Is Dillon Guillory hurt........

[jdebaillon]

I am with you on this one. We as fans need to hold King Robe to higher standards since he has proven that we can get to the CWS at UL. Since that 2000 CWS appearance we have under achieved IMO. Last year we choked at regionals. This year we are not living up to the preseason hype. Does the entire blame fall on Robicheaux? No, but a majority of it should. I do not like small ball, and in todays game I do not think that it is successful at the college level.

8 out of 297 (2%) make it to the CWS. We are in the Sunbelt Conference with a limited athletic budget. Everything has to fall into place for us to make it all the way. That is what happened in 2000. We went to South Carolina and beat the #1 team in the country. I will also defend small ball as I have before. If the pitching and defense is there, small ball works. I'll say it to I'm blue in the face, and anyone who knows anything about baseball will agree. Good pitching beats good hitting. Period.

[cajun4life]

_ 8 out of 297 (2%) make it to the CWS. We are in the Sunbelt Conference with a limited athletic budget. Everything has to fall into place for us to make it all the way. That is what happened in 2000. We went to South Carolina and beat the #1 team in the country. I will also defend small ball as I have before. If the pitching and defense is there, small ball works. I'll say it to I'm blue in the face, and anyone who knows anything about baseball will agree. Good pitching beats good hitting. Period. _

I do know the game of baseball. I chose to play two other sports in college instead of playing baseball. I do love some aspects of small ball, but for the most part we do not and have not executed small ball for quite some time. As far as us being in the Belt being an excuse for not performing well is lame. Other schools with small budgets come to mind when I think of the CWS Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton come to mind. They are perrenial powers with very similar budgets to ours and yet they get to the series way more frequently.

[Cajun90]

8 out of 297 (2%) make it to the CWS. We are in the Sunbelt Conference with a limited athletic budget. Everything has to fall into place for us to make it all the way. That is what happened in 2000. We went to South Carolina and beat the #1 team in the country. I will also defend small ball as I have before. If the pitching and defense is there, small ball works. I'll say it to I'm blue in the face, and anyone who knows anything about baseball will agree. Good pitching beats good hitting. Period.

You are correct and last year was in no way under-achieving. Hundreds of teams would have loved to have been in our shoes. This isn't an issue of small ball either. We aren't hitting or finding any other way to manufacture runs PERIOD. Our OBP which is a huge part of what small ball is about is pretty pathetic. Our slg% isn't so hot either. We've hit 31 homeruns this year compared to 25 for our opponents.

As for catching. I asked Robe about catching last week prior to the series and he stated that EVERY pitcher wants Lafleur behind the plate. Lafleur is the best leader on the team and works best with the pitchers. Griffen is better at blocking the ball and will typically catch for Buddy because of how hard his pitches break and often end up in the dirt. Your also trading a guy hitting around .160 for a guy hitting around .130. Not exactly night and day. I will say that I think Griffen has more upside and generally makes better contact but we aren't talking apples and oranges here.

Sunday in the 7th inning there were a number of us questioning why robe didn't pinch hit for Lafleur when the bases were loaded but we now know he didn't have anyone else to really catch once Lafleur came out of the game.

Last year (ten games or more played) we had ten guys hitting over .300 and only one hittting below.200. This year we have four guys hitting above .300 and five guys hitting below .200 Yeah we lost some bats but we didn't lose that much.

As far as pitching goes keep in mind that it is much easier to pitch from a lead. A pitcher can be a lot more aggressive. So far this year we haven't been a position to give our pitchers that advantage. Not to say that our bullpen has been lights out. They have certainly had some holes.

In all honesty when you look at this team we have holes almost everywhere. 1. Hitting 2. Defense 3. Pitching We can't seem to put together a complete set in any area. Some guys are playing lights out and some aren't. Injuries have hurt us too.

It isn't coaching, or game philosphy its just bad baseball right now.

[rgncjn12]

_ I do know the game of baseball. I chose to play two other sports in college instead of playing baseball. I do love some aspects of small ball, but for the most part we do not and have not executed small ball for quite some time. As far as us being in the Belt being an excuse for not performing well is lame. Other schools with small budgets come to mind when I think of the CWS Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton come to mind. They are perrenial powers with very similar budgets to ours and yet they get to the series way more frequently. _

Cal State Fullerton does not have a football team to fund their total athletic budget is 3.5 million http://finance.fullerton.edu/Budget/...eport07-08.pdf (pg.11) with a baseball budget of 120K http://campusapps.fullerton.edu/news...nditures2.html

Long Beach State also does not sponsor football. Yet they have an athletic budget of 9 million as of 2004 http://www.csulb.edu/~d49er/archives...athletic.shtml

As you can see this is not an equal comparison.

[BirdofParadise]

_ You are correct and last year was in no way under-achieving. Hundreds of teams would have loved to have been in our shoes. This isn't an issue of small ball either. We aren't hitting or finding any other way to manufacture runs PERIOD. Our OBP which is a huge part of what small ball is about is pretty pathetic. Our slg% isn't so hot either. We've hit 31 homeruns this year compared to 25 for our opponents.

As for catching. I asked Robe about catching last week prior to the series and he stated that EVERY pitcher wants Lafleur behind the plate. Lafleur is the best leader on the team and works best with the pitchers. Griffen is better at blocking the ball and will typically catch for Buddy because of how hard his pitches break and often end up in the dirt. Your also trading a guy hitting around .160 for a guy hitting around .130. Not exactly night and day. I will say that I think Griffen has more upside and generally makes better contact but we aren't talking apples and oranges here.

