Robichaux despises the three-run inning

[talktomewillis]

UL is still a good choice for pitchers. You can't have too many arms. Russo is a pitchers park. That will never change. Regardless of who is coaching what, the culture for pitchers is rich. Pitching is off, but that is temporary. Position players have a tougher situation.

Recruiting has changes dramatically over the last five years. Kids as young as 13 started getting offers, resulting from increased exposure, requiring schools to recruit four classes, instead of two. We may have been caught a little flat footed here.

NCAA took steps to rein in the recruiting of very young players in early 2018 with new rules. Now schools can official visit junior and seniors. Before only Seniors could official visit. Younger kids can still unofficial visit, but no contact with coaches on campus is allowed. No more offers on campus for players not yet juniors.

Recruiting is still tougher than it was 5, 10 years ago, but less crazy than a year ago. Recruiting multiple classes is more time consuming, expensive and wacky compared to just five years ago. Everybody has to adjust. We're playing catch up now.

I think this is an excellent post. Robe talked about this on his radio show the other night. THIS is one of the reasons why we adjusted the staff so someone could spend more time on the road. There are a lot of successful programs doing this. And, I agree, we are playing catch up. It's easy to sit back now and say we should have done this sooner. Nothing we can do about that now.

So many of you are criticizing those (including me) who believe we are going to get this thing turned around. And, many of you think I feel that way because of blind loyalty. Robe's track record does give me confidence. But that isn't the whole story.

It's pretty obvious what our problem has been this year. And, it's one of the few years we've had a problem in that regard. We have a team ERA over five. That's unheard of with this program. We need better talent.

We signed two JUCO pitchers early. We're getting five more. Two of them won't be announced because we are getting them for free the first year (that includes the Texas Tech transfer.) That's seven guys. All of them are power arms. Your most successful programs have gotten it done with guys who have giddyup. Connor Angel may wind up on campus because he has a high asking price. Here's a 6-5 guy who throws 93-96. These are the kind of guys we are bringing in.

JT is recruiting full time now but he isn't the only one recruiting. Wells is known as a "vicious recruiter" as one opposing coach told me. And, Freeman has done a good job of identifying talent, especially on the mound.

We've had tremendous results with JUCO pitchers over the years. Have we missed on a few? Sure. Everyone does. But the track record here is very good.

For me, the unknown is the JUCO position guys. Some of them have an adjustment period to D-1 pitching. And, just as it took 1/3 of the season for the current players to get jumpstarted with a new hitting coach, that might happen with some of these guys as well. But I think most would agree Wells has been a significant upgrade here. And, he recruited some of the position players we signed.
Most of you believe Wells has done a really good job in his first season. I agree and believe he'll only get better.

This is why I'm optimistic. How much of a turnaround will there be? Who knows. We won't hit on 100% of the signees...no one does. But we are going to have a lot more talent, especially on the mound, than we do this year.

So if you want to be skeptical, that's your right. If you want to dwell on how bad we are this year and think the only way to fix it is to make more staff changes, that's fine too.

But don't make the mistake of thinking my optimism is out of blind loyalty. Stop with the accusations about being a mouthpiece. Next to Turbine, I'm probably the most analytical guy on this board. With what I do, if my emotions dictated everything, I'd have died by now.

I truly believe we are going to be considerably better next year. Time will tell if I'm right.

Have a good weekend.

[Dad04]

I think this is an excellent post. Robe talked about this on his radio show the other night. THIS is one of the reasons why we adjusted the staff so someone could spend more time on the road. There are a lot of successful programs doing this. And, I agree, we are playing catch up. It's easy to sit back now and say we should have done this sooner. Nothing we can do about that now.

So many of you are criticizing those (including me) who believe we are going to get this thing turned around. And, many of you think I feel that way because of blind loyalty. Robe's track record does give me confidence. But that isn't the whole story.

It's pretty obvious what our problem has been this year. And, it's one of the few years we've had a problem in that regard. We have a team ERA over five. That's unheard of with this program. We need better talent.

