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**ShockerFever** · February 18, 2019, 07:35 PM

12 errors in 4 games?

I'll say it again: They fundamentally suck.

And you're right SB. That is ALL coaching.

**shockerfanmas** · February 18, 2019, 10:45 PM

3 errors a game? Good lord, the little league team I coached last year didn't even make 3 errors a game, and some of the kids had never played before . A lot of it is coaching but I still think part of it is work ethic, and a small part is just a lack on fundamentals/talent

**ShockerFever** · February 18, 2019, 11:00 PM

There were a couple more errors that didn't record as errors in the scorebook that I recall. One was a misjudged ball to right in which Wallace dove for the ball and it ended up being a "triple". Also, a routine pop fly to first that didn't get caught but should have been that resulted in a "double".

Doesn't matter if you can hit or pitch (although 27 walks in 4 games is also appalling), if you can't make the routine plays, you're inherently ****ed. And that's where we're at. We automatically will lose 20 games just by that statistic alone. We'll lose more due to pitching and untimely hitting, but when you're already down 20 in the hole, it's kinda pointless.

And this isn't just a 1 year thing. The entire Butler era has been ruled by this. Just gotta get through this year.

**ShockTalk** · February 19, 2019, 12:20 AM

Originally posted by ShockerFever View Post

There were a couple more errors that didn't record as errors in the scorebook that I recall. One was a misjudged ball to right in which Wallace dove for the ball and it ended up being a "triple". Also, a routine pop fly to first that didn't get caught but should have been that resulted in a "double".

Doesn't matter if you can hit or pitch (although 27 walks in 4 games is also appalling), if you can't make the routine plays, you're inherently ****ed. And that's where we're at. We automatically will lose 20 games just by that statistic alone. We'll lose more due to pitching and untimely hitting, but when you're already down 20 in the hole, it's kinda pointless.

And this isn't just a 1 year thing. The entire Butler era has been ruled by this. Just gotta get through this year.

This is the type of post I like to see from you.

The head coach recruits his players and/or approves another coach's recruits. The head coach is responsible for his assistants and over sees / approves of what they do and teach. The head coach is responsible for what he teaches his players and demands from his players. Yes, the head coach cannot hit for his hitters, field for his fielders, or pitch for his pitchers, but he is ultimately responsible in who he recruits, how and what he teaches, and what he demands of his players.

Players come and go, but there has been certain consistencies throughout Butler's years. Many of these current players are too new to know how good they may be or, under different circumstances, how good they could be. That's why I try not to be derogatory about a player's seeming talent or effort. There has been too much, for too long, underperformance of this coach's teams. Whether it's playing second, or third, or fourth fiddle to other MVC teams or now second division level performance in the AAC.

**DUShock** · February 20, 2019, 12:58 PM

Thanks for posting SB.

**WuDrWu** · February 20, 2019, 05:38 PM

Fielding % History (WSU-OPP)

TB 2018 .970 - .973
TB 2017 .974 - .974
TB 2016 .967 - .970
TB 2015 .968 - .966
TB 2014 .970 - .972
GS 2013 .977 - .973
GS 2012 .974 - .971
GS 2011 .962 - .966
GS 2010 .961 - .966
GS 2009 .964 - .966

GS1998 .965
GS1997 .956
GS1996 .961
GS1995 .964
GS1994 .972

TB average fielding % .9698

GS average fielding % .9676 (last 5 seasons)
GS average fielding % .9636 (random 5 seasons in the 90s just for comparison against some of the best teams)

TB opponent average fielding % .9710
GS opponent average fielding % .9684

Conclusion: Todd Butler coached WSU teams field just barely better than Gene Stephenson coached teams did. Also, Todd Butler's teams played better competition, by more than a little bit.

I'm not fighting or trolling, just throwing something out there. The fielding errors this weekend were mind numbing to say the least and there certainly were more than didn't technically qualify as errors. Only time will tell, but I'd bet this team fields .970 or better by the time it's all over.....not saying that's good enough to win or just plain good enough, but it is what it is, and that's on average better than the previous coach.

And I'm only addressing fielding, not pitching and not hitting. But the premise that TB's teams are less prepared fundamentally, based on making errors, seems to be false.

