Hard to find a positive after that stink bomb. Our non-Wymer and Feltman relievers gave us multiple scoreless innings. That's all I've got. Terrible AB's up and down the lineup. I don't want to bag on a freshman, but Humphreys' K on 3 pitches with the bases loaded changed the whole game. Getting zero there was the end of any positive momentum we had the rest of the game. Giving away three outs on the bases and free bases on errors was pretty bad too. Definitely a bummer of a performance to drive 11 hours for.
Glass Half Full Thoughts After that nut kick...
- Thread starter Frog45
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Pharm Frog
Full Member
I'm not sure we wait to "try to score" until the pen is involved. The 2nd inning is by far our best scoring inning. But we rely heavily on free passes whenever we get them. But we are a completely different team offensively and defensively when Baker is out.
Wouldn't we have liked Cam in the 2-hole tonight and ES knowing he had LB behind him with his near .500 OB%?
I still maintain we were fortunate to blow through the regional and super with Wade struggling like he has recently.
And if JW doesn't draw walks (which he was strangely doing quite a bit), he's a major hiccup in the lineup.
Wouldn't we have liked Cam in the 2-hole tonight and ES knowing he had LB behind him with his near .500 OB%?
I still maintain we were fortunate to blow through the regional and super with Wade struggling like he has recently.
And if JW doesn't draw walks (which he was strangely doing quite a bit), he's a major hiccup in the lineup.
jake102
Active Member
Yep, said it earlier. Game changer
TCURiggs
Active Member
That was obviously the big one. The announcers kept talking about Skoug, because he's our big name, but Humphreys killed us there. The ump didn't help him with that terrible strike call, though.
Pharm Frog
Full Member
Bagging on Humphreys for that K is plain dumb. He got banged for strike one on a pitch way up. The next was a filthy slider that would likely have resulted in a double play had he made contact. He had no choice but to chase high given what the ump had done to him on pitch one of that AB. Smart pitcher....
The real issue that inning was JW striking out anemically. Skoug didn't fare much better. And I'd rather have ZH attacking a pitch than his pinch hitter looking at one down the middle.
The real issue that inning was JW striking out anemically. Skoug didn't fare much better. And I'd rather have ZH attacking a pitch than his pinch hitter looking at one down the middle.
TCURiggs
Active Member
Agree with all of that
CountryFrog
Active Member
Classic fly fishing frog. If you don't think we suck then you just don't know baseball. Forget about all the games we won because they were just a combination of luck and the opponents sucking even worse than TCU. The games we lost are the real TCU baseball team.
Also, apparently we don't pound great pitchers as regularly as we do bad pitchers. Alex Lange was a 1st rounder though but that didn't count because it was too early in the season.
SnoSki
Full Member
6-0 to finish with the title
flyfishingfrog
Active Member
must not be that easy because more than half way through the season - our starters had not thrown the majority of our innings.
and I didn't say they were top 30 pitchers - I said they were the top 30 we faced - most are not even in the top 100 this year actually outside of Tech starters, LSU starter, OU and a few others - but all you did was reinforce my point.
unfortunately, the average innings thrown by the starting staffs of the teams in the CWS is about 2 innings per game higher than the average we have faced this year - so we are gonna have to hit our way out of starters, not just walk.
I don't think so. But we've also never made the championship series so winning that first game isn't everything.
Pharm Frog
Full Member
If memory serves Lange walked Merrill and Wanhanen (may have been Brown) before Wade took him deep. Luken got him a couple of batters later. I know Skoug was on but don't recall how. That was quintessential Frog baseball this season but we have no LB now and Wade is struggling (but still clearly our best hitter)
flyfishingfrog
Active Member
Curious - do you actually have any facts that dispute what I said? I mean I know our RPI is great - thanks.
unfortunately so is almost everyone else's in Omaha - as are their records - so none of that is going to win us a prize.
Or were we all just supposed to say "oh well, at least the weather was nice?" and not discuss the reality of what we faced today, how we did, thoughts on why it happened, and what we might see Tuesday that we could adjust to.
just be better to say "Schloss has got it - so lets all move on. Might as well shut down the board because no reason to talk about it"?
CountryFrog
Active Member
Facts? I've got our record, conference championship, and sweeping our way through the regional and super regional to show that we're a really good team. Those are really the only facts that matter. We just happened to get out pitched today by the 18th pick in the draft.
You have never presented anything in the way of "facts." You've said we're average because we lost some road games to good teams. You said this is a team that needs to make it to Omaha because "Schloss doesn't put conference titles or RPI rankings on that left field wall for everyone to see." Well, here we are in Omaha after sweeping our way through the regional and supers. But that's still not good enough for you because for some reason you think that we're both average AND should expect to win a national title.
If this team really is as bad as you think it is then you should've thought getting through the regional without our best player was a monumental accomplishment.
flyfishingfrog
Active Member
Wasting your time...
CountryFrog
Active Member
Absolutely. Gotta get some breaks against someone that good to put up a big number. And obviously the game has changed without Baker.
My issue with fly is just that NO MATTER WHAT this team does, he refuses to look at any accomplishment in a positive light and seemingly doesn't understand that you can be a good team AND have a couple of flaws.
CountryFrog
Active Member
I don't think he was agreeing with you.
Deep Purple
Full Member
That plate ump had terrible strike calls all night long. He just totally sucked at calling balls and strikes, for both teams. It's really not fair to the hitters to call such a weird strike zone, so out-of-step with what college players are used to seeing. It was obvious Florida was even more openly frustrated and disgusted with him than we were -- and we were pretty damn frustrated and disgusted.
It didn't determine the outcome of the game. Florida's superior pitching and our inferior plate performance decided that. But it still detracts hugely from enjoyment of the game -- win or lose -- when you've got a guy behind the plate who has the visual acuity and mental judgement skills of Bubbles.
BABYFACE
Full Member
Yep. If you are a pinch hitter in that situation you don't go in their looking at strikes. Whatever happened to protecting the plate with two strikes? Real puzzling at bat for EW.
