UNC, Baseball

[CINCYMETJACKET]

Reading the posts above leaves me a little confused. We are currently at .500 in conference at about the halfway point. I think some of you live in some kind of alternate reality and forget that we had to replace our entire weekend rotation along with six of our position players. Coming into the year nobody had us ranked and most everyone thought our hitting would drop off significantly. Instead we remain one of the best hitting teams in the ACC and the entire country. Our pitching is still a sore spot but again we lost our entire rotation from last year so why wouldn't it be? I think a big part of the problem for some on here is that we see that we are close to getting over the hump and show flashes of being a team that can do much better and that frustrates a lot of people. I am curious....how many of you really thought we would be much better than .500 in the conference coming into the year with all of the talent that we lost? On top of that we have suffered several injuries to both position players and pitchers. I would argue that we are right about where most people thought we would be and actually maybe a little better. I know this much, I don't know any teams that look forward to playing us thinking we are an easy win. Losing Compton just as he was getting red hot at the plate really hurt us. Losing Hill and McGuire at the beginning of the season has really set us back as well. Outside of Compton it looks like everyone is getting healthy. With that I will say I look forward to seeing what kind of team we have at full strength and think we will be stronger the 2nd half of the year.

ACC wise, we're right on track with where I thought we'd be. Would have preferred a little better OOC performance, but injuries have forced players into roles that they would not typically be in.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Reading the posts above leaves me a little confused. We are currently at .500 in conference at about the halfway point. I think some of you live in some kind of alternate reality and forget that we had to replace our entire weekend rotation along with six of our position players. Coming into the year nobody had us ranked and most everyone thought our hitting would drop off significantly. Instead we remain one of the best hitting teams in the ACC and the entire country. Our pitching is still a sore spot but again we lost our entire rotation from last year so why wouldn't it be? I think a big part of the problem for some on here is that we see that we are close to getting over the hump and show flashes of being a team that can do much better and that frustrates a lot of people. I am curious....how many of you really thought we would be much better than .500 in the conference coming into the year with all of the talent that we lost? On top of that we have suffered several injuries to both position players and pitchers. I would argue that we are right about where most people thought we would be and actually maybe a little better. I know this much, I don't know any teams that look forward to playing us thinking we are an easy win. Losing Compton just as he was getting red hot at the plate really hurt us. Losing Hill and McGuire at the beginning of the season has really set us back as well. Outside of Compton it looks like everyone is getting healthy. With that I will say I look forward to seeing what kind of team we have at full strength and think we will be stronger the 2nd half of the year.

We are way behind where I hoped/thought we would be pitching wise, better offensively and a touch worse defensively. Pitching is what matters most in conference and tournament play.

While I thought we'd be about 500 in ACC now, I didn't expect the total blowouts. Most importantly, I thought we'd be in the mid-40s right now in RPI and not 61 or so. We have recruited way too much talent to be there. And we better be 3 over 500 ACC going into the UVa series since they'll be playing for a super regional host spot. But we may since we have Pitt coming up. Another 1 win week to 50% of the season gone and it's going to get very hard to move the RPI needle.

There are always guys getting hurt for every team. Worse than usual, probably. Chandler's injury last year probably cost us a regional host.

Whether we are close to getting over the hump or circling the drain while getting flushed will only be known in time.

 

[THWG]

Reading the posts above leaves me a little confused. We are currently at .500 in conference at about the halfway point. I think some of you live in some kind of alternate reality and forget that we had to replace our entire weekend rotation along with six of our position players. Coming into the year nobody had us ranked and most everyone thought our hitting would drop off significantly. Instead we remain one of the best hitting teams in the ACC and the entire country. Our pitching is still a sore spot but again we lost our entire rotation from last year so why wouldn't it be? I think a big part of the problem for some on here is that we see that we are close to getting over the hump and show flashes of being a team that can do much better and that frustrates a lot of people. I am curious....how many of you really thought we would be much better than .500 in the conference coming into the year with all of the talent that we lost? On top of that we have suffered several injuries to both position players and pitchers. I would argue that we are right about where most people thought we would be and actually maybe a little better. I know this much, I don't know any teams that look forward to playing us thinking we are an easy win. Losing Compton just as he was getting red hot at the plate really hurt us. Losing Hill and McGuire at the beginning of the season has really set us back as well. Outside of Compton it looks like everyone is getting healthy. With that I will say I look forward to seeing what kind of team we have at full strength and think we will be stronger the 2nd half of the year.

I will also say that if you look at the pitching, we only have 3 upperclassmen giving us significant innings. That would be Vaughan, Mannelly, and Brown. When you have young pitching, they are going to be inconsistent.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

 

[FittedJacket]

I will also say that if you look at the pitching, we only have 3 upperclassmen giving us significant innings. That would be Vaughan, Mannelly, and Brown. When you have young pitching, they are going to be inconsistent.

