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Baseball at FL Game 3


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1 minute ago, AU64 said:

True but kinda looked like everyone was satisfied to win that one game.....past the first inning, it's been a really lackadaisical game by AU today.... 

I disagree. When the pitching is off like today there's just not much that can be done. It's not a lack of desire. It's just a pitching break down. I kinda figured this would be a problem in game 3. I did think we'd win Casey's game 1 if we won at all and I was wrong about that.

Plus the FL pitcher didn't give Auburn much to work with today but they did make a lot of noise early when he gave them opportunities. FL is just formidable.

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1 minute ago, Tigerbelle said:

I disagree. When the pitching is off like today there's just not much that can be done. It's not a lack of desire. It's just a pitching break down. I kinda figured this would be a problem in game 3. I did think we'd win Casey's game 1 if we won at all and I was wrong about that.

Plus the FL pitcher didn't give Auburn much to work with today but they did make a lot of noise early when he gave them opportunities. FL is just formidable.

That's fine...but the pitching is part of the team and when nobody past Mitchell on the mount could find the plate it is a PROBLEM....and the mound is the same distance from the plate and the strike zone is more or less the same size.....No good reason for all those walks...not sure what your definition of "breakdown is" but what we saw was lack of focus .....and heads not in the game all over the place...JMO...

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AU falls 12-3.  Falls to 31-14 and 10-11 SEC.  After 3 today, AU had a chance to give themselves a cushion down the last stretch of 3 series, but self-inflicted wounds and poor pitching made it non-competitive early.  Don't think any player on the squad would admit to this being a well-focused, well-played game for them.

That said, Auburn accomplishes what you want to do on the road and takes 1.  Home against Vandy next week.  At Ole Miss the following week.  End with LSU at home.  Take 2/3 at the two home series and your Tigers should be locks to be regional bound. Add one win on the road and .500 in a stacked conference is achievable.  

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13 minutes ago, AU64 said:

That's fine...but the pitching is part of the team and when nobody past Mitchell on the mount could find the plate it is a PROBLEM....and the mound is the same distance from the plate and the strike zone is more or less the same size.....No good reason for all those walks...not sure what your definition of "breakdown is" but what we saw was lack of focus .....and heads not in the game all over the place...JMO...

What you're implying is that they didn't care....by saying they were satisfied with one win. I am saying that is simply not true. They WANT to win and no they are not happy with losing. Pitchers don't WANT to be non-competitive but sometimes they are. Coker was asked to do more than he's really set up to do because the bullpen is weak. It's not like the Auburn players don't know that. They are well aware of their limitations. I NEVER SAID it wasn't a problem so not sure where you are getting that. I actually said it WAS the problem. That still doesn't mean the team is satisfied with getting beat. I don't think it's a lack of focus.....a large part of it is just a lack of ability. It's not like this is the only time we've seen this happen.

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11 minutes ago, Tigerbelle said:

What you're implying is that they didn't care....by saying they were satisfied with one win. I am saying that is simply not true. They WANT to win and no they are not happy with losing. Pitchers don't WANT to be non-competitive but sometimes they are. Coker was asked to do more than he's really set up to do because the bullpen is weak. It's not like the Auburn players don't know that. They are well aware of their limitations. I NEVER SAID it wasn't a problem so not sure where you are getting that. I actually said it WAS the problem. That still doesn't mean the team is satisfied with getting beat. 

Play nice, guys :grouphug:.  As someone who rarely comes to 64's defense (and he doesn't need it, the old grouch ;)), in baseball there's a big difference in not being focused and not caring.  You can care about winning, but not be "all there" for one play or for one batter and quickly put yourself in a hole.  I think that's what we saw today.  Auburn got caught in situations where yesterday they would bear down and today they didn't.  College pitchers in the SEC don't put 11 guys on base with free passes if they're locked in, no matter how bad of a day it is for them.  Guys don't let miscommunication let two balls drop between them if they're focused and locked in on the task at hand.  Does that mean they didn't care if the ball was caught or didn't care if they walked a guy ?  No, its not the same as not caring.  It just means that moments of less than stellar focus let this game get out of hand regardless of the amount of care given.  BUT...at least it wasn't a sweep and the goals are still ahead of the team 

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1 minute ago, SCTiger2011 said:

Play nice, guys :grouphug:.  As someone who rarely comes to 64's defense (and he doesn't need it, the old grouch ;)), in baseball there's a big difference in not being focused and not caring.  You can care about winning, but not be "all there" for one play or for one batter and quickly put yourself in a hole.  I think that's what we saw today.  Auburn got caught in situations where yesterday they would bear down and today they didn't.  College pitchers in the SEC don't put 11 guys on base with free passes if they're locked in, no matter how bad of a day it is for them.  Guys don't let miscommunication let two balls drop between them if they're focused and locked in on the task at hand.  Does that mean they didn't care if the ball was caught or didn't care if they walked a guy ?  No, its not the same as not caring.  It just means that split seconds of less than stellar focus let this game get out of hand regardless of the amount of care given.  BUT...at least it wasn't a sweep and the goals are still ahead of the team 

You missed the point. He was saying they were satisfied with one win.....which is ridiculous. Auburn made mistakes yesterday too btw. Focus has nothing to do with bullpen talent. Auburn just doesn't have much right now and that's the way it is. 

