baseball vs Vanderbilt game 1

[AU64 10,122]

Nice rally....those unearned runs looking mighty big

Holland dinger makes it 7-5

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

Holland with a homer!!!

7-5 Vandy

Auburn chipping away at the Vandy lead. 

[AU64 10,122]

EA gone after giving up two more runs...now 9-5 and Skipper in to pitch

[AU64 10,122]

Skipper walks his first batter....dang....just can't come in at a big moment and do that..

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

Wow.....

[SCTiger2011 1,279]

The worrisome thing this year is for the past several years Auburn has had the stud freshman on the mound that is obviously going to become the heir apparent to the ace. This years crop of freshmen hasn’t produced that guy yet and I’m not sure he’s on the team. Skip and Fuller have had sparks of greatness in isolated outings but way too much inconsistency. 

Let me add as a disclaimer that I do get it they’re freshman/growing pains/yada yada and I know they’re taking their lumps for it to pay off later, but in my opinion Butch has less refined raw talent and several of these freshmen arms are in definite “workable projects” mode

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

5:30 AM will be here way too soon. I hate it but I'm calling it a night. 

Feel bad for my Tigers tonight. War Eagle always!

[SCTiger2011 1,279]

Score update: Vanderbilt 11-5 B7

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

1 minute ago, SCTiger2011 said:

The worrisome thing this year is for the past several years Auburn has had the stud freshman on the mound that is obviously going to become the heir apparent to the ace. This years crop of freshmen hasn’t produced that guy yet and I’m not sure he’s on the team. Skip and Fuller have had sparks of greatness in isolated outings but way too much inconsistency. 

Let me add as a disclaimer that I do get it they’re freshman/growing pains/yada yada and I know they’re taking their lumps for it to pay off later, but in my opinion Butch has less refined raw talent and several of these freshmen arms are in definite “workable projects” mode

I think Fitts and Fuller have been great. Not sure what you expected from freshman pitchers. They are ALL projects on all teams, especially in the SEC. Butch is rebuilding the team in a state with no lottery money. He hasn't had the luxury of simply reloading yet. I'm OK with where the team is considering all the damage done before Butch took over. 

[tigers23 653]

Glad to see the team fight back. Just don't have the pitching to compete with the big dogs in the league yet.

[SCTiger2011 1,279]

5 minutes ago, Tigerbelle said:

I think Fitts and Fuller have been great. Not sure what you expected from freshman pitchers. They are ALL projects on all teams, especially in the SEC. Butch is rebuilding the team in a state with no lottery money. He hasn't had the luxury of simply reloading yet. I'm OK with where the team is considering all the damage done before Butch took over. 

One of these days I’ll be able to offer a slight critical opinion without being responded to like I called the whole team a bunch of scrubs...sigh...

Night, Belle, and war eagle 

[SCTiger2011 1,279]

12-5 Vanderbilt with two outs in the 7th. Will Morrison now takes the mound. 

[SCTiger2011 1,279]

Morrison ends the inning nicely. 12-5 Vandy to the 8th

[tigers23 653]

9 more walks tonight.

[au302 2,669]

Miserable night that I knew wouldn’t turn out well once the rain hit. Absolutely awful on the umpires for not going into a delay with conditions that bad, praying Tanner will come out of this alright. Also glad to see the usually very calm Butch stick up for the guys and show some fire, but agree that he should have gone out there during the top of the third before it was too late. Hopefully we can somehow manage to get one of the next two 

[steeleagle 2,945]

The problem is now we are not winning the games our Ace pitches. That 3 games in a row we lost when Burns pitches. 

Makes it hard to even win 1 in a series with our injuries and poor hitting we have shown. 

[AU64 10,122]

That was a disaster ....defense was generally bad and pitchers could not seem to get past the mistakes in the field.  Those pop fly errors cost us dearly....catch them and it would have been a totally different game.

