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What Is Needed to Be Successful in SEC Softball


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17 hours ago, ellitor said:

He still needs to recruit better hitters. That's the difference from the power conferences like the SEC & PAC 12 to other conferences. You can be highly successful in other conferences with a dominant arm or 2. In the SEC & PAC 12 teams need to more well rounded.

Apologize if off main topic but relates to type of team you assemble and maybe speaks to your point about being well rounded. 

Looking at SEC conference stats only and ranking teams numerically based on category rank seems to make some points but also begs some questions.  For category rank will look at the metrics of Batting Average, Earned Run Average and Fielding Percentage ; hitting , pitching and fielding.  Keep in mind that in some of these categories the difference between say a #1 and a #2 may be very slight to be nearly insignificant.  Clearly there are other metrics within these categories that may be revealing. 

SEC Finish                                            BA          ERA        FLD%                     total points

1 Alabama 18-6                                 4              1              7                              12          

2 Tennessee 14-10                          6              5              4                              15

2 LSU 14-10                                         1              9              3                              13

2 Kentucky 14-10                              2              6              1                              9

5 Ole Miss 13-10                               8              2              6                              16

There were 4 teams tied at 6th with record of 12-12 but interesting to look at Florida.  AU added for comparison

6 Florida 12-12                                   13           4              2                              19

10 Auburn 10-14                                 11           10           5                              26

Bottom three teams

S Carolina 9-14                                  9              8              11                           28

Miss. State 9-15                                3              11           10                           24          

T A&M  6-18                                       12           13           12                           37

As a broad generalization, of the teams listed (did not include Arkansas or Missouri) it seems that in order to be successful you need to be better than average in at least 2of the 3 categories which is somewhat reflected in the “total points” with lower being better.  In looking at some of this in the past it has seemed to me that if you had a choice between being good at hitting vs good at fielding you usually came out better with the former.   Kentucky seems to be somewhat of an outlier and I would need to look into that one deeper.  Obviously, everyone does not play the same schedule.  Florida is interesting in that they were last in batting average but were able to ride Barnhill and good fielding all the way to the World Series.  Surprised AU finished as “high” as they did based on above. 

I mentioned other metrics within these 3 broad categories and a look at the BA for Alabama may be an illustration.  Even though their BA was #4 in terms of HR’s #2, Slg% #2, BB clear #1 and fewest SO #2.

For this next season, having lost our top 2 pitchers and pitching being a question mark,  we are going to need to be a much improved hitting team and good fielding team.  If we could get what I would term “middle of the pack” pitching I believe we would be a better team than this past season.  Obviously. The loss of your #1 pitcher at beginning of SEC play has a big impact. 

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OK, I found the stats page for SEC games only and did the OPS numbers,  Turns out no team's "total points" changed more than 2 points.  uat was second in OPS and their total dropped to 10, equal to UK, who went up one.  UT added 2 to 17, and Auburn stayed the same.  SC and MSU both wound up at 26, same as us.  A&M wound up at 38.

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10 hours ago, OlderWhiskey said:

Interesting to look at.  I don't have the time right now, but an interesting tweak would be to use OPS instead of BA.

& runs scored per game. Both stats are much more important than batting average.

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9 hours ago, OlderWhiskey said:

OK, I found the stats page for SEC games only and did the OPS numbers,  Turns out no team's "total points" changed more than 2 points.  uat was second in OPS and their total dropped to 10, equal to UK, who went up one.  UT added 2 to 17, and Auburn stayed the same.  SC and MSU both wound up at 26, same as us.  A&M wound up at 38.

What are these numbers? ranks in the nation? I think slot was only looking at ranks in the SEC.

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16 hours ago, slot canyon said:

 

16 hours ago, slot canyon said:

In looking at some of this in the past it has seemed to me that if you had a choice between being good at hitting vs good at fielding you usually came out better with the former.

Probably explains Clint Meyers "pitch to contact" approach with the talent he had on the team.

 

 

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7 hours ago, ellitor said:

What are these numbers? ranks in the nation? I think slot was only looking at ranks in the SEC.

