We have actually been better than I expected so far this year. Next year we will be a little better and the year after that is when we should be very competitive and have a chance to do some good things. My biggest disappointment so far this year is losing last friday's game to arkansas the way we did. Other than that, I can't find a whole lot to ***** about.I said at the beginning of the year(like several others did)that I just wanted to see improvement and so far I have seen more improvement than I expected. I also said that I didn't want to seemany crazy decisions by Cohen andother than last friday,he has been about right. Baseball by nature is a sport where you have alot of missed opportunities and that is driving this board up the wall. My advice is either accept that fact, quit following it, or drug yourself up during baseball season. Andquit thinking about the good old days and where weSHOULD be in the SEC pecking order. We screwed up and letour standing in the league slide and now we have to make upsome ground.
90% of this board doesn't understand baseball.
- Thread starter DirtyLopez
- Start date
We have actually been better than I expected so far this year. Next year we will be a little better and the year after that is when we should be very competitive and have a chance to do some good things. My biggest disappointment so far this year is losing last friday's game to arkansas the way we did. Other than that, I can't find a whole lot to ***** about.I said at the beginning of the year(like several others did)that I just wanted to see improvement and so far I have seen more improvement than I expected. I also said that I didn't want to seemany crazy decisions by Cohen andother than last friday,he has been about right. Baseball by nature is a sport where you have alot of missed opportunities and that is driving this board up the wall. My advice is either accept that fact, quit following it, or drug yourself up during baseball season. Andquit thinking about the good old days and where weSHOULD be in the SEC pecking order. We screwed up and letour standing in the league slide and now we have to make upsome ground.
...I guarantee you 60% of this board knows more about baseball than you do.
If we see a SS who can't make rountine plays, batters who watch 3rd strikes, base running mistakes than should have been resolved in Little League & a coach who sometimes seems to have no clue about how to handle starting pitchers, then, yes, people are going to come here and ***** about it. And rightfully so.
And stop acting like you are part of some elite 10% that possesses a deep understanding of baseball that is not available to the rest of us hayseeds.
If we see a SS who can't make rountine plays, batters who watch 3rd strikes, base running mistakes than should have been resolved in Little League & a coach who sometimes seems to have no clue about how to handle starting pitchers, then, yes, people are going to come here and ***** about it. And rightfully so.
And stop acting like you are part of some elite 10% that possesses a deep understanding of baseball that is not available to the rest of us hayseeds.
That was unbelievably stupid.
But your basic point is pretty much right. It was ridiculous for anybody to expect more than 10-12 SEC wins from this team this year. We are seeing some improvement, but so far barely enough for me to favor keeping Cohen. These last 14 SEC games are huge for our future.
But your basic point is pretty much right. It was ridiculous for anybody to expect more than 10-12 SEC wins from this team this year. We are seeing some improvement, but so far barely enough for me to favor keeping Cohen. These last 14 SEC games are huge for our future.
Not that it is a great feat or anything, but I was just barely good enough to play at the juco level. I imagine that along with growing up playing would put me in the top ten percent. If you have more exposure to it than that then you are probably in the top 10% as well.
or is burroughs making most of the calls? I'm pretty sure I remember when burroughs was hired he was supposed to be a bunting guru. We're definitely bunting way too much and have since Cohen has been here. I believe in bunting runners over sometimes but I think there is a fine line of bunting too much and he has crossed that line several times this season and for sure did last night.
As far as that particular play- I can see why people would say it's a bad idea to the bat out of your best hitter's hands. I can also see where the coaches were coming from- South Carolina had just made an error on a bunt and we had 0 out. Sometimes if you bunt it back to the same player, he will screw it up again.
The real problem to me was the execution of the play- Parks bunted it back to the pitcher who made a really good play to nail the lead runner at third. If he gets the ball past the mound- it's probably no worse than 2nd and 3rd with one out, and possibly we have the bases loaded.
The real problem to me was the execution of the play- Parks bunted it back to the pitcher who made a really good play to nail the lead runner at third. If he gets the ball past the mound- it's probably no worse than 2nd and 3rd with one out, and possibly we have the bases loaded.
and that's if you need 1 run in the 9th. Even then, you're probably better off letting him hit away. In this situation, you're taking the bat out of the hands of one of the best hitters in the conference to try to getthesmall advantage of having men on 2nd and 3rd, vs. having them on 1st and 2nd. That's a bad trade off every time.
Regardless of who's actually calling the bunts, Cohen's responsible for it.
Regardless of who's actually calling the bunts, Cohen's responsible for it.
If it weren't for all these so called knowledgable gurus espousing their opions and picking at the nuts and bolts of <insert sport here> this would be one boring *** place to be and we could just change the name to reflect its boringness to something like, oh,I dunno, Gene's page. The free exchange of ideas and opions are what make this an interesting place to be along with the rants, counter-discussions and out right stupid comments. Not to mention rampant sarcasm**
Are there things happening on the diamond that make me scratch my head and think "WTF are you doing Cohen?" Yes there are.
Are there things happening on the diamond that make me think "That's better than last year by far!" Yes there are.
If I'm not amazed by some of the comments on here I am amused by them. Roll with that.
To quote the esteemed John Correro "Who gives a flip."
Are there things happening on the diamond that make me scratch my head and think "WTF are you doing Cohen?" Yes there are.
