Softball Transfer Portal

Gator ERA last year was 3.69 which was 12th in the SEC a 165th nationally. Nothing to worry about here. Just go to Ireland and everything will take care of itself.

 

Sounds almost exactly like Longley.

 

If we get Vawter and Erickson to go with Korbe that changes the perspective on most everything. It is a huge "if" though. We would still need another pitcher but things would be far less desperate.

 

Except she is considerably more talented.

 

From reading on soonertimes it also seems like there are some legit unspoken reasons Erickson is leaving.
See this for your interpretation..

"I really do not know whether it is wise for me to weigh in totally on this issue or not. I will say this, though. Everything that has been suggested or mentioned her on this thread and other threads about Erickson is no where close to THE reason why she is in the portal. I cannot and will not say anything else but that about it. She will be transferring to some other school.

I will say that I understand her reasoning and decision. I think if any of you, well probably most of you understood her reasoning and decision, you would understand as well. You would probably agree that she is a mature young lady that took control of her situation and made a decisive decision.

She is a talented player and will likley have a very good college career. It is unfortunate that it has worked out as it has. As I believe most of you know from my posts, I believed she was going to start as a freshman because of her talent and the way she had played the last 18 months before she arrived at OU. Unfortunately for her, Erickson's great start did not really earn her any 'extra' at bats or starts. As that continued, her production fell off.

Here is food for thought:

- On March 4th, in the 2nd game against Kentucky (Game #17), Erickson had 4 at bats with 3 hits to raise her average to .583. with 5 doubles ad 5 HRs in 36 at bats. She led the Sooners in total bases with 41 and a Slug% of 1.108%.

- In the remaining 45 games left in the season, Erickson had 3 at bats only 6 times and 4 at bats 1 time in the remaining 45 games. I:n the other 38 games she had 2 or 1 or 0 at bats. That means in those 38 other games, Erickson had 46 at bats.

- By the end of the season, Erickson still had a better BA than Sanders and Nugent with only Torres having a better BA. Her Slug% was still second behind Nugent. Her OB% was tied with Torres for 3rd among the 4 players. She still led the 4 players in RBIs.

It is a fair question to ask, which caused what? Did the lack of at bats cause the lower production or did the lower production cause the lower at bats for Erickson. I think it is very difficult to determine the correct answer if there is A correct answer. In fact it might not be the right questions to ask at all.

As of that March 4th game against Kentucky, she had 38 PA in 17 games which equals 2.24 PA per game. (It was not like she was starting and playing the entire game of every game in the first 17 games. She was a part-time starter with 12 starts in the first 17 games.) In the remaining 45 games, she had 66 PA which equals 1.47 PA per game. She started 20 games of the remaining 45 games. She dropped from starting 70.5% of the games to 44.4% of the time in the last 45 games.

I will close with this thought. After that March 4th game, the 4 players vying for playing time at 2 positions, Erickson was hitting .568. Nugent was hitting .412, Sanders was hitting .250 while Torres was hitting .226. (This is per their individual stats page on the roster page. these numbers look slightly off to me compared to the stats after that weekend stats for 18 games.) From the end of that weekend on March 4th, Sanders had 84 at bats, Torres 83, Erickson had 67 and Nugent had 45.

In review of the numbers provided above, some things are difficult to understand. But with any small amount of understanding, the fact that Nugent will be playing in Tennessee and Erickson will be paying elsewhere, is perhaps not too hard to understand. I will admit that I do not like reaching that conclusion. But it is where I land at the end of the day.

I really do not want to say much more on the subject. Erickson will be playing elsewhere in 2024. I wish her luck and I wish her family the best.

Breath in and Breath out."

 

I don't think we would need another pitcher if we got vawter. And not saying Korbe would ever pitch for us but i don't know if any of you remember Rainey gaffin for UT but she could be like her just eat innings if needed.

 

But you and me not knowing what he is doing doesn't make him awol

 

Erickson situation sounds like the opposite of Longley. 2 catchers hit better, one is 3 times the defensive player, yet Longley plays and Emily sits. Sometimes coaches at all levels just love a certain player no matter what and play them over others that in most people's opinion makes zero sense. As I have told my friends, my Sr year in HS we had 11 D1 signers for 3 different sports but our coach led us to a 6-4 record because he loved the wrong QB. All the players knew it but he did not care. In conclusion, I take Erickson in a second unless she is a total d bag which I doubt she is.

 

Vawter would go a long way to stabilizing the pitching staff. Still believe we need another veteran pitcher to provide a mix of attacks. The second vet would also give us insurance in the event of injury and illness, as well as, giving us another look in more challenging games. Two vets to go with two rookies should be the bare minimum imho. That all being said I’ll rest a lot more comfortable if Vawter and Erickson become Gators!

 

Former Rutgers LHP Jaden Vickers is transferring to Kentucky. Vickers, a grad transfer, owns a career 4.39 ERA and 360 strikeouts in 378 innings of work. In 2023, her best statistical year, Vickers posted a 3.23 ERA, an 11-8 record, and a .241 opponent's batting average.

Former Ragin Cajuns UT Stormy Kotzelnick is transferring to UCF. Kotzelnick, an all-conference and all-region selection in 2022, owns a .323 career batting average with 16 home runs, 68 runs scored, 79 RBIs, and 35 stolen bases to her credit.

 

Absolutely. Two pitchers is a disaster waiting to happen. Three pitchers is an injury or overuse from happening. Four pitchers is the minimum that is livable.

 

Absolutely. I was suggesting that he may have been working behind the scenes all along. Perhaps better to say, this year felt different to me ever since he appeared to play favorites that did not make sense. Vibe felt weird. Then the comments that parents also felt something off. No one wants TW to have been handling things well, without OUR insights, more than I.

 

Getting just Vawter would be fine with me.

 

Do you know what I am thinking? Softball has people who read this site. Probably CTW is laughing at us crying about all this. Then he will announce a big splash, and we will see what idiots we were. At least I’m hoping that’s what he’s doing.

 

Scrappy - Hope you are spot on!

 

https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Softbal...unced-for-2023-WBSC-Womens-Softball-World-Cup

 

These games are most likely not watchable on TV, right? If they are, where?

 

There have been approximately 595 messages posted on the softball transfer portal message board since May 15th which is the day the portal opened. If we had grabbed four players including a couple of pitchers, I'll bet there wouldn't have been 100.

 

Angst is a powerful emotion.
To add to that, speculation on another board is that if Vawter doesn't go to Oklahoma, she'll go to Northwestern and their ace pitcher has graduated, as they're defending Big 10 champs. Plus they are a great academic school with the graduate program she wants.

 

do we have the program she wants?