Fire Todd Butler

[jeff]

Okay, Butler will be paid 1.3 mil for the remainder of his contract. No one wants to buy out that contract. The university is responsible for that contract. Coming from the other direction would a booster or boosters be willing to pony up $75,000 - $100,000 a year for Standiford or Hooper for that 4 years. If they perform obviously after 4 years and Butler is paid off they could offer a substantial raise. I assume the assistants are on one year contracts and can be released with those positions and money going to the new coaches hires.

[bleed yellow]

Okay, Butler will be paid 1.3 mil for the remainder of his contract. No one wants to buy out that contract. The university is responsible for that contract. Coming from the other direction would a booster or boosters be willing to pony up $75,000 - $100,000 a year for Standiford or Hooper for that 4 years. If they perform obviously after 4 years and Butler is paid off they could offer a substantial raise. I assume the assistants are on one year contracts and can be released with those positions and money going to the new coaches hires.

I have little faith that WSU will handle this correctly. The Jody Adams sherade boiled on for like 4 years and nothing happened. We'll probably just hire a team counseler to sit in the dug out to work with players and coaches.

[Kung Wu]

This is Boatright's "time to shine moment". If he does nothing, he gains nothing, and his name will start coming up on this thread next year. On the otherhand, if he takes initiative and makes the right moves here, he will have made a heck of a name for himself and have a killer notch on his resume. And honestly, it's teed up for him ... there are many coaches he can hire to improve WSU's current baseball situation. And if he goes with Hooper or Standiford and those guys don't pan out, nobody will blame him for trying them.

[shocktheheart]

I work with an immediate family member of one of the freshman players. Sounds like none of the players like Butler. This player was over at his house for a freshman team meal at the beginning of the season and Butler didn't join them to eat. Sat downstairs while they were upstairs eating. Sounds like their isn't a lot of team unity and not a lot of respect from the players to Butler.

[Cdizzle]

I have twenty dollars.

[Ricardo del Rio]

It would be interesting to know what the players really think?

Feeling beat down. On the verge of losing their will to win.

[ShockerTalker]

I attended the ball game last night and I can say with certainty that I will not return until a significant change is made. The more visits I make to the Eck these days, the poorer the experience gets. After paying $15 and waiting fifteen minutes for some microwaved mystery-meat in a cold hot dog bun for the wife and myself, we took our places in the stands. Instantly, I knew we should have stayed home to watch the Royals and catch up on laundry. Who wants to spend an hour watching this pathetic team dig themselves into an eleven-run deficit not even halfway through the third inning? No wonder the older gentleman near us was reading an e-book on his iPad instead of watching the game. We left after a blown-call from the 3rd base umpire -- not because it was a horrible call, losing early and down by so much, but because I had reached my breaking point with Fraud Butler. If I hadn't left at that very moment, I would have been removed by security for the things that would have come out of my mouth. After all, you can hear a pin drop in that joint. Perhaps I should have stayed and vented, confidently knowing that my voice would have been heard on behalf of the Shocker Faithful. Fraud Butler doesn't defend his players and stick up for them. I've seen this several times before and I told myself that this was going to be my last time seeing it. I remember fHCGS having some epic exchanges with umpires in the past, many times resulting in ejection. I tell you what, though -- the ejection was never in vein. It sent a message to the team and to the fans -- "We're not backing down, we're going to stand up for ourselves and we aren't going down without a fight". As you all know, baseball is a mental sport. If I'm a player and I see my coach going out there, giving umpires "the business" and sticking up for me, you better believe that I'm going to play my tail off for him. It's clear to see that there is an issue here between the coaches and the players. All of this so-called "talent" can't put it together on the field? That falls on coaching. Fraud Butler has not done himself any favors and his apathy truly reflects on the team.

#FIREBUTLER

[GreatWhiteBuffalo]

Agree with all of the above. Program stinks and is wasting marvelous facilities. Who are the choices to replace? I agree with Standiford and Hooper. What about a guy like Wedge? Any other names of interest?

[Cdizzle]

Wedge would be great. Probably not in the running though.

Hoop is my guy. He's young. He knows what he's doing. He's been supremely successful as a player and a coach. He could restore some of the program legacy because he helped write it. And....he's got fire.

[Ricardo del Rio]

Maybe Coach Marshall will take a salary cut for one year.

How did Kemnitz go from being a pitching coach genius to a dunce. I just do not get it.

