UIC Weekend

[FredJacket]

Good luck with the power / clean up. I'll be cleaning up a lot of limbs and some shingles this morning to go to the dump....... A lot of wind yesterday. Fortunately, it was a north wester here so we didn't get flooding .......

Watching the game yesterday and recent games, I get the impression that we are much more selective at the plate. We coaxed walks where I don't think that most of the hitters would have had the patience last year.

Their pitcher, Birlingmair, is really good at not giving up walks. UIC averaged 2.5 walks a game last year. We got 5 off of him. And out the walks weren't the cheap type of watch four pitches go by. Of the total 7 walks we got, 4 were 3-2 walks. Three by Bart who really ran up the pitch count with a 6, 7 and 8 pitch walks I wish we could have gotten deeper into UIC bench since that will pay off tomorrow.

And tomorrow Wiley will be back! He's out for the day for some other round ball sport. Let's hope we keep the sweep chance intact for him tomorrow!

Yep. Cleanup will begin (& end...hopefully) today. Not too bad for me. Small property... but quite a few limbs. I do like an electrified abode... & that's still not happening.

If you watch/listen to CDH in the embedded interview in this article, he does say the rationale for pitching Chapman in 9th on Friday was to get "live innings" because he's the likely midweek starter on Wed v Ga State.

http://www.ramblinwreck.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/030218aaa.html

FWIW... it seems he & I are on same page regarding situational hitting. ...the cold dark respite for me last night didn't totally help me get over it.

@GTNavyNuke ... you make great points about patience at plate. Good teams do that & get rewarded over time.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

And Clemson lost the 1st of 3 against USCe. A 1 run loss. They were overdue for that. Still hoping to head into that series 9-3 at the worst.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Best inning yet by Hurter. Only gave up one run. Opening double, really nice defensive play by Hurter on in field bunt to advance the runner, nice hitting by UIC to first to score the run and a K. 11 strikes in 18 pitches - 61%.

We had a runner (Bailey) on second with no outs ..... can we get a run like UIC?? Nope. Damn. @FredJacket curse?

 

[FredJacket]

Best inning yet by Hurter. Only gave up one run. Opening double, really nice defensive play by Hurter on in field bunt to advance the runner, nice hitting by UIC to first to score the run and a K. 11 strikes in 18 pitches - 61%.

We had a runner (Bailey) on second with no outs ..... can we get a run like UIC?? Nope. Damn. @FredJacket curse?

Low blow, my friend. Keep 'em coming... test my thick skin. Feels good!

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Hurter looked really good in the second. 17 pitches-12 strikes. Should have gotten out of inning but Wilhite had his 4th error of the year. Hurter comes back with 2 Ks.

Kel is DH. Foul out to start. Then GO by Waddell. I don't like the feel of the game - we need Wiley back announcing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We need to get Campbell out of the game, only 23 pitches so far after 2. Kid hasn't given up a run.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Kel gets single to break the curse. Third lead off runner finally scored!! 1-1

Starting to get pitch count up. Waddell hit, then Colin Hall single for two more

3-1 and starting to roll. Going to the 5th. Time for another beer. Need to knock Campbell out next inning!

New pitcher for GT is Keyton - great outing for Hurter. 41-64 .... 64% strike. 5 K and 1 BB. The D didn't help him with an error and a throw I think Bailey should have made. But Hurter hung in and did very well. I eat my words about starting him.

 

[FredJacket]

Colin Hall.. my "make 'correct' contact with runner on 3rd & less than two out HERO" ...base hit was bonus to get all the available RBI!!

Rarely satisfied... I do not like the 1 out SAC bunt decision. In fairness, I'm not watching.... could have been an attempt to bunt for a hit. If so... I take it back.

 

[THWG]

Another win 3-2. English with the clutch save. 2 walks and 1 error. Great all around game.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Aaaaaaaand the good guys win AGAIN.

 

[FredJacket]

I like feeling of being 2-0 thru Sat on a weekend series with Connor Thomas set to start on Sunday!!

