There was an inning today that illustrated our offense at it's best

[Todd4State]

And that was the fifth inning.

Gridley reaches on an error to start it off- and by the pitcher no less which is to me the best case scenario because you know he is probably pissed off at himself and he has to pitch to our guys.

So, what do we do? We bunt it right by the pitchers mound with Robson into the hot zone towards second base and get a hit. Two on, no one out.

Then we have Heck bunt. And then HE gets on because of a fielders choice. Gridley and Robson having good speed helps because it pretty much eliminates a force out at any base except for first.

And now the fun part....

Collins- our most talented hitter- steps up to the plate with the bases loaded and no one out. And then BOOM- drills a two run double.

Cody Brown comes up with two RISP and no one out. And hits a ball that the SS boots- and even if he fields it, it scores a run. As it is, another run scores and we have two on and no one out.

Now we have our top power guy at the plate and BOOM again- but this time it's a three run home run and we've created a SIX run inning.

Then they bring in another pitcher who gets the next three guys out, but the damage is done.

THIS is how speed and power TOGETHER lead to big innings.

[messageboardsuperhero]

My opinion of this team- we are young, immature, inexperienced, and will continue to struggle at times this year... But we are also very talented everywhere except the pen.

I'd have to go back over and look through the play-by-play, but I'm pretty sure through the first 17 innings this weekend we were something like 1-20 with RISP- and the one hit we got was a single that didn't score a run. It's crazy to imagine being that bad in clutch situations when we had as many XBHs as we have had lately- the power is very encouraging. We do everything right offensively from a player execution standpoint until men get into position to score, and then our sphincters tighten up because nobody on this team has done it before. We don't know how to finish, and that takes time.

Pitching is the same way. You can tell Sexton and Tatum are dynamic pitchers who are damn-near elite 90% of the time- but they also lose focus. Almost all of Tatum's runs the past couple of weeks have come on 0-2 counts with two outs- that's called being young, losing focus, and not finishing. The only knock on Sexton all year has been his knack for giving up the long ball because he loses focus for one pitch. That's all it takes.

This team has some growing up to do. We won't do much this year, because our pen is awful. This is the transitional year that many of us predicted it would be before the season. Let's just try to make the NCAA tourney somewhere (which we should) and try to make some noise while these freshmen and sophomores grow up.

[Intramural All-American]

True, but just playing devil's advocate, P should have easily made the play on Gridley's ball. The second baseman had a chance to make a play on Robson's ball, and I would say that is a 50/50 play. Heck's bunt should have been an out at 1B, just a terrible read on UK's part. And Brown's ball was just a straight up error. I like how the inning turned out, but that inning was set up more from UK's miscues than our actual hitting. We had 2 solid hits that whole inning and scored 6 runs. That won't happen much. While I disagree with Smitty that bunting should never happen, we do it too often, and it usually takes away the possibility of big innings. We were fortunate how today worked out in that sense.

[Todd4State]

True, but just playing devil's advocate, P should have easily made the play on Gridley's ball. The second baseman had a chance to make a play on Robson's ball, and I would say that is a 50/50 play. Heck's bunt should have been an out at 1B, just a terrible read on UK's part. And Brown's ball was just a straight up error. I like how the inning turned out, but that inning was set up more from UK's miscues than our actual hitting. We had 2 solid hits that whole inning and scored 6 runs. That won't happen much. While I disagree with Smitty that bunting should never happen, we do it too often, and it usually takes away the possibility of big innings. We were fortunate how today worked out in that sense.

That's the thing- the whole point of putting pressure on a defense with speed is to force them into making mistakes. I've kept track of it over the course of the season and including this weekend we've only not scored a run in 15 innings in which we have bunted. And three of those 15 we actually bunted and got a hit.

The thing that we have lacked during Cohen's tenure is power for the most part. Some of that is the ballpark, some of it is the state (old state) of college baseball, and some of it is recruiting. When you have power and you combine it with speed, it makes you very dangerous.

[Irondawg]

True, but just playing devil's advocate, P should have easily made the play on Gridley's ball. The second baseman had a chance to make a play on Robson's ball, and I would say that is a 50/50 play. Heck's bunt should have been an out at 1B, just a terrible read on UK's part. And Brown's ball was just a straight up error. I like how the inning turned out, but that inning was set up more from UK's miscues than our actual hitting. We had 2 solid hits that whole inning and scored 6 runs. That won't happen much. While I disagree with Smitty that bunting should never happen, we do it too often, and it usually takes away the possibility of big innings. We were fortunate how today worked out in that sense.