King and Busse are upperclassman

 

[GT33]

Maybe we're getting the benefit of recruiting rankings we don't deserve? It happens in football a lot.

 

[THWG]

King and Busse are upperclassman

I thought Busse was a sophomore. And King is technically a RS sophomore

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

View attachment 14253

Wow, with weather a potential factor I'd be surprised if we don't start Schmolke game 1 on Thursday. With the way he's pitched, and the fact we may not get another game, need Schmolke to start game 1 in my opinion.

 

[senoiajacket]

Reading the posts above leaves me a little confused. We are currently at .500 in conference at about the halfway point. I think some of you live in some kind of alternate reality and forget that we had to replace our entire weekend rotation along with six of our position players. Coming into the year nobody had us ranked and most everyone thought our hitting would drop off significantly. Instead we remain one of the best hitting teams in the ACC and the entire country. Our pitching is still a sore spot but again we lost our entire rotation from last year so why wouldn't it be? I think a big part of the problem for some on here is that we see that we are close to getting over the hump and show flashes of being a team that can do much better and that frustrates a lot of people. I am curious....how many of you really thought we would be much better than .500 in the conference coming into the year with all of the talent that we lost? On top of that we have suffered several injuries to both position players and pitchers. I would argue that we are right about where most people thought we would be and actually maybe a little better. I know this much, I don't know any teams that look forward to playing us thinking we are an easy win. Losing Compton just as he was getting red hot at the plate really hurt us. Losing Hill and McGuire at the beginning of the season has really set us back as well. Outside of Compton it looks like everyone is getting healthy. With that I will say I look forward to seeing what kind of team we have at full strength and think we will be stronger the 2nd half of the year.

My expectations were pretty low coming in. I had hoped that our pitching was going to take a step forward and it still might, but hasn’t shown any consistency yet. I didn’t think that we would finish above .500 in conference …… and I think it’s still very possible we won’t. The hitting has been a pleasant surprise.

For me the frustration comes from the once-a-weekend totally non-competitive games and a couple of the mid-week games that we let get away that I thought we should have won.

Overall, if we finish .500 and make the tournament the team will have exceeded my expectations.

 

[GTRambler]

I believe the team is actually slowly getting better.

The kids are doing their best. I haven’t noticed any despair nor negativity in the dugout during the games, even when they’re getting beat by lopsided scores. Now halfway through the season, their attitudes are still good, and they remain resilient, determined, and upbeat. This is a credit to their coaches.

I will continue to watch them play, because it is clear to me the kids haven’t given up. So I’m not going to give up on them, either.

The best may be yet to come.

 

[78pike]

View attachment 14253

I guess they want to keep Schmolke and Finley on the same Fri/Sat schedule but I would feel much better moving them both up one day and going with Brown on Saturday. I always thought the logic for your series opener was to start your best arm and get the series started with a win. I feel like Schmolke has been our best chance at doing that the past few weeks plus you know he wants a win against his home state school. Then again if we can get a win out of Dawson and still have Schmolke available maybe that's the smarter move.

 

[Buzzbomb]

 

[senoiajacket]

I guess they want to keep Schmolke and Finley on the same Fri/Sat schedule but I would feel much better moving them both up one day and going with Brown on Saturday. I always thought the logic for your series opener was to start your best arm and get the series started with a win. I feel like Schmolke has been our best chance at doing that the past few weeks plus you know he wants a win against his home state school. Then again if we can get a win out of Dawson and still have Schmolke available maybe that's the smarter move.

I just don’t see the logic in starting Brown today. The only conceivable arguments I see are (1). He is our #1 and gives us the best chance to win the opener and keep our pen intact (2). There is a concern that Schmoke ‘s last start was Friday and he “only” has 6 days rest or (3) you just don’t want to mess up the “rhythm” of the rotation we have had in the past. None of these carry any weight with me. Are there other reasons I am missing? Maybe a fourth is Brown is well rested …… that one doesn’t resonate with me either.

If we end up not getting them all in and either Schmoke or Findley doesn’t pitch (and we don’t sweep all the games that are played), I’m going to be pretty upset.

 

[MWBATL]

I just don’t see the logic in starting Brown today. The only conceivable arguments I see are (1). He is our #1 and gives us the best chance to win the opener and keep our pen intact (2). There is a concern that Schmoke ‘s last start was Friday and he “only” has 6 days rest or (3) you just don’t want to mess up the “rhythm” of the rotation we have had in the past. None of these carry any weight with me. Are there other reasons I am missing? Maybe a fourth is Brown is well rested …… that one doesn’t resonate with me either.

If we end up not getting them all in and either Schmoke or Findley doesn’t pitch (and we don’t sweep all the games that are played), I’m going to be pretty upset.

I agree 100%. Inexplicable decision, imho...

