How the f@&k do you leave Fitts in when he can barely throw it?

[Tbonewannabe]

Everybody who has ever watched baseball knew he was done before that BP pitch. Dumb shit. We are going to lose this game to push it to 11 losses in 12 games.

[cbrunt29]

A win tonight would have been oh so huge. I honestly think we'll lay down and die from here on out.

[Tbonewannabe]

I will say after UM breaking it off in them, I am happy that fought so hard. I don't think they will have anything left this weekend though. Cohen needs to look really hard at everything because something went really wrong with this team. It isn't just the new baseball.

[Bothrops]

Other teams seem different when they stand in the batter's box. We lack the warrior gene or something.

[cbrunt29]

Other teams seem different when they stand in the batter's box. We lack the warrior gene or something.

We lack nuts

[BulldogBear]

We lack nuts

We have plenty of them. What we lack is balls!**

[basedog]

What in the world could Cohen and Thompson been thinking last night? Fitts pitched his heart out, but when he threw his 65th pitch you could tell it was matter of time for Lsu to finally take advantage. Oh we had our chances to win the game before Fitts ran out of gas.

Finishing last in the Sec just doesn't make since with a 7th year Coach. Rebuilding will be tough.

[Dawgface]

But hey.....Cohen will bounce back next year to have his best year ever!***

[tcdog70]

If we get anything out of Collins-Holland or Rooker we win the game. How many times did they choke and look pitiful doing it.

[maroonmania]

A win tonight would have been oh so huge. I honestly think we'll lay down and die from here on out.

Would have been huge if your goal is to MAKE the SEC tournament. Believe me, if we had a team worth a flip this year that game last night would have killed me to think about the way we lost it. Given the season is down the drain, not so much. I am glad the guys came out with some fire though last night, much better than them just mailing it in the last 3 weeks.

[Really Clark?]

If we get anything out of Collins-Holland or Rooker we win the game. How many times did they choke and look pitiful doing it.

I agree with what you are saying. And I'm not picking on you about this, but at least we were giving them the chance to do it last night. As much complaining as the board does about Cohen micro-managing the game too much and not being aggressive, we have a disagreement on swinging at a strike on a 2-0 count. Why are the arm chair coaches wanting to be aggressive except when it was perfect time to be aggressive? People call Cohen a meddler and too conservative (I actually agree with that at times) but here we are struggling for a while now, playing a good team very tough, actually swinging the bat more, and now you want to take on 2-0? Really? Talk about split personalities. In that moment (and in 90% of game strategies) I want my player trying to win the game not the opposing pitcher or ump. You can't control them. But given our season and the situation and wanting my players to be aggressive, win or lose you DO NOT take a 2-0 pitch if it is a pitch you think you can drive. I want to win the game but I have a better chance knocking in the winning run then waiting on a walk (which has been beaten to death on the board about not being aggressive). At 3-0 I take. At 2-0 I let a borderline pitch go but if I like it you have to swing. Especially at this point in the season when we have very little to play for and really need a spark. I'm playing to not just win the game but also give my team some life.

[RocketCityDawg]

I agree with what you are saying. And I'm not picking on you about this, but at least we were giving them the chance to do it last night. As much complaining as the board does about Cohen micro-managing the game too much and not being aggressive, we have a disagreement on swinging at a strike on a 2-0 count. Why are the arm chair coaches wanting to be aggressive except when it was perfect time to be aggressive? People call Cohen a meddler and too conservative (I actually agree with that at times) but here we are struggling for a while now, playing a good team very tough, actually swinging the bat more, and now you want to take on 2-0? Really? Talk about split personalities. In that moment (and in 90% of game strategies) I want my player trying to win the game not the opposing pitcher or ump. You can't control them. But given our season and the situation and wanting my players to be aggressive, win or lose you DO NOT take a 2-0 pitch if it is a pitch you think you can drive. I want to win the game but I have a better chance knocking in the winning run then waiting on a walk (which has been beaten to death on the board about not being aggressive). At 3-0 I take. At 2-0 I let a borderline pitch go but if I like it you have to swing. Especially at this point in the season when we have very little to play for and really need a spark. I'm playing to not just win the game but also give my team some life.

If he would have taken the fastball down the middle, the same morons would have been complaining that Cohen won't let our guys be aggressive.

[RocketCityDawg]

But hey.....Cohen will bounce back next year to have his best year ever!***

The sad thing is that if we did have our best season ever next year, there will be many, many people on this board that will be pissed off about it.
I can hear it now. "Well we won despite Cohen. He didn't win, the players did."

