Fayetteville Regional thread—-Baseball

[hit_that_line]

We're gonna win both games today.

[Thin Red Swine]

Wood getting the start vs Semo tomorrow.

And that's at least a little concerning. Here are some thoughts from a long-time high school baseball coach...

"I hope I'm wrong but I think SEMO is a bad matchup for Wood. They swing it well.  Maybe they'll have a day of swinging at pitches out of the zone. If they're patient and make him get fastballs over, I feel like they'll feast on his 90-92 fastball...I don't like it."

[Cornhogio]

One thing on hitting that bothers me in general is hitters not even trying to hit to open spaces when teams play these asinine shifts.  Hardly any of our hitters last night put one through a shift created gap.  That's part of the difference between playing at baseball, and being a baseball player.

I didn't agree with MLB putting rules in place to "outlaw" the shift.  If a defense puts all five outfielders on the left or right side of the field.  It's incumbent on a baseball player to hit the ball where the defense is not. 

[Feral]

Our plate approach was terrible last night.

We had a penchant for not doing jack shit until we had 2 outs, then we suddenly seemed to get traffic on the basepaths only to strand them.

Top 3rd - 2 quick outs, single, ground out.
Top 4th - 2 quick outs, single, single, foul out.
Top 6th - 1 quick out, single, out, walk, ground out.

Our leadoff hitter didn't reach base until the 8th inning. That's a lot of innings with wasted first outs. 

We have some hitters who press and lose all discipline at the plate, hence the number of bad strikeouts and pop ups we had.

[Feral]

One thing on hitting that bothers me in general is hitters not even trying to hit to open spaces when teams play these asinine shifts.  Hardly any of our hitters last night put one through a shift created gap.  That's part of the difference between playing at baseball, and being a baseball player.

I didn't agree with MLB putting rules in place to "outlaw" the shift.  If a defense puts all five outfielders on the left or right side of the field.  It's incumbent on a baseball player to hit the ball where the defense is not. 

Ironically, you know who I think has has the best plate approach by far of this regional?

Ty f-ing Wilmsmeyer.

He's not swinging for the fences or pressing to get the big hit. He knows his job is to put the ball in play, and he's been doing exactly that and thus reaching base a lot. He reached in all 5 PA's on Friday and 4 of 5 PA's yesterday. He's also been hitting oppo quite a bit and pushing balls between 1st and 2nd.

[Thin Red Swine]

Speaking of Wilmsmeyer, I just went back to watch the play on White's double. Wilmsmeyer was about three steps from second base when the ball hit the wall. The ball one-hopped and ricocheted off the player but not far away and he scooped it up pretty fast.  There was one replay from a camera in right field but it zoomed too much to show where he was when the guy grabbed the ball.

Just based on where he was, it sure seems like he could've scored. I don't know if maybe there's another angle or someone who was there saw live what happened.

There was another play where I thought he very conservatively held a guy at third.  I think that guy eventually scored, so it must have been against SEMO. Maybe it was on McLaughlin's double down the RF line.

Conservative running is fine with under two outs, but only IF you're going to play small ball at the plate when it's called for.

[Thin Red Swine]

DVH got pissy at the end, mostly at Bob Dolt, which is understandable. Maybe that's good and will be used for extra motivation, but I thought it was defensive more than anything. 

He said "I wouldn't wanna play us right now." When asked about that comment later (not by Bob), he doubled down, "Because of the way we're swinging the bats."

[Son of Spam]

We swing at more balls in the dirt than any team I have seen. And we popped up to the infield a LOT last night. And we keep the bat on our shoulders a lot while watching a strike right over the plate. We need a lot of innings from Wood today. By the way, the game is at 1:00 on ESPN+. No PBP from me today, unless I can get un-busy by then. Right now, from the teams I have watched in the tourney, I don't see us as even a top 10 team.

[BleedinRed]

I love DVH but he has always gotten pissy when asked a question that even smells of criticism.  

[DirkPiggler]

We swing at more balls in the dirt than any team I have seen. And we popped up to the infield a LOT last night. And we keep the bat on our shoulders a lot while watching a strike right over the plate. We need a lot of innings from Wood today. By the way, the game is at 1:00 on ESPN+. No PBP from me today, unless I can get un-busy by then. Right now, from the teams I have watched in the tourney, I don't see us as even a top 10 team.

It was frustrating watching them strike out on low pitches, but when the ump's zone starts about 3" above the ankle it has to fuck a hitter's mind. 

If you had told any of us that we'd score six on twelve hits in a Hagen Smith start, anyone here would have taken the Hogs on the money line at any price. Just a weird game, weird way to lose. 