... my power came back on in time for me to see final 2 outs!!! ...which were pretty deep balls to RF. ...nice win!!!

 

[RoosterJacket]

Biggest numbers from the game to me (other than Runs scored ).
9 K and 2 BB given up
1-4 Hitters went 2-16 and we STILL WON!

 

[FredJacket]

I will pay attention to UIC's season. I think their pitching is pretty stout. For real. Time will tell.

 

[MWBATL]

Can someone please explain the thinking behind our pitching today? We use our starter for only 4 innings and replace him promptly after he has his first 1-2-3 inning. We then have two other pitchers throw 2 innings each, then bring in English to throw the 9th. Meanwhile, UIC uses one pitcher for the tire game...because he was effective and aside from one bad inning shut us down. The difference in philosophies was startling to me. We kept replacing guys whether they had been effective or not...they kept their effective pitcher in all day (I am sure had he lost it they would have replaced him, but he never lost it.)

A mix of comments and questions.....

1. Is English now our closer? I had thought Datoc had that role...
2. our starter gets pulled after 64 pitches and a perfect inning. Why? That confused me. Why not let him stay in and pitch some more?
3. what was the point of burning both Datoc and English today? Who closes for us tomorrow?
4. Gibson (55% strikes) threw us off, and caused our overall strike to ball stat to be 63% for this game. It was 73% Friday night.
5. For the year we are now at 66% strikes, vs last year with 62% strikes. That figure plunged when we hit ACC play last year, btw. In the first ACC series we threw about 56% strikes.
6. We have given 32 freebies in 10 games, with 13 coming in one game (Bradley). Last year we had given 54 freebies in 10 games. Even in our last pre-ACC series last year we gave up 6.7 freebies per game, while this year against UIC we are giving up 2 freebies per game.
7. 13 errors this year vs only 5 in the first 10 games last year. Not sure what to make of that as it actually seems to me our defense is better this year.
8. Who will start the midweek game for us? Any guesses?
9. What is Jake Lee's role now? Is he in the doghouse?
10. Will Jonathan Hughes get another start? Or will we see him this weekend at all?

 

[THWG]

Can someone please explain the thinking behind our pitching today? We use our starter for only 4 innings and replace him promptly after he has his first 1-2-3 inning. We then have two other pitchers throw 2 innings each, then bring in English to throw the 9th. Meanwhile, UIC uses one pitcher for the tire game...because he was effective and aside from one bad inning shut us down. The difference in philosophies was startling to me. We kept replacing guys whether they had been effective or not...they kept their effective pitcher in all day (I am sure had he lost it they would have replaced him, but he never lost it.)

A mix of comments and questions.....

1. Is English now our closer? I had thought Datoc had that role...
2. our starter gets pulled after 64 pitches and a perfect inning. Why? That confused me. Why not let him stay in and pitch some more?
3. what was the point of burning both Datoc and English today? Who closes for us tomorrow?
4. Gibson (55% strikes) threw us off, and caused our overall strike to ball stat to be 63% for this game. It was 73% Friday night.
5. For the year we are now at 66% strikes, vs last year with 62% strikes. That figure plunged when we hit ACC play last year, btw. In the first ACC series we threw about 56% strikes.
6. We have given 32 freebies in 10 games, with 13 coming in one game (Bradley). Last year we had given 54 freebies in 10 games. Even in our last pre-ACC series last year we gave up 6.7 freebies per game, while this year against UIC we are giving up 2 freebies per game.
7. 13 errors this year vs only 5 in the first 10 games last year. Not sure what to make of that as it actually seems to me our defense is better this year.
8. Who will start the midweek game for us? Any guesses?
9. What is Jake Lee's role now? Is he in the doghouse?
10. Will Jonathan Hughes get another start? Or will we see him this weekend at all?

