Should Hall Retire? (Poll)

[GTNavyNuke]

Long term posters pretty much know what other long term posters think. But there are many people who lurk on the site and do not comment (i.e. have good sense). So here's a poll and I think I set it up so the votes can't be seen publically.

I think Hall should be retire at the end of the season. Whether it is forced or his own choice, I really don't care.

I know that RPI and Perfect Game rankings aren't totally accurate, but here's where we stand long term and I believe fundamentally correct. It shows that we don't perform to the talent recruited. (And I'm assuming the 2023 end of season is today.)

A legitimate question is whether these rankings take into account the balance of hitting and pitching. I think we recruit mostly great hitters and not as many pitchers. But is our pitching talent bottom of the ACC consistently? With that in mind, I looked at the recruits over the last three years and don't think we are even close to the worst in the ACC talent wise by recruiting.

Only looking at VT and GT since 2020, VT has recruited 6 top 500 pitchers (#98, 179, 342, 391, 432, 466) and we have recruited 9 (#85, 153, 189, 199, 201, 234, 300, 344, 362). Here are our pitching recruits. Tell me we haven't recruited pitching talent.

2020 85 Grissom. It is extraordinarily telling that Grissom went pro for $150K and 3 years eligibility left.
2020 344 Xander Stephens
2021 153 Carter Daniels
2021 199 Logan McGuire
2021 201 Christian Okerholm - transferred and doing great this year.
2021 300 Aeden Finateri
2021 362 Cameron Clines
2022 189 Luke Schmolke
2022 234 Noah Samol
2022 272 Logan Bogue

 

[gtbeak]

As with most polls (not a shot at you, Nuke), the answer that exactly matches my thoughts isn't there. Therefore I chose the option that most closely matches my thoughts without exceeding them. Thus, I chose option 1, "Yes, when he is ready". That said, I am close to option #2, but with the caveat that a respectful discussion should be had between Batt and Hall at that the end of the season, and it should be acknowledged on both sides (I think it is obvious) that some changes must be made. If the correct change is for Hall to retire, then so be it. However, it may be that the past MLB players who contribute a lot may be able to be convinced to pitch in a little bit more and hire a "better" pitching coach. I don't support any of options 3 - 5, I think Hall has earned better than that.

 

[Killerbees]

We keep wanting our hitting to compensate for poor pitching and poor defense. If we have better defenders on the bench we need to use them. And I am going to assume they can swing the bat if Ramsey recruited them. And let’s pull out the starters when they just don’t have it. Let’s pass a message to them that others are hungry and to get it together. I see several other teams do this all the time. We keep the exact same line ups every game. We complain about our defense and do nothing. Until we play others it’s speculation that we have the best 9.

 

[GTRambler]

My understanding is Hall is under contract until 2025, as is Ramsey.

I’m inclined to believe the CPC (current pitching coach) should be fired immediately. Have Wieters take over the pitchers for the rest of the season. And let Hall decide if he wants to retire and ask for Ramsey to take over.

Wieters is definitely not a pitching coach, but he’ll be a fresh change. If I’m Wieters, I’d tell the catchers to call the pitching signs, and the pitchers to agree/disagree with the catcher’s signs. In short, the pitches being called by the CPC ain’t working, so let the catchers and pitchers take on the responsibility to decide it for themselves the rest of the way.

And see how it goes. Can’t get any worse, as the pitching staff is on the bottom already.

 

[MWBATL]

I can only hope that Hall is professional enough to realize he is now hurting the program, and retires at the end of this season.

 

[GT33]

I can only hope that Hall is professional enough to realize he is now hurting the program, and retires at the end of this season.

Batt gets paid the big bucks to nudge him the right way. Barring a miraculous end of season surge, the handwriting is on the wall.

Year 30, HOF career, I’m sure Danny doesn’t want to go out as THAT guy but if that’s what it takes that’s what Batt gets paid for.

 

[Backstreetbuzz]

Hall has had a good career at GT. I would give him an overall B, A for the first 15 years, C for the last 15 years. However, he should have retired last year and if TStan encouraged him in any way to come back, I would change TStan’s grade from F—— to F——————.

 

[GT33]

Hall has had a good career at GT. I would give him an overall B, A for the first 15 years, C for the last 15 years. However, he should have retired last year and if TStan encouraged him in any way to come back, I would change TStan’s grade from F—— to F——————.

The scumbag President Peterson hired that ****. GT needs a GTAA Hall of Shame for him, Retodd, CS, Sasquatch, etc

 

[leatherneckjacket]

No program has done less with more talent in any sport than GT baseball over the past 16 years. It is criminal how much we have squandered the talent that has passed through here since 2006. Hall may have earned his right to retire, but he does not have the right to continue to destroy the program. Batt needs to tell him he can choose to retire at the end of the season or will be fired, his choice

 

[leatherneckjacket]

Hall has had a good career at GT. I would give him an overall B, A for the first 15 years, C for the last 15 years. However, he should have retired last year and if TStan encouraged him in any way to come back, I would change TStan’s grade from F—— to F——————.

Hall gets an A for 1994 through 2006. He gets an F for the period since.

 

[Buzzbomb]

Give him a million to retire, as GT gave Coach Cremins. I know you’re thinking for inflation sakes give him more? This is a sport that breaks even at best each year. Incidentally, no knock on baseball because it’s my favorite & #1.

 

[Lagrangejacket]

He should be allowed to leave on his terms. So long as it’s at the end of this season.

 

[gtjackets930]

I don't want to risk losing Ramsey, which was the reason I chose Option 1.

