Darin Erstad should be officially on the hot seat. I thought we would have had at least 3 B1G Championships by now in the Worst baseball conference in America! If some think Tim Miles should be on the hot seat, then Erstad's seat should be boiling by now.
Nebraska Baseball...
- Thread starter ru4nu2win_rivals
- Start date
Given the state of the program when he took over, I don't think it was in any way realisitic to think that Erstad would rattle off three conference championships in four years. Even bad conferences have a couple of good teams each season, and I don't think any coach would have accomplished what you are asking for.
Having said that, I was not in favor of the Erstad hire and the results have been decidedly mediocre so far. Many people who swore up and down that he would dominate the Big Ten seem happy to move the goal posts for him, and that's getting tiresome. Hopefully this is a season in which the program shows real progress.
Having said that, I was not in favor of the Erstad hire and the results have been decidedly mediocre so far. Many people who swore up and down that he would dominate the Big Ten seem happy to move the goal posts for him, and that's getting tiresome. Hopefully this is a season in which the program shows real progress.
I've been as critical of Erstad as anybody, but if you think the B1G is the worst baseball conference, you haven't paid much attention to it the last few years. Expecting 3 conference championships by now is not realistic. Top 4 finishes-that's a reasonable expectation, and we didn't even come close to that last year.
A
anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
Guest
Fire Erstad. Swing and a miss to hire him. I don't actually think this, but it is funny to see the people that hate Riley slob on the Miles and Erstad knobs. Agendas are awesome.
please rank the power 5 conferences for baseball (BIG12, BIG, ACC, SEC, PAC12)
ready set go....
if you have the BIG anywhere other than last, or you entertained the thought of ranking them anywhere other than 5th even for a nano second you don't have a clue
and there there is a grand canyon between the 4th place team on that list and the BIG
ready set go....
if you have the BIG anywhere other than last, or you entertained the thought of ranking them anywhere other than 5th even for a nano second you don't have a clue
and there there is a grand canyon between the 4th place team on that list and the BIG
I agree this has been a disappointing start. That being said, here's how I'm choosing to look at this weekend...
1. There was a lot of pitching turnover this past offseason.
Much of the first month will be seeing who has it when the bullets are flying and who doesn't. Howell, Chestnut, McSteen, and Luensmann so far seem to have it. For Howell, the concern was moving from setup man to starter. Chestnut is picking up right where he left off last season but minus the awesome mustache. McSteen looked solid this weekend coming back from injury. Luensmann is a big boy (6'4 230) with good weight. Burkamper is suspended and should be a weekend starter when he returns. King and Engelken struggled this weekend. There are a lot of new arms that need testing: Eddins (was OK this weekend), Waldron twins, Palkert, West, Hood, Frazier, Chandler. But there are only so many innings. One advantage southern schools have other than practicing outside early in the year is more ability to play midweek games to see what they have early in the year and build confidence in younger players. Our first midweek games aren't until after the 3rd weekend of the season. Would love to have more earl-season midweek games, but that's just the way it is.
I'm willing to give pitching time simply because of the turnover and abundance of young arms.
2. We have flexibility with our lineup.
- Alvarado can play 3B or outfield, but he spent all of last season in the OF. It may take time to adjust to 3B.
- Schreiber can play both corner infield positions (but only played 1B this weekend).
- Placzek can play 2B/SS/3B. He may not be flashy, but he is the most consistent at the plate among middle infielders and is a critical piece if Schleppenbach continues to struggle against lefties like he did last year.
- Miller and Meyers both have serviceable bats and can pitch. These are the players I worry about as they divide their focus. Both are obviously talented, but to me, pitching feels like a burden for them. Sure they can eat an inning or two here and there, but with the number of young arms we have, I feel we should have enough pitching talent that doesn't require these two guys to divide their focus. I'm sure pitching is something both of these players enjoy, so I don't blame these two for wanting to continue it, it is more of a roster/talent management issue for Erstad to shake out. I would be thrilled if these guys to have a Carmen Benedetti (Michigan) or Tyler Peyton (Iowa) type of impact as two-way players, but I will believe it when I see it and will remain skeptical until then.
3. The position players seem fairly established.
Good or bad, we know who will be in the field.