1. I'm sure it's still Datoc's role, but I kind of liked the move after he gave up the HR the inning before and the leadoff double in the 7th
2. He might not be stretched out enough yet. I was questioning that too, but it also might be that CDH wanted to get him out while he was feeling confident. I liked the move when it happened, but it was a head scratcher.
3. I'm sure that English can pitch again tomorrow and Datoc will probably be able to give an inning if needed.
4.-6. Really like those stats
7. The defense does seem to be a lot better this year, so I don't think that is a telling stat right now.
8. My guess is Chapman. It feels like the inning Friday night was a confidence inning.
9. He's in my doghouse.
10. I like Hughes out of the pen and I imagine that we will see him tomorrow. If we don't, then he might be the weekday starter.

 

[Madison Grant]

How hard is English bringing it this year?

 

[65Jacket]

The plan was to get work for several guys leading up to the start of the ACC season next week. The plan is to have Hughes and and Gibson in the bullpen. I've heard that English may be the closer for a while and then may be used more as he regains arm strength. Thomas is the Sunday starter. Chapman will start the Tuesday game.
I have heard that Coach Hall has completely changed his approach to practice this year. He is really on top of the things.

 

[MWBATL]

The much better strike to ball ratio is encouraging, but as has been pointed out, our record in pre-ACC ball was very good last year as well, and then we fell apart once league play started, so I keep trying to not get too optimistic until we see how we do in Clemson next weekend.

 

[FredJacket]

Can someone please explain the thinking behind our pitching today? We use our starter for only 4 innings and replace him promptly after he has his first 1-2-3 inning. We then have two other pitchers throw 2 innings each, then bring in English to throw the 9th. Meanwhile, UIC uses one pitcher for the tire game...because he was effective and aside from one bad inning shut us down. The difference in philosophies was startling to me. We kept replacing guys whether they had been effective or not...they kept their effective pitcher in all day (I am sure had he lost it they would have replaced him, but he never lost it.)

A mix of comments and questions.....

1. Is English now our closer? I had thought Datoc had that role...
2. our starter gets pulled after 64 pitches and a perfect inning. Why? That confused me. Why not let him stay in and pitch some more?
3. what was the point of burning both Datoc and English today? Who closes for us tomorrow?
4. Gibson (55% strikes) threw us off, and caused our overall strike to ball stat to be 63% for this game. It was 73% Friday night.
5. For the year we are now at 66% strikes, vs last year with 62% strikes. That figure plunged when we hit ACC play last year, btw. In the first ACC series we threw about 56% strikes.
6. We have given 32 freebies in 10 games, with 13 coming in one game (Bradley). Last year we had given 54 freebies in 10 games. Even in our last pre-ACC series last year we gave up 6.7 freebies per game, while this year against UIC we are giving up 2 freebies per game.
7. 13 errors this year vs only 5 in the first 10 games last year. Not sure what to make of that as it actually seems to me our defense is better this year.
8. Who will start the midweek game for us? Any guesses?
9. What is Jake Lee's role now? Is he in the doghouse?
10. Will Jonathan Hughes get another start? Or will we see him this weekend at all?

Great comments/questions. @THWG did a superior job addressing them. I won't repeat that stuff (some of it my initial thoughts for sure); but will offer other stuff to address what you've brought up...all of this really is my opinion...nothing more:

The "approach" to pitching today - Lots to factor in. The leading factor (I don't know) could be a pitch count for Hurter. He left game after 64 pitches.
1) Who's the closer? Simply put, who knows? It's still early. Good problem to have if you have English and Datoc with the right stuff and makeup to be the closer.
2) I don't know; but if you think about it... the ONLY reason would be, 64 pitches is basically the limit.
3) THIS is intriguing. Imagine.....I mean seriously close your eyes and IMAGINE... DO WE HAVE DEPTH AT PITCHING? Do WE??????!??? It seems crazy to even think that... and perhaps when better competition rolls around it won't be so... buuuuuuuuuut for this weekend, maybe we have that. Who closes for us tomorrow? Hughes? Archer? Datoc? Serratos? Winborne? English? Carpenter? I like that list....and there are actually a few more.
4) Fact
5) Fact
6) Fact - The delta in FREEBies... from last year is probably the most encouraging thing for 2018 over 2017... assuming it continues once ACC competition begins. Really no reason to believe it won't.
7) Weird. Can't explain that. However...we made a bunch in our 2 losses this season. The eyeball test (FWIW) says we are pretty good defensively this year.
8) CDH said afer Friday's game.... Chapman was the guy on Wed against Ga State.
9) I do not know... he could be in the doghouse.
10) Hughes could be 1st guy out of bullpen tomorrow (Sunday). Let's hope that's somewhere around the 7th or 8th inning.

