Reflection of 2016 baseball season

[doc4aday 1,887]

I rarely post anything outside of the football forum, but wanted to see others take on this years baseball season. I do not remember in a long, long time seeing a season with so many loses. Were expectations very high for this season? Was a season like this expected? I think there are others like me who want to know the status of our baseball program. I was surprised with the way this season unfolded and really thought that we had far better talent on hand and would have had a winning season. I do hope better things are on the horizon for 2017.

[Mikey 16,578]

It was what it was. Our one-time #10 rated recruiting class dropped down into the lower 20's because of Golloway's recruiting violations. It was an unfortunate timing for a coaching change too. I do feel like Butch Thompson is the right man for the job, so lets give him two more years before calling for the guillotine.

[AU64 10,122]

It was what it was. Our one-time #10 rated recruiting class dropped down into the lower 20's because of Golloway's recruiting violations. It was an unfortunate timing for a coaching change too. I do feel like Butch Thompson is the right man for the job, so lets give him two more years before calling for the guillotine.

Regardless of the recruiting class....we had almost an entire team back with NCAA tournament experience.....though from that recruiting class we got some good players in Buentello and Palacios who in my view were the only guys who played the entire season like they were serious.

Butch may be the man but he's going to have to do a big 180 on his coaching and game management style. JMO.

[Mikey 16,578]

It was what it was. Our one-time #10 rated recruiting class dropped down into the lower 20's because of Golloway's recruiting violations. It was an unfortunate timing for a coaching change too. I do feel like Butch Thompson is the right man for the job, so lets give him two more years before calling for the guillotine.

Regardless of the recruiting class....we had almost an entire team back with NCAA tournament experience.....though from that recruiting class we got some good players in Buentello and Palacios who in my view were the only guys who played the entire season like they were serious.

Butch may be the man but he's going to have to do a big 180 on his coaching and game management style. JMO.

Unless almost everyone concerned is an outright liar, Golloway had to go or we'd have been in deep with the NCAA. Did you have a better candidate for the job than Butch Thompson?

[AU64 10,122]

It was what it was. Our one-time #10 rated recruiting class dropped down into the lower 20's because of Golloway's recruiting violations. It was an unfortunate timing for a coaching change too. I do feel like Butch Thompson is the right man for the job, so lets give him two more years before calling for the guillotine.

Regardless of the recruiting class....we had almost an entire team back with NCAA tournament experience.....though from that recruiting class we got some good players in Buentello and Palacios who in my view were the only guys who played the entire season like they were serious.

Butch may be the man but he's going to have to do a big 180 on his coaching and game management style. JMO.

Unless almost everyone concerned is an outright liar, Golloway had to go or we'd have been in deep with the NCAA. Did you have a better candidate for the job than Butch Thompson?

Not really....but who is that guy from Samford that everyone just had to have?

Just noting that when a team loses more than a 80% of the one run games it is involved in, a good deal of that is about coaching decisions.....and likely results from the fact that despite his lengthy coaching career, he probably never had to make all the decisions he was faced with last year as the HC.

Hoping the off season gives him an opportunity to develop his own HC philosophy that will enable him and AU to win those close games.

[ellitor 33,091]

Regardless of the recruiting class....we had almost an entire team back with NCAA tournament experience.

Incorrect. Only 17 of 32 players on this year's team was here last season. That's only 53%.

[ellitor 33,091]

I rarely post anything outside of the football forum, but wanted to see others take on this years baseball season. I do not remember in a long, long time seeing a season with so many loses. Were expectations very high for this season? Was a season like this expected? I think there are others like me who want to know the status of our baseball program. I was surprised with the way this season unfolded and really thought that we had far better talent on hand and would have had a winning season. I do hope better things are on the horizon for 2017.

Unfortunately Doc this was in essence a throw away year that virtually means nothing going forward. After Sunny was fired in the Fall that took away most expectations. To answer your questions expectation were not high after Sunny was fired. For the most part a season like this was expected. The team was expected to hit well & for the most part they did. Pitching was expected to be pretty bad & it was for the most part. The status of the program is there is a lot of Roster build up that has to be done. Sunny ran off what would be next year's entire Jr class before he left. It's hard to win in the SEC without a quality Jr class. Butch will have 0 Jrs that came to AU from high school.

