Suddenly Hot Cajuns Hit the Ragin Road (game cancelled)

[CajunEXPRESS]

Cajun Amos, I think the most important thing for any coach in non BCS conference is an at large invite. That tells me where you are in your sport. Tournament, and regular season tiltles may or may not be of value except within the conference, but nothing beats an at large bid. He has had a few of those. Until you can finish as low as third in the regular season and still get an at large bid your confernce is not strong.

[CajunAmos]

Cajun Amos, I think the most important thing for any coach in non BCS conference is an at large invite. That tells me where you are in your sport. Tournament, and regular season tiltles may or may not be of value except within the conference, but nothing beats an at large bid. He has had a few of those. Until you can finish as low as third in the regular season and still get an at large bid your confernce is not strong.

At large bids: 2002, 2005, 2007, 2010

[rgncjn12]

At large bids: 2002, 2005, 2007, 2010

2000 was also an At Large bid, we went 0-2 in the conference tournament and thought that we had lost a chance to host with our poor tournament showing.

GEAUX UL!

[CajunAmos]

Sun Belt teams participating in the NCAA tournament;

4 teams 2002
3 teams 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011
2 teams 2006, 2008, 2009

[cajundiehard]

Sun Belt teams participating in the NCAA tournament;

4 teams 2002
3 teams 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011
2 teams 2006, 2008, 2009

1 team 2012

No at large bid for ANYBODY in the conference this year... This is certainly a down year for both UL and the conference. UL could mathematically finish anywhere between last and 5th as they are only two games out of 5th... They could tie for 4th (but lose the tie-breaker)... Pretty wild when you think about it.

[RaginDave]

I know it doesn't seem like much but injuries have been an issue with this tean in 2012. First off, the most consistant bullpen guy from last year Chase Traffica is sitting the entire year out. That is tough to replace, but more importantly we lost Stentz for the entire season and Sinclair for a large part of the season behind the plate. In fact, we had to pull a guy out of the stands to play most of the season in Adam Todd. While neither guys number (Stentz or Sinclair) blow you away, relying on your #3 catcher who has had no time with the pitcher in Fall Ball makes a huge difference, especially with a very young staff outside of Zimmerman and Nicholson. I truly believe that Sinclair is playing because he is a senior right now, I don't believe he is 100%. These injuries don't look like much but it is the importance of the positions that make a difference, 3 injuries are not allot, but both catchers and the first guy out of the bullpen and potential starter makes the difference between 23 wins adn 30 wins, I believe. I think if this young team was 27-23 rather then 23-27 we would be less likely to be having this conversation and I do believe Traffica, Sinclair and Stentz would have given us at least 4 wins if not more.

Just my .02 opinion, which is worth nothing.

[UL_BayouCajun]

No, that wouldn't have changed my opinion. A 27-23 UL baseball team is not enough. UL baseball is a known commodity. It should be a given that we are in the 35-40 win range every year. The bar has been set high. So like it or not it is expected. There should never be a rebuilding year. Robe has been here for 17 years. You rebuild the first four years of the new coaching position. After that you reload with talent every year. .... I just feel something is not right with the ship. ?????

[RaginCajun8]

Either way Robe will be here through Austin's college duration or June 30, 2015. Even if we would want to get him out, baseball does not have the money or the support to do so at this time. He has done well in the past, but it is time to jump on this momentum that our athletic program currently has and build from there.

[rgncjn12]

Tony is probably regretting not leaving after the CWS season for better paying and better financially supported program. The admin has basically given him the middle finger the last 5 yrs or so with their lack of finding the funds to upgrade The TIgue. This last "crap in the bed moment" where Scott Farmer told us the renovations were on hold because of lack of funds after stating 2 weeks earlier the renovations were still on. Tony is probably ____ed and ready to give the big F U to the admin for letting him hang with promises not delivered.

GEAUX UL!

[CajunAmos]

No, that wouldn't have changed my opinion. A 27-23 UL baseball team is not enough. UL baseball is a known commodity. It should be a given that we are in the 35-40 win range every year. The bar has been set high. So like it or not it is expected. There should never be a rebuilding year. Robe has been here for 17 years. You rebuild the first four years of the new coaching position. After that you reload with talent every year. .... I just feel something is not right with the ship. ?????

First, I'm not an apologist, and heard Tony say last week at the Diamond Club luncheon that he had to coach better.

I wondered if you realized that about 3 years ago the NCAA limited roster sizes to 35, which includes your red-shirts, while also putting stipulations on how your 11.7 scholarships can be allocated. That means you can't sign players with single skills have hope to have a year or two to work with them on building up their lesser developed talent. At the same time, to try to even out the schedule for some of the northern schools, they shortened the length of the season so teams have to play two midweek games a large part of the season to get the same amount of games in. This causes you to have to use more pitchers (or overuse them). The Cajuns currently have 15 position players, 3 catchers, and 17 pitchers. On top of that as stated earlier, you lost Michael Strentz and Chase Traffica for the season with Tommy John surgeries. Then you had Jordan Bourque, Dominick Francia, and Chris Sinclair miss significant time with injuries, while other players continue to play with injuries (Dylan Butler, Daniel Nichols). It's not just the Cajuns that deal with these items, but we're doing it with a significantly younger roster than some. From last year to this year, we have one returning starter (Jordan Bourque) and two part time outfielders (Brian Bowman, Daniel Nichols) out of our whole Junior and Senior class. Tyler Frederick is a Junior and played a lot as a Freshman, but was injured most of last year and has been a DH most of this year. The rest of your position players are freshmen/red-shirt freshmen/sophomores who haven't been Div 1 starters.

I would say that I expected more our of last years team than how they performed, but I came into this season thinking that .500 would be a good record. I knew that the 2011 signing class was one of the best we've had in a number of years, and the signing class for 2012 was also thought of very highly, but kids take time to catch up with Division 1 baseball.

[BirdofParadise]

2000 was also an At Large bid, we went 0-2 in the conference tournament and thought that we had lost a chance to host with our poor tournament showing.

GEAUX UL!

Not accurate.

Yes we got an at-large bid after being swept by UNO at the end of the season. We thought that would cost us a chance to host. That year they announced regional sites BEFORE the conference tournaments so we knew we were hosting before the tournament started.

And, we were 2-2 in the tournament that year.

[Turbine]

Just my .02 opinion, which is worth nothing.

Hah! You accidentally hit the "h" key.

Worth "Noting"