I just looked at our schedule and saw we are 1-11 in SEC play. What are the weaknesses in this Gator ball team?
These are the batting averages from the 12 in conference games played so far..... 28 Heyman, Luke .386 10 Shelton, Colby .333 6 Boser, Bobby .280 16 Yost, Hayden .250 11 Lawson, Brendan .243 29 Donay, Brody .219 5 Cyr, Blake .216 2 Evans, Ty .182 30 Wilson, Ashton .167 13 Stripling, Landon .152 1 Nadeau, Justin .132 You can point at other batting stats if you want but they don't get much better. And here are the team numbers for and against... Totals .244 Opponents .311
These are the pitching ERAs from the 12 in conference games played so far..... 9 McNeillie, Luke 4.38 47 King, Aidan 5.40 12 Peterson, Liam 7.90 20 Clemente, Jake 9.00 99 Montsdeoca, Carson 9.00 34 Philpott, Alex 9.53 23 Barlow, Billy 10.64 22 Barberi, Jackson 13.50 44 Ong, Felix 13.50 33 Biemiller, McCall 15.75 21 McDonald, Caden 18.00 8 Rodriguez, Christian 21.00 17 Gomberg, Jacob 40.50 26 Janssens, Niko 54.00 37 Jenkins, Matthew 99.00 Then ask yourself if you were coach, how would build a pitching rotation with these kind of numbers??? And here are the team numbers for and against... Totals 9.63 Opponents 4.03
Yep, I would say pitching is by far the biggest issue. Even when guys have one or two good innings, they seem to follow it with a crooked number melt down inning. Clearly, player evaluation in this area needs help. The surprising part is that Sully has a great history evaluating pitchers.
In my experience, outfielders tend (not always of course) to be your better hitters. Not so much recently.
Biggest problem is our starting rotation has fallen apart due to injuries. We have other problems as well. You might say it is going to be a long season but the reality is that most likely it will be a short season. Can't expect a miracle turnaround like last year this year.
You can get away with a weak hitting centerfielder with amazing speed that catches everything, has a great arm, and know where to throw the ball. Defense is built up the middle. Of course you would rather have a Ken Griffey, Jr that could do all of that and be a GREAT hitter.
Totally agree, but in that scenario at least one if not both of your other outfielders are typically bashers. Seems to me we are missing on both scenarios.
Injuries pretty much suck and affect both the position(s) involved as well as the overall team performance. As @GatorLurker said our rotation’s ability to pull the wagon has been greatly diminished because of injuries. The inability to throw strike one and then continue to pitch entire AB’s in pitcher’s counts has greatly affected our pitchers efficiency. It’s understandable and somewhat expected that our freshman arms have to survive the “growing up” process of pitching at the D-1/SEC level. IMHO the tough times for the young pitchers just seem to continue myered with the same over and over struggles. Seasoned or young arms are all seeming to be repetitive in making the same mechanical errors as issues appearance to appearance. Again, just my opinion, but these are the things that should be ironed out every tune up bullpen between outings. As far as our hitting goes—at the start of the season I was actually impressed with our guys approaches. We were hitting the ball well where it was pitched on both sides of the plate with very positive results. Strike outs were down and base on balls were up. But since the start of the conference schedule, not so much. We have settled back into that dead pull and launch angle swing that produces more lazy fly balls and strike outs than you’d like to see. Early on the opposition would put the shift on, and then pitch us away and our guys seemed fine to hit it where it’s pitched and beat the shift. Now, not so much. I’m not going to comment on base running errors because when I was a player if someone made an error running the bases believe it or not the whole team paid for that mistake the next day at practice. It was not forgotten.
And that is in the @wingtee wheelhouse for complaining. And it reminded me of the "jelly donut" scene in Full Metal Jacket. Can't post it here because it is not safe for children.
Are there high school kids that don't light up the radar gun that can pitch at the SEC level? They would be coming in knowing how to pitch and not just throw.
Just my opinion but you’re talking about polished (for HS level) left handers. The phrase used to be “Crafty lefty’s”—I don’t know the current lingo.
Thanks for the SEC stats 87—they’re pretty grim, especially the pitching and explains a great deal about the 1-11 start. You're not gonna win too many games vs SEC teams with 9.66 ERA and batting .244 vs opponents .311. Injuries without question are factors-- in the field: losing Kyle Jones and Kurland major but who would have expected Evans to regress so dramatically- he seems completely lost. I'd expected a breakout year and he's a liability at the plate and at times in the field. His regression is inexplicable. Plus, a number of the portal guys are simply not SEC caliber players. We won't mention how Donay started great guns against lesser teams and has disappeared vs SEC. On the bright side: Lawson is a solid ballplayer and he will be a major contributor in coming years as our SS. The pitching took a hit with the loss of Coppola and our top LHP out of the Pen Menendez but that does not account for the regression of Clemente and Peterson and lack of development by most of the newbies and Barlow simply is not SEC caliber. Aiden King has been the bright spot but he's been thrust into the Friday or Saturday SP role a little too early due to the injuries. Another factor as I see it is that the team does not have genuine team leaders that one needs when things go off the rails -- a BT Riopelle or Mike Rivera type. We can debate whether talent assessment and development is an issue-- I think it is. The coaching staff needs a hard look – is the current staff doing the job one would expect from a Gators program? On pitching injuries: Sully had a reputation of taking care of young arms but since he gave up the PC duties we’ve had a rash of major arm issues (’23 being the exception). College athletics has changed dramatically in the Portal and NIL era and the Sully formula of recruit top guys and develop is not consistent with the new realities of the game. Waldrep and Riopelle were huge Portal gets but since then not so good.
77— Great post and points made throughout your post, but I do have one question. When did Sully give up pitching duties if I’m understanding you correctly? In hiring Kopp he has not relinquished any say so over pitchers. He surely handles all the in-game decisions. To me it looks like perhaps Kopp monitors the pitchers bullpens (really makes sure that they get “X” number of pitches in), but they all continue bogged down with the same errors in approach or plan without any adjustments or improvements coming from their bullpen tune ups. I’m re-reading your post as I write this one and I’m understanding you to say Sully’s given up in-game pitch calling duties. I guess I see him on that walkie-talkie so much I was unaware of that. Thanks for that bit of information. There’s a lot of in-season adjustments/improvements both mechanically and mental game planning that appears we do not have in play. It’s frustrating to see the same mechanical mistakes repeated outing after outing.
