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Two familiar names in the top 13.
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Crazy to think we have two of the top 15 college MLB prospects on our roster, yet we can't play ourselves out of a wet paper bag to save our life.Originally posted by Wichita Muskie View Post -
It may be crazy but not hard to figure out. I think a quick look at the ERA of our pitching staff over the last 3 years explains most of that.Originally posted by SHOCKvalue View Post
During the final 3 years of Gene's tenure we had team ERA's of 3.45, 3.55 and 3.43. During Todd Butler's 3 years those ERA's have balloned to 5.10, 5.97 and 4.77.
Digging a little deeper the Shocks also allowed 0.92 unearned runs per game the last 3 years vs 0.66 the previous 3 years.
Over the last 3 years the Shocks have averaged 5.73 runs per game while their opponents have averaged 6.01 runs per game. During the prior 3 years the Shocks averaged 5.37 runs per games but held their opponents to 4.14 runs per game.
Pitching and defense are the culprits not the offense. And if the Shocks continue to struggle in those areas things won't get much better this year unless Jenista and Bohm can give super hero type performances and that's difficult with the BBCOR bats and the spring weather.
I suppose one positive is that Coach Steele did lower the ERA a bit last year from the previous two years. An equal improvement this year would go a long way to cashing in on what Jenista and Bohm hopefully will contribute this year.Last edited by 1972Shocker; October 3, 2017, 11:12 AM.Comment
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Other than being walked like 100 times next spring, I don't see how Jenista doesn't have some kinda record year. He was good last year but he's different now. Like crazy monster I wanna make $100 million get the eff outta my different. Locked in, focused and uber talented.
He hits everything hard. Real hard. KInda reminds me of Wood's last season when every at bat you expected greatness.
Pitching wise we need Codi Heuer to live up to his potential. I hope Steeley can work magic with him cuz he's got all the talent. If he had a big year, Codi could be a top 3 round guy. He's got that much upside and attention.
Alex Segal mighta been our opening day starter last season if not for the injury. Need him healthy as he's a likely high draft pick after next season. I think Preston Snavely has improved a lot and has a ton of talent but that's me.
Problem is, that's the high level talent. One starter coming off 16 months surgery and a mercurial reliever that's been spotty at best and a big talented guy with a 10 era as a freshman. The rest of the returnees that we know much about don't have great stuff.
Killgore, Lungwitz. Jones, Sanburn, Barnhouse and McGinness all struggled last season and it's difficult to see lots of improvement from any of them.
Adam Keller grinded at times but he's not gonna scare anyone. Same with Robby Evans and Cody Tyler. They might be Steeley guys that just understand strengths and weaknesses and do the best with what they have.
This team should score a lot and should be better defensively. Can they pitch enough to win? Only if some of the freshman, redshirt or otherwise can be the man.
Need a hidden gem (probably 2) in there between Tyler Davis, Liam Eddy, Ryan Stuempfig or one of the redshirts which doesn't seem likely. Seems alot to ask.Comment
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Not trying to be an a$$ at all, I am truly curious of your point of view.Originally posted by Shocker3435 View Post
How do you rationalize your prediction above with the results from fall ball against a very unproven pitching staff. We will likely see much better pitching during the season than what we faced in Fall ball. Jenista hit .182 in the 3 inter-squad games being walked only once in 12 plate appearances. He had only 2 singles and 1 RBI.
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Incredibly small sample size. Joey Votto occasionally goes 2 for 11 with 1 walk over 12 plate appearances, too.Originally posted by shockfan89_ View PostComment
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I think that's very valid. The problem is the college baseball season is a fairly small sample size, in reality it would be like Joey Votto going 6 for 32 with 3 walks and 3 RBIs in 35 plate appearances. That doesn't happen very often.
My concern is both Jenista and Bohm had really good summers last year too and then they had very slow starts to the season. They both hit lights out in the 16th ranked MVC but that likely won't carry over this year against AAC opponents.
I still think both will have good years, I think they might have better years if the coaching staff wasn't allowed to speak to them between August and May. :)
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I don't see how anybody can be hating on Jenista or Bohm.
Jenista hit 0.326/0.431/0.471 his Frosh and then 0.320/0.413/0.509 his Soph. His summer ball he only went to the Cap Cod league and was named MVP of the league.
Bohm meanwhile 0.306/0.346/0.489 his Frosh and then 0.305/0.385/0.519 his soph year. Then went to the cap cod league and hit 0.351 and was named to the all-star team.Comment
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I'm not hating on either of them and don't see how you can get that from any of my statements. The fact is they feasted on MVC pitching last year and were just average against quality opponents. This year our conference will be our quality opponents so hopefully they don't have a slow start like last year.
Last year through 3/31/17 (25 games into the season) Jenista was hitting .280 with 1 HR. In spite of that he ended up hitting .320 in part because of his performance against the 16th ranked conference. My question, which I thought seemed valid, is will he be able to post numbers like last year against what I assume will be higher quality pitching in the AAC. If not, he will need to have a much better start than last season to improve upon last year's stats. I also would have assumed, based on Shocker3435's comment that he would have feasted on WSU pitching in Fall coming off a great summer in Cape Cod and facing a very suspect pitching staff. He didn't, in fact he struggled. As Wichita Muskie pointed out , that is a very small sample size. I agreed. How is that "hating" on anyone?Comment
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how much time from the end of cape cod league ended until they faced live pitching? even though i dont live in wichita i am fairly certain the weather conditions favored the pitchers. lastly we'll add in that they were most likely working on weaknesses in their offensive game.Comment
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An optimist would say that Bohm and Jenista are fine and the 3-game fall series shows the Shocker pitching is much improved.
The pessimist says that Bohm and Jenista not tearing up weak Shocker pitching in that 3-game series is a big red flag and cause for concern.
The realist says you really can't read too much into a 3-game series in the fall and time will tell what is what. The realist would also say that if the Shocker ptiching continues to be poor then Jenista and Bohm probably, by themselves, wiould not be able to make a material difference in the bottom line which is wins even if they have outstanding junior years.
Is there any reason to be optimistic? Based on the past 4-years that would be asking a lot out of Shocker fans. The key IMHO will be the pitching and at this point it is very difficult to project or expect any significant improvement although that might happen. Jenista and Bohm have a lot riding on this upcoming season. A big year could be worth a truckload of money. But again I think the pitching will determine how good or bad this team will be. Projecting Jensita and Bohm to have very good years is an easier sell than projecting team success based on the performance of the past 4 years.Last edited by 1972Shocker; December 28, 2017, 12:33 PM.Comment
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