More fun with baseball statistics - dedicated to Todd and Brian....

[DowntownDawg]

...Our ERA is 6.73, good for 218th in the nation and 11th in the conference. Our conference ERA is 9.11, good for last in the league (even behind Georgia). Our Fielding Percentage is .958, good for 200th in the nation and last in the SEC. So now our ERA is worse than our Fielding Percentage. It's been trending this way for some time, but the two have switched places.

More revealing - Walks allowed - 228, good for <span style="font-weight: bold;">229th</span> in the NCAA, 11th in the SEC. We are 11th in opposing batting average. 9th in batters struck out (bright spot??), last in batters struck out looking (when coupled with the walk statistic indicates that our location is very, very bad). We are 11th in hits allowed (only 51 hits away from 10th place Kentucky), <span style="font-weight: bold;">12th in doubles allowed, 12th in triples allowed, </span>second only to Georgia in wild pitches, and 3rd in batters hit. What were you saying about pitching stats independent of defense, Todd? In summary, we are 11th or 12th in walks, opp BA, doubles and triples allowed, and wild pitches.

Perhaps most interesting is that we do lead the SEC in unearned runs with 61. Second in the SEC is Auburn with 56. We've allowed 5 more unearned runs than Auburn. You know, 35-17 (17-10) SEC Western Division leading Auburn.

Obviously, the only team with worse pitching stats than us is Georgia. They are also the only team with a worse record.

Again, for the alleged baseball guru to call pitching 20% of our problem is probably the most asinine statement in the long history of asinine statements on this board.

 

[I let the dawgs out]

but then again, someone who posts on baseball as much as he does is bound to be wrong at times. He's right a good majority, though.

But I agree with you about the pitching. And it's easy to see why the stats are as they are. They are freshmen with a not so great pitching coach. Then, we have some lazy players that aren't making plays in the field. A few more with attitude problems. It all adds up to disaster.

Good thing is, quite a few of those problems will be solved by next year, one way or the other. I do know that the hitting has been consistent. I think that's both Polk's recruiting of bats and Cohen's hitting coaching ability.

 

[BriantheDawg]

So what kind of point are you trying to make here? I never said our pitching didn't suck, just that it wouldn't suck as bad if we had a legitimate defense backing it up. Congratulations on finally having the means to post that our pitching has surpassed the shittyness of our defense. Seriously, this is like arguing over which std you have is worse or what midget is taller or......whatever. They both suck. Period.

 

[Todd4State]

Fortunately they are simple, so even you should be able to understand them.

This year we have made 86 errors. Our opponents have made a grand total of 49.

"But....but..but...that includes the SWAC to, and all of the other crappy teams..." OK, in SEC play we have made 43 errors and our opponents have made 19.

In other words, we have made almost twice as many errors as all of opponents the whole year, and in SEC play we have made OVER twice as many errors as our opponents. And that's only on the plays that are eligible to be scored errors. That doesn't include the balls that we can't even get to because those are scored as hits.

And you know what- our pitching isn't great. But having a defense like this all season makes them even worse. And again, you'll have to excuse me for giving our FRESHMEN pitchers more of a pass than our SENIORS who have been here for four years less of one. When these pitchers are juniors and seniors, I'll definately give them a LOT less of a pass than this year.

But...but...are you denying what Cohen said this weekend? No. I'm not, and if you actually paid attention to the series, we actually played some of our better defensive games this season. What's he supposed to say when his bullpen blows a two run lead and then gives up 8 in the 10th? Why would he rip the players for finally doing what they SHOULD have been all year? "Well, we didn't make any errors today but, we've sucked all year." FYI, you don't rip people for doing something after they've finally done it well. But just because we actually nutted up for one series and played solid defense, it doesn't mean it hasn't been a problem all year. Seriously, if you ask him about our defense on the year, what do you think he would say? In case you haven't noticed we're near the bottom of the league in team defense as well.

And for the "Well, statistically that's only like one more runner per game" people- well, when you have a pitching staff that is as bad as ours, you can afford even less to put them on.

Finally, I'll say this- whoever said I believe that good pitching and fielding win you ballgames is correct. Actually, I believe that good pitching, good fielding, and a balanced offense win you games, but I have said that if I had to choose I would go with good pitching and defense anyday. I think if you look at this team which isn't a bad hitting team- not the best I've ever seen at MSU, but not bad, I think that point has definately been proven.

 

[Todd4State]

but then again, someone who posts on baseball as much as he does is bound to be wrong at times. He's right a good majority, though.

