Limping into post-season

[Turner]

I am sensitive to the erath comment sir. I don't need the secret formula, I took hypothetical extremes and divided by 2. Are you saying the RPI is graded on a curve? If so the two extremes and only the two extremes should still give you the middle ground mark. No? If not, why not? Impressed is too strong word, I will say right now only 35 teams have a more impressive resume on the season. None of them got there by playing a bad schedule and neither did UL.

[Clutch0364]

I just think to many people are trying to be coachs. Leave that to coach Robe and let him handle who pitches and everything else because I might be off but I think he knows a lot more about coaching baseball and handlign players than anyone on here. I am still confident in this team and believe they have enough talent to get it done down the road. Everyone is talking about seeding, forget seeding all roads lead to the same place and it might be a harder road but if you don't want to play with the big boys then stay in the house.

Guys this team is special and win or lose we need to get behind them and support them 110%. The negative post aren't going to do any good so lets talk about how good Salazar, Faught, Shambaugh are pitching and how nice it is to see Merandino out of his slump and hitting like he did last year.

[GoneGolfin]

Salazar or DRUMROLL.....Ian Pecoraro? We match back up with WKU so I have faith in either of these guys. I think Austin Faught is now our ace.

Definitely Salazar. We can use Pecoraro for an inning or two in the late innings.

Brian

[Turbine]

I am still confident in this team and believe they have enough talent to get it done down the road.

Hear Here!

[GoneGolfin]

hey i told you all friday ardoin's arm was dead. its not mental its mechanics. his arm is draggin behind his body - he has no snap - he's a buck 80 and his arm gets tired this time of year-even with the extra weight- he needs to sit him til the regional

Ardoin's arm is not dead. He is just struggling right now. He has not yet reached the 100 inning mark this season and has not pitched much down the stretch. 100 innings is not what I would consider a lot of innings for a staff ace. Especially when he always has plenty of rest between starts.

Remember that Ardoin struggled mightily in the last two conference series last season. His arm was not dead then. He followed those performances with a gem against conference champion Middle Tennessee State (7 1/3 inning 0 ER performance in which he struck out ten Blue Raider hitters). The Cajuns won that game 6-2.

out rpi is now 35 and are on the brink of a 3 seed-

The Cajun RPI is not 35. I assume you must be referring to Warren Nolan's site. The formula used here is not the RPI formula. In fact, it is not even an accurate base RPI formula as it does not include tie games. The Cajuns pRPI was tied for 26th going into yesterday's game. I would expect it to be about 32 give or take a couple of spots. And remember that the pRPI is just a reverse engineered estimate.

If the season were to end today, the Cajuns would be a #2 seed. They are not on the brink yet. An 0-2 performance in the Sun Belt tournament and they would be. I do not expect that to happen.

please give me a break - you rest arms and catchers that's it

Not when you have players that are banged up that you would like to get healthy for the postseason.

did anyone watch LSpuke v. MSU????????
no one was rested

Well sure, a title as well as a SEC Tournament and NCAA bid was on the line for the schools. Apples and Oranges.

did anyone watch TXass v. A& M????
no one was rested

Obviously you were not aware of those circumstances as well.

and Hawaii and the "we got plenty of arms, Blah, Blah" -we won 4 of 5 - outside of WSU - the other teams are horrible and all in the RPI 100 plus

The overall schedule was certainly down this year. Some of it is due to the teams scheduled having uncharacteristically down seasons. A lot if it was due to the Sun Belt being down.

Brian

[CajunProud]

Brian,

I just saw on Baseball America that we dropped out of the top 25. I know the rankings really don't mean anything as far as Regional bids and who make the post season, but it is still upsetting. I say this because in my opinion, not being ranked hurts recruiting. You know as well as I do that highschool kids not only want to play for a good team, but a team that is nationally recognized. There is a huge emphasis placed on visibility of a program by kids today. Hell, it was that way when I was coming out of highschool. It is especially hurtfull since I can remember teams that UL had back in the mid to late 1980's with guys like David "Sky" King (if you guys think Hawke hits monster shots, you should have seen some of the one's that David hit out of the yard) that had 40 wins and made the regionals but were never ranked. I think we are one of the top programs in the country and have been for a long time, but it would be nice for the rest of the country to realize that. I think being in the to 25 every year would help with recruiting. Especially since we are a "mid-major" ( a term that disgusts me, and I disagree with) and we are not on television.

