Jimmy Belanger

[Comebakatz3]

What are your thoughts guys and gals? How is he doing? Is he on the hot seat? Should he be on the hot seat?


Personally, I think that this should be his last year barring a major turnaround. Last year we had the horses to be one of the best pitching staffs in the entire country, but we finished deal last in ERA in the SEC, and due to that, we missed the NCAA tournament (which I still think was a sham). Pitching looks to be even worse this year as UK has a 5.23 ERA. Jimmy Ramsey and Dillon Marsh (two of our weekend starters) have ERAs of 6.59 and 7.36 respectively. We have no one in the wings that looks like they have the ability to replace them on the weekend, although we are apparently possibly going away from Ramsey this upcoming weekend. I imagine Grant Macciocchi (2.45 ERA) will be taking his place, but Daniel Harper (4.09 ERA) is also a candidate. Yesterday, UK threw 10 different pitchers and they walked 12 Boston College hitters.

Hopefully the pitching improves, but there are major concerns for me. Our hitting right now isn't great, but after two years of watching outstanding hitting, I'm willing to give that a pass. This is year two of bad pitching and I don't really see it getting better. Thoughts?

 

[law1127]

Agree

 

[Comebakatz3]

By the way, Henderson and Miss. State currently have an ERA hovering around 1.00.

EDIT: Henderson is no longer the Miss. State pitching coach. Scott Foxhall now has those duties. Henderson is not coaching anywhere in 2019.

 

[Tskware]

By the way, Henderson and Miss. State currently have an ERA hovering around 1.00.

Ouch, wish you had not mentioned that.

Our bullpen looks like a classic arson squad to me, no one looks reliable so far.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Just to be specific, the ERA for Miss. State is 1.45. They have 5 guys who have started games for them this year and their highest ERA is 2.30. Two of the starters have ERAs under 1 (0.00 and 0.70). As a team they have about 10 more strikeouts than UK pitchers with about 30+ fewer walks while opponents are hitting .173.

Now, to be fair, they have only played 2 teams in the top 2 quadrants, and they have a bad loss to a Q4 team. They beat Texas Tech 4-2 and Sam Houston State 5-4 as their Q1 wins. So, they have two quality wins, but their strength of schedule is ranked 159 to our 100.

 

[CliffDweller25]

By the way, Henderson and Miss. State currently have an ERA hovering around 1.00.

I don't disagree with this. Unless there is vast improvement, I hope that we look in another direction.

And Gary is available. He wasn't retained by Lemonis at Mississippi State.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I don't disagree with this. Unless there is vast improvement, I hope that we look in another direction.

And Gary is available. He wasn't retained by Lemonis at Mississippi State.

Well heck... I tried to see where Henderson was at and I came across the Miss. State athletic page that claimed he was an assistant coach for them and I assumed it was for this year. I guess it is an old page and that they never updated it to say he was interim head coach.

How in the heck did no one pick him up after he won national coach of the year in 2018? I don't really want him back, but seems like we can do better than Belanger.

 

[cats1068]

Just to be specific, the ERA for Miss. State is 1.45. They have 5 guys who have started games for them this year and their highest ERA is 2.30. Two of the starters have ERAs under 1 (0.00 and 0.70). As a team they have about 10 more strikeouts than UK pitchers with about 30+ fewer walks while opponents are hitting .173.

Now, to be fair, they have only played 2 teams in the top 2 quadrants, and they have a bad loss to a Q4 team. They beat Texas Tech 4-2 and Sam Houston State 5-4 as their Q1 wins. So, they have two quality wins, but their strength of schedule is ranked 159 to our 100.

How many of Mississippi St pitchers are returning? Weekend starters? Bullpen? 5/10 of our pitchers from the BC game have Fr as their class and the other 5 have So. Every game is a learning curve. Yes, they suck. And yes, they should be a little better by now. But besides 14, there are no other upperclassmen to show them the ropes. But if they don’t improve, it’s going to be an embarrassing and long season. Sigh

 

[Comebakatz3]

How many of Mississippi St pitchers are returning? Weekend starters? Bullpen? 5/10 of our pitchers from the BC game have Fr as their class and the other 5 have So. Every game is a learning curve. Yes, they suck. And yes, they should be a little better by now. But besides 14, there are no other upperclassmen to show them the ropes. But if they don’t improve, it’s going to be an embarrassing and long season. Sigh

I am not entirely sure. I actually was originally making these notes thinking Henderson was still there. He isn't, so it is mostly noise now. lol

 

[Comebakatz3]

UK took a big time gamble with the recruiting class of 2017 and we have largely lost that gamble so far. We took 3 guys that we knew would not be ready in 2018 due to arm injuries. Dobzanski redshirted in 2018 and hasn’t pitched in 2019 and may be still injured? He is on the roster. Austin Marozas is gone, maybe JUCO now? Ben Jordan is finally back, but has an ERA of 108.00. Those were top pitchers that we really needed, but we have missed on them so far.
This is an extremely young team, especially in the bullpen, but no one seems to be emerging as a possible guy to lean on and that is including the older guys. Last year was disheartening with us finishing last in the league in team ERA and in this young season we are once again at the bottom of the league. Making this worse, is the fact that our batting average is 2nd worst in the league behind only Texas A&M.

