Perspective on 2008 Baseball Season

[TuffGuy84]

The tournament was basically a microcosm of our season. High expectations, and gigantic letdowns. I'm so aggrivated right now, I'm just gonna step away, not say anything more and pray that we have a total overhaul by next season.

Tuffguy

[LifeTimeCajun]

Well i agree with some of what you said. I think that we are ok at some positions but as Robe said mid season we may need to re-recruit in some areas.

[LifeTimeCajun]

I think that we are gonna need another outfielder and some infielders. Hopefully our catchers go out and play this summer and get better. Maybe the youth we had this year will emerge like Goulas did. I really like him. I am just not sold on some of the young guys in the infield. Maybe they will come on a little with age but Benzel has made numerous errors in big situations. A ground ball is a ground ball and the throw is the same throw he has made since little league. He is a little suspect at the plate. Might take a while to adjust to the pitching but i cant handle the errors. HArst got cold at the plate late in the year, but didnt hurt us defensively. Need much more consistancy at short. Again too many errors on routine balls . Need more production at the plate. I just feel we need impact players that dont kick it around

[cjntgr]

I dunno about you guys but I have been real impressed with the defensive play of Porrier at Second. His bat was suspect earlier in the year but he really ended the season hitting the ball well and had a great tournament.

[LifeTimeCajun]

he might be our best infielder but thats not saying too much at this point. Think he has shown more potential than benzel and long.

[ulbfan]

_ he might be our best infielder but thats not saying too much at this point. Think he has shown more potential than benzel and long. _

I agree we need to upgrade in the infield big time, and what we have on the bench isn't any better we need to sign a good shortstop because the alternative Fontenot leaves alot to be desired he has no arm to throw to first.

[cjntgr]

I agree SS and Third need to be addressed. I hear we had a very good SS come in from a JUCO but tony didnt want to give him any kind of scholarship so he signed with the team up North. Could have been a very good pickup for the Cajuns, will be interesting to see what we bring him next year.

[CajunNation]

The tournament was basically a microcosm of our season. High expectations, and gigantic letdowns. I'm so aggrivated right now, I'm just gonna step away, not say anything more and pray that we have a total overhaul by next season.

Tuffguy

We got caught with our pants down so to speak.

We started the season woefully short in hitting and it cost us a regional spot.

We've booted the ball fairly regularly for a couple of years now, but we haven't been this poor of a hitting team in quite some time.

The freshmen have matured late in the seaon, but we definitely need a couple of ringers to jump right in next season as well.

[CajunDawgPound]

When errors make pitchers throw more, more can go wrong... and more things going wrong sums up this season. MORE WENT WRONG THIS YEAR ON THE MOUND BECAUSE THIS WAS A POOR PERFORMING TEAM IN THE FIELD. The mounds' backup didn't back up.

FOR EXAMPLE:

FINAL SCORE: UL 3, LSU 2 (if crucial errors are not committed).
REALITY: LSU 5, UL 3, when errors WERE committed.

Early on, there were raves from all corners and visions of grandeur about a starting rotation that was supposed be among the nations' elite. Solich, for instance, was pulled from games early, usually because someone didn't do their job behind him and more chances to screw up were dumped on him. Roger Clemmons would look just as bad with similar back-up by teammates bobbling the ball. As a result, his innings were reduced and obviously his confidence along with it. That would be human nature. But when a coach blames others for our collapse, the coach --- no matter how great we may think he is --- should look in a mirror and wonder if his decisions to sign or start certain players were on or off the mark. Don't place all of the blame on kids when they fail. Blame everyone who has a hand in preparing those players and preparing their confidence and skill levels as well. Many times during this season I saw confidence levels that didn't come close to meeting the ones I saw in opposing dugouts. Yesterday, I saw opposing coaches (albeit some of them are jerks) walk up and down the dugout to inspire players during an entire game, while in our dugout, no one wearing a coaches number was doing more than keeping stats and wiping ones face with white towels at the end of the dugout. And in one CRITICAL situation in the ninth, I saw a blunder of huge proportions when a runner went home when he should have stayed glued to third base. Had he done so, the game would have been tied on the next play and it would have been (at a minimum) extra innings after that. We may not have won in extra innings against a good hitting team like UNO, but with the low percentage attempt to score in that situation, we went from having 2 runners in scoring position at 2nd and third to runners on the corners, and we sealed our fate. On the next base hit, we only scored 1 to make it 6-5 instead of scoring two from 2nd (with speed on that bag) and third to tie 6-6. If the player went on his own, shame on him ---but shame on any coach who failed to paint all possible scenarios to a freshman in ADVANCE in THE most critical situation of the season.

Did we drop the ball during the season? You betcha. But we did it collectively ---players AND coaches. After all, the team is made up of BOTH!

I'll repeat. Did we drop the ball during the season? We did it as a COACHES/PLAYERS TEAM!

