Plus if the fans have zero to look forward going into next season without some optimism it'll just be worse.
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Kentucky Baseball 2022
- Thread starter Comebakatz3
- Start date
Cam Hill is a hometown player and what thanks did Shelby get by staying at home last year rather than signing pistoling draft or transferring ?
8 at bats on the season ?!
after getting blindsided by Schultz moving to the outfield on the last week of the preseason? and Cam and Shelby became a platoon so they thought all because your staff was in capable of developing both Schultz and Rhodes into infielders.
8 at bats on the season ?!
after getting blindsided by Schultz moving to the outfield on the last week of the preseason? and Cam and Shelby became a platoon so they thought all because your staff was in capable of developing both Schultz and Rhodes into infielders.
Someone more knowlegible educate me. So Barnhart gave Mingione a new contract because 1) he thought he could turn it around all of the sudden 2) wanted to hang on to the 40th ranked recruiting class 3) doesn't think he can get a better manager 4) content on being the bottom dweller in the SEC 5) something else?
Not only did Mingione not deserve his extension. He does not deserve loyalty from Cam Hill or any other of these players when they watch a team ate get treated the way he has treated so many teammates. Shelby kess b3n cam and so on and so on.
I think he has totally fallen for Mingiones phoney " family" , "man of god" rhetoric. I can tell you that Cam Hill for one isnt buying what Mingione is selling. Neither is the rest of the SEC coaching fraternity that piled on Mingione ,at a time when his job was in the line, by all picking UK to come in last place. when coaches respect you , they look out for you in that situation and stick together and at the very least rank you where you should be but with a little nudge up to make you look good. they did the opposite, they piled on by picking his team to be in dead last place knowing that would sting coming from his peers and that the AD would see that and value it while in all likelihood evaluating wether or not to extend him.
The physical tools for both Rhodes and Schultz to be infielders is absolutely there. So what is the coaching staffs excuse for not being able to develop them both into the type of fielders that is consistent with their tools, athleticism and offensive talent suggests they should be.
The big reason was recruiting. Minge was going into the last year of his contract and recruiting was taken a hit. By giving him the extension, it was suppose to show recruits that Mingione wasn’t a lame duck.
Losing him and the fact that he is a hometown player is pretty telling to me.
If you really think about his story, it is a sad situation to see it come to this. He would always pass ball with the kids on the berm or in the outfield between innings. Seemed very nice and polite when I was around there. The kid seemed to always play with passion and had the ability to make the game exciting to watch.
The outfield was a total mess the whole season if you ask me.
While I personally don't see Shelby as anything but a defensive replacement he did get the shaft all year along with Hill up until 3/4 of the way through the season when Hill took over for good.
Ming just had guys playing out of position all year and couldn't figure it out. Anu, Rhodes and Schultz in the OF was a huge mistake.
Here is the thing about Shelby for me… in 2019 he hit .273 overall, but just .215 in conference. So, that means in non-conference games Shelby hit .329 out of conference, but just couldn’t hit SEC pitching. That was his first year with UK, so it was his first time seeing a big step up in quality arms.
Similarly, in 2021 Estep hit .252 overall and just .211 in conference play. So, if my reading skills and math are correct (and they rarely are) in out of conference games he hit .333.
So, these two were pretty similar in their first year against conference pitching. Where my frustration comes in regarding Shelby is that you have to imagine that he could have given you the same or better production than Estep. So, when we spent a large portion of the year trying to fit Estep at second, we could have had Schultz at 2nd and Shelby in LF/CF and we would have had a better defense and hitting would have been similar, if not better. Shelby and Estep had similar XBH numbers (Shelby with 4 doubles and 3 home runs, and Estep with 7 doubles 0 home runs), but Shelby reached base about 31 percent of the time compared to Estep’s 25 percent. So, if UK had just made that change then they could have very possibly had better hitting in the lineup and better defense. Yet, we stubbornly stuck with Estep at second.
Now, that being said, I understand leaving Schultz at LF if Lewis was playing 2B and hitting like he was at the end, but that didn’t happen until very late in the season.
Mingione was going to play Estep regardless. I think he’s solid on defense but very little production offensively, especially in conference play.
I completely agree.
As Cornette pointed out, we weren't developing infielders or working with them or something along those lines.
Church provided another issue as he started off well at 3B but dropped off and was replaced in the lineup.
Schultz, Grace, Estep, Plastiak, Lewis and others who never got consistent playing time in the infield. Problems abound then for moving guys to the OF and with no communication from coach you got a total mess.
The problem I see from an offensive standpoint, this team had no identity. Look at their stats. Led the league in stolen bases. So immediately you think, hmm. They’re good on the base paths. Play small ball really well. Well, not so much. Kentucky only had 20 sac hits. (Bunts/sac flies) UK was 13th in the league in runs scored. Averaged right around 5 runs per game. Should be ok right? Well, not exactly. Your pitching allows almost 7 runs a game. There’s a lot wrong with this program. And I’m going to take a deeper look into the stats later. Wish me luck.
When you say the older players have "had enough", do you have some information on what's going on inside the program? Is there turmoil throughout or is that just an angry fanbase speculating? I saw that Cam Hill has entered the portal, but wasn't sure about anything else that's going on.
It's nothing against Estep. It is just a weird situation overall. As dtjr mentioned... you had Church who was hitting great against OOC, but he dropped off significantly against SEC opponents. Estep was doing the same, but Church got booted while Estep kept playing. Plastiak rarely got chances, but did pretty decent with them when he did. 3 home runs in just over 40 at bats is pretty solid. Still, the infield was all jumbled and I think that was problematic.
