Kentucky at Louisville
- Thread starter Comebakatz3
- Start date
Needed this win badly. Now let’s get 2/3 from LSU this weekend and things are looking up.
Great job by Rigsby throwing early strikes but good pitches, not just strikes. He helped his case for more innings.
Like others say, we needed to get a win here after the sweep at Mississippi State. Hopefully this will give us some good mojo going into this weekend's series.
A few observations from last nights game:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pitcher look at his wristband for the pitch, I find it distracting.
The announcers were in love with Louisville and their roster the whole game.
Galvan from Louisville is impressive
Our baserunning is awful
Degen did a nice job finishing them off
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pitcher look at his wristband for the pitch, I find it distracting.
The announcers were in love with Louisville and their roster the whole game.
Galvan from Louisville is impressive
Our baserunning is awful
Degen did a nice job finishing them off
If I am not mistaken, this is the first time we have been caught stealing all season. If you don't take risks, you never get rewards.
No, we have been caught a few times. I think we are 34 of 37. It was the first time Zeke Lewis had been caught in 6 attempts.
They said something last night about changing the dugouts because of the China virus at JPS?
They are severely limiting the attendance. I tried to stop by last night and it was sold out. What a game though. That Ritter is something.
Hill no one knows.
Church has been struggling the last few games so the coaches gave him the night off. At least that’s what Darren Headrich said.
Wonder if they use a dart board with a blind fold to decide the lineups? They shuffle more than an iPod.
Looks like a few more need to have some nights off. Problem is, you need at bats to work yourself out.
Maybe that’s why Hill is out? He had a bad game? Damn. Kinda harsh if true.
Just me personally, but I think Hill should be playing every day. Unless there is some lingering issue with his injury from last year. It doesn’t make sense how he’s utilized.
I think Hill is basically not playing because the coaches like the offense value that Harmon brings more than they like the overall value of Hill. So, they gave up defense and speed in order to get Harmon's bat into the lineup.
I do not agree with this. I think Hill could probably hit as well as Harmon, and they really have a somewhat equal amount of power. Harmon has hit well in the midweek, but struggled in the 7 or so games against SEC pitching. Hill had a couple games and didn't do great while Harmon got a few hits against Louisville... so I imagine this weekend it will be back with Hill on the bench and coming in as a late defensive sub while Harmon is at DH.
Hill doesn't have any lingering injury effects.
But wouldn’t it make more sense if you get almost equal offensive value to have a player that plays an outfield position (Sorry not sorry Anu) with speed and defensive value over a player that might have some “good games.” In my opinion, that’s a no-brainer.
I just saw the stats and Hill only has 34 ABs. WTH? Seems like he's out there a lot more.
I read somewhere that injury was a career ending one, kuddos to be able to come back from that. You have that in you, you must love the game.
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I think that the coaching staff, right or wrong, believes that they will get a lot more offensive production out of Harmon than they will Hill. Depending on the numbers you use, you could make an argument either way. I don’t have access to all the breakdowns, but here are the basic numbers:
| AVG | OPS | GP-GS | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | TB | SLG% | BB | HBP | SO | GDP | OB% | SF | SH | SB-ATT | |
| Harmon | 0.311 | 0.856 | 21-15 | 61 | 8 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 28 | 0.459 | 9 | 1 | 20 | 0 | 0.397 | 2 | 0 | 2-2 |
| Hill | 0.206 | 0.737 | 25-10 | 34 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 0.324 | 8 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 0.413 | 0 | 0 | 7-7 |
So, if we look at this, the first thing that stands out is that Harmon has done much better than HIll in terms of getting hits. .311 v. .206.
However, there isn't a whole lot else on there where Harmon stands out. Hill gets on base at a higher percentage. Hill has scored more runs (albeit some probably as a PH), and Harmon hasn't proven his power is all that better. Hill has 7 stolen bases and won you a game basically himself. Hill has struck out too much, but that could be a product of the at bats being less frequent.
