Cajun Baseball Talk

[ManAboutTown]

All things considered, Alex Fuseiler has been a nice surprise. He's helped manufactor some runs at the plate (and with a team that struggles to produce offensively, thats a big deal). He may not have the best stats, but he's the only one of our pitchers to avoid the "big inning". Having the fight to not give up a big inning as a freshmen is impressive to me. Regardless of the competition, it's very common for a freshmen pitcher to fall apart when the pressure is on. I like his heart, and I like his passion. He'll be a good one.

[CajunRage]

_ 2bag- in your opinion, since u have played the game....is it that the talent is ot there offensively? Or is it that there is a lack of leadership again? Can you put your finger on it? Just curious _

It is a lack of fundamentals. It is the little things that we aren't doing that are keeping this team from succeeding. Baserunning mistakes have been huge. Not putting the ball in play is another. We have way too many strikeouts. We are not aggressive when we need to be nor are we disciplined when we need to be. A pitcher has started 90% of hitters off with a fastball yet we are taking fastballs down the heart and then chasing breaking balls in hitters' counts. We are having trouble getting the run in from 3rd with less than 2 outs and getting bunts down. Pitchers are giving up too many 2 out walks and hitting too many batters. Hitting a guy when you are trying to bust him in is different than hitting them with the 1st or 2nd pitch of the at bat.

These are all fundamental parts of the game that are key to winning. Until these problems are resolved, we won't get anywhere.

[Frenchie35]

_ Don't know if anyone here follows Sabermetrics or Bill James. The book "Moneyball" is the story of Oakland A's, Mgr. Billy Beane and his use of Sabermetrics and is a good introduction and an easy read.

Sabermetrics has spent years (decades) compiling various stats. The bottom line is that many of the current stats (i.e. batting avg.) don't necessarily measure the true success of a player and a team.

Two measures are used pretty significantly in pro ball teams that use Sabermetrics. They are OPS which is On base plus slugging which has the best correlation statistically to runs scored and WHIP which is Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched which is basically a good correlation against a pitchers runs given up. There are a couple of other significant stats that try to eliminate defense from a pitchers stats.

A good question for the next coaches show would be if the Cajuns use any of the Sabermetric stats. Until recently it has primarily been a tool used in the pros but with the advance of statistical software it has become fairly easy to collect and process data at the college level also and some schools are starting to utilize it. _

Useing the Sabermetrics system I have calculated the Runs Created by seven of our players

Runs crested:

Fontenot= 9
Whipple= 6
Hawkins= 11
Fueslier= 4
Bostick= 4
Bowman= 1
Keifer= 10

Very interesting.

[ManAboutTown]

_ It is a lack of fundamentals. It is the little things that we aren't doing that are keeping this team from succeeding. Baserunning mistakes have been huge. Not putting the ball in play is another. We have way too many strikeouts. We are not aggressive when we need to be nor are we disciplined when we need to be. A pitcher has started 90% of hitters off with a fastball yet we are taking fastballs down the heart and then chasing breaking balls in hitters' counts. We are having trouble getting the run in from 3rd with less than 2 outs and getting bunts down. Pitchers are giving up too many 2 out walks and hitting too many batters. Hitting a guy when you are trying to bust him in is different than hitting them with the 1st or 2nd pitch of the at bat.

These are all fundamental parts of the game that are key to winning. Until these problems are resolved, we won't get anywhere. _

agreed. I've seen Fontenot fail to sacrifice 3 times this year. And all of those instances cost us at least one run, if not more. Your SS should be able to get down a bunt. Fundamentals...

[Dad04]

You are not seeing enough offensive things successful teams do like moving runners with back to back hits, sacrifices, turning the lineup over at the bottom a la Devin Borque, answering the other team in your half inning. Too often pitchers are forced to try to win low scoring games, which is nearly impossible to do consistantly with metal bats at this level. That forces them to be finer than they really are resulting in hit batters and walks. I'm not sure they have had an inning this year with 3 hits.

[ManAboutTown]

_ You are not seeing offensive enough things successful teams do like moving runners with back to back hits, sacrifices, turning the lineup over at the bottom a la Devin Borque, answering the other team in your half inning. Too often pitchers are forced to try to win low scoring games, which is nearly impossible to do consistantly with metal bats at this level. I'm not sure they have had an inning this year with 3 hits. _

Texas Southern.. 5 consecutive hits with two outs, 7 run first inning.. other than that.. I don't think so.

[Dad04]

_ Texas Southern.. 5 consecutive hits with two outs, 7 run first inning.. other than that.. I don't think so. _

My bad. Unfortunately nobody is going to a regional beating up on TX-So. and their 295 RPI. That is basically a high school team. We are by far the best team they will play this year....I hope and pray.

[rhineaux]

_ You are not seeing offensive enough things successful teams do like moving runners with back to back hits, sacrifices, turning the lineup over at the bottom a la Devin Borque, answering the other team in your half inning. Too often pitchers are forced to try to win low scoring games, which is nearly impossible to do consistantly with metal bats at this level. That forces them to be finer than they really are resulting in hit batters and walks. I'm not sure they have had an inning this year with 3 hits. _

This kind of goes to something that I've been thinking about for a while. Does anyone think that the fact that there is so much sacrificing going on could be part of the problem? How many times have we seen the leadoff guy get on in an inning, only to bunt him over for the first out, K for the second out, and then hit a grounder for the third, or some other set of events that result in not scoring? I don't know the exact stats, but I can't imagine that they're all that successful at scoring that initial runner. I'm especially curious about this because you always hear Robe talk about not giving up the 3-run inning and how devastating that can be for a club. But whenever there's a baserunner with no outs, the first thing he does is give up an out for an extra base, no matter what inning or who's hitting. If I'm the coach, and I don't think that I know more about baseball than Robe, maybe I let that second batter swing away. Of course there is a chance that he could hit into the double play, but I think they're doing plenty of that already as it is with one out, so big deal. Maybe he flies out, which may or may not move the runner. But at least you are leaving open the possibility of getting a second hit that might be a gapper or something, which would put multiple runners on base with no outs, and cause the opposing team to press a little bit, and get that big inning going. By trying to bunt him over, they're not even leaving that option open.