At one point other actual outfielders who weren't playing were told/asked by the coaches to show Schultz what to do and where to stand and basically how to play their positions. That'll piss ya off.
If you are on a desktop then one way to do it is to hover over the name of the person you want to send a message to. A little card type thing should pop up and at the bottom right of it should be 'Start Conversation.' Click on that and it should open a screen to send a private message to an individual or group of your choosing.
Alternatively, in the top right corner is the message icon (the one in the middle) and you can click on that and on the next page it will have a 'start conversation' button on the top right. You'll then have to manually enter the username of who you want to send a message to.
On your phone if you click the name of someone it should pull up the same card thing and you, again, click the 'start conversation,' button.
I believe it's a feature for paid members only. Click on whoever you're trying to PM. You should see "follow" "ignore" " start conversation" if you don't see the latter then you have your answer.
Its mostly speculation but go back to the Florida series. Go back and watch those games. The Thursday and Friday games watch the body language. The team was absolutely fired up. I’m talking ready to go to war and run through a brick wall. Then watch the Saturday game. Compare the body language. I don’t know what was said in the post game meeting on Friday night. But the team that played on Saturday was not the same group that played on Friday. And ever since, the fire died. Was it Mingione? Was it something else? I don’t know. But that weekend series just zapped any confidence this team had. And you could tell that in the game against Florida on Tuesday. Florida hit Kentucky in the mouth and Kentucky cowered the rest of the season.
I have heard from people close to the program that there are a lot of players who are frustrated by this coaching staff and do not like the staff, or at least Mingione. It is how they are treated and also major communication issues that have brought this about. For instance, Plastiak was benched multiple times and I am not sure (though I do not have confirmation personally) that he was ever really told why he was benched or what he needed to do or work on to get back into the starting lineup. One thing I heard happened this past week was that Harmon went on the trip and he got to the game ready to dress out and was told he wasn’t on the roster, so he couldn’t dress out and had to go sit in the stands to watch the game instead of being on the bench with his teammates. I don’t know if this really happened, and I don’t know both sides of the story, but I have no reason not to trust what I heard. So, if it happened it is a very very bad look and a horrible way for a player to be treated.
Anyway, I think this a problem that is pretty widespread. Those that are older and can get out probably want to do so and you might see them abandon ship. I have heard there is at least 2 others in the transfer portal, but can’t confirm. I think younger players might stick it out simply because there is playing time there for them. We will see, but yes, I think there is a good bit of turmoil that has occurred behind the scenes.
Edit to clarify: The Harmon incident, to my knowledge, was at the SEC tournament game. Which has to be demoralizing.
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Weird, I didn't know it was paid members only. I know I have gotten them in the past when I was not paying. So, maybe paid members have to start them?
I didn’t link all of @Comebakatz3 reply but I’ll say this. This is not the first I’ve heard of players dressing only to be told they had to set in the stands or they weren’t on the travel roster.
If the person you're trying to PM is a paid member then just tag them in a post and they can PM you and you guys can talk that way. You just can't initiate.
These guys are so desperate to get out of UK's program that they were filing the paperwork on the bus ride home, or basically directly afterwards.
Again... this is extremely telling.
Hey Cam. Hey Jaren.
I have had 3 years to help this extremely athletic, tooled up , athletic,fast, quick ,tremendous batter against the best pitching in the country, learn how to become a reliable 2nd basemen and failed miserably. I mean I know his body type and frame screams Infielder and I know that it is not typical that a plus speed , 5’8 Leadoff hitter is unable to handle to 2nd base And it’s a profile you never ever see in the corner outfield but how’s about you teach him how to play your position for me, Since Me and my staff suck at player development.
So many great posts today. So many of you directly hitting the mark.
What I want to point is this. Situations like Harmons , Cams , B3ns etc. That anger is not isolated to that one player. Real teammates hate to see other teammates mistreated and even though they can’t speak up and risk there own playing time they will harbor deep resentment towards the coach mis treating a teammate. It’s why I said earlier that this team will go know where and not because they aren’t talented they are very talented. It’s because you need to dig deep to win those battles late in games and when the leader of the team who behaves like a tyrant while showing everyone else this false saint , howdy doodie , goofy BS persona it just takes your resolve away from performing in a way that will only embolden him further and everyone then plays for themselves. Since 2017 it has been every man for themselves here and that is the culture that was created by NM.
You were the first to report the first in the portal on this board so you have a lot of credibility with me. I’ll say it again, If several players leave I don’t blame Mingione. This is squarely on Mitch Barnhart.
To be fair, I think Schultz was fine as a second baseman. Never played there much, but he was fine. Not as good as say Lewis, but he was okay there. I think coaches just wanted to ensure that they had him in the lineup so they were willing to put him anywhere. So they forced that square peg into that round hole in the OF. Problem was that for much of the year they didn't have a 2nd baseman that was better offensively than him and you could have probably had Hill or Shelby out in the OF hitting better than whoever we had at 2nd and yet they never made the switch to put Schultz back at 2 and the outfielders back in the outfield.
I also heard that it took pitchers demanding a change before Mingione stopped using Anu in left and also Schultz in center.
If all this stuff is true, and I'm not saying it isn't, then why don't these kids march on the ad's office and voice their opinions as a group. I have a close friend who's close with a player and he told me a lot of stuff that went on over the off season that was disappointing. Sure seems like time for a change ASAP.
Can you guys post what you’re hearing? We’re all anonymous so no sources need to be provided, just the information. I’m sure no one is sworn to secrecy.
Unless there has been a rule change, if you transfer to another SEC school you have to sit out a year. That’s an SEC, not NCAA rule.
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