MDM4AU 332 Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Tigers trail 9-4 in the bottom of the 5th. Gamecocks got 5 in the 2nd. Tigers cut it to 5-4 with 2 runs in the 4th and 2 runs in the 5th, but have given up 4 so far in the bottom of the 5th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM4AU 332 Posted April 15, 2007 Author Share Posted April 15, 2007 Correction... 12-4 now, 7 runs scored in the bottom of the 5th and still an out to go... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger12 46 Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 12-4 now and the inning is still not over with. Looks like I jinxed us by saying our pitching was back on track. Deja vu' folks. I can't listen to this train wreck anymore. They get my hopes up by making it a one run game and then this mess starts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle76 1 Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 18-4 usc After Friday night, I started to get some hope and excitement about the prospects for the rest of the season. Saturday's and Sunday's performance just about dashed those for me. This is not looking good at this stage. I'm not a Slater basher, but, things have to turn for the better if he wants to have any support from the AU nation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger12 46 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Like or dislike Slater, when your pitchers are this inconsistent and throw horrible games like they have the last couple of days, the head coach can't do much about that. At this point in their careers, those guys don't need Tom Slater to teach them how to throw the pill so that it does not get knocked around the park. However, Slater is responsible for the pitching coach on the staff, so I would be asking him what is going on in that department because if Slater does happen to keep his job, he sure needs to make some type of move to fix the inconsistent pitching. The inconsistent defense has hurt us plenty of times this year also. So, Coach Meyers works with both the pitchers and the defense as Coach Thompson works with the pitching staff only, so you have to hope Slater is riding their butts about these two problem areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PowerI 0 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 I think it is all over but the crying. Slater is history. If Auburn does not fire this guy at the end of the season, then we deserve him. You look at Florida, LSU, Georgia, and even bammer. They pay top dollar to get solid coaches, we settle, that's the damn problem. Even if we do fire this guy, will we go out and get a quality coach or will we take whatever we can get without spending top dollar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle76 1 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 There has been a lot of discussion in my office about AU's lack of recruiting in the B'ham area. I don't really keep up with our baseball signees like I do with football, but I did check the player's bios on our athletic web site. I was surprised that out of 38 players, only 3 were from B'ham area schools. I know that the B'ham area has outstanding talent in most years. I wonder why the lack of players coming from B'ham. The guys in the office that keep up with these things more than I, argue that we started our downhill slide when we stopped recruiting B'ham. Any comments or are these guys "out in right field"?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger12 46 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Well, the B'ham area used to be one of the top recruiting areas inside the state years ago, but both the North Alabama area and the Mobile area has become hotbeds of baseball recruits also. Then you have Mississippi that has always had top programs, like Booneville HS, and we started venturing in that territory a little. Basically B'ham still does probably produce more in-state prospects then anybody else, but they are not clearly the dominate hotbed the used to be. Thing is, our problem is not a talent issue, so you can't go that route. Our guys have show they can play with anybody in the country, when they want too. However, there is something mentally or internally going on that makes these guys play like gangbusters and then all of sudden shut it down for no apparent reason. PowerI, going by what you said about how we hire coaches, then why fire one lackluster coach just to hire another one? The only worse thing then hiring lackluster coaches is firing and hiring them every few years. Until the PTBs show they care about the baseball team, we will never be able to return to those good ole' days when we were consistent contenders for the SEC title and playing in the NCAAs. Your condemnation of the way we seem to hire baseball coaches I can totally agree with. That has been my whole point when you and Wryn have been calling for Slater's head for so long. Who are we going to replace him with, because he can recruit good talent, but if the PTBs do not show they are willing to go after a successful coach, why fire him and produce even more inconsistency in the program? If I knew they would hire a coach with an actual winning record, I would be all for it. But, I am afraid we will just settle again, and so starting all over with another mediocre coach is only going to probably be taking a step backward at worst and staying the same as it is now at best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PowerI 0 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Well, the B'ham area used to be one of the top recruiting areas inside the state years ago, but both the North Alabama area and the Mobile area has become hotbeds of baseball recruits