baseball vs. Georgia Tech game thread

[SCTiger2011 1,277]

2 minutes ago, AU64 said:

YEP...and only 7th inning.....

Tech picked up another run...base hit and  miss-play on runner advancing, etc....but score is now 10-5...and Tech has really done little earn all those runs. 

I'm guessing this stat is hard to find, but has the broadcast said how many of those 9 free baserunners have scored?

[FUZZYAUFAN 134]

10-5 now going to top of 8. Last year through first 15 SEC games AU was 6-9 and this year AU is 8-7. Last year AU went 9-6 the last 15 games to ensure an NCAA bid. If AU can get find a way to get 7 wins in last 15 SEC games I am sure this team will be in the NCAA tournament. It will start with needing to take 2 of 3 from Ole Miss this weekend and probably a sweep of BAMA at home in a few weeks. I will be at the Friday night BAMA game. My twins are graduating Saturday and Sunday. 

[AU64 10,122]

Just now, SCTiger2011 said:

I'm guessing this stat is hard to find, but has the broadcast said how many of those 9 free baserunners have scored?

have not heard....and AU pitchers have stranded a pretty good number of Tech runners so it's hard to figure it.   Mostly they have kept innings alive and pushed base runners into scoring position. 

[AU64 10,122]

OK...AU adds another run making it 10-6 in bottom of 8th.....the way the game is being played this one is not out of reach IMO....AU has lots of hits and tech with 3 errors...but AU has about a dozen left on base too.

 

[AU64 10,122]

Gray in to try and finish the game.....needs to keep this score where it is. 

 

[AU64 10,122]

Entire new infield for AU and two new outfielders ...except for Williams....Butch giving everyone a chance I guess.

 

[AU64 10,122]

And that is the 10th BB of the game.....UNBELIEVABLE ….Pitchers must have  thrown nearly 200 pitches by now

[AU64 10,122]

Well, tech gets another run making it 11-6 and this is our last shot at it.    Tech stranded two more runners...much be up to about 15 by now.  They have had a great number of base runners tonight. 

[AU64 10,122]

Auburn starts the 9th with back to back base hits....

[AU64 10,122]

Well….that's it....11-6 as the final two AU batters go down on strikes and leaving two runners on. 

BAD pitching pretty much from start to finish.   

Need some better results when OM comes to town. 

[SumterAubie 3,031]

Sigh

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

Well….that's it....11-6 as the final two AU batters go down on strikes and leaving two runners on. 

BAD pitching pretty much from start to finish.   

Need some better results when OM comes to town. 

Don't expect it. If Auburn wins the series it will be a nice surprise. Jack Owen may pitch a little but he won't take over the starter role and go 6-7 innings. Saturday will probably be another pitch by committee and hope somebody can find the strike zone kind of day. 

Auburn's schedule is brutal for the next 10 days....and we face Vandy without our full pitching rotation and our hitters are in a slump they can't seem to shake. I'm really worried about that series.

[Mikey 16,550]

These guys might be freshmen, but they are college scholarship pitchers! I don't see being freshmen as an excuse for the obscene number of walks we are giving up. 10 walks in one game would be a disaster for any rec league team. This has got to stop if we hope to be able to call this a successful season when it's over.

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

1 minute ago, Mikey said:

These guys might be freshmen, but they are college scholarship pitchers! I don't see being freshmen as an excuse for the obscene number of walks we are giving up. 10 walks in one game would be a disaster for any rec league team. This has got to stop if we hope to be able to call this a successful season when it's over.

Yes but these are still very young college students, and pitching at this level is extremely stressful. This is all new to them and they are mostly raw talent with control issues that need work. They are really not ready for what they've been asked to do. It will pay off next season because those kids will have fire-tested experience. It's not the ideal way to develop young pitchers. But it is what it is and there's not much Butch can do about it.

 

[doc4aday 1,887]

I do not want to give up on this team and look to next year. I remember when our basketball team was at a crossroads and a lot of us including Doc was ready to give up and look to 2020. Those young men turned things around in ways non of us could have imagined.

Does this baseball team have the same constitution as the basketball team? I think they do and will hope and pray that this uptick in good fortune is just around the corner for our boys of summer! 

