v Thundering Herd Baseball

[THWG]

Real simple. I would have brought in Paden for a 2 inning save instead of Hernandez.
You could tell we weren’t going to score again. It was either shut them out the last 2 innings or lose the game. Hall chose to lose the game. He has brought in Paden in the 8th before and let him finish.
To me it’s just THAT simple.

Again, early in the season, we need to figure out roles. I was a little mad that Hall didn't bring in Paden, but he also needs to figure out who can bridge the gap to him. He tried Hernandez and it didn't work today. I have to imagine it would have been Spivey, Swygert, or Patel if they hadn't already been used over the last couple of days. Early in the season is the time to figure that out.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Well Nuke, who is the one Swarmer who called the 2-2 split correctly? I'm not sure if I want to congratulate them or kick them off the island, but they did get it right.

Overall a disappointing series. This will be an opportunity to test the leadership and the spirit of the team. I know a few of you have been really high on the attitude of this team, let's hope you are correct. Still, the pitching does seem a little better than the past couple seasons, but still room for improvement. Hopefully the bats can come to life...they haven't been terrible, but not quite up to the standards we have come to expect.

As Fred said in an earlier post, I'll continue to enjoy the journey, even if it doesn't take me exactly where I would prefer to go.

Don't know since I didn't make results public like I did last week. I won't make that mistake again. Unless of course someone wants to fire me for underperformance and do the posts. Seems that firing people for no reason is all the rage.

While it was only one game, the series split bodes very poorly for when we start playing good baseball teams. Oh well, nice weather here and I'll play bocce tomorrow. At least I have some control over that.

 

[gtbeak]

We're still scoring 7 runs a game. That's even with the opening 3-2 win and the 4-2 loss are weighing that number down. In the other 6 (including today) we're averaging 8.33. We were hitting .286 with 32 walks (over 4.5 per game) going into today and had 9 hits and 8 walks today. The top three went 6 for 10 with 4 walks today. I'm with you that the offense can be better, but I mean if our standards are above what we've shown so far we've got some high standards for a team projected to be bottom half of the ACC. That being said, I do think the offense will continue to produce and get slightly better.

By way of comparison, last season we were averaging 9 runs/game through the first 8, and for the season, in games against ACC/UGa/NCAA Tourney we averaged 6.9 runs, 5.3 walks, and had a team average of .292. This is our lowest run total through 8 games since the 2019 season, which may be a good sign since that was a season where the hitting ended up being just fine. Basically, to this point, we have hit against Old Dominion and Marshall at about the same level we usually hit against the top level ACC and SEC schools. It doesn't mean that all season the bats will be below our usual standards, but to this point they have been.

 

[THWG]

By way of comparison, last season we were averaging 9 runs/game through the first 8, and for the season, in games against ACC/UGa/NCAA Tourney we averaged 6.9 runs, 5.3 walks, and had a team average of .292. This is our lowest run total through 8 games since the 2019 season, which may be a good sign since that was a season where the hitting ended up being just fine. Basically, to this point, we have hit against Old Dominion and Marshall at about the same level we usually hit against the top level ACC and SEC schools. It doesn't mean that all season the bats will be below our usual standards, but to this point they have been.

Getting Giesler back will help lengthen the offense as well as getting the freshmen more at bats.

 

[gtbeak]

Again, early in the season, we need to figure out roles. I was a little mad that Hall didn't bring in Paden, but he also needs to figure out who can bridge the gap to him. He tried Hernandez and it didn't work today. I have to imagine it would have been Spivey, Swygert, or Patel if they hadn't already been used over the last couple of days. Early in the season is the time to figure that out.

Agree that we need to figure out roles, but I think it is odd that Paden wasn't used all weekend, especially when you have a 1 run lead with 2 innings to go and the top of the opponents lineup coming up. It seems a perfect opportunity to get the "save" by getting a shutdown inning against their best, and then if you need to use someone else to get the statistical save in the 9th, then so be it. Hopefully the kid is healthy, and not under the weather. I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that he has a little sickness.

 

[GT33]

Don't know since I didn't make results public like I did last week. I won't make that mistake again. Unless of course someone wants to fire me for underperformance and do the posts. Seems that firing people for no reason is all the rage.

While it was only one game, the series split bodes very poorly for when we start playing good baseball teams. Oh well, nice weather here and I'll play bocce tomorrow. At least I have some control over that.

Well I was one of the 26 idiots that ended up being 50% correct, big fat F unless it's a GT exam. Identify the other 25 & you got the 4 win pile accounted for.

Somebody needs to step up and take charge of the 67% correct pile, that's a borderline C.

We'd be left with GT Beesball Nostradamus.

