Kind of a hollow feeling walking about of the park today. You don't want to over-react.... there are 9 series and 27 league games left. But, you also have to acknowledge that we'll see better teams this year than Kentucky. And it's not like we came up a little short the last two days.... We were outscored 25-10... And even as hopeful as the 4th inning today felt, the reality was that we still failed to re-capture the lead and it just didn't feel very realistic that we'd shut them out the rest of the way. Instead, Kentucky held us to 5 scoreless innings after our big rally.
This was the most poorly pitched three game set that we've had, probably since the last time Kentucky was here. 27 runs on the weekend and 20 walks. Other than Bo Tucker on Friday night, they hit everyone that we threw out (though Moody did a pretty good job Friday night too). We are a better staff than that... I know we are. But man, was it bad.... I'm not going to say dropping the series was a huge surprise, but pitching the way we did sure was.
I didn't like bringing in Drew Moody in today either. It was a 10-6 game when he came on.... I know you're just trying to keep them where they are, but still, this guy threw 3 innings on Friday night. One run game I can see it. 4 run game? Either let Bo Tucker finish it or go to Adam Goodman. It just seemed like a decision motivated more by making the game appear a bit closer than it was than anything else.
You know, we really did a good job with JaVon Shelby the last two days.... You knew coming into the weekend that the guy was a good hitter. We can debate about whether we should have pitched around him more, especially later in the game, but you also have to tip your cap to him.... That was just a hell of a good day that he had... He put up a stat line in one day that most people would proud of for an entire weekend. Still, without Shelby's contributions and holding everything else the same, they beat us 7-6. Think about that. Here's a guy who homers twice, hits a triple, and has 7 RBIs and that, by itself, STILL wasn't the difference. That's what's concerning to me. Friday night I honestly felt that we were a bit lucky to win given how many base runners we allowed. Then we get mashed two times after that.
In case you're counting at home, we've now lost 7 consecutive home conference series. We are 4-16 in those games (two game set with LSU as we had a rainout last year). I was thinking about that driving back to Atlanta and wondering about the last time it was that bad. Perno lost six in a row between 2009-2010, but ended that losing streak in the final series of 2010 by taking two in the last series of the year (against Kentucky). I decided to look it up and went all the way back to 1990 and still couldn't find 7 straight home SEC series losses. We fired three head coaches (Weber, Sapp, and Perno) in that span and by that one mark of futility, it never got THIS bad. This was the 21st SEC series that Scott Stricklin has coached in Athens. We've lost 15 of those series. He's now 18 games under .500 in his short SEC career.
Next weekend we go to Starkville to play a Miss State team that probably had the most impressive consecutive weekends in the entire country. It seems that we're going to start true freshman Kevin Smith on Thursday night in the series opener out there. Apparently they want to keep Robert Tyler on six days rest instead of five (they'll sure protect some guy's arms more than others - I don't mean that as a dig toward Tyler at all, but I wish we'd handle the rest of our staff that way)... It's a mighty tall task to ask a freshman who rarely throws above 90 to take the baseball in front of 10,000 people against the hottest team in the country in the series opener. I mean, you want to have faith your player and Smith has a very bright future, but good grief.... I watched Perno do this with Mitchell Boggs in 2005.... Boggs isn't in the weekend rotation until we get to league play, then he's going on Friday night, and it didn't do us or him any good. And three years after that I'm watching Mitchell Boggs pitch for the Cardinals in Shea Stadium up in Queens, which demonstrates that he had the talent all along, just not the seasoning at that point his junior year. It very rarely works when you jump a guy to that degree. Is this what is best for the team or what is best for Kevin Smith?
I'll end with this. We just aren't talented enough this year to keep the ship above water if we disengage, at all. If we go out every game and play balls to the wall, and fight, really fight, every day, every inning, every at bat, we have enough pieces to get to 13-15 wins in this league. I'm positive of that. But we don't have a chance if we don't battle. Our 2011 team played like their hair was on fire the entire conference season. That team, who had some holes on it, fought their tails off all year and when the dust settled, we were 16-14 and playing in June. If that team had ever taken their foot of the proverbial gas pedal, we don't play in the post season. And, we lost our first series that year (albeit to the defending and eventual national champions, on the road). When I hear the head coach saying that we "didn't compete" it's not that I disagree with him, but whose fault is that ultimately? Were the players that we had in 2011 wired that much better than these guys? I doubt it... John Krakauer, in his book Into the Wild wrote about climbing and getting stuck on a very difficult mountain in his early 20s, almost costing him his life. He wrote about how men at that age seek those types of challenges and noted that the nations of the world have never had a problem fielding an army to fight a war, with young men. And he's right. Men of that age (generally speaking) naturally want to fight, compete. Literally, it has to be the easiest collective to motivate.... And when we go out there and play like that today, in a rubber game of a conference series, at home, on national television.... I'm not arguing that we didn't compete very well today, but if you can't motivate these guys, if you can't make them fight for you, if you can't inspire the men in our dugout to compete, what's the point of any of it? Your practice schedules, batting practices, scouting reports, notebook, and defensive rotations aren't worth a Chinese nickel if you can't make these guys fight for you. That's not a high bar to clear; it's a lot like selling beer next to a frat house.... just showing up ought to be 95% of it.
