Radford U - Opening Weekend

FredJacket

FredJacket

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Ok... Looking forward to some college baseball!!

Radford University Highlanders headed to Midtown for the weekend. Weather will be appropriately wintry with some precipitation and cool temps in the forecast.

In 2023...
Radford finished 10-45
Road record: 2-23
v Q1 (RPI): 1-7 (beat Va Tech)
v Q2: 0-7
v Q3: 0-0
v Q4: 9-31

I won't make any predictions; but obviously, Ga Tech fields a more talented team. Just glad baseball is back.

For those who like to partake in the "chat" feature of this website. Reminder... there is a dedicated chat channel for baseball which allows for basketball and baseball chats to occur simultaneously. Will be a good thing right away as Saturday will have both basketball and baseball likely overlapping.

Go JACKETS!!
 
GTNavyNuke

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I've set my expectations. If we don't win all three, average less than 3.0ERA given up and 8.0ERA earned, that I'll be disappointed and question my 12-15 ACC projection. And @FredJacket shouldn't introduce another series till others also fail to produce the right karma.

I'll be there is chat. Really looking forward to some baseball too. Excited about the improvement in defense and curious to see how pitching has changed. Also the length of the hook.
 

senoiajacket

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GTNavyNuke said:
I've set my expectations. If we don't win all three, average less than 3.0ERA given up and 8.0ERA earned, that I'll be disappointed and question my 12-15 ACC projection. And @FredJacket shouldn't introduce another series till others also fail to produce the right karma.

I'll be there is chat. Really looking forward to some baseball too. Excited about the improvement in defense and curious to see how pitching has changed. Also the length of the hook.
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……. Always, the length of the hook, lol.
 
GTNavyNuke

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senoiajacket said:
……. Always, the length of the hook, lol.
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LOL. At least I'm consistent.

Hall / DBo got quicker in the last two years. This year, Hall said that he wanted to get more than 3-4 innings out of a starter; we'll see what happens when we start playing games and the pitchers start getting shelled after twice through the order. I think three times through is dangerous for most any pitcher. Best to pull them and see if someone else is better that day. But that's not what we've done consistently.
 

GT33

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GTNavyNuke said:
LOL. At least I'm consistent.

Hall / DBo got quicker in the last two years. This year, Hall said that he wanted to get more than 3-4 innings out of a starter; we'll see what happens when we start playing games and the pitchers start getting shelled after twice through the order. I think three times through is dangerous for most any pitcher. Best to pull them and see if someone else is better that day. But that's not what we've done consistently.
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Imagine how good we could be if we could just average 4 innings out of a starter!
 
GTNavyNuke

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GT33 said:
Imagine how good we could be if we could just average 4 innings out of a starter!
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Without doing too much work, looks like FInateri and Schmolke may have been close to 4 innings average per start last year. The rest, not at all. And Finley and Schmolke absorbed a lot of damage to their ERAs staying in. We didn't have a lot of good options though. IIWII.

4IP is 12 outs which is close to twice through the order with a 1.0 WHIP. I'm more into batters faced and pitch count. But yeah, absolutely if we could average 4IP per start we'd be a lot better off.

1707910370796.png
 

GT33

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GTNavyNuke said:
And Finley and Schmolke absorbed a lot of damage to their ERAs staying in.
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Some of you guys are absolute zealots following all this stuff and I'm just a casual observer. It's not the guys. You could see when someone was struggling due to being tired or just wasn't their day and needed to come out. We either wouldn't or couldn't, take your pick. Occasionally, we'd go on a tear and strike out the side but more often they got shelled. I'm not a coach, but I'd put that highly rated kid with no experience out there and see what he's got. Could be that kid is not healthy. I've suspected our issues are we're recruiting a lot of injured pitchers that need a year or two of rehab before they could even see the mound.
 

FittedJacket

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If we have more than one or two losses heading into ACC play, we are going to be in RPI hell come the end of the season. I really think the midweek games heading into conference play will be more telling about this team in addition to being the higher RPI games.
 
FredJacket

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FittedJacket said:
If we have more than one or two losses heading into ACC play, we are going to be in RPI hell come the end of the season. I really think the midweek games heading into conference play will be more telling about this team in addition to being the higher RPI games.
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Yep.... we need to start now pulling for Auburn to be really good and be near top of SEC. UGA too... but that may be a bridge too far for most of us. How big are the games v Auburn & UGA for Ga Tech to win? Pretty big. Need to go at least 3-2 in those 5 games and 4+ is better.
 

bensaysitathome

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FredJacket said:
Yep.... we need to start now pulling for Auburn to be really good and be near top of SEC. UGA too... but that may be a bridge too far for most of us. How big are the games v Auburn & UGA for Ga Tech to win? Pretty big. Need to go at least 3-2 in those 5 games and 4+ is better.
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I was listening to a D1 baseball podcast yesterday during a commute. Apparently UGA is expected to struggle this year, but Auburn was in their "just missed being ranked" category. They wouldn't be surprised to see Auburn contend this season.
 

senoiajacket

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Given the early season, sketchy weather, number of new faces (including pitching coach) and my “commitment” not to “over expect” based on previous years, I’ll be happy with 3 “Ws”, although if we are having to score 5 in the ninth to get them it doesn’t bode well. I’ll even take 3 “caveman” wins for opening weekend.
 
GTNavyNuke

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bensaysitathome said:
I was listening to a D1 baseball podcast yesterday during a commute. Apparently UGA is expected to struggle this year, but Auburn was in their "just missed being ranked" category. They wouldn't be surprised to see Auburn contend this season.
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D1 baseball podcast had an offhand remark that the uGag coaching staff did a bad job in the portal and with their NIL money.

Hope that's right.
 
Buzz_404

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I’m really curious to see who we go with this Sunday. Obviously Busse on Friday and Hill on Saturday. I would assume it’ll be Finateri on Sunday, but still eager to see who takes the mound. I’m also very curious to see what the batting order looks like. We’ve had 2 very reliable leadoffs the last 2 years with Simpson and Campbell, maybe we see Becchetti take the lead off spot? Or Brosius if we put him in the OF.
 
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