Baseball - Looking at the hitting numbers....

[DowntownDawg]

....and trying to figure out where the dropoff from last year to this year is.

The thing that jumps out at you is Scott Deloach. He hit .353 overall and .365 in conference. He gave us very good production from the catcher spot, and may sort of be overlooked because our pitching staff was horrible and he was basically a one year guy. We replaced him with Freeman and Thigpen. Freeman is hitting .286 (about where he was last year - just not a very consistent hitter, and has never been) and Thigpen who is hitting .183. That is a huge dropoff.

Powers is hitting .371 overall, but only .275 in the conference. He hit .301/.298 last year. I suspect he'll pick it up some. He was big for us early on, but has not been a good bat in the SEC obviously. Pitchers aren't giving him much to hit.

Sneed is the other big dropoff. He hit .333/.327 in 2009. He's only hitting .271 overall but is hitting at a .429 clip in conference play, which indicates how bad he was until recently. Hopefully he'll keep hitting the ball.

Adkins has gotten somewhat better, as has Collins. Collins is still an under .300 guy. Butler is doing about what he did last year. Duffy hit .339 last year, but has only played sparingly and is hitting an even .300. Hopefully, he'll be an every day guy.

We also miss Grant Hogue, who hit .315, but he is more or less replaced by Vickerson who hits the same.

Frost at .181 needs no explanation.

I guess the biggest explanation is that we really miss Scott Deloach, and we have had terrible hitters getting significant at bats in Frost and Thigpen. Last year, we had one guy batting under .200 and he only got 33 AB's all year. Frost and Thigpen have gotten a combined 132 AB's already. Your bottom of the lineup guys really need to be able to at least hit .250 for you. This under .200 stuff should keep them off the field. They are really dragging the team down.

 

[alabamadog]

and got it up to the .270 area, and he hadn't been riding the bench. I'm hoping he is the kind of player that always plays better in the second half of the season.</p>

 

[windcrysmary]

you did some good work dude... thanks

 

[windcrysmary]

nt

 

[Todd4State]

We probably miss Hogue more than DeLoach in my view simply because of what Hogue could do for us on the basepaths. But make no doubt about it, we miss both of them.

I'll be interested to see what happens this second half of the season with the offense. We may pick it up some because the schedule kind of lightens up a little bit. UT is not that great of a team pitching wise, and USA has struggled with their pitching this year as well, so we may be able to pick it up some this week.

There is a theory in baseball that says that "things even out in the end"- I don't really think that's always true, but at the same time it's true to a degree. As someone pointed out, Collins hit the ball better at the end of the year last year, and I would also watch Duffy because I think he might pick it up a little bit at the plate. I think a lot of Sneed's problems have to do with his hips hurting.

Good analysis.

 

[bill brasky.sixpack]

I think Hogue is missed more than Deloach, because Hogue was a sparkplug at the top of the lineup and hit for average, where as Deloach was a singles hitter who could slap the ball the other way, which is great for an 8 hole hitter. Sneed I think has just gotten to the point where his body has just really given out on him. I think that Cohen made a big mistake not having Duffy in the lineup every day from the beginning of the year at DH or LF. I think this year he really wanted to kind of force feed the guys that he has brought in, which can be seen with the two guys who are not ready to play in the SEC and are consequently batting below .200, which is absolutely unacceptable in a lineup. This team is just not good because of a combination of things, look at the injuries to Parks and Rawdow, that will kill you right there especially with the lack of depth that was already there, then to compile that Routt gets hurt, who should be starting on Fridays. I really think with all of this Cohen has just said screw this year we are throwing guys into the fire that are my guys and the next couple of years after this will pay off is his thinking, and I dont think he trusts many of the holdovers, especially after some of the stuff that happened behind the scenes last year.

 

[War Machine Dawg]

I think Hogue is missed more than Deloach, because Hogue was a sparkplug at the top of the lineup and hit for average, where as Deloach was a singles hitter who could slap the ball the other way, which is great for an 8 hole hitter. Sneed I think has just gotten to the point where his body has just really given out on him. I think that Cohen made a big mistake not having Duffy in the lineup every day from the beginning of the year at DH or LF. I think this year he really wanted to kind of force feed the guys that he has brought in, which can be seen with the two guys who are not ready to play in the SEC and are consequently batting below .200, which is absolutely unacceptable in a lineup. This team is just not good because of a combination of things, look at the injuries to Parks and Rawdow, that will kill you right there especially with the lack of depth that was already there, then to compile that Routt gets hurt, who should be starting on Fridays. I really think with all of this Cohen has just said screw this year we are throwing guys into the fire that are my guys and the next couple of years after this will pay off is his thinking, and I dont think he trusts many of the holdovers, <span style="font-weight: bold;">especially after some of the stuff that happened behind the scenes last year.</span>

This is SPS. If you know something, bring the heat. None of this ***** insinuation crap. What happened? Inquiring minds want to knnow.

 

[bill brasky.sixpack]

I think people probably know this already, but a lot of the seniors last year confronted Cohen about the way he was running things and how he was treating the players (in the media, the way he addressed the players, among other things), last year was a complete shite show. I dont know this for afact but, I think that is the reason a lot of the holdovers were run off because he did not want repeats of this. I dont blame the guys that did it, Polk is about as laid back as you can get, basically treated everyone as his own man and let them take responsibility for the way they acted. Whereas Cohen is the opposite and is in your face and wants to control everything the players do. I know it was a huge adjustment for the entire team, and I think Cohen's style can wear on the players a little bit, especially if things are not going well (such as this year).

Just a lot of drama, but I think next year Cohen will start turning things around in a big time way, and if not then the new AD needs to assess if he is the right guy for the job.