 

[DecaturJacket]

By way of comparison, last season we were averaging 9 runs/game through the first 8, and for the season, in games against ACC/UGa/NCAA Tourney we averaged 6.9 runs, 5.3 walks, and had a team average of .292. This is our lowest run total through 8 games since the 2019 season, which may be a good sign since that was a season where the hitting ended up being just fine. Basically, to this point, we have hit against Old Dominion and Marshall at about the same level we usually hit against the top level ACC and SEC schools. It doesn't mean that all season the bats will be below our usual standards, but to this point they have been.

Last year, we started with a 21 run game which heavily skewed that. Otherwise pretty similar.
2 years ago we had the 18th most runs in the country on the season.
3 years ago we had the most runs in the country and were pretty decisively the best offense in the country on the season. (I will forever imagine what would have been if we would've had anything resembling a pitching staff that season)
Not gonna go past that, but you get the point. Between our offense being consistently stout and opening with weak schedules, yes, we do pretty much always score a lot of runs (early and otherwise).

My point is that where we're at offensively isn't a bad place. The only hitter I'm concerned with at this point is Brosius and I think we've seen enough of him to be fairly confident that it's only a matter of time before he breaks out again. The rest of our order is pretty set and solid. The two freshmen have looked good and will only get better. Burress is 4 for his last 9 and is getting back in his groove. Up and down the order are guys who are going to produce. And one of our best hitters hasn't played yet.

 

[Backstreetbuzz]

I’m the one who got it right, though full disclosure, I did not put my guess in till after we lost game 2. Basically, I was just POed we lost game 2, I hate sacrifice bunting in the 2nd inning and I had faith CDH would find a way.

 

[DecaturJacket]

Real simple. I would have brought in Paden for a 2 inning save instead of Hernandez.
You could tell we weren’t going to score again. It was either shut them out the last 2 innings or lose the game. Hall chose to lose the game. He has brought in Paden in the 8th before and let him finish.
To me it’s just THAT simple.

I wouldn't have had a problem with that, but I don't think that was the only strategy and completely understand the route that we took. We're going to have to rely on a bunch of these guys and getting them in there in situations like that will only benefit us in the long run. Had Hernandez performed well in that spot, we'd all be praising him and excited about the possibilities with the bullpen. Paden has pitched twice and looked very good, but we need to know what we've got and how deep we really are. It didn't work out, but I don't think it's worth being this dramatic over. You act like it's a playoff game and we didn't put in Mariano.

We have 4 games over the next 6 days. 6 over the next 8. A lot of guys are gonna get opportunities in different spots before we open ACC play. Some of them will work out, some won't.

 

[gtbeak]

Last year, we started with a 21 run game which heavily skewed that. Otherwise pretty similar.
2 years ago we had the 18th most runs in the country on the season.
3 years ago we had the most runs in the country and were pretty decisively the best offense in the country on the season. (I will forever imagine what would have been if we would've had anything resembling a pitching staff that season)
Not gonna go past that, but you get the point. Between our offense being consistently stout and opening with weak schedules, yes, we do pretty much always score a lot of runs (early and otherwise).

My point is that where we're at offensively isn't a bad place. The only hitter I'm concerned with at this point is Brosius and I think we've seen enough of him to be fairly confident that it's only a matter of time before he breaks out again. The rest of our order is pretty set and solid. The two freshmen have looked good and will only get better. Burress is 4 for his last 9 and is getting back in his groove. Up and down the order are guys who are going to produce. And one of our best hitters hasn't played yet.

Mostly agree, but that is why I said in my original post "Hopefully the bats can come to life...they haven't been terrible, but not quite up to the standards we have come to expect." Perhaps I could edit the beginning of that sentence to more accurately convey my thought, which is that the offense hasn't been bad, but I think it can be better, and hopefully at similar levels to what we have seen the past few seasons. I don't think 2022 is likely to be matched, but I'm hopeful we can approach the median of what we have done in the other seasons this decade.

 

[DecaturJacket]

Mostly agree, but that is why I said in my original post "Hopefully the bats can come to life...they haven't been terrible, but not quite up to the standards we have come to expect." Perhaps I could edit the beginning of that sentence to more accurately convey my thought, which is that the offense hasn't been bad, but I think it can be better, and hopefully at similar levels to what we have seen the past few seasons. I don't think 2022 is likely to be matched, but I'm hopeful we can approach the median of what we have done in the other seasons this decade.

Fair enough. I definitely agree that there's room for improvement and am hopeful that it's coming. Schmidt isn't going to hit .400, but he'll hit over .300. Lodise looks like he could hit .350 and we know what Drew can do. I think if we can get Goose back and get Lackey going (I think he could hit .333), we'll have a solid 5 guys who will be getting hits consistently. Call me optimistic, but I'm really high on what I've seen from Hernandez and Daniel at the plate thus far too. They've had a lot of loud outs to go with their .267 and .250 averages. We're averaging 5 walks a game and almost 2 sb a game as well. I think we have the potential to be potent and should have the guys to be consistent.