also. Then you have Mississippi that has always had top programs, like Booneville HS, and we started venturing in that territory a little. Basically B'ham still does probably produce more in-state prospects then anybody else, but they are not clearly the dominate hotbed the used to be. Thing is, our problem is not a talent issue, so you can't go that route. Our guys have show they can play with anybody in the country, when they want too. However, there is something mentally or internally going on that makes these guys play like gangbusters and then all of sudden shut it down for no apparent reason. PowerI, going by what you said about how we hire coaches, then why fire one lackluster coach just to hire another one? The only worse thing then hiring lackluster coaches is firing and hiring them every few years. Until the PTBs show they care about the baseball team, we will never be able to return to those good ole' days when we were consistent contenders for the SEC title and playing in the NCAAs. Your condemnation of the way we seem to hire baseball coaches I can totally agree with. That has been my whole point when you and Wryn have been calling for Slater's head for so long. Who are we going to replace him with, because he can recruit good talent, but if the PTBs do not show they are willing to go after a successful coach, why fire him and produce even more inconsistency in the program? If I knew they would hire a coach with an actual winning record, I would be all for it. But, I am afraid we will just settle again, and so starting all over with another mediocre coach is only going to probably be taking a step backward at worst and staying the same as it is now at best. You have a point. However, it doesn't make sense to me that Auburn spends all this morning for Plainsman Park, one of the best baseball parks in all of college baseball, yet we REFUSE to spend the money to get a good coach. I just encourage anybody on this board that really cares about ALL of our sports program to voice their concerns to the administration. I have emailed the athletic depart. many times and expressed my opinions. Maybe if enough of us who truly care about Auburn's baseball program will do the same, we won't continue with the same trend of firing bad coaches and replacing them with worse or equally bad coaches. Maybe we will spend the money to get somebody that will take us to where we want to be. Or, maybe the problem is that there is not enough of us who really care about having a great baseball program. If the latter is the case, than I guess we can expect more of the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadioWryn 0 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 It appears that the Friday game was an aberration, yes. No, I'm not jumping off the bandwagon for one weekend series, but the situation is certainly troubling.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mowegl 4 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 I dont want to try to excuse these games, but (yes theres always a but) I think most of the problems come from the youth. They get tired, and are also a lot more inconsistent. Ive seen the same things in sports across the board. I think the same thing happened to the basketball team when they went for a slide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger12 46 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 PowerI, you are right, it does not make any sense to put all that money into Plainsmen Park and then just hire a mediocre coaches. I will admit I was not happy when they hired Slater also, but I was willing to give him a chance. I went ahead and ignored the fact he had a losing record because that is not uncommon for young coaches that have not had alot of talent to work with, so I assumed somebody must have saw something promising in him. The youth factor may be the only reason he keeps his job if the season continues as it does. He may have one more year to see what he does with a team that would be made up mostly of his recruits now since it would be his fourth year. I could see the fairness in that decision. The unwritten rule, or I guess a better word is "commom sense rule", of how long you keep a coach to give him a chance is 4-5 years, unless your team just totally sucks and does not win any games at all. However, there had better be a lot of improvement, because he would not have any excuses after next year. There a plenty of successful coaches at smaller D-1 or lower level college baseball teams that would leave for without having to even think about it. Somebody may need to remind Slater of that. In the meantime, as I mentioned earlier Slater needs to be reminding Coach Meyers and Thompson of their duties and the fact they have been apparently lacking in those duties. For the talented pitching we have to be that inconsistent, there is something definitely wrong that needs to be fixes and the same goes for the defense. Coach Meyers started wearing a lot of different hats this year, so that could be part of the problem. I don't know if that was Coach Slaters decision to do that and not hire another assistant or if it was the administration telling him he could not hire another assistant. I tend to think it was the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