[Gowebb11 9,333]

5 minutes ago, AU64 said:

That was a disaster ....defense was generally bad and pitchers could not seem to get past the mistakes in the field.  Those pop fly errors cost us dearly....catch them and it would have been a totally different game.

This team has some strange dynamics. The pop up that dropped on the infield is indicative of the issue. Everyone was waiting for someone else to make the play. That play warranted a time out, a trip to the mound, and a stern gut check message delivered by the head coach. I was disappointed when that didn’t happen. 

[AU64 10,122]

2 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

This team has some strange dynamics. The pop up that dropped on the infield is indicative of the issue. Everyone was waiting for someone else to make the play. That play warranted a time out, a trip to the mound, and a stern gut check message delivered by the head coach. I was disappointed when that didn’t happen. 

Yep.  ....What I did not understand is that both times the pitchers got involved in the plays...and then backed off leaving the indecision by the others.  They should have just pointed skyward and gotten out of the way and let an infielder take charge . That is basic.

[tigers23 653]

1 hour ago, Gowebb11 said:

This team has some strange dynamics. The pop up that dropped on the infield is indicative of the issue. Everyone was waiting for someone else to make the play. That play warranted a time out, a trip to the mound, and a stern gut check message delivered by the head coach. I was disappointed when that didn’t happen. 

This team lacks a take charge guy on the field. At this point, it is what it is. Just hope to steal one in the series. 

[AU64 10,122]

3 hours ago, tigers23 said:

This team lacks a take charge guy on the field. At this point, it is what it is. Just hope to steal one in the series. 

Supposedly that guy is Holland but generally he's too far away from those kind of plays but maybe not.   Otherwise, there are three infielders starting  their positions for the first time at AU...and all have had their problems in the field....but as noted, ,mostly that kind of stuff should be established well before now. 

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

14 hours ago, SCTiger2011 said:

One of these days I’ll be able to offer a slight critical opinion without being responded to like I called the whole team a bunch of scrubs...sigh...

Night, Belle, and war eagle 

Maybe a little defensive SC?

Just pointing out that some of the things your worry about will turn around with time, or are not unique to AU and Butch.  You should expect a response when you post....

[AU64 10,122]

43 minutes ago, Tigerbelle said:

Maybe a little defensive SC?

Just pointing out that some of the things your worry about will turn around with time, or are not unique to AU and Butch.  You should expect a response when you post....

I appreciate your support for CBT but he still has a lot to learn....especially in the way of game day coaching.  Plus baseball rosters turn over every couple of years for better or worse and there are always a bunch of freshmen.  It's pointless to blame some previous coaches for our current situation.  Some of the better players we have had in recent years were at AU when Butch arrived.....no excuses in my view..

Not just CBT but most years AU has been living off of one superior pitcher...Keegan Thompson, Mize and now Burns....with some help from the bullpen.   Don't think you can get but so far that way.   Furthermore,  I'd swap our pitching roster from 2015 or 2016 for the current roster...   JMO ...he and Smith recruited them and they need to win with them.  

 

[PowerOfDixieland 3,226]

3 hours ago, AU64 said:

Furthermore,  I'd swap our pitching roster from 2015 or 2016 for the current roster...   JMO ...he and Smith recruited them and they need to win with them.  

Injuries not withstanding?

Kevin O'Sullivan sucks as a game day coach this year too, eh?

[AU64 10,122]

38 minutes ago, PowerOfDixieland said:

Injuries not withstanding?

Kevin O'Sullivan sucks as a game day coach this year too, eh?

To quote an old cliche' injuries are part of the game but I cut them some slack for that...... but we have 17 pitchers on our roster right now....seventeen....and worse still, our ace has lost his last three starts...which I don't blame totally on him. 

But despite our pitching woes, I still think we could have won last night if BT had made a stronger case about calling the game for rain and saved TB.....and if the infielders could have handled those infield pop ups.....which granted were high and the rain probably affected vision.....but nobody even got a glove on them...

Looking for better things tonight however.  .