2017 Season Thread

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Sat May 27, 2017 1:25 pm

Fwiw I've heard the Alabama threat is more than a threat to get Jay. If that happens I will have lost all respect for Byrne as that's some shady bullshit. I don't know if Jay will just use Bama to garner a raise or not, but I assume it'll depend on just how much Byrne is willing to offer Jay who currently makes around $375K a year and how much we can match. Bama's last coach who had 14 years of head coaching experience in the southeast region was paid $475K.

Irish27 · Post by **Irish27** » Sat May 27, 2017 3:35 pm

ChooChooCat wrote:Fwiw I've heard the Alabama threat is more than a threat to get Jay. If that happens I will have lost all respect for Byrne as that's some shady bullshit. I don't know if Jay will just use Bama to garner a raise or not, but I assume it'll depend on just how much Byrne is willing to offer Jay who currently makes around $375K a year and how much we can match. Bama's last coach who had 14 years of head coaching experience in the southeast region was paid $475K.

I would be shocked if Johnson left after two years and I would be double shocked if GB went after him.

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Sat May 27, 2017 3:38 pm

That would be a low class move. He's already damaged goods around here with the OTL piece, and then poaching a coach? Come on, his name would be shit in Tucson.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sat May 27, 2017 8:25 pm

On GB, isn't he the self proclaimed ninja in job searches. Why not throw out JJ namr but go after someone else. Isn't that how he operates?

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Sat May 27, 2017 8:29 pm

Why would Byrne care at all if his name was shit I Tucson? He has no reason to ever come back here

Catintheheat · Post by **Catintheheat** » Sun May 28, 2017 10:55 am

ASUHATER! wrote:Why would Byrne care at all if his name was shit I Tucson? He has no reason to ever come back here

This is what I was thinking. I sit back and observe that fans feel entitled to their coaches. But sports is competitive and therefore is cutthroat. Win at all costs. This move by GB doesn't surprise me at all. I think it is actually a wise move. If Arizona did the same thing as Alabama is doing we would be jumping all over it. So I find the anger hypocritical, like UA is entitled to their coach. GB has a job to do and is doing it to the best of his ability.

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Sun May 28, 2017 2:37 pm

ASUHATER! wrote:Why would Byrne care at all if his name was shit I Tucson? He has no reason to ever come back here

I mean I don't know about you, but it's never bad to have places you used to be at to fall back on. He certainly doesn't have to give a shit and no one is making him. However, there's a certain etiquette in college sports where you don't steal away coaches from places you used to work at if you were Athletic Director at that place. Maybe Byrne thinks that etiquette is garbage and if he does then he's pure garbage and can fuck himself forever as far as I'm concerned. He's made one real high quality hire at Arizona and that's Jay Johnson. Hell I'd argue his sole legacy at Arizona outside of holding on to Miller (with an assist from a hamburger) was what he did with baseball with the move to Hi-Co and the hiring of Jay. If he takes away Jay then he has no legacy at Arizona outside of the Wildcat Club I guess.

MrMeow · Post by **MrMeow** » Sun May 28, 2017 3:51 pm

ChooChooCat wrote:
ASUHATER! wrote:Why would Byrne care at all if his name was shit I Tucson? He has no reason to ever come back here
I mean I don't know about you, but it's never bad to have places you used to be at to fall back on. He certainly doesn't have to give a shit and no one is making him. However, there's a certain etiquette in college sports where you don't steal away coaches from places you used to work at if you were Athletic Director at that place. Maybe Byrne thinks that etiquette is garbage and if he does then he's pure garbage and can fuck himself forever as far as I'm concerned. He's made one real high quality hire at Arizona and that's Jay Johnson. Hell I'd argue his sole legacy at Arizona outside of holding on to Miller (with an assist from a hamburger) was what he did with baseball with the move to Hi-Co and the hiring of Jay. If he takes away Jay then he has no legacy at Arizona outside of the Wildcat Club I guess.