Are there things happening on the diamond that make me think "That's better than last year by far!" Yes there are.
If I'm not amazed by some of the comments on here I am amused by them. Roll with that.
To quote the esteemed John Correro "Who gives a flip."
not sacrificing. That's a little bit different. He wasn't just trying to move the runners up. The actual best case scenario is bases loaded and no one out, which is what they were going for. We would have pulled it off except their pitcher made a great play.
It's one of those things where if it works, it's great call and if it doesn't, it looks bad.
It's one of those things where if it works, it's great call and if it doesn't, it looks bad.
Big difference in a straight SAC and a bunt for a base hit. Bunting for a hit is just like guessing on a fastball. And you know what, Parks guessed right. He had the 3rd baseman covering the bag and the pitcher covering. If that bunt's 2 feet closer to the line or bunted a little harder you've got the bases loaded and no outs. Roth just made a nice play. I also understand why some people ask why you bunt a .400 hitter. You can go back to 5 times in a baseball game where you can second guess. Coaching baseball is all about percentages and the "occasional gut feeling". But pretty much it's a percentage game. If you play percentage baseball, then you bunt. Roth is a sub 2 ERA guy and one of the best in the league. Percentages say you bunt and ask for 1 big hit. If you hit away and look for the big inning you're asking your team to string together hits against a great pitcher. Obviously Cohen says, I'll take the 2 runs you give me and bunt, then hope for a close, low-scoring game. Which is what you're hoping for with Stratton on the mound. Like I said before the season starts, the bats (with our team especially) have turned our approach to a major league style of play.
...the bunt idea itself was just a matter of sticking with a small ball game plan. If the player hitting .400 hits into a double play, then his .400 batting average suddenly doesn't mean crap.
The astonishingly ignorant part of that scenario was the .400 batter tapping a bunt down the 3rd base line when there is a force out @ 3rd.
I didn't play JUCO baseball therefore I am not in that select 10% who know baseball here, but any random citizen of America who you may confront on the street knows you do not bunt down the third base line when the bunt is meant to move a player off of 2nd base onto 3rd base.
The astonishingly ignorant part of that scenario was the .400 batter tapping a bunt down the 3rd base line when there is a force out @ 3rd.
I didn't play JUCO baseball therefore I am not in that select 10% who know baseball here, but any random citizen of America who you may confront on the street knows you do not bunt down the third base line when the bunt is meant to move a player off of 2nd base onto 3rd base.
RonnyAtmosphere said:
The runner on second is reading the down angle of the ball and reading the bunt. If the bunt is not to the pitcher, and to the third base side, the runner can and usually will advance to third. I have coached college and high school baseball and we bunt to third all the time with runners on 1st and 2nd.
That in between area between the pitcher's mound, third and SS.
I think in that situation, you would want to bunt it either to first or third- because you want to draw the third baseman in because there is almost no way he could throw a runner going to third behind his back. You are correct in that you don't want to bunt it too hard to third, though. Bunted balls typically don't roll that far that fast and stay fair though. If you bunt it to first, there is slight chance that the first baseman could field it, and throw the runner out- because the play would be happening in front of him, BUT the shortstop also has to be covering third base on a wheel play.
I think in that situation, you would want to bunt it either to first or third- because you want to draw the third baseman in because there is almost no way he could throw a runner going to third behind his back. You are correct in that you don't want to bunt it too hard to third, though. Bunted balls typically don't roll that far that fast and stay fair though. If you bunt it to first, there is slight chance that the first baseman could field it, and throw the runner out- because the play would be happening in front of him, BUT the shortstop also has to be covering third base on a wheel play.
I cought a friend who pitched for the Indians, Red Sox and Pirates as a relief. He now has a place in Hattiesburg where he helps kids try and get better. Does that put me in the 10%? Oh, and when a coach gave me the bunt, I swung away and acted like I forgot the bunt call.
than bunt for a hit. Any day. He's over .400 for crying out loud. If you want a hit, let him swing away. If you've got a .275 hitter at the plate then, yeah, let him bunt for a hit or sacrifice. No problem. But you never, ever, ever make a .400 hitter bunt in that situation.
I would never say never ever, ever to a .400 hitter bunting. There is always going to be a situation where you might need a player to bunt. Travis Chapman hit .400 and he bunted a few times in his career I'm sure.
Just depends on the player, the situation, and the pitcher. That's what you base it on.
Just depends on the player, the situation, and the pitcher. That's what you base it on.
isn't your typical .400 hitter in that he only has 2 hr's (unless I am mistaken and I'm not looking it up). Usually, your big hitter like that has alot of pop as well. In that situation, the worst thing happened with them getting the force at third. Best case scenario, you have bases loaded no outs and at the very least second and third with one out and no danger of a double play. The 90% around here probably doesn't fully understand the significance of having force outs at home, third, and second bases.
Jeffery Rea had a .343 batting average as a lead-off in 2007 with only 1 HR throughout the entire season. He was VERY reliable. A lot of big league hitters with high averages don't hit a lot of HR's. They simply know how to get the ball in play.<div>
</div><div>*To add to that, Brandon Turner had a team-high .399 average that same year with only 3 homeruns on the season. This is with the old bats, BTW.*</div>
</div><div>*To add to that, Brandon Turner had a team-high .399 average that same year with only 3 homeruns on the season. This is with the old bats, BTW.*</div>