**ShockTalk** · February 20, 2019, 05:48 PM

If I'm not mistaken, GS's all-time best fielding team might have been his last team, yet that team wasn't very successful compared to all his other teams.

**SB Shock** · February 21, 2019, 12:12 AM

Fielding Pct is actually not the best metric for measuring defense (except when you are fielding 0.915, then it pretty black and white). There are more advanced stats (though not usually available for college baseball). When you have good fielders, them being good can actually lead to errors because your fielder is more aggressive and/or can get to more ball that average fielder can't get to.

There is a stat called defensive efficiency that actually tries to address this.

WSU from 2001 to 2013 defensive efficiency average 0.685 (which means they were ~ ranked 35th in the nation). There best was 0.706 in 2004 and were ranked 4th in college baseball. Under Butler, they have averaged 0.673 (which is ~75th). Butler best year was 2014 with 0.690 (~48th).

Also, look at DP. WSU over the same period average 0.7 DP/game. Under Butler, it is 0.61 DP/game. That is -15% less.

Now as far as scheduling. Butler became dead to me when he said last year that he was not going to schedule a tough non-conference because he was in the American. That is pure BS.

Here is SOS between HCGS and TB. HCGS calculation is from 98 to 2013 (I would have gone further back but data was not available).

HCGS average Non-Conference SOS was 54.8.
Todd Butler average is 75 (last year was 168).

HCGS best non-conference SOS was 2001 - 22, 2002-9, 2004 - 25, 2009-35. HCGS worst was 2011 at 122 (his last 4 years was 82 when he was trying to save his job, 45.8 from 98-2009..

Todd Butler best was 27 in 2015, and 52 in 2017.

Conclusion:

HCGS teams were better fielding teams
HCGS teams played tougher competition and excelled at it.

**ShockerFever** · February 21, 2019, 12:39 AM

Yah, I was wondering about the SOS thing. It's not like the Valley was bad. They're a pretty decent baseball conference and I'm pretty sure they've had many more CWS appearances compared to the AAC. We also had LOTs of good non-con series during the Stephenson days too many to name, but Fullerton and Long Beach just to name a few. Butler had some really terrible SOS years throughout his tenure (which only included 1 year in the AAC) and didn't do **** even against those.

Even outside of the actual scorebook errors, they run themselves badly on the basepaths. Decision-making is poor. Play-calling is poor. Scouting is poor. Lineups are mismanaged. Those are all poor fundamentals that aren't recorded in the scorebook.

Giving Butler any edge over any time Stephenson was in charge is just mind-numbing and totally off the rails.

**SB Shock** · February 25, 2019, 09:38 PM

WSU 3-5 (RPI 150), 7th in AAC

Projection: 5th in AAC, 26-30 (156 RPI)

Hitting
BAvg: 0.276
OBP: 0.370
SLG%: 0.387
Runs Per Game: 6.4

64 K's in 297 AB's (29 K's in 159 AB this period)
4 out 7 in Stolen Bases

Bright Spots:
Mason O'Brien 0.400/0.531/0.680 1 HR, 5 RBI
Luke Ritter 0.452/0.585/0.774 2 HR, 9 RBI
Jordan Boyer 0.414/0.541/0.552 5 RBI

Conclusions

Slight improvement in hitting this week.

Pitching
ERA: 4.69
Whip: 1.61
BB/9: 5.1
K/9: 5.3

Runs/Game: 6.3

Bright spots:

Cal Corver 0.00 ERA in 7 ip (3 appearances)
Liam Eddy 2.13 ERA in 12.2 IP

Conclusions: Walks still haunt this staff.

Fielding
Fielding Pct: 0.942(only 5 errors this week)
Catcher was 1 for 11 in throwing people out SB attempts

The weather for March looks to be brutal for at least the first half of March. Not sure if the CU series will be played at all this weekend. Luckily Shocker has at game midweek at OSU and has weekend series in Lubbock on Mar 8-10.