 

[sluggercatfan]

UK took a big time gamble with the recruiting class of 2017 and we have largely lost that gamble so far. We took 3 guys that we knew would not be ready in 2018 due to arm injuries. Dobzanski redshirted in 2018 and hasn’t pitched in 2019 and may be still injured? He is on the roster. Austin Marozas is gone, maybe JUCO now? Ben Jordan is finally back, but has an ERA of 108.00. Those were top pitchers that we really needed, but we have missed on them so far.
This is an extremely young team, especially in the bullpen, but no one seems to be emerging as a possible guy to lean on and that is including the older guys. Last year was disheartening with us finishing last in the league in team ERA and in this young season we are once again at the bottom of the league. Making this worse, is the fact that our batting average is 2nd worst in the league behind only Texas A&M.

CB3...after watching several games I'll be shocked if this team wins over 5 games in league play. My biggest fear is what this season may do to recruiting . Have some close ties to one of the 2020 commits and I can tell you Candy is coming fwith both barrels.

 

[sluggercatfan]

Well heck... I tried to see where Henderson was at and I came across the Miss. State athletic page that claimed he was an assistant coach for them and I assumed it was for this year. I guess it is an old page and that they never updated it to say he was interim head coach.

How in the heck did no one pick him up after he won national coach of the year in 2018? I don't really want him back, but seems like we can do better than Belanger.

Not even as pitching coach, not that he would take it? I dont like Belanger.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Not even as pitching coach, not that he would take it? I dont like Belanger.

Nope. I was never impressed with Henderson. Our pitching has always been our problem. Henderson had great ability to get great weekend starters but his bullpen was always pretty poor outside of one guy. I think the entire time he was here our team ERA was never higher than 4th or 5th, and that was only one season. It's been a while since I've looked at it though.

I'm cooling on Belanger fast, but think we can also do better than Hendo.

 

[167Hike]

I have a different impression of Henderson. I thought he was a great recruiter and a good to above average practice coach but his in game "feel for the game" was terrible and I think that's what caused him to mismanage his bullpen during games.

On the flip side, I tried to give Belanger the benefit of the doubt last year as the pitchers where hit the hardest with injuries. But there is no mistaking it, the weekend rotation (when healthy) and Mach out of the pen should have been powerful enough to get us to the postseason play. It just didn't look like he developed anyone to fill in the gaps between the starters and Mach. And that's what leads us to the potential disaster we are facing this year.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I have a different impression of Henderson. I thought he was a great recruiter and a good to above average practice coach but his in game "feel for the game" was terrible and I think that's what caused him to mismanage his bullpen during games.

On the flip side, I tried to give Belanger the benefit of the doubt last year as the pitchers where hit the hardest with injuries. But there is no mistaking it, the weekend rotation (when healthy) and Mach out of the pen should have been powerful enough to get us to the postseason play. It just didn't look like he developed anyone to fill in the gaps between the starters and Mach. And that's what leads us to the potential disaster we are facing this year.

Henderson had a great ability to find some big time talent and bring it to UK. He helped put a lot of pitchers in the big leagues. One thing I think he struggled at in the recruiting was convincing some of the guys to come here instead of head to the professional ranks. Vanderbilt gets something like 5 some odd top 100 players a year. UK would get the occasional, but there were plenty of years where we lost several of our best (Plummer, Green, Hollon, Clifton) to the draft.

Henderson definitely had a poor feel for the game, moreso as a head coach than a pitching coach, but even as a pitching coach he would make bizarre changes. Where he was poor to me was that he typically never had more than one good bullpen guy at a time. Last year was kind of the same type of year you'd see from Henderson. Good starters for the most part, but then lean heavily on Machamer because there isn't much else in the bullpen that is reliable. I know that happens in college baseball, but we rarely were able to put together full bullpens.

 

[MAYHOO22]

Anybody but Belanger. The kids have lost faith in him. You can see it in their interaction with him. Lots of groaning & mumbling.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Anybody but Belanger. The kids have lost faith in him. You can see it in their interaction with him. Lots of groaning & mumbling.

I think this team has a bit of a leadership problem as it is. Not sure they have a guy that is a real vocal leader to help the staff coach up the young freshmen and to help hold everyone accountable. That being the case, they will struggle even more because they will not stay together and fight as a team but will be out for themselves or for small groups.

 

[MAYHOO22]

I think this team has a bit of a leadership problem as it is. Not sure they have a guy that is a real vocal leader to help the staff coach up the young freshmen and to help hold everyone accountable. That being the case, they will struggle even more because they will not stay together and fight as a team but will be out for themselves or for small groups.

Bingo. It is already beginning to happen.

 

[sluggercatfan]

I think this team has a bit of a leadership problem as it is. Not sure they have a guy that is a real vocal leader to help the staff coach up the young freshmen and to help hold everyone accountable. That being the case, they will struggle even more because they will not stay together and fight as a team but will be out for themselves or for small groups.

How about the HC taking that role by the horns?

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

Was really impressed by Belanger his 1st year, but since about midway of the 2018 season, it has been a train wreck. Agree he probably needs to be let go after the season, barring a major turn around.

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

How about the HC taking that role by the horns?

From a leadership perspective, the head coach can only do so much. You have to have a couple of players who the team will respect and listen to to step up and help push the guys through the rough days.