In my mind The real job for Butch did not start til his first true recruiting class which just signed & the 2017 season given the mess of Sunny. Even then I don't see AU having a winning SEC record before the 2018 season but would not expect it til 2019 due to needed roster build up & development.

[AU64 10,122]

Regardless of the recruiting class....we had almost an entire team back with NCAA tournament experience.

Incorrect. Only 17 of 32 players on this year's team was here last season. That's only 53%.

Gee E.....that's a bad effort to use statistics to make your point.

Check the starting line-up and players who saw the most time in 2015 vs those who played this season...essentially the same guys and Butch and Sunny rarely played guys off the bench unless there was an injury.

I mean do you really think we bad year because a dozen bench riders left ? Not a meaningful position player left the team between 2015 and 2016.

Check the link below and note that the top 9 position players from last season were back again..... plus Buentello, Palcious (though injured) and Foster.

http://www.auburntigers.com/sports/m-basebl/stats/2014-2015/teamcume.html

I grant you that pitching took a hit.....though the guys who joined the team this year were as good as those who departed.

The team batting average was up substantially but most stats were similar except that errors went from 61 to 85.

The wild card in all of this is Keegan Thompson....but he was not the difference in a winning season and what we suffered through. JMO

[steeleagle 2,945]

I agree mostly with what you addressed.

The errors were killers in my opinion. You can win a lot of close games with defense and pitching, and since those were our weakest areas, the results are not surprising.

The left side of our infield was terrible. I believe a large percentage of our errors were from them. And with a shaking pitching staff, the more they had to up there pitch count due to the errors only magnified our losing.

So why did we have such a poor D? Was depth so poor that CBT had to just bite the bullet and put his best offensive players out there?

I agree that in baseball, it seems a coaching change never turns around a program quickly, but i still have worries that there was not more improvement in any area of this team other than a coach who handled the losing better than the prior coach, and is a players coach much more than SG. I hope this will show with better players and recruiting now...

[ellitor 33,091]

Regardless of the recruiting class....we had almost an entire team back with NCAA tournament experience.

Incorrect. Only 17 of 32 players on this year's team was here last season. That's only 53%.

Gee E.....that's a bad effort to use statistics to make your point.

I was not trying to make a point. Just pointing out your quoted posted was incorrect as it was written.

[ellitor 33,091]

The left side of our infield was terrible. I believe a large percentage of our errors were from them. And with a shaking pitching staff, the more they had to up there pitch count due to the errors only magnified our losing.

So why did we have such a poor D? Was depth so poor that CBT had to just bite the bullet and put his best offensive players out there?

Nulph Dees, & Haecker have always made quite a bit of errors in their AU careers. Apparently you can't coach mistakes out of some kids fielding wise. Given their track record of bad fielding before this year I'm not putting that on CBT. And yes I think CBT felt he had to bite the bullet so to speak in that regard as best players available, not necessary for offense but either alternatives were worse or Sunny did not leave many alternatives left.

[AU64 10,122]

The left side of our infield was terrible. I believe a large percentage of our errors were from them. And with a shaking pitching staff, the more they had to up there pitch count due to the errors only magnified our losing.

So why did we have such a poor D? Was depth so poor that CBT had to just bite the bullet and put his best offensive players out there?

Nulph Dees, & Haecker have always made quite a bit of errors in their AU careers. Apparently you can't coach mistakes out of some kids fielding wise. Given their track record of bad fielding before this year I'm not putting that on CBT. And yes I think CBT felt he had to bite the bullet so to speak in that regard as best players available, not necessary for offense but either alternatives were worse or Sunny did not leave many alternatives left.

True....same error-prone guys from last season were error-prone again. Seems it's possible to teach guys to hit but maybe like tendency to fumble in football, there are some things that you can't change very easily.

.

[PowerOfDixieland 3,226]

It was what it was. Our one-time #10 rated recruiting class dropped down into the lower 20's because of Golloway's recruiting violations. It was an unfortunate timing for a coaching change too. I do feel like Butch Thompson is the right man for the job, so lets give him two more years before calling for the guillotine.

I keep reading your references to Golloway's recruiting violations yet I can find absolutely nothing to validate said repeated references. Please provide a link.

[Mikey 16,578]

It was what it was. Our one-time #10 rated recruiting class dropped down into the lower 20's because of Golloway's recruiting violations. It was an unfortunate timing for a coaching change too. I do feel like Butch Thompson is the right man for the job, so lets give him two more years before calling for the guillotine.

