In my mind, there is never a reason to play Gunnar McNeill. He's terrible, strikes out all the time.
Kentucky vs MSU - Game 3: Can we stay atop the SEC?
- Thread starter Old_Red
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In my mind, there is never a reason to play Gunnar McNeill. He's terrible, strikes out all the time.
That was a bad series for Kentucky. Playing a team with a beat up pitching staff, starting two field player as pitchers, we hit mediocre, field poorly, and pitched so-so. Not sure what was the worst impact but the batting line up doesn't seem to be effective at all. I hope Mingione rethinks that one. We are making errors at bad times but really it appears that we aren't handling base runners well. Of course, it doesn't help when you walk or HBP early in the inning.
MUST win series next weekend if not sweep...got taken to the woodshed this series and must pull up big boy pants.. .only looked good in one of last 4 and looking confused. One thing for sure going forward is that the lineup must change along with the errors at ss and lf.
They seemed to not have their normal energy or aggressiveness . Intensity was lacking or they were intimidated by all the ex-coaches in the other dugout ,plus the players. Very little enthusiasm during the whole series, troublesome for future road trips. Hope Mingione changes batting order and jacks them up ,where they play with more energy and aggressiveness .
I agree about the lineup change. 4 games this week and we didn't really hit as well as we have in the past.
Actually lots of hits ...just not enough put together to make rallies and I think that is because of lineup change...lost 3 of 4 now so let's hope this isn't a bad sign of the future.
I would like to see us go Carson, White, and Pompey at the top of the lineup, Pompey is stroking it, 8 hits in the 3 games at Starkville. That would ensure White would see his fair share of hitable pitches.
Don't want to over react however there were a few red flags that I noticed this weekend. First off our outfield defense is not very good, it appeared that MSU took the extra base on our outfielders all weekend. Secondly didn't think our pitchers responded to that environment at all, Hjelle was pitching well on Friday but after the Reks misplay in left he lost it. Now we bounced back and won the Friday contest but that was something I didn't like to see. Logue and Lewis just didn't seem to have their best stuff but again it appears we get worried about baserunners and pitched timidly rather than attacking.
We just have to shake this weekend off, I hope they rethink this lineup change and get Carson back on top and put Evan at 2 or 3.
We just have to shake this weekend off, I hope they rethink this lineup change and get Carson back on top and put Evan at 2 or 3.
Here is something interesting. This past week White went a total of 5 for 17 (.294) with 0 RBIs, 2 runs scored and a total of 3 walks. In yesterday's game White came to the plate 3 times with runners on base and was 0-3 (including one with RISP in the 8th). The second game was his best of the series and each time he reached it was to lead off on inning or with no one on. He then went 0-2 with runners on, including grounding out to short stop with the bases loaded in the 6th. On Friday White walked a lot, which was obviously positive, but in the 9th he had runners on and again failed to hit or move them over. In the Louisville game he came to the plate with the bases loaded and just 1 out and he struck out looking.
So, that, I believe, was 0-7 for White when he came to bat with someone on base, and at least 0-2 with RISP (both bases loaded).
Not sure what is up with that, but he really did seem to do much better this past week when he wasn't faced with situations where runners were on base. These lineup changes are just strange to me. White was technically moved on Sunday against Vanderbilt and they had him hit 5th. Since moving White away from the 2 hole UK is 1-4. Now, granted that is a small sampling because White hasn't been off injury that long. Still, it just seems like we messed with a good thing.
So, that, I believe, was 0-7 for White when he came to bat with someone on base, and at least 0-2 with RISP (both bases loaded).
Not sure what is up with that, but he really did seem to do much better this past week when he wasn't faced with situations where runners were on base. These lineup changes are just strange to me. White was technically moved on Sunday against Vanderbilt and they had him hit 5th. Since moving White away from the 2 hole UK is 1-4. Now, granted that is a small sampling because White hasn't been off injury that long. Still, it just seems like we messed with a good thing.
Cb3 I agree totally and why did the coaches try to fix something that wasn't broken? Big head scratcher. On the up side we came out of the weekend still in a four way tie for first. Going forward hopefully things will be restored and Sat and Sunday were just a bump in in the road.
My guess is Carson got moved down in the order because he was hitting .194 in conference play prior to the series against Mississippi State.
I can't say that I have a major issue with moving Marcus down in the lineup. However, I don't know that I am a fan of having White hitting first. Carson has struggled in SEC and even his OBP is pretty low. So, I don't mind him getting bumped down. I think I would somewhat rather see Reks hitting first and then White second or third. It is hard to say, because the evidence I provided somewhat showed that White has been struggling hitting with runners on. If that is actually the case then it makes more sense for him to hit first, but something about our weekend at the plate just didn't seem quite right. Maybe it is the old saying of not messing with success because we were winning despite Carson struggling at the top. Maybe it was just a buzz saw of a week. Still, I feel like we should have taken advantage of MSU's bullpen and we really struggled to do so until very very late in games.
Still, part of me wants to write off this weekend because no coach in the country will have a better scouting report on our players than Henderson. Every single hitter was his recruit and he coached them for at least a year, so it may have largely been a product of Henderson having a good scouting report on these guys and knowing how to pitch them.
After Hjelle on Friday, our pitching was very average to poor. Logue was lit up Saturday, and Lewis was not sharp yesterday. Pop, Mchammer, Cleary, and Schaenzer were not on their game. Salow was fantastic Friday night, but everyone else was not up to snuff.
We did score 17 runs in the 3 games, but gave up 22. Defense reverted back to last seasons' model, but it is in the rear view now. Must take down a pretty good UT-Martin team on Wednesday, and take the series vs Mizzou in Columbia.
We did score 17 runs in the 3 games, but gave up 22. Defense reverted back to last seasons' model, but it is in the rear view now. Must take down a pretty good UT-Martin team on Wednesday, and take the series vs Mizzou in Columbia.
If it ain't broke...don't fix it. We had plenty of hits just nothing at the right time to put runs across the plate. Got beat by some bad fielding and a one man rbi show on Sat.
Think we need to sweep Mizzou and beating Otis next Tues is just about as important as a conference win...no rest in SEC baseball for sure.
You really have no choice, but to get over it still lots of baseball to be played and it dosent get easier. I don't like having to play three of four conference series of the road.
Pitching was definitely an issue. What hurt about the hitting was that in both Saturday and Sunday we fell behind by 3+ runs and then grabbed a few 9th inning runs to make it closer. Still, we weren't a huge threat to get into those games with just 3 outs or so to work with and down 6 runs or so. Of course, the pitching, you'd like to hope, could keep MSU under 10 runs for two games, but that was a flop.
I think moving forward we may struggle a bit to find some valuable bullpen arms. The increased use of Keen and Machamer is a bit telling. Schaenzer struggled on Sunday and Pop is always a wildcard. Salow is steady, but we really don't have 2-3 guys that we know we can turn to to get the hard outs. Sometimes it is feast or famine with the bullpen.
Timely hitting was non existent on Saturday and Sunday. And it seemed like they mailed it in after the 3rd inning yesterday. Regroup and on to the next game.
I still feel like we played intimidated and not aggressive. Both at bat and defensively,we just didn't look comfortable. Also, thought MSU looked pretty cocky,like they had our number!
Thought the same of both teams... horrible fielding from the Cats that gave up big plays and unearned runs.
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