Bear Down Wildcats

They play the weekend at UCLA.

Let’s hope it’s not too much rain.

With everything else going on, the baseball series at ASU kind of snuck up on us. After football and men's and women's basketball, no doubt they'll be desperate to beat us at something. They're 13-8/2-1 so far this season. In games of note, they swept San Diego St to open the season, then went 1-2 at Mississippi St. They hosted UC Irvine and got swept by the Anteaters, then went to Oklahoma St and got swept in a two-game set. They opened conference play at Utah and won that road series 2-1. This is one of the relatively few series this year that will be televised, on the Pac-12 networks. Meanwhile, Anthony Susac pitched 3 scoreless innings against Utah Tech Tuesday night. It would be nice to have him back available, maybe for the Sunday game.

No excuse for getting swept by ASU.

This won't be a unique take, by any means. Chip Hale is a nice guy (and a classmate, actually.) By all accounts, Dave Lawn is a nice guy. But there's the old Leo Durocher line about finishing last. It doesn't mean you have to be a ranting/raving a-hole all the time. But it does mean you can't be soft. ASU fielded a transfer portal all-star team this year. With the exception of the routine addition of a couple of freshmen and a couple of JCs, we stood pat. I DVRed the first two games, deleted them unwatched, and only saw the last half of the last game. Yeah, it's "Sunday In The Six-Pac", but with the game still in reach, we're throwing pitchers who've previously only thrown 3 or 4 innings all year. At that point, grasping at try-outs isn't acceptable. I understand off-speed pitches and trying to keep it in the ballpark in a bandbox. But, with the available technology, you should still generally be able to tell who has the requisite velocity and control in bullpen sessions. And if they consistently fall apart in real games, then adios. Prior to the move to Hi Corbett in 2012, I watched Arizona have about 10 good years over a 40 year span. Most recently, we've had a much more acceptable 10 years. I'm not willing to go back. College sports is big business, and UArizona is basically both spring training and minor league baseball for a market of 1 million. This isn't a happy little retirement job. Hit recruiting hard year-round and make it clear that scholarships are subject to renewal annually, based on performance on the field. If that's not a friendly enough bark-in-the-park environment for anybody, they should pursue opportunities elsewhere.

To clarify on the "stand pat" comment; I'm talking about immediate contributors, and particularly when it comes to pitching. On a go-forward basis, I believe we generally need to field a team of upperclassmen, patching as needed with transfers, without the past stigma of arbitrary limits per the admissions office. We've mostly got upperclassmen seeing the field, but where there are weak links or depth issues, that should be where you plug in somebody better through very aggressive recruiting, rather than hope springing eternal for individual improvement.

TheCatInTheHat wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:45 pm To clarify on the "stand pat" comment; I'm talking about immediate contributors, and particularly when it comes to pitching. On a go-forward basis, I believe we generally need to field a team of upperclassmen, patching as needed with transfers, without the past stigma of arbitrary limits per the admissions office. We've mostly got upperclassmen seeing the field, but where there are weak links or depth issues, that should be where you plug in somebody better through very aggressive recruiting, rather than hope springing eternal for individual improvement.

Well you're really not going to like our team next season then.

Didn't really go along with Lev's storyline, which infers that fans are being unrealistically demanding. I don't particularly care what kind of post-game speeches Chip makes; that's up to him. I do care whether our administration continues to emphasize baseball at least as much as Byrne did, that the expectation is to work as hard year-round at baseball recruiting as for football and basketball, and that we don't back-slide into up-and-down rollercoaster seasons. I realize Johnson left on a high note, and he also benefitted from Tracy Smith being lousy. My biggest concerns are roster issues, how the pitching is handled, and what looks kind of like the laissez faire approach some take to a 162 game schedule, rather than a 30 game conference schedule.

Pathetic doesn't even begin to describe this.

AZCatGirl wrote: ↑Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:01 pm Pathetic doesn't even begin to describe this.

Don't worry, Chip will be able to fire Lawn after this season and use him as a scapegoat, while getting another 2 more years to prove how bad of a hire he was.