80Tiger 899 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 I think what bothers some folks including me, is why did we fire Renfro to hire a no-name, " up and comer". I was not particularly high on Renfro, but to let him go and get an unproven commodity as head coach did not make sense. I also do not buy the youth issue. If the team is young it is because of Slater's on doing. I know of a couple of guys that left the team as senior when Slater was hired. Both of them said they would have liked to stayed but it was made clear they would not be contributors. A coach can play who he wants to but the consequences are his also. Lastly, the players do not seem to get better (this was a problem with Renfro also). Someone commented earlier that the coach couldn't do anything about pitchers being inconsistant . I have to disagree. At any level, coaching is supposed to help you get better. Slater is responsible for making the players better, pitchers or hitters. If pitching is inconsistant then the coach better be working on it to correct the problem. It is his ultimate responsibility., Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mowegl 4 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 I think what bothers some folks including me, is why did we fire Renfro to hire a no-name, " up and comer". I was not particularly high on Renfro, but to let him go and get an unproven commodity as head coach did not make sense. I also do not buy the youth issue. If the team is young it is because of Slater's on doing. I know of a couple of guys that left the team as senior when Slater was hired. Both of them said they would have liked to stayed but it was made clear they would not be contributors. A coach can play who he wants to but the consequences are his also. Lastly, the players do not seem to get better (this was a problem with Renfro also). Someone commented earlier that the coach couldn't do anything about pitchers being inconsistant . I have to disagree. At any level, coaching is supposed to help you get better. Slater is responsible for making the players better, pitchers or hitters. If pitching is inconsistant then the coach better be working on it to correct the problem. It is his ultimate responsibility., Renfro was a joke. He was taking the program down the tube. Thats why 4/5 of our players that play are sophomores and freshmen. Just give this guy a little time. This is only his third year. That means hes only had 2 years to recruit. And the players hes gotten in those 2 years are pretty dang good. They are just not all the way there yet. No one was calling for Lebos head in his third year. No one is complaining that those seniors left when he came in. I realize the baseball team has some privilages at Auburn that the basketball team doesnt, but you still have to give someone time to get players and make the moves. This team was in the top 10 this season. Its not like the season has been a total waste. Weve had a rough time in SEC play thus far - big deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
80Tiger 899 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 I think what bothers some folks including me, is why did we fire Renfro to hire a no-name, " up and comer". I was not particularly high on Renfro, but to let him go and get an unproven commodity as head coach did not make sense. I also do not buy the youth issue. If the team is young it is because of Slater's on doing. I know of a couple of guys that left the team as senior when Slater was hired. Both of them said they would have liked to stayed but it was made clear they would not be contributors. A coach can play who he wants to but the consequences are his also. Lastly, the players do not seem to get better (this was a problem with Renfro also). Someone commented earlier that the coach couldn't do anything about pitchers being inconsistant . I have to disagree. At any level, coaching is supposed to help you get better. Slater is responsible for making the players better, pitchers or hitters. If pitching is inconsistant then the coach better be working on it to correct the problem. It is his ultimate responsibility., Renfro was a joke. He was taking the program down the tube. Thats why 4/5 of our players that play are sophomores and freshmen. Just give this guy a little time. This is only his third year. That means hes only had 2 years to recruit. And the players hes gotten in those 2 years are pretty dang good. They are just not all the way there yet. No one was calling for Lebos head in his third year. No one is complaining that those seniors left when he came in. I realize the baseball team has some privilages at Auburn that the basketball team doesnt, but you still have to give someone time to get players and make the moves. This team was in the top 10 this season. Its not like the season has been a total waste. Weve had a rough time in SEC play thus far - big deal. Renfro's 4 year SEC record was 60-60 and he was fired. Slater is currently 22-39. If this year plays out at the same SEC winning percentage that AU currently has, Slater is projected to be 30-61 at the end of this year in the SEC. He would have lost more games in 3 years than Renfro did in 4 years. The point is that a lot of people (including me) do not think Slater is a top notch baseball coach. The AU basketball situation is so different than the baseball situation that you cannot compare. Lebo came in with a program in disaray and terrible facilities. Players left because they did not want to conform. As far as I know the baseball team was not in disaray when Slater arrived. Being ranked early in the season doesn't mean jack. It is where you finish. The facilities are some of the best in the nation. They were built with the intention of securing sub-regional and super-regional games. That has not happened. In fact under Slater we have not made the SEC tournament. That is a big deal and not winning in the SEC is a big deal. I am not suggesting that AU should have kept Renfro, but they did a poor job in hiring and hired what they already had: an unproven head coach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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