DH Game Thread vs USA

[ManAboutTown]

At this point, I’ve had too many beverages to intelligently comment.. But, bringing up Nate Nelson is heresy.

Hoodie is our best player right now but let’s let it ride for a bit.

[JMV JustMyView]

Some positive things.

Julien Brock is among the best catchers UL has ever had. And yes, that includes multiple guys that have had decade long MLB careers.

Carson Roccoforte, while not on the level (yet) that he was last year, is one of the best players that has ever played here.

Heath Hood is a Nathan Nelson clone, just as an outfielder.

Kyle Debarge may be the best SS that’s ever played here by the time he’s done. And there have been some REALLY good ones.

There are DUDES on this team.

Granted there is no true stud Friday night guy. And the staff, as a whole, struggles at times, but this staff’s “stuff” is absolutely legit. When healthy, there is as much quality depth on this staff than there has been in quite a while.

Hopefully some take a step back from every negative e thing they can possibly think of, and realize the positive.

Last years team ended the season in a regional. This years team is better. Where they will end up remains to be seen, but this is a better Cajun team than last years.

None of the first half of this post is true, lol.

[CrazyCajun]

They won’t win 10 games in conference this year

And they still won’t finish with a 200 plus rpi simply bc who they will play, southern miss, Troy, Texas state and CCU. Regardless of what they do against those teams.

[Dad04]

Some positive things.

Julien Brock is among the best catchers UL has ever had. And yes, that includes multiple guys that have had decade long MLB careers.

Carson Roccoforte, while not on the level (yet) that he was last year, is one of the best players that has ever played here.

Heath Hood is a Nathan Nelson clone, just as an outfielder.

Kyle Debarge may be the best SS that’s ever played here by the time he’s done. And there have been some REALLY good ones.

There are DUDES on this team.

Granted there is no true stud Friday night guy. And the staff, as a whole, struggles at times, but this staff’s “stuff” is absolutely legit. When healthy, there is as much quality depth on this staff than there has been in quite a while.

Hopefully some take a step back from every negative e thing they can possibly think of, and realize the positive.

Last years team ended the season in a regional. This years team is better. Where they will end up remains to be seen, but this is a better Cajun team than last years.

After a couple of struggling seasons, Coach Deggs has the team on a very strong trajectory. The future looks very bright.

[sportsfanatic21]

None of the first half of this post is true, lol.

Care to explain?

[zeppelincajun]

I’ve got a question for some of the more knowledgeable baseball people. Keep in mind I’m not complaining about Deggs’ system. We just put up 43 runs in 3 games. Just trying to understand it a little more. What is the thought process on when we decide to start runners/bunt/hit-and-run? There were two instances today where we tried to either bunt or hit-and-run immediately after a walk. One was Debarge at the plate I believe in the 5th. Man before him walks with 1 out. Debarge gets in 1-0 count. Calvi goes out to talk to his pitcher to calm him down. Next pitch Debarge is forced to swing at a ball outside the zone to protect a runner on the hit-and-run. Had to do it again later in the at bat, and he grounds out and runner reaches second. My conventional baseball brain is screaming, “what are we doing?” This guy can’t find the zone, and we run something that is contingent upon the hitter getting a pitch he can hit. The other instance was I think Marusak bunting after a walk early in the game and bunting at balls out of the zone. Again I’m in my old school mindset of, “if they are gonna give you something for nothing, why give them something?” Like I said: I get it. 43 runs. 3 games. Not knocking the system. These are two very specific failures in a sea of successes at the plate. Are our decisions situational at all or is it more of an all out onslaught where we are confident we will come out ahead more times than not? Seems like more of the latter as a lay person like myself but was curious if others had insight.

[JMV JustMyView]

Some positive things.

Julien Brock is among the best catchers UL has ever had. And yes, that includes multiple guys that have had decade long MLB careers.

Carson Roccoforte, while not on the level (yet) that he was last year, is one of the best players that has ever played here.

Heath Hood is a Nathan Nelson clone, just as an outfielder.

Kyle Debarge may be the best SS that’s ever played here by the time he’s done. And there have been some REALLY good ones.

There are DUDES on this team.

Granted there is no true stud Friday night guy. And the staff, as a whole, struggles at times, but this staff’s “stuff” is absolutely legit. When healthy, there is as much quality depth on this staff than there has been in quite a while.

Hopefully some take a step back from every negative e thing they can possibly think of, and realize the positive.

Last years team ended the season in a regional. This years team is better. Where they will end up remains to be seen, but this is a better Cajun team than last years.

JB isn't in the top 3.
CR isn't in the top 10
Never compare HH to Nathan.
KB is early in his career to make that comparison.

