Baseball is a simple game and we lost for simple reasons

I was hoping he could give 4 - 4+ solid innings last night, but that blow-up in the second dashed that thought. He appears to be rattled too easily on the mound if he throws a wild one or gives up a hit. He probably should have been our regular mid-week starter this year to give him more experience but our starting pitching depth indicated otherwise.

 

I thought similar yesterday. 1st pitch strikes, and control in general was a killer. 2nd for me was the ability to foul off pitches. LSU did a great job of battling at the plate whereas we whiffed too many pitches.

 

Minor detail but what was up with having no backup catcher to warm up our pitchers a few times. Sully reamed out one of them after it happened. Coach Rivera even tried but forgot to have mask.

 

All is all LSU was a little better team than us. I am disappointed but NO. 2 in the country is still an accomplishment. Our first two starter are very good but LSU are just a little better.

 

Just going off ERA, I’m not sure if they are better, or just peaked at the right time.

 

Sully can put together Omaha squads. He gets there over 50% of the time and when he gets there we stand a 38% chance of making the championship round.

Do that enough, good things will happen.

Sully will win the CWS again.

 

I agree. Remember that the best pitcher in college baseball (and likely #1 pick in draft) did not pitch against us. The way the Gators looked against Ty Floyd in game 1, I shudder to think what Skenes would have done.
If you'll recall: we won in 2017 with elite pitching: Faedo, Singer, Kowar, Byrne (19 saves) and Dyson brilliant in post-season. Team ERA 3.45.
We hit only 53 HRs all season and batted .259 as a team- its all about pitching in crunch time. Stating the obvious, this year we simply did not have the quality arms to get it done-- although we came damn close.
Proud of these guys and will miss those that are leaving. It's not every year that you can assemble a quality team like this one and if we had one or two more realible pitchers we could have won a Natty. Go Gators!

 

Do you just think Floyd and Hurd are better than Sproat and Waldrep? Or did they just shine brighter this week?

 

No, but Floyd/Hurd performed better in crunch time and Gators pitchers did not even with ample rest. One would expect your top guys to at least go into the sixth inning- not doing it seriously taxes the Pen.

Skenes is in a different category altogether. The best college pitcher in many years.

 

Faedo, Singer, Kowar, Dyson & Byrne were absolute studs in the CWS in 2017. The bullpen wasn't needed much when those 4 pitched. Dyson had problems at times, but the other 3 almost always went deep into games and Byrne was a lockdown closer. To me they were better than this year's group.

 

Throw more strikes.

 

All three of our starting pitchers struggled with control. Yeah the strike zone was all over the place but these three have been a staple all season. Picked a really bad time for all of them to have control issues.

 

Maybe just maybe Jac isn't a pitcher at the college level or beyond.
Recall Kris Armstrong arrived as a pitcher too.
Personally, I think Lumber Jac should focus all his attention on first base and hitting going forward. Just my humble opinion. I'm excited about next season but won't be wishing the year away as I'm in life's 4th quarter already. I'm going to enjoy the lake (with the family) this summer, RV'ing in Fall, and some home renovations in the winter. Enjoy the summer, my friends.

 

We actually started multiple freshmen and sophomores at the CWS where LSU was mostly upperclassmen. The future looks very bright!

 

He is only a little over a year post Tommy John surgery and just a sophomore. I wouldn’t write him off quite yet.

 

At the MLB level they play 162 games just to get to the playoffs. And then it is a crap shoot.

The game has too much randomness to decide who is the best team. I know that some people believe that the 1969 Mets were a better team than the Orioles that year and they are entitled to that opinion.

UF and LSU were pretty evenly matched and it went the other way. That's baseball.It aint like football.

 

Proud of our Gators.
The area that I think needs improvement for us to be even better is pitching. Yes, Waldrep and Sproat are MLB type talents and I’m excited about some of the young guys. But, nothing makes the wheels come off the wagon like an inning where the pitchers can’t find the strike zone. More often than not, the fielding gets sloppy at the same time. It may be that the position players lose their intensity when the pitcher is wild. It may be that I’m reading something into it that isn’t there. But give me a guy who is going to throw the ball over the plate over a guy that hits 100 on the speed gun. If you get a guy that does both, then that’s the guy you really want.
Cardinal great Max Lanier talked to my baseball team once and told them the most important thing a pitcher has to be able to do is that he has to know he can throw a strike when he has to. I believe him.

 

Enjoy life brother. Many of us have invested enormous time and energy following and cheering for this team and were rewarded with many exciting moments and achievements... we came up one game short but I'm very proud of these guys. Now, it's time to spend great time outdoors in beautuful places with the family. Enjoy! Fall practice is just around the corner... LOL

 

Agreed, but every single rule can be open to interpretation—or so it seems (unless the Gators are the challengers)….