Hell, I guess Cohen told Spruill to fall down and not get back to the bag.

[War Machine Dawg]

I agree with what you are saying. And I'm not picking on you about this, but at least we were giving them the chance to do it last night. As much complaining as the board does about Cohen micro-managing the game too much and not being aggressive, we have a disagreement on swinging at a strike on a 2-0 count. Why are the arm chair coaches wanting to be aggressive except when it was perfect time to be aggressive? People call Cohen a meddler and too conservative (I actually agree with that at times) but here we are struggling for a while now, playing a good team very tough, actually swinging the bat more, and now you want to take on 2-0? Really? Talk about split personalities. In that moment (and in 90% of game strategies) I want my player trying to win the game not the opposing pitcher or ump. You can't control them. But given our season and the situation and wanting my players to be aggressive, win or lose you DO NOT take a 2-0 pitch if it is a pitch you think you can drive. I want to win the game but I have a better chance knocking in the winning run then waiting on a walk (which has been beaten to death on the board about not being aggressive). At 3-0 I take. At 2-0 I let a borderline pitch go but if I like it you have to swing. Especially at this point in the season when we have very little to play for and really need a spark. I'm playing to not just win the game but also give my team some life.

Gotta agree. Cohen did a lot of stupid shit last night, but turning guys loose to swing on 2-0 isn't one of them.

[RocketCityDawg]

Gotta agree. Cohen did a lot of stupid shit last night, but turning guys loose to swing on 2-0 isn't one of them.

What did he do that was stupid?

[War Machine Dawg]

What did he do that was stupid?

Why don't we start with the most obvious: Leaving in Fitts an inning too long when he was obviously out of gas. We probably weren't going to score again anyway, but it was obvious to everyone but Cohen that Fitts was done after the 12th. Why leave him in to take the loss after he'd given you everything he has?

[RocketCityDawg]

Why don't we start with the most obvious: Leaving in Fitts an inning too long when he was obviously out of gas. We probably weren't going to score again anyway, but it was obvious to everyone but Cohen that Fitts was done after the 12th. Why leave him in to take the loss after he'd given you everything he has?

I see your point on that one. I think it was a decision that he and Butch didn't trust anybody else. They tried to let the senior man up and gut it out. I don't have a problem with that.
What else was stupid? You said he did a lot of stupid shit. I'm just curious because I don't think he did. I can see where you think leaving Fitts in was a bad decision, but I can't think of anything else that could possibly be called stupid.

[Pollodawg]

I see your point on that one. I think it was a decision that he and Butch didn't trust anybody else. They tried to let the senior man up and gut it out. I don't have a problem with that.
What else was stupid? You said he did a lot of stupid shit. I'm just curious because I don't think he did. I can see where you think leaving Fitts in was a bad decision, but I can't think of anything else that could possibly be called stupid.

Leaving Fitts in well after he was kaput wasn't enough? I'm not a Cohen basher at all, but I am not a baseball guru by any means, and I could see on my TV that Fitts was done, and if I could see it, I know the staff and everyone else could see it. Stringing him out like that did nothing but lose him for us the rest of series. Fitts didn't deserve that.

[Tbonewannabe]

I see your point on that one. I think it was a decision that he and Butch didn't trust anybody else. They tried to let the senior man up and gut it out. I don't have a problem with that.
What else was stupid? You said he did a lot of stupid shit. I'm just curious because I don't think he did. I can see where you think leaving Fitts in was a bad decision, but I can't think of anything else that could possibly be called stupid.

I agree that was the only questionable decision that I saw but it was HUGE mistake. Fitts had just thrown 2 wild pitches that Collins had no chance at even blocking up and he was obviously gassed. When Cohen walked out to talk to him I thought he might be giving time for a pitcher to finish up. I figured when he left him in, it was to walk the guy.

[maroonmania]

Gotta agree. Cohen did a lot of stupid shit last night, but turning guys loose to swing on 2-0 isn't one of them.

Well, I will disagree, at least in the situation like we had in the 9th last night where bases are loaded, the pitcher just walked the previous batter and now has a 2-0 count on the current batter. The smart thing to do there is to take the first strike. I believe even the announcers were somewhat surprised that we had Holland (a .250 hitter) swinging away in that situation. Now with a runner on 2nd with 2 outs I would be looking to get a hit if a ball is laid in there at 2-0. Even if you get a walk there the next batter is likely going to need to get a hit and may not end up with such a favorable count.