Bear Down Wildcats

4 losses in the 8th or later in our last 6. Not a great look for sure

This team just sucks and is very poorly coached

We can’t field or pitch

It will be interesting to me to see the attendance at Hi Corbett this coming weekend. UofA baseball is the only game in town, but this is extremely discouraging. Washington is coming in and while they are not part of the big 4 (OSU,ASU,UCLA,Stanford), they are still pretty good. Doubt we'll get more than one game, if that...

The Terry Francona hitting center seems to be working pretty well. Now we need a Scott Erickson pitching center and maybe a Kenny Lofton/Trevor Hoffman fielding center...........something, jeepers....

What did they give up, 14, 15 walks to ASU today? Unbelievable! Here's the problem. Nobody on the staff has really good velocity or stuff, they are afraid to throw over the heart of the plate because it will get crushed, and it probably will against quality Pac-12 competition. So they nibble, and nibble......I've never seen a UofA pitching staff look less imposing than this one and I've been watching UA baseball since 1986. A real lack of quality, pretty awful.

Bad talent or bad coaching? Both? Either way, the fault lies squarely at the feet of Johnson and Lawn.

RynoatSecond wrote:The Terry Francona hitting center seems to be working pretty well. Now we need a Scott Erickson pitching center and maybe a Kenny Lofton/Trevor Hoffman fielding center...........something, jeepers....

What did they give up, 14, 15 walks to ASU today? Unbelievable! Here's the problem. Nobody on the staff has really good velocity or stuff, they are afraid to throw over the heart of the plate because it will get crushed, and it probably will against quality Pac-12 competition. So they nibble, and nibble......I've never seen a UofA pitching staff look less imposing than this one and I've been watching UA baseball since 1986. A real lack of quality, pretty awful.

Bad talent or bad coaching? Both? Either way, the fault lies squarely at the feet of Johnson and Lawn.

Yep, agree with all of this

That could have been one of the worst losses ever in U of A history. Just pathetic.

Given where our recruiting rankings have been it is tough to say we have Bad talent. I remember seeing this story about Tylor Megill and found it interesting

Remember Tylor Megill, last two seasons’ big JUCO guy, who never quite fulfilled expectations? He posted ERAs around 5 in both of his Arizona seasons and was a mess when he entered the Minors. After the draft, in early June 2018, he pitched only 0.2 innings with an ERA of 40. His coaches then took him aside, putting him on an instructional squad for over a month. Tylor re-emerged in July with an ERA of 4.22 and 12 strikeouts in 10.2 IP. By August he was one of the best pitchers of the Brooklyn Cyclones with an ERA of 1.08 and 22 strikeouts in 16.2 innings pitched.

This as well

Juan Aguilera:
2017 (Arizona): ERA 6.23
2018 (Arizona): ERA 3.33
2018 (MiLB): ERA 0.73 (37.0 IP, 39 SO)

As far as the lack of pitching talent, I found this very interesting.
To me that has to fall on Dave Lawn.

Someone may get served up as a sacrificial lamb and deservedly so. Lawn has been a pitching coach in the PAC with a decent history of success right?

15 walks and 4 blown late inning leads is a joke. A terrible one for sure. I am also very concerned with role identifying and the lack of a true Friday night guy

Lawn definitely getting fired as Jay will use that to buy time

Interesting tidbits from Boyd's World...

Despite Arizona's current 0-7 slide, their RPI has improved! Due to the tough opponents, they are now at 107 when previously they were languishing in the 130's. Just think if they'd won some games...

Their ISR (iterative strength rating, which is a much more valid mathematical ranking system) has Arizona at 93. Washington is 59 in RPI and 34 in ISR, historically not good enough to make the tournament.

Arizona would have to go on an incredible run in the last month and a half of the season to even be considered for an at large bid, just can't see it happening...

One thing you will notice if you compare ISR to RPI. West coast teams ALMOST ALWAYS rank better in ISR than RPI, but the committee still relies heavily on RPI. It's ridiculous! Boyd Nation (guy who runs the web site) once wrote an article describing how the RPI is biased against the West Coast teams because there are fewer teams out here than on the East coast that tend to play each other more often, making it tougher to distinguish yourself as exceptional, since RPI only goes two levels deep, while ISR goes infinitely deep.