[JamesTheJeweler]

You caught me. I have no idea what I’m talking about. That 100+ SOS means nothing. 4+ team era and middle of the pack fielding percentage be damned!

*hard eye roll emoji*

Thank you. Context is important. It's as if you came here and said we suck, and made fun of their mothers. People get weird when you make contextual observations.

[ManAboutTown]

Good morning. Sober now. Reread the thread. I stand by what I posted.
For the people saying we "pass the eye" test, I'd agree. There are some nights where we look really good. And there are some nights, we can't throw strikes, kick the ball around the yard and look dreadful at the plate. Which is why I said we had work to do in order to be a good ball club. If you want to lie to yourself and tell yourselves we're world beaters because we scored 22 on an awful USA staff or run ruled Grambling, that's your prerogative.

I like to live in the real world. We've seen one good ball club this year and it was a microcosm of the season. Played hard, looked good at time, looked really bad at times. Lost the series at home. We've blown leads to bad teams multiple times this year. Woefully inconsistent on the mound and on defense. And before someone brings up the record, this is by far the easiest OOC schedule we've played in 6-7 years.

I love our talent. Hoodie & Brock are two of my favorite guys to watch play ball since the 2014 team. Rocc is as clutch as we've seen in recent years. DeBo is on a big league track. I think our crop of youngster might be even better than this core we have now. There is no question we've gotten better, as a roster, year over year since Deggs has been here. By no means am I saying we're bad. I'm just not going to lie to myself with numbers we're putting up against bad teams.

The "eye test" tells me we tend to play reckless baseball, we bludgeon bad teams and we're desperately searching for consistency on the mound. We're 18-7 and we don't know much about our team yet. We're 1-3 against teams that we should consider our peers, to this point.

[CajunStros]

We're 1-3 against teams that we should consider our peers, to this point.

This part. We haven’t played anyone outside of Campbell and Miss State.

The good news is that we are beating the teams we should for the most part. The bad news is when we have been tested by teams we are trying to be….we lost.

[sportsfanatic21]

JB isn't in the top 3.
CR isn't in the top 10
Never compare HH to Nathan.
KB is early in his career to make that comparison.

Who are the top 3 catchers to play here? Lucroy is one, name all the others better than Julien as a Ragin Cajun.

Name the players better than Roccoforte. Remember to consider all around game. Like base running and elite defense at multiple positions.

I’ll get to Hood/Nelson in a second…

How is it too early to compare Debarge with the best Cajun SSs? Trahan is probably the standard. My comment was that Debarge may be the best by the time he’s done. It’s definitely trending that way.

Now as far as my comment about Hood and Nathan Nelson. I know Nelson is one of the most revered players in Cajun history. I loved watching the guy play. But what Heath Hood has done on the field since becoming a full time starter, well….

Nathan Nelson 2000 Omaha Season:
271 ABs
58 runs
101 hits (.373)
47 RBIs
15 doubles
2 triples
7 HRs
15 walks
3 HBP
33 SBs

Heath Hood since becoming a full time starter:
266 ABs
63 runs
100 hits (.376)
59 RBI
20 2B
7 3B
6 HRs
21 walks
9 HBP
38 SB

So tell me, you still gonna stick with “Never compare HH to NN”? I’d say those numbers are pretty darn similar. Nelson had another full season as a Cajun, and a good one, so his career numbers are better. But in the games Hood has played here, he’s been pretty much, as I said in my original post, “a Nathan Nelson clone”.

[angeleast]

Who are the top 3 catchers to play here? Lucroy is one, name all the others better than Julien as a Ragin Cajun.

Name the players better than Roccoforte. Remember to consider all around game. Like base running and elite defense at multiple positions.

I’ll get to Hood/Nelson in a second…

How is it too early to compare Debarge with the best Cajun SSs? Trahan is probably the standard. My comment was that Debarge may be the best by the time he’s done. It’s definitely trending that way.

Now as far as my comment about Hood and Nathan Nelson. I know Nelson is one of the most revered players in Cajun history. I loved watching the guy play. But what Heath Hood has done on the field since becoming a full time starter, well….

Nathan Nelson 2000 Omaha Season:
271 ABs
58 runs
101 hits (.373)
47 RBIs
15 doubles
2 triples
7 HRs
15 walks
3 HBP
33 SBs

Heath Hood since becoming a full time starter:
266 ABs
63 runs
100 hits (.376)
59 RBI
20 2B
7 3B
6 HRs
21 walks
9 HBP
38 SB

So tell me, you still gonna stick with “Never compare HH to NN”? I’d say those numbers are pretty darn similar. Nelson had another full season as a Cajun, and a good one, so his career numbers are better. But in the games Hood has played here, he’s been pretty much, as I said in my original post, “a Nathan Nelson clone”.

Wow.. stats don't lie. All things being equal.