Baseball team. What's the deal?

[SouthernFox]

I realize we're not far into the season. I know that the "that's baseball" excuse can be used every year.

At this point, though, are we consistently inconsistent... again?!

Come on, Golden Eagles! Is it too much to ask to throw down some 7-12+ game winning streaks? Are those days over?

SMTTT!!! Beat Oakland!!!

 

[usmstud]

Too many guys in the lineup not hitting. Left 12 runners on base last night and a lot if them because we had four guys in the lineup hitting under .160.

 

[sprint-draw gandy!]

Originally posted by usmstud:
Too many guys in the lineup not hitting. Left 12 runners on base last night and a lot if them because we had four guys in the lineup hitting under .160.

sure. but the question is "why"? why aren't we hitting "again"? its the coaching. that's the one consistent thing with the piss-poor display during berry's tenure. idk what in the world they are doing to those kids to make them suck so bad. they sure do GREAT in other leagues they play in during the summer. etc. all fingers point to the coaches. are they handcuffing them at the plate? that's what my concern is. they need to let the boys feel free to swing away during an entire at bat.
This post was edited on 3/7 3:20 PM by sprint-draw gandy!

 

[Shifty_Eagle]

For the love of the Pete can we PLEASE fire Scott Berry......

 

[eagleboy415]

Cupcake schedule to save his job and we're losing to them. No regional, no Berry.

 

[Houston Eagle]

Will Bill M Part 2 have the courage to fire Berry? There are plenty of good baseball coaches out there....

 

[eagleboy415]

Originally posted by Houston Eagle:
Will Bill M Part 2 have the courage to fire Berry? There are plenty of good baseball coaches out there....

That's the rumor I've heard. If no regional, Berry will be gone. Take it with a grain of salt though. I heard it through a grapevine of people.

 

[Houston Eagle]

I figure at this point you have to ride out the season with whomever you have....

 

[Shifty_Eagle]

They are some kind of horrible.

With this ridiculously bad schedule, they should be close to undefeated at this point.

Instead.....well.....we lose a series to Oakland and several games against some of the worst teams in the country.

Thanks for killing our program, Coach Berry.

 

[Legendary Eagle]

It's not dead. We just dropped off after Corky, and have not regained any ground. But we're at least not losing ground. We still have talent. We're still competitive. These kids go out and tear it up in summer leagues. They just need better coaching. There's a reason Berry is in the last year of his contract. We will have a new coach next year. But the scary thing is that McGillis will make the hire. That makes me more than a little nervous.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Shifty_Eagle]

Originally posted by Legendary Eagle:
It's not dead. We just dropped off after Corky, and have not regained any ground. But we're at least not losing ground. We still have talent. We're still competitive. These kids go out and tear it up in summer leagues. They just need better coaching. There's a reason Berry is in the last year of his contract. We will have a new coach next year. But the scary thing is that McGillis will make the hire. That makes me more than a little nervous.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

Right on. Baseball is the one program we can compete in as far as facilities, support, tradition, talent, etc.

When Berry took over after 09, he was handed a program that had everything going for it. On a silver platter.

Simply put, the guy has failed pretty miserably at his job. If I would've told anyone in 2009 that we would miss regionals in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.....people would've lost their minds. Put that is what's going to happen.

This post was edited on 3/9 5:54 PM by Shifty_Eagle

 

[SoMissFan]

I remember back around four years ago we were getting outstanding signees. It was exciting for the baseball program. I remember that the mindset of most fans wasn't whether or not we would have a team good enough to make the regionals, but whether the team would make it back to the Super Regionals- and just maybe a return to the College World Series. What we're seeing now is not what anyone expected for the future. What makes it sadder is that we actually have some quality pitching right now- but we still struggle to win games. And I'm not buying the excuse that our lack of hitting has to do with the baseball. Plenty of teams out there are tearing the hide off the ball.

As for a new coach, I hope we end up with a truly dynamic and talented up and coming coach. Please, no "old school" coaches that would be the baseball equivalent of Ellis Johnson. And please, PLEASE, reject any coaching applicant whose core belief is that playing "Small Ball" is the foundation of a successful baseball program.