For many years, he was able to recruit very good prospects and develop them into very good pitchers.

What happened? Did Coach Butler meddle in both the recruitment and development of pitchers?

Lastly, what is Coach Walker's involvement in the pitching staff collapse?

[mjbaker84]

I work with an immediate family member of one of the freshman players. Sounds like none of the players like Butler. This player was over at his house for a freshman team meal at the beginning of the season and Butler didn't join them to eat. Sat downstairs while they were upstairs eating. Sounds like their isn't a lot of team unity and not a lot of respect from the players to Butler.

Watching the game yesterday it sure felt a lot like that was happening all game.
I still can't get around butler going to the mound to switch pitchers as well.

[Kung Wu]

Maybe Coach Marshall will take a salary cut for one year.

Screw that.

How did Kemnitz go from being a pitching coach genius to a dunce. I just do not get it.

For many years, he was able to recruit very good prospects and develop them into very good pitchers.

What happened? Did Coach Butler meddle in both the recruitment and development of pitchers?

Lastly, what is Coach Walker's involvement in the pitching staff collapse?

If I were Kemnitz I would have taken a VERY passive role when the new coach came in, to make sure he understood that he's in charge and that I am here for him and ready to take his direction. That leads to really two options:

1) The new coach may have a chip on his shoulder that he has to live with an assistant that is not "his guy". The passive way to deal with that is to pretty much ignore him and not include him in a lot of the heavy decisions (ie, send him out to scout, but not really recruit, etc). Don't take his input on the type of recruit you are looking for. Don't involve him in game management very much. I can go on.

Or ...

2) The new coach really wants to understand the assistant's background and take full advantage of his experience. He would ask of the assistant what it took to win a national championship the way they did. Whether that philosophy could still work if they could just bring in the top notch recruits, or if the game has evolved and therefore the strategy needs to shift a little. They would cooperate in figuring out how to get "in front" of where the game is headed but also get restore that mojo from years past. He would include the assistant in key decisions, game planning, game management, etc.

We have received some speculation on where Kemnitz' involvement appears to be, and therefore where the professional relationship probably stands regarding those two. But again it's still all speculation. And much of it could just be piling on, since they aren't really having any success. And of course it could be somewhere in between. For example, "I'll let this guy recruit, so long as he filters out only tall players, but I am going to manage the game myself."

Edit: There is another possibility that Kemnitz was not passive about his role, and could have been opinionated about certain things early on that caused him to get alienated as well (if he even is alienated -- maybe he's not). I hadn't really considered that possibility.

[mjbaker84]

Boatright was up in the all american club yesterday when I was up there as well. Didn't see a huge amount of people even chatting with him up there. There was a decent contingent of fans up there (maybe 100) and a lot were mumbling under their breath about the plays and constant poor pitching/defense that lost the game 3 innings into it.

[RoyalShock]

I work with an immediate family member of one of the freshman players. Sounds like none of the players like Butler. This player was over at his house for a freshman team meal at the beginning of the season and Butler didn't join them to eat. Sat downstairs while they were upstairs eating. Sounds like their isn't a lot of team unity and not a lot of respect from the players to Butler.

I don't think the issue is a lack of talent. Many of our recruits were highly thought of. And I don't think it can all be blamed on coaching. So what's going on? A few thoughts . . .

- The post above would indicate a team chemistry problem, and one that quite a few folks here thought was happening toward the end of Gene's tenure. Your players can not like you, but if they don't respect you, how likely are they to give 110%?

- Recruits are ranked mostly on their physical abilities. Mental make-up can't really be quantified on a player info card. Perhaps Butler is a poor judge of mental toughness. I truly think this is a big factor, and one that I would expect to be much, much better with a Standiford or Hooper in charge.

- Coaching has to be a part of it. I only attended the season opener, but even then I thought either our hitter's approaches at the plate, or their overall pitch recognition was downright awful. Yes, D1 is a step up from high school or juco, but surely they saw enough off-speed stuff that they should be able to do better than they have.

- And to add to the previous point on coaching, besides the surge late last year (the source of my optimism leading into this season), has there been any improvement from players who have been in the program more than one year?

None of those issues seem correctable without a major change in leadership.

[Cdizzle]

I disagree with some who say the issue is not a lack of talent. I think it's a giant part of the issue. But again, that is not necessarily the player's fault. That is a recruitment and development failure.