I hope we can have a conversation with Hall, though, so he goes out in retirement with a well earned buyout.

Option 1 may be okay if some changes are made to help with pitching, but I'm not smart enough to address the actual root cause of the problem (coaching, recruiting, both).

 

[GTJon]

Long term posters pretty much know what other long term posters think. But there are many people who lurk on the site and do not comment (i.e. have good sense). So here's a poll and I think I set it up so the votes can't be seen publically.

I think Hall should be retire at the end of the season. Whether it is forced or his own choice, I really don't care.

I know that RPI and Perfect Game rankings aren't totally accurate, but here's where we stand long term and I believe fundamentally correct. It shows that we don't perform to the talent recruited. (And I'm assuming the 2023 end of season is today.)
View attachment 14292

A legitimate question is whether these rankings take into account the balance of hitting and pitching. I think we recruit mostly great hitters and not as many pitchers. But is our pitching talent bottom of the ACC consistently? With that in mind, I looked at the recruits over the last three years and don't think we are even close to the worst in the ACC talent wise by recruiting.

Only looking at VT and GT since 2020, VT has recruited 6 top 500 pitchers (#98, 179, 342, 391, 432, 466) and we have recruited 9 (#85, 153, 189, 199, 201, 234, 300, 344, 362). Here are our pitching recruits. Tell me we haven't recruited pitching talent.

2020 85 Grissom. It is extraordinarily telling that Grissom went pro for $150K and 3 years eligibility left.
2020 344 Xander Stephens
2021 153 Carter Daniels
2021 199 Logan McGuire
2021 201 Christian Okerholm - transferred and doing great this year.
2021 300 Aeden Finateri
2021 362 Cameron Clines
2022 189 Luke Schmolke
2022 234 Noah Samol
2022 272 Logan Bogue

It really hits home when I see those pitching recruits how different reality has turned out to be from what we hoped. Go back to summer of 2021. If you had projected our weekend rotation back then for 2023, things looked outstanding. You'd have Grissom as a junior plus 3 recruits rated 10 in PG along with depth after that. Now of those 4, 3 aren't even on the roster this year and the one that is has battled injuries all year. I don't believe there's any one person or thing to blame and certainly bad luck with injuries has played a role, but it just seems like a microcosm of what this program has faced in recent years and it's hard to see us pulling out of it without a full reset at this point.

I know I still get bothered by 2019 and I can only imagine how much it hurt CDH. Not just the Auburn loss but also the injuries to Curry and Hurter and the thought that if they had stayed healthy, that really was a CWS winning caliber team. I can picture him thinking, just keep trying to hold on and get one year to make up for that. Maybe even the triumph of one more regional win would have been enough to let him retire satisfactorily. But again, that seems like a pretty far goal right now.

I think what bothers me the most right now is how little we have to count on for the future. For whatever reason, we have gotten very little production on offense or pitching from our last 2 highly ranked recruiting classes. And now we are still looking at having to replace up to 7 players next year in our everyday lineup. Whether it's misses in recruiting, lack of player development, training methods that need to change to protect against injuries, all of the above, I don't know. But it feels like it's not going to turn it around on its own.

And in regards to Borrell, I honestly don't see how he can have a job after that game Saturday. That felt like a "Collins against USF" moment where you have failed so miserably and to such extreme, that you are just causing more harm than good by being here. Promote Wieters, hire somebody from a top high school, get a former player to come back and fill in for the rest of the year, I don't know. But there has to be accountability somewhere and after 4 years at the job to still be producing overall numbers that we have plus a game like that, it just can't be allowed to continue.

 

[GT33]

The uncanny ability of Borrell to make a struggling pitcher worse is truly mindboggling. You’d think at worst half his mound visits would turn out poorly, the other half we’d get strikes and outs. It’s normally WPs, HBPs, 4 pitch walks, HRs, etc with him. Can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like it.

 

[leatherneckjacket]

As a Yankees fan, I had heard a lot of great things about Borrell. He was supposedl very well regarded throughoutthe organization. I thought we were getting a pitcher whisperer who could give us a real competitive advantage. Now, I think the Yankees let us take him off their hands. He has been an utter disaster.

 

[4shotB]

I voted and really don't follow GT BB although I do read this forum. I really, really hate the Bobby Bowden/Frank Beamer scenarios, or to a lesser degree how the CBC era ended at Tech, but coaches are really bad at analyzing things objectively, I would imagine even our former FB coach feels like he was unfairly terminated (just speculation but all these guys are type A/big ego people). All these guys want to stay and fix things and go "out on top" but once the tailspin starts it almost never reverses. If you want to leave on top, do it now.

 

[Quietman6520]

Poor recruiting which is based solely on PG rankings. The harder you throw the higher your ranking. It doesn't matter if you can actually pitch or throw strikes. Tech has gotten lazy on the recruiting trail. Their downward spiral can be traced to when Lakepoint was built and became the showcase capital of travel ball. Tech needs more hard nosed players. I.e. luke waddell

 

[DAVID F]

I watched the Tennessee Vanderbilt game last night. Georgia Tech does not have any pitchers that could play for them. Side note the Tennessee reliever was clocked throwing between 97-99 miles an hour

 

[rodandanga]

Poor recruiting which is based solely on PG rankings. The harder you throw the higher your ranking. It doesn't matter if you can actually pitch or throw strikes. Tech has gotten lazy on the recruiting trail. Their downward spiral can be traced to when Lakepoint was built and became the showcase capital of travel ball. Tech needs more hard nosed players. I.e. luke waddell

Can you elaborate? I've heard things like this about Hall before and his reliance on East Cobb.