Sunday in the 7th inning there were a number of us questioning why robe didn't pinch hit for Lafleur when the bases were loaded but we now know he didn't have anyone else to really catch once Lafleur came out of the game.

Last year (ten games or more played) we had ten guys hitting over .300 and only one hittting below.200. This year we have four guys hitting above .300 and five guys hitting below .200 Yeah we lost some bats but we didn't lose that much.

As far as pitching goes keep in mind that it is much easier to pitch from a lead. A pitcher can be a lot more aggressive. So far this year we haven't been a position to give our pitchers that advantage. Not to say that our bullpen has been lights out. They have certainly had some holes.

In all honesty when you look at this team we have holes almost everywhere. 1. Hitting 2. Defense 3. Pitching We can't seem to put together a complete set in any area. Some guys are playing lights out and some aren't. Injuries have hurt us too.

It isn't coaching, or game philosphy its just bad baseball right now. _

OK, everyone take a deep breath.
Amazing how suddenly Robe doesn't know anything, his philosophy on baseball is wrong, yada yada yada.

This coming off two losses.........AFTER WE HAD WON ELEVEN OUT OF FOURTEEN.

[cajun4life]

_ Cal State Fullerton does not have a football team to fund their total athletic budget is 3.5 million http://finance.fullerton.edu/Budget/...eport07-08.pdf (pg.11) with a baseball budget of 120K http://campusapps.fullerton.edu/news...nditures2.html

Long Beach State also does not sponsor football. Yet they have an athletic budget of 9 million as of 2004 http://www.csulb.edu/~d49er/archives...athletic.shtml

As you can see this is not an equal comparison. _

Both of these schools also carry 13 scholarship sports where we only have 11. Yes we have football but our scholarship differences are not that great. They also have higher tuition than we do so our budget is very similar when you take those factors into account.

[rgncjn12]

_ Both of these schools also carry 13 scholarship sports where we only have 11. Yes we have football but our scholarship differences are not that great. They also have higher tuition than we do so our budget is very similar when you take those factors into account. _

Dude before you have any more diarrhea of the mouth , do a little research before you talk. If we didn't fund football scholarships, 25 per year, we could fund 5 other minor sports. By not funding football, CSF and LBSU, can fund many more minor sports.

Comparing UL to CSF and LBSU is like comparing men to women, nothing remotely similar. CSF and LBSU total scholarships funded for all 13 sports is probably less or at best equal to the amount we fund just for football. You have no clue. Quit guessing and do a little research.

GEAUX UL!

[cajun4life]

_ Dude before you have any more diarrhea of the mouth , do a little research before you talk. If we didn't fund football scholarships, 25 per year, we could fund 5 other minor sports. By not funding football, CSF and LBSU, can fund many more minor sports.

Comparing UL to CSF and LBSU is like comparing men to women, nothing remotely similar. CSF and LBSU total scholarships funded for all 13 sports is probably less or at best equal to the amount we fund just for football. You have no clue. Quit guessing and do a little research.

GEAUX UL! _

And when we miss the conference tourny that we are hosting you guys can go and chalk it up to youth just like in football. Give Robicheaux credit for his team making a good run and hopefully next year we can improve.

I want this program to be an elite program instead of a slightly above average program which we are currently at. I do feel like we choked last year against A&M, I felt like we were as good last year as the CWS team of 2000. I also think we suck this year. We can not hit or play defense. ULM beat the daylights out of us and we just roll over and say well they are one heck of a team, and that maybe, but I think it is because we are slipping and not as good as we used to be.

We hold Bustle to an unrealistic standard yet we let Tony get a free pass for failure, and yes losing 20-25 games is failure. Nice double standard you guys have.

[rgncjn12]

_We hold Bustle to an unrealistic standard yet we let Tony get a free pass for failure, and yes losing 20-25 games is failure. Nice double standard you guys have. _

Cajun4Life,

I agree we did choke in the aTm regional, I was there, I was miserable and ticked off. However, you need to look before you talk. By your standards of losing 20-25 games as a failure, of Tonys 14 years only 3 of those years you would consider a non failure.

95 21-24 failure
96 25-33 failure
97 43-18 SBC Champs, Midwest Regional
98 39-22 SBC Tourney Champs, South II Regional, FAILURE?
99 42-22 Houston Reg Champ, Rice SuperRegional, FAILURE?
00 49-20 Laf Reg Champ, South Carolina SR Champ, 3rd CWS, FAILURE?
01 28-28 failure
02 39-23 LSU Regional, FAILURE?
03 30-30 failure
04 34-23 failure
05 48-19 SBC Champs, Tulane Regional
06 39-20 failure
07 45-17 SBC Champs, aTm Regional

Tony has done a great job here. Yes he has had some dissappointing years, 01 and 08 comes to mind. But losing in the Regional finals is not a failure, its just one day you were not your best, that happens.

GEAUX UL!

[cajun4life]

I never said that Tony has not done a great job here. All I am saying is that we do not hold him to the standard that HE HIMSELF has set here.

As far as seasons being a failure:
'95
'96
'97-choked
'01
'03
'04
'06
and '08

That is 8 years were we have not performed up to the standards that he has set or the previous coach for that matter. '97 being the exception, I do not veiw that season as a failure per say but we should have made it past the regionals. Since 2001 I feel like we have failed or not met reasonable expectations.