2019-20 Fall Ball and Preseason Discussion

[1972Shocker]

I think we all expect to see better baseball being played, certainly more passionate baseball, pretty much immediately. But assuming no really bad turns, where are your expectations in year 5?

2022 recruits will be sophomores. That will be his first class that, for the most part, he has pretty much his pick of who he wants to recruit.

Is there anything that is unacceptable? Must we be top 40? Top 25?

Curious what people think. Looking forward to the fall World Series next week.

Between now and then I hope to see steady progress and improvement. I'm thinking if we can get to a place where we are winning 35-40 games a year consistently and finishing consistently in the top half of the AAC with regular, not necessarily annually, trips to to the NCAA post-season with the occasional advancement to the super-regionals. I would like to see us consistently in the Top 40 with an occasional Top 25 appearance.

Finishing consistently in the bottom half of the AAC and consistently losing 25+ games per year would not be acceptable.

[WichitaStateGuy]

At the risk of coming across as an ignorant fool (I'm married, thus used to it), are we supposed to be any better than last year? Has the Wedge hire translated into a better recruiting class? Given that ya'll are more connected to Shocker baseball than us east-coasters, when can I reasonably assume expectations for Wichita State won't just be, "middle of the road AAC team?"

Thanks much.

[WuDrWu]

Doesn't sound ignorant at all. I would say WSU Baseball took a hit with the 2019 class. We lost a few kids, and in the tiny window the coaches had to recruit, at least 2 of the juco prospects they brought in didn't make it.

I would guess that the consensus would be something along the lines of we'll play harder, smarter and better baseball in spring 2020, but with the same talent (or a little less) and it's going to be a tough season. We just don't have enough quality arms to expect much improvement. The 2020 recruiting is pretty much done as well, and 2021 is wrapping up (that's just how it's done these days) so I'd guess it's going to take a couple of years at least to expect a sizable change. A mid level American finish in 2020 would be a substantial, and I'm guessing well received, improvement from Shocker Nation.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Open Fall World Series Saturday

The complete Fall World Series schedule is as follows:

• Game 1: Saturday, Oct. 12, 1 p.m.
• Game 2: Monday, Oct. 14, 1 p.m.
• Game 3: Tuesday, Oct. 15, 1 p.m.
• Game 4: Friday, Oct. 18, 2 p.m.
• Game 5: Saturday, Oct. 19, 2 p.m.

*NOTE: Schedule subject to change.

Each game will be seven innings in length.

Admission to each contest is a can of food, which will be donated to the Kansas Food Bank.

The weather isn't look too bad for tomorrow. 67 and Sunny but a bit breezy with 20 mph winds out of the south.

Fall World Series Rosters

The weather isn't look too bad for tomorrow. 67 and Sunny but a bit breezy with 20 mph winds out of the south.

I noticed that Jake Hamilton is listed on the Black team roster but my understanding is he wasn't going to pitch this fall.

One player who is still listed on the 37-player goshockers.com roster is not listed on the 36-player FWS roster is 6-2 Fr. RHP Kyle Wilson out of Ft. Worth.

[1972Shocker]

RH: Shocker Series Starts on Saturday

Five things to watch during the series:

Clean baseball – Playing with a good pace, playing defense and playing smart is an emphasis in the fall.

There is evidence that message is getting through. The Shockers committed one error in two 12-inning scrimmages (against Nebraska and Missouri State) and played both games in 3 hours, 29 minutes.

Last season, the Shockers played 14 nine-innings games that took longer.

Shortstop competition – Wedge didn't hesitate when asked to list the position he is most interested to watch over the five games.

"Just because we don't have anybody that just really sticks out in that role right now, whether it be because of youth or ability," Wedge said. "We're still working on that."

Freshman Derek Shaver and redshirt freshman Cooper Elliot played shortstop against Nebraska and Missouri State. Junior Paxton Wallace, freshman Couper Cornblum, and others, also worked there during practices.

With the glove – Before practices started, Wedge heard junior Hunter Gibson wasn't an outfielder.

Gibson changed that scouting report, Wedge is happy to report. Wedge is also pleased with his offensive work.

Wedge puts Wallace, who also hit nine home runs last season, in a similar category. He started 57 games last season, mostly at third base.

"Really good heart beat – another blue-collar guy that sticks his nose in there, whether it be at home plate offensively or defensively," Wedge said.

