Baseball vs A&M Game 3

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

Wow. Very disappointing. Those kids will have a long trip home.

[SCTiger2011 1,289]

Auburn falls 6-1. Outscored 29-7 since the Samford loss last week. Losing streak extends to 4. Tough tough opponent this weekend, but AU had a lead in all 3 games. Might be time to contain the excitement and temper expectations from the hot start. One bad weekend against a top 10 opponent proves nothing long term but the lack of a bullpen and the stone cold offense are reminding me this team was picked last in this tough conference. Just hope the team continues to get better game after game and I will accept the final record in the end. This rebuild looks like it will take another season.

[SCTiger2011 1,289]

Wow. Very disappointing. Those kids will have a long trip home.

No quit at all. Just outmanned.

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

Well....I hope things turn around pretty soon. The rest of the SEC is loaded with talent for the most part. It could be a really long season otherwise.

[WarAJEagle 5]

Well, disappointed to say the least. Good news is: A&M might be the best team in the country. Bad news: Vandy looms next weekend.

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

I think LSU will give TAMU a run for their money.l haven't seen the Gators yet.

AU clearly has some work to do.

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

You all find it easy to be negative! Disappointing weekend, but A&M has quite a team and we were in these games until late. Certainly a step up from going down by about 4 runs in 3 innings. Getting swept is of course never a good thing but we have a team 6 games above 500 that has a home series coming up this weekend. We could definitely be in better shape... But we could also be in a whole lot worse a situation...

[SCTiger2011 1,289]

Oh I agree the team has performed well as a whole so far. I'm not negative on the team. I like them much as I liked our basketball team this season. They seem to get along well and play well for each other. My pessimism stems from our ceiling relative to the team's on our schedule and in the conferenxe and, in my opinion, I just don't see 15-15 as a possibility there. I see about 10-20. At TAMU. Vandy. At MSU. At Florida. At South Carolina. At LSU. That could be 6-12 just from those 6 series. This team could be loads better than last year's team and have the same result just based on the schedule. Now, that said, I hope we go 27-3 in conference and will be pulling for us to do so every game!

[SCTiger2011 1,289]

Also, I tend to take a no expectations are the best expectations approach with AU baseball after the past few seasons

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

Oh I agree the team has performed well as a whole so far. I'm not negative on the team. I like them much as I liked our basketball team this season. They seem to get along well and play well for each other. My pessimism stems from our ceiling relative to the team's on our schedule and in the conferenxe and, in my opinion, I just don't see 15-15 as a possibility there. I see about 10-20. At TAMU. Vandy. At MSU. At Florida. At South Carolina. At LSU. That could be 6-12 just from those 6 series. This team could be loads better than last year's team and have the same result just based on the schedule. Now, that said, I hope we go 27-3 in conference and will be pulling for us to do so every game!

i would say 6-12 may be accurate but 4-8 in the rest of the conference games? I think this team can somehow get to 13 wins. Our rpi will also be through the roof so we may be able to afford a couple more losses. I agree on being disappointed on the ceiling of their progression. I was really expecting to win one this weekend and thought we had a chance to take 2. Back to square 1 I guess :/

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

Also, I tend to take a no expectations are the best expectations approach with AU baseball after the past few seasons

Yeah me too.

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

I had a chance to go to the game yesterday. Since I don't live in Auburn or anywhere near there, it's hard to tell a lot besides what I see on ESPN3 occasionally. Here's what I saw.

(Note: These are observations, not criticisms. Just pointing out things that I noticed after having spent several years traveling the country with minor league baseball.)

• Very nice outing by Wingenter. Probably left him out there for a few too many batters, but in a spot start situation, you couldn't have asked for much more. He has an effective slider to offset the fastball. With time to stretch out his pitch count, he could well turn into an effective 3rd starter.
  
• Grier can cover a lot of ground in center. Made a very nice diving grab early in the game and does well to get the ball back in quickly.
  
• I was disappointed with our plate approach. We fell behind 0-1 or 0-2 a lot, particularly in the early innings. I didn't see aggression and this put is in defensive hitting positions for most of the game. Considering the Aggies' starter threw 60 pitches on Tuesday night, we probably should have been doing more to put the ball in play. While good, he was far from un-hittable.
  
• Why are we trying to steal bases with our slowest runners?!
  
• Unless I missed something, we did not have a single situation yesterday where there were multiple runners on base for AU. Earlier in the weekend we had several opportunities with guys in scoring position with less than two out and got nothing out of it. That goes back to plate discipline/approach.
  

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

I had a chance to go to the game yesterday. Since I don't live in Auburn or anywhere near there, it's hard to tell a lot besides what I see on ESPN3 occasionally. Here's what I saw.

(Note: These are observations, not criticisms. Just pointing out things that I noticed after having spent several years traveling the country with minor league baseball.)

• Very nice outing by Wingenter. Probably left him out there for a few too many batters, but in a spot start situation, you couldn't have asked for much more. He has an effective slider to offset the fastball. With time to stretch out his pitch count, he could well turn into an effective 3rd starter.
  
• Grier can cover a lot of ground in center. Made a very nice diving grab early in the game and does well to get the ball back in quickly.
  
• I was disappointed with our plate approach. We fell behind 0-1 or 0-2 a lot, particularly in the early innings. I didn't see aggression and this put is in defensive hitting positions for most of the game. Considering the Aggies' starter threw 60 pitches on Tuesday night, we probably should have been doing more to put the ball in play. While good, he was far from un-hittable.
  
