How many seasons does Kemnitz have left?

[WstateU]

Like most, I’ve had some negative thoughts recently, but listening to BK after Saturday’s loss made me feel much better about the direction of the program. BK said (paraphrasing) this is a young team with very little experience. He said HCTB is a great coach and recruiter and has one of the best minds in baseball; he went on to say HCTB has unbelievable credentials from having coached in the best conference (SEC) in baseball. He said there’s great talent on the young pitching staff; they’ve repeatedly told the ‘Juco’ guys (pitchers and position players) that their time is now and don’t wait until next year. They need to focus on THE NEXT PITCH and forget the previous pitch.

The best thing we can do as fans is ‘show up’ and give them our support. I’ll just have to drink more beer to get me through the difficult season.

I’m confident HCTB knows what he’s doing and will be a fine coach. The difficult (above average) early season schedule didn’t help player’s confidence. It might have been a good year to play a ‘softer’ early schedule (Bill Snyder esque) to build confidence; however I’m sure the schedule was set well in advance. The reality is we don’t have much experience and leadership at this point. “I’m not worried!”

Hopefully I’m not drinking too much of this…


I prefer Colorado Kool-Aid…

[JJClamdip]

It is also my understanding that HCTB is recruiting the pitchers, not Kenmitz.

It is amazing how fast some people turn on the coaches when the team is not winning. The first stop should be the AD.

The coach gets the credit when they win, not the A.D., when they lose it is on Butler and no one else.

[shockfan89_]

Like most, I’ve had some negative thoughts recently, but listening to BK after Saturday’s loss made me feel much better about the direction of the program. BK said (paraphrasing) this is a young team with very little experience. He said HCTB is a great coach and recruiter and has one of the best minds in baseball; he went on to say HCTB has unbelievable credentials from having coached in the best conference (SEC) in baseball. He said there’s great talent on the young pitching staff; they’ve repeatedly told the ‘Juco’ guys (pitchers and position players) that their time is now and don’t wait until next year. They need to focus on THE NEXT PITCH and forget the previous pitch.

The best thing we can do as fans is ‘show up’ and give them our support. I’ll just have to drink more beer to get me through the difficult season.

I’m confident HCTB knows what he’s doing and will be a fine coach. The difficult (above average) early season schedule didn’t help player’s confidence. It might have been a good year to play a ‘softer’ early schedule (Bill Snyder esque) to build confidence; however I’m sure the schedule was set well in advance. The reality is we don’t have much experience and leadership at this point. “I’m not worried!”

I was feeling better as I was listening to BK after Saturday's loss too but then I started to analyze some of the things BK was saying and there were several things that left me scratching my head.

1. Young team with very little experience - I will agree the team has little D1 experience but I don't understand saying it's a young team:

Hitting -
1 Seniors - 20 ABs or 3.39%
11 Juniors - 480 ABs or 81.36%
0 Sophomores - N/A
4 Freshman - 90 ABs or 15.25%

84.75% of ABs have been JR/SR and 15.25% FR/SO which means we aren’t really young at all.

Pitching
1 Senior - 2.1 innings or 1.49%
4 Juniors - 83.2 innings or 53.29%
3 Sophomores - 36.1 innings or 22.93%
5 Freshmen - 34.2 innings or 22.29%

Fairly young pitching staff with 45% of our innings by FR/SO.

2. HCTB great coach and recruiter and one of the best minds in baseball; unbelievable credentials from coaching in the best conference in baseball:

Head Coach
WSU - 37 - 40
McNeese State - 90 - 83
Career Record - 127 - 123

Lots of experience as an assistant in the SEC - No doubt there!
Recruiter - National ranking of 2nd but jury still very much out on that.
Best minds in baseball - Not sure how to judge this? Haven’t seen much other than some questionable starts at DH for left on left and right on right match-ups as well as leaving pitchers in too long. Could also be attributed to early in the year and wanting to see how people respond. Poor baseball IQ displayed so far but could be do to lack of D1 experience. Very subjective at best.

3. Young talent on the pitching staff: This may turn out to be the case but so far mediocre at best. I am excited about Bargfeldt and Goshen so far. Overall the Freshman have the following line:

IP - 34.2
Hits - 37
Runs - 31
ER - 22
BB - 19
SO - 31
ERA - 5.71

The Sophomores with Tewes and Biechler are very talented.

4. The best thing we can do as fans is ‘show up’ and give them our support. I’ll just have to drink more beer to get me through the difficult season: I completely agree. Going through the difficult seasons make the successfully ones even sweeter!

BK has always been motivating to listen to but the stats haven't really proven true YET, and I emphasize YET! The season is only 1/3 over. A lot of baseball to be played!

[shockmonster]

Turns out it didn't work out. You can blame Gene since he was the head coach, but I think a large portion of that blame should also be placed on the person that admitted they were the one that wanted to leave WSU more than the others. Kind of ironic he is the one that is still at WSU...

That statement by BK sounded more to me like he was falling on a sword for Gene who should take the blame for accepting the head coaching job at OU. He supposedly was the leader of the baseball program. No one else made him do anything. If he was following his assistant coaches lead, they should get credit for some of those 1800 wins you talked about. Gene is headed for the college baseball HOF for his coaching exploits at WSU, no one else.

[shockmonster]

By the way, I'm not sticking up for Kemnitz at all. I don't have a big stake in the baseball program although I wish they were successful. However, Gene gets credit for the good that he did for WSU, and he is also responsible for the bad at the end of his Shocker career.