[Just1More]

_ The tournament was basically a microcosm of our season. High expectations, and gigantic letdowns. I'm so aggrivated right now, I'm just gonna step away, not say anything more and pray that we have a total overhaul by next season.

Tuffguy _

I agree. The tournament went better for the Cajuns than the regular season, however. Everyone, including me, hoped that the UNO sweep and the hot start in the tournament was the announcement of our expectations being rectified. Well, you don't boot the ball around the infield all year, show no consistency at the plate all year, leave your pitchers feeling defenseless, and then show up at a tournament with a reversal of fortunes expectation (realistically).

I'm not much on the way UNO behaved, fans, coaches, players... but they proved they brought the better ball club, in the end. If UL and Robe doesn't like the bitter taste of this past year and who gave them their exit papers, then figure it out and right the ship.

It's disappointing to have such a capable and senior pitching staff and end up this way. The pitching staff did their jobs during this tourney. Our batting is average, but our weak defensive infield wasn't worthy of a tournament appearance.

That's my last thought/comment on UL baseball... Geaux Cajuns Softball!!!

[Frenchie35]

_ When errors make pitchers throw more, more can go wrong... and more things going wrong sums up this season. MORE WENT WRONG THIS YEAR ON THE MOUND BECAUSE THIS WAS A POOR PERFORMING TEAM IN THE FIELD. The mounds' backup didn't back up.

FOR EXAMPLE:

FINAL SCORE: UL 3, LSU 2 (if crucial errors are not committed).
REALITY: LSU 5, UL 3, when errors WERE committed.

Early on, there were raves from all corners and visions of grandeur about a starting rotation that was supposed be among the nations' elite. Solich, for instance, was pulled from games early, usually because someone didn't do their job behind him and more chances to screw up were dumped on him. Roger Clemmons would look just as bad with similar back-up by teammates bobbling the ball. As a result, his innings were reduced and obviously his confidence along with it. That would be human nature. But when a coach blames others for our collapse, the coach --- no matter how great we may think he is --- should look in a mirror and wonder if his decisions to sign or start certain players were on or off the mark. Don't place all of the blame on kids when they fail. Blame everyone who has a hand in preparing those players and preparing their confidence and skill levels as well. Many times during this season I saw confidence levels that didn't come close to meeting the ones I saw in opposing dugouts. Yesterday, I saw opposing coaches (albeit some of them are jerks) walk up and down the dugout to inspire players during an entire game, while in our dugout, no one wearing a coaches number was doing more than keeping stats and wiping ones face with white towels at the end of the dugout. And in one CRITICAL situation in the ninth, I saw a blunder of huge proportions when a runner went home when he should have stayed glued to third base. Had he done so, the game would have been tied on the next play and it would have been (at a minimum) extra innings after that. We may not have won in extra innings against a good hitting team like UNO, but with the low percentage attempt to score in that situation, we went from having 2 runners in scoring position at 2nd and third to runners on the corners, and we sealed our fate. On the next base hit, we only scored 1 to make it 6-5 instead of scoring two from 2nd (with speed on that bag) and third to tie 6-6. If the player went on his own, shame on him ---but shame on any coach who failed to paint all possible scenarios to a freshman in ADVANCE in THE most critical situation of the season.

Did we drop the ball during the season? You betcha. But we did it collectively ---players AND coaches. After all, the team is made up of BOTH!

I'll repeat. Did we drop the ball during the season? We did it as a COACHES/PLAYERS TEAM! _

I agree totally.........


I mention the blunder of Bowman trying to score of a ground ball to third and got my a&& chastised for it. I was told that he had to do what his coach told him to do. One out you don't move unless that ball was hit deep to second base and you had a good lead or a deep fly ball. And only if it is deep. It is always said that you don't lose a game on one play. Well we lost a chance to tie the game on that play........And by the way Logan would have score from second when Goulas hit up the middle and it got away from the center fielder.....tie game.......post game Robe said that it was a poor base running decision. On who, the third base coach or the runner.....just my thougths

[CajunRage]

I think that we are gonna need another outfielder and some infielders. Hopefully our catchers go out and play this summer and get better. Maybe the youth we had this year will emerge like Goulas did. I really like him. I am just not sold on some of the young guys in the infield. Maybe they will come on a little with age but Benzel has made numerous errors in big situations. A ground ball is a ground ball and the throw is the same throw he has made since little league. He is a little suspect at the plate. Might take a while to adjust to the pitching but i cant handle the errors. HArst got cold at the plate late in the year, but didnt hurt us defensively. Need much more consistancy at short. Again too many errors on routine balls . Need more production at the plate. I just feel we need impact players that dont kick it around

Why is no one calling out Will Long?!?! He is awful. Yes, our other infielders are making errors, but Long is our shortstop. His fundamentals are horrible. He was "God's gift to earth" when he came in and has shown absolutely nothing. I see no potential whatsoever. Robe needs to bring in someone else and cut his losses.