Questions moving forward

[Veritas]

-- A pretty poor fielding team. Was it due to the new turf, constantly changing the lineup, or recruiting raw talent and then not developing them?

-- Top 3 pitchers were good. A few bad breaks along the way with losing a couple of strong performers. It seems Shocker pitchers are not very resilient on minimum days rest or throwing much over 100. I've always admired BK on protecting the arms, but maybe he protects them too much?BK says most is mental. Perhaps being babied all season long doesn't prepare the pitchers mentally when called on to go the extra inning or start again on short rest.

-- Recruiting edge. Clearly it is getting more difficult to recruit against area BXII schools. WSU puts a lot of money into the baseball program (stadium, turf, high paid coaches, indoor training facility). Is there something else that can be done to make WSU more attractive for kids when choosing a college?

-- Scheduling. Is WSU baseball running into a similar problem that faces the basketball program when trying to schedule high RPI games? We know the MoVal is going to drag the RPI down into the toilet. Arkansas, OU won't schedule WSU anymore. What can be done to improve scheduling so WSU isn't faced with the bubble syndrome again with an RPI in the low 50s? Or is it not a problem with scheduling, but simply not winning enough times when faced with that rare competition that has a high RPI?

The Shox were painfully close to an at large invitation. I hope the program and the athletic department digs deep to not only protect the legacy of Shocker baseball, but to enhance the program as well.

I'm disappointed for the kids, and thank them for rallying down the stretch.

[ShockTalk]

Veritas - We were apparantly thinking along the same lines at the same time.

[SpanglerFan316]

The season is over; I'll let Gene worry about next year. The next big Shocker sport is volleyball; lets see if we can spread the word and get back into the Top 5 nationally in (average) volleyball attendance.

[ShockerFever]

The season is over; I'll let Gene worry about next year. The next big Shocker sport is volleyball; lets see if we can spread the word and get back into the Top 5 nationally in (average) volleyball attendance.

I support all WSU athletics, but this is the friggen baseball forum. Please do your volleyball cheerleading elsewhere and save it for another day.

[SB Shock]

The season is over; I'll let Gene worry about next year. The next big Shocker sport is volleyball; lets see if we can spread the word and get back into the Top 5 nationally in (average) volleyball attendance.

Actually I think the next big thing is the basketball summer pick-up games.

2nd next big things is what WSU players will do during summer ball. This will be the first indication of which direction the WSU baseball program is going.

[Veritas]

I like the success of WSU volleyball, but I find no comfort in knowing that volleyball is "the next big Shocker sport" in which to look forward.

I do hope we see a pretty good detailed article from Suellentrop on Gene's action plan.

[WSUwatcher]

Veritas

Excellent questions, V. I hate to sound like KC or my stalker, but right now it looks like next year's questions are far more compelling than the potential answers.

Infield defense needs to get better, for sure. Some of that will happen automatically with the departure of Baez; I for one am eager to see a real 2B on the field for WSU again. Coy really needs to learn to pick throws, assuming he's back. I expect that he will be, because with his draft history he has as much leverage as a college player can have to wait for life-changing money, and right now he probably won't get it. He's a promising bat without a position, and the pros don't give life-changing money for that. But a full season of showing that he can pound the ball -- maybe up around .400 with power and some plate discipline, which seems possible -- and can field a position competently could put him in the multimillion dollar part of the draft. Still, who plays 3B, and how well?

Pitching was also a disappointment, and I think you have a point about WSU's pitchers not being ready enough to work on "short" (really, shorter) rest. That's BK's fault, and although he's certainly a far better pitching coach than I am, I believe he's seriously mistaken in adopting the standard weekend vs. midweek distinction that now prevails in college baseball. WSU hasn't always done that -- guys like Steenstra and Brummett, for example, weren't physically stronger or more capable than Cooper is, but they were used to working in a pro-style rotation. But Cooper (and Kelley, for that matter) aren't, and it's unrealistic to ask someone to go seamlessly from pitching once a week to putting up a big performance on three days rest. The good news is that Lowell will be back, as will Flynn -- at whom his teammates have every right to be really PO'd, by the way, for how he let them down this year. Muncrief will probably be healed at last, and Sossamon may yet live up to his promise; Mateychick and TJMc should be better with a year of experience, too.

I also won't be surprised to see Cooper back, because like Coy, he has the leverage to wait for life-changing money and probably won't get it yet. His game is sharpness and command, not blowing people away, and to get the monster bucks he could stand to add a couple of mph (not impossible) or even more importantly to develop a different look for hitters on days when he lacks his best stuff. Right now, as the announcers have noted more than once, most of his pitches are pretty similar. You can use that approach successfully against college hitters when you're really sharp and on your game, as Cooper normally is -- but, as we saw Saturday, not even against them when you aren't. Baez definitely hurt him by picking that game to debut a new slapstick routine, but Cooper was destined to get lit up Saturday no matter what; it was just a question of when. (Kemnitz saw that too, which is why he got Cooper out when he did and gambled unsuccessfully on the rogue's gallery in his bullpen.) And, of course, professional hitters are a much tougher foe than the IlSt lineup. To move closer to the big $$$ part of the draft Cooper could also stand to show he can be part of a rotation, which is clearly not yet the case, and who knows -- he may also decide he wants to take one last shot at leading WSU back to Omaha. As for Kelley, it's hard to picture a pro team going nuts over a guy whose opponents batted .293 against him and who also hasn't shown he can work on shorter rest. So it will just depend on what he wants to do, but I can't imagine the pro offer to him being super enticing.

