Fire Todd Butler

[shockfan89_]

Do you think the decision to keep Kemnitz is why DBU Dan Heefner cancelled on his visit to WSU?

I heard Dan withdrew his name from contention when he learned it was a package deal.

[Veritas]

Instant Karma is coming after Benedict Brent

[DUShock]

Is my recollection wrong, that the team and/or pitchers indicated that they were leaving en mass unless PCBK was retained? For some reason I seem to recall from among the bygone threads. Again, I could be wrong.

[WSUwatcher]

Possible, DU, but lots of players reportedly say that when a favorite coach is let go -- it simply becomes the job of the new coach to re-recruit them, and good ones are usually able to do enough of that, along with bringing in quality talent in their own right, to succeed.

I have no clue whether the retention of Kemnitz had an impact on Heefner's decision, but it wouldn't surprise me. Imposing requirements of that sort is not good management. It's just one more aspect of the mishandling of Gene's departure, which was epic -- and has led to an pretty epic collapse of the program.

[KansasShocker]

Is my recollection wrong, that the team and/or pitchers indicated that they were leaving en mass unless PCBK was retained? For some reason I seem to recall from among the bygone threads. Again, I could be wrong.

i was there during the coaching change so maybe i can help a little. from what i remember there were a few guys that were thinking of leaving, but certainly not the majority. most guys were upperclassman and did not want to leave for their last year if i remember right.

[KC Shox]

Vickers, Young, Dugas, Jenista, Bohm, and Troutwine are all sophomores or freshman. They are all hitting above .300 except Troutwine, but since he's a catcher, hitting .280+ works for me. DeBacker and Ritter show promise too. The offense appears to have a bright future.

It all boils down to pitching. Even if Tewes and Schwanke played healthy all year, they'd knock our team ERA down from 6.09 to maybe a full point to 5.00. Point and half at best. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say either Butler or Kemnitz is going to go. Assistant coaches are easy scapegoats, so if I were Kemnitz, perhaps I start sending out resumes? However, Kemnitz has so much cache' built up, is he untouchable?

[Cdizzle]

Stephenson wasn't untouchable.

[1972Shocker]

Vickers, Young, Dugas, Jenista, Bohm, and Troutwine are all sophomores or freshman. They are all hitting above .300 except Troutwine, but since he's a catcher, hitting .280+ works for me. DeBacker and Ritter show promise too. The offense appears to have a bright future.

It all boils down to pitching. Even if Tewes and Schwanke played healthy all year, they'd knock our team ERA down from 6.09 to maybe a full point to 5.00. Point and half at best. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say either Butler or Kemnitz is going to go. Assistant coaches are easy scapegoats, so if I were Kemnitz, perhaps I start sending out resumes? However, Kemnitz has so much cache' built up, is he untouchable?

I have no idea what kind of deal Brent cut before Butler was hired so it is a little hard to make a call on that. Whether or not Butler can influence that decision or not is also an unknown.

If I had to make a guess I would expect that both Butler and Kemnitz will be back next year.

In Butler's case the $1,340,000 in base pay remaining on his contract is reason #1. My guess is Butler will get 2 more years. Not only is the massive buyout an obstacle but does our Interim AD really want to take this on and does Dr. Bardo really want this distraction with everything else on his plate at this point in time.

Brent will likely stay around unless he just can not stomach the prospect of working with Butler another year and in that case I could see him voluntarily leaving. With his track record he shouldn't have too much trouble finding a good gig somewhere else. If things are as bad between Brent and Butler as some have speculated perhaps the worst thing Brent can do is hang around and tarnish his legacy further.

But who knows maybe there is very deep pocketed Shocker baseball fan or two who will be willing to bail us out of this situation.

[Cdizzle]

Not only is the massive buyout an obstacle but does our Interim AD really want to take this on and does Dr. Bardo really want this distraction with everything else on his plate at this point in time.

I'm not sure how replacing a failed coach is a distraction. At least not more of a distraction than the giant blinking neon sign that is a 20-33 season. On the contrary, I would think it would signal to potential conference landing spots that WSU does not put up with losing.

[1972Shocker]

I'm not sure how replacing a failed coach is a distraction. At least not more of a distraction than the giant blinking neon sign that is a 20-33 season. On the contrary, I would think it would signal to potential conference landing spots that WSU does not put up with losing.

Maybe, although I am not sure that much of anything you do outside of football and men's basketball is really on anyone's radar screen to any significant degree especially with where our baseball program is nowadays.

[Shocker3435]

Todd's not going anywhere, at least not this year. Personally, while disappointed as a fan, I want to see him stay and win.


If he left, the program would have to start from scratch. We'd lose everyone of value. Somebody commented about how it didn't seem like he's "lost" the team. Far from it. The players love him and I'd bet most of them would leave (save a couple local guys perhaps) if he left.


John Ferrendelli was a numbers casualty at the beginning of the year. Great kid and continued to work with the team as a non-player throughout the year and completely deserves to be recognized on senior day, jmo.

[Shocker3435]

I think we have a good group of freshmen than can hit, but none of them have impressed me at all with their fielding or baseball IQ. I think Jenista is probably the best of the group but I think the others are decent freshman that are getting valuable playing time on a below average team. Most of the time they have been inserted into the lineup for their hitting even though at times they are defensive liabilities.

What I really want to see if how they develop over the next two years. We have a couple guys that looked pretty good as freshmen last year that haven't developed at all, and some that have taken a step back. We also have a couple of Juniors that looked really good that have taken a step back. The question I still ask myself every week is there anyone on this team that is better than they were last year (has anyone been developed)? I can't think of one. Can anyone else?

Honest question. Do you feel like these kids have made strides during the year and are better? Position players only, I know the pitching is a mess.

[Ricardo del Rio]

I have no idea what kind of deal Brent cut before Butler was hired so it is a little hard to make a call on that. Whether or not Butler can influence that decision or not is also an unknown.

If I had to make a guess I would expect that both Butler and Kemnitz will be back next year.

In Butler's case the $1,340,000 in base pay remaining on his contract is reason #1. My guess is Butler will get 2 more years. Not only is the massive buyout an obstacle but does our Interim AD really want to take this on and does Dr. Bardo really want this distraction with everything else on his plate at this point in time.

Brent will likely stay around unless he just can not stomach the prospect of working with Butler another year and in that case I could see him voluntarily leaving. With his track record he shouldn't have too much trouble finding a good gig somewhere else. If things are as bad between Brent and Butler as some have speculated perhaps the worst thing Brent can do is hang around and tarnish his legacy further.

But who knows maybe there is very deep pocketed Shocker baseball fan or two who will be willing to bail us out of this situation.

Rusty Eck died a few years ago.

[ShockerFever]

7 days.

[1972Shocker]

7 days.

This either indicates you have Butler's buyout covered and in 7 days he will be gone or it is a "thank goodness the season will be over in 7 day" prediction. Or maybe both.