Fire Todd Butler

[Cdizzle]

I liked the first inning. Runner on 2nd with 1 out. Best hitter at the plate. And he bunts at an 0-1 pitch.

I just can't comprehend that kind of baseball stupidity.

[xazshox]

Hitting Coach

Brian Walker.

I'm at an absolute loss as to how it is that WSU had 5 frosh hitters in the lineup last year who all hit pretty well. And, now none of them are hitting over 0.300. Do they all have the sophomore slump?

[xazshox]

Another example of a hitters decline after his 1st year here

Ryan Tinkham: Hit 0.333 in 2015 & 0.233 in 2016. Just about everyone in the lineup is showing the same downwards progress from 2016 to 2017. Is the schedule really that much tougher in the non-conference part?

[1972Shocker]

Brian Walker.

I'm at an absolute loss as to how it is that WSU had 5 frosh hitters in the lineup last year who all hit pretty well. And, now none of them are hitting over 0.300. Do they all have the sophomore slump?

Bear with me here for a minute.

Valley baseball teams overall average a .270 batting average, a .408 slugging %, a .765 OPS and 0.79 home runs per game.

Valley softball teams overall average a .276 batting average, a .400 slugging %, a .760 OPS and 0.60 home runs per game.

I was a bit surprised at how comparable the numbers were.

The Shocker baseball team has a .235 batting average, a .328 slugging %, a .650 OPS and has averaged .29 home runs per game (7 homers in 24 games).

The Shocker softball team has a .324 team average, a .506 slugging %, a .901 OPS and has averaged 1.1 home runs per game (31 homers in 29 games).

Maybe HCTB should consider relieving Brian Walker of his duties and asking HCKB if she would mind sharing softball hitting coach Nicole Entz with the baseball team for the remainder of the year.

[SB Shock]

Brian Walker.

I'm at an absolute loss as to how it is that WSU had 5 frosh hitters in the lineup last year who all hit pretty well. And, now none of them are hitting over 0.300. Do they all have the sophomore slump?

1. Could be because now there is a detailed scouting report on them with what their weaknesses and,
2. The coaching staff have not been able to help them eliminate their weakeness.

[1972Shocker]

1. Could be because now there is a detailed scouting report on them with what their weaknesses and,
2. The coaching staff have not been able to help them eliminate their weakeness.

Most of the guys don't seem to be adept at making adjustments either from game-to-game, at bat-to-at bat or within an at-bat. Maybe they are trying to do that and just aren't very good at it. It is just not readily apparent that such adapting or attempt to adapt is going on. What is reported in the papers is that it will all work itself out with time. Just need to give it time and the law of averages will balance things out.

[shockfan89_]

In other words wait until we get into the MVC and everyone else is so bad our hitting will "appear" to improve. Then I can say we are improving and next year we will be better and get one more year...

[SPEShockAlum]

Here's a recommendation - in a fastball count, you better be ready to hit a fastball.

[THam]

I really thought that this team would be solid offensively this season, so the poor performance up and down the lineup compared to last year got me crunching numbers to see just how much hitters are improving year over year under Butler. Going back to 2014, where Butler's first year only saw 1/3 of the 12 Gene holdovers improve upon their 2013 OPS, through last year, 10 of 24 returnees increased their OPS. On average, their batting average dropped 11 points, their slugging % dropped 1 point, and their on-base % dropped 13 points.

When you add in this year's partial season, that drops the rate of improvement in OPS to 34% (11 of 32 players) and the average drop offs go to 22 points for batting average, 21 points for slugging % and 22 points for on-base %.

I don't have any idea what kind of numbers you could expect out of a NCAA-wide sample size, but I'm guessing more than 50% of players should be improving year over year and that returners' aggregate BA, SLG%, and OBP% should be going up and not down.

[SB Shock]

Boyd in his "Breadcrumbs back to Omaha" column did a statistical analysis on hitter develepment. In general you can expect 1% increase in battling average, 2% increase in OBP, and 3% increase SLG for returning players.

[Cdizzle]

Boyd in his "Breadcrumbs back to Omaha" column did a statistical analysis on hitter develepment. In general you can expect 1% increase in battling average, 2% increase in OBP, and 3% increase SLG for returning players.

I would take this to mean that WSU is below average in this department?

[SB Shock]

I would take this to mean that WSU is below average in this department?

Yes. I think they could be declared an extreme outlier.

[Cdizzle]

Yes. I think they could be declared an extreme outlier.

Oh, OK. I was worried we needed to consider this data. But extreme outliers can usually be ignored.

[shockfan89_]

We are currently 264th out of 295 teams in batting average.

[Cdizzle]

We are currently 264th out of 295 teams in batting average.

Would you classify that as 'below average' or 'extreme outlier.'

Asking for a friend.