 

[Eagle has landed]

Berry could have saved himself and the fans by hiring another hitting coach. We should have offered Hoff whatever he wanted to come by our hitting coach this season. Alternatively, we should have cut everyone loose (although I think Federico has done a nice job) and hired Goff from Campbell Univ. (now at La. Tech).

 

[Shifty_Eagle]

Federico is the only one who has earned his pay.

He hasn't been phenomenal.....we still have the occasional Seth Hester and Taylor Nunez-like debacles, but he always puts together a solid rotation.

It's every other facet of the game that we suck at. Literally every other facet.

 

[usmstud]

My biggest issue with Federico is how he manages the staff. Winston's been very good and only threw 14 pitches in two innings against Ole Miss Wednesday and then doesn't pitch all weekend. Saturday with a two run lead he goes to Coughlin who hadn't pitched coming back from knee surgery and Livingston who's coming back from Tommy John surgery.

 

[Gary O]

Originally posted by Eagle has landed:

Berry could have saved himself and the fans by hiring another hitting coach. We should have offered Hoff whatever he wanted to come by our hitting coach this season. Alternatively, we should have cut everyone loose (although I think Federico has done a nice job) and hired Goff from Campbell Univ. (now at La. Tech).

We could have got Pierce 2 years ago or either of Goff or Deggs last year. The choices this year are less obvious, unless we can steal Goff from La Tech or Deggs from SHSU.

 

[eagleboy415]

I'm sorry I just can't agree with the Federico reviews here. I'll give him that this year has been solid and our losses, for the most part, have been on a lack of hitting. But every other year before now we've struggled having a bullpen that could get outs at all. Just because this year has been good doesn't excuse the previous years where it was awful.

 

[eaglenjxn]

Originally posted by Shifty_Eagle:
Federico is the only one who has earned his pay.

He hasn't been phenomenal.....we still have the occasional Seth Hester and Taylor Nunez-like debacles, but he always puts together a solid rotation.

It's every other facet of the game that we suck at. Literally every other facet.

Federico????

Our pitching staff has relied on JUCO transfers who were already essentially finished products and were great from jump street (Pierce, Fisk, Talley). I would actually include Roney in that category, as he was lights out from the start and got by on his natural talent (while still struggling with control). There are certainly some high school pitchers you can point to as success stories (Thomas, Drehoff, Carroll). But there are far too many Jay Myrick's, Nick Johnson's, Cameron Giannini's, Seth Hester's, Taylor Nunez's, etc. who have outstanding talent but either regress or do not develop. Regardless of what McMahon gives us this year, I would even put him in that category given that it took until his fifth year in the program for us to see progress.

We have got to have the only pitching staff in the country as high as we have in strikeouts but as low in walks/HBPs and team ERA. That fact, in itself, tells you that our staff has a ton of talent but struggles with fundamentals (i.e. throwing the ball over the plate).

Is he head and shoulders above Caillet and whoever handles fielding? Absolutely. That's not saying much, though.



This post was edited on 3/11 10:25 AM by eaglenjxn

 

[Shifty_Eagle]

So what if they're JuCo?

Some of our best recent starters have been JuCo....doesn't change the fact that they were great pitchers. They got the job done. Copeland, Pierce, Talley, Fisk....I'll take those players any day.

As far as the bullpen, yeah.....we usually only have 1 or 2 guys we can put in there and trust not to completely blow a game for us. But I imagine most college programs struggle with this.

Not saying Federico has been a home run. But he's been good. Rotation is always solid, always have a great closer.

As far as choosing pitchers and how many innings.....that is ultimately Berry's call.

 

[usmstud]

Nothing wrong with JUCO pitchers. His point was that Federico hasn't done a very good job of developing pitchers. Nunez was talented enough to get drafted twice, but we didn't see much improvement from him while he was here.

 

[eaglenjxn]

Originally posted by Shifty_Eagle:
So what if they're JuCo?

Some of our best recent starters have been JuCo....doesn't change the fact that they were great pitchers. They got the job done. Copeland, Pierce, Talley, Fisk....I'll take those players any day.