We signed two JUCO pitchers early. We're getting five more. Two of them won't be announced because we are getting them for free the first year (that includes the Texas Tech transfer.) That's seven guys. All of them are power arms. Your most successful programs have gotten it done with guys who have giddyup. Connor Angel may wind up on campus because he has a high asking price. Here's a 6-5 guy who throws 93-96. These are the kind of guys we are bringing in.

JT is recruiting full time now but he isn't the only one recruiting. Wells is known as a "vicious recruiter" as one opposing coach told me. And, Freeman has done a good job of identifying talent, especially on the mound.

We've had tremendous results with JUCO pitchers over the years. Have we missed on a few? Sure. Everyone does. But the track record here is very good.

For me, the unknown is the JUCO position guys. Some of them have an adjustment period to D-1 pitching. And, just as it took 1/3 of the season for the current players to get jumpstarted with a new hitting coach, that might happen with some of these guys as well. But I think most would agree Wells has been a significant upgrade here. And, he recruited some of the position players we signed.
Most of you believe Wells has done a really good job in his first season. I agree and believe he'll only get better.

This is why I'm optimistic. How much of a turnaround will there be? Who knows. We won't hit on 100% of the signees...no one does. But we are going to have a lot more talent, especially on the mound, than we do this year.

So if you want to be skeptical, that's your right. If you want to dwell on how bad we are this year and think the only way to fix it is to make more staff changes, that's fine too.

But don't make the mistake of thinking my optimism is out of blind loyalty. Stop with the accusations about being a mouthpiece. Next to Turbine, I'm probably the most analytical guy on this board. With what I do, if my emotions dictated everything, I'd have died by now.

I truly believe we are going to be considerably better next year. Time will tell if I'm right.

Have a good weekend.

Good post there, too. I'm sad we are playing catch-up, but better late than never. JT's issues as a hitting coach didn't help fans' perceptions when he slid into the recruiting role, but the two roles are different. Hopefully this is his wheelhouse. I'll keep the faith. Also, we may have been a little distracted building a ballpark, changing AD's, while recruiting morphed into verballing freshmen in high school, leaving us with recruiting left-overs with a few notable exceptions.

I hope the coaching staff gets enough time to right the ship. Judging by who isn't in the stands, many have voted with their feet. This next herd of ponies needs to have a bunch in the money. If so, we'll be fine.

You have a good weekend too. Plenty of sunscreen at the beach!

[RaisingCajun08]

1 question I would have is: Of the JUCO pitchers that we are getting, how many are damaged goods? We have seen in the recent that for whatever reason, our pitchers are not responding to treatment. We give enough 2nd chances. I want better 1st chances coming here.

[CrazyCajun]

1 question I would have is: Of the JUCO pitchers that we are getting, how many are damaged goods? We have seen in the recent that for whatever reason, our pitchers are not responding to treatment. We give enough 2nd chances. I want better 1st chances coming here.

Which juco pitchers were damaged goods?

[RaisingCajun08]

Which juco pitchers were damaged goods?

Sorry, I should not have said juco. Should have said transfers.

[CrazyCajun]

Sorry, I should not have said juco. Should have said transfers.

Still only 1 guy

[Rougarou]

Good post there, too. I'm sad we are playing catch-up, but better late than never. JT's issues as a hitting coach didn't help fans' perceptions when he slid into the recruiting role, but the two roles are different. Hopefully this is his wheelhouse. I'll keep the faith. Also, we may have been a little distracted building a ballpark, changing AD's, while recruiting morphed into verballing freshmen in high school, leaving us with recruiting left-overs with a few notable exceptions.

I hope the coaching staff gets enough time to right the ship. Judging by who isn't in the stands, many have voted with their feet. This next herd of ponies needs to have a bunch in the money. If so, we'll be fine.

You have a good weekend too. Plenty of sunscreen at the beach!

I'm just picturing Kenny Powers shredding waves on his boogie board on myrtle beach.

[Dad04]

I'm just picturing Kenny Powers shredding waves on his boogie board on myrtle beach.

[zeppelincajun]

I think this is an excellent post. Robe talked about this on his radio show the other night. THIS is one of the reasons why we adjusted the staff so someone could spend more time on the road. There are a lot of successful programs doing this. And, I agree, we are playing catch up. It's easy to sit back now and say we should have done this sooner. Nothing we can do about that now.

