Next Years Lineup

[shocker22]

Why not?

Doggett CF
Harbutz SS
Gillespie 1b
Bayliff DH
Green RF
Parker 2b
Muka LF
Baker C
Halbert 3b

Gardner
Ladwig
Minnis
Mcgreevy
Berringer

Vielock
Mataycheck
Bouman
Labrie

[Ta town]

who cares....

next years final result:

33-37 wins, no regionals

Can't be good if you don't execute, they won't because Gene will be coaching.

[1972Shocker]

I have not heard anything about Zack Beringer returning. Are you just wishin' and hopin' or have you heard something.

I take it you think Cale Elam will go pro.

Your lineup in and of itself isn't all that awe inspiring. Our only hope is our young guys improve very signficantly year over year and even then that my not be good enough for post-season play.

[NCAABound]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...and no offense to the players...but that lineup sucks. Absolutely no power...hard to score with a bunch of singles hitters.

[SB Shock]

Boyd (of boyd's world) has did a study what you can expect as far as development from year to year. The reality is you either have good hitter or you don't. This team is so bad there is not much hope for this team unless there is a significant infusion of talent - which I don't see happening until there is change in coaching staff.

[Ta town]

Boyd (of boyd's world) has did a study what you can expect as far as development from year to year. The reality is you either have good hitter or you don't. This team is so bad there is not much hope for this team unless there is a significant infusion of talent - which I don't see happening until there is change in coaching staff.

It doesn't help when you can't bunt when needed, can't make contact when needed, run the bases like a t-ball team, don't take very many walks, cant hit for extra bases, refuse to battle pitchers, refuse to consistently look to go the other way and instead roll over on pitches trying to pull, etc

[Wuzee]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...and no offense to the players...but that lineup sucks. Absolutely no power...hard to score with a bunch of singles hitters.

'

Casey Gillaspie has power. You just witnessed a Top 10 freshman season for home runs, even with a crappy start and the dead bats and playing a ton fewer games than the Shockers of yore. Hege, Green and Bayliff (as well as incoming players Sam Hall, Zimmerman and Matuszak) have power potential and all were above .400 in slugging percentage in limited playing time. While statistically what Boyd presented is certainly true, there are exceptions, and you only need a couple of guys making jumps to make a big difference in your season.

That said: The home run is just not a big part of the game anymore, I'm afraid. As of April 1, the NCAA was on pace for the lowest home run output in homers per game (0.47) since 1974. Scoring and batting average are also at mid-1970s levels. A team built around pitching, speed (especially a leadoff guy who gets on base) and defense is fine with me.

(Oh, and if it's not too much to ask, can we have some straight sacrifices instead of bunting for a hit when trying to move runners.) :fatigue:

[SB Shock]

you either have good hitter or you don't. WSU doesn't outside of Coy who will be gone after this season. At best, WSU is average and will put up average results.

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[kstarheel]

This program is depressing right now.... or is it us fans? Maybe both.

[1972Shocker]

The fans are depressing/depressed right now because of the program is depressing/depressed. So we know what is causing the fans to be depressed. The question is what is depressing the program. That is what needs to be identfied and fixed. Of course, we all pretty much know where that discussion will take us.

[ShockTalk]

you either have good hitter or you don't. WSU doesn't outside of Coy who will be gone after this season. At best, WSU is average and will put up average results.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]327[/ATTACH]

Thanks for posting this graph @SB Shock:. I remember you posting it back around 4 years ago when the discusion of our less effective offense was being batted around by a few of us. I'm glad to see that our pitching has remained somewhat stable in comparison to the average. My biggest concern is quality pitchers no longer coming to WSU due to the big reduction in our offensive output.

I hope that everyone understands the gravity of this graph. For the last 4-5 years, our offense has been merely average of that of ALL of D-I baseball. That's not even top 100. You think things are bad now? If not for the quality pitching, just how low would this program be today and how low will it be tomorrow. We have already become just a middle range team within the Valley.

