MEMO to Grimes....

[Ashockalypse]

Good pts 89

[SB Shock]

SB - I think the point is inexperience mixed with youth. Of the 13 you listed McKeever, Jones, and Lassley are the only ones that played any real innings last year (Hall also but he is out for the season). So your facts are correct but the other side is 9 out of the 13 hitters have no (or VERY limited) D1 experience and are new to WSU and the ones that do have experience haven't stepped up and had great or even good years.

Yeah, I won't argue the "inexperience" tag. But I will add that when you consider the fact that they play "summer ball". The real inexperienced players are only the Frosh.

If you look back in history, Shox almost every year had holes in the lineups (batting/pitching) where multiple positions had to be filled. The 3 freshman is not that abnormal (and the freshman do seem to have alot of potential). The one difference from what I can see this year is there is always a "inexperienced" sophmore player chomping at the bit to get his chance and emerges and suprises everyone. Here are a few examples:

Josh Workman - 10 AB's his Frosh, hits 0.317 4 HR, 39 RBI his soph
Dustin Hawkins - 44 Ab's his Frosh, hits 0.323 and starts 31 games his Frosh
Drew Moffit - 45 Ab's his Frosh, 16 Hr's his soph
Blake Blasi - 47 AB's his Frosh, hits almost 0.400 the rest of his shocker career

I THINK the talent is there but we have thrust all of them into contributing roles their first year with the program.

I agree if your talking about Freshman. If your talking upper classmen, I heard the coach on the radio basically say the opposite.

I cannot recall that has happened before. We usually have 2 or 3 Fr. sprinkled in with seasoned upperclassmen that are producing around them.

Yeah, I agree. Maybe this was the perfect storm year where losing Coleman as a sophmore, injuries to bullpen, sophmore/juniors not stepping up, Hall being injured, the draft loss of incoming recruits - it all contributed to create this situation.

You can criticize the coaching staff for not bringing in good talent but keep in mind this group was rated the 15th best in country and you can probably count on one hand the number of top 20 recruiting classes WSU has had over the past 32 years. So if the coaching staff missed it, so did all the publications that rank recruits. To me it seems more likely the inexperience is whats causing things. At least thats what I want to believe...

I don't have a problem with this year recruiting class. It was obviously good and lived up to expectations even with the draft loss. I believe the problem for this year started a couple years ago. This Freshman class has a good core group of players that should be able to get WSU back to at least a top 25 team if they can get some help in the next 2 recruiting classes.

As a side note we are also very inexperienced from a pitching standpoint and do things that we typically dont see like walk leadoff batters and get behind in the count. In the past when we have had inexperience on one side we have usually had veterans on the other to help even things out. Couple those two things together and you have a recipe for mediocracy.

I hope so. I hope it is just the perfect storm of events that all conspired to drag this program down. But you know what - this team still has alot to play for. They have a chance to finish out the MVC season and get some confidence and then win MVC tournament.

If they don't find a way, they will likely be known as the team that team that gave Gene his longest losing streak, probably one of his worst records, one of the few shockers teams that have not got to post-season play. They will be likely remembered as one of the "worst-teams" in Shocker history.

But if they do find away, the whole perspective of this team changes. This team will be know for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat and regardless of what their W/L record. If they make the NCAA tournament they will be known as the young-inexperienced team that overcome injuries and found a way to get to the post-season and the future will be bright.

[shockfan89_]

I agree. I really wasn't that down on this team until the sweep last weekend at MSU. That was a killer! Giving up 20 runs in the first two games just won't cut it with this offense.

[wichita cat]

Grimes is on the Brooks Wallace award watch list. It is given to the nations top shortstop. I found the list on K-statesports.com, it gives the list in the story about the K-state ss being named to the list. Quite an honor for a freshman.