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While the overall results of the last 3 years are disappointing what is even more troubling to me is the direction the program is trending.
We have gone from 39-28 (Gene's final year) to 31-28 to 26-33 to 21-37. I hope and pray that trend is broken because a 16-42 finish is hard to fathom. I really don't see that happening though but if it does anguish will prevail.
We do have some nice pieces returning among the position players, at least offensively. However, in the post-gorilla ball era pitching and defense are of primary importance and in those areas we have a lot of improvement needed. I have no difficulty giving kudos to our 3 freshman All-Americans. All 3 of those players made great strides at the plate. That said all 3 showed they still need to make great strides in the field and they aren't the only ones. Not only technically but from a BBIQ standpoint as well. The good thing is that we are young and natural improvement should occur. Trey Vickers is probably the one position player who brings a well-rounded game to the ballpark.
Clearly though the elephant in the room is the pitching. Not sure that pointing a finger of blame does much good but fair or not the guy at the top of the food chain is ultimately responsible. It is also clear that there were significant philosophical differences between Coach Butler and Coach Kemnitz that, along with some unfortunate injuries, clearly hampered the effectiveness of the staff. Whether or not replacing Brent will resolve some of those issues remains to be seen. But the pitching clearly has to be improved if the bottom line results are going to improve.
It is nice to have 3 Freshman All-Americans in the fold and I congratulate those young men but we would be much, much better off it those were 3 pitchers instead of 3 position players (one who was selected as a DH).
There is no sugar-coating it though. Right now we are not a good baseball program. Will that start to change next year. I have no idea. I hope so.
Things that might be attractive to incoming recruits is that we do have great (although gradually fading) tradition and very good baseball facilities. More importantly though we have a plethora of opportunities, especially for pitchers, to come in and make an immediate impact if they have what it takes. So while we have a lot of problems to fix, the other side of that coin is that there is a lot of opportunity if you can be part of the solution.
BTW, I don't think there is much being posted on ShockerNet that is not pretty much obvious on the face of it. Articles in the local media have not exactly been fawning over the current state of the program either although the media is a bit more restrained and perhaps less blunt in how they portray their thoughts then you see on ShockerNet. That should be a surprise to absolutely no one. Clearly ShockerNetters are more emotionally involved.
We have gone from 39-28 (Gene's final year) to 31-28 to 26-33 to 21-37. I hope and pray that trend is broken because a 16-42 finish is hard to fathom. I really don't see that happening though but if it does anguish will prevail.
We do have some nice pieces returning among the position players, at least offensively. However, in the post-gorilla ball era pitching and defense are of primary importance and in those areas we have a lot of improvement needed. I have no difficulty giving kudos to our 3 freshman All-Americans. All 3 of those players made great strides at the plate. That said all 3 showed they still need to make great strides in the field and they aren't the only ones. Not only technically but from a BBIQ standpoint as well. The good thing is that we are young and natural improvement should occur. Trey Vickers is probably the one position player who brings a well-rounded game to the ballpark.
Clearly though the elephant in the room is the pitching. Not sure that pointing a finger of blame does much good but fair or not the guy at the top of the food chain is ultimately responsible. It is also clear that there were significant philosophical differences between Coach Butler and Coach Kemnitz that, along with some unfortunate injuries, clearly hampered the effectiveness of the staff. Whether or not replacing Brent will resolve some of those issues remains to be seen. But the pitching clearly has to be improved if the bottom line results are going to improve.
It is nice to have 3 Freshman All-Americans in the fold and I congratulate those young men but we would be much, much better off it those were 3 pitchers instead of 3 position players (one who was selected as a DH).
There is no sugar-coating it though. Right now we are not a good baseball program. Will that start to change next year. I have no idea. I hope so.
Things that might be attractive to incoming recruits is that we do have great (although gradually fading) tradition and very good baseball facilities. More importantly though we have a plethora of opportunities, especially for pitchers, to come in and make an immediate impact if they have what it takes. So while we have a lot of problems to fix, the other side of that coin is that there is a lot of opportunity if you can be part of the solution.
BTW, I don't think there is much being posted on ShockerNet that is not pretty much obvious on the face of it. Articles in the local media have not exactly been fawning over the current state of the program either although the media is a bit more restrained and perhaps less blunt in how they portray their thoughts then you see on ShockerNet. That should be a surprise to absolutely no one. Clearly ShockerNetters are more emotionally involved.
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