Completely agree.

Question: If the etiquette you describe is true, and I hope it is, how would poaching JJ settle within the AD community? How would GB be seen among his peers? Black eye?

He may not care about Tucson, but his rep among his peers is something else entirely, especially if he has ambitions higher than being an AD.

UAEebs86 · Post by **UAEebs86** » Sun May 28, 2017 5:00 pm

Lost 7-4 and lost the series. Probably will cost them a regional. What a lousy Saturday and Sunday for baseball and softball.

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Sun May 28, 2017 5:02 pm

Yep getting shipped out now.

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Sun May 28, 2017 5:03 pm

MrMeow wrote:
ChooChooCat wrote:
ASUHATER! wrote:Why would Byrne care at all if his name was shit I Tucson? He has no reason to ever come back here
I mean I don't know about you, but it's never bad to have places you used to be at to fall back on. He certainly doesn't have to give a shit and no one is making him. However, there's a certain etiquette in college sports where you don't steal away coaches from places you used to work at if you were Athletic Director at that place. Maybe Byrne thinks that etiquette is garbage and if he does then he's pure garbage and can fuck himself forever as far as I'm concerned. He's made one real high quality hire at Arizona and that's Jay Johnson. Hell I'd argue his sole legacy at Arizona outside of holding on to Miller (with an assist from a hamburger) was what he did with baseball with the move to Hi-Co and the hiring of Jay. If he takes away Jay then he has no legacy at Arizona outside of the Wildcat Club I guess.
Completely agree.

Question: If the etiquette you describe is true, and I hope it is, how would poaching JJ settle within the AD community? How would GB be seen among his peers? Black eye?

He may not care about Tucson, but his rep among his peers is something else entirely, especially if he has ambitions higher than being an AD.

I mean he's at his final AD job at this point, so if he doesn't care I don't blame him. I doubt it'd be a black eye if he was in line for a commissioner job, seeing as all schools/ADs care about is making the most money possible, so being ruthless is probably a good quality.

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Sun May 28, 2017 5:04 pm

UAEebs86 wrote:Lost 7-4 and lost the series. Probably will cost them a regional. What a lousy Saturday and Sunday for baseball and softball.

Last year came off a road sweep heading into the tourney. This year coming off a series loss at home to a meh team.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Mon May 29, 2017 4:08 pm

Irish27 · Post by **Irish27** » Mon May 29, 2017 6:21 pm

Defending champs Coastal Carolina did not get in.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Mon May 29, 2017 7:12 pm

Very tough regional. TT is a very good club, much better than LL last year so advancing would he quite the feet.

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Mon May 29, 2017 7:21 pm

We lost 13-1 at TT early in the season

Irish27 · Post by **Irish27** » Mon May 29, 2017 7:48 pm

I would save Cloney for game 2 in hope they can get by Sam Houston State without him. I would start Ming in game 1.

prh · Post by **prh** » Tue May 30, 2017 6:51 am

Irish27 wrote:I would save Cloney for game 2 in hope they can get by Sam Houston State without him. I would start Ming in game 1.

I always like this strategy, but am a little nervous as this backfired for my team in HS state playoffs.

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Tue May 30, 2017 10:01 am

Cloney hasn't been very good the last two games, so I'm very hesitant to do that.

EVCat · Post by **EVCat** » Tue May 30, 2017 1:26 pm

azcat49 wrote:Very tough regional. TT is a very good club, much better than LL last year so advancing would he quite the feet.

was surprised by that placement. I know it isn't a perfect snake 1 v 32, 16 v 17, and there are regional considerations, but putting us against a national seed as a 2 means they dropped us well out of the top 25.

TTU did pound us...but it was also a mid-week game on the way home from a very competitive 3 game/3 day showcase in Frisco...

EVCat · Post by **EVCat** » Tue May 30, 2017 1:28 pm

Cloney proved to be mentally tough last year, though. After ULL pounded him, the fanbase thought he was done and was ready to go Bannister/Ginkel/Ming.