On the plus side, I like how we're hitting.  We are making solid contact, and with a couple of exceptions our approach is good. From where I sit I really thought White's ball would clear the fence.  Get that one over and we're in a lot better mood today.  And yes, Wilmsmeyer probably should have scored.  He did have to freeze for a second to make sure the ball wasn't caught, but I think Nate should have sent him.

And how about Ben Bybee?   Yeah he gave up the HR that ended up being the difference.  But that was the best he's looked since he's been here against an opponent with a pulse.  I found myself wishing we had saved him to start and brought in Wood instead.

[Feral]

We swing at more balls in the dirt than any team I have seen. And we popped up to the infield a LOT last night. And we keep the bat on our shoulders a lot while watching a strike right over the plate.

Goes back to what we've been saying about our poor plate approach.

The team's general approach seems to mirror that of Diggs. Watch strike 1 (and often strike 2) down the chute, then chase a dirt ball for a strikeout. Holt does it a lot, Stovall has been doing it more lately, and even Sandlot has a penchant for it.

We swung at some terrible pitches yesterday and wasted too many AB's. White's check swing swinging bunt, too many dirt ball strikeouts (Wagner's might have been the worst), and too many infield pop ups on golf swings. 

[Son of Spam]

It was frustrating watching them strike out on low pitches, but when the ump's zone starts about 3" above the ankle it has to fuck a hitter's mind. 

If you had told any of us that we'd score six on twelve hits in a Hagen Smith start, anyone here would have taken the Hogs on the money line at any price. Just a weird game, weird way to lose. 

On the plus side, I like how we're hitting.  We are making solid contact, and with a couple of exceptions our approach is good. From where I sit I really thought White's ball would clear the fence.  Get that one over and we're in a lot better mood today.  And yes, Wilmsmeyer probably should have scored.  He did have to freeze for a second to make sure the ball wasn't caught, but I think Nate should have sent him.

And how about Ben Bybee?   Yeah he gave up the HR that ended up being the difference.  But that was the best he's looked since he's been here against an opponent with a pulse.  I found myself wishing we had saved him to start and brought in Wood instead.

Yeah, I was surprised they sent Bybee in, but I thought he did well.

[Feral]

If you had told any of us that we'd score six on twelve hits in a Hagen Smith start, anyone here would have taken the Hogs on the money line at any price. Just a weird game, weird way to lose. 

That's the weird thing. I loathe Nate Thompson and am beyond tired of our offensive futility, but I can't really blame the offense when we put up 6 runs in a Hagen start when he's usually had to make due with half that many or less in most of his starts this year. 

Three things lost that game:

• Hagen completely losing it in the 5th
• Our inability to get on base early or the big hit, especially with RISP (and thus stranding 13)
• Having to blow Gaeckle in the SEMO game

#3 probably sounds odd, but I have to think DVH might've had a quicker hook with Hagen in the 5th if he'd had a fully rested Gaeckle ready to go. Maybe he pulls Hagen when TCU goes up 3-2 and Gaeckle has to face Culpepper instead of Hagen facing him for the 3rd time.

[Show-Me Hog]

Maybe he pulls Hagen when TCU goes up 3-2

Those purple teams come at ya so fast.

[Thin Red Swine]

Bybee threw only 39 pitches in three innings (compared with Neighbors throwing 67 in 3.1). He should have some good juice left. 

If Wood can just make 3-4 innings that would be a huge lift.

[Hizog]

At this point, we're basically going into a weekend series without Hagan, Tygart, Molina or Gaeckle.

I know they can probably throw a little (except Tygart), but more or less, this is what we're looking at. Some nuts are gonna have to drop in the bullpen for us to win 3.

[HOGSRUNWILD]

I have my doubts that we win this game, let alone 3 in a row.

[Feral]

It doesn't make our loss sting less, but the SEC has struggled for the most part while the Big 12 has acquitted itself well.

Arkansas, LSU, South Carolina, Mississippi State, and Florida all face elimination today. 

Vandy and Bama were both 2 and Q.

[Thin Red Swine]

I still think we will either lose to SEMO or win the regional.

Faherty and Foutch are no slobs, and Hewlett may be capable of going longer than he has. Maybe a key surprise inning or so from Frank or Coil.

It really stinks that we've lost three guys to injuries, but the opportunity is there and maybe the bats are alive enough. 

[Feral]

I still think we will either lose to SEMO or win the regional.

Maybe it's the Hog fan in me, but I agree — literally neither end of the outcome spectrum would surprise me.

I wouldn't be shocked if we didn't piss a drop against SEMO, and I wouldn't be surprised if we came out with our piss hot and ran the table.

This team is schizophrenic and unpredictable.