As far as the bullpen, yeah.....we usually only have 1 or 2 guys we can put in there and trust not to completely blow a game for us. But I imagine most college programs struggle with this.

Not saying Federico has been a home run. But he's been good. Rotation is always solid, always have a great closer.

As far as choosing pitchers and how many innings.....that is ultimately Berry's call.

The point is that the JUCO pitchers you mention (and Roney, for that matter) required little development on Federico's part. They were essentially finished products. That is a credit to recruiting far moreso than the pitching coach.

Many college programs do struggle with their bullpen. Many college programs also didn't have the #3 recruiting class in the country three years matured last year plus some fantastic JUCO transfers. Our bullpen last year was a stockpile of guys with power arms and plus breaking stuff. Hell, let's take Jay Myrick--a fifth-year senior last year--who threw in the low-to-mid 90's with an absolute wipeout curveball. This was a guy that had basically a one-month stretch of being untouchable in 2013 and struggled his entire career. Taylor Nunez had so much talent that he was still drafted after three years of not being able to throw strikes and one surgery. I could keep going on this rant but I'll stop here.

I would even have less of a problem with Federico if it wasn't always control issues that our pitchers struggled with. Even Roney never got that figured out but he was so talented that he could walk the bases loaded with nobody out and strike the next three guys out.

This post was edited on 3/13 10:54 AM by eaglenjxn

 

[Shifty_Eagle]

It was vintage Scott Berry coached baseball tonight, fellas. Holy crap that was awful.

 

[Houston Eagle]

I'd like to hear the excuse why he wan't canned some time ago....can $$$$ be an issue for a baseball coach?

 

[usmstud]

Not realistic to think he should have been fired already. We're on our third AD during Berry's tenure. Giannini hired him and had no reason to get rid of him prior to retiring. Hammond was interim AD and had basketball and football coaching searches to deal with. McGillis has only been on the job a little over a year so doubt he was inclined to make an immediate change.

 

[Houston Eagle]

The program has been in a slide since Berry took over. Corky's players helped (along with help from Memphis when they beat ECU) win the tourney in 2010 otherwise no regional that year. USM was making regionals almost yearly with Corky Palmer then things began to go south. I keep reading how "fundamentally unsound" the players mechanics are (reflects on coaching).

What frustrates me the most is how BASEBALL actually outdraws basketball, but yet that very program is going in the wrong direction.

 

[sprint-draw gandy!]

Originally posted by Houston Eagle:
The program has been in a slide since Berry took over. Corky's players helped (along with help from Memphis when they beat ECU) win the tourney in 2010 otherwise no regional that year. USM was making regionals almost yearly with Corky Palmer then things began to go south. I keep reading how "fundamentally unsound" the players mechanics are (reflects on coaching).

What frustrates me the most is how BASEBALL actually outdraws basketball, but yet that very program is going in the wrong direction.

lets also keep in mind how much stronger the conference was before Corky retired. Berry cant even win with the biggest cupcake scheduling in the history of the program. if we still had to play series against east carolina, houston, central florida and tulane (and taking the usual beating from Rice), it would be an even bigger disaster - just to put it in perspective of how fast Berry has destroyed this program. we've also dropped a strong ULL program. prob first year in 30+ years not playing them. Berry did everything he could do to play the weakest schedule in history to TRY to get some victories but he still cant hide how terrible he is. TERRIBLE!!!!

 

[eaglenjxn]

I get what you are saying, Houston, and there is nothing to disagree with there. There's absolutely no debate about the program's decline under Berry. It is evident in the record, evident in the statistics and evident when you see the way these players either regress or don't progress over the course of their careers.

As was said above, though, we haven't had an AD in position to fire Berry. The program may have been at its peak of excitement when Giannini left, coming off of an excellent season and the #3 recruiting class coming in. 2012 was a rebuilding year. There was no way an interim AD would fire Berry after 2013, and it still probably didn't make sense to do so after one disappointing year. Last year was McGillis' first year, and he wasn't going to fire him.

Because it is a non-revenue sport, baseball coaches are rarely fired anyway. Unless McGillis feels heat to do so, I seriously doubt Berry will be pushed out this year either.

This post was edited on 3/16 10:14 AM by eaglenjxn