[au302 2,669]

Interesting article by Jason Caldwell with Butch saying he’s been patient enough but he’s got to get a new rhythm going with the club. Interesting to see if there’s any changes this weekend. Maybe Butch takes over as third base coach for a game or two or maybe he benches some guys who are not playing to their abilities. Something to send a message to the players and coaches. Heck, I wouldn’t mind if Butch gets thrown out a game at this point to try to light a fire under these guys. Anything at this point

[AU64 10,122]

8 hours ago, Tigerbelle said:

Yes but these are still very young college students, and pitching at this level is extremely stressful. This is all new to them and they are mostly raw talent with control issues that need work. They are really not ready for what they've been asked to do. It will pay off next season because those kids will have fire-tested experience. It's not the ideal way to develop young pitchers. But it is what it is and there's not much Butch can do about it.

 

JMO but this is more than just being freshmen..and keep  in mind, some of the players having problems are not freshmen...some are transfers and upperclassmen.  .it's pretty much the entire bunch and not just isolated incidents....has been going on for a month  and seems to involve most of the  bullpen and back-up pitchers. 

More than just injuries....pitching is in real trouble with no long relief.   Guys warm up in the bullpen, look sharp, then come to the mound and take warm up pitches and look fine....and when the first batter steps to the plate, there is no telling what will happen.  

Lots of credit to Fuller for what he's been able to do but right now he's the exception.

JMO but this kind of stuff puts great pressure on Burns.....he's in a " must win" situation when he starts with not much support behind him and Cody can't pitch long relief and close also.  

At least OM is at Auburn which allows the guys to play in a familiar site....hope being at home will calm things down. .

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

10 hours ago, Mikey said:

These guys might be freshmen, but they are college scholarship pitchers! I don't see being freshmen as an excuse for the obscene number of walks we are giving up. 10 walks in one game would be a disaster for any rec league team. This has got to stop if we hope to be able to call this a successful season when it's over.

Exactly. Same distance to home plate from the mound in HS. I could understand if our guys were getting hit all over the ballpark, but they're generally not. They're walking almost every other batter and really putting the pressure on themselves. I know we'll be better for it in the future, but man we need something good to happen. You can tell the guys are frustrated. Will Holland pretty much screamed in frustration after GT singled in a run with 2 outs. You could see him just express all his emotion when the ball was thrown back into the infield. 

What's amazing is last year's team was actually in such a similar spot record wise. At 37 games into the season last year, Auburn was 25-12, just one game better than what they are currently. That team almost hosted a regional and went to a Super, as we all know. They're also leading last year's team in SEC wins by 2 at this point at 8-7. You just have to think that a team with this much talent is gonna find that one spark that gets them going. 

Last season, it looked like MSU was going to take the series from us, and continue our woes, but Brendan Venter hit a 3 run HR to tie it up, and Auburn ended up winning the game. For me, that was the turning point last season when we really got our mojo back. Maybe something like that needs to happen again. Hopefully we get it this weekend against OM. This Auburn team has so much dern talent on it, they've just got to string together some success. On the bright side, Auburn hit the ball all over the yard last night at times...

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

There is a HUGE difference between SEC pitching and high school pitching. A lot more is required and these kids have to learn how to pitch to overall better talent. That takes time. Just having a good arm is not enough. The same goes for junior college transfers.  Distance to the plate has nothing to do with it. Davis Daniel has all the talent in the world but he had a very rough transition from high school to the huge pressure of starting in the SEC. 

I can't believe you all don't understand it. Greg Olsen and Mark Fuller have both said all of this that I'm saying about the upheaval caused by having 2 starters out, and young guys being asked to step up when they aren't ready. They have discussed it more than once.....

Our older pitchers are also being asked to do more than they normally would. You all said the same things last year when our closers were out with injuries. Look how much it affected Calvin Coker and Andrew Mitchell. They had to adjust to being used a lot more, and they were not really as comfortable or as successful as they were before the other injuries. Coker in particular struggled with the extra burden. And I can guarantee it had nothing to do with the distance to home plate. 

[Gowebb11 9,310]

1 hour ago, Tigerbelle said:

There is a HUGE difference between SEC pitching and high school pitching. A lot more is required and these kids have to learn how to pitch to overall better talent. That takes time. Just having a good arm is not enough. The same goes for junior college transfers.  Distance to the plate has nothing to do with it. Davis Daniel has all the talent in the world but he had a very rough transition from high school to the huge pressure of starting in the SEC. 