Pease comment. Thanks.

[DeadRed]

hey golfin

thanks for making my point. Last year ardoin's had bad starts also- bad starts equal plenty of bench time and he gets to sit and WHAT does he sits he RESTS-throws very limited innings for about 3 weeks and bingo he throws a gem against MTSU exactly- he gets rest- same as this year he needs rest-go to a game or two and watch what goes on.

LSpuke v. MSU
they are playing to a national seed (now) they left it on the field-no rest
MSU is plating for the conference tourn.

same with TXass-national seed no rest- just win
A & M playing for conf. tourn.

were playing for one or two seed the last two weeks and were resting people

when we play its has a lot more at stake than the rest of the schools were talking about

LSpuke and Txass could lose 6 of 13 and they would still host regionals-but they don't take games off

point is we gotta win win win

point is we can't afford to take games off and we still do constantly all throughout the year

[GoneGolfin]

hey golfin
thanks for making my point. Last year ardoin's had bad starts also- bad starts equal plenty of bench time and he gets to sit and WHAT does he sits he RESTS-throws very limited innings for about 3 weeks and bingo he throws a gem against MTSU exactly- he gets rest- same as this year he needs rest-go to a game or two and watch what goes on.

If you read carefully, I refuted your point. Just to be sure you do not miss it this time, below are Ardoin's last three starts of the season ...

5/15 vs. Arkansas State - 4.2 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1BB, 4K
5/21 at South Alabama - 4.2 IP, 10 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 3BB, 4K
(End of Regular Season)

At this point, Ardoin had thrown 99 innings (1.1 innings more than he has pitched at the exact same point this season).

Sun Belt Tournament
5/28 vs. Middle Tennessee - 7.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 0BB, 10K

As you can see, Ardoin struggled mightily in his last two regular season starts. But it was not because his arm was dead. Ardoin pitched a gem in the Sun Belt conference tournament against Middle Tennessee. Ardoin did not get any bench time at the end of last season.

LSpuke v. MSU
they are playing to a national seed (now) they left it on the field-no rest
MSU is plating for the conference tourn.

same with TXass-national seed no rest- just win
A & M playing for conf. tourn.

Once again, all of the above teams needed those wins yesterday.

LSU is playing for a national seed and needs to continue winning to get one.

Mississippi State needed to win to make the SEC Tournament and secure a spot in the NCAA postseason.

Texas needed a win to avoid finishing fourth in the Big XII.

Texas A&M needed a win to have a chance at making the conference tournament.

were playing for one or two seed the last two weeks and were resting people

when we play its has a lot more at stake than the rest of the schools were talking about

The Cajuns rested some position players on Sunday. That is it (one game). And the backups played quite well. The Cajuns were not playing for a #1 seed yesterday.

The Cajuns are, however, playing for the NCAA postseason. To do that, Robichaux wanted to get some needed rest for players that are banged up. I think he did the right thing. Having healthy players for the postseason is more important than a single Sunday win after the Sun Belt title was clinched. The Cajuns are no longer in the running for a #1 seed. It is not like the Cajuns put a bad lineup on the field Sunday. The backups that played did so quite well.

Brian

[CajunProud]

Hey Brian,

What about responding to my post.

[GoneGolfin]

Hey Brian,

What about responding to my post.

Patience Daniel san. :-)

I would not get too worked up over Baseball America. They almost always rate the Cajuns the lowest among the polls. Manuel and Simpson would not even rate the Cajuns among the Top 8 teams at the end of the 2000 CWS.

But certainly polls mean something. They do offer good PR as you state and can be a recruiting aid. But I think more important is what you do in the postseason. The best thing the Cajuns can do for recruiting is win their third regional championship. This will get the Cajuns more recongnition and get them on TV in the super regionals.

As far regional bids are concerned, polls do mean something and it helps that the Cajuns have been in the Top 25 for most of the season. The committee is aware of the polls during the season and I believe having a team there week in and week out helps with the perception that the club is strong. The polls are not something that the NCAA selection committee will reference during the selection process. But I think it helps influence the subjective portion of the process.

BTW, I was in school when David King played for the Cajuns and saw most of his home runs. He was a long ball hitter and hit more than anyone per AB. But I think as far as HR length is concerned, both Hemme and Hawke have him beat. Kevin Meyers and Lee Cantrelle hit some long ones as well.

Brian