DH Game Thread vs USA

[sportsfanatic21]

Nobody said any of that. Some people can’t discuss the games without gatekeeping. We just played the two worst teams in the SBC. Forgive me for pointing out that we have work to do in order to be SBC Champs or be in the conversation for hosting a regional. Which btw, used to be how we judged teams around here.

I’m just wanting to know what other Sun Belt teams are doing that makes people think that won’t be the case? And who is it that the Cajuns need to beat to deserve some credit for winning?

They don’t play ODU. Or either of the Georgia teams.

What has Coastal or S. Miss or Texas St or JMU, or any of the other teams on the schedule done to this point that says they are better than UL?

[ManAboutTown]

I’m just wanting to know what other Sun Belt teams are doing that makes people think that won’t be the case? And who is it that the Cajuns need to beat to deserve some credit for winning?

They don’t play ODU. Or either of the Georgia teams.

What has Coastal or S. Miss or Texas St or JMU, or any of the other teams on the schedule done to this point that says they are better than UL?

Why are you concerned about SBC teams? I’m concerned about what I see out of our team. Our team does plenty of thing well. We also lack crucial components of a winning (postseason) team at this point in time.

[sportsfanatic21]

Why are you concerned about SBC teams? I’m concerned about what I see out of our team. Our team does plenty of thing well. We also lack crucial components of a winning (postseason) team at this point in time.

“Forgive me for pointing out that we have work to do in order to be SBC Champs”

Aren’t the other SBC teams what would stand in the way?

[MWolf]

Why are you concerned about SBC teams? I’m concerned about what I see out of our team. Our team does plenty of thing well. We also lack crucial components of a winning (postseason) team at this point in time.

I think it's just a matter of the standard you hold our program to. As you said, your standard is competing to host a regional. In my opinion, that was the standard through 2016. Then, for whatever reason, we had a few down years. Then Robe passed away.

Now, we are back on an upward trajectory. Some mediocre baseball, a decent season in which we won the conference tournament, and now, a really good start to the season. For me, the standard is continuing our current upward trajectory until we get back to what we were. We shouldn't expect to go from just getting in from a conference tournament win to hosting. Right now, we have been playing like an at-large and have the resume of an at-large. A comfortable at-large bid would be a success to me this season.

The standard will cease to be met when our upward trajectory plateaus short of getting back to being in the host conversation every year.

[CharlieK]

It's more fun to watch baseball when you don't think you know everything about baseball. Take it from someone who knows he only knows a fan's amount. This team is fun to watch, way more so than we have had in a few years. Not sure what else I can ask.

[ManAboutTown]

I think it's just a matter of the standard you hold our program to. As you said, your standard is competing to host a regional. In my opinion, that was the standard through 2016. Then, for whatever reason, we had a few down years. Then Robe passed away.

Now, we are back on an upward trajectory. Some mediocre baseball, a decent season in which we won the conference tournament, and now, a really good start to the season. For me, the standard is continuing our current upward trajectory until we get back to what we were. We shouldn't expect to go from just getting in from a conference tournament win to hosting. Right now, we have been playing like an at-large and have the resume of an at-large. A comfortable at-large bid would be a success to me this season.

The standard will cease to be met when our upward trajectory plateaus short of getting back to being in the host conversation every year.

I said my standard is winning the league and being in the conversation for hosting. Which generally puts you in the top 20-30 teams in America.

As I’ve stated multiple times, I agree whole heartedly that we are getting better each year and agree that our trajectory is up. The fact remains, at this point in time, pitching & defense have plenty of room to improve.

I’m really not sure how that’s a controversial take…

[MWolf]

I said my standard is winning the league and being in the conversation for hosting. Which generally puts you in the top 20-30 teams in America.

As I’ve stated multiple times, I agree whole heartedly that we are getting better each year and agree that our trajectory is up. The fact remains, at this point in time, pitching & defense have plenty of room to improve.

I’m really not sure how that’s a controversial take…

That is not a controversial take. I think another problem is we read the game threads. There are many posts of "WE LOST TO HIGH POINT WE SUCK." "WE LOST TO MCNEESE WE SUCK." "WE LOST TO SOUTH AL AND BLEW A LEAD WE SUCK." Saying we have plenty of room to improve is not controversial. I get defensive when people say we suck. We don't. We have plenty of room to improve, and must improve to have success in the post season. Sometimes it's hard to separate in-the-moment reactions from general views of the team. Not just yours but everyone's.

[Dad04]

I'm not worried about who we are winning or losing against. I'm worried about a team that constantly strands runners with less than two outs, walks opponents with a lead, and doesn't have a shut down Friday night guy. We are playing well enough to win against the schedule we've played. Friday night against USA is how you get bounced in the conference tournament and subsequently bounced off the bubble for an at large.

All that being said, we have a talented roster that has the potential to be really really good. We have a lot of sloppiness to clean up if we want to make noise in the postseason. We are fully capable. I'll be what you call a "doubter" until we clean things up.

"Sloppiness" or inconsistency has always been and will always be what separates good college teams from successful post season teams. I watched some #12 Ole Miss at #3 Florida game 3 yesterday. 5 errors in the game, Florida made 3 errors, but won 7-4. I mean bonehead errors too. Both teams will probably host. I know sloppiness is not limited to fielding %. I am not holding my breath for mistake free college baseball.

UF has a soph. Jac Caglianone, the Sunday starter, who also DH's every game. He is batting .400 and leads the nation in HR with 17. He is 6-0 on the mound 3.41 ERA and throws mid 90's from the left side.

[Turbine]

Weird Al does parody.
We're talking about parity here LOL

Exactly, LOL, that's why I said "copying his style" a poor parody would be the result.