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18 minutes ago, Tigerbelle said:

You missed the point. He was saying they were satisfied with one win.....which is ridiculous. Auburn made mistakes yesterday too btw. Focus has nothing to do with bullpen talent. Auburn just doesn't have much right now and that's the way it is. 

I'm saying they were subconsciously satisfied with one win.....you read it correctly.  That was what everyone was wanting going into the series.   One or two players having an off day is one thing but when an entire pitching staff can't find the plate that is a team problem as were the fielding issues.     It this were football we would say the coach should have had them ready to play....but this is baseball.....and here too perhaps, the coach should have had them ready to play.  

Somewhere up above a couple pages ago, it was described as a "circular problem" and that sounds about right.....entire team out of sync for the game. ...and maybe the coaches too....bringing in DD with bases loaded and no outs....:dunno: .....he's not the guy who was getting Ks early in the season.   Coker had a better chance of getting someone to ground into a DP and maybe getting out of the inning with only a run or two.    Mitchell got himself into some trouble on his own but he deserved a better fate. 

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3 minutes ago, AU64 said:

I'm saying they were subconsciously satisfied with one win.....you read it correctly.  That was what everyone was wanting going into the series.   One or two players having an off day is one thing but when an entire pitching staff can't find the plate that is a team problem as were the fielding issues.     It this were football we would say the coach should have had them ready to play....but this is baseball.....and here too perhaps, the coach should have had them ready to play.  

Somewhere up above a couple pages ago, it was described as a "circular problem" and that sounds about right.....entire team out of sync for the game. ...and maybe the coaches too....bringing in DD with bases loaded and no outs....:dunno: .....he's not the guy who was getting Ks early in the season.   Coker had a better chance of getting someone to ground into a DP and maybe getting out of the inning with only a run or two.    Mitchell got himself into some trouble on his own but he deserved a better fate. 

“Once we opened the door for them, they did not let go of us,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “We had a fly ball and four walks in that fourth inning, a couple of two-strike hits and they just didn’t relent. Even in the consecutive innings after, they didn’t let up. We got off to a quick start, but we just didn’t finish well. As well as last night went, our team has to understand we still have a ton of work to do.”

It would seem the boss sensed his team wasn't fully into it as well.

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Big next three series. We could be a regional host or a 3 seed depending on how we play the next 3 weekends. 6-3 would put us at 16-14 and 40-17 considering we win all our midweek games. That will be tough, but I don’t believe impossible. 

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13 minutes ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

Big next three series. We could be a regional host or a 3 seed depending on how we play the next 3 weekends. 6-3 would put us at 16-14 and 40-17 considering we win all our midweek games. That will be tough, but I don’t believe impossible. 

Please amend this to say "regional host or sitting at home" so I don't blame you for what would be a typical Auburn 1-8/2-7 finish. :no:

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1 hour ago, SCTiger2011 said:

Please amend this to say "regional host or sitting at home" so I don't blame you for what would be a typical Auburn 1-8/2-7 finish. :no:

If that happens, I’ll accept full responsibility. As long as 1-8 doesn’t happen, I think we’re in. RPI is too high and I think a 12 win SEC team is getting in this year...

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15 minutes ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

If that happens, I’ll accept full responsibility. As long as 1-8 doesn’t happen, I think we’re in. RPI is too high and I think a 12 win SEC team is getting in this year...

The nature of the SEC standings also creates an interesting dynamic for the number of bids the conference will get. The record for one conference is 10, which has happened twice. In both previous instances (the 2014 SEC and 2016 ACC), the three worst teams in the league all finished with conference winning percentages under .400, helping to pad the rest of the teams’ record without hurting their RPI. That will not be the case in this year’s SEC. Instead, it appears outside of Florida at the top and Alabama at the bottom, the rest of the conference will wind up with 12-17 SEC wins. Getting to .500 in the SEC will ensure any team of a berth and just getting to 13 or 14 SEC wins will probably at least put a team on the bubble. It is not difficult to imagine a scenario where the SEC breaks the record for most bids.

From Baseball America's Field of 64 projection on Friday.  I think 13 is as low as I'd want to test your theory.  While true the SEC is as strong as ever, D1 baseball on their podcast this week mentioned a "soft as ever" bubble this year due to 3 one-bid mid major conferences each on track to put 3 teams in the tournament, which would take 6 bids away from everybody else.  Kendall Rogers has stuck to 14 wins as a minimum to get in from the SEC all year as has Aaron Fitt.  Baseball America is the first group I've seen give 13 win teams a shot, and this is assuming conference tourney season doesn't yield bid stealers.  

