UVa @ GT

[GTNavyNuke]

UVa loads bases with one out in 8th ...... 1-2-3 (Gorst- Pabst-Smith) double play to end inning. Still 11-4.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

UVa wins the hit count 16-11. GT wins the run count 11-4. Rubber match tomorrow, hopefully Gold is on. He is a multi-inning pitching stud.

 

[Squints]

I agree it's dumb to pull him after 3 batters. My opinion is based on the 100 or so hitters he has seen this year.

Doesn't matter how many hitters he's seen before the game. Once he's in you have to give him a chance. Pitts is coming back from Tommy John surgery and is fighting command as he basically relearns how to throw. It's the last thing to come back after the surgery. Unfortunately the only way to figure that out is for him to throw. You take him out after three batters you send the message that you have to be perfect out of the gate every time. That's nuts. He doesn't need that extra pressure. It's hard to pitch that way.

Now you want to argue he shouldn't be in the weekend rotation that's fine and I agree. I'm hoping that Parr gets it together and can supplant him letting Pitts figure out his stuff during regular midweek appearances but once he's in you have to give him some breathing room.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

@Squints , I don't think Pitts should be in the weekend rotation, but with Ben S hurt and Parr just starting to come on, we haven't had a better alternative I guess. I wouldn't pull most pitchers who don't have a "history" so quick. You could take away a mid-reliever like Gorst. But you need starters, mid-relievers and closer .......

Anyway, I'm a lot more chilled today. I agree I was tight yesterday. Beautiful day, painting a deck, drinking beer and all is good.

Plus Gold is cruising, GT 3-0 to B4.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

4-3 GT to B8. Gold was gold. Stats later ...... time to finish a job and another beer.

 

[ibeattetris]

Called strike three to win it! Great win today and a great series win this weekend.

 

[Eric]

Boom!

Big series win.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Boom!

Big series win.

Big series win?! UVa has won 4 of the last 5 series from us. Plus they swept us last year. And on top of that, despite their record this year, were ranked 16th in the coaches poll.

How we can be ignored in the polls now? RPI of 11th and 8-10 against teams in the top 50. Not that polls matter till it comes to the end of the season (more on that in the ACC post).

Gold was golden again, 69% strikes (93-64) with only 3 hits over 7 innings. 7 SO and 2 BB. That's a WHIP of 5/7ths. Now those are numbers of a player who deserves a long leash when he comes in the game.

And Ryan kept up the streak of GT wins back to 2013 when leading going into the 8th or 9th. 66% strikes but 44 pitches in two innings. But that HR to the kid who never played before made it real interesting.

Good fielding all day, finally a game without an error - by either team. Just good solid baseball.

 

[Squints]

@Squints , I don't think Pitts should be in the weekend rotation, but with Ben S hurt and Parr just starting to come on, we haven't had a better alternative I guess. I wouldn't pull most pitchers who don't have a "history" so quick. You could take away a mid-reliever like Gorst. But you need starters, mid-relievers and closer .......

Trust me man I get where you're coming from. He's incredibly frustrating to watch pitch right now. But he's what we got so we gotta roll with him for now.

Good win today.

 

[MWBATL]

Trust me man I get where you're coming from. He's incredibly frustrating to watch pitch right now. But he's what we got so we gotta roll with him for now.

Good win today.

It was a great win this weekend, and to be fair to Pitts, he did manage to battle and not give up a ton of runs. I still think Paar is really much better and readier than Pitts to pitch on Saturdays. Just mho. How they execute such a switch, I don't know. Plus, midweek games are crucial as well. It hurts your RPI (a lot in fact) if you lose a game to a lowly ranked team at home. So, one can argue that keeping Paar in that spot is perhaps more important to us to maintain a high RPI than having him pitch on Saturdays even if he is the better pitcher. I dunno.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

It was a great win this weekend, and to be fair to Pitts, he did manage to battle and not give up a ton of runs. I still think Paar is really much better and readier than Pitts to pitch on Saturdays. Just mho. How they execute such a switch, I don't know. Plus, midweek games are crucial as well. It hurts your RPI (a lot in fact) if you lose a game to a lowly ranked team at home. So, one can argue that keeping Paar in that spot is perhaps more important to us to maintain a high RPI than having him pitch on Saturdays even if he is the better pitcher. I dunno.

With Parr only working two innings last night, it's a great time for the switch. Then staff pitch the mid-week games.

I think the ACC games are much more important than the mid-week games since they feed into conference seedings. We really would benefit from being top 6 a lot more than a "slightly" different RPI. You are right about RPI being hurt; it's just that I don't know how much that really plays into things since the coaches and other polls done by human bias don't seem to reflect the RPI that rigorously. See http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2015/rpi which compares RPI, CBN and coaches poll.

As far as some games helping or hurting RPI more depending on win/loss, I don't think that the W/L for that game matters. Your RPI is the same if you exchange a loss to Fordham with a win over UVa.
RPI = (WP * 0.25) + (OWP * 0.50) + (OOWP * 0.25) where WP is Winning Percentage, OWP is Opponents' Winning Percentage and OOWP is Opponents' Opponents' Winning Percentage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rating_Percentage_Index
(PS - thanks for making me think about this because I didn't know it till I checked )

Here's an example of how playing and beating some teams can hurt your RPI. We have a high RPI partly becasue our RPI SOS is so high..... http://www.boydsworld.com/sa/georgia_tech.html

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Oops, I missed the following adjustment for baseball only. No change really to my conclusion that we need to focus on the weekend ACC (and beating UGAg).
"The formula used in NCAA baseball is the same as that used in basketball except for the adjustment of home and road records. Starting in 2013, college baseball "RPI formula will value each road victory as 1.3 instead of 1.0. Each home win will be valued at 0.7 instead of 1.0. Conversely, each home loss will count 1.3 against a team’s RPI and each road loss will count 0.7 against a team’s RPI. Neutral-site games will retain the same value of 1.0, but the committee is studying how to determine if a game should be considered a neutral-site contest. The adjustment is based on data showing that home teams win about 62 percent of the time in Division I baseball."[2] The change was made because of the discrepancy in the number of home games teams play. Some schools are able to play 35-40 of their 56 allowable games at home, while other teams, due to factors such as weather, may play only 20 home games.

This adjustment replaces the current system of bonuses or penalties that teams receive. Bonus points are awarded for beating top-75 non-conference opponents on the road and penalty points are given for losing to bottom-75 non-conference opponents at home. Bonuses and penalties are on a sliding scale, separated into groups of 25, with the top bonus for a road win against a top-25 team and the worst penalty for a home loss to a bottom-25 opponent."

The bottom 75 (RPI>225) non-conference teams we play this year are: Albany

The top 75 non-conference teams we play this year are: Auburn & Coastal Carolina (UGAg is currently 97th)

 

[MWBATL]

Yeah, we actually need for Uga to improve their RPI by winning some road series in the SEC.

And then beat them!