Outfield will generally be Dilday, Boldt, and Meyers, possibly Alvarado or Klemke.
Infield will generally be Schreiber, Schleppenbach, Reveles, and Alvarado, with Placzek getting his time in the middle infield and occasionally at 3B. Miller played some 1B this weekend.
Fish and Wilkening got action at catcher this weekend, with either available to DH if Miller pitches.
Given how bad the bats were at the end of last year, I'm sure most will see this as a negative and I wouldn't disagree with them.
Wilkening and Klemke are the only newcomers who saw action this weekend. Given Erstad's comments a couple weeks ago about every position being an open competition save for Boldt in CF, this weekend's lineups shocked me.
This is the major reason I am not very excited after the first weekend. We struggled at the plate to end last season, we hardly have many new faces in the lineup. I have confidence Boldt will turn it around, but our success offensively is relying on year-to-year development. If you can't recruit top talent and fail to develop what you have, the direction of the program is not promising.
I really intended this to be a positive post (or at least a "it's too early to be concerned" post), but it turned out to be quite negative and skeptical. After the first weekend, I don't see how we will improve on last season. Pitching needs to improve significantly (and I believe it will with time) just to get back to last season's level. Infield defense struggled this weekend (6 errors in 3 games). And our offense has largely the same cast, so it is all on Erstad to show his influence makes an impact.
The guys that pitched on Friday (Howell, Chestnut, and Luensmann) and McSteen plus the fact that College of Charleston is a solid program are the two redeeming factors I am taking away from this weekend.
1. There was a lot of pitching turnover this past offseason.
Much of the first month will be seeing who has it when the bullets are flying and who doesn't. Howell, Chestnut, McSteen, and Luensmann so far seem to have it. For Howell, the concern was moving from setup man to starter. Chestnut is picking up right where he left off last season but minus the awesome mustache. McSteen looked solid this weekend coming back from injury. Luensmann is a big boy (6'4 230) with good weight. Burkamper is suspended and should be a weekend starter when he returns. King and Engelken struggled this weekend. There are a lot of new arms that need testing: Eddins (was OK this weekend), Waldron twins, Palkert, West, Hood, Frazier, Chandler. But there are only so many innings. One advantage southern schools have other than practicing outside early in the year is more ability to play midweek games to see what they have early in the year and build confidence in younger players. Our first midweek games aren't until after the 3rd weekend of the season. Would love to have more earl-season midweek games, but that's just the way it is.
I'm willing to give pitching time simply because of the turnover and abundance of young arms.
2. We have flexibility with our lineup.
- Alvarado can play 3B or outfield, but he spent all of last season in the OF. It may take time to adjust to 3B.
- Schreiber can play both corner infield positions (but only played 1B this weekend).
- Placzek can play 2B/SS/3B. He may not be flashy, but he is the most consistent at the plate among middle infielders and is a critical piece if Schleppenbach continues to struggle against lefties like he did last year.
- Miller and Meyers both have serviceable bats and can pitch. These are the players I worry about as they divide their focus. Both are obviously talented, but to me, pitching feels like a burden for them. Sure they can eat an inning or two here and there, but with the number of young arms we have, I feel we should have enough pitching talent that doesn't require these two guys to divide their focus. I'm sure pitching is something both of these players enjoy, so I don't blame these two for wanting to continue it, it is more of a roster/talent management issue for Erstad to shake out. I would be thrilled if these guys to have a Carmen Benedetti (Michigan) or Tyler Peyton (Iowa) type of impact as two-way players, but I will believe it when I see it and will remain skeptical until then.
3. The position players seem fairly established.
Good or bad, we know who will be in the field.
Outfield will generally be Dilday, Boldt, and Meyers, possibly Alvarado or Klemke.
Infield will generally be Schreiber, Schleppenbach, Reveles, and Alvarado, with Placzek getting his time in the middle infield and occasionally at 3B. Miller played some 1B this weekend.
Fish and Wilkening got action at catcher this weekend, with either available to DH if Miller pitches.
Given how bad the bats were at the end of last year, I'm sure most will see this as a negative and I wouldn't disagree with them.
Wilkening and Klemke are the only newcomers who saw action this weekend. Given Erstad's comments a couple weeks ago about every position being an open competition save for Boldt in CF, this weekend's lineups shocked me.
