Baseball Continues to Slide (no pun intended)

[Blackandgold]

Yeah, Pierson's not getting it done despite having a 43-game on-base streak, longest in the NCAA, before being benched Sunday in the 5th inning.

DeVrieze was brought in to pitch in situations with runners on twice last week and both times gave up crucial runs. Today, Jones did the same thing and got the same result.

Yes pitching is thin, but he can make much better decisions. A lot of pitching decisions in Statesboro were questionable.

I'm glad Jones benched them Sunday. It got everyone's attention. The issue I was making with Pierson, Davis, etc is that the leaders aren't getting the big hits or getting bunts down when needed. Its a major problem.

Maybe benching the others. But Pierson IS getting the job done. He's hitting .333 man. Can't bench that and break his streak of reaching base. Unless he broke a team rule or didn't hustle.


Bottom line is.. Pitching numbers aren't bad by any means (besides a couple guys that have super limited innings). Team is not hitting well, especially with men on base. Can't score, can't win. Pitching can kill you too, but that's not the issue right now. We gave up 14 runs at Georgia southern. Only scored 10 runs. Gotta score more than 10 runs a weekend, unless you have our 2012 pitching staff.

[AppDawg]

Appalachian State (Southern Conference) (2005–2012)
2005 Appalachian State 10–42 5–24 11th
2006 Appalachian State 24–31 9–18 8th SoCon Tournament
2007 Appalachian State 33–26 14–13 T–4th SoCon Tournament
2008 Appalachian State 32–27 14–13 T–6th SoCon Tournament
2009 Appalachian State 33–21 15–13 6th SoCon Tournament
2010 Appalachian State 38–18–1 14–14–1 7th SoCon Tournament
2011 Appalachian State 33–27 15–15 6th SoCon Tournament
2012 Appalachian State 41–18 21–9 T–1st NCAA Regional

I liked Pollard a lot, but take