On the mound – Junior Liam Eddy, with 22 starts in his career, is someone the Shockers need to lean on to build a pitching staff.
"He's really stepped up in a lead role," Wedge said.

Eddy went 7-4 with a 3.84 earned run average as a freshman. Last season, he went 5-8 with 5.04 ERA and led the Shockers with 80 1/3 innings.

The Shockers also return Preston Snavely, who went 3-4 in 12 starts last season, and Tommy Barnhouse, 2-2 in 10 starts. Transfer Jake Hamilton, expected to fit into the rotation in the spring, is not pitching this fall to rest his arm.

Look who's back – Alumni Weekend started on Friday with a golf tournament and continues on Saturday with stadium tours during the 1 p.m. game.

Wedge is making it a priority to rebuild ties with former Shockers of all eras. He said 19 teams registered for the golf tournament, an increase of 10 from the previous year.

[1972Shocker]

Not a lot of fans in attendance for game 1 of the Shocker Fall Series today. I would guestimate around 60 or so in attendance.

The Black team won the 7-inning scrimmage 8-2. The Gold team had 7 hits and the Black team had 11 hits.

https://goshockers.com/documents/2019/10/12/19FWS01.pdf

The Shocks get an A+ for playing with good pace. The full 7-inning game took about an hour and 35 minutes. Granted there were no mid-inning pitching changes or trips to the mound but I loved the catchers calling the game and the pace of play.

Intra-squad games are sometimes a bit hard to evaluate. For one thing lookeded like the pitchers were throwing predominatly fast balls.

Garret Kocis drew 1st blood for the Black team in the bottom of the 2nd with a towering home run just to the right of CF no doubt helped by a good breeze. Garret also had a towering double to about the same spot that the VanVooren got his glove on but lost it when his glove hit the wall. The Black team added another run in the 2nd then added 5 more in the 3rd off of Ryan Stuempfig. The big blow in the 5-run 3rd was R-Fr. C Quiten Albrecht's bases loaded 3-run double. Ryan looked like he was throwing pretty hard but the Balck team had him timed up pretty well and hit him pretty hard. Liam Eddy on the other hand pitched 4 innings to open the game for the Black team allowing only 1 run on a no doubt home run by Paxton Wallace high off the scoreboard in the 4th. Paxton also had an opposite filed single in the 1st that was good to see.
Preston Minor made his first appearance of the fall in relief of Stuempfig and was very effective in 2 scoreless innings giving up no runs and only 1 hit while striking out 3. His side arm delivers at not nearly the velocity of Stuempfig seemed to have the Black team off balance.

One thing I did like about the pithing is ratio of 9 strikeouts to 2 walks for both sides combined. Walks were a big problem last year.

Paxton Wallace played shortstop for the Gold Team and looked pretty good. I alos liked th looks of 6-3 Fr. Derek Shaver at 3rd base for the Black team. A good looking athlete for sure.

I thought both catchers, 5-8 Jr. Ross Cadena for the Gold and 6-2 R-Fr. Quinten Albrecht for the Black, looked quite servicable.

Paxton Wallace (1B, HR) and Brady Slavens (1B, 2B) each had 2 hits for the Gold while Garrett Kocis (HR, 2B), Austin Roccaforte (1B, 1B), Derek Shaver (1B, !B) and Quinten Albrecht (1B, 2B) each had 2 hits for the Black.

It remains to be seen how the Shocks will hit when the menu of pitches gets a bit more diverse.

I thought the infield defense was generally pretty solid, Had a few hiccups in the outfield although there were a couple of good throws, the best being a throw from David VanVooren from CF to 3B to cut down Roccaforte trying to go from 1st to 3rd on a what looked to be a hit and run play.

If Jake Hamilton is the real deal and if Liam Eddy can be consistently good the Shocks might have a chance of being competitive on the weekends.

[RoyalShock]

Thanks for the recap!

[Cdizzle]

Yellow evens the series 1-1 with an 8-6 victory.

https://goshockers.com/news/2019/10/14/baseball-yellow-evens-series-with-8-6-win-in-game-two.aspx

[1972Shocker]

Yellow evens the series 1-1 with an 8-6 victory.

https://goshockers.com/news/2019/10/...-game-two.aspx

Looks like Preston Snavely and Tommy Barhnouse both had fairly decent 4 inning stints as the starting pitching. Not as much hitting in today's game.but more runs scored. A good portion of the hits and runs came against Tristan McCraw in the bottom of the 5th and Beau Leonards in the top of the 7th.

