Small Ball is dead

[Just1More]

"Small ball" is partially created when you sit further away from the field and it makes the ball seem a lot smaller. The ball is the same size, it just looks smaller cause you aren't as close. If a player hits the ball real hard, it not only compresses the ball (hence, small ball), it also travels a lot further and makes the ball appear to shrink in the sky as it travels away from you. It can get a little confusing if you sit in the outfield bleachers. These people experience the reverse effect. For those sitting behind the plate, the effect is the most obvious. The ball is actually the same size as before, it just looks smaller as it flies away. We need to play some of this kind of small ball... where we hit the ball really hard, compressing it momentarily, and then letting it fly... real far... into a gap or over the fence, in the field of play. That would be really cool. Another key is to limit how many times the other team hits the ball into compression (or small ball) and not allowing subject ball to get into the gaps or over the fence, in the field of play. If you combine both your team hitting well and their team not hitting well... the outcome is generally in your favor. It generates more wins and less losses. I call it "small loss" with "small ball".

[RaisingCajun08]

_ Back when the big bats were outlawed I thought the Robichaux era had begun. Now it seems the rest of the baseball worked has again figured out how to win without small ball. The UL guys can hit if we just let them have their space. I ask you this when was the last time a UL baseball player failed to get down a bunt? Where has it gotten them? _

How can you expect us to play small ball when we are constantly down by 5 or 6 runs?

[RaginCajun77]

Unless this team starts playing better baseball soon we will find ourselves on the losing side of more games. This pitching staff had a very poor weekend. ULM scored 39 runs this weekend. Pitching and fielding have to get better. We talk about our hitting struggling but look at it this way ULM scored an average of 13 runs over three games, that is asking alot of your hitting no matter how you look at it. Granted we need everyone to be more aggressive when at the plate. We need to swing the bat with authorityand get timely hits, but let's also be realistic expecting your team to score more than 13 runs over a three game series is a tall order.

My point is this season isn't over, but a few more weeks like this and it very well could be.

[Boomer]

Take away the errors in the first 2 games and the poor pitching in the first game and I think that ULM is Damn good ---Like Robe said --that is what the number one team looks like--Lil Swagger also!!!! Man I hope we get in the tourn. and it will be close!!!

[CajunProud]

We can't get a break this year. Now Benzel is out with a fractured wrist. It appears that this season is over and we need to get all of the young players a lot of experience for next season. I just can't understand why this program can't have sustained success. Oh well, I guess that is just baseball. Here's to next season.

[Cajunsmike]

_ We can't get a break this year. Now Benzel is out with a fractured wrist. It appears that this season is over and we need to get all of the young players a lot of experience for next season. I just can't understand why this program can't have sustained success. Oh well, I guess that is just baseball. Here's to next season. _

I can just about guarantee the coaches and players don't have that attitude, despite the disappointment of this weekend. We can still make the conference tournament. Do that and you don't know what can happen. We may get hot at that point. That is what occurred with UNO last year. I know this, giving up at this point will make that impossible. I don't expect the kids to give up. Baseball is a strange game and you never know when a winning streak will occur.

[jdebaillon]

I hate small ball. There is no place for it in the college game, but Robe can't get that through his thick head.

It amazes me how people think the game of baseball changes from one level to another. BASEBALL IS BASEBALL. Small ball is one of the most important parts of the game. LSU's 90s teams were stacked with power hitters, in the big barrel era, playing in a cracker jack box. Arizona State is the only team that has come close to matching those lineups. Those days are over. Small ball is about putting the ball in play and making the defense make a play. It's about moving the runner over with less than 2 outs. Ask the 2000 Clemson team if small ball isn't a part of the game. I hate this new "hitting philosophy" we have. Sure we hit more homeruns and have a better overall average. Go look at what is important. What is our batting average with runners in scoring position? Go even further, how many strikeouts do we have with a runner on 3rd this year? And most of all, look at our record. Pitching, defense, and SMALL BALL wins championships.

Oh and by the way, you've got some brass calling out one of the best coaches in the country like that.

