Ongoing UF Softball Commentary

You mean Rocha right? since Bosch didn't come on board till 2019.

 

Yes Rocha....for that matter any college coach

 

I don't think anyone said Lexi is a malcontent. She seems to be a great person.
CTW may have told her that based on what he has seen, her current talent set doesn't fit with the program and he doesn't think she has "it" to develop further. While I hope CTW is wrong on that, it's not saying anything about our coaching. She may have reached her zenith given the rehab after her injury. I guess we'll see next season if she develops further under different coaching -- hope so!

 

Super, any thoughts on the analysis on Barnhill? or the comparison of the Sooners and our staff with regards to Rocha?

 

It is unfair to blame E and Ry for their pitching this year. When you have been 'rode hard and put up wet' as often as they were, some allowances need to be made.
Why, for example, do you start E in a meaningless midweek game? If one thinks that Liv and Sam have potential but need work before the SEC games, why not give them the work?
No, let's let Sam start against Auburn in a possible series sweep game.
It gets curious and couriouser.
Recruiting and pitcher development are the two constants in this season. And, as one parent told me, it all starts at the top.
If CTW can't make the hard decisions that must be made, we stay in our mediocrity.
CTW has a lot of gold built up in his storehouse in his years here, and I am in no way saying he needs to go, but he needs better people around him. He is trying to do it all alone, which is impossible.
He even calls the pitches in the game. That shouts loud.

 

Lot of speculation here which is understandable given the disappointing season. . In the new age of the transfer portal, transfers are expected I think especially for players that aren't starting.

As for Delbrey, her pitch velocity was significantly down after the injury. I'm not defending any coaches but that wouldn't seem to be a coaching issue.

 

The Bosch plan for her this year was to pitch at a lower velocity and pitch to contact.
Her velocity was intentionally slowed.
Last year she had velocity and was wild.
This year she was slow and wild and got hit hard.
You choose.

 

Speculation or fact?
Hard to believe there wouldn't have been an adjustment mid season if true by the coach and/or player.

 

Barnhill stats got worse from 17 to 18. Increase in Whip and Era. Era got worse from 18 to 19 but whip has relatively flat. So I could say she was trending worse from her pitcher of the year season any way. Plus I’m pretty sure Kelly either had a stress fracture or shin splints her senior year?

Her pitcher of the year season she gave up 5 hrs, that went into the 20’s the next year with Rocha and continued with Bosch.

That want bad coaching , that was teams adapting to her and what she threw. She was not able to add anough to her arsenal to offset that. I feel pretty sure both coaches and the player tried, but it’s pretty hard at that stage to add new pitches.

don’t think anyone thinks Bosch is the equivalent of Rocha, but also think a narrative of it all being his fault is not totally correct.

 

And by the way, not saying we can’t do better than Coach Bosch. He needs to contribute to better talent coming in, and find a way to reach the kids he has to get the needed results.

 

I have previously posted my thoughts on the subject. In a nutshell, I'm certainly not sold on Bosch at this point, but I'm also not close enough to the situation (I'm not sure anyone other than Walton is) to make a firm judgement that he is incompetent. My primary hesitation is the health status of our staff.....we know Delbrey had surgery and obviously there has been limited time to work with her. We know EH had major health issues last season, and my eyes tell me she was absolutely running on fumes this season as well. I'm not convinced Rocha or anyone could have gotten much more out of her.
So CTW is there and knows every aspect of the program.... the pitch calling, the training, the health issues that are beyond control, the players ability and work ethic, how the coach recruits and relates, etc. Everything that goes into being the pitching coach we need. We simply have to rely on his judgement in this regard, somethingI think he has earned.

 

I will just say this.

The baseball program had a similar issue about 3 years ago in terms of getting to a point where the head coach had to start making some different decisions.