**WuDrWu** · March 2, 2019, 11:45 PM

Apologies to SB Shock and I look forward to your continued assessments throughout the season:

WSU 5-5 (RPI 60), 5th in AAC

Projection: 5th in AAC, 30-25 (117 RPI)

Hitting[/B]
BAvg: 0.271
OBP: 0.367
SLG%: 0.370
Runs Per Game: 6.2

75 K's in 354 AB's (11 K's in 57 AB this period)
9 out 13 in Stolen Bases (opponents are 14-17)

Bright Spots:
Luke Ritter continues his torrid start .444/.592/.722 9 RBI 13 runs scored.
Jordan Boyer .382/.533/.500 5 RBI 10 runs scored.
Mason O'Brien .344/.475/.563 6 RBI only 3 strike outs in 32 at bats and 6 walks and 2 HBP
Paxton Wallace .310/.382/.345 and a team leading 9 RBI (tied with Ritter).

Conclusions

Although VERY timely, all hitting numbers slightly down against Creighton. Have to get more from the C position than below .200 combined, but Cadena's 7 RBI on 6 hits have been timely. Concerned that the timely hitting is making the batting #s better look better than they are. We seem to be getting more settled on a lineup, and I'm not sure that's a good thing.

Pitching
ERA: 4.55
Whip: 1.63
BB/9: 5.06
K/9: 6.27

Runs/Game: 5.80

Bright spots:

Cal Carver 1.00 ERA in 9 ip (4 appearances)
Liam Eddy 1.65 ERA in 16.1 IP with a team leading 1.12 WHIP

[B]Conclusions[B]

Pitching improves, against a really good hitting team (again, some timely pitches saved our bacon more than once). Guys whose "stuff" continues to look good to me include, in addition to the already mentioned above, Preston Snavely (get him out in the 5th before he tires), Mitchell Walters (2 Saves and an OBA of .214) & Tommy Barnhouse.

Fielding
Fielding Pct: 0.947 same as last week? I thought they actually played really well defensively against CU. The 3 errors were all a tad odd.....a failed pick-off attempt, a totally strange Rube Baker-esque throw back to the pitcher that allowed runners to advance, and a swinging 3rd strike that Cadena couldn't field cleanly and had to throw around the hustling batter.
Cadena and Kroft are 3 out of 17 combined throwing out stolen base runners.

We were probably too quick to cancel today. I don't think Cu wanted us to see their 3rd starter. Could have played this afternoon. Now it's out of the frying pan and into the fire at Oklahoma State (probably gets moved to Wednesday) and then current RPI #1 Texas Tech in Lubbock. Hard to see these guys winning a game this week so I hope they have their A game in Stillwater because that's going to be the best chance to get one. More concerned about getting better, competing and staying positive because after Tech, the next 17 games provide a chance to win a bunch if they're playing well.

I know it's early and RPI fluctuates wildly this time of the year, but we are about 18% into the season. Our schedule appears lighten up a lot after Texas Tech. These guys will have to make a lot of headway in those 14-15 home games (the 15th at ku).

GCU 67
Stanford 9
Pepperdine 56
UTA 40
SFA 76
CU 88
OSU 36
TT 1
ORU 139
URI 244
KU 188
Memphis 200
Omaha 254
KSU 107
BC 87
Tulane 10
UH 93
UCF 69
OU 94
Cincy 271
MSU 165
UCONN 4
ECU 168
USF 42

**SB Shock** · March 4, 2019, 11:04 PM

Originally posted by WuDrWu View Post

Apologies to SB Shock and I look forward to your continued assessments throughout the season:

No apologies needed.

AAC is off to slow start. Ranked 7th in RPI. Tulane is off to best start at 9-3. USF is 2-4 vs Q1 teams. Only WSU, Uconn and memphis have one Q1 win. If WSU had won the stanford game their team sheet would have different look.

Next 4 games will be important for the resume. 9 RPI killers games after OSU and TT.

Tulane is hosting UCSB and UC Riverside
UCF beat #6 Florida and #18 Auburn each once. Has #7 FSU in mid-march
ECU played crap, that changes this week. Has #8 Miss St, #13 Ole Miss, and Duke
UCONN 5-5 (all on road) 2 wins over #14 Lousville. They head next to San Marcos Tx for Texas St this weekend.
USF has a win vs #6 Florida, had #7 FSU cancelled, lost 3 to #3 UNC.
Houston hasn't really played anybody except a game again TCU, #22 TA@M (and lost). Won't really play anybody in remaining nonconference.
Memphis - meh
Cincy - meh

**ShockerFever** · March 5, 2019, 12:45 AM

No offense SB, but their resume? Resume for what?

You don't actually think this team will be competing for a regional, do you?

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