So many of you are criticizing those (including me) who believe we are going to get this thing turned around. And, many of you think I feel that way because of blind loyalty. Robe's track record does give me confidence. But that isn't the whole story.

It's pretty obvious what our problem has been this year. And, it's one of the few years we've had a problem in that regard. We have a team ERA over five. That's unheard of with this program. We need better talent.

We signed two JUCO pitchers early. We're getting five more. Two of them won't be announced because we are getting them for free the first year (that includes the Texas Tech transfer.) That's seven guys. All of them are power arms. Your most successful programs have gotten it done with guys who have giddyup. Connor Angel may wind up on campus because he has a high asking price. Here's a 6-5 guy who throws 93-96. These are the kind of guys we are bringing in.

JT is recruiting full time now but he isn't the only one recruiting. Wells is known as a "vicious recruiter" as one opposing coach told me. And, Freeman has done a good job of identifying talent, especially on the mound.

We've had tremendous results with JUCO pitchers over the years. Have we missed on a few? Sure. Everyone does. But the track record here is very good.

For me, the unknown is the JUCO position guys. Some of them have an adjustment period to D-1 pitching. And, just as it took 1/3 of the season for the current players to get jumpstarted with a new hitting coach, that might happen with some of these guys as well. But I think most would agree Wells has been a significant upgrade here. And, he recruited some of the position players we signed.
Most of you believe Wells has done a really good job in his first season. I agree and believe he'll only get better.

This is why I'm optimistic. How much of a turnaround will there be? Who knows. We won't hit on 100% of the signees...no one does. But we are going to have a lot more talent, especially on the mound, than we do this year.

So if you want to be skeptical, that's your right. If you want to dwell on how bad we are this year and think the only way to fix it is to make more staff changes, that's fine too.

But don't make the mistake of thinking my optimism is out of blind loyalty. Stop with the accusations about being a mouthpiece. Next to Turbine, I'm probably the most analytical guy on this board. With what I do, if my emotions dictated everything, I'd have died by now.

I truly believe we are going to be considerably better next year. Time will tell if I'm right.

Have a good weekend.

So let’s get analytical with this. 23-27 new faces on a 35 man roster would make a team comprised of 65%-77% new players. That’s a whole lot of guys learning to adjust to the D1 game for the first 1/3 of the season.

In addition, we only have 7 seniors on the current club who won’t be returning. I see 4 potential players who could be drafted (Lott obviously, Burk, Young, and Spears). Don’t see all 4 being drafted, just being conservative. That’s only 11 players leaving meaning an additional 12 to 16 guys would have to leave to accommodate the 23-27 new faces. 12 to 16 leaving would be busts on 34%-45%.

[Turbine]

So let’s get analytical with this. 23-27 new faces on a 35 man roster would make a team comprised of 65%-77% new players. That’s a whole lot of guys learning to adjust to the D1 game for the first 1/3 of the season.

In addition, we only have 7 seniors on the current club who won’t be returning. I see 4 potential players who could be drafted (Lott obviously, Burk, Young, and Spears). Don’t see all 4 being drafted, just being conservative. That’s only 11 players leaving meaning an additional 12 to 16 guys would have to leave to accommodate the 23-27 new faces. 12 to 16 leaving would be busts on 34%-45%.

It's going to take a mathemagician to make this work.

[Dad04]

So let's get analytical with this. 23-27 new faces on a 35 man roster would make a team comprised of 65%-77% new players. That's a whole lot of guys learning to adjust to the D1 game for the first 1/3 of the season.

In addition, we only have 7 seniors on the current club who won't be returning. I see 4 potential players who could be drafted (Lott obviously, Burk, Young, and Spears). Don't see all 4 being drafted, just being conservative. That's only 11 players leaving meaning an additional 12 to 16 guys would have to leave to accommodate the 23-27 new faces. 12 to 16 leaving would be busts on 34%-45%.

Wait. I thought we all agreed. NO MATH.

[Dad04]

It's going to take a mathemagician to make this work.

We might need to double up in the locker room.