I keep reading your references to Golloway's recruiting violations yet I can find absolutely nothing to validate said repeated references. Please provide a link.

I don't have a link. If I did, our program would be in trouble. I'm not the only one that has posted about Sonny's recruiting shortcuts. I don't know why the persons I've heard this from would lie, but if you don't like what they've said, simply don't believe it.

[ellitor 33,091]

It was what it was. Our one-time #10 rated recruiting class dropped down into the lower 20's because of Golloway's recruiting violations. It was an unfortunate timing for a coaching change too. I do feel like Butch Thompson is the right man for the job, so lets give him two more years before calling for the guillotine.

I keep reading your references to Golloway's recruiting violations yet I can find absolutely nothing to validate said repeated references. Please provide a link.

I don't have a link. If I did, our program would be in trouble. I'm not the only one that has posted about Sonny's recruiting shortcuts. I don't know why the persons I've heard this from would lie, but if you don't like what they've said, simply don't believe it.

He doesn't & that's ok. I got it from 3 separate sources, a friend who works in the baseball program. The other 2 were posts written by Bryan Matthews & Jason Caldwell for AU Rivals & ITAT respectively. POD feels Sunny could do know wrong and that's fine for him to believe that if he wants.

[AU64 10,122]

It was what it was. Our one-time #10 rated recruiting class dropped down into the lower 20's because of Golloway's recruiting violations. It was an unfortunate timing for a coaching change too. I do feel like Butch Thompson is the right man for the job, so lets give him two more years before calling for the guillotine.

I keep reading your references to Golloway's recruiting violations yet I can find absolutely nothing to validate said repeated references. Please provide a link.

I don't have a link. If I did, our program would be in trouble. I'm not the only one that has posted about Sonny's recruiting shortcuts. I don't know why the persons I've heard this from would lie, but if you don't like what they've said, simply don't believe it.

He doesn't & that's ok. I got it from 3 separate sources, a friend who works in the baseball program. The other 2 were posts written by Bryan Matthews & Jason Caldwell for AU Rivals & ITAT respectively. POD feels Sunny could do know wrong and that's fine for him to believe that if he wants.

I don't think that's an adequate answer.....If he committed NCAA violations we would at a minimum have turned ourselves in with secondary or primary violations. Thus far there has been nothing official anywhere about the violations..nothing from AU with details and nothing from the NCAA.

I don't care which friend or beat writer makes the comment, sounds like a bunch of guys justifying the action....all that was missing was a comment from Marshall. I guess if I were Sunny's mouthpiece, I would be asking AU to prove that an NCAA violation was committed...and see whether AU is willing to take a hit from the NCAA in order to win a contract dispute.

I'm fine with the need to fire Sunny....but seems pretty strange that AU might be willing to admit to NCAA violations in order to justify the firing....and yet, if there were some true NCAA violations someone at the NCAA would be interested (we are not bama after all) and don't you know that al,com would be all over them....and yet.....crickets....

Nobody has apparently heard from Coach Holliday...like he disappeared into outer space somewhere.....and yet it was "leaked" a ways back that he was the person holding improper tryouts or something.

I sure don't want AU strung up on NCAA violations but the total lack of official confirmation makes that sound like a BS argument to justify the firing without a financial settlement. JMO.

[Mikey 16,578]

It was what it was. Our one-time #10 rated recruiting class dropped down into the lower 20's because of Golloway's recruiting violations. It was an unfortunate timing for a coaching change too. I do feel like Butch Thompson is the right man for the job, so lets give him two more years before calling for the guillotine.

I keep reading your references to Golloway's recruiting violations yet I can find absolutely nothing to validate said repeated references. Please provide a link.

I don't have a link. If I did, our program would be in trouble. I'm not the only one that has posted about Sonny's recruiting shortcuts. I don't know why the persons I've heard this from would lie, but if you don't like what they've said, simply don't believe it.

He doesn't & that's ok. I got it from 3 separate sources, a friend who works in the baseball program. The other 2 were posts written by Bryan Matthews & Jason Caldwell for AU Rivals & ITAT respectively. POD feels Sunny could do know wrong and that's fine for him to believe that if he wants.

I don't think that's an adequate answer.....If he committed NCAA violations we would at a minimum have turned ourselves in with secondary or primary violations. Thus far there has been nothing official anywhere about the violations..nothing from AU with details and nothing from the NCAA.