**** happens.

 

[War Machine Dawg]

[No message]

 

[bulldogcountry1]

is how the team handles those errors after they happen. Evidently, Auburn has the balls to shake them off and keep battling. We typically fall apart. I'm sure having a coach like Cohen waiting on you in the dugout doesn't help. Plus, when you've got a bunch of immature freshmen pitchers out there watching our fielders tank routine DP balls, it's not going to help their confidence. You just can't really separate the two inour case. I think they both consistently negatively affect the other.

 

[HireCohen]

and for cohen saying sam frost is the best defensive 2b in the league is ridiculous, the guy is fielding at a .930 %. For someone that played 2b in college i can tell you this is horrible. I didn't see Todd's post, but to think that pitching is only 20% of our problem is completely off base. Our ERA is 6.73 for the season and 9.11 in conference. 9.11, how is this even possible!! I do agree with your post that Thompson needs to go and we should throw everything we have at Karl Kuhn from Virginia. We have guys that are capable of being productive the next few years, but I don't believe they will improve under Thompson simply because I don't see one case in which this has happened.

 

[whatever.sixpack]

Common sense would also tell me that bad pitching contributes greatly to us having more errors. Since we can't get anyone out, we have to face more batters than other teams, leading to more errors. Bad pitching might also result in more hard hit balls and tough plays.

And something Cohen said Monday night while he was again berating the pitching and sticking up for the defense was that our erratic control and amount walks makes it where our defense is caught off guard when a ball is put in play.

 

[BriantheDawg]

longer than they should, thus giving up more runs. You have that completely backwards. And like Todd said - after the past weekend, how is Cohen going to berate anyone but our pitchers? They were piss poor terrible against Vandy. That doesn't mean the defense hasn't sucked all year though, because they have! There is a reason it took all season long for our pitching to catch up to our defense in the national sucktitude rankings.

 

[8dog]

"was that our erratic control and amount walks makes it where our defense is caught off guard when a ball is put in play."

If so, Ho-ly Crap.

surely he was being a smart ***.

 

[whatever.sixpack]

Actually he did say that, not me. Compared it to how a boxer could get lulled to sleep by his opponent not ever throwing or landing punches, and then get caught off guard when he did throw a good one (or something like that, surely I'm not the only one on the board that listened to the Cohen show)

Also funny how Jim Ellis asked the question, "if you had to put a percentage on it, how important is the pitching in a game compared to other aspects." Seems like they'd been reading the board, and let's just say it was obvious that Cohen didn't agree w/ Todd's 20% (with defense being twice the amount of our problem)

And Brian, of course it works both ways, with errors making our pitchers stay out there longer. But I don't see how you don't see that the more batters we have to face, the more likely we are to add to our error total. (not necessarily affecting our fielding %, but our total which is what Todd posted)

 

[8dog]

our coach attributes our defensive woes to being caught off guard by balls put in play.

 

[whatever.sixpack]

Again, I'm paraphrasing. I don't think he said "our fielders are caught off guard when balls are put in play." It was a lot more subtle, but that was definitely what he was getting at. Maybe someone who heard the show can remember the exact quote.

 

[patdog]

than one who is walking a lot of batters. It's an overstatement to say you're caught off guard by a ball put into play, but you definitely tend to be more on your toes if the pitcher is throwing a lot of strikes and back on your heels when he's not.

Edit to hopefully stop the pissing war that's sure to follow: I'm not excusing our ****** defense in any way. But given the choice between poor defense or poor pitching (if I can choose to bad at only one), I'm going to live with the poor defense every day. Defense simply can't hurt you as bad as pitching can.

 

[8dog]

than it is a 90 mph fastball, but I expect our team to be able to do that.

Hell, paying attention requires zero talent.

 

[RobbieRandolph]

I guess I assumed you could only paraphrase a quote or actual text. You must have mad skillz.

 

[I let the dawgs out]

nm

 

[whatever.sixpack]

Ok, I went back and listened to DawgTalk on M2M w/ Cohen from Monday to get the exact quotes (I'm lame, I know)
You be the judge, but I think I paraphrased somewhat accurately

"You can't imagine how many errors come from the fact that, you know, how many pitches are thrown in the course of an inning, it's human nature. I speak about this at clinics all the time, strike throwers get unbelievable defense behind them, while non strike throwers always have low fielding percentages."

"When you have young guys who can't throw strikes and it keeps elongating innings, there's no question there's going to be an error somewhere in there. It's kind of like the guy who's pretending he's going to punch you 800 times and then when he finally does you're not ready for it, and it's the exact same way in baseball."

He also said this about our defense when citing that we've turned more 3-6-1 double plays than anyone we've faced and that we always have players backing up the plate or first base on overthrows.
"Our kids are outhustling everyone we play and are always in great position."