Let's see how we respond. There are 9 weeks left in this season. Hopefully we make that fact a positive.
This was the most poorly pitched three game set that we've had, probably since the last time Kentucky was here. 27 runs on the weekend and 20 walks. Other than Bo Tucker on Friday night, they hit everyone that we threw out (though Moody did a pretty good job Friday night too). We are a better staff than that... I know we are. But man, was it bad.... I'm not going to say dropping the series was a huge surprise, but pitching the way we did sure was.
I didn't like bringing in Drew Moody in today either. It was a 10-6 game when he came on.... I know you're just trying to keep them where they are, but still, this guy threw 3 innings on Friday night. One run game I can see it. 4 run game? Either let Bo Tucker finish it or go to Adam Goodman. It just seemed like a decision motivated more by making the game appear a bit closer than it was than anything else.
You know, we really did a good job with JaVon Shelby the last two days.... You knew coming into the weekend that the guy was a good hitter. We can debate about whether we should have pitched around him more, especially later in the game, but you also have to tip your cap to him.... That was just a hell of a good day that he had... He put up a stat line in one day that most people would proud of for an entire weekend. Still, without Shelby's contributions and holding everything else the same, they beat us 7-6. Think about that. Here's a guy who homers twice, hits a triple, and has 7 RBIs and that, by itself, STILL wasn't the difference. That's what's concerning to me. Friday night I honestly felt that we were a bit lucky to win given how many base runners we allowed. Then we get mashed two times after that.
In case you're counting at home, we've now lost 7 consecutive home conference series. We are 4-16 in those games (two game set with LSU as we had a rainout last year). I was thinking about that driving back to Atlanta and wondering about the last time it was that bad. Perno lost six in a row between 2009-2010, but ended that losing streak in the final series of 2010 by taking two in the last series of the year (against Kentucky). I decided to look it up and went all the way back to 1990 and still couldn't find 7 straight home SEC series losses. We fired three head coaches (Weber, Sapp, and Perno) in that span and by that one mark of futility, it never got THIS bad. This was the 21st SEC series that Scott Stricklin has coached in Athens. We've lost 15 of those series. He's now 18 games under .500 in his short SEC career.
Next weekend we go to Starkville to play a Miss State team that probably had the most impressive consecutive weekends in the entire country. It seems that we're going to start true freshman Kevin Smith on Thursday night in the series opener out there. Apparently they want to keep Robert Tyler on six days rest instead of five (they'll sure protect some guy's arms more than others - I don't mean that as a dig toward Tyler at all, but I wish we'd handle the rest of our staff that way)... It's a mighty tall task to ask a freshman who rarely throws above 90 to take the baseball in front of 10,000 people against the hottest team in the country in the series opener. I mean, you want to have faith your player and Smith has a very bright future, but good grief.... I watched Perno do this with Mitchell Boggs in 2005.... Boggs isn't in the weekend rotation until we get to league play, then he's going on Friday night, and it didn't do us or him any good. And three years after that I'm watching Mitchell Boggs pitch for the Cardinals in Shea Stadium up in Queens, which demonstrates that he had the talent all along, just not the seasoning at that point his junior year. It very rarely works when you jump a guy to that degree. Is this what is best for the team or what is best for Kevin Smith?
I'll end with this. We just aren't talented enough this year to keep the ship above water if we disengage, at all. If we go out every game and play balls to the wall, and fight, really fight, every day, every inning, every at bat, we have enough pieces to get to 13-15 wins in this league. I'm positive of that. But we don't have a chance if we don't battle. Our 2011 team played like their hair was on fire the entire conference season. That team, who had some holes on it, fought their tails off all year and when the dust settled, we were 16-14 and playing in June. If that team had ever taken their foot of the proverbial gas pedal, we don't play in the post season. And, we lost our first series that year (albeit to the defending and eventual national champions, on the road). When I hear the head coach saying that we "didn't compete" it's not that I disagree with him, but whose fault is that ultimately? Were the players that we had in 2011 wired that much better than these guys? I doubt it... John Krakauer, in his book Into the Wild wrote about climbing and getting stuck on a very difficult mountain in his early 20s, almost costing him his life. He wrote about how men at that age seek those types of challenges and noted that the nations of the world have never had a problem fielding an army to fight a war, with young men. And he's right. Men of that age (generally speaking) naturally want to fight, compete. Literally, it has to be the easiest collective to motivate.... And when we go out there and play like that today, in a rubber game of a conference series, at home, on national television.... I'm not arguing that we didn't compete very well today, but if you can't motivate these guys, if you can't make them fight for you, if you can't inspire the men in our dugout to compete, what's the point of any of it? Your practice schedules, batting practices, scouting reports, notebook, and defensive rotations aren't worth a Chinese nickel if you can't make these guys fight for you. That's not a high bar to clear; it's a lot like selling beer next to a frat house.... just showing up ought to be 95% of it.
Let's see how we respond. There are 9 weeks left in this season. Hopefully we make that fact a positive.