The plan was to get work for several guys leading up to the start of the ACC season next week. The plan is to have Hughes and and Gibson in the bullpen. I've heard that English may be the closer for a while and then may be used more as he regains arm strength. Thomas is the Sunday starter. Chapman will start the Tuesday game.
I have heard that Coach Hall has completely changed his approach to practice this year. He is really on top of the things.

This is good info. Really good info!!

 

[RoosterJacket]

In my mind, I wouldn’t think English would throw again tomorrow just because they may not want him pitching in back to back days yet. No inside info or facts to back that up though and I have no idea what his throwing routine has been leading up to this.

Carpenter and Hughes will both be available tomorrow out of the pen. If Thomas can give us 6-7 innings, then we should be fine with arms. Serratos hasn’t pitched this weekend yet either. How many pitches did Datoc and Gibson throw today? How many did Archer throw Friday? Others who haven’t pitched this weekend, but have thrown this year are Winborne, Lee, Shirah (not sure if still having some soreness or not), Mannelly, and Schneiderjans.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I like feeling of being 2-0 thru Sat on a weekend series with Connor Thomas set to start on Sunday!!

... my power came back on in time for me to see final 2 outs!!! ...which were pretty deep balls to RF. ...nice win!!!

Getting the power back really makes you appreciate the things you take for granted!! I guess it was the GT baseball gods getting even for you cursing our hitting ...... Seriously though, I agree with you about us not having good situational hitting. But it's part of the game. UIC outhit us 7-6, we made an error. They put 35 to the plate and we put 31 (in only 8 innings), but we still won. There is some luck there. I think UVa got 2 runs on 12 hits the other day.

The much better strike to ball ratio is encouraging, but as has been pointed out, our record in pre-ACC ball was very good last year as well, and then we fell apart once league play started, so I keep trying to not get too optimistic until we see how we do in Clemson next weekend.

I'm with you on not getting too optimistic. We can only live in the "Now". I'm enjoying this as much as I can right now since I have seen too many teams that are just good enough to break your heart. The future will be what it'll be.

One style comment I have to make is that English's slide into home yesterday was really ugly. He started it too soon and bounced about a foot when he hit the ground too hard. Great ugly hustle. Here's the picture .... http://www.ramblinwreck.com/sports/m-basebl/geot-m-basebl-body.html Dude has to be careful, we need him too much at 1st and pitching!

Concerning pitching, Hurter really surprised me and proved me wrong. I was most impressed with the second inning where he gave up a lead off single, and then there was an error on Waddell. Hurter then struck out the next two to end the inning. I liked pulling Hurter after 4 and 64 pitches. It's a long season and he is only a Fr who hasn't thrown well in the two previous games. Getting and keeping his mind right is probably the most important thing. I don't expect more than a couple of ACC Fr pitchers to be really good starters, hitting is just too good across the league and such a step up from HS. Bring him a long slow; not having an experienced pitcher to start on the weekends is not good. But it is as it is.

Concerning our batting yesterday, I thought we didn't do enough to get Birlingmair to throw more pitches. He had 104 after 8 innings so a few more long pitch counts would have helped get him out earlier. He threw about 63% strikes (64/104). He is a very good pitcher and only walked two; and his team made no defensive errors. (Made some base running mistakes thank you.) We only got 31 to the plate in 8 innings yesterday versus 40 the day before.

Here's to getting the sweep today! We only got one all of last year and this could be our second this year. "Now" it's the most important game of the year.