I can't believe you all don't understand it. Greg Olsen and Mark Fuller have both said all of this that I'm saying about the upheaval caused by having 2 starters out, and young guys being asked to step up when they aren't ready. They have discussed it more than once.....

Our older pitchers are also being asked to do more than they normally would. You all said the same things last year when our closers were out with injuries. Look how much it affected Calvin Coker and Andrew Mitchell. They had to adjust to being used a lot more, and they were not really as comfortable or as successful as they were before the other injuries. Coker in particular struggled with the extra burden. And I can guarantee it had nothing to do with the distance to home plate. 

There’s no question losing two high quality arms has hurt this team. But its not like Butch is expecting freshman to go into Baton Rouge and give the team 7 innings of shutout ball. Any pitcher worthy of an SEC scholarship should be able to give 4-5 innings in a mid week game throwing strikes. Especially at home. If they get hit, they git hit, but giving up 9-10 walks a game is unacceptable at any level.  Some of the walks given up are completely non-competitive pitches. There’s two reasons not to throw strikes: mechanics, which look pretty sound on most of these guys, and fear of being hit. They have to get over that fear if they want to pitch at the college level. Butch is having to go 5-6 pitchers deep in Tuesday games, which is wearing down bullpen guys for the weekend. 

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

22 hours ago, Gowebb11 said:

There’s no question losing two high quality arms has hurt this team. But its not like Butch is expecting freshman to go into Baton Rouge and give the team 7 innings of shutout ball. Any pitcher worthy of an SEC scholarship should be able to give 4-5 innings in a mid week game throwing strikes. Especially at home. If they get hit, they git hit, but giving up 9-10 walks a game is unacceptable at any level.  Some of the walks given up are completely non-competitive pitches. There’s two reasons not to throw strikes: mechanics, which look pretty sound on most of these guys, and fear of being hit. They have to get over that fear if they want to pitch at the college level. Butch is having to go 5-6 pitchers deep in Tuesday games, which is wearing down bullpen guys for the weekend. 

I'm sorry you don't get it. But these kids don't just walk in straight from HS ready to pitch as SEC starters. You have a very simplistic view of what it takes to become an effective SEC pitcher.  And not every kid is going to be able to reach success at the same pace. They all have different areas that need work. 

[HitandRun5 28]

They have been throwing , learning to pitch in the SEC since last fall.  They should have progressed more. They are sophomores in 1 month. Time to grew up and show you are an SEC pitcher who can take it from bullpen to field.  If not, move over to give the opportunity to someone else.

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

3 hours ago, HitandRun5 said:

They have been throwing , learning to pitch in the SEC since last fall.  They should have progressed more. They are sophomores in 1 month. Time to grew up and show you are an SEC pitcher who can take it from bullpen to field.  If not, move over to give the opportunity to someone else.

Nothing in fall practice or a couple of exhibition games compares to pitching in an actual SEC game. Not even close. It takes time to adjust. Just because Auburn finds itself 2 men down doesn't mean that the young pitchers should be able to just flawlessly step in right out of the gate. It doesn't work like that.

Gregg Olson talked about it again tonight. I'll take his word on it since he actually knows what he's talking about.

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

On 4/17/2019 at 8:26 PM, Gowebb11 said:

There’s no question losing two high quality arms has hurt this team. But its not like Butch is expecting freshman to go into Baton Rouge and give the team 7 innings of shutout ball. Any pitcher worthy of an SEC scholarship should be able to give 4-5 innings in a mid week game throwing strikes. Especially at home. If they get hit, they git hit, but giving up 9-10 walks a game is unacceptable at any level.  Some of the walks given up are completely non-competitive pitches. There’s two reasons not to throw strikes: mechanics, which look pretty sound on most of these guys, and fear of being hit. They have to get over that fear if they want to pitch at the college level. Butch is having to go 5-6 pitchers deep in Tuesday games, which is wearing down bullpen guys for the weekend. 

Learning to manage that fear is something that comes with time, exposure, and maturity. Having 2 starters out so early in the season was unfortunate, but eventually the situation will stabilize and the young pitchers will settle in. It's just about there with Fuller and Fitts.