Either way, I think the season will come down to what we get out of the guys on the bump. I think we can all agree on that. Gonna need Tate to be the guy and two guys to step up and be his back up for the rest of the weekend. I'm hopeful, but hesitant to get to excited.

Today's game sucked, but I still think I like the direction we're heading and don't think it's worth looking to deep into this one. Last year's team was at 7.9 runs/game. I expect us to be around that number again this year with the potential to exceed it. Last year's team allowed 6.7 runs per game. I'm hoping we improve upon that number and get it down closer to 6 or even better in the 5s.

 

[MWBATL]

I wouldn't have had a problem with that, but I don't think that was the only strategy and completely understand the route that we took. We're going to have to rely on a bunch of these guys and getting them in there in situations like that will only benefit us in the long run. Had Hernandez performed well in that spot, we'd all be praising him and excited about the possibilities with the bullpen. Paden has pitched twice and looked very good, but we need to know what we've got and how deep we really are. It didn't work out, but I don't think it's worth being this dramatic over. You act like it's a playoff game and we didn't put in Mariano.

We have 4 games over the next 6 days. 6 over the next 8. A lot of guys are gonna get opportunities in different spots before we open ACC play. Some of them will work out, some won't.

You do have to find out about other guys. You put them in when we have 6 or 8 run leads like we had in the other two games. No need to use your trusted and better pitchers then.

I am guessing Hall thought Marshall had run out of good pitching by Game 4 and he expected us to explode offensively. He gambled, and lost. This RPI loss could easily haunt us when tourney time comes.

You makwe sure you WIN these games first and foremost. THEN (and only then) do you give your other arms some time on the mound.

 

[Techcaster572]

I'm usually very optimistic regarding our team but I'll admit yesterday was a gut punch and a horrible hit to the team's rpi.

I agree with others that said Payden should've come in for a two inning save but I don't necessarily blame Hall/Taylor yesterday as the pitching has performed above expectations the previous 7 games. Yesterday they did not. Sometimes that happens.

Offense puts up 7 runs and that normally should've been good enough.

It is baseball and I knew a four-game set would be tough. Yes, #1 Texas A$M and #3 LSU lost to lower-level teams, but both those teams always turn those blips into big winning streaks.

I'm still high on this pitching staff and team but remain pessimistic on the coaching staff (0 for 19 in regionals) since 2006.

I'll be curious to see how this team reacts.

Up next is W Ga and W Michigan. Not to say its a must win series but taking 3 of 4 is critical now. Winning all four could ease some of the pain of the series split to Marshall.

 

[DecaturJacket]

You do have to find out about other guys. You put them in when we have 6 or 8 run leads like we had in the other two games. No need to use your trusted and better pitchers then.

I am guessing Hall thought Marshall had run out of good pitching by Game 4 and he expected us to explode offensively. He gambled, and lost. This RPI loss could easily haunt us when tourney time comes.

You makwe sure you WIN these games first and foremost. THEN (and only then) do you give your other arms some time on the mound.

Then when they come into a close game with no experience in that situation and fail, you'd be like "Why haven't we gotten these guys any experience in these situations?" They have to get out there in those spots at some point. I'd rather they pop their cherry against Marshall than UVA or Clemson.

Again, Payden has been good early on (in TWO APPEARANCES - his first two game appearances on a diamond in two years nonetheless), but he's not Mariano Rivera. Hernandez is going to be a key piece in the pen and was about as dominant as Paden in his prior innings. Going in, they had 1 and 2 appearances apiece. For all you know, they're both in a competition to be closer and it was Hernandez's turn. Other than Tate I think every pitching role is pretty fluid right now. We're trying to figure out what we have. Both of those guys are going to be important to our success. Had Payden been in and gotten hit, what would you be complaining about then? Playing revisionist history and acting like there was only one clear move this early on is premature. The coaches have seen these guys day in and day out since the fall and have a plan based on what they've seen. I'm not sold on this pitching staff yet, but it's been head and shoulders above what we saw from Borrell imo.

Sure, it's a bad loss, but it's no worse than the loss that was on the offense two days earlier. It's baseball. It's early. Slow your roll and let this team figure out what they are before you get your panties in a wad over 1 game and 1 coaching decision you didn't agree with.

Despite the negative takeaway from the weekend of a couple of yall, we had one bad pitching performace (and really only two guys got hit hard). The offense is on par with what we've seen the past few years and where we need it to be and will only get better as the weather warms up. The pitching is still a question mark - I've been preaching that over and over again. As much as you can't look at these games and good performances and take away that we're a stellar staff, you also can't look at one bad game and take away that the pitching sucks. It's undeniable that we're throwing more strikes and walking fewer batters so far. I'll take making guys put the ball in play to beat us over walking guys all day.

We have a lot of baseball to play over the next week. Let's see how this next group of games play out and reassess.

 

[Techcaster572]

Then when they come into a close game with no experience in that situation and fail, you'd be like "Why haven't we gotten these guys any experience in these situations?" They have to get out there in those spots at some point. I'd rather they pop their cherry against Marshall than UVA or Clemson.

Again, Payden has been good early on (in TWO APPEARANCES - his first two game appearances on a diamond in two years nonetheless), but he's not Mariano Rivera. Hernandez is going to be a key piece in the pen and was about as dominant as Paden in his prior innings. Going in, they had 1 and 2 appearances apiece. For all you know, they're both in a competition to be closer and it was Hernandez's turn. Other than Tate I think every pitching role is pretty fluid right now. We're trying to figure out what we have. Both of those guys are going to be important to our success. Had Payden been in and gotten hit, what would you be complaining about then? Playing revisionist history and acting like there was only one clear move this early on is premature. The coaches have seen these guys day in and day out since the fall and have a plan based on what they've seen. I'm not sold on this pitching staff yet, but it's been head and shoulders above what we saw from Borrell imo.

Sure, it's a bad loss, but it's no worse than the loss that was on the offense two days earlier. It's baseball. It's early. Slow your roll and let this team figure out what they are before you get your panties in a wad over 1 game and 1 coaching decision you didn't agree with.

Despite the negative takeaway from the weekend of a couple of yall, we had one bad pitching performace (and really only two guys got hit hard). The offense is on par with what we've seen the past few years and where we need it to be and will only get better as the weather warms up. The pitching is still a question mark - I've been preaching that over and over again. As much as you can't look at these games and good performances and take away that we're a stellar staff, you also can't look at one bad game and take away that the pitching sucks. It's undeniable that we're throwing more strikes and walking fewer batters so far. I'll take making guys put the ball in play to beat us over walking guys all day.

We have a lot of baseball to play over the next week. Let's see how this next group of games play out and reassess.

Well said.

Couldn't agree more.

We are 6-2 and still trying to figure things out. I'm probably a little more sold on our pitching than most and really just see yesterday as an aberration but only time will tell.

Weather is getting better, and I think that will only help our offense.

Only true pitching concern that I had over the weekend wasn't yesterday, it was actually Saturday as Riley hit 5 batters. He had some serious wild thing going that day. To his credit though, he got out of multiple jams that he himself created.

 

[DecaturJacket]

Weather is getting better, and I think that will only help our offense.

The number of balls we've had caught at the warning track has to be some kind of record. Those balls are flying out in warmer weather.

 

[Techcaster572]

The number of balls we've had caught at the warning track has to be some kind of record. Those balls are flying out in warmer weather.

Totally agree with this.
I've seen mulitple warning track balls for Burress, Brosius, Lackey, & Waugh.

I can tell you the three that Parker hit are all likely gone in warmer weather.

 

[DecaturJacket]

Only true pitching concern that I had over the weekend wasn't yesterday, it was actually Saturday as Riley hit 5 batters. He had some serious wild thing going that day. To his credit though, he got out of multiple jams that he himself created.

Yeah, Riley is definitely a concern for me too. I moreso look at his .250 opponent batting average (for comparison the Tate's is .152, Brady's is .118, Spivey's is .150, and Patel's is .074), but yeah combine that with the 6 hbp and 3 walks and it's definitely concerning. That's a .421 opponent obp. How he has that and only a 2.25 era is nothing short of a miracle.

 

[GTJon]

Agree that we need to figure out roles, but I think it is odd that Paden wasn't used all weekend, especially when you have a 1 run lead with 2 innings to go and the top of the opponents lineup coming up. It seems a perfect opportunity to get the "save" by getting a shutdown inning against their best, and then if you need to use someone else to get the statistical save in the 9th, then so be it. Hopefully the kid is healthy, and not under the weather. I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that he has a little sickness.

I have to say it is very strange now that Payden hasn't pitched in the past 5 games when we've used a ton of arms and had plenty of close situations that would be good to bring him in to get some work. I'm hoping there's not already some arm soreness or an injury that they are having to rest or protect.

 

[DecaturJacket]

I have to say it is very strange now that Payden hasn't pitched in the past 5 games when we've used a ton of arms and had plenty of close situations that would be good to bring him in to get some work. I'm hoping there's not already some arm soreness or an injury that they are having to rest or protect.

Pretty sure it's just a combination of game situation, trying to figure out what we've got with the youngsters, and him coming back from injury. I'm sure they're trying to ramp him up slowly after not pitching in almost 2 years.