Slot was ranking each team in the SEC on ERA, BA, and Fielding percentage.  The three rank nos were then added, so that uat originally had an overall total of twelve.  (1 for ERA, 4 for BA, and 7 for fielding. ) Using OPS instead of BA, uat ranked 2d, so their total dropped to 10.  We ranked exactly the same on BA and OPS, so our total didn't change.  Hope that clarifies.

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6 minutes ago, OlderWhiskey said:

Slot was ranking each team in the SEC on ERA, BA, and Fielding percentage.  The three rank nos were then added, so that uat originally had an overall total of twelve.  (1 for ERA, 4 for BA, and 7 for fielding. ) Using OPS instead of BA, uat ranked 2d, so their total dropped to 10.  We ranked exactly the same on BA and OPS, so our total didn't change.  Hope that clarifies.

Oh. Your 30s numbers were throwing me off.

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On 7/15/2019 at 4:03 PM, ellitor said:

Oh. Your 30s numbers were throwing me off.

Texas A&M was that bad.  They were 13th in ERA, 13th in OPS, and 12th in fielding.  I guess Arkansas saved them from the Triple Commode.

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Maybe they read your post, Slot, but Mississippi State has fired Vann Steudemann after 8 years.  Here's the text from Softball America:

Mississippi State has relieved Vann Stuedeman of her head coaching duties.

In eight seasons in Starkville, Miss., Stuedeman compiled a record of 276–189, advanced to the NCAA Tournament in seven seasons and recorded the second-most wins in program history.

Softball America will update this story as details become available.

 

 

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39 minutes ago, OlderWhiskey said:

Maybe they read your post, Slot, but Mississippi State has fired Vann Steudemann after 8 years.  Here's the text from Softball America:

Mississippi State has relieved Vann Stuedeman of her head coaching duties.

In eight seasons in Starkville, Miss., Stuedeman compiled a record of 276–189, advanced to the NCAA Tournament in seven seasons and recorded the second-most wins in program history.

Softball America will update this story as details become available.

 

 

From 247 sports:

"Stuedeman finishes her head coaching career in Starkville with an overall record of 275-188 and had just one losing season in eight years, but her teams never finished higher than seventh in the Southeastern Conference which came in her first season on campus. She had a 69-127 conference record."

She seemed a bit wacky to me.   

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Relative to the national standings it's hard for me to rate the power of the SEC. The league gets lots of attention and is well respected but seems that overall, things have leveled out and we have maybe two or three very good teams and the rest have settled into a middle ground where season records just vary a game or two and mostly they are indistinguishable.    

Looking at AU for example,  just a few key hits and maybe fewer errors could have shifted us up in the standings several notches.   There seems to be plenty of room for AU to move up in the SEC rankings since just about every team is beatable.

So...what are the things that DMD must do this year to get back into the top 3 of the SEC?  

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33 minutes ago, AU64 said:

So...what are the things that DMD must do this year to get back into the top 3 of the SEC?  

Not sure there's much he can do to get that high this season. TBH I'm just praying we don't end up in the cellar. We'd probably still make the NCAA Tourney but finishing last in conference would suck.

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1 hour ago, AU64 said:

Relative to the national standings it's hard for me to rate the power of the SEC. The league gets lots of attention and is well respected but seems that overall, things have leveled out and we have maybe two or three very good teams and the rest have settled into a middle ground where season records just vary a game or two and mostly they are indistinguishable.    

Looking at AU for example,  just a few key hits and maybe fewer errors could have shifted us up in the standings several notches.   There seems to be plenty of room for AU to move up in the SEC rankings since just about every team is beatable.

So...what are the things that DMD must do this year to get back into the top 3 of the SEC?  

Bottom 5 if we are lucky and freshman come through.  Pitching needs a miracle and we need to learn how to hit SEC pitching.

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I think that we will be doing well to get out of the bottom half; but to answer your question, I think we'd need at least one stud pitcher of the Montana Fouts variety, and boost our SEC hitting by 20 points.  We do have coach Lenti now, which is a wild card and a reason to have some optimism.

