Goal of baseball

Just thought I would put a reminder out there. I'm not gonna say that we can't criticize our coaching. But we have to remember this. Just like Jan's has had to do with basketball , our coaches are playing the long game. We absolutely have seen this with every great team we have had here in baseball. We have head-scratching series where it looks like we are gonna finish dead last. Lemonis showed in 2021 especially that he is about the long game. They are gonna put players on the field and on the MOUND to give them chances. He has to. He is going to tinker with lineups and it will cost us some games at times. The ultimate goal is to have this team ready to roll in the post-season. Yes the walks are concerning. But our bullpen might be as deep as I remember. We have three guys right now that can legitimately close and we didn't have one last year.

Baseball is a long season. It's more of ups and downs. I understand criticizing coaches such as Foxhall, but to fire after opening weekend is retarded. I also know pitching is maybe our weakness, let's hope some young guys step up.

Im gonna say what a few have said have no clue, but it's a message board.

Agree. That is why I haven't given up on KC Hunt for the season, and I don't think Chance and Larry are going to hit .500 for the season.

I reserve the right to be cautiously optimistic and concerned at the same time. Right now I'm EXTREMELY concerned with the continued trend of nibbling and not being able to throw strikes. It is the MO of our Pitching Coach and HAS to change regardless of the tinkering that may be done. I want to see significant improvement in this area REGARDLESS of the people being trotted out there to accomplish it. If not, my cautious optimism will disappear and my critical concern will be magnified and expressed.

That said, this is as excited I've been about our lineup from top to bottom in several years including the Championship year. We will score a LOT of runs this year. That is what is keeping me optimistic right now.

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Originally Posted by mparkerfd20

I reserve the right to be cautiously optimistic and concerned at the same time. Right now I'm EXTREMELY concerned with the continued trend of nibbling and not being able to throw strikes. It is the MO of our Pitching Coach and HAS to change regardless of the tinkering that may be done. I want to see significant improvement in this area REGARDLESS of the people being trotted out there to accomplish it. If not, my cautious optimism will disappear and my critical concern will be magnified and expressed.

That said, this is as excited I've been about our lineup from top to bottom in several years including the Championship year. We will score a LOT of runs this year. That is what is keeping me optimistic right now.

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The pitchers on Sunday made me feel better about the potential. They threw strikes.

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Originally Posted by Santiago

The pitchers on Sunday made me feel better about the potential. They threw strikes.

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Same here. Saturday was just a weird game. I'm hoping it was an anomaly.

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Originally Posted by mparkerfd20

I reserve the right to be cautiously optimistic and concerned at the same time. Right now I'm EXTREMELY concerned with the continued trend of nibbling and not being able to throw strikes. It is the MO of our Pitching Coach and HAS to change regardless of the tinkering that may be done. I want to see significant improvement in this area REGARDLESS of the people being trotted out there to accomplish it. If not, my cautious optimism will disappear and my critical concern will be magnified and expressed.

That said, this is as excited I've been about our lineup from top to bottom in several years including the Championship year. We will score a LOT of runs this year. That is what is keeping me optimistic right now.

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Nibbling wasn't the issue Saturday - it was guys not being close to the zone. And our pitchers have to get comfortable nibbling against these kind of teams because they are about to face the best hitters in the country every weekend matched with some of the worst umps.

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Originally Posted by Cowbell

Nibbling wasn't the issue Saturday - it was guys not being close to the zone. And our pitchers have to get comfortable nibbling against these kind of teams because they are about to face the best hitters in the country every weekend matched with some of the worst umps.

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Yeah nibbling wasn't directly the issue as they couldn't even get close enough to try to nibble. LOL Umpiring as a whole is really killing the enjoyment of the game from Little League all the way to the Majors now. We're beyond technically capable to all but remove them. Why in the hell won't they do it is beyond me.

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Originally Posted by mparkerfd20

Yeah nibbling wasn't directly the issue as they couldn't even get close enough to try to nibble. LOL Umpiring as a whole is really killing the enjoyment of the game from Little League all the way to the Majors now. We're beyond technically capable to all but remove them. Why in the hell won't they do it is beyond me.

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Yeah I honestly think that's been part of our issues at times. Umps zones being distorted and it gets in the heads of these young guys. But that is where good coaching should help them over time. I look forward to Hunt rebounding. I have full faith that he will.

KC's delivery looks so out of balance on each pitch

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Originally Posted by Santiago

KC's delivery looks so out of balance on each pitch

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Yeah he's got too much going on. A simplified delivery might help him

There wouldn't be so much panic and criticism if we didn't go through this same scenario last year. This year the concern is warranted and we have the right to be pissed off about not having a ligit starter. That should of been addressed in the portal or development. We all have to sit and wait to see how this season transpires, but fans are warranted to criticize throughout the process.

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Originally Posted by Kylesandi338

There wouldn't be so much panic and criticism if we didn't go through this same scenario last year. This year the concern is warranted and we have the right to be pissed off about not having a ligit starter. That should of been addressed in the portal or development. We all have to sit and wait to see how this season transpires, but fans are warranted to criticize throughout the process.

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Wouldn't there though? This literally happens every year, people proclaiming that we won't make a Regional because of some game we lost prior to SEC play.

Granted, the doomsayers happened to be right last year, but since I've documented it happening every year going back to 2011, sooner or later they were going to be.

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Originally Posted by Kylesandi338

There wouldn't be so much panic and criticism if we didn't go through this same scenario last year. This year the concern is warranted and we have the right to be pissed off about not having a ligit starter. That should of been addressed in the portal or development. We all have to sit and wait to see how this season transpires, but fans are warranted to criticize throughout the process.

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We will learn a lot about this team the next 2 weeks. I am going to temper my expectations until then. We most definitely have some talent on this squad mostly new or younger guys. Foreskin hitting is horrendous his defense isn't that great that his butt should not be riding the bench.

Surely they can teach our D1 pitchers that they have to throw strikes and can?t walk 15 batters in one game. And how hard can it be to not allow 13 stolen bases in one game?

Lane?s defense isn?t that good. Not to overcome his 1-13 hitting streak he is on. Dude is literally an out every time he comes to the plate.

The issue is this:

We don't have spring training in college baseball where you can put KC Hunt and Parker Stinnett out there in semi competitive situations against live opponents and let them get blown apart. Every game counts so when we lose games to people like VMI it bites us in the ass down the road as far as hosting and seeding. That's going to be a bigger issue this year since we don't have an ace because most Friday's are going to be L's for this team once SEC play starts. We can absorb a "bad loss" a lot better when we have Ethan Small or Will Bednar that can offset a bad loss or two during the regular season.

So there has to be a balance to it between letting guys develop and see what they can do and winning.

We should not have thrown Hunt and Stinnett together in the same game in hindsight. That was really bad planning.

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Originally Posted by archdog

Lane?s defense isn?t that good. Not to overcome his 1-13 hitting streak he is on. Dude is literally an out every time he comes to the plate.

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If he's not fielding it's hard to justify keeping him in the lineup when Mershon gets healthy.

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Originally Posted by Quaoarsking

Wouldn't there though? This literally happens every year, people proclaiming that we won't make a Regional because of some game we lost prior to SEC play.

Granted, the doomsayers happened to be right last year, but since I've documented it happening every year going back to 2011, sooner or later they were going to be.

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And that really only happened because of an unforeseen amount of pitching injuries. Otherwise we would have been fine even with half of the injuries we suffered.

If we make a regional that would be a success with this team. I’m not sure that is doable this year, but it really should be the main goal. Foxhall does need to be on the hot seat though if things do not improve