitching staff / Hall put him out there?

An overall indictment of our pitching staff are games like last night where the non-Fr don't do good middle relief. Just sad.

 

[MWBATL]

I asked earlier if UGa had passed us by in baseball. They have beaten us twice so far, and pitched MUCH better than us.

My assessment is that they indeed have passed us by. Not by much (yet) but they are demonstrably better than us. You are what your record is. Our Coaching staff has to be held responsible for the state of the program. Either that, or you have to believe in incredibly poor luck or terrible assessments of our recruiting classes as the answer...because we should be doing better with the talent that is coming into school.

Just to add---these are not really new trends for GT pitching, imho. We were horrible at the end of last season, if you'll recall.

 

[up state jacket]

When has Tech ever had a dominating pitching staff? Yes they seem to have a pitcher or two every once in a while that is pro bound, an entire staff? Same song different year.

 

[65Jacket]

Our freshman class was rated #4 in the nation. That is not poor recruiting. Our two best pitching prospect, and maybe our two best overall prospects, can't pitch due to arm problems. One of our two top returning pitchers has pitched ONE inning this year. Our pre-season All America stopper, started the season on a 20% of season suspension and can't pitch worth a flip since returning. Cole Pitts is not a decent pitcher, but we have no one else to putout there.

 

[up state jacket]

Our freshman class was rated #4 in the nation. That is not poor recruiting. Our two best pitching prospect, and maybe our two best overall prospects, can't pitch due to arm problems. One of our two top returning pitchers has pitched ONE inning this year. Our pre-season All America stopper, started the season on a 20% of season suspension and can't pitch worth a flip since returning. Cole Pitts is not a decent pitcher, but we have no one else to putout there.

Like I said, same song different year. Aside the suspension issue. We are always year after year crying about something in our pitching staff. Maybe the pipe line in the local aau are destroying these boys arms. The injury problem has been the most recent excuse. Danny and Morris have very similar philosophies in their baseball strategy. The problem with that is the game isn't that game anymore and that is long ball, long ball, and more long ball. Our hitters have done an ok job. They have struggled as an offense in tight spots. Strike out at a bad time, getting picked off for the third out on multiple occasions. Just getting picked off period way too many times. Stranding runners in scoring position when the runner was in scoring positon with less than two outs. So, yes our hitters have done an avg job when given the chance. So, Danny has been coaching a long time at Tech and things haven't changed, except the game itself, so Tech baseball will be this until Danny is gone. Good hitters, crap pitching staff, defensive errors. Five hundred or just under five hundred in ACC play. Struggling to get into a regional. Just happy to be there. Fing embarrassing.

 

[Squints]

My assessment is that they indeed have passed us by. Not by much (yet) but they are demonstrably better than us. You are what your record is. Our Coaching staff has to be held responsible for the state of the program. Either that, or you have to believe in incredibly poor luck or terrible assessments of our recruiting classes as the answer...because we should be doing better with the talent that is coming into school.

Man, you sure are quick to jump off the ledge. Your assessment appears to be based on two games which is silly. Two games don't mean anything in baseball. I don't know how you can say you are what your record is one sentence and then in the next say that a team that's 22-20 (7-11) and projected to miss the tournament has passed a team that's 27-14 (10-10) in an arguably stronger conference and projected to be a #2 seed. I fail to see how that's demonstrably better.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I only worry about GT. We need to take care of our games and everything will be fine.

UGAg is having a better year than they have in the recent past and we are chugging along. Both teams are in the middle of their conferences. The SEC and ACC overall are the best conferences in most years. Right now the SEC has a tiny bit higher RPI as a conference than the ACC. http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/confrpi.html .

Either conference could have 4 teams in the 8 super regional hosts depending on how things shake out.

GT will not be one as we legitimately hoped when King and Hughes were pitching. Now we are likely to come in close to where we have the last two years in the ACC (9th and 10th). Do I like it? Hell no.

GT has an RPI of 22 while UGAg has an RPI of 23 this morning. http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html And looking forward based on our Fr class maturing at the pitcher position and who UGAg is losing, I think UGAg is near their ceiling as a program and we are no where near our ceiling. But only time will tell if I'm stupidly optimistic again.

 

[65Jacket]

I wonder if East Cobb baseball wears out pitchers before we get them to GT. Most of our players come from East Cobb, and most of our injury problems are pitchers arms.
I know of one of our players whose dad refused to allow his son to be pitch as much as the coach wanted.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Has anyone else noticed we have an ERA of just over 6.0 in ACC games this year?

Georgia has an ERA of just over 5.7 in the SEC.

Have they passed us?

Just happen to be watching them match Florida pitch for pitch through 6 innings in a 1-0 game. Cannot imagine GT in a 1-0 ACC game.

Interesting what independent people think. I just finished listening to the D1Baseball podcast of where and why they would sort the NCAA field. This podcast was just after UGAg beat us.

Even though UGAg is 23 RPI, they like Alabama better based on SEC record even with 49 RPI. And UGAg for them is a bubble team on the outside right now. Don't forget UGAg is 22-20 overall and it's total body of work.

When it came to talking about GT, little discussion, we are in the NCAA with an RPI of 22 and 27-14 record.

So as of this week, D1Baseball didn't have UGAg ahead of us even though we are having another disappointing year and UGAg is having a great year for them. UGAg was 75th in RPI last year and 49th the year before.

Interestingly UGAg has a PerfectGame ranked class this year that is 13th in the nation. But 4 of their 13 commits are top 100 (and one of ours is in a class ranked 23rd), so after the draft when all the top 100 but one or two have gone to the MLB, we will likely end up with the better class.

Piss on them.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

OK, other than baseball, GT football and basketball are pretty boring to me right now. So here's something interesting (to me) on injuries in the MLB (hint look at the number of pitchers as well as details on types of injuries - how do any pitchers break their arms?).
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/today/tranx/dl.asp

Also, FSU lost two of their pitchers. One the conventicle way and one the unconventional way (From D1 Baseball chat). The Voyles dude pitched against us in all three games (5.0 total innings) and gave up no runs.
"
Comment From B Mand

With FSU’s pitching already seemingly thin and then adding the injuries to Cobi Johnson and Jim Voyles, does FSU have enough pitching to advance to a Super?

Aaron Fitt:

You’re right to be concerned — Florida State is definitely thin on the mound. Heading into the season, we thought a big key to the season was for Cobi Johnson to take a big step forward and become a frontline ACC pitcher, as befitting his talent. Instead he threw just 18 innings and then had Tommy John surgery. And Voyles, obviously, is the most important piece of that bullpen — they’re gonna need him back down the stretch (last I heard they were hoping he’d be back in a couple of weeks after taking that line drive off the head — what a scary deal). I’d never rule out the Seminoles — they win regionals like Cris Carter catches touchdowns. They’re going to be at home, which certainly helps. Their offense is still very formidable, as usual. So yes, I think they can win a regional even if Voyles misses more time… but for them to make a really deep postseason run, they’re gonna need him back."

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Another pitcher bites the dust for this year: this will hurt Florida in the tourneys. http://www.d1baseball.com/analysis/ufkowarout050416/

Not that this is more than 5% likely, but D1 has us as #2 seed @ Florida. http://www.d1baseball.com/projections/d1baseballs-field-64-may-4/

 

[Squints]

Not that this is more than 5% likely, but D1 has us as #2 seed @ Florida. http://www.d1baseball.com/projections/d1baseballs-field-64-may-4/

They've had us there ever since they started their projections over a month ago. Baseball America has had as the #2 seed in Starkville for about a month as well. This is why I couldn't believe you guys were so down on the season so quickly earlier.