And that's exactly what a large portion of the board is arguing. The only way we seem to produce multi-run innings is with a myriad of errors/walks by the opponent. And while our speed does play a factor in that, you can't rely on that time after time. I just can't take the events of that inning and say it's our offense at it's best. We just finally happened to come through with some big XBH with runners on for a change.

Until they change Omaha's park I'm fine with smallball to some degree as it works in our park as well. But I'd much rather us go the way of the mid '80's cards teams and try to swipe bags than wasting outs on the bunting except when we have weak hitters up and a slow baserunner.

[Todd4State]

My opinion of this team- we are young, immature, inexperienced, and will continue to struggle at times this year... But we are also very talented everywhere except the pen.

I'd have to go back over and look through the play-by-play, but I'm pretty sure through the first 17 innings this weekend we were something like 1-20 with RISP- and the one hit we got was a single that didn't score a run. It's crazy to imagine being that bad in clutch situations when we had as many XBHs as we have had lately- the power is very encouraging. We do everything right offensively from a player execution standpoint until men get into position to score, and then our sphincters tighten up because nobody on this team has done it before. We don't know how to finish, and that takes time.

Pitching is the same way. You can tell Sexton and Tatum are dynamic pitchers who are damn-near elite 90% of the time- but they also lose focus. Almost all of Tatum's runs the past couple of weeks have come on 0-2 counts with two outs- that's called being young, losing focus, and not finishing. The only knock on Sexton all year has been his knack for giving up the long ball because he loses focus for one pitch. That's all it takes.

This team has some growing up to do. We won't do much this year, because our pen is awful. This is the transitional year that many of us predicted it would be before the season. Let's just try to make the NCAA tourney somewhere (which we should) and try to make some noise while these freshmen and sophomores grow up.

We had a little power skid before this weekend. Now, yes- UK's ballpark helped with that, but sometimes the confidence from that can carry over. With even a decent bullpen we would be 22-4 or so right now. And that's with all of our shortcomings. The really disappointing thing about the bullpen to me is at the very least Ross and Fitts should be performing- you expect that out of seniors who have performed in the past.

The thing I'm worried about is forcing our starters to go so long- they can't throw 125 every weekend and it won't take long for them to burn out. Even though Tatum pitched his tail off- he still technically didn't have a quality start because he allowed five runs despite the complete game. And I still think the Alabama series and throwing so much affected Preston and Sexton's performances this week.

We have a few talented players- Sexton, Tatum, Hudson, Houston, and McCord on the pitching side and then Collins, Humphreys, and Gridley on the offensive side- but we need more. We're basically a JUCO All-Star team. But as you said it's a transition year. We have some recruits that are coming in that would be starting right now and probably doing better than what we are currently getting from some of our guys right now- especially in the bullpen.

We have no choice but to start using Laster out of the bullpen. That may happen by default because of how our schedule sets up with only five OOC games left. Levi Mintz can only do so much by himself. Kudos to him though. It would be nice if Ross and Fitts got their heads out of their ass- and I know how I would handle that. If those two can manage to focus more on getting people out and less on what the dugout rally cap should be- we'll be fine.

[messageboardsuperhero]

And that's exactly what a large portion of the board is arguing. The only way we seem to produce multi-run innings is with a myriad of errors/walks by the opponent. And while our speed does play a factor in that, you can't rely on that time after time. I just can't take the events of that inning and say it's our offense at it's best. We just finally happened to come through with some big XBH with runners on for a change.

Until they change Omaha's park I'm fine with smallball to some degree as it works in our park as well. But I'd much rather us go the way of the mid '80's cards teams and try to swipe bags than wasting outs on the bunting except when we have weak hitters up and a slow baserunner.

We need to scale back on the sac bunting in favor of straight steals and hit and runs- those are aggressive things that actually DO put pressure on a defense, unlike a sac bunt. Watching Mr. .500 OBP Seth Heck try and give up an out on a sac bunt to move Jacob ****ing Robson to second base in the first inning with nobody out was an abomination. Let the man steal second if that's what you want to do- or at the very least try a hit and run. Heck is one of the guys you trust to put it in play in that situation. I'd prefer you just let him swing away, but if you're dead set on putting something on to move Robson don't willfully give up an out with your most consistent hitter at the plate in the first inning.

That is not utilizing our speed to the best of its abilities, IMO.

[Todd4State]

And that's exactly what a large portion of the board is arguing. The only way we seem to produce multi-run innings is with a myriad of errors/walks by the opponent. And while our speed does play a factor in that, you can't rely on that time after time. I just can't take the events of that inning and say it's our offense at it's best. We just finally happened to come through with some big XBH with runners on for a change.

