WHY SCHEDULE TEAMS LIKE THIS

[Shocker85]

Hi sweet cheeks

...I hope you come around Hot Lips.

So much love around here.

The pitching is really dropping off badly right now between the Top 3 or 4 starters plus 2 or 3 guys out of the pen. After that, the pitchers are having real trouble getting outs and can't finish off hitters. Add to that the fact that the best 6 pitchers on the staff still have the ability to be very inconsistent and you get a recipe for occasional implosions. One step forward, one step back.

Hitting is woeful. Baez has no clue what he is doing at the plate. McKeever has wasted way too many opportunities in men-on-base opportunities. There is virtually no power in the lineup; McKeever, O'Brien, Rosecrans and possibly Lassley will hit an occasional HR, but I doubt any of them will have more that 6-7 HR for the season.

And then there's the fielding. The right side of the infield has some serious issues. Anyone put as 2B has practically no range and several errors charged to other IF would have been avoided with a more capable 1B. If Hall and Jones are out for any length of time, we're in trouble. The brightest stars on defense so far have been Grimes and Caster.

In today's pregame you all heard Gene's disgust for the sacrifice and I firmly believe that with this Punch and Judy lineup he's squandering runs. This team IS NOT going to score runs in bunches against middling to good pitching, PERIOD. Getting 1 or 2 runs would be better than 0 and the sacrifice would help there. Problam is, however, that I don't think they teach sacrifice bunting technique at WSU, only bunt for hit.

Frustrating.

BTW, props to KC for your pre-season prediction. You and I were tracking together on the outlook for this team. I have to say, however, that watching every home game play out pretty much as expected has been incredibly painful. All the so-called "talented recruits" have a long way to go to bring this team up to Shocker standards.

--'85.

[newshock1234]

this lose is on silviobadabing2

[Dan]

Re: WHY SCHEDULE TEAMS LIKE THIS

I see absolutely no reason to schedule teams like this. What good except for padding pitching and hitting stats and Genes pursuit of Garrido. I dont believe that even the players can see anything good about games like this. You see guys that are 3 for 22 on the season going 3 for 3 big whoop. These games will do nothing but drag down the RPI for W.S.U. If the Shocks dont win the conference or the Valley tournament, dont hold your breath for a regional spot. This is painful to watch and listen to. Good Lord there are 2 more games of this , not for me Im, out. Will return for Long Beach series .

This sounds eerily similar to the reasons the BCS schools don't want to schedule teams like WSU in basketball. The perspective is a lot different when the shoe's on the other foot.

[DUShock]

Re: WHY SCHEDULE TEAMS LIKE THIS

I see absolutely no reason to schedule teams like this. What good except for padding pitching and hitting stats and Genes pursuit of Garrido. I dont believe that even the players can see anything good about games like this. You see guys that are 3 for 22 on the season going 3 for 3 big whoop. These games will do nothing but drag down the RPI for W.S.U. If the Shocks dont win the conference or the Valley tournament, dont hold your breath for a regional spot. This is painful to watch and listen to. Good Lord there are 2 more games of this , not for me Im, out. Will return for Long Beach series .

This sounds eerily similar to the reasons the BCS schools don't want to schedule teams like WSU in basketball. The perspective is a lot different when the shoe's on the other foot.

Oh so true!

[shocksrox]

hey Loser look back at the schedules of the 82 and 89 teams. Those are the best 2 shocker teams ever. Anyone remember Kearney ST. You need confidence builders. You think Phil Stephenson hits for such a high ave only playing ranked teamss. GO BACK AND LOOK!!!!

I guess you mean me. Well I am glad that Phil Stephenson built up his confidence playing Kearney State as you said, I bet it really helped him down the line so he could have a .201 batting average for his major league carrer.Look Im not trying to get anyone mad but there has to be better options then these types of teams period.

what does playing some pud teams to build confidence for the rest of the college season have to do with a guy's career mlb average?! no one said anything about that

you're grasping at straws man...should've quit a long time ago

[t7017s]

This series was not scheduled to "build confidence"! This series was scheduled to get 3 games in midweek due to spring break. UAPB was available. The top 5 teams in the country were not! It's that simple.

[DUShock]

Playing someone, anyone is better than not playing at all.

[t7017s]

Gene would play everyday if he could. He doesn't like rust and doesn't think you get the same out of practice that you do live hitting and fielding. Game situations are crucial to players development. This year we got a lot of kids without the experience of those situations and its showing. That will change much like our basketball team started 0-6 in conference then figured out what it takes to win conference games on a regular basis and how to be ready mentally and physically. No worries here. Just like learning to walk. You learn to stay upright after falling on your face a few times and realizing it hurts. The kids will be fine. It's all part of it.

[SekShocker]

Gene would play everyday if he could. He doesn't like rust and doesn't think you get the same out of practice that you do live hitting and fielding. Game situations are crucial to players development. This year we got a lot of kids without the experience of those situations and its showing. That will change much like our basketball team started 0-6 in conference then figured out what it takes to win conference games on a regular basis and how to be ready mentally and physically. No worries here. Just like learning to walk. You learn to stay upright after falling on your face a few times and realizing it hurts. The kids will be fine. It's all part of it.

You are so right, but man is it hard to have the patience to wait this out, especially a game like last night, I hope that I can continue to have this outlook, but games like last night really drive me mad, but I do see a light at the end of the tunnel and good things in the future.

[KC Shox]

Scheduling a "cupcake" like APB is a tried and true tactic used by many college programs early in the season. Heck, you see it in D1 football all the time. Any KSU football fans out there? They always schedule a cupcake to get his teams' playing legs underneath them so to speak.

This is no different with APB. Scheduling them and the North Dakota State's of the world gives our team some valuable real world playing time against true competition and not on the practice field against each other at the beginning of the season.

Although, I do question the value of going up against competition that have pitchers who top out at 78 mph and throw off speed pitches at 58. Personally, I think this screws with a hitter because they probably haven't seen pitching like this since their JV days in high school.

[WSUwatcher]

Possible

Facing lesser pitching does pose a risk, KC.

But it all goes back to Gene's desire to play as much as possible. The 56 game limit really cramps his style, as you can see by looking back into history at some of the W-L records Shocker teams used to put up, with over 80 games a year in total. And obviously some of those teams managed not to get fouled up too much by playing lesser opponents during the week, when (then as now) topnotch teams weren't available to play three or four games at a stretch.

[silviobadabing2]

this lose is on silviobadabing2

Yeah Im back to get my medicine. this ( lose ) is on me. It has nothing to do with giving up 17 hits to an inferior team, or not being able to hit with the bases loaded etc. I repeat playing teams like this is a no win situation. If you win you were suppose to , if you lose you lost to who:::::
And for those of you who believe I jinxed the team. Get real I doubt if the Team was in the dugout with their laptop checking on my posts.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

first off the team doesnt need to see your post to be jinxed.

Secondly Stranger things have happened


Third - your mother