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Nobody mentioned hitting.....seems that alone could make a big difference...….hitting last year was abismal.....and should be easy to improve on that....JMO

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33 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Nobody mentioned hitting.....seems that alone could make a big difference...….hitting last year was abismal.....and should be easy to improve on that....JMO

 

10 hours ago, OlderWhiskey said:

I think that we will be doing well to get out of the bottom half; but to answer your question, I think we'd need at least one stud pitcher of the Montana Fouts variety, and boost our SEC hitting by 20 points.  We do have coach Lenti now, which is a wild card and a reason to have some optimism.

?????

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1 hour ago, AU64 said:

Nobody mentioned hitting.....seems that alone could make a big difference...….hitting last year was abismal.....and should be easy to improve on that....JMO

I don’t think most of us expect a big enough change in hitting to make a difference. I know I don’t. It’s a glaring weaknesses. I just don’t see it getting dramatically if any better with the current roster.

 Looks like whiskey pointed out he did mention hitting.

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17 hours ago, OlderWhiskey said:

Texas A&M was that bad.  They were 13th in ERA, 13th in OPS, and 12th in fielding.  I guess Arkansas saved them from the Triple Commode.

Yet Stuedeman is out on the street, and Evans still has a job.   Go figure.

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7 hours ago, EagleEye67 said:

Yet Stuedeman is out on the street, and Evans still has a job.   Go figure.

I know what you mean but looking at the overall picture, Van Stuedeman  has been at State for 8 years and has overall SEC % wins of 35% compared to Evans 44% wins competing in SEC since A&M joined 7 years ago.  In that same 7 year period, , they have been to the regionals, or super regionals and even made a trip to WCWS in that time.  After they went to WCWS in 2017 she signed a 5 yr extension through 2022.  Last I saw, she was making about $245K.    She has been the head SB coach at T A&M since 1997.  Also, their top pitcher, Samantha Show, transferred out prior to last season.  Not making excuses, just saying she may have some "sympathy coins" in her pocket.

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Besides Show, who was a stud pitcher/hitter, four other players left aTm after the 2018 season.  I think most of them were starters.  Can't recall all the names, but Sarah Hudek and Keeli Milligan were two of them.  Maybe Kaitlyn Alderink.  The #1 2018 pitcher, Trinity Harrington, graduated, as did the starting catcher, shortstop, and centerfielder.  Finally, the homer-hitting first baseman, Tori Vidales, graduated.

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Hitting can be coached up, and not just one individual but the whole team. Clint Myers proved that with the change in our hitters as soon as he took over Auburn's softball. Now, one of our coaches working a similar miracle is doubtful, but it is possible. Myers proved that.

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7 hours ago, Mikey said:

Hitting can be coached up, and not just one individual but the whole team. Clint Myers proved that with the change in our hitters as soon as he took over Auburn's softball. Now, one of our coaches working a similar miracle is doubtful, but it is possible. Myers proved that.

I believe this has been mentioned in some other posts, but there was a down trend during the last couple of years when Myers was coach.  Looking at conference only stats:

2013 (pre-Myers)  .239

2014(Myers)            .264

2015                          .329

2016                          .289

2017                           .228

2018 (post Myers)   .211

2019                            .226

No doubt, CCM and his staff made vast improvements in a team he basically inherited and coached them to their full potential.  Without getting into a lot of speculation, not sure why hitting took big down turn his last year.  Hopeful to see the trend move in a positive direction this season.  

Something I will add here that I thought was interesting was Auburn players who have been selected as first, second or third team All Americans. during the span from 2001 - 2013 there were five.  From 2014-2017 there were 10 consisting of Cooper x3, Carosone x3, Howard, Rhodes, Melero and Carlson once each.

 

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1 hour ago, slot canyon said:

not sure why hitting took big down turn his last year.

Most anything negative that happened in his last year could be blamed, rightly or not, on the situation that brought the end of the Myers Era at Auburn. I can see a team that's upset and has factions not taking coaching and not paying attention to detail as well as they would otherwise.

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