[cajun4life]

_ Back when the big bats were outlawed I thought the Robichaux era had begun. Now it seems the rest of the baseball worked has again figured out how to win without small ball. The UL guys can hit if we just let them have their space. I ask you this when was the last time a UL baseball player failed to get down a bunt? Where has it gotten them? _

I said this about 3 weeks ago and people wanted to crucify me. Robe's style of babseball WILL NOT WIN enough baseball games to get us consitantly into regionals anymore. Every level of baseball from high school to the MLB relies on good pitching and great hitting. It is time that Robe is held accountable for the way UL has performed since making it to the CWS. Only 2 regional appearances since 2001 is unnaceptable. We are supposed to be the gold standard of baseball in our conference and that is no longer the case. Robe has won a lot of games and ran a clean program but we must demand better results as fans of UL.

[cajun4life]

_ It amazes me how people think the game of baseball changes from one level to another. BASEBALL IS BASEBALL. Small ball is one of the most important parts of the game. LSU's 90s teams were stacked with power hitters, in the big barrel era, playing in a cracker jack box. Arizona State is the only team that has come close to matching those lineups. Those days are over. Small ball is about putting the ball in play and making the defense make a play. It's about moving the runner over with less than 2 outs. Ask the 2000 Clemson team if small ball isn't a part of the game. I hate this new "hitting philosophy" we have. Sure we hit more homeruns and have a better overall average. Go look at what is important. What is our batting average with runners in scoring position? Go even further, how many strikeouts do we have with a runner on 3rd this year? And most of all, look at our record. Pitching, defense, and SMALL BALL wins championships.

Oh and by the way, you've got some brass calling out one of the best coaches in the country like that. _

Quit being a HOMER!!!! Robe is a good coach but HE is ultimately responsible for the success and failures of this team. Robe has not gotten us to where we should be since the CWS appearance. We will not make the conference tourney this year and we have missed regionals 6 times since the CWS. If you think that is where we should be as a program the so be it. But I want us to be the best that we can be and we are far from that.

Small ball is a style of baseball that is dying. Big barrel bats and todays bats are the same alloys so that is no excuse. 1/8 of an inch is not that big of a difference. Bunting, stealing, sac fly's are what small ball is all about. That type of baseball is not going to win a series at any level of baseball above high school. The only way to win is to play solid defense and crushing the baseball when your at bat. Does that mean hitting home runs all the time like LSU and ASU? No, it means having aggresive at bats just like ULM did to us this weekend. They hammered the ball. ULM has done that all year long. While Robe's teams have traditionally tried to work the count and get pitchers to make a mistake pitch. I for one do not think that is a good philosophy at the college level. We must become more agressive at the plate in order to win.

[jdebaillon]

Quit being a HOMER!!!! Robe is a good coach but HE is ultimately responsible for the success and failures of this team. Robe has not gotten us to where we should be since the CWS appearance. We will not make the conference tourney this year and we have missed regionals 6 times since the CWS. If you think that is where we should be as a program the so be it. But I want us to be the best that we can be and we are far from that.

Small ball is a style of baseball that is dying. Big barrel bats and todays bats are the same alloys so that is no excuse. 1/8 of an inch is not that big of a difference. Bunting, stealing, sac fly's are what small ball is all about. That type of baseball is not going to win a series at any level of baseball above high school. The only way to win is to play solid defense and crushing the baseball when your at bat. Does that mean hitting home runs all the time like LSU and ASU? No, it means having aggresive at bats just like ULM did to us this weekend. They hammered the ball. ULM has done that all year long. While Robe's teams have traditionally tried to work the count and get pitchers to make a mistake pitch. I for one do not think that is a good philosophy at the college level. We must become more agressive at the plate in order to win.

I agree that we have to get more aggressive at the plate. That is the biggest problem. We took way to many strikes this past weekend. I will disagree, though, on the statement that small ball won't win games above high school. The reason I responded in the first place was because the notion that "small ball is dead" is wrong. Our pitching and defense this year has forced small ball out of the equation, but it is not dead. When games turn into ones like Friday night, they become a coin flip. Good teams hold opposing hitters to very few runs. Good pitching will beat good hitting any day. You don't need great hitting to win if you pitch and play defense, but you do need to manufacture runs. Our situational hitting is awful. There are too many factors to pinpoint any one as the cause of this season going the way it has. As for Robe being responsible for the successes and failures, you are right, but I haven't seen him swing a bat or field a ground ball. These guys are supposed to be elite college athletes. I think they need to take a little responsibility also.