[WSUwatcher]

I have no interest in arguing, so don't bother trying -- but I'm with KC (yeah!): next year's Shockers will be better than this year's. They'll have a better record, and they'll be in the tournament.

[SB Shock]

I have no interest in arguing, so don't bother trying -- but I'm with KC (yeah!): next year's Shockers will be better than this year's. They'll have a better record, and they'll be in the tournament.

It would seem an prognostication about this program after missing 3 years of post season of play in row would be fraught with danger. We have seen what good Freshman performances look like and none of these guys looked to be the future all-american


If you look at historically Shocker players, you will find 3 stereotypical type of shockers players

1. "Steady" He provides a solid (sometimes great) Contribution for their 3-4 years in the program. These are like Casey Blakes, Standiford, Brian Burgamy, Sublette, Conor G., Casey Davis, Kevin Hooper, Pat Magness, Doug Mirabelli, Charlie O'brien, Jeff Ryan, Zach and Logan Sorenson)

2. 2nd year "Break-Out", these are the guys who don't play (or just get a few AB) and then get to play full time their 2nd year - PJ Forbes, Blake Blasi, Moffitt, Schemerhorn)

3. The "Senior" (sometimes a Junior) - who in his last year finally get it and make an impact (i.e. Brandon Green who was 0.290 to 0.300 hitter for 3 years and then breaks out for nearly 0.400 season, Billy Hall, Cody Lassley, O'Brien, Matt Patrick).

Looking at this year stats
Cat 1- Only player that put up decent numbers is Coy, will he be back for his senior year? I doubt it, but I guess it would depend on the draft.

So then you to hope that Doggette, Gillaspie to explode.

Cat 2 - This would be a Knight or a Mucha
Cat 3 - Parker, Bayliff, Green Halbert will be those Junior, Hege senior, does anybody see all of any of them suddenly putting up all-American type numbers?

It just seem to me you really have to take a big leap of faith to think this offense is going to get any better when it pretty. But I guess you could figure that the MVC will really suck next year and even a team mangaged by a "caveman" could win the league.

[1972Shocker]

@SB Shock I would add Brett Bascue to you examples of Seniors who finally get it and make an impact.

The good thing is we are not losing much in the way of impact players. Josh Smith, a very solid but not dominant pitcher. I expect Johnny Coy will move on. He was the only consistent run producer in the lineup. We were unable to replace Chris O'Brien's bat this year and it is not readily apparent that we will replace Johnny's bat next season. We should be able to replace Don Lambert adequately -- a healthy Garret t Bayliffe would be nice.

Cale Elam is draft eligible so we will have to hold our breath on him. I think Cale could benefit from another year at the college level but hard to know what he is thinking.

As for the returning players we are simply going to have to wait and see how much they can step up their games. Based on what we saw this year we should be a solid defensive team. It is not readily apparent to me that we will be better or not next year either on the mound or offensively. Whether we can improve at moving runners around and scoring without much power remains to be seen.

I hope KCShox and WSUwatcher are right with their assessments and predictions of an improved team.

[shockfan89_]

I posted something similar to this in another thread but it seems more appropriate here. Everyone is talking about how bad our record was and how we finished 3rd in the MVC. The thing we haven't factored in is that the MVC is gaining ground on Conference USA and poised to take over as the 5th best conference in the nation (now only .0002 behind and gaining). We all know the team is loaded with Fr. and So. and finished 3rd (2 games out of 1st) in the 5th/6th best conference in the country. How does that compare to going 43-17 and finishing 1st in the 12th or 15th ranked conference? It may be about the same, heck it could even be better...

To me the biggest negative was laying an egg in the MVC Tournament when we need 1 or 2 wins to grab an at-large bid. This team probably could have easily won 7-9 more games this year had they just executed and not made stupid mistakes. What if they had won half that many? We would be talking about a 40 win season with one of the best SOS we have ever had...