This is the major reason I am not very excited after the first weekend. We struggled at the plate to end last season, we hardly have many new faces in the lineup. I have confidence Boldt will turn it around, but our success offensively is relying on year-to-year development. If you can't recruit top talent and fail to develop what you have, the direction of the program is not promising.
I really intended this to be a positive post (or at least a "it's too early to be concerned" post), but it turned out to be quite negative and skeptical. After the first weekend, I don't see how we will improve on last season. Pitching needs to improve significantly (and I believe it will with time) just to get back to last season's level. Infield defense struggled this weekend (6 errors in 3 games). And our offense has largely the same cast, so it is all on Erstad to show his influence makes an impact.
The guys that pitched on Friday (Howell, Chestnut, and Luensmann) and McSteen plus the fact that College of Charleston is a solid program are the two redeeming factors I am taking away from this weekend.
I don't see anyone here saying the Big Ten is a strong conference. Top-to-bottom, it's easily 5th on that list and there are usually a couple of non-power 5 conferences that are also better. But my frustration isn't that Erstad wasn't able to overtake Purdue in 2012 or Indiana the following two years - it's that he hasn't even been within shouting distance of those teams.
First of all, the OP said "worst conference in baseball", implying the B1G is the worst of all conferences, not just Power 5, and that's not even remotely close to true.
While I think most anyone would probably agree the B1G is the worst top to bottom of those 5 conferences, I don't think the gap is nearly what you imply. The B1G had two teams reach the Super Regionals last year, Big 12 had one and Pac-12 had none. I'm not saying this means the B1G is a better conference than either of those, but it at least defeats the notion that the gap is massive.
sorry that I didn't say "power 5" I guess I thought some people were smart enough to figure out there are NO other conferences worth mentioning other then those 5. I guess I didn't realize people even considered other conferences!
Tell those teams from other conferences that make the CWS that. Or for that matter, win the national championship.
Agreed in regards to this years team...but no reason to expect Erstad to do anything great at this point. All talk thus far.
I think it depends on what you're complaining about. If it's "How do we get crushed by College of Charleston?" that's one thing. To summarize my post, I'm mostly complaining about the lack of fresh faces in the area that bottomed out last season: hitting. This means one of a couple things: either we don't have any new talent that was better than last year and ready to go yet, or Erstad thinks he can develop the offense to operate more efficiently with him calling the shots rather than Kirby. I hope it's the latter since Erstad said no position other that CF had a starter entrenched as of a couple weeks ago and we are seeing the same faces as last season.
Maybe the problem isn't so much Erstad as it is that Van Horne was simply just awesome and a lot of fans keep expecting that.
A
anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
Guest
Nebraska has damn good baseball talent in the high-school ranks. If there is a sport that Nebraska should compete in more than any other, it is baseball.
Gonna be a long, disappointing season in my opinion. Pitching has talent, but is very young, and the run production will be scarce. Don't know if we can become a baseball contender or not, but it is looking more and more like DE won't be the leader that gets us to the "promised land."
Van Horne was awesome though. Got lightly recruited by him, and he was the man. He made you better instantly, and I loved his aggressive approach to the game.
Good Lord, Erstad...
Yup, same old crap. If we don't finish 3rd or better in the league, he needs to be dismissed.
Yup, same old crap. If we don't finish 3rd or better in the league, he needs to be dismissed.
His teams have been far from impressive since he has been here. I think if there isnt at least a Super Regional appearance or a good run in the regional then he will be on the hot seat the following year. It is frustrating to see the team to the east start doing good in year 2 with a new coach and they had zero facilities or baseball support. So I dont want to hear the "it takes time" bullcrap. Nebraska has top notch facilities and support and we get nothing out of it but frustration. Does Erstad just not have a nose for hiring talented assistants? Or do they just keep leaving because they are so good?
That's one reason I don't always like the "hire the ex-Husker" mentality, because they were a highly popular player and somewhat beloved by Husker fans, the expectations sometimes seem to be altered to give those individuals a longer rope. Is the program better off than it was under Anderson? Absolutely! Is it where Van Horn left it? Nope, and the question now is can DE get it there?
Lesson learned then right? Don't assume other people know what you are thinking!