But he was mentally tough and ended up being our best pitcher from that point on.

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Tue May 30, 2017 3:52 pm

EVCat wrote:Cloney proved to be mentally tough last year, though. After ULL pounded him, the fanbase thought he was done and was ready to go Bannister/Ginkel/Ming.

But he was mentally tough and ended up being our best pitcher from that point on.

I wouldn't say he ended up our best pitcher from that point on. He certainly had the best most dominant game at the best time against Coastal Carolina, but Bannister was by far our best and when he went down it's no coincidence we couldn't pull off the title. Dalbec was great all postseason long as well of course. Cloney pitched only one other game the entire postseason and that was a win against UCSB.

Either way this team doesn't have the pitching to beat Tech regardless how well Cloney plays.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Tue May 30, 2017 6:39 pm

EVCat wrote:
azcat49 wrote:Very tough regional. TT is a very good club, much better than LL last year so advancing would he quite the feet.
was surprised by that placement. I know it isn't a perfect snake 1 v 32, 16 v 17, and there are regional considerations, but putting us against a national seed as a 2 means they dropped us well out of the top 25.

TTU did pound us...but it was also a mid-week game on the way home from a very competitive 3 game/3 day showcase in Frisco...

I agree EV. I was surprised we were put against the 5 seed. I would have thought we would have had a better draw given we had the #2 OOC schedule and our OOC RPI.

I like the idea of maybe starting Deason in game 1 and taking our chances that we can out hit SHST. Big gamble but we just are not as deep pitching wise as last year

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:02 am

Bama hired Auburn''s top assistant to be their head man. Was told a prominent booster came through for us on this one.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:07 am

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:11 am

ChooChooCat wrote:Bama hired Auburn''s top assistant to be their head man. Was told a prominent booster came through for us on this one.

Can you expand on what this booster might have done?

SirClinks · Post by **SirClinks** » Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:54 am

JJ getting a nice raise this off season I bet.

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Thu Jun 01, 2017 9:56 am

azcat49 wrote:
ChooChooCat wrote:Bama hired Auburn''s top assistant to be their head man. Was told a prominent booster came through for us on this one.

Can you expand on what this booster might have done?

Put a blank check in front of Jay and said write the number it'll take.

Well not exactly that, but in lesser words that''s what took place.

prh · Post by **prh** » Thu Jun 01, 2017 11:35 am

ChooChooCat wrote:
azcat49 wrote:
ChooChooCat wrote:Bama hired Auburn''s top assistant to be their head man. Was told a prominent booster came through for us on this one.

Can you expand on what this booster might have done?
Put a blank check in front of Jay and said write the number it'll take.

Well not exactly that, but in lesser words that''s what took place.

Choo, would you happen to know whether this was proactive or reactive to GB actually going after JJ? Also, as always, thanks for the info you provide.

Jefe · Post by **Jefe** » Thu Jun 01, 2017 1:33 pm

So is Lopez back on the payroll? Am I mistaken or was that him in the dugout Sunday?

prh · Post by **prh** » Thu Jun 01, 2017 1:38 pm

Jefe wrote:So is Lopez back on the payroll? Am I mistaken or was that him in the dugout Sunday?

Wonder if he came back for Senior Day, those would be his guys

Jefe · Post by **Jefe** » Thu Jun 01, 2017 1:51 pm

Ahhh makes sense. I was at a game a few months ago and spotted him chewing seeds standing behind home plate. He couldn't take his eyes off the action

prh · Post by **prh** » Thu Jun 01, 2017 2:18 pm

I'm sure he loves being around the program and the games. Always seemed to generally love it here, and no more stress to deal with.

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:48 am

prh wrote:
ChooChooCat wrote:
azcat49 wrote:
ChooChooCat wrote:Bama hired Auburn''s top assistant to be their head man. Was told a prominent booster came through for us on this one.

