What factors determine consistency?

[BleedsTabasco]

What qualifying factors go into helping a player perform good on a consistent basis? and what about a team? and what causes a streak and/or a slump?

How can one SP win 82% of the time he takes the mound and another on the same team with arguably more talent only win 28% of the time? How does an LSU team that was struggling to make their conference tourney turn things around and go on a nation best 21 game win streak? How do the Cajuns sweep a UNO team and shut down a good Troy an South Al team only to go down to that same UNO team in back to back losses?

What is the difference between a college player and a pro? Is it talent, maturity, work ethic, how they prepare...?

I am an opinionated guy and I have my answers to these questions, but I would really like to hear from the rest of you out there and maybe provoke some real thought to these things and how they relate to this years Cajun baseball and to baseball players and teams in general.

Let the discussions begin....

[Turbine]

One thing jumps out at me about this years UL baseball team.

1) They did not handle confidence very well.

jmo

[MiamiCajun32]

_ What qualifying factors go into helping a player perform good on a consistent basis? and what about a team? and what causes a streak and/or a slump?

How can one SP win 82% of the time he takes the mound and another on the same team with arguably more talent only win 28% of the time? How does an LSU team that was struggling to make their conference tourney turn things around and go on a nation best 21 game win streak? How do the Cajuns sweep a UNO team and shut down a good Troy an South Al team only to go down to that same UNO team in back to back losses?

What is the difference between a college player and a pro? Is it talent, maturity, work ethic, how they prepare...?

I am an opinionated guy and I have my answers to these questions, but I would really like to hear from the rest of you out there and maybe provoke some real thought to these things and how they relate to this years Cajun baseball and to baseball players and teams in general.

Let the discussions begin.... _

If we had the answers to all of this, sports would not be so exciting... :-)

[Cajun90]

What qualifying factors go into helping a player perform good on a consistent basis? and what about a team? and what causes a streak and/or a slump?

How can one SP win 82% of the time he takes the mound and another on the same team with arguably more talent only win 28% of the time? How does an LSU team that was struggling to make their conference tourney turn things around and go on a nation best 21 game win streak? How do the Cajuns sweep a UNO team and shut down a good Troy an South Al team only to go down to that same UNO team in back to back losses?

What is the difference between a college player and a pro? Is it talent, maturity, work ethic, how they prepare...?

I am an opinionated guy and I have my answers to these questions, but I would really like to hear from the rest of you out there and maybe provoke some real thought to these things and how they relate to this years Cajun baseball and to baseball players and teams in general.

Let the discussions begin....

I'll only give a couple of opinions. First baseball is probably more of a mental game than most other competitive sports. If you aren't in the right mental frame you are going to struggle hitting, pitching or fielding. Even when the raw talent is there.

As for LSU that wasn't a big surprise. I posted prior to the season it wouldn't surprise me to see them bomb nor would it surprise me to see them win it all. They had a young team but one of the best freshmen classes in the nation. These guys simple matured enough towards the end of the year to turn their season around.

[CajunRage]

Healthy, talented players will get a team way, way, way farther down the road than the very best leadership skills, 7 days a week. Every team has leadership. Some just get lead down the tubes because they simply lack talent.

Leadership gets Long, Benzel, Fontenot, Hicks to take more ground balls every day until their defense is flawless. Leadership gets guys in the cage enough that they can at least put the ball in play with 2 strikes. Never doubt leadership.

Let's see... healthy, talented yankees haven't done squat in what is it now 8 years? Why do teams in the pros sign 40 year old pitchers? It's because their leadership skills surpass anything a 20 year old fireballer can do.

[RustyR]

Ive played ball a while too. And thing that I cant understand, leadership is important, but as a team you hit .241 and your SS makes 18 errors, dont matter how much leadership you have you wont win many games. Dont get me wrong I live in DFW now, so maybe the pitching they were facing was just that great. But just the simple things like catching and hitting seemed like it was missing this year. Not a shot at the players, its hard enough to play a sport and go to school. But it just seems like some of the talent on the team needs to be re-evaulated. Seems like we played alot of Freshman this year, so maybe that has something to do with it. Have to remember we lost two big sticks from last year (Lucroy and Tadford). Dont get me wrong they were leaders, but if you need someone to pick you up after you K or make and E then you shouldnt be playing at that level.

[Corndog308]

I, as probably most have you, played ball too. I just hack at golf balls now every week, and it's the same as getting better in your short game as is fielding a ground ball. EVERYTHING begins with fundamentals! O yeah, that mental thing too.

[Dad04]

_ Leadership gets Long, Benzel, Fontenot, Hicks to take more ground balls every day until their defense is flawless. Leadership gets guys in the cage enough that they can at least put the ball in play with 2 strikes. Never doubt leadership.

