Baseball coaches

[brantleyjones]

From Tiger Rant:

<font class="PostDisplay"> "I just hope PM comes back and gets things
straight next year. If not, he has to go. Think about this, in 4
years, he has had two ****** years and if not for a 23 game winning
streak, two great years. If he does ****** again next year, I say we
don't do like we did with Smoke and wait till we totally collapse. Can
him and hire someone else."

So, we keep Cohen around for another year, and if he doesn't perform up to expectations, we just replace him with Paul Manieri. It's simple, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">everyone</span> on SPS will be happy.

Hell, if Tiger Rant is any indication, we can pick up their pitching coach to replace Thompson at the end of this season.
</font>

 

[brantleyjones]

From Tiger Rant:

<font class="PostDisplay"> "I just hope PM comes back and gets things
straight next year. If not, he has to go. Think about this, in 4
years, he has had two ****** years and if not for a 23 game winning
streak, two great years. If he does ****** again next year, I say we
don't do like we did with Smoke and wait till we totally collapse. Can
him and hire someone else."

So, we keep Cohen around for another year, and if he doesn't perform up to expectations, we just replace him with Paul Manieri. It's simple, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">everyone</span> on SPS will be happy.

Hell, if Tiger Rant is any indication, we can pick up their pitching coach to replace Thompson at the end of this season.
</font>

 

[I let the dawgs out]

I guess Maneiri should be fired after 2 college world series appearances, one championship, and 3 regionals in 5 years (assuming they make it this year, which they will, and then tank next year).

A more relevant question - should Perno be fired at Georgia? He's 2 years removed from the National Championship series. I see them in the same situation we are in - rebuilding with younger players, took some tough losses and the beginning of the year and lost confidence. They aren't as bad, talent wise, as their record. But the question remains, he's two years off that series with Fresno, and one year from a regional, yet his team is performing more poorly than Cohen's.

And Cohen had a bigger rebuilding job, wouldn't you say? He's got 4 years regardless, the haters may as well settle in for the long haul.

 

[Todd4State]

but it's really not out of the realm of possibility IF LSU stuggles next year and we struggle next year.

I don't know how Manieri feels- and this is the first time he has won a NC, and he's kind of learning how to handle that. I think the reason his pitchers are struggling is because he wore them out last year to win the thing- he basically used Coleman, Renaudo, Chad Jones, and Ott. That's just my view from the distance.

But anyway, I also wonder if Manieri has gotten to the point at LSU where he has done it, and now it's time to move on. If that's the case, I sure would like to have him, even though it's unrealistic. But who knows?

As far as their pitching coach, we might want to hold off on him.

 

[Todd4State]

cares as much as some of the other schools, so, I don't know that Perno would be fired as quickly as say a Cohen would be. Should he be? I don't know because his teams have seasons like this one year, and then the next they go to Omaha. I just think he's an average coach at best.

Of course the thing about Perno- remember Polk chose him to.

 

[I let the dawgs out]

when he says that's baseball. How else do you explain it. Oregon State and Fresno winning titles? Look what happened to us in '85. We were the most talented team in the country. Ole Miss '05. It's just what happens.

It's only when you're on the losing side of that's baseball more often than not....when the criticism starts. Nobody cared about that statement in the early 90s.

 

[I let the dawgs out]

Caring is what makes you win. If you don't care, normally you get beat. Alabama fans care about football thus their willingness to donate their life savings to the Red Elephant club. We cared about baseball thus our willingness to give the Dugout Club and build a big stadium, until Polk II anyway. Caring makes winners and losers. And I'm talking about as a group, not just a few individuals....and then doing what it takes, not bitching about it and not ponying up.

 

[Todd4State]

you prepare as best as you can and you go out and excute it. You make your own luck.

Not taking out Morgan wasn't bad luck. It was a bad coaching decision. What made it even worse it Polk could have legitimately gotten him taken out of the game because of injury and had someone come in and have as much time to warm up as they needed.