[sportsfanatic21]

"Sloppiness" or inconsistency has always been and will always be what separates good college teams from successful post season teams. I watched some #12 Ole Miss at #3 Florida game 3 yesterday. 5 errors in the game, Florida made 3 errors, but won 7-4. I mean bonehead errors too. Both teams will probably host. I know sloppiness is not limited to fielding %. I am not holding my breath for mistake free college baseball.

UF has a soph. Jac Caglianone, the Sunday starter, who also DH's every game. He is batting .400 and leads the nation in HR with 17. He is 6-0 on the mound 3.41 ERA and throws mid 90's from the left side.

This is spot on. All teams, even the elite, strand runners, walk people with leads, and make errors. Every one of them.

This Cajun team is struggling in the “man on 3rd and less than two outs” category so far. Yet somehow are scoring more runs per game than the 2014 team. That stuff normally evens out so the best is probably yet to come.

I’ve had this conversations with friends of mine many times over the years. You notice the mistakes and perceived shortcomings of the team you root for and are passionate about WAY more than you do any other team’s.

That’s the basis of the question I was asking earlier in the thread. What are our conference mates doing?

The answer is, most are giving up more runs than UL, many are walking more batters, only a few are scoring more runs (and a lot of that has to do with some playing in Cracker Jack stadiums). And they are kicking the ball around more than the Cajuns are.

This Cajun team lacks a true #1 starter. But they have much better than average depth, and more than just about any other team in the conference. The defense is as good or better than any other team in the league, and they can score with anyone.

I expect a regional appearance from this group. Whether or not they can win a regional without a guy that can eat up innings and keep your offense in striking distance in the first game of a regional remains to be seen. I do think, other than running into one of the elite of the elite starting pitchers, that this team can score on anyone. And they have shown on many occasions that they can be cold blooded killers when they get into other teams bullpens.

[Dad04]

This is spot on. All teams, even the elite, strand runners, walk people with leads, and make errors. Every one of them.

This Cajun team is struggling in the “man on 3rd and less than two outs” category so far. Yet somehow are scoring more runs per game than the 2014 team. That stuff normally evens out so the best is probably yet to come.

I’ve had this conversations with friends of mine many times over the years. You notice the mistakes and perceived shortcomings of the team you root for and are passionate about WAY more than you do any other team’s.

That’s the basis of the question I was asking earlier in the thread. What are our conference mates doing?

The answer is, most are giving up more runs than UL, many are walking more batters, only a few are scoring more runs (and a lot of that has to do with some playing in Cracker Jack stadiums). And they are kicking the ball around more than the Cajuns are.

This Cajun team lacks a true #1 starter. But they have much better than average depth, and more than just about any other team in the conference. The defense is as good or better than any other team in the league, and they can score with anyone.

I expect a regional appearance from this group. Whether or not they can win a regional without a guy that can eat up innings and keep your offense in striking distance in the first game of a regional remains to be seen. I do think, other than running into one of the elite of the elite starting pitchers, that this team can score on anyone. And they have shown on many occasions that they can be cold blooded killers when they get into other teams bullpens.

They came back in game 2 Saturday and stood on USAs neck. The line up is deep and we no longer need to choose between fielders or hitters.

The least sloppy team usually wins, but they all sloppy.

[ManAboutTown]

"Sloppiness" or inconsistency has always been and will always be what separates good college teams from successful post season teams. I watched some #12 Ole Miss at #3 Florida game 3 yesterday. 5 errors in the game, Florida made 3 errors, but won 7-4. I mean bonehead errors too. Both teams will probably host. I know sloppiness is not limited to fielding %. I am not holding my breath for mistake free college baseball.

UF has a soph. Jac Caglianone, the Sunday starter, who also DH's every game. He is batting .400 and leads the nation in HR with 17. He is 6-0 on the mound 3.41 ERA and throws mid 90's from the left side.

Thank you JD. Exactly what I was getting at before the charmins started with the personal bs.

[zeppelincajun]

Ha. Glad you saw some semblance of humor there. It’s difficult to convey via text.

And it wasn’t in response to one simple fact, as I’m sure you know.

On a serious note, who, on the schedule, do you think the Cajuns need to win a series against (and not sweep) for the doubters to give them some credit? Or with ODU and the Georgia teams not on the regular season schedule, is there not one?

IMO this has less to do with "doubters" and more to do with discussing the whole picture. If we are going to examine how we statistically stack up against our conference mates (a totally valid discussion), I think it's important to keep in mind that the level of competition (to this point of the season) has not necessarily been equal. Our performances against some lackluster competition, IMO, has left some things to be desired. We had to gut out a series win against High Point. The narrative leaving that series was the Panthers were just better than we gave them credit for. They are currently sitting at 7-16 (1-5 in the Big South). We had to slug our way around 18+ innings of truly awful pitching this weekend against a very down USA team. Credit where it's due. We did that. This absolutely would've been an 0-3 weekend with the 2017-2021 offenses.

There are plenty of quality clubs left on the schedule that we would do well to take the series against. Playing as we have to this point, I'm not sure it will happen against the CCUs and USMs. We walk three guys in an inning against Coastal, and they may hang a 10 spot on us.

On a positive note: our strength of schedule is 12 out of 14 in the SBC...at 132. JMU and ASU are at 226 and 243 respectively. I take that to mean the vast majority of our league (including us) is committed to making this conference a contender on the national level.

[lafman1]

Well that didn’t take long.

[Dad04]

Thank you JD. Exactly what I was getting at before the charmins started with the personal bs.

Imperfection is baked into the college game. Baseball is hard.