[1972Shocker]

The Black squad goes up 2-1 in the series with a 3-1 win today. The lowest scoring game of the series so far.

Was that because the ptichers were pretty good of because the hitters were not very good? Always hard to tell in an intrasquad game.

Preston Minor had his 2nd decent outing givinmg up 1 hit and no runs in 2 scorelss innings.

Brandon Troxler got the start and the win for the Balck squad with 3 scoreless innings allowing 1 hit and giving up 1 walk. Clavin Marley followed that up facing the minimum over the next 2 innings. The Gold team got 3 of their 4 hits and there only run off of Jacob Lindeman in the final 2 innings.

Garrett Kocis continues to hit well in the series going 3 for 4 including a double and a towering home run. Hunter Gibson had 2 hits, a sac fly and a walk as he and Kocis accounted for 5 of the Black squad's 7 hits.

Box Score

[Cdizzle]

The Black squad goes up 2-1 in the series with a 3-1 win today. The lowest scoring game of the series so far.

Was that because the ptichers were pretty good of because the hitters were not very good? Always hard to tell in an intrasquad game.

Preston Minor had his 2nd decent outing givinmg up 1 hit and no runs in 2 scorelss innings.

Brandon Troxler got the start and the win for the Balck squad with 3 scoreless innings allowing 1 hit and giving up 1 walk. Clavin Marley followed that up facing the minimum over the next 2 innings. The Gold team got 3 of their 4 hits and there only run off of Jacob Lindeman in the final 2 innings.

Garrett Kocis continues to hit well in the series going 3 for 4 including a double and a towering home run. Hunter Gibson had 2 hits, a sac fly and a walk as he and Kocis accounted for 5 of te Black squad's 7 hits.

Box Score

I like to look at series stats for these intrasquad things. Somebody going 2-4 could be bad pitching that day. Somebody going 11-18 means they can hit.

The pitching is always a lot harder to tell. The real problem is that we have no baseline of success to compare against. Junior Mike Pelfrey didn't go out there today and strike out 8 in 4 innings. We would know that was good pitching, not necessarily bad hitting.

[SB Shock]

It was interesting to hear Wedge when asked what he was most shocked about since taking over the program. He is it is the lack of preparedness of today generation to play baseball - especially when you consider these players now play all-year round. He said he thought it is because this generation plays a lot of games, but doesn't put in the practice work. He said practice has to be tough and brutal, and that is a mental shift for the program.

[1972Shocker]

---

Nice outing for Ryan Stuempfig after getting knocked around pretty good in Game 1.

Good day for Paxton Wallace at the plate.

[1972Shocker]

Game 4 Box Score

Kind of a mirror image of Game 1. In Game 1 LIam Eddy was solid in the starting role and Ryan Stuempfig got knocked around. In Game 4 Liam got on knocked around and Ryan was solid as each went 4 innings. Liam gave up 4 runs on 8 hits in his 4 innings and Ryan pitched 4 scoreless innings giving up only 1 hit and only facing 1 batter over the limit. Now we just need to figure out how to get the good LIam and the good Ryan to show up on a consistent basis. Tristan McCraw gave up 4 runs on 3 hits and a walk in 1 inning of work and has now given up 9 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks in 3 innings of work in the series. Generally, the pitching staff is throwing strikes in the series. Today only 1 walk for each team. Stuempfig with 1 inning of relief each from Connery Peters, Beau Leoanards and Jacob Lindemann held the black team to 3 singles, 2 by catcher Josh Killeen and 1 by Derek Shaver and a double by Cooper Elliot. The Yellow team cranked out 12 hits, including 3 doubles, with Paxton Wallace and David VanVooren contributing 3 hits each and Jack Sigrist and Brady Slavens with 2 hits each.

[pogo]

It was interesting to hear Wedge when asked what he was most shocked about since taking over the program. He is it is the lack of preparedness of today generation to play baseball - especially when you consider these players now play all-year round. He said he thought it is because this generation plays a lot of games, but doesn't put in the practice work. He said practice has to be tough and brutal, and that is a mental shift for the program.

I guess we will see which players can take "Brutal" practices in the new era at WSU. First time I have heard the expression of not prepared because of lack of practice work. I guess this could be just one aspect of kids not being the same that even HCGS alluded to in his final years at the helm. I guess we will see who is still here in the spring time. Go Shox