The point I'm trying to make is that maybe the hitters are too concerned with placing the ball here or there instead of just busting the hell out of it. Maybe they're too concerned with moving a runner from 1st to 2nd when they should be concerned with moving him from 1st to Home. Maybe if they would quit going to the plate thinking "station to station" and start going to the plate thinking "We're getting this pitcher out of the game this inning", they might start to loosen up and have more success.

Rip away boys!!!

[CajunProud]

_ This kind of goes to something that I've been thinking about for a while. Does anyone think that the fact that there is so much sacrificing going on could be part of the problem. How many times have we seen the leadoff guy get on in an inning, only to bunt him over for the first out, K for the second out, and then hit a grounder for the third, or some other set of events that result in not scoring? I don't know the exact stats, but I can't imagine that they're all that successful at scoring that initial runner all that much. I'm especially curious about this because you always hear Robe talk about not giving up the 3-run inning and how devastating that can be for a club. But whenever there's a baserunner with no outs, the first thing he does is give up an out for an extra base, no matter what inning or who's hitting. If I'm the coach, and I don't think that I know more about baseball than Robe, maybe I let that second batter swing away. Of course there is a chance that he could hit into the double play, but I think they're doing plenty of that already as it is with one out, so big deal. Maybe he flies out, which may or may not move the runner. But at least you are leaving open the possibility of getting a second hit that might be a gapper or something, which would put multiple runners on base with no outs, and cause the opposing team to press a little bit, and get that big inning going. By trying to bunt him over, they're not even leaving that option open.

The point I'm trying to make is that maybe the hitters are too concerned with placing the ball here or there instead of just busting the hell out of it. Maybe they're too concerned with moving a runner from 1st to 2nd when they should be concerned with moving him from 1st to Home. Maybe if they would quit going to the plate thinking "station to station" and start going to the plate thinking "We're getting this pitcher out of the game this inning", they might start to loosen up and have more success.

Rip away boys!!! _

I've been saying this for years now and everybody jumps my a@@. If you want to play small ball then at least hit and run instead of trying to sacrifice. I hate giving up an out, especially when the team struggles to hit with 0 outs.

[Dad04]

_Maybe if they would quit going to the plate thinking "station to station" and start going to the plate thinking "We're getting this pitcher out of the game this inning", they might start to loosen up and have more success.

Rip away boys!!! _

The 2005-2007 teams were very competitive against good to excellent pitching. They routinely punished mediocre to average pitching, sending those guys to the dugout quickly. Chase Ware, a good, but not great pitcher at Ark St. gave up 4 hits I think to us, throwing a complete game shut out. He's a nice pitcher, but come on he's not Nolan Ryan. We need to put up more of a fuss than that. This team has more talent than that.

[Cajun90]

This kind of goes to something that I've been thinking about for a while. Does anyone think that the fact that there is so much sacrificing going on could be part of the problem? How many times have we seen the leadoff guy get on in an inning, only to bunt him over for the first out, K for the second out, and then hit a grounder for the third, or some other set of events that result in not scoring? I don't know the exact stats, but I can't imagine that they're all that successful at scoring that initial runner. I'm especially curious about this because you always hear Robe talk about not giving up the 3-run inning and how devastating that can be for a club. But whenever there's a baserunner with no outs, the first thing he does is give up an out for an extra base, no matter what inning or who's hitting. If I'm the coach, and I don't think that I know more about baseball than Robe, maybe I let that second batter swing away. Of course there is a chance that he could hit into the double play, but I think they're doing plenty of that already as it is with one out, so big deal. Maybe he flies out, which may or may not move the runner. But at least you are leaving open the possibility of getting a second hit that might be a gapper or something, which would put multiple runners on base with no outs, and cause the opposing team to press a little bit, and get that big inning going. By trying to bunt him over, they're not even leaving that option open.

The point I'm trying to make is that maybe the hitters are too concerned with placing the ball here or there instead of just busting the hell out of it. Maybe they're too concerned with moving a runner from 1st to 2nd when they should be concerned with moving him from 1st to Home. Maybe if they would quit going to the plate thinking "station to station" and start going to the plate thinking "We're getting this pitcher out of the game this inning", they might start to loosen up and have more success.

Rip away boys!!!

I know we get tagged with the 'small ball" philosophy and we certainly play ball that way sometimes (every team does) but I don't think that is the only way we play. I guess the point is that what the discussion should be about is how much "small ball" do we play? Do we depend on it too much?

I did find one stat of interest. From 99-02 in MLB the scoring percentage with a man on first and no outs was .953. The percentage with a man on second and one out was .725 So on the surface it appears that sacrificing in the pro ranks is not the best philosophy. I'm not sure you can make a direct correlation to college ball with that but I don't think your going to see a shift of over 20% to turn it upside down so it probably stands true in college as well.

[cajun4life]

_ I've been saying this for years now and everybody jumps my a@@. If you want to play small ball then at least hit and run instead of trying to sacrifice. I hate giving up an out, especially when the team struggles to hit with 0 outs. _

You and me both! That is Robe's philosiphy. He likes to play small ball with a tough as nails, scrappy team. Problem is we have not had those types of players lately. You just can't question Robe on these boards without getting your A@@ jumped.