LOUISIANA BASEBALL RANKINGS

[DestinCajun]

To be honest, we've heard and seen all this before about how good we're supposed to be and then we fall on our face just like in basketball and football.

But, prior to the 2008 football season we were picked 6th and we finished 2nd.

The jury is out on 2008-2009 basketball because the season isn't over yet. We were picked to finish 3rd in the SBC West. In 2007-2008 we were picked at or near the bottom of the West Division and tied for 1st.

[ManAboutTown]

_ How was last years failure the media and fans fault? Why don't you think before you speak? Talk about stupidity. You can sugar coat it any way you want. The bottom line is this team underperformed last year. To my knowledge, nobody here has disputed that. The only point I was trying to make is that I feel that the criticism that tends to go around, especially on these message boards, is sometimes not shared equally. That is all I was saying. Much of what you argued can be said for Bustle. He is being somewhat consistent (bowl eligible 3 out of 4 years) etc..doing the best with what he has, blah blah. The point was the football team was picked next to last in conference and they finished second. Still, people want Bustle's head. Baseball was preseason top 20 with a great pitching staff and went .500 and barely made their conference tourney. Robe doesn't answer any questions. I'm not saying he needs to be fired. I'm fine with Robe here and I have never complained about his performance once. All I'm saying is that the criticism is not thrown around equally. _

I didn't say last years' season was the fans fault dude.. I said the expectations that were built up around a team that had a few question marks were the fault of media and fans.. Last years shortcomings were understandable.. any knowledgeable baseball guy would tell you that. Its not like some unbelievable curse struck the team. The game of BASEBALL giveth, and taketh away.
I'm not sugar coating anything, none of us are. Sure some key players had down years last year, but that happens in BASEBALL. Again, you can't compare other sports. You may be legitimate in comparing coaches' SITUATIONS, but not their individual performances as head men. It's not possible.

[ManAboutTown]

_ By that same line of thought, the yankees should win the world series every year. Sometimes Fit Shappens and you can't do anything to fix that. From stuff I've heard, some pitchers had guys they favored as their battery mate, the team split defending "their guy" while all the while, all season long, our hitting never got out of a funk or had someone step up and say "i'm that guys that is gonna replace Lucroy". In the end, no one was solid in their roles on the team because we had NO pop in the middle of the lineup. To make matters worse was that even as a team that usually prides itself on our defense, we were absolutely pathetic defending. I see us being more stable pitching this year, not dominant but consistent, our hitting will improve as you will see with guys like Griffin, Goulas, Benzel and Harst having a good year of experiance under them, and Hicks and Hawkins providing some power in the middle of the lineup. The biggest problem I see is defense in the middle of the infield. Unless someone steps up that didn't last year, we're still gonna have troubles on defense. God I can't wait until baseball season...I love that time of year! _

dead on. couldn't agree more.