That pitch that Thigpen got crossed up on? Pitcher/Catcher has to go out there and make sure that they are on the same page if there's any confusion, and regardless, Thigpen made a bad pitch. He doesn't hang that slider- which is what I think that was- then he gets the guy out regardless. That's not bad luck, that's poor execution.

Oregon State had guys like Jacoby Ellsbury and Dallas Buck. That was a good team. Doug Fister who is now pitching for the Mariners was on that Fresno team. They won because they played better than anyone else. Not because they were luckier.

 

[Todd4State]

Caring is what makes you win. If you don't care, normally you get beat. Alabama fans care about football thus their willingness to donate their life savings to the Red Elephant club. We cared about baseball thus our willingness to give the Dugout Club and build a big stadium, until Polk II anyway. Caring makes winners and losers. And I'm talking about as a group, not just a few individuals....and then doing what it takes, not bitching about it and not ponying up.

if you were agreeing or disagreeing with me?

 

[maroonmania]

BUT the problem was we only had 2 pitchers on our staff worth a flip (Brantley and Morgan) and unfortunately one of them got injured while playing in the CWS. We did have Thigpen to come in late and throw his fastball but had we had one or two more legitimate SEC pitchers on that team for pitching help we likely would have won the whole thing.

 

[Todd4State]

I've said many times that if we had one more pitcher that we would have won.

And no- that's not bad luck either. We should have recruited better.

 

[I let the dawgs out]

I think you have to put the best players you have out there, and use your best strategy you have to win. Preparation takes you a certain distance (and usually, the most hardest and most important distance)....then...you just throw it out there and hope the ball bounces your way.

The ball usually bounces towards the best players.

 

[maroonmania]

and I've said many times that our biggest mistake was when we were in the winner's bracket game with Texas and Morgan got hit with the line drive in the ankle with a 5-0 lead that we should have brought Brantley in to finish out the game to ensure getting into the championship round. If we had done that even if we had lost the next game throwing the scrubs we would have still moved into the round to play for the championship with Brantley and possibly Morgan ready to go again.

 

[Duckmandawg]

and I've said many times that our biggest mistake was when we were in the winner's bracket game with Texas and Morgan got hit with the line drive in the ankle with a 5-0 lead that we should have brought Brantley in to finish out the game to ensure getting into the championship round. If we had done that even if we had lost the next game throwing the scrubs we would have still moved into the round to play for the championship with Brantley and possibly Morgan ready to go again.

without a doubt.

 

[brantleyjones]

but LSU f'ing up is much nearer and dearer to my heart.

I think Perno's track record earns him a stay of execution for at least another year. If no improvement is seen after that, I guess we'll see how much GA does care about baseball. They did run off Steve Weber.

 

[brantleyjones]

Unsettled their whole rotation. Was it because Manieiri/Grewe wore him out last year? I'm not close
enough and wasn't paying attention early. They still got to 32-6 and 11-4 essentially without him. Supposedly he's been 100% physically for weeks, and it's now all in his head.

Anyway, they started pitching him for 2 - 5 innings trying to get his stamina back up, and he has good innings, and then bad innings. His ERA is up over 9. His temp replacement, Matulis, was cruising along, until they made him the Sunday starter for AU, and he didn't get out of the 1st inning. Ross, meanwhile, their original Saturday starter, picked up where he left off last year and, after starting hot, developed this really bad habit of blowing up in the 5th inning. (Sound familiar?) He got moved to the bullpen for AU, and, right on schedule, blew up in the 5th inning in relief in the Sunday game. That's when the wheels started falling off.

Tiger Rant was debating all of this hotly, and the idea was bruted about to start Ott. LSU swept Bama, but the Sunday game, they brought Ott in in the 8th inning, he blew a 2 run lead, and wound up pitching 7 innings, as LSU won in 14. This was widely seen as Ott's debut to be a starter, and, sure enough, he started the next week against Ole Miss, and got shelled. He hasn't started again, or been the same, since then. Did Manieri wear him out last year, or this year? I think those 7 innings did him in. This past weekend, he lost the Friday game to KY by giving up a 3 run HR, and the Sunday game by giving up a Grand Slam. From All American to complete and total toast, in half a season.