Thx Ryno. I have given up on making the tourney and just hoping they can get to .500 in conference and solidify the pitching and up the middle defense. I know they are redshirting a SS so one can hope he is a great defender. Maybe move Blas to second next year and start that kid st SS.

Two thirds through the season and we have no third starter readily identified and we have no closer. Just don’t get this staff and how they handle the pitchers. They seem clueless but I do think they are good baseball men. It is perplexing to me

azcat49 wrote:Thx Ryno. I have given up on making the tourney and just hoping they can get to .500 in conference and solidify the pitching and up the middle defense. I know they are redshirting a SS so one can hope he is a great defender. Maybe move Blas to second next year and start that kid st SS.

Two thirds through the season and we have no third starter readily identified and we have no closer. Just don’t get this staff and how they handle the pitchers. They seem clueless but I do think they are good baseball men. It is perplexing to me

If Dooney and Blas aren't our starting middle infielders next year I'd be shocked.

JJ does like his hitting do not surprising. In this league you better not give people extra outs. Great way to lose as we have found out

Nice win tonight, let’s hope they can keep up the momentum

It is just one game, but that was the best the Wildcats have looked all season against a quality opponent.

No doubt. Hopefully this talent can mature over the remainder of the year so we can be ready for next season

Cats look good early up 7-1 after 3.

Cats have responded well to the adversity. Give them great credit for that. They need to keep it up though

This team has been hitting just about all season, they really have an awesome lineup. If they had just had average, or slightly below average, defense and pitching the first half of the season they would be kicking some serious behind. Defense looked really good today on a number of plays and Quinn Flanagan was in command on the hill.

Hopefully break out the brooms tomorrow...

Nardi with a good day today. 5.2 innings, 3 hits, 3 runs, and 10 strikeouts.

Cats complete the sweep.

Man, when did this team learn to pitch?

Great sweep

Newportcat wrote:Man, when did this team learn to pitch?

Great sweep

Playing Washington and not one of the top 6 teams in the country helps.

Great sweep of the Huskies. Watched the first 6 innings of the game on Sling tv. Nardi pitched exceptional. His slider kind of reminded me of Randy Johnson.

Would be nice to sweep Cal next week and get above 500 in conference play, but I will be happy with two wins.

Btw, Lopez interviewed Quinn Flanagan during the game. The kid is very well spoken and has gone through a lot the last three years. Lopez also mentioned he is a very good student. Quinn said he is a finance major.

Playing at GCU tomorrow and they are at 94 in the RPI and we are 95. Will be interesting if we can carry some momentum and if we can find 3 guys that can pitch mid week for us

Playing in Glendale we take an 8-1 lead after 4 innings. Next two innings we give up 9 to now trail 10-8.

Cats score 6 in the last two innings to get a big win 14-13. Offense continues to be torrid. If we had any decent pitching consistently this team would be dangerous. Hopefully we can sweep a good Cal team and get above .500 in conference

These midweek games will always be dicey for this team because Jay has about 5 pitchers he can trust: Labaut, Nardi, Weems, Flanagan, and Vannelle. Those guys will get the heavy work on the weekends, but Tuesday games are scary.

Bad loss last night

Pitching sucked again

At the very least Dave lawn needs to be fired

Newportcat wrote:Bad loss last night

Pitching sucked again

At the very least Dave lawn needs to be fired

how is this a bad loss? Other than losing at home or losing another game in the 8th inning With poor pitching I just can’t see you point. Cal is a decent PAC 12 opponent. We brought in Vannelle for the 8th who has had 4 or 5 straight quality outings. He got roughed up this time.

I do agree I think some changes need to be made and maybe Lawn is it but I wouldn’t throw last night game into some of the other clunkers we have had from a pitching or fielding comparison. Our leather last night was really good

azcat49 wrote:

Newportcat wrote:Bad loss last night

Pitching sucked again

At the very least Dave lawn needs to be fired

how is this a bad loss? Other than losing at home or losing another game in the 8th inning With poor pitching I just can’t see you point. Cal is a decent PAC 12 opponent. We brought in Vannelle for the 8th who has had 4 or 5 straight quality outings. He got roughed up this time.

