Yes - not a fan of his giving up easy outs with the bunt - not a fan of not pitching best available in must wins - not a fan of being flexible and leaving a hiot pitcher in because you want to be cute and show everyone how much you know
Selection Time..
- Thread starter sluggercatfan
- Start date
It's a shame that you immediately resort to name calling when someone has an opinion you don't like. Grow up dude.
A couple thoughts:
Texas hosting is a total joke and is entirely a nod to Augie Garrido passing away and nothing else. They did not earn a host spot.
Northeastern and Washington getting in over UK is a joke. Northeastern went 3-9 against the top 50 RPI. They played 2 teams in their conference with RPIs under 100 and they went 3-6 against those 2 teams, including losing to 65 RPI UNCGW twice in the conference tournament. They were 9-16 against the top 100 RPI. Looking at their resume and the fact that they got in just makes me sick to my stomach.
Washington has an RPI of 63. They lost 5... 5 games against group 4 teams, that is teams with an RPI over 150, including losing to Portland May 15. UK lost just 2 and the last one was in early March. They did go 20-10 in conference with impressive series wins against UCLA and Stanford, but they also went 10-13 in their OOC schedule, which was ranked 164th in RPI and 71 in SOS. While, over all their OOC was stronger than UK, who went 21-4 against non conference opponents, they played 4 opponents out of conference with RPIs in the top 50. They went 2-4 against them. UK also played 4 opponents in the top 50 and went 5-2.
Texas hosting is a total joke and is entirely a nod to Augie Garrido passing away and nothing else. They did not earn a host spot.
Northeastern and Washington getting in over UK is a joke. Northeastern went 3-9 against the top 50 RPI. They played 2 teams in their conference with RPIs under 100 and they went 3-6 against those 2 teams, including losing to 65 RPI UNCGW twice in the conference tournament. They were 9-16 against the top 100 RPI. Looking at their resume and the fact that they got in just makes me sick to my stomach.
Washington has an RPI of 63. They lost 5... 5 games against group 4 teams, that is teams with an RPI over 150, including losing to Portland May 15. UK lost just 2 and the last one was in early March. They did go 20-10 in conference with impressive series wins against UCLA and Stanford, but they also went 10-13 in their OOC schedule, which was ranked 164th in RPI and 71 in SOS. While, over all their OOC was stronger than UK, who went 21-4 against non conference opponents, they played 4 opponents out of conference with RPIs in the top 50. They went 2-4 against them. UK also played 4 opponents in the top 50 and went 5-2.
The bunt is college baseball. Just better get used to it.
The others are two mistakes in an entire season, one of which likely didn't even cost us the game.
UK shouldn't have been in the position for its spot in the tournament to be in doubt. The Bama and UT series losses were back breakers (Bama game 2 decision was indefensibly bad). Injuries hurt badly, but even when at full health, it looked like this team was a quality arm or two short. And although the offensive stats were good overall, the propensity to strikeout (including too many of the backwards K variety) hurt as well.
At the end of the day, UK gave South Carolina AD Ray Tanner and his committee the opportunity to leave the Cats out of the tournament, and I'm guessing he relished having that opportunity.
At the end of the day, UK gave South Carolina AD Ray Tanner and his committee the opportunity to leave the Cats out of the tournament, and I'm guessing he relished having that opportunity.
Looking ahead for future reference, pretty obvious strength of schedule means very little. Therefore I would schedule as many stiffs as possible, I know we return a trip to Texas Tech next season, so I would play New Mexico school for the deaf, and East Texas home for wayward boys while in the southwest.
I would like to hear Mingione explain our season and the problems he felt we encountered,but didn’t overcome. Still like Ming and hope he learns and corrects these problems!
The problem is it wasn’t the pre conference schedule. UK did fine. It was the SEC schedule. You simply can’t go 13-18 and finish the year 0-5 in the SEC.
I'm in shock. I really assumed we were in. Having our starters back didnt count for anything apparently
Unfortunately for you, looks like Miss St is hiring the TCU coach. But I am still a Ming believer.
