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It has the talent. Tough schedule though.
If you don't like lineup tinkering, you might want to sit this season out.
If you don't like lineup tinkering, you might want to sit this season out.
Well -- you melt about it -- people keep you updated with the progress of the team and players in the given thread -- and then you discard that to presumably start a new melt.
http://forums.sixpackspeak.com/show...all-isnt-as-disappointing-as-it-was-last-year
Because he was going to melt either way. My goal was not to be an ******* -- but unlike most I actually put a little bit of effort to answer the question in the identical previous melt started by the same person as recently as last week.
With the preseason rankings starting to trickle in, I guess it's that time. What's the engie prognostication for this year, roughly speaking? Will the record be better, or maybe how much better is the question to ask? How much power will we have? Will the starters go deeper this year with a new pitching coach, or will seemingly most games be bullpen games? Finally, HOW MUCH BUNTING?
Not hosting this year will be a disappointment. It was my thought coming in, and it's being reaffirmed in preseason polls, and in the summer league poll that said our players had the best summers of any team in the country. This should be a peak year. We have 5 draft-eligible top 10 round pitchers that all lit the Cape on fire this year. One thing that has been pretty consistent with our program is the guys that light it up in the summer, especially on the hill, come back to be awesome for one year before easing on toward MLB. Even the ones that people had written off previously for mental issues not unlike the guys we bring back. Stratton, Girodo, Lindgren, etc. Pitching is going to be drastically better -- and that was the only major difference between our team last year and a traditional Cohen team outside of the 2013 team.
It's an exercise in futility to try to predict offense for us. I think Robson is the only set in stone positional starter -- and I think that's totally fair. There are ongoing position battles in the other 8 spots. We've got quite a bit more power across the board, but it stacks up positionally at 1B, 3B, RF, etc. We bunt too much -- and even Cohen's elite offensive teams at Kentucky bunted too much. That's going to continue, and I'm going to continue to hate it(speaking solely on sacrifices not drags for when someone gets it confused).
Schedule is awesome this year. We're actually using RPI to help us for once instead of hindering us. People are going to melt early I'm sure if we drop a couple against the elite teams we'll see -- but IMO if we can win in the mid 30s in the regular season and 16 or 17 in SEC play -- we will be hosting on schedule strength. We have enough talent to compete for the west if the offense gels. Florida is 2 steps above everyone in the country though IMO.
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Not that we will have a set lineup with the mad scientist filling out the card, but what would you expect to be the starting eight most days and who fits into the DH role? I know this speaks to the position battles you mentioned but I am only slightly more than vaguely familiar with our roster at this point. I presume Collins is in there somewhere most days too.
I'm honestly not sure. Too much potential to be way off. What we've got is decently talented upperclassmen that for the most part have never really stepped up -- and incoming freshmen that are just as good right now(read -- more talented) that have not proven themselves mental midgets yet. I'm really, really high on Stovall, Alexander, and Marrero among the freshmen I expect to make an immediate impact. High on Rooker. High on Reynolds as a hitter. High on Barfield and Lowe's potential as hitters, as well as Cole Gordon. High on Michael Smith's potential as well which we never really saw last year. I can't speak on Collins -- because he can't get healthy. At least, he hasn't yet. And Humphreys is mental. We prettymuch know who Gridley, Robson, Cody Brown, and Holland are.
My deal is -- I've never had trouble with Cohen's tinkering and lineup variations. Once people step up and truly earn a spot in the lineup and position -- they keep it. We didn't tinker with Frasier and Renfroe. Didn't tinker much with Pirtle once he got going. Etc... As a player, I fed off doubt and disrespect. Being pissed off made me a better player than I was when I was being plugged into the 3 or 4 hole every day regardless. So, I don't have much of a problem with how Cohen handles that. Except when our guys that never really got a chance transfer and light the world on fire while the guys we play ahead of them struggle.
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I am OK with it to an extent as opposed to mindlessly putting the same names in the same order every day, but 53 lineups in 53 games or whatever it was last year was ridiculous and in my opinion hurt the team. I think hitters have different jobs and therefore different mindsets based off where they are in the order, but again our bunting and running at any point in an inning with any hitter/runner renders some of that moot. I'd just like to see some guys take hold of some spots both in the field and in the order and see what happens, just as you said with Frazier and Renfroe even if we don't have bats of that quality to plug in. Need to change it up for a lefty? Fine. Got a hot bat that you want to move up? Go for it. Need our best defensive lineup on the field? OK, sure. But don't outsmart yourself as a coach by adjusting it so much that guys never know where they are going to be until they get to the park.
As does sitting a player who had multiple hits in the previous game or pinch hitting for a guy who has multiple hits with a guy who has a lower batting average. Cohen just does too much random tinkering with the lineup with no real purpose. And don't even get me started on pitching changes in the middle of the count.
dude... when are you gonna admit you might be wrong about the sky falling? that you may be making yourself miserable and hysterical over nothing?
What about them?
Any complaining about what our pitching staff has been beyond the confines of last season is ridiculous. It has been elite. Regardless of how much the nontraditional approach bothers people.
Well, those would be examples of times it didn't work to wait until the middle of the count to change pitchers.
Do you also blame Cohen every time he fails to pinch hit for a guy that strikes out? It's the same thing. You are arguing something unquantifiable and trivial under the assumption that the move was going to be made regardless at a given point in time -- vs allowing the counts and matchups to be the motivator.
Butch made the vast majority of those moves anyway by the way.
And overall, he did a good job here. But seeing as how no other managers or pitching coaches at any level of baseball routinely change pitchers in the middle of the count, I'm not buying that everyone else is out of step except Butch/John on this issue.
Did you the piggybacking we did for awhile as well by "starting" the middle reliever and letting them have one time through before bringing in the "starter"? It's the same thing. Unconventional doesn't make it wrong. SABR as a whole was unconventional 15 years ago. Now "traditional" is unconventional.
I do know the most unconventional manager in the major leagues played for a title two years ago -- and won one last year.
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