I don't care which friend or beat writer makes the comment, sounds like a bunch of guys justifying the action....all that was missing was a comment from Marshall. I guess if I were Sunny's mouthpiece, I would be asking AU to prove that an NCAA violation was committed...and see whether AU is willing to take a hit from the NCAA in order to win a contract dispute.

I'm fine with the need to fire Sunny....but seems pretty strange that AU might be willing to admit to NCAA violations in order to justify the firing....and yet, if there were some true NCAA violations someone at the NCAA would be interested (we are not bama after all) and don't you know that al,com would be all over them....and yet.....crickets....

Nobody has apparently heard from Coach Holliday...like he disappeared into outer space somewhere.....and yet it was "leaked" a ways back that he was the person holding improper tryouts or something.

I sure don't want AU strung up on NCAA violations but the total lack of official confirmation makes that sound like a BS argument to justify the firing without a financial settlement. JMO.

You could also look at the recruits that were supposed to be at Auburn this season but for some odd reason were were "encouraged" to go elsewhere before they showed up on campus. But of course, that's not a solid link to avoiding NCAA problems. It's just another brick in the wall.

[ellitor 33,091]

It was what it was. Our one-time #10 rated recruiting class dropped down into the lower 20's because of Golloway's recruiting violations. It was an unfortunate timing for a coaching change too. I do feel like Butch Thompson is the right man for the job, so lets give him two more years before calling for the guillotine.

I keep reading your references to Golloway's recruiting violations yet I can find absolutely nothing to validate said repeated references. Please provide a link.

I don't have a link. If I did, our program would be in trouble. I'm not the only one that has posted about Sonny's recruiting shortcuts. I don't know why the persons I've heard this from would lie, but if you don't like what they've said, simply don't believe it.

He doesn't & that's ok. I got it from 3 separate sources, a friend who works in the baseball program. The other 2 were posts written by Bryan Matthews & Jason Caldwell for AU Rivals & ITAT respectively. POD feels Sunny could do know wrong and that's fine for him to believe that if he wants.

I don't think that's an adequate answer.....If he committed NCAA violations we would at a minimum have turned ourselves in with secondary or primary violations. Thus far there has been nothing official anywhere about the violations..nothing from AU with details and nothing from the NCAA.

I don't care which friend or beat writer makes the comment, sounds like a bunch of guys justifying the action....all that was missing was a comment from Marshall. I guess if I were Sunny's mouthpiece, I would be asking AU to prove that an NCAA violation was committed...and see whether AU is willing to take a hit from the NCAA in order to win a contract dispute.

I'm fine with the need to fire Sunny....but seems pretty strange that AU might be willing to admit to NCAA violations in order to justify the firing....and yet, if there were some true NCAA violations someone at the NCAA would be interested (we are not bama after all) and don't you know that al,com would be all over them....and yet.....crickets....

Nobody has apparently heard from Coach Holliday...like he disappeared into outer space somewhere.....and yet it was "leaked" a ways back that he was the person holding improper tryouts or something.

I sure don't want AU strung up on NCAA violations but the total lack of official confirmation makes that sound like a BS argument to justify the firing without a financial settlement. JMO.

You could also look at the recruits that were supposed to be at Auburn this season but for some odd reason were were "encouraged" to go elsewhere before they showed up on campus. But of course, that's not a solid link to avoiding NCAA problems. It's just another brick in the wall.

Good call Mikey. I will try to dig up the 2015 & 2016 AU signees that ended up elsewhere the next couple of weeks.

[mustache eagle 2,398]

Neither party here would want "NCAA violations" being discussed openly. Would hurt both.

I've always assumed that Galloway was a jackwagon, but solid coach. Our PTB knew (or naively did not know it) when they hired him. He turned out to be exactly what he is - a jackwagon but solid coach.

He got fired for it. I put the blame on the PTB just as much as CSG. My guess is CSG did some things wrong - that justified, technically, being fired for. I also think a likeable, good coach would not have gotten fired for the same infractions. Just my completely uneducated opinion on the matter.

A good life lesson - not being a jackwagon is typically better than being a jackwagon ...

[ellitor 33,091]

Neither party here would want "NCAA violations" being discussed openly. Would hurt both.

I've always assumed that Galloway was a jackwagon, but solid coach. Our PTB knew (or naively did not know it) when they hired him. He turned out to be exactly what he is - a jackwagon but solid coach.