Of course, maybe the most important question remains, as it often has lately, where the offense will come from. This team had more power than some recent WSU editions, and Jones will improve them by not being around to play every day. But as mediocre offensively as Ryan was, he did hit 10 HRs, and his only teammates with comparable proven power are Coy and Springer, both of who are at least eligible to leave. And even this year, WSU's offense tended to disappear too often against name opponents, even some who weren't all that imposing (e.g., the road debacles at Nebraska and ORU).

The bottom line is that a lot of work needs to be done and a lot of improvement needs to occur for next year to be better. If the Shocks can go four or five deep in the rotation they can make the NCAA field just by winning the conference tournament, but if this team was a near miss for an at-large spot, it isn't immediately apparent where the improvement will come from to get the off the bubble (in the right direction) next year.

[shox1989]

For me the next big thing is watching current Shockers, future Shockers and former Shockers play in the NBC tournament.

[1972Shocker]

I'm not sure what action plan you're looking for that would be any different than what has been done in the past.

You build and maintain the best facilities you can and recruit the best players you can find and hope the MLB draft doesn't decimate you too much.

Not sure how the fundraising is going for Phase II, but here is what they want to do:

New third base side home team locker room (lower level) with dressing area, team room, showers/restrooms, satellite athletic training facility and equipment room. Players will be able to access indoor practice facility and dugout from locker room. First base dugout/locker area will be occupied by the visitors.
Relocation of baseball offices (ground level) and home team dugouts to third base side for convenient access to the new home team locker room and indoor practice facility.
Lower both dugouts for improved sight lines for players and coaches.
Additional third baseline seating and concourse area.

Clearly, the new practice facility and field turf of Phase I was the most important things needed. Phase II are nice changes buy perhaps secondary although the new home locker rooms and access to the IPF would be helpful to recruiting. Not sure what we will do with the additional seating.

As previously mentioned we are losing a lot of production from this year's staff and, more than likely, two of our top 3 pitchers with not a lot of proven talent coming in behind them. Anyway you slice it next year we will be in full rebuilding mode and an awful lot will have to go our way for next year's team to be good.

Right now we have 7 incoming freshman and a 1-year Juco player coming in (depending on how the draft goes).

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=61178&SPID=2844&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=204929914

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=61178&SPID=2844&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=204835427

We lose 10 seniors, 9 of whom were key contributors this year and we probably lose Jordon Cooper and Tim Kelley. Johnny Coy and Preston Springer are on the bubble I suppose and you could lose another player or two due to attrition. So we may still need to sign 4 to 7 more players.

Hopefully, Brian Flynn will be back in the mix next year.

Obviously, Gene can't talk about any specific recruits until they sign LOI's but clearly the coaching staff has a big challenge ahead of them.

[ISASO]

We're really planning to add more seating along 3rd base? Why? The seating behind the plate has only been full maybe once or twice in 10 years?

[1972Shocker]

We're really planning to add more seating along 3rd base? Why? The seating behind the plate has only been full maybe once or twice in 10 years?

Why indeed!

We averaged 3,643 in paid attendance this year. I would guess about half of this was sitting on the hill. So we are putting about 1,800 a game in the seats. Seating capacity is a non-issue.

My guess is we will see this dropped or placed on the back-burner (way back).

[ShockerFever]

Well, when you only host NCAA postseason play 1 out of the last 8 years, it becomes even more unreasonable to expand capacity.

[Shirley Schmidt]

New third base side home team locker room (lower level) with dressing area, team room, showers/restrooms, satellite athletic training facility and equipment room. Players will be able to access indoor practice facility and dugout from locker room. First base dugout/locker area will be occupied by the visitors.
Relocation of baseball offices (ground level) and home team dugouts to third base side for convenient access to the new home team locker room and indoor practice facility.
Lower both dugouts for improved sight lines for players and coaches.
Additional third baseline seating and concourse area.

These are nice goals but a waste of time, money and effort at this time.

If I was the AD I would tell Gene to rattle off three or four trips to Omaha and then we will talk.

[shox1989]

New third base side home team locker room (lower level) with dressing area, team room, showers/restrooms, satellite athletic training facility and equipment room. Players will be able to access indoor practice facility and dugout from locker room. First base dugout/locker area will be occupied by the visitors.
Relocation of baseball offices (ground level) and home team dugouts to third base side for convenient access to the new home team locker room and indoor practice facility.
Lower both dugouts for improved sight lines for players and coaches.
Additional third baseline seating and concourse area.

These are nice goals but a waste of time, money and effort at this time.

If I was the AD I would tell Gene to rattle off three or four trips to Omaha and then we will talk.

We need the new locker room, dressing area, team room, showers etc. for recruiting purposes. The BCS teams are all improving their facilities, we have to also to keep up.

As far as the new seating goes, it won't be a lot, but it will be high dollar.

The high dollar seats sell out now (even if they don't actually sit in the sits very often). More high dollar seats will help to keep the program healthy.

I think we need to finish this project ASAP.

[SpanglerFan316]

For me the next big thing is watching current Shockers, future Shockers and former Shockers play in the NBC tournament.

:good: I was a little frustrated with baseball and completely forgot the NBC tourney.