Until they change Omaha's park I'm fine with smallball to some degree as it works in our park as well. But I'd much rather us go the way of the mid '80's cards teams and try to swipe bags than wasting outs on the bunting except when we have weak hitters up and a slow baserunner.

Nothing on offense in baseball is foolproof. If you straight up hit all the time, you're only going to get a hit 30% of the time and get on base around 40% of the time if you're good. There are times where things work, and times where they don't.

And as far as the 80's Cardinals teams, I would love to have that kind of speed with a little more power than what they had. They had some guys that were pretty good at bunting too- like Vince Coleman, Ozzie, Willie McGee, etc. But it was frustrating to have one or two power guys like George Hendrick or Jack Clark- ESPECIALLY when Clark got hurt in 1987 and they couldn't use him in the World Series.

That's why I liked Tony LaRussa so much. He had guys like McGwire, Pujols, etc. that could mash, but he always had a few guys that could run pretty well like Fernando Vina or Edgar Renteria and some guys like Jim Edmonds who could do some of both. He didn't run as much as Herzog, but I felt like the offense was a lot better.

[Todd4State]

We need to scale back on the sac bunting in favor of straight steals and hit and runs- those are aggressive things that actually DO put pressure on a defense, unlike a sac bunt. Watching Mr. .500 OBP Seth Heck try and give up an out on a sac bunt to move Jacob ****ing Robson to second base in the first inning with nobody out was an abomination. Let the man steal second if that's what you want to do- or at the very least try a hit and run. Heck is one of the guys you trust to put it in play in that situation. I'd prefer you just let him swing away, but if you're dead set on putting something on to move Robson don't willfully give up an out with your most consistent hitter at the plate in the first inning.

That is not utilizing our speed to the best of its abilities, IMO.

Robson could end up on third in two pitches a lot of times. I prefer to hit Heck first because he is really good leading off an inning. If he's dead set on bunting the next guy, I would make the number two hitter Robson because he is by far our best bunter in terms of bunting for a hit. But Cody Brown and Heck bunting doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[messageboardsuperhero]

We had a little power skid before this weekend. Now, yes- UK's ballpark helped with that, but sometimes the confidence from that can carry over. With even a decent bullpen we would be 22-4 or so right now. And that's with all of our shortcomings. The really disappointing thing about the bullpen to me is at the very least Ross and Fitts should be performing- you expect that out of seniors who have performed in the past.

The thing I'm worried about is forcing our starters to go so long- they can't throw 125 every weekend and it won't take long for them to burn out. Even though Tatum pitched his tail off- he still technically didn't have a quality start because he allowed five runs despite the complete game. And I still think the Alabama series and throwing so much affected Preston and Sexton's performances this week.

We have a few talented players- Sexton, Tatum, Hudson, Houston, and McCord on the pitching side and then Collins, Humphreys, and Gridley on the offensive side- but we need more. We're basically a JUCO All-Star team. But as you said it's a transition year. We have some recruits that are coming in that would be starting right now and probably doing better than what we are currently getting from some of our guys right now- especially in the bullpen.

We have no choice but to start using Laster out of the bullpen. That may happen by default because of how our schedule sets up with only five OOC games left. Levi Mintz can only do so much by himself. Kudos to him though. It would be nice if Ross and Fitts got their heads out of their ass- and I know how I would handle that. If those two can manage to focus more on getting people out and less on what the dugout rally cap should be- we'll be fine.

I said something about this last week... It is a huge concern I have right now. How fresh will our three starters be at the end of the season? Probably not at all at this rate, IMO. We need our pen to step up and take the pressure off- namely Daniel Brown, because he is probably the only one (besides Young) with lights-out stuff and the ability to get it done.

[Todd4State]

I said something about this last week... It is a huge concern I have right now. How fresh will our three starters be at the end of the season? Probably not at all at this rate, IMO. We need our pen to step up and take the pressure off- namely Daniel Brown, because he is probably the only one (besides Young) with lights-out stuff and the ability to get it done.

Brown gave up a couple of home runs about a week or so ago, and I think it's in his head right now. He has to put that behind him and attack the strike zone.

And it was good to see Young back even though he was wild. At least we know where he is at this point- which is maybe a one inning guy at most at this time.

[messageboardsuperhero]

Brown gave up a couple of home runs about a week or so ago, and I think it's in his head right now. He has to put that behind him and attack the strike zone.

And it was good to see Young back even though he was wild. At least we know where he is at this point- which is maybe a one inning guy at most at this time.

It is 100% mental with Brown right now. The guy strikes out 5 in two innings with a 92 MPH fastball and wipeout slider against a good lineup, then he can't get an out in his next 2-3 appearances? It's all in his head. He just needs to get his mojo back.

