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Are midweek baseball games less important ?


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Just noticed ole miss was beaten by North Alabama.  Is this less important? Does it count for less when considering overall rankings and post season play? Just seems like a lot of sec teams struggle mid week. I get they are not using their best pitchers but trying to understand the big picture with this type of game in the loss column.

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For teams in the SEC, the mid-week games are an opportunity to stay in game shape, give younger and less experienced pitchers an opportunity to throw in competitive situations and coaches to have an opportunity for "lab experiments".  The down side is that the opponents come in looking to make a statement and the disparity in mental focus often leads to losses.  The only place they have much bearing is on the RPI.  When I was at Auburn Coach Nix had a rule that if a pitcher threw a strike in an 0-2 count, he had to run a mile in under a certain time.  I once saw a guy walk away from his scholarship in a mid-week game against FIU for just such a mistake.  He felt like it wasn't that big of a deal, because the game didn't really matter.  Nix saw it otherwise.

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18 minutes ago, PowerOfDixieland said:

For teams in the SEC, the mid-week games are an opportunity to stay in game shape, give younger and less experienced pitchers an opportunity to throw in competitive situations and coaches to have an opportunity for "lab experiments".  The down side is that the opponents come in looking to make a statement and the disparity in mental focus often leads to losses.  The only place they have much bearing is on the RPI.  When I was at Auburn Coach Nix had a rule that if a pitcher threw a strike in an 0-2 count, he had to run a mile in under a certain time.  I once saw a guy walk away from his scholarship in a mid-week game against FIU for just such a mistake.  He felt like it wasn't that big of a deal, because the game didn't really matter.  Nix saw it otherwise.

I love old school discipline! I am obviously old. Gotta worry about everyone’s self esteem these days.  

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1 minute ago, BJCrawford said:

I love old school discipline! I am obviously old. Gotta worry about everyone’s self esteem these days.  

I take it you saw Scott Van Pelt's commentary on Tom Izzo's concern over self estem...?  

 

 

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23 hours ago, PowerOfDixieland said:

For teams in the SEC, the mid-week games are an opportunity to stay in game shape, give younger and less experienced pitchers an opportunity to throw in competitive situations and coaches to have an opportunity for "lab experiments".  The down side is that the opponents come in looking to make a statement and the disparity in mental focus often leads to losses.  The only place they have much bearing is on the RPI.  When I was at Auburn Coach Nix had a rule that if a pitcher threw a strike in an 0-2 count, he had to run a mile in under a certain time.  I once saw a guy walk away from his scholarship in a mid-week game against FIU for just such a mistake.  He felt like it wasn't that big of a deal, because the game didn't really matter.  Nix saw it otherwise.

JMO but generally they don't matter except when you lose them.   I realize coaches are between the rock and hard spot about how they approach a game but...pretty much making a gift of the game like last night.....I"m wondering is anyone pitching for AU learned anything useful?  

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4 hours ago, AU64 said:

I"m wondering is anyone pitching for AU learned anything useful?  

You know the answer to that...I guarantee with Butch Thompson and Steve Smith they did.

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It's okay to get beat up while you're trying to experiment in a couple mid-weekers in a season, but when you start dropping 2 or three in a row, it can have an effect on your overall record, of course, and ultimately keep you out of a hosting bid, or even a tournament bid. 

I don't think Auburn getting beat two weeks in a row by an SEC and a good ACC team is anything to get all up in arms about, but if Auburn plays pretty well this weekend, then lays an egg against Jacksonville State next week, that is certainly not good, and the mid-week would need to be re-evaluated. What I hope is that we can get Owen and Daniel back in the next week or so, and work them back in. It may be a good idea to have them start on a weekday at some point, come in for relief on the Sunday game of that week, and then start the next week, assuming all goes well. 

In a perfect world, we would go Burns, Daniel, Owen on the weekend, and then I might put Brooks Fuller in that midweek starting spot. Brooks pitched really well last Saturday against SC, and I think he has earned a starting spot in that midweek game if Daniel or Owen can't go. You want to have a great bullpen, but 4 solid starters ought to win you a lot of games.  

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53 minutes ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

 

In a perfect world, we would go Burns, Daniel, Owen on the weekend, and then I might put Brooks Fuller in that midweek starting spot. Brooks pitched really well last Saturday against SC, and I think he has earned a starting spot in that midweek game if Daniel or Owen can't go. You want to have a great bullpen, but 4 solid starters ought to win you a lot of games.  

Theoretically true but most college starters are fortunate to make it through 5 or 6 innings.....and we still need several guys to finish up those games....in addition to the mid week games.  

If we were hitting better we could plan on just outscoring the mid week and Sunday teams but it's not working well at the moment. 

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To the original question, winning the mid-week game is nice, but a loss is not terrible. I think its most important for players who are slumping or struggling a bit, and we have a few of those pitching and hitting. They need a strong mid-week game to get their confidence back and carry the momentum into the SEC weekend. We’ve not done that the past two weeks. I hope we put it together against the Hogs. 

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More ranked teams lost, midweek, than not this week.  Ole Miss, UConn, Clemson, Coastal Carolina (x2), NC State, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Texas, Oregon State, Arizona State, Texas Tech and Auburn.

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2 hours ago, PowerOfDixieland said:

More ranked teams lost, midweek, than not this week.  Ole Miss, UConn, Clemson, Coastal Carolina (x2), NC State, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Texas, Oregon State, Arizona State, Texas Tech and Auburn.

Wow. Now that’s a pretty eye-opening stat

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21 hours ago, PowerOfDixieland said:

More ranked teams lost, midweek, than not this week.  Ole Miss, UConn, Clemson, Coastal Carolina (x2), NC State, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Texas, Oregon State, Arizona State, Texas Tech and Auburn.

JMO but it's not just about the winning or losing...it's how its done....and the Tech game was awful.....a winnable game if anyone could have thrown some strikes.   That's the thing the coaches have to work on the most. 

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22 minutes ago, AU64 said:

JMO but it's not just about the winning or losing...it's how its done....and the Tech game was awful.....a winnable game if anyone could have thrown some strikes.   That's the thing the coaches have to work on the most. 

Yeah, 'cause after they post the score they draw a picture about how it looked.  

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22 minutes ago, PowerOfDixieland said:

Yeah, 'cause after they post the score they draw a picture about how it looked.  

of course not.....but I'd think that one objective aside from winning would be for the younger guys to get some useful experience. When you run three or four of your prime freshmen into the game and virtually none of them has even modest control and can't last more than a few batters......that's a double loss in my view. 

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5 minutes ago, AU64 said:

of course not.....but I'd think that one objective aside from winning would be for the younger guys to get some useful experience. When you run three or four of your prime freshmen into the game and virtually none of them has even modest control and can't last more than a few batters......that's a double loss in my view. 

Image result for failure is the best teacher

Especially in sports.

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