WSU vs Florida Atlantic (Apr 12 - 14)

[Kung Wu]

Looks like the cops found my wallet! Cash and credit cards are gone but the baby photo was still in it!

[Kung Wu]

Drop dead time??? That's a thing???

[Stickboy46]

Drop dead time??? That's a thing???

If we were down and the game ended due to that..I would be livid. Game should have moved up or FAU should have gotten different arrangements that allowed enough time.

Would be different if the game were delayed or something. But no game starting on time should ever hit a travel curfew

[Kung Wu]

[Kung Wu]

If we were down and the game ended due to that..I would be livid. Game should have moved up or FAU should have gotten different arrangements that allowed enough time.

I'm oddly okay with it. But yeah, if we were losing ...

[WstateU]

If we were down and the game ended due to that..I would be livid. Game should have moved up or FAU should have gotten different arrangements that allowed enough time.

Would be different if the game were delayed or something. But no game starting on time should ever hit a travel curfew

The top of the 7th took an eternity… thanks to our pitching.

[ShockerExpress]

Pretty weird. Top of the 9th starting 3 hours and 20-ish minutes after first pitch isn’t really that unusual…

[Cdizzle]

I guess we were playing chess with all those MATCHUP pitching changes.

Agreed though. If you've only budgeted 3.5 hours to drop dead on the Sunday game? You super did it wrong and should only be allowed to lose if you hit the timer.

And personally, I'm glad we didn't accommodate by moving start time if that was an ask. The Butler regime liked to change game time to whenever the opposition proposed and it pissed me off to no end.

[Stickboy46]

I guess we were playing chess with all those MATCHUP pitching changes.

Agreed though. If you've only budgeted 3.5 hours to drop dead on the Sunday game? You super did it wrong and should only be allowed to lose if you hit the timer.

And personally, I'm glad we didn't accommodate by moving start time if that was an ask. The Butler regime liked to change game time to whenever the opposition proposed and it pissed me off to no end.

I don't mind them changing if they ask. I'm sure there aren't a ton of flights from Wichita to Boca. Though if you don't ask and can't get a flight late enough .. plan on flying out in the morning.

[ABC]

A 10-5 game in the 8th doesn't bother me, as to being "fair."

[Shockersdad]

Even my wife can throw a strike!

There is a running joke that the 9u coach who yells throw strikes is a moron. Its even worse when a D! coach does it. Watching from the outside yes, why can't these guys jut throw strikes? When your not confident that's why. Here is Matt Wilkinson stats last year and this season.
image.png

3.50	1	1	18	0	0	0	0	18.0	14	10	7	8	17	4	0	1	78	.226	3	3	0	3	2
16.20	0	0	6	0	0	0	0	3.1	6	7	6	8	3	4	0	0	23	.400	2	0	0	0	0

image.png

[WuDrWu]

Pulling Drew Iverson after 1 batter was a mistake. I THINK I understand their plan, and believe me, there aren't many fans that appreciate what this staff is trying to do to be successful, but it was still a mistake.


The guys roughed up a pretty good staff the last 2 days. Saturday's weather certainly had an impact, but the guys had better ABs as a whole.

[ShockerFever]

Do you think anything was solved this weekend? We did win a series against an ok team to right the ship but did anything with us change? Our pitching continues to be a serious problem IMO and if it weren’t for some timely HRs we could’ve been staring at an 8 game losing streak.

Just took a quick peek at our RPI for the first time in a while and wow, it dropped all the way to 109. That was about a 50 spot drop in a week.

With the top 2 contenders still on our schedule and the bottom 2 garbage already in the books, I think we’re looking squarely at a mid to low mid finish, which is probably what was expected going into the year. Just an interesting and disappointing way of getting there.

[WuDrWu]

I guess I'm still trying to look at it measuring expectations with results.

And mostly what I'm about to say hasn't changed since before the season started:

We're solid defensively behind the plate but probably below average with the bats

1B is bleh. We rotate 3 or 4 guys just praying someone gets hot and doesn't make mistakes

Probably 3rd team all conference level at 2nd.

Freshmen learning their way at SS and 3B

Average in LF as we move people around trying to find consistency.

Maybe 2nd team all conference in CF. DJ has been a pleasant surprise to me.

Again, pinball in right. Which I think is a mistake. Seth is experienced. He runs well, plays right very well, has the best arm on the team and murders the ball when he makes contact. Yes, he struggles with off speed stuff and doesn't hit for a high enough average. He's played in 30 of 37 games but only started 22 of those yet still leads the team in RBI. Also strike outs. I think you just have to roll with him and live with the negatives. But he's one of the few on the team that a regular swing goes to the wall most places.

Starting pitching has been better than expected. Favors has been solid. LaPour, outside the first couple starts has been mostly nails. The rest have been ok. Dobbs is a nice surprise but he succeeds with mirrors. Zang has talent but can't throw a strike right now. Everyone else are freshman. Our 3 end guys, Anderson, Holmes and Adler have exceeded any expectations.

Would it be nice to win more? Sure. For all of us. Are the outcomes better than the talent? I kind of lean that way. Doesn't mean we can't get better and or win more. Shoot....just look at OSU, OU, KSU....ECU this weekend.....we don't have 2 guys that would start for any of them.

But also while we don't have anyone hitting over .350 right now, we don't have any regulars hitting under .233 (Birge not yet a regular imo) at this time and CJ, DJ, Gus, DWill, Lane Haworth, Jordo and Mo are all over .300 Will more production towards the bottom of the lineup, that's made it tougher on the opposition to get through us unscathed.

TBH, the best case scenario was always going to be to build some depth and be prepared to make a run in Clearwater with a team good enough and prepared enough to compete for an autobid. I believe they've made progress towards that goal. And frankly, substantial progress. There's nobody in this league (outside ECU) that I'm concerned about. I'm not saying we should finish conference 22-5 but just put us opposite ECU in Clearwater and I'll take our chances. And I thought there was about a 40% chance we wouldn't even make Clearwater before the season started.

[ShockTalk]

Do you think anything was solved this weekend? We did win a series against an ok team to right the ship but did anything with us change? Our pitching continues to be a serious problem IMO and if it weren’t for some timely HRs we could’ve been staring at an 8 game losing streak.

Just took a quick peek at our RPI for the first time in a while and wow, it dropped all the way to 109. That was about a 50 spot drop in a week.

With the top 2 contenders still on our schedule and the bottom 2 garbage already in the books, I think we’re looking squarely at a mid to low mid finish, which is probably what was expected going into the year. Just an interesting and disappointing way of getting there.

With the league standings as they now stand, I think with have a chance of staying in the top half by season's end. Given our past in the AAC, that's better than what we've generally done. For having a new coach and a rebuild, I don't think any of that is too bad. Guess I have a hard time criticizing a new coach and team too much at this point. With a 10-team league and 6 of those teams only separated by 2 games, hopefully we can stay at least in that middle group.