Then you break it down more into actual league play:
| AVG | OPS | GP-GS | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | TB | SLG% | BB | HBP | SO | GDP | OB% | SF | SH | SB-ATT | |
| Harmon | 0.148 | 0.381 | 7-7 | 27 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0.148 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0.233 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Hill | 0 | 0.417 | 9-2 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0.417 | 0 | 0 | 4-4 |
So, again, you have Harmon hitting better, but it is very poor after almost 30 at bats. Hill has less than 10 and hasn't gotten a hit, so you'd like to see that improve. Still, Hill has been productive and scored 3 times and stolen bases and caused havoc in that way. Maintains an even better OB%.
So, I don’t know what the coaches are looking at to decide that Harmon is that much better offensively than Hill. I guess if you just look at batting average, but I think that leaves a lot on the table. It could just be that they think pitchers will fear Harmon more and allow other hitters to get better pitches. It could be that Harmon looks better in BP. I just don’t know really.
You can also do this with shuffling around the defense as you have Estep and Church somewhat both struggling. Church at .176 with 34 at bats and Estep at .129 with 31 at bats in league play. We saw Church get the day off on Tuesday, but it doesn’t seem like the coaches want to contemplate the idea of moving Schultz back into the IF and having Hill in center. So, just kind of feels like they are doing what they want to do.
So, you have this list of stats without knowing who is who. This is super basic, but you have 7 to choose from regardless of position and you can only play 6. Which 6 do you take? Why? This, of course, ignoring positions and defense and just looking at offensive production.
| AVG | OPS | GP-GS | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | TB | SLG% | BB | HBP | SO | GDP | OB% | SF | SH | SB-ATT |
| 0.129 | 0.41 | 9-9 | 31 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0.194 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0.216 | 2 | 0 | 0-0 |
| 0.00 | 0.417 | 9-2 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0.417 | 0 | 0 | 4-4 |
| 0.176 | 0.51 | 9-9 | 34 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 0.294 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 1 | 0.216 | 1 | 0 | 0-0 |
| 0.148 | 0.381 | 7-7 | 27 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0.148 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0.233 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| 0.194 | 0.57 | 9-9 | 36 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 0.333 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 0.237 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| 0.212 | 0.714 | 9-9 | 33 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 0.364 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 0.35 | 0 | 0 | 1-1 |
| 0.179 | 0.473 | 9-9 | 28 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0.179 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 0.294 | 1 | 3 | 2-2 |
| 0.176 | 0.51 | 9-9 | 34 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 0.294 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 1 | 0.216 | 1 | 0 |
Low on base, low walk and high strike out ratio and no stolen bases.
That would be Church, which requires you probably to move Estep to 3rd and Schultz to 2nd.
Welp, then that’s what should happen! 👍🏻😃
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37 just can’t hit this year. I like his defense and speed but it seems like he can’t hit a lick this year. He’s batting .206
Might be a fair assessment. However, he's started just 2 games in the last month. They were this past weekend. Prior to losing his starting job he was hitting around .280. Since March 12th and prior to this past weekend he had all of 2 official at bats. He's had 7 since and he hasn't gotten a hit.
It's hard to basically give him a month off and then expect him to just be right back and hitting .300 or so.
You could be right that he keeps struggling at the plate. I doubt we find out.
I agree I don’t think we will find out.
You can’t do much with an average when you don’t get the ABs. You don’t hit one game and your average tanks. I think Ritter went down to .147 but now has the ABs to get his average up.
I think you are correct, you mentioned that Hill got benched at .280 then hasn’t had but maybe 1 AB a game until Miss State weekend. I remember him bunting a ton.
What I do like is that Hill has had 7 ABs in conference and has 3 walks, 2 HBP, 3 Ks and 4 stolen bases and his OB% is great. Need to consider value other than a batting average, on base is most important.
Have you looked into those stats? If you know anything about baseball, batting average is not a tell-tale sign of hitting. Look at the on-base percentage. That is what counts. When starting and playing daily the average was .280 and then something happened and wasn't starting anymore.
It is extremely hard to get an average up when you don’t get the ABs. I think total has been 34. Now take that in comparison to a player that has 83, 52, 89, 104. You really cannot compare them equally.
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