Let's see... healthy, talented yankees haven't done squat in what is it now 8 years? Why do teams in the pros sign 40 year old pitchers? It's because their leadership skills surpass anything a 20 year old fireballer can do. _

Baloney. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is in the leadership business. They have recruited and made leaders for 300 years and done well at it (see WWII, etc.). Why is it that their baseball team is one of the least successful year, after year after year. Their RPI this year is #188 out of 296, actually a very good year for them. Another leadership factory Navy has an RPI of #207 and the other leadership factory Air Force is at #270, out of 296 teams. These teams eat, sleep and pizz leadership, but can't play their way out of a paper bag. Leadeship is so overrated in a teams succes, its not funny. My talented team beats your leaders 99 out 100 times. If leadership really mattered, then Army goes to Omaha every year.

[Turner]

_ Baloney. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is in the leadership business. They have recruited and made leaders for 300 years and done well at it (see WWII, etc.). Why is it that their baseball team is one of the least successful year, after year after year. Their RPI this year is #188 out of 296, actually a very good year for them. Another leadership factory Navy has an RPI of #207 and the other leadership factory Air Force is at #270, out of 296 teams. These teams eat, sleep and pizz leadership, but can't play their way out of a paper bag. Leadeship is so overrated in a teams succes, its not funny. My talented team beats your leaders 99 out 100 times. If leadership really mattered, then Army goes to Omaha every year. _

I need to bookmark this post. For me it all comes down to low tension excellence.

[Dad04]

_ I need to bookmark this post. For me it all comes down to low tension excellence. _

Bingo. Being loose enough to get in "The Zone", playing above your general skill level. Very few zoner's this year, for whatever reason(s). I'll leave that for others.

[ULexcite]

Nice to see this thread get beyond "fan speak" fourth cousin to "coach speak" I was thinking early in the season the freshman would never relax after they saw the seniors get pulled. I was wrong becase they started to relax at the end, just not Saturday. LSU's strength this season was starting and staying with the struggling lineup.

[RustyR]

Very well put dad04

[RustyR]

Hate to say this, but when you make 3 errors in a game and you have been playing baseball since you were 5 and you need someone to say hay you sucked last game and you need to take some extra ground balls. The type of leadership you speak of should be the coach telling the player that stuff. As, for the yankees atleast half of there team is 30 or over. Jeter, Damon, Giambi, Matsui, Abreau, pitchers Riveria, Pettite, Mussina, they do have some young guns, but if thats not enough leadership to make them win, I dont know what is. One last note if you have a kid throwing 93 in bullpen or you have a kid that can hit 10 hrs in practice and they cant do it in a game. Leadership wont help that. The only thing that can cure that is Boys town lol.

[CajunRage]

Baloney. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is in the leadership business. They have recruited and made leaders for 300 years and done well at it (see WWII, etc.). Why is it that their baseball team is one of the least successful year, after year after year. Their RPI this year is #188 out of 296, actually a very good year for them. Another leadership factory Navy has an RPI of #207 and the other leadership factory Air Force is at #270, out of 296 teams. These teams eat, sleep and pizz leadership, but can't play their way out of a paper bag. Leadeship is so overrated in a teams succes, its not funny. My talented team beats your leaders 99 out 100 times. If leadership really mattered, then Army goes to Omaha every year.

You have no idea what leadership in sports is. Army does not recruit baseball players. That is why they don't win. I'm not saying put Joe Blow who's 4'11" 100lbs in because he is a good leader. There is a reason Devon Bourque and Justin Morgan got a shot at playing. They were leaders on the field and they could hold there own. They led by example. They were not the best players at their position (hitting + fielding) at any point during their career. This year's team was full of players walking around not hustling. There was no life in the dugout. That is not the coaches job. It is not his team. It's the players' team. They had no heart. I'm not going to say the players name, but I was at Legend's after the game. This player just played his last collegiate and career game. He was less than stellar this season as well as the end of last season. What was he doing? Picking up a gallon of margarita to go party. I played with a lot of heart, and no I did not play past the high school level, but I was still sitting in the dugout an hour after my last game.

[CajunRage]

Hate to say this, but when you make 3 errors in a game and you have been playing baseball since you were 5 and you need someone to say hay you sucked last game and you need to take some extra ground balls. The type of leadership you speak of should be the coach telling the player that stuff. As, for the yankees atleast half of there team is 30 or over. Jeter, Damon, Giambi, Matsui, Abreau, pitchers Riveria, Pettite, Mussina, they do have some young guns, but if thats not enough leadership to make them win, I dont know what is. One last note if you have a kid throwing 93 in bullpen or you have a kid that can hit 10 hrs in practice and they cant do it in a game. Leadership wont help that. The only thing that can cure that is Boys town lol.

The point of the yankees comment was that a ton of all-stars don't ensure a win and this year proves it.