The baseball program had chemistry issues as well as not a progression in terms of player development that you should see during the course of the season that would allow you to get further along in the NCAA tourney. It was stagnat meaning they got to a certain point but could not get beyond that point in terms of getting back to a national title contender type of squad. If you note that the baseball team has certainly got rid of certain assistants and then brought in new people over the last 2-3 years. The good baseball recruiting classes of course help but putting together a team representing a national title contender is a two way street. You need good assistant coaches who develop the talent to go along with the good recruiting classes.

When Rocha and Gajewski left it left voids in terms of the player development that you could actually see during the course of the softball season.

Rocha controlled the pitching and Gajewski controlled the hitting/fielding aspects.

I do not discount the hitting averages were techically higher this year but it was inconsistent particularly against the better teams.

The pitching was worse than last year. Against high grade opposition they just gave up too many runs period.

In generalized terms this what you saw - against teams that were ranked beyond 20 so to speak then the pitching and hitting held up. When you got to playing teams ranked within the top 20 - particularly within the top 10 - then you saw this yo yo thing going on. You may get a decent pitching performance but the hitting was not there. Or you got good hitting performance but the pitching blew up. Or you got both bad hitting and pitching performances which leads to huge blow out loses like you saw agains the really good teams ranked very high.

I fault none of the pitchers period. I particularly don't fault Lexie because she just went through arm surgery. Expecting her to come back immediately and then expecting immediate results is not fair comment period. It would not be fair to any baseball pitcher or any pitcher period. Any significant arm injury to any pitcher would in general take beyond one year to begin the concepts of getting back to where you are preinjury wise.

Any coach worth their salt will always evaluate what just happened after a season. Tim is not stupid. I have a very hard time believing he does not see this. And I get for us peon fans it is easy to be an arm chair quarterback and/or a back seat driver making these observational criticisms. No one likes to hear criticisms period particularly if you listening to us peon fans out here.

But I have certainly seen enough baseball/softball games to get that the elephant in the room which has been a constant obvervation from various UF fans is are you really getting the level of player development you need to get to a national championship level or not.

From what I have seen the last 5-6 years I don't think so.

You are bringing in high grade recruits the next few years. If you are not considering reevulating again your coaching assistants that would be a major mistake. In my opinion I think you certainly need to considered it because that is certainly what the baseball program recently did.

It happens - programs get stagnate - finding the right coaching assistant fits is not easy but when things are not working right you need to go address it. I don't think it would be that difficult to find different people considering your carrot in the room is the recruiting classes you are bringing in.

A coaching mental mistake - Don't assume just because you are bringing in high grade recuits that will automatically fix your issues on the coaching side of things. Again it is a two way street.

All I know is Rocha always had an ability to bring out something in a pitcher and it showed in the results in the field. And I say that in terms of you actually seeing it during the course of the season itself. Whatever you saw at the beginning of the season was not the same pitcher you saw at the end of the season.

Player development and improvements during the course of any season (baseball or softball) is always a must if you really want to get far in the NCAA tourney or not. Can you honestly say the current pitching coach has really done that. I don't think so. I am not saying he does not know what he is doing but what I am saying is for whatever reasons I don't see the development of the pitching staff like what you should be seeing.

Go address it - it can be done.

 

Does Bosch actually call the pitches like Rocha did?

That's one of the most underrated aspects of what she did for the team. Knowing the right pitch to call in exactly the right situation is huge. Maybe our pitchers just don't have a good grasp of what pitches to throw or maybe there just isn't a good connection between them and our catchers. A catcher can be a pitcher's best friend.

 

coach Walton calls the pitches.

EDIT: Some posters have said I was wrong about this. I retract it.

 

Except when he gets kicked out of the game.

 

Taryne Mowatt-McKinney Departs Arizona Coaching Staff - Extra Inning Softball
Caitlyn saw the pitching and decided to do what's best for the team and program. Hoping Tim follows this.

 

Not to continue to dwell on things we cant change but its strange Florida isn't playing at least 1 more weekend. I'm not used to being able to sit down and not pace, or not biting my nails during supers. This is the first time as a fan Florida didn't advance to supers.

 

Fact

 

They were friends and teammates on national championship teams at Arizona. Could not have been easy.