Geatreau

[preachermatt83]

Guys, seriously what he has done with our hitters throughout the season has been incredible. We were awful at the plate early on but just got better and better. I don't won't to sound like sour grapes but I think cann was handling our hitting and that's why it was so awful early on and as Geatreau has taken over the hitting it's gotten better and better and right now it's finally all catching on. The guy is amazing.

[BB30]

He’s been good no doubt. I think a lot of it is our freshman are finally getting comfortable and figuring it out. It’s a big transition going from seeing a good arm here and there to seeing one every single game on the weekends. They are very talented and just needed time to get caught up.

[maroonmania]

Yes, and keep in mind, our pitching overall has gotten worse overall which is the area that Gary Henderson is in charge of. Of course Pilkington's late season slide is a big part of that. But anyway, if we were even going to think about giving Hendo this job I would feel much better about it had the pitching performed better down the stretch.

[msstate7]

Gautreau has been outstanding. He certainly needs to be retained by the new coach. I think the whole staff deserves a shot out too. When this team was 14-15 (2-7), it would've been real easy to pack it in with 2 really convenient excuses built in with losing HC and playing a ton of freshmen. This staff didn't let that happen... says a lot about the character of this team (coaches and players)

[msstate7]

Yes, and keep in mind, our pitching overall has gotten worse overall which is the area that Gary Henderson is in charge of. Of course Pilkington's late season slide is a big part of that. But anyway, if we were even going to think about giving Hendo this job I would feel much better about it had the pitching performed better down the stretch.

When considering our pitching, I think it's important to note we lead the sec in errors, lead the sec in wild pitches (a lot of this is on our catchers imo), and 3rd in sec in passed balls. With that said, I do want more of an emphasis on velocity by our pitching coach. We are 3rd in the sec in striking out the opponent though, so maybe I've overstating this.

There are a few areas I want to see our offense improve in. We are dead last in the sec in obp, walks, and SBs. I want to make pitchers work more vs us and put more pressure on the defense by running

[Commercecomet24]

Jake says it takes true freshman hitters fall ball and 60 at bats in the season to catch up with the pitching. Man knows what he's doing!

[preachermatt83]

Jake says it takes true freshman hitters fall ball and 60 at bats in the season to catch up with the pitching. Man knows what he's doing!

Yessir he does.

[MaroonFlounder]

Back in February and March, Mangum was the only hitter .300 or better. Now we have like 6 guys batting .300 or better...or maybe just under. 3 or 4 of those now at .300 are Freshmen, who hit for extra bases.

Gautreau needs to be a Bulldog for the foreseeable future, in whatever capacity is necessary.

[Pit Bull]

If Jake doesn't make it as a MLB pro, he will make a fine coach one day.

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

Just to go against the grain, because I don't know:
Are we giving Gautreau too much credit for the natural progression of talented freshmen hitters getting adjusted to D1 pitching? The only upperclassmen who's improved over this season is MacNamee, and he basically had the exact same type of season last year, though 100x less clutch. Ice cold for the first half of the year, red hot for the second half.

[Pit Bull]

Totally agree.....Hendy and Gautreau have both done a fantastic job holding this team together and jelling them at the right time.

[BB30]

Just to go against the grain, because I don't know:
Are we giving Gautreau too much credit for the natural progression of talented freshmen hitters getting adjusted to D1 pitching? The only upperclassmen who's improved over this season is MacNamee, and he basically had the exact same type of season last year, though 100x less clutch. Ice cold for the first half of the year, red hot for the second half.


I would say yes a bit. He’s done a great job and coaching does make a bit of a difference but a good hitter is going to be a good hitter regardless. I think we have some young kids with great upside and they are starting to put it together at the right time.

As for our pitching staff we need some guys that are going to pound the strike zone and work deeper into ballgames. I don’t care if they throw 95 or 87. There are plenty of guys out there that can get outs with a 3-4 pitch mix throwing 87-89. It doesn’t matter how hard you throw if you are consistently getting into disadvantage counts and throwing 20-25 pitches an inning.

I’d take a guy who sits 87-90 and throws 3 pitches for strikes over a guy that struggles with command and throws 93-94 every day of the week in college baseball. If you can sign a mix of high floor solid college arms and a few real upside guys I think that is the recipe for a solid staff.

[dawgs]

There are a few areas I want to see our offense improve in. We are dead last in the sec in obp, walks, and SBs. I want to make pitchers work more vs us and put more pressure on the defense by running

I get what you are saying. Personally, I'm fine without the SBs so long as we are taking extra bases on hits and passed balls/wild pitches, and keeping pressure on the defense that way. OBP and BBs would be nice, but sometimes wth young guys, if you get in their head too much about working counts, it actually becomes counter productive and they are laying off pitches they should be driving. We can start working on working counts moving forward, but if these guys needed to stop working counts in order to focus on driving the Ball first, I'm fine with it.