Cats vs Vandy (Thursday)
- Thread starter Big_Blue_1018
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Vandy is also playing for a SEC regular season title. I think they are a 1/2 game back from Tennessee.
He’s actually a really nice guy besides the whistling. I talked to him during a rain delay when Vandy was in Lexington. He knows people hate the whistle. Said most of the time, he doesn’t realize he’s doing it. I don’t believe it. 😁
We just don’t have a manager. I know as a fan, that 54 is never good in his 2nd inning. Incompetence
And during the game they showed that before tonight’s game that UK was slated to play Ole Miss. so, it’ll be 1 and Dunzos in Hoover.
I just went and looked. UKs first 3 hitters were 0-12 with 8 strikeouts. If you include Kessler, 0-13 but he did walk twice.
So my very recently turned 11 year old son said UK is beat in the bottom of the 9th with a homer. I stupidly told him you don’t know that. Vandy wins on a homer....
Can your son tell me what the winning lottery numbers will be?? 😂😂
I wouldn't trust it, seems like he's only good at predicting bad things and losses. Lol
You cannot keep putting the first man on in the bottom inning against the likes of Florida and Vanderbilt. Not only does it make winning almost impossible, but overall it is demoralizing to every position player.
We also saw a defining moment that tends to shorten the time you are the coach at Kentucky. How in the world do you pinch hit a guy who is 1-13 on the year and hasn't played since the last of April and expect him to deliver a bunt against the number 3 team, on the road, and facing a guy who throws 98 mph? Men on first and second in the top half of the ninth, NO OUTS, and a perfect opportunity to win the first game of a critical series, and you do something like that. I couldn't believe it.
We MUST get that bunt down--it is one of the most important plays of the year. A successful bunt does everything for your team's psyche. As it turned out, and as you might expect, the kid was way overmatched and did not get the bunt down to advance the runners and vastly increase our scoring chance, put more pressure on Vandy, and lo and behold, win the first game of the series. We would have beaten their ace (not officially), and made our chances to win another game of the series much greater. Is that all we have on the bench? Is he better than Estep putting down a bunt? I don't care if he's the best bunter known to man, you have to play someone in that situation who is a regular or who you absolutely know gives you the best chance to succeed. No way that was the case last night--he could not have been the best chance in that situation. Hence, it opened the flood gates in the bottom of the inning for bad things to happen, and they did.
Why do we see these coaching decisions at EVERY level of sports? That's somewhat a rhetorical question. And no, I am far from being qualified to coach Kentucky or be a manager of any baseball team. Who would you have batted in that situation?
We also saw a defining moment that tends to shorten the time you are the coach at Kentucky. How in the world do you pinch hit a guy who is 1-13 on the year and hasn't played since the last of April and expect him to deliver a bunt against the number 3 team, on the road, and facing a guy who throws 98 mph? Men on first and second in the top half of the ninth, NO OUTS, and a perfect opportunity to win the first game of a critical series, and you do something like that. I couldn't believe it.
We MUST get that bunt down--it is one of the most important plays of the year. A successful bunt does everything for your team's psyche. As it turned out, and as you might expect, the kid was way overmatched and did not get the bunt down to advance the runners and vastly increase our scoring chance, put more pressure on Vandy, and lo and behold, win the first game of the series. We would have beaten their ace (not officially), and made our chances to win another game of the series much greater. Is that all we have on the bench? Is he better than Estep putting down a bunt? I don't care if he's the best bunter known to man, you have to play someone in that situation who is a regular or who you absolutely know gives you the best chance to succeed. No way that was the case last night--he could not have been the best chance in that situation. Hence, it opened the flood gates in the bottom of the inning for bad things to happen, and they did.
Why do we see these coaching decisions at EVERY level of sports? That's somewhat a rhetorical question. And no, I am far from being qualified to coach Kentucky or be a manager of any baseball team. Who would you have batted in that situation?
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I think the bigger issue was Estep moving up to hit 6th. I like Estep. I think he is a hard-nosed kid that is just having a tough time adjusting to his first go around against SEC pitching. I think he will get better and he'll be a player that we all really really like if he stays at UK. With that being said... why in the hell did Mingione move a guy hitting .186 in league play from the 9 hole to the 6 hole?
He is 51 points lower than every other hitter and we move him up the lineup? Last week he had two solid games, hitting like .430, in the 9 hole, so Mingione immediately sends him up to 6th where he immediately goes back to struggling. Now he has kept him there.
So, to me, Estep should have essentially never been in that spot to begin with. Should have never been in a spot where he needed to sub him out because it could have been Lewis (.379) or Hill (.265) or Ritter (.237) hitting in that spot instead... all three of which are actually better at bunting than Estep.
Ohh, and I will also point out that Grace hadn't had an at bat at all since the Tennessee series 3 weeks ago and he's got 1 hit on the whole year. No, there is no one else that can reliably bunt... but that's another problem altogether!
We are a joke. If we see this don't you think all of the other coaches and programs realize Ming is in over his head.
There is no way that lineup strikes fear into any team.
Pilling little things on top of each other causes big disaster eventually. Kinda like the program in general. Need to bite the bullet and stop sweeping things under the rug.
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Have to have people who can make plays, easier said than done. But getting a crucial bunt down, 2-out hits to drive in runs, 3-run HRs, 6-4-3 DPs is what good teams do to win games...it's what makes the baseball world go around. The old baseball mantra is "get'em on, get'em over, get'em in." UK does little of that.
Totally agree.
We play alot of bad baseball not only offensively but defensively as well. Poor fielding, not hitting the cut off man, giving up the extra base, out of position in the field etc. You can't do that in college baseball and think you can win.
We talked alot before the season about cleaning that sort of thing up but from what I have seen Ming and the coaches haven't.
Years ago former Miss St coach published, don't recall the title but I called it the Ron Polk Coaches Bible. Coaches would do well to invest in the book....covers EVERYTHING.
BTW, missing the cut off man is a pet peeve of mine and is inexcusable, it's so damned simple!
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