Anyway, no I don't think we want Grewe. He's as popular at LSU right now as Butch is at State, and probably for a lot better reason. It has been pointed out on the Rant that he had no pitching coaching experience prior to going to LSU. So what does he do? Hold a clipboard? If Manieri is his own pitching coach, it's debatable if we'd want him either.

Where would LSU have been last year if they hadn't discovered Chad Jones? Without him they had no bullpen to get to Ott, and TX shelled Coleman, Ross, and, to a lesser extent, Renaudo.

 

[Todd4State]

I agree about Manieri and Grewe, obviously, BUT Manieri also produced O'Conner and has an indirect tie to Karl Kuhn.

It's hard to fault a guy who blew out his staff to win the whole thing, and did. Especially since we are bitching about not bringing in Brantley in 1985.

Back in the day, you could move pitchers around as far as roles and that sort of thing- like we had Mark Freed who started out in the bullpen and then was moved to the rotation, or Justin Pigott who was very successful as a relief pitcher and then was solid as a starter. But now, it seems like you are seeing more and more specialization of players even at lower levels of baseball- basically copying MLB. For example, you are seeing more high school guys that are being groomed as closers and guys being groomed as starters at the high school level. I don't know what Ott was at the high school level- starter or closer, but when you have a guy that has a closer mentality, and you move him to a starting role, it's a really big adjustment especially for a college pitcher. And if the guy struggles and he is moved back to the bullpen, sometimes they take their struggles with them. On top of that, preparing to start as a pitcher vs be a relief pitcher is just a totally different method of getting ready for the game.

I think ultimately that seven inning relief outing probably did him in, though. It's ridiculous of their fans to think that was a tryout for a starting spot when he was brought in the 8th inning.

 

[brantleyjones]

They'd bitched and moaned all week because Manieri hadn't brought him in in the bottom of the 9th in a tie game against Auburn, which they subsequently lost. Coaches obviously shouldn't read message boards. Hell, I thought it was a tryout. I told my son, the big LSU fan, "You watch. They'll start him next week against Ole Miss. He just proved he can go more than 2 innings." Lo and behold....

...and lo and behold, his 85 mph fast ball didn't work over the long haul.

You didn't read me bitching about not bringing Brantley in. Morgan was the ace at that point in the season. Brantley was showing the wear of winning 18 games in a college season. Of course, I was way off in CA at the time, and they didn't have message boards back then. I kept up with State through "The Dawg's Bite".

Hell, I can remember when Polk was using Kilowatt Carslon's son as his "ace" reliever, and I'm thinking "a relief pitcher in college baseball?"

BTW, the Rant is now bitching because PM won't leave Bertucini and his curve ball in for longer than a couple of batters. Some want him to be the closer. Next LSU pitcher to get screwed up?

 

[brantleyjones]

I hate Chad f'ing Jones, too.

 

[brantleyjones]

Augie Garrido burning his ace closer out in the 13 inning no hitter, or whatever it was, last year. He was never the same either.

If he'd been worth a crap at the end of the season, UT would have won the CWS.

 

[Todd4State]

Augie Garrido burning his ace closer out in the 13 inning no hitter, or whatever it was, last year. He was never the same either.

If he'd been worth a crap at the end of the season, UT would have won the CWS.

I don't think I was quite the same either. "watching" the game on livestats, just hoping that BC would find a way to pull through, and yet at the same time knowing that Texas would find a way to win it in some cruel fashion. And it just went on for so long.

 

[brantleyjones]

is a baseball fan.

 

[brantleyjones]

I think our whole team should be executed.

Stolen from, I think, John McKay.