"I thought we would have had at least 3 B1G Championships by now in the Worst baseball conference in America!"
Sorry that doesn't shout out the conference is the worst of the Power 5... I read that as, "If there is any other conference in AMERICA the Big 10 is the worst of them all."
EDIT: What conference is Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, and Rice in? Assuming that only Power 5 matter right?
Last edited:
A
anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
Guest
Bingo. The whole "hire a former Husker" crap is tiresome. What if they can't get it done? That causes way more harm.
I want Erstad to succeed but if he doesn't this year, we need to pay up and hire a top 5 to 10 coach in the country. There is no reason why we shouldn't invest the money into our baseball program to become a CWS contender when our fan support and facilities are really good. Im not a huge husker baseball fan but always think it is fun to have a very good baseball team that can compete.
Tend to agree. The bad part too is Erstad was loved by Husker Nation. Not that it will go away, but definitely slid down the food chain a little bit. I hope he can bring it back.
This is why his job will not be in jeopardy no matter how bad he does this year. Despite the fact that Mike Anderson's teams were bad his last few years, there were still people who didn't think he should be fired. If there were people who weren't on board firing Mike Anderson, there will be many more not on board with firing Darin Erstad. We are probably stuck with him until he decides himself he can't get it done.
So I just have to pipe up here.
We lost to a ranked Baseball team in the season opener at their house and our coach needs fired because of it? That's what I am hearing from multiple people in this thread.
You guys are freakin' ridiculous! you know how many good teams lose at the beginning of a season? You know this isn't football right? Baseball is a game of getting hot, every game matters but not like it does in football... You do realize this right?
Remind me how you(judgemental SOB's) never have made a mistake or had to make adjustments after working with a whole new team? I am at a complete loss anymore at how I can read this board, and come away with some sort information that isn't **** on by some pessimistic whiners that most likely are insecure about themselves.
Hope you stone casters don't f*** up at your job, and get fired before you have a chance to prove what you can do.
My Gosh you f***ing people complain about everything!
We lost to a ranked Baseball team in the season opener at their house and our coach needs fired because of it? That's what I am hearing from multiple people in this thread.
You guys are freakin' ridiculous! you know how many good teams lose at the beginning of a season? You know this isn't football right? Baseball is a game of getting hot, every game matters but not like it does in football... You do realize this right?
Remind me how you(judgemental SOB's) never have made a mistake or had to make adjustments after working with a whole new team? I am at a complete loss anymore at how I can read this board, and come away with some sort information that isn't **** on by some pessimistic whiners that most likely are insecure about themselves.
Hope you stone casters don't f*** up at your job, and get fired before you have a chance to prove what you can do.
My Gosh you f***ing people complain about everything!
Last edited:
Insert all the exclamation points and asterisks you want, but nothing I posted in this thread had anything to do with the opening series of 2016. I don't put a lot of stock in February results, regardless of the outcome or who the opponent is. And I don't really see anyone - let alone "multiple people" - calling for Erstad to be fired based on the College of Charleston series - can you point them out to me?
Last edited:
You seem more upset than anyone in this whole thread to be honest. Which is a little ironic. I haven't been overly impressed with Erstad for a while now, and I would ask you to make a case about the great job he's doing and sell me on it, but you couldn't, so I won't. If you're fine with him as manager, great, I had hoped for more by now to be honest and I have serious doubts about his future success here. Hope he proves me wrong, but I don't see it. I am also no campaigning for him to be fired either.
Yep... you and everyone else that want him fired. The fact is this is a thread that was posted after a 3 game series loss in a home opener to the College of Charleston
Don't act as if this series didn't influence the fire talk. Would we have read this thread if they swept them NOPE
So... like I said, you and every other poster that wants him fired
Well it's funny you say that... No where in this thread did you or anyone else say "Fire Erstad" unless you want to count 4.6.3 jokingly saying it. When someone like yourself says "I was not i favor of the Erstad hire"... what exactly are you insinuating?
Edit: It's guys like you that leave things open ended. Where it is clear what side you are on. In your posts you leave a lot of grey area's, but the general feel is you don't want him here. So... Answer a question with a question king... if you have the feeling of not being in favor of the hire... wouldn't that hint toward wanting him out?