Luckily, Vandy isn't "typical Vandy" this year, and at home, a series win isn't as much of a problem as it's been in year's past.  I'll feel a lot better about penning Auburn in to a field of 64 discussion if the next three Fridays can yield 3 Casey Mize wins.  Not the time of the season to repeat last years 7 straight loss collapse, that's for sure.  But should be some fun, meaningful baseball the next three weeks.  

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18 minutes ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

If that happens, I’ll accept full responsibility. As long as 1-8 doesn’t happen, I think we’re in. RPI is too high and I think a 12 win SEC team is getting in this year...

Also, if 1-8 happens, it'll be the perfect JABA mood-setter to hold us fans over for AU-UW three months later :rollin:

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20 hours ago, AU64 said:

I'm saying they were subconsciously satisfied with one win.....you read it correctly.  That was what everyone was wanting going into the series.   One or two players having an off day is one thing but when an entire pitching staff can't find the plate that is a team problem as were the fielding issues.     It this were football we would say the coach should have had them ready to play....but this is baseball.....and here too perhaps, the coach should have had them ready to play.  

Somewhere up above a couple pages ago, it was described as a "circular problem" and that sounds about right.....entire team out of sync for the game. ...and maybe the coaches too....bringing in DD with bases loaded and no outs....:dunno: .....he's not the guy who was getting Ks early in the season.   Coker had a better chance of getting someone to ground into a DP and maybe getting out of the inning with only a run or two.    Mitchell got himself into some trouble on his own but he deserved a better fate. 

Except.....the pitching meltdown has happened before....and so have the errors......in other games. It's not limited to this one series.  And as I said earlier you are kidding yourself if you think those kids don't want to win every game. They knew game 1 was behind their premier pitcher and they had hoped to win that one at least because Casey usually does win his games. They also know that FL is loaded with talent in every single position but especially pitching which is Auburn's weakness. What they didn't expect was swapping a win in game 1 for the huge win in game 2. No one saw that coming. Having a plan against a superior team does not equal a lack of desire to win any game they can.  But the reality is that there's Casey and Tanner Burns and past that right now pitching is a toss-up. The game 1 loss made a series win unlikely given the Auburn pitching issues but in baseball you just never know.  They jumped on the gator freshman pitcher yesterday right off the bat when he gave them the opportunity. But 3 runs was not going to be enough with Auburn's ineffective pitching and FL pitchers' ability to shut down offenses. Auburn was still up there trying to get runs across anyway. Not sure where you saw anybody conceding game 3 until it really was out of reach.

As for DD.....he can be great for a few innings and Butch really had few options. He was hoping that DD could come out in relief and use his talent effectively for a couple of innings.  And that doofus behind the plate was so unpredictable that Calvin was a risk too considering the way he pitches. Calvin is very good when he comes out as the closer, and that really should've been his main role this season but it is what it is.. Much longer outings are not his forte' and he starts to struggle.  Auburn has no reliable middle relief pitchers past Greenhill at this point in time. I think DD may come around in that role but he really is a work in progress. Butch has to let him get out there and work through it in pressure situations so that in the future DD can hopefully reach his potential. If he's going to be a reliever then he will most often come in with runners on base. It's not a low stress position either.

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21 hours ago, SCTiger2011 said:

“Once we opened the door for them, they did not let go of us,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “We had a fly ball and four walks in that fourth inning, a couple of two-strike hits and they just didn’t relent. Even in the consecutive innings after, they didn’t let up. We got off to a quick start, but we just didn’t finish well. As well as last night went, our team has to understand we still have a ton of work to do.”

It would seem the boss sensed his team wasn't fully into it as well.

That's not at all what he's saying. He's saying they will need to learn from their mistakes and not make them in the future if they want to win in this league. If anything....those younger ones can be overconfident at times because they excelled where they were before coming into the SEC. He wants them to learn how to overcome their mistakes and still pull out a win.. That's not at all an implication that the team didn't care because they got their 1 win. Butch knows what he has to work with and that's just coach speak....stating the obvious..... mainly for the fans. 

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On 4/28/2018 at 6:12 PM, tigerbrotha12 said:

Big next three series. We could be a regional host or a 3 seed depending on how we play the next 3 weekends. 6-3 would put us at 16-14 and 40-17 considering we win all our midweek games. That will be tough, but I don’t believe impossible. 

There are only two mid week games left.  I still think they're going to get to 40 wins by finishing at 17-13 in the conference.

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1 hour ago, PowerOfDixieland said:

There are only two mid week games left.  I still think they're going to get to 40 wins by finishing at 17-13 in the conference.

Ah that’s right- I see. If this team goes 7-2 the last three weekends that would be phenomenal

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12 hours ago, Tigger1985 said:

Lack of bullpen talent goes back to coaching and recruiting. Hopefully we improve on both.

Not trying to blow you up, but that's an inane observation.  We HAVE improved...can't go from irrelevant to LSU in two years.  But we can already go toe to toe with anybody.

 

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