Some baseball thoughts

[bulldogcountry1]

First, last night sucked, but it wasn't the disaster some people think. If we are still looking back at this game near the end of the season, then it means we lost 5 or 6 games we should have won, not just one. See 2014. We didn't miss out on a host because of 2 Holy Cross losses. We missed because of two Holy Cross losses, a Memphis loss, and Jacksonville State loss, and any two other home losses.

Anyway...

The first two weekends, the offense was very much wide open. There wasn't much small ball, and we were all pretty excited because we hit some home runs. Then came last weekend. It seemed that Cohen went into the weekend with an obvious plan to bunt a lot and put pressure on the defense. Was it because the opponents were better and he thought it was the best strategy, or was it because he wanted to see who could and couldn't execute in those types of situations? I can't say for sure, but I think it's probably a little of both. I often wonder if shifting gears like that can get the entire offense out of its comfort zone. Putting pressure on defenses like Cohen talks about puts pressure on the offense to execute. It takes a lot of repetition, discipline, and maturity to totally buy into that philosophy and be ready to sacrifice yourself, even when you feel like you are seeing the ball really well.

It seems to be the same pattern for Cohen every year. Use the first 3 weeks to experiment and see what he has by testing all his players to see how they respond to being taken out of games, not playing, and bunting. It's frustrating to watch now, and it leaves us susceptible to bad losses like last night; however, we always end up pretty leathery at the end of the season. I think he knows what he is doing, even though we don't always understand it. I'm still excited to see where this group ends up.

[messageboardsuperhero]

First, last night sucked, but it wasn't the disaster some people think. If we are still looking back at this game near the end of the season, then it means we lost 5 or 6 games we should have won, not just one. See 2014. We didn't miss out on a host because of 2 Holy Cross losses. We missed because of two Holy Cross losses, a Memphis loss, and Jacksonville State loss, and any two other home losses.

Anyway...

The first two weekends, the offense was very much wide open. There wasn't much small ball, and we were all pretty excited because we hit some home runs. Then came last weekend. It seemed that Cohen went into the weekend with an obvious plan to bunt a lot and put pressure on the defense. Was it because the opponents were better and he thought it was the best strategy, or was it because he wanted to see who could and couldn't execute in those types of situations? I can't say for sure, but I think it's probably a little of both. I often wonder if shifting gears like that can get the entire offense out of its comfort zone. Putting pressure on defenses like Cohen talks about puts pressure on the offense to execute. It takes a lot of repetition, discipline, and maturity to totally buy into that philosophy and be ready to sacrifice yourself, even when you feel like you are seeing the ball really well.

It seems to be the same pattern for Cohen every year. Use the first 3 weeks to experiment and see what he has by testing all his players to see how they respond to being taken out of games, not playing, and bunting. It's frustrating to watch now, and it leaves us susceptible to bad losses like last night; however, we always end up pretty leathery at the end of the season. I think he knows what he is doing, even though we don't always understand it. I'm still excited to see where this group ends up.

The Memphis and Jacksonville State losses weren't really that big of a deal... The were just compounded by the fact that we lost two at home to Holy Cross.

There's a chance that we end up hosting in 2014 if we had just beaten Holy Cross twice, and also beat Memphis and Jacksonville State- not a great chance but a pretty good one. We have got to schedule better. There is no excuse for us dropping out of Houston and ending up with the shit schedule we have. And if you do pull out of the Houston tournament, you sure as hell better put a lot of emphasis on the SWAC teams you schedule because they can do some serious damage to your hosting chances. We did not mentally come to play last night at the plate- that is disappointing.

What I'm trying to say is these ****ing games matter.

[Todd4State]

We hit some home runs because Rea, Rooker, and Humphreys were all healthy. When you have a lineup that is literally all guys that have to manufacture you won't score as much typically. That's why last weekend was so exciting to me- we won and scored 4-8 runs per game without any of our power guys with the exception of Rea who was on the mend.

Our offense now isn't what it is going to be in a few weeks. We've never truly been 100% this season at this point- as it has been discussed when we were winning.

When we get Collins, Rea, and Humphreys back and hopefully play Rooker more- the power will be there.

We've had shitty luck with Rea getting compartment syndrome (I mean really?) because of a ball hitting him on his shin, Humphreys being sick, and Collins having to get a bone removed from his hand.

We really didn't do a lot of small ball stuff at all last night- and the little that we did worked which was Robson's bunt single and a double steal. The problem was we gave away too many at bats the first four innings and we struck out 10 times while walking 5. That's not us. Well, it's us with our heads up our ass.

I imagine that has been straightened out pretty quickly.

[Todd4State]

The Memphis and Jacksonville State losses weren't really that big of a deal... The were just compounded by the fact that we lost two at home to Holy Cross.

There's a chance that we end up hosting in 2014 if we had just beaten Holy Cross twice, and also beat Memphis and Jacksonville State- not a great chance but a pretty good one. We have got to schedule better. There is no excuse for us dropping out of Houston and ending up with the shit schedule we have. And if you do pull out of the Houston tournament, you sure as hell better put a lot of emphasis on the SWAC teams you schedule because they can do some serious damage to your hosting chances. We did not mentally come to play last night at the plate- that is disappointing.
What I'm trying to say is these ****ing games matter.

Nailed it.