I do agree I think some changes need to be made and maybe Lawn is it but I wouldn’t throw last night game into some of the other clunkers we have had from a pitching or fielding comparison. Our leather last night was really good

Giving up 10 runs is bad

Poor pitching as you mentioned in the 8th is bad

Losing at home when we can not afford to is very bad

Losing momentum of winning streak is bad

Well I wouldn’t disagree with anything you said but just wouldn’t throw it into the bad baseball column like we have seen

Need to rally or another bad loss and basically put a fork on this season

Bad loss

Bad season

Shit fielding

Awful pitching

Newportcat wrote:Bad loss

Bad season

Shit fielding

Awful pitching

And a lot of heads down/disquieting quiet in the dugout long before the game was over.

Will be interesting about what changes are made. We lose Quintana and Cameron and maybe Frazier and that’s a lot but we still should have a good offense next year.

Choo said he is bringing in a good class with more pitching and Not sure if Labaut (sp) would come back but we need a lot in this area. Lots of injuries this year so maybe they rehab and come back strong.

Just another disappointing season for a wildcat men’s team.

azcat49 wrote:Will be interesting about what changes are made. We lose Quintana and Cameron and maybe Frazier and that’s a lot but we still should have a good offense next year.

Choo said he is bringing in a good class with more pitching and Not sure if Labaut (sp) would come back but we need a lot in this area. Lots of injuries this year so maybe they rehab and come back strong.

Just another disappointing season for a wildcat men’s team.

Have we ever had a more disappointing season for men’s teams at u of a?

Went 0-6 against ASU which I cannot remember us doing

Worst season I can remember. Even the spirit of things seemed broken. Kind of started with the FBI thing.

Cats did win today 4-2 as Nardi threw 6 scoreless innings. Hopefully this group of Collins, Flanagan and Nardi can be our rotation at a high level next year.

Well, the Cats are now going up to Corvallis to play three against OSU. A very tough task, indeed. What could be considered a good weekend? I would say one win, and keep it close and competitive in one other game. I think it's a virtual lock that at least one will be a OSU blowout win.

azcat49 wrote:Worst season I can remember. Even the spirit of things seemed broken. Kind of started with the FBI thing.

Cats did win today 4-2 as Nardi threw 6 scoreless innings. Hopefully this group of Collins, Flanagan and Nardi can be our rotation at a high level next year.

It’s sad as women’s team all seem to be doing very well

Volleyball got back to NCAA’s (though I personally think it’s time to move on from rubio)

Softball is kicking ass

Sand volleyball doing well

Obviously women’s golf kicks ass

Women’s basketball had an ok run...kidding, light years ahead of where they were

Feels like women’s programs are all in a good place right now

Men...well we got Nico coming in!

azcat49 wrote:Will be interesting about what changes are made. We lose Quintana and Cameron and maybe Frazier and that’s a lot but we still should have a good offense next year.

Choo said he is bringing in a good class with more pitching and Not sure if Labaut (sp) would come back but we need a lot in this area. Lots of injuries this year so maybe they rehab and come back strong.

Just another disappointing season for a wildcat men’s team.

We're also going to lose Dyer. I think bats will still be fine next year, but who knows on pitching. We will greatly increase our options on the mound at least, but remains to be seen if the level of play improves. If we even had average pitching this year we would be competing for a world series. Ridiculously disappointing.

Cats and Labaut looking good leading 4-1 into the 5th and then what looked like an out until our outfielders got crossed up and we give up an inside the park HR. Looked like the keystone cops out there. To Labuats credit, he got the next two outs so we lead 4-2.

Yet another shitty loss

This team makes it tough to follow

The guys are getting their ass kicked again.

This team just sucks

At least fire Dave lawn and give Jay Johnson one more year to turn it around but that’s it

This is pathetic

Close this thread already, the season is long over.

Well, I was hoping they could win one game and maybe be competitive in a 2nd, but they got their butt kicked in all three.

On the believe it or not good news side of things......their RPI continues to go lower, now 87, while ISR is 68. Goes to show strength of schedule is often more important than getting a W.

Having said that, they basically have no chance aside from going 19-0 the rest of the way...

Headed to 3 more losses those next weekend. Hopefully they can find a way to beat GCU Tuesday night and then get some wins against teams they can beat. Being above .500 has to be the goal along with winning 30 games