Can you expand on what this booster might have done?
Put a blank check in front of Jay and said write the number it'll take.

Well not exactly that, but in lesser words that''s what took place.
Choo, would you happen to know whether this was proactive or reactive to GB actually going after JJ? Also, as always, thanks for the info you provide.

It was reactive, but it's not like Arizona was sitting on its hands or anything. The guy had his salary doubled after the CWS run and we got aggressive asking boosters for help hence the previous 1 million donation and the recent Francona donation.

Either way Jay's number wasn't huge as he wasn't looking for excuses to leave Arizona, but if you have the opportunity to get a raise how can you pass it up? Honestly Byrne would've had to give him an offer that would knock his socks off for him to leave for Bama and thankfully Byrne is very fiscally conservative in regards to coaches of programs who aren't revenue generators.

SirClinks · Post by **SirClinks** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:53 am

Thanks for the info Choo.

Its game day! Time to start another run to Omaha.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 12:08 pm

Yep, thx Choo (was it Moreno?). Agreed that it is time to start another run for the title. this one will be tougher as going thru Lubbock is not easy

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 12:48 pm

Looks like weather issues in Lubbock today.

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 2:16 pm

azcat49 wrote:Yep, thx Choo (was it Moreno?). Agreed that it is time to start another run for the title. this one will be tougher as going thru Lubbock is not easy

Nah it wasn't Moreno. It was a booster that's well known though.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 2:59 pm

prh · Post by **prh** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 3:53 pm

azgreg wrote:

Currently bottom 7th, so it's looking like ~7:30 CT first pitch.

Jefe · Post by **Jefe** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 4:57 pm

ChooChooCat wrote:
prh wrote:
ChooChooCat wrote:
azcat49 wrote:
ChooChooCat wrote:Bama hired Auburn''s top assistant to be their head man. Was told a prominent booster came through for us on this one.

Can you expand on what this booster might have done?
Put a blank check in front of Jay and said write the number it'll take.

Well not exactly that, but in lesser words that''s what took place.
Choo, would you happen to know whether this was proactive or reactive to GB actually going after JJ? Also, as always, thanks for the info you provide.
It was reactive, but it's not like Arizona was sitting on its hands or anything. The guy had his salary doubled after the CWS run and we got aggressive asking boosters for help hence the previous 1 million donation and the recent Francona donation.

Either way Jay's number wasn't huge as he wasn't looking for excuses to leave Arizona, but if you have the opportunity to get a raise how can you pass it up? Honestly Byrne would've had to give him an offer that would knock his socks off for him to leave for Bama and thankfully Byrne is very fiscally conservative in regards to coaches of programs who aren't revenue generators.

Fascinating. So they can just cut him a check and he takes it to the bank?

Irish27 · Post by **Irish27** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 6:44 pm

I knew GB would not hire JJ. Hansen was wrong again.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:25 pm

No score in the 2nd. FSU lost as the 1 seed so maybe the stars align and we host a super?

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:28 pm

SHST scores first on a throwing error

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:29 pm

SHST scores first on a throwing error. They are throwing there #2 who has not hone more than 5 innings this year

1-0 into the bottom of the second

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:10 pm

Cats tie it up on the second time through the line up. Should have scored a couple more but a questionable call cost us

prh · Post by **prh** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:18 pm

azcat49 wrote:Cats tie it up on the second time through the line up. Should have scored a couple more but a questionable call cost us

I'm not sure why they kept saying there was interference. It was pretty clear that the pitch hit Oliva's back foot, making it a dead ball. No idea what "interference" they kept talking about.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:34 pm

Quintana misses a homer by inches then Get's thrown out at the plate. Having our chances

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:48 pm

We keep threatening as we had 2 on with no out but we hit into a double play and can't score

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Jun 02, 2017 9:01 pm

Bad news as SHST hits a 3 run homer to lead 4-1 in the 6th. Missing those chances has a way of catching up to you

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