[Todd4State]

It is 100% mental with Brown right now. The guy strikes out 5 in two innings with a 92 MPH fastball and wipeout slider against a good lineup, then he can't get an out in his next 2-3 appearances? It's all in his head. He just needs to get his mojo back.

It would have been good to put him in the game today for the 9th with the big lead. It would have been good to get Houston and Dakota some work today as well.

[basedog]

Glad we won a game, but Kentucky isn't gonna make a regional, fact is they are in the bottom say 10-14. They kicked the ball around Sunday and that really helped. They also hit some rockets that were right out our guys. I'm just saying, but again I don't see us making the tourney and that would be disappointing.

Maybe you guys are right.

[shoeless joe]

Pretty simple why we had succes today...we jumped on fastballs in the zone early in counts. Kentucky helped us with their miscues, some of which can be attributed to the constant pressure we put on their D, but we were aggressive in the zone.

And I will say again what I said earlier, and prolly will say again later, in order to hit the ball the other way with authority you have to have the correct mechanical approach and our two big guys did that today.

Put all that together and you get 12 runs.

[Smitty]

you can't rely on that time after time..

Ding ding ding

We have, what, ONE inning out of 54 in SEC play that our offense works like it should. It's like a successful hit and run, everyone feels good and nostalgic and taken back to Honus Wagner but what about the times a guy flails at one in the dirt and we get thrown out by a mile... Yes today's 5th was good and fortunate but "how our offense is supposed to work"?? You can't rely on 1 inning out of 54 to have a defense goof up.

[engie]

The only one of the 3 bunts I had an issue with was Hecks which I think was the sacrifice...

The first 2 were clearly a drag followed by a push...loved both of those...

Sometimes in baseball it just takes one breakthrough to tear down the mental hurdle that was holding you back. I'm hopeful that I saw that on Sunday in Lexington at the plate.

Still serious work needed on the hill. Rumor is that Fitts didn't even travel to Lexington...Not good...

[I seen it dawg]

Ding ding ding

We have, what, ONE inning out of 54 in SEC play that our offense works like it should. It's like a successful hit and run, everyone feels good and nostalgic and taken back to Honus Wagner but what about the times a guy flails at one in the dirt and we get thrown out by a mile... Yes today's 5th was good and fortunate but "how our offense is supposed to work"?? You can't rely on 1 inning out of 54 to have a defense goof up.

Nor can you rely on your way time after time. It's why you have to play so many variables during a game and a weekend. Keep learning young serf you might get there.

[I seen it dawg]

The only one of the 3 bunts I had an issue with was Hecks which I think was the sacrifice...

The first 2 were clearly a drag followed by a push...loved both of those...

Sometimes in baseball it just takes one breakthrough to tear down the mental hurdle that was holding you back. I'm hopeful that I saw that on Sunday in Lexington at the plate.

Still serious work needed on the hill. Rumor is that Fitts didn't even travel to Lexington...Not good...


PowerPoint that....

[thunderclap]

Baseball season is dead to me. It is now spring football and basketball recruiting seasons. I'll drink some beer in the lounge but this team is done.

[engie]

Baseball season is dead to me. It is now spring football and basketball recruiting seasons. I'll drink some beer in the lounge but this team is done.

Hilarious. "Done". This team is just getting started...

You were "done" when we started 3-6 in conference in 2012 and 2013 as well right?

[WPDawg]

Not much of a baseball fan then. Its all about getting better every game. More games, more pitches, more experience. Why are so many so quick to write off what is happening on the field? No way some of you have any connection to the game thru playing or coaching or you would not be so quick to pull the trigger on a season. This isnt PS3 where you "start over" every time you get behind by a few runs.

[tcdog70]

I like the fact that Collins knocked the snot out of the Ball and HUMP looks like who we thought he was. if Collins, Brown, and Hump can hit with Heck and The Maple Hammer on base then we will be worth watching. I wish our 3td and 2nd basemen could hit a little. Rea's on base % is damn good. i think Lassiter should be our long reliever .

[thunderclap]

Hilarious. "Done". This team is just getting started...

You were "done" when we started 3-6 in conference in 2012 and 2013 as well right?

Nah. I drove to Omaha. I figure if I pronounce us dead then the odds of our players growing and getting better triples.

[thunderclap]

Not much of a baseball fan then. Its all about getting better every game. More games, more pitches, more experience. Why are so many so quick to write off what is happening on the field? No way some of you have any connection to the game thru playing or coaching or you would not be so quick to pull the trigger on a season. This isnt PS3 where you "start over" every time you get behind by a few runs.

I played baseball for 17 years.