Unless we go on some kind of unreal winning streak and salvage this season, Chip has to go. He’s not the guy we need.

Getting Niya Butts bad as head coach of an Arizona program.

ChooChooCat wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:11 am Don't worry, Chip will be able to fire Lawn after this season and use him as a scapegoat, while getting another 2 more years to prove how bad of a hire he was.

We started today's game 10-0. We end up losing 13-11.

Baseball is too historically good to let this shit go on that long. Heads have got to roll before then.

AZCatGirl wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 9:40 pm

ChooChooCat wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:11 am Don't worry, Chip will be able to fire Lawn after this season and use him as a scapegoat, while getting another 2 more years to prove how bad of a hire he was.

We started today's game 10-0. We end up losing 13-11.

Baseball is too historically good to let this shit go on that long. Heads have got to roll before then.

This was the boosters decision, they're going to hold tight until the point of no return. The program is staring at another 2 years with Hale in charge and it'll get even worse.

Well fuck the boosters then. Guess they don't mind throwing their money away.

Now that we're 3-9 in conference play, and we'll hit the halfway point by Easter Sunday, the pitching staff this weekend will be juggled. I realize that some players may benefit from gaudy stats compiled against lesser opponents in the early season or mid-week. You don't know who may have physical issues limiting their availability, and there's also a difference in approach if you're trying to go 6 or 7 innings, versus 1. In any event, here is the staff ERA (minimum of double-digit innings pitched this season):

Trevor Long 3.86
Bradon Zastrow 4.01
Dawson Netz 4.38
Anthony Susac 4.57
Derek Drees 4.91
Eric Orloff 5.40
Jackson Kent 5.52
Chris Barraza 5.54
Aiden May 7.09
TJ Nichols 7.13

How disappointing has Nichols been. He was supposed to be our Friday night guy. He has years of experience and he can’t get anyone out.

The season has just been a huge disappointment

azcat49 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:15 am How disappointing has Nichols been. He was supposed to be our Friday night guy. He has years of experience and he can’t get anyone out.

The season has just been a huge disappointment

This is what happens when you retain a pitching coach who was demoted because he couldn’t get pitchers to pitch well. Genius plan.

This whole season is a shit sandwich.

It’s chapping my ass.

Taking some frustration out on the devils...I'll allow it.

I would normally say baseball needs a mercy rule like softball, but in this case fuck ASU.

6-0 after 2

15-0 after 3

19-0 after 4

19-0 after 6

19-2 final

Two grand slams yesterday

Offense is on a real heater. 53 runs in the last three game is just crazy. If we could just find a Friday night guy and get some quality starts consistently

Connie Mack (HOF, 5 World Series titles) once said that pitching is 75 percent of baseball. Some today disagree with that number, but most peg it at a minimum of 60 percent. With that in mind, and without including names, here are our conference pitching ERAs, listed by number of innings pitched (10 innings minimum.)

41.0 IP 5.27 ERA
34.1 IP 6.29 ERA
30.0 IP 9.00 ERA
19.0 IP 6.63 ERA
13.2 IP 7.24 ERA
13.0 IP 4.15 ERA

Since we're playing at league-leading Stanford this coming weekend, here's theirs:

59.0 IP 3.05 ERA
40.1 IP 5.58 ERA
34.0 IP 5.82 ERA
15.0 IP 9.00 ERA
14.0 IP1.93 ERA

Their conference staff ERA is 1.59 runs per game less than Arizona's in conference play. We've put up some nice offensive numbers this year, but that's what has to be made up.

Hard to think our hitting will be as good next year. If we don’t get some arms, we are in big trouble next year. Hopefully Chip has a strategy that includes the portal

We finally got a quality win against Furd. Only took 21 runs.

Finish the season at 30-23. Hitting has been good all year and maybe we finally found our Friday night guy.