Lewis was projected to be back and Mach, according to UK twitter, was also back. Thompson, as you know, was already back. Probably also would have had Coleman and Haake for the first time in a good while.
This is what stings. Blame can be put on coach (shouldn’t be) that’s tough luck down the stretch. Our wins when mostly healthy should go further than who we lost too without 75% of our rotation.
All it took was one game that was blown by Ming and we're in. The Bama game 2 leaving Haake in after three walks and 115 pitches. UT game 3. Not starting Hjelle in the SECT game against Auburn. Win any of those three games and UK is in the tournament. So, I still think Ming deserves more blame than injuries.
I don't think one of those wins would do it. We would have to have at least 2 wins more likely than not. Yes, he flubbed up the Bama game 2. That's going to happen sometimes. Still, it hurt even further that we had major injuries all year long. Despite that we had a pretty decent year and should have made a regional.
I really think if we had won just one game against Vandy that might have saved us. Beating Auburn in the SECT would have helped too.
Might have helped, but we would still have been under .500 in the conference, so that excuse would still hold water.
Still, I think you have to give us a bit of a pass on the last 5 games or so considering that we had 5 pitchers injured. We only had 15 total pitchers this year, so losing 5 of them was massive. Especially losing our most successful starter in Lewis. Sadly, at no point in our season did our pitchers really get to show the full strength of the bullpen.
Guess 4 straight in fb and kicking their ass h/h on the diamond pissed him off. No other excuse. We should have been in.
Tam had same record as UK pre conference tourney and we beat them h/h why did the get in over us if conf record means all that?
This is the biggest reason bar none...me personally, I think he was/is the best pitcher on the staff.
They were the only sub .500 team to get in. I guess their better RPI and conference tournament have them the okay.
It may be, but I think it's stupid to take the bat out of a +300 hitter in the first/second inning.
But the way the head guy said that was the main criteria...we should have been over a half dosen or more teams.
Well it all depends on the situation and the opponent. How about in the Texas Tech game? We had three rbi bunt singles in a row. If that failed we would be slamming Ming, but it worked and he looked like a genius.
A while back Cottam bunted and moved runners to second and third. We failed to score either. A game or two later and in a similar situation Cottam swings and grounds into a double play and we again fail to score. In both those situations we failed to execute and it's pretty hard to say that Ming made the wrong decision on either one.
I just don't favor it early in games in CBB. Don't need to be giving away easy OUTS that early.
I agree that this year it was not the best strategy for UK given that we couldn't hold any lead with our pitching struggles. However, in most years it is huge to put that pressure on opposing teams and defenses. Get up in the game early and make the other team feel desperate to catch up. We were only down 2 runs all day to Auburn in the title game but it felt much bigger until we finally bridged the gap. So, in most years I have no problem with it. Try to get the early lead and make the other team play catchup. However, I will agree that it wasn't the best strategy for this year.
It was easy for you to play catchup for this year's team especially when it got to our bullpen.
Right. Which is why I'm saying that the strategy wasn't the best for this year's team. Still, it's college baseball and any bunt is not necessarily routine and can help turn into a big inning.
The more I hear about this the more it comes down to that the committee didn't want to have 11 SEC teams in.
I understand what you are saying but at least this year, our OOC schedule worked in our favor and helped our RPI. As much as it pains be to say it, U6 finished stronger than we did and made it to the ACC championship game. I really don't think we needed to be .500 in the SEC with our OOC schedule but we just finished too far below it imo.
For me... When all is said and done this season came down to one single guy and it's not his fault or anyone else's and that is Zack Thompson. Just lousy rotten luck.
Need to reduce looking at first strike pitches,and reduce giving up bases on walks, in the off season. Still like Ming,and think this seasoning ending scenario,burnt him,big time!
This one will sting for awhile. I think we had a team capable of advancing past the Super Regionals. I thought that all year. I hope it bring the pieces back hungrier next year and they go out looking to prove doubters wrong.
