Expectations For Shocker Baseball

[1972Shocker]

Clearly the landscape of College Baseball has changed dramatically for the heyday of Shocker success in the 1980's and 1990's.

At one time IIRC a 40-win regular season was considered the standard for a good season for the Shocks plus at least a modicum of post-season success. This year there are only 10 teams that have reached the 40 win mark in the regular season.

Missouri State is ranked 9th in Warren Nolan's NPI rankings with a record of 37-15 so they lost 4 games to weather it appears. So they might have hit 40 wins if they had played a full 56 game schedule. They lost a game to Evansville and to Illinois State which most likely would have been wins. Not sure about the other two games.

I would think Shocker fans would take that season in a heart beat and going forward that will be even tougher to forge in the AAC which is ranked 5th in the RPI compared to 16th for the Valley. In fact, the Valley is closer to 21st in RPI than it is to 15th in RPI.

South Florida is the only AAC team with 40 wins and they tied for 3rd in the AAC with UConn at 14-10. UCF and Houstion tied for 1st place at 15-9. The only AAC team to finish below .500 overall was Tulane at 27-29 but they finished 5th in the AAC at 13-11. Clearly it is going to be much tougher sledding in the AAC. Perhaps more evidence that the Shocks should make a move to change the leadership of their program.

AAC Standings.

So going forward what kind of expectations should we have for Shocker baseball? What would be acceptable to you in this new world the Shocks are entering?

I'm thinking anything in the 32-35 wins range during he regular season asuming a reasonably decent non-con schedule with regular (maybe 5 out of every 10 years) advances into regional play and perhaps winning 1 or maybe 2 regionals every 10 years with any CWS appearance being unexpecteds icing on the cake.

What do think? Too optimistic or too pessimistic?

Note: Clearly too optimistic with the current state of the program. But can we rebuild to that with the right leadership?

[BOBB]

Contending for league titles most years. Regular regional visits. An occasional host. Anything beyond that luck and hot streaks come into play. Have to make a regional to get to a super.

[Cdizzle]

More.

[shockerfanmas]

As long as Todd Butler is the coach, my hope is that we stay out of the AAC cellar every year. The expectations should be to make the NCAA tournament and host a regional, but not with this assclown as a coach

[ShockTalk]

Referring to the thread title and with the latest announcement...NONE.

[1972Shocker]

Referring to the thread title and with the latest announcement...NONE.

Now the question is can the Shocks exceed such expectations?

[ShockTalk]

Now the question is can the Shocks exceed such expectations?

Hopefully.

[1979Shocker]

Getting into the AAC should give us access to better recruits. Clearly, our current recruits aren't that good. They strike out too much against poor competition. Todd Butler can't bat for them, but if he's the cause of bad recruits, then he needs to go. I know it was said a couple of years ago that we had the second best recruiting class in the nation. Whatever happened with that?

Do we let Todd Butler stay one more year to see if he can bring in better recruits in a new conference or let him go now?

[shockfan89_]

Getting into the AAC should give us access to better recruits. Clearly, our current recruits aren't that good. They strike out too much against poor competition. Todd Butler can't bat for them, but if he's the cause of bad recruits, then he needs to go. I know it was said a couple of years ago that we had the second best recruiting class in the nation. Whatever happened with that?

Do we let Todd Butler stay one more year to see if he can bring in better recruits in a new conference or let him go now?

We took the 2nd ranked recruiting class in the country and coached them down to 3 straight losing seasons. We have had two top 25 recruiting classes in the past 4 years and still can't field a team that wins more games than they lose. But be patient, it will get better next year. Remember, we are 5-18 against top 100 RPI teams this year. All but one team in the AAC finished with a top 100 RPI.

Better recruits and better conference = same crappy under .500 results.

[Shockerman]

Expectations: Regional 8 out of 10 years, hosting a 1/3 of those and a CWS once a decade. That is the minimum and I don't think terribly unrealistic for a program like ours. Thoughts?

[J2210P]

About expectations: all stats and opinions considered, winning is not easy, yet is the final benchmark. FHCGS AVERAGED 51 wins per season to reach the nationally historic career total ---> plus more academic all-americans than any other program at any NCAA level. Plus of course, there is the one National Championship in school history. A truth: the higher profile the coach = the bigger the target on their back. I still do not like the level of overall expectations leading up to how this all got to today - which also includes decades of top attendances. There is some seriously unfinished, historically important business at WSU.
Kansas State Athletics ultimately took paramount action of integrity. My question is, can Wichita State?

[XManCometh]

What I expect from the baseball program is what I expect from the basketball program in the AAC:

Contend for the league title every year and play in the NCAA Tournament (or Regional in baseball).

If we move on to the Super Regional, that's basically a Sweet 16 or Elite 8 and the CWS is that rare trip to the Final Four.


Todd has one more year here and if they aren't in a Regional then he's gone. He should have been gone THIS year, but there was too much working against us thanks to that god awful contract we gave him and the move to the AAC.

Just not a good look going into a new conference with a lame duck coach. Not many kids are going to want to sign here knowing full well that HCTB isn't going to be around. They say "commit to the school not the coach", but that's hard to understand when you're 17 or 18 and a guy named Todd Butler is the one recruiting you.

[Play Angry]

Realistically once the next coach has exited the rebuild stage, my general expectations would be as follows:

1. Contend regularly for at-large bids. Receive regional bids ~ 3 out of every 4 years.

2. Advance to Super-Regional/Host a Regional - field a team competitive enough for this to occur every ~5 years or so.



We are the sleeping giant of college baseball and can return to being an excellent program quickly with the right leadership.

[Cdizzle]

We are the sleeping giant of college baseball and can return to being an excellent program quickly with the right leadership.

Sleeping giant addicted to self-prescribed Ambien.

[1972Shocker]

We are the sleeping giant of college baseball.

I guess that is the big question. Is the giant sleeping or has it been euthanized? If it is just in hibernation the longer it stays in hibernation the greater the atrophy and tougher the recovery.