Open the PAC 12 tournament against ASSU at 10am and we are in pool A with Oregon St. I like our draw and hoping the bats stay hot and the pitching is good

Hate playing those fucks in their home area, but debatable how many of their fans will show for a 10 am Tuesday game. They've drawn around 3K for their bigger series games and over 5K for us. I'll agree with Hansen in his Sunday column, when he said 11 of the 14 games in the Pac-12 Tournament last year started with temps of 90 or more, and it should be moved. When SDSU joins the league, work it out to play it there when the Padres are on a road trip.

Put the DBacks on the road and play downtown.

TheCatInTheHat wrote: ↑Sun May 21, 2023 11:45 am Hate playing those fucks in their home area, but debatable how many of their fans will show for a 10 am Tuesday game. They've drawn around 3K for their bigger series games and over 5K for us. I'll agree with Hansen in his Sunday column, when he said 11 of the 14 games in the Pac-12 Tournament last year started with temps of 90 or more, and it should be moved. When SDSU joins the league, work it out to play it there when the Padres are on a road trip.

We shouldn't want to be anywhere near this fucking league, especially if SDSU is joining.

Just a contingency; seems like we're stuck at something like a 50-50 probability either way. If we were in the Big XII, we'd be playing in the Texas Rangers' stadium with a retractable roof for any bad weather.

Cats playing the Scum today in Snottsdale.

10a start. I ain’t saying shit. Check it yoself.

Cats win, 12-3.

Win tomorrow with our #1 going and we are in the semi finals

It's kind of a weird format. If I understand it correctly, as the top seeds, either Stanford or Oregon St could go 1-1 and still make the semis, but as an 8-seed, we have no such realistic option, so we have to go 2-0. It's go-for-broke and go 4-0 for the NCAA bid anyway, and nothing else means anything, so we'll ride the train as long as we can.

Looks like they are taking the three pool winners and a wildcard to the semis.

https://pac-12.com/baseball/tournament

Pool play will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with three games per day. Each pool will play a round-robin.

The three pool winners will advance to the Friday single-elimination semifinals along with one Wild Card team. The Wild Card will be determined by the best record of the non-advancing teams. Any tiebreaker will be awarded to the highest seeded team.

The semifinal matchups will pit the highest-seeded team against the lowest-seeded team on one side with the second-highest seed and second-lowest seed on the other. Teams from the same pool however will not play each other in the semifinals.

Pool A will include seeds #1, #6 and #9 with Pool B made up of seeds #2, #5, and #8. Seeds #3, #4 and #7 will compete in Pool C.

https://static.pac-12.com/sports/baseba ... _FINAL.pdf

TheCatInTheHat wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 2:41 pm It's kind of a weird format. If I understand it correctly, as the top seeds, either Stanford or Oregon St could go 1-1 and still make the semis, but as an 8-seed, we have no such realistic option, so we have to go 2-0. It's go-for-broke and go 4-0 for the NCAA bid anyway, and nothing else means anything, so we'll ride the train as long as we can.

It is kinda weird but after looking at it for a bit I get it.

Leave it up to the PAC to screw up a simple post season tournament.

EastCoastCat wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 3:40 pm Leave it up to the PAC to screw up a simple post season tournament.

The regular season shouldn't mean anything?

azgreg wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 3:41 pm

EastCoastCat wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 3:40 pm Leave it up to the PAC to screw up a simple post season tournament.

The regular season shouldn't mean anything?

Sure it does. But why all of this pool shit?

Double elimination format is used by other conferences including the NCAA tournament. Why doesn’t it work for the PAC?

I think they were trying to set teams up that were in the tournament for sure by not gassing their staffs. They mentioned they thought last year a couple teams ( I think Oregon and UCLA) used so many guys that they lost some arms for the regionals.

We beat Oregon St tomorrow and we are in those semi’s. I think we will beat them

Chip Hale was a mistake. He knows nothing of the college game, and it shows. And Dave Lawn has got to go. Regardless of whether or not we pull the game out against OSU, this team is way too talented to be a bubble team this year. Should be in hosting consideration, but the pitching stinks to high heaven. And the situational baseball, which is needed in the college game, just isn't there.

What a game!!