 

[MaverickGT]

I just don’t see the logic in starting Brown today. The only conceivable arguments I see are (1). He is our #1 and gives us the best chance to win the opener and keep our pen intact (2). There is a concern that Schmoke ‘s last start was Friday and he “only” has 6 days rest or (3) you just don’t want to mess up the “rhythm” of the rotation we have had in the past. None of these carry any weight with me. Are there other reasons I am missing? Maybe a fourth is Brown is well rested …… that one doesn’t resonate with me either.

If we end up not getting them all in and either Schmoke or Findley doesn’t pitch (and we don’t sweep all the games that are played), I’m going to be pretty upset.

With Borrell and Hall making the decisions, par for the course. I don't get it either......just some good ol Hall ball

 

[FredJacket]

I just don’t see the logic in starting Brown today. The only conceivable arguments I see are (1). He is our #1 and gives us the best chance to win the opener and keep our pen intact (2). There is a concern that Schmoke ‘s last start was Friday and he “only” has 6 days rest or (3) you just don’t want to mess up the “rhythm” of the rotation we have had in the past. None of these carry any weight with me. Are there other reasons I am missing? Maybe a fourth is Brown is well rested …… that one doesn’t resonate with me either.

If we end up not getting them all in and either Schmoke or Findley doesn’t pitch (and we don’t sweep all the games that are played), I’m going to be pretty upset.

You didn't mention another possibility. The assessment could be Brown's "stuff" matches up well v UNC lineup. Would be odd for that to be the case against an entire lineup... but if you're noodling through all options... there's another.

There seems to be a high level of pre-emptive nit picking due to a general "distrust" in the staff's decision making. I get it the distrust... I guess. But it seems to turn into angst for the sake of angst sometimes. There's little difference (without hindsight) in some of these decisions really. Just because there's a choice, doesn't mean it's a big huge thing. I am sure the weather forecast is a factor in what the plan is.

 

[bensaysitathome]

You didn't mention another possibility. The assessment could be Brown's "stuff" matches up well v UNC lineup. Would be odd for that to be the case against an entire lineup... but if you're noodling through all options... there's another.

There seems to be a high level of pre-emptive nit picking due to a general "distrust" in the staff's decision making. I get it the distrust... I guess. But it seems to turn into angst for the sake of angst sometimes. There's little difference (without hindsight) in some of these decisions really. Just because there's a choice, doesn't mean it's a big huge thing. I am sure the weather forecast is a factor in what the plan is.

Theres also a leadership component. If the team respects him, and he's earned the spot, theres something to be said for that.

I understand Brown doesn't have the best ERA, but let's not forget the kid has started us off on three ACC series. Won twice, and the loss is when Louisville walked us off. And that falls on the bullpen, not Brown.

 

[senoiajacket]

You didn't mention another possibility. The assessment could be Brown's "stuff" matches up well v UNC lineup. Would be odd for that to be the case against an entire lineup... but if you're noodling through all options... there's another.

There seems to be a high level of pre-emptive nit picking due to a general "distrust" in the staff's decision making. I get it the distrust... I guess. But it seems to turn into angst for the sake of angst sometimes. There's little difference (without hindsight) in some of these decisions really. Just because there's a choice, doesn't mean it's a big huge thing. I am sure the weather forecast is a factor in what the plan is.

Pre-emptive nitpicking.. Yeah, that’s what we do best!

 

[78pike]

You didn't mention another possibility. The assessment could be Brown's "stuff" matches up well v UNC lineup. Would be odd for that to be the case against an entire lineup... but if you're noodling through all options... there's another.

There seems to be a high level of pre-emptive nit picking due to a general "distrust" in the staff's decision making. I get it the distrust... I guess. But it seems to turn into angst for the sake of angst sometimes. There's little difference (without hindsight) in some of these decisions really. Just because there's a choice, doesn't mean it's a big huge thing. I am sure the weather forecast is a factor in what the plan is.

You make a good point. UNC's offense relies a lot on the long ball. When Brown is on he gets a lot of ground balls since his stuff generally stays low in the zone. If we can take the home runs away from their offense we stand a much better chance of winning.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

You didn't mention another possibility. The assessment could be Brown's "stuff" matches up well v UNC lineup. Would be odd for that to be the case against an entire lineup... but if you're noodling through all options... there's another.

There seems to be a high level of pre-emptive nit picking due to a general "distrust" in the staff's decision making. I get it the distrust... I guess. But it seems to turn into angst for the sake of angst sometimes. There's little difference (without hindsight) in some of these decisions really. Just because there's a choice, doesn't mean it's a big huge thing. I am sure the weather forecast is a factor in what the plan is.

Another possibility is that Dawson is pitching better than anyone else at this point. His start against Clemson was exceptional. But he was not good until the Clemson start, when he stopped after 4.0 with a tightness. Maybe he has continued that.

If he doesn't have it tonight and gives up his average of 5 ER from his first 5 appearances, then it's on Slow Hook for not getting him out sooner.