He got fired for it. I put the blame on the PTB just as much as CSG. My guess is CSG did some things wrong - that justified, technically, being fired for. I also think a likeable, good coach would not have gotten fired for the same infractions. Just my completely uneducated opinion on the matter.

A good life lesson - not being a jackwagon is typically better than being a jackwagon ...

He got fired for more than being a jackwagon. And violations are public as they are brushed on in his sue hearing documents. One of the things AU charges SG with is destroying evidence of NCAA violations. Also my understand on recruiting violations is they were avoided because CBT did not follow through w/ scholly money promises Sunny made to some players AU did not have. If they had signed & gotten those extra scholly money then AU would have had a NCAA violation.

[AU64 10,122]

Neither party here would want "NCAA violations" being discussed openly. Would hurt both.

I've always assumed that Galloway was a jackwagon, but solid coach. Our PTB knew (or naively did not know it) when they hired him. He turned out to be exactly what he is - a jackwagon but solid coach.

He got fired for it. I put the blame on the PTB just as much as CSG. My guess is CSG did some things wrong - that justified, technically, being fired for. I also think a likeable, good coach would not have gotten fired for the same infractions. Just my completely uneducated opinion on the matter.

A good life lesson - not being a jackwagon is typically better than being a jackwagon ...

He got fired for more than being a jackwagon. And violations are public as they are brushed on in his sue hearing documents. One of the things AU charges SG with is destroying evidence of NCAA violations. Also my understand on recruiting violations is they were avoided because CBT did not follow through w/ scholly money promises Sunny made to some players AU did not have. If they had signed & gotten those extra scholly money then AU would have had a NCAA violation.

Talking with my son last night...a kid he knows went to TCU on an academic scholarship and played 4 years and now is in high A baseball....got his education free while playing baseball. Another young man he knows from his youth league days played at Vandy and now is in the majors. He was telling my son that playing at Vandy was interesting. He had a partial baseball scholarship but said it was funny how money seemed to turn up in addition to his scholarship when he needed it. .....managed to get his education pretty much for free.

Now both of those are private schools but sounds like a number of schools have found ways to help their players and yet avoid NCAA issues. I bet Sunny was fired for doing at AU what he had been doing out in Oklahoma for years. He was an experienced coach and strikes me as unlikely he suddenly went rogue.

Not defending him but seems that some schools are better able (more creative) about managing and supplementing their limited baseball scholarships than others. ....and as has been suggested in the past, perhaps our compliance office is more strict than many schools.

[mustache eagle 2,398]

AU64, this seems plausible to me. My kid has flirted with the thought of pursuing soccer in college. I've heard many times ... The sport gets you in but the "academics" pays for it. I've looked at a few schools and if you have the grades you can put yourself in general academic scholarship pools ... My guess would be the applications that meet the academic requirements and are also athletic scholly kids move to the top of the list ... Also I believe the coaching staff has advisors that know how to point kids to the right applications to help fill out the scholly monies ... I've heard multiple people discuss the scholarship packages.

[PowerOfDixieland 3,226]

One of the things AU charges SG with is destroying evidence of NCAA violations.

You know how this one goes....sheesh.

Video of a pitcher throwing a bullpen before he was cleared medically. The "violation" (throwing the pen) was reported to the administration by Golloway himself immediately afterward. The video, used to analyze mechanics, was deleted after the session because the staff realized there shouldn't be any teaching session with said video. Pretty sinister stuff.

But this is what Jay Jacobs is about. Why has he not been held accountable for the countless bad coaching hires?

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

It just got out of hand about midway through the season and became a season of "let's just see what we can do, and get out of this season." It was, I'd say, for the better that Auburn didn't make the SEC tournament, because it seems like it would've just been kind of demoralizing to go out there and be one and done. We would had to have won the tournament to get into the NCAA post-season. We probably would not have been able to go a few days, much less all the way. It's no slap on these guys' hands, they seemed like they gave Auburn as much effort as possible. When you get used to losing, though, that becomes the attitude. Winning becomes an anomaly and losses are kind of expected. Your goal becomes not to win multiple games but just to win a game. That's hard to get over. I'm expecting to see some good things next year, however. We may be in a good enough position to make a regional. We'll miss a few starters but some of these freshmen that Thompson has gotten are really good-looking players that he kind of saved this year.

Hitting was improved this year, fielding and pitching were not. We will see if it gets better next year, and I'm pretty optimistic.