• Why are we trying to steal bases with our slowest runners?!
  
• Unless I missed something, we did not have a single situation yesterday where there were multiple runners on base for AU. Earlier in the weekend we had several opportunities with guys in scoring position with less than two out and got nothing out of it. That goes back to plate discipline/approach.
  

goes back to the trouble with situational hitting last year. Team needs to turn it around this week.

[SCTiger2011 1,289]

I had a chance to go to the game yesterday. Since I don't live in Auburn or anywhere near there, it's hard to tell a lot besides what I see on ESPN3 occasionally. Here's what I saw.

(Note: These are observations, not criticisms. Just pointing out things that I noticed after having spent several years traveling the country with minor league baseball.)

• Very nice outing by Wingenter. Probably left him out there for a few too many batters, but in a spot start situation, you couldn't have asked for much more. He has an effective slider to offset the fastball. With time to stretch out his pitch count, he could well turn into an effective 3rd starter.
  
• Grier can cover a lot of ground in center. Made a very nice diving grab early in the game and does well to get the ball back in quickly.
  
• I was disappointed with our plate approach. We fell behind 0-1 or 0-2 a lot, particularly in the early innings. I didn't see aggression and this put is in defensive hitting positions for most of the game. Considering the Aggies' starter threw 60 pitches on Tuesday night, we probably should have been doing more to put the ball in play. While good, he was far from un-hittable.
  
• Why are we trying to steal bases with our slowest runners?!
  
• Unless I missed something, we did not have a single situation yesterday where there were multiple runners on base for AU. Earlier in the weekend we had several opportunities with guys in scoring position with less than two out and got nothing out of it. That goes back to plate discipline/approach.
  

I noticed the team's plate approaches have been odd lately too. At TAMU, they were good and aggressive the first inning Friday and Saturday, but after that good ABs were few and far between. When it was still a 3-2 game Saturday, their starter was on the ropes, had thrown 6 straight balls, and AU swung first pitch at a ball low and away for a double play. Swings early in the count (0-0, 1-0) have often been at pitcher's strikes and not necessarily hitter's strikes. Maybe I'm seeing something that's not there but I made a comment on it in Saturday's game so would welcome other insight if anyone has it.

That said, how is the baseball atmosphere in College Station? I've been to College Station for the TAMU game two years ago and that was pretty electric. The baseball stadium looked pretty full too. Still would take a lot to top an SEC weekend experience at MSU for me; those fans are absolutely crazy.

[AU64 10,122]

"situational hitting"

Yep, that's what baseball is all about...situations....it's mostly a " one on one" game...pitcher versus a batter and nothing usually happens until one of them wins that first "situational" match-up.

As for Wingenter and how long he stayed out there.....I expect we will have a lot of situations this year where folks think the pitcher stayed in the game too long....,mostly 'cause after we pull the starter, it's unknown territory. I'm afraid a tired, but generally effective starter is still the best bet in many cases....unless we are looking for a lefty-lefty match-up in a specific situation... (there's that word again).

One of the things I love about baseball is the individual nature of the game where everyone knows who did well...or not so well. I appreciate the athletes who are willing to put themselves on the line as hitters, pitchers...or as a golfer or swimmer.

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

I had a chance to go to the game yesterday. Since I don't live in Auburn or anywhere near there, it's hard to tell a lot besides what I see on ESPN3 occasionally. Here's what I saw.

(Note: These are observations, not criticisms. Just pointing out things that I noticed after having spent several years traveling the country with minor league baseball.)

• Very nice outing by Wingenter. Probably left him out there for a few too many batters, but in a spot start situation, you couldn't have asked for much more. He has an effective slider to offset the fastball. With time to stretch out his pitch count, he could well turn into an effective 3rd starter.
  
• Grier can cover a lot of ground in center. Made a very nice diving grab early in the game and does well to get the ball back in quickly.
  
• I was disappointed with our plate approach. We fell behind 0-1 or 0-2 a lot, particularly in the early innings. I didn't see aggression and this put is in defensive hitting positions for most of the game. Considering the Aggies' starter threw 60 pitches on Tuesday night, we probably should have been doing more to put the ball in play. While good, he was far from un-hittable.
  
• Why are we trying to steal bases with our slowest runners?!
  
• Unless I missed something, we did not have a single situation yesterday where there were multiple runners on base for AU. Earlier in the weekend we had several opportunities with guys in scoring position with less than two out and got nothing out of it. That goes back to plate discipline/approach.
  

I noticed the team's plate approaches have been odd lately too. At TAMU, they were good and aggressive the first inning Friday and Saturday, but after that good ABs were few and far between. When it was still a 3-2 game Saturday, their starter was on the ropes, had thrown 6 straight balls, and AU swung first pitch at a ball low and away for a double play. Swings early in the count (0-0, 1-0) have often been at pitcher's strikes and not necessarily hitter's strikes. Maybe I'm seeing something that's not there but I made a comment on it in Saturday's game so would welcome other insight if anyone has it.

That said, how is the baseball atmosphere in College Station? I've been to College Station for the TAMU game two years ago and that was pretty electric. The baseball stadium looked pretty full too. Still would take a lot to top an SEC weekend experience at MSU for me; those fans are absolutely crazy.

It's pretty good. They have a very nice ballpark and the fans are mostly respectful and cool. The biggest thing is that the stadium is right on top of the field. Considering it's a double-decked stadium, the noise really can stay in when they get into the game. The only real annoying this is that they play the same video on the scoreboard after every strikeout. Gets real old, real fast.