Virginia (Home) - ACC Weekend #6

[GTNavyNuke]

UVA's backs are really against the wall... the questions are 1) whether they really do have the talent/ability to "break out"; & 2) can they respond in a good way (from their perspective) to the hole they've dug; & ... if yes to those questions; 3) Can Ga Tech match their urgency.

Sports are great for stuff like this. TWO really big games over these next 2 days.

UVa is going to break out at some point this season. Their recruited talent and proven coaching is too good. (21, 27, 17, 25 recruiting classes the last 4 years by PG.) D1 baseball has basically said the same thing.

I'm glad we won yesterday or I'd be worried about getting swept.

 

[FredJacket]

 

[GtBaseball3]

Pull archer! It’s only the 4th inning
,we can still win this game.

 

[Southpawmac]

Just had a feeling Virginia would wake up against us. Hopefully our offense can catch up and clinch the series for us.

 

[GtBaseball3]

Maxwelll, bartnicki, wilhite, smith, mannellly and Crawford once roedig/Grissom come back. We will be very good,

Also. I think jsoiah Siegel should be the weekday starter, With king and brown in relief.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Well 6 errors in 1.5 games doesn’t help.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Virginia, at the bottom of the ACC, has only scored this many runs once in ACC play all year.

 

[FredJacket]

Virginia, at the bottom of the ACC, has only scored this many runs once in ACC play all year.

There is little room between top & bottom of the conference this year.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

There is little room between top & bottom of the conference this year.

And since the bottom is beating the top, that room is shrinking more tonight.

We had an error, a walk, and a wild pitch all in T8 just now. That’s just ugly. We’re trending towards more than 10 errors in a single series.

 

[MWBATL]

We really have not a fundamentally sound baseball team all year. Flashes here and there which show potential, but our play at home has been really poor.

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

We really have not a fundamentally sound baseball team all year. Flashes here and there which show potential, but our play at home has been really poor.

Well, we're 11-6 in the ACC and ranked #6 by D1Baseball, so I would say that we're fundamentally sound enough for some outside observers. I agree that we need to clean a few things up based on some of the games we've played this year, but compared to the rest of the college baseball landscape, we're in good shape. Just need to keep doing what we're doing well, and need to improve what we aren't.

 

[THWG]

I know Roedig and Brown didn't have clean outings, but it was good to see them come in and keep runs runs off the board. It'll be huge if Roedig can return to form and Brown can provide some middle relief innings.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

We really have not a fundamentally sound baseball team all year. Flashes here and there which show potential, but our play at home has been really poor.

We are 257th in fielding errors with 1.6 per game. http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2021/stats-def-errors-per-game

We are 161st in runs allowed per game at 5.9 per game. http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2021/stats-def-runs-per-game

We are 34th in runs per game at 7.2 per game.

We are unsound in two of the three major* portions of the game.

*Hitting, pitching and fielding. I'd break it down to Hitting, starting pitching, relieving pitching and fielding if I could. But we only have one reliable starter recently so it's obvious that all pitching is in need of major improvement.

I believe that pitching will get better with DBo working on them. And next year we have a lot of quality pitchers coming in who are DBo's first recruits. We had 23 pitchers available on the roster, but can't confuse quantity with quality. I was hoping we would have a higher rate of return. Losing Finley hurt, but that happens to all teams.

I think running through lots of pitchers in a game is good even if we lose the game. We have to fix pitching depth or the post season will be very short.

 

[FredJacket]

I know Roedig and Brown didn't have clean outings, but it was good to see them come in and keep runs runs off the board. It'll be huge if Roedig can return to form and Brown can provide some middle relief innings.

Postgame... CDH said he thinks Roedig will start Tues v USC-Upstate.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

.......... our play at home has been really poor.

This is inexplicable. Maybe it has to do with the weather?

My hope and hypothesis is that we play better in warmer weather. I don't think Malloy does as well in the cold weather. He just looks cold on tv.

Should be upper 50's low 60's today. Great time for the bats to heat up and the fielders to thaw.

 

[FredJacket]

We are 257th in fielding errors with 1.6 per game. http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2021/stats-def-errors-per-game

We are 161st in runs allowed per game at 5.9 per game. http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2021/stats-def-runs-per-game

We are 34th in runs per game at 7.2 per game.

We are unsound in two of the three major* portions of the game.

*Hitting, pitching and fielding. I'd break it down to Hitting, starting pitching, relieving pitching and fielding if I could. But we only have one reliable starter recently so it's obvious that all pitching is in need of major improvement.

I believe that pitching will get better with DBo working on them. And next year we have a lot of quality pitchers coming in who are DBo's first recruits. We had 23 pitchers available on the roster, but can't confuse quantity with quality. I was hoping we would have a higher rate of return. Losing Finley hurt, but that happens to all teams.

I think running through lots of pitchers in a game is good even if we lose the game. We have to fix pitching depth or the post season will be very short.

I'll be the contrarion & say I believe more pitchers.... while "potentially" helping then individually will not be any measurable improvement in outcomes for the team & more likely result in regression.

It's easy to say different must be better... but I'm always skeptical.

 

[FredJacket]

...I should add... CDH also said... after a "leading" question on the matter ...that the string of weeks with no mid-week games has made figuring out who's got what (across the board...not just pitching) a challenge. He's said this before. He was looking forward to April because it is full of mid-week action.

 

[MWBATL]

I completely agree with @GTNavyNuke that we need to get more pitchers into game action to see what they have and I also look forward to more midweek games to see some of our pitching depth at least get exposure.

I am not sure what to do about the errors. Especially the errors by pitchers, which have really hurt us more than anything. Let's hope that warm weather is the cure, because those mistakes have been killer.

I simply think we have too much talent to be playing like this. If we simply played "clean" (no errors and minimize walks, HBP, WP) we would be a juggernaut! Yesterday we had 3 errors and 8 walks, Virginia had 0 errors and 3 walks. That MORE that outweighs the difference in hits. By a mile. We keep giving baseball games away. The walks have always been a GT problem (maybe they are a college baseball problem, I dunno), but we are #163 (out of 283) in walks per 9 innings allowed. We average 4.67. (NB-Virginia is right there with us in this stat, which may explain why they are struggling in W-L record).

 

[FredJacket]

I completely agree with @GTNavyNuke that we need to get more pitchers into game action to see what they have and I also look forward to more midweek games to see some of our pitching depth at least get exposure.

I am not sure what to do about the errors. Especially the errors by pitchers, which have really hurt us more than anything. Let's hope that warm weather is the cure, because those mistakes have been killer.

I simply think we have too much talent to be playing like this. If we simply played "clean" (no errors and minimize walks, HBP, WP) we would be a juggernaut! Yesterday we had 3 errors and 8 walks, Virginia had 0 errors and 3 walks. That MORE that outweighs the difference in hits. By a mile. We keep giving baseball games away. The walks have always been a GT problem (maybe they are a college baseball problem, I dunno), but we are #163 (out of 283) in walks per 9 innings allowed. We average 4.67. (NB-Virginia is right there with us in this stat, which may explain why they are struggling in W-L record).

I'm with you on the errors. Hard to understand the "why"... but I have to believe of all the phases of the game, it's probably the easiest to fix.

Yesterday's game had the feel that everyone (starting with Archer) was trying to be too fine with knowledge UVAs starter was not likely to give up much & likely to go deep in game... which to his credit, he did. ...but just a feeling watching on a screen from 600 miles away.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

We need to beat their asses today. Going to 11-7 after starting 5-1 against @NCSU and Louisville will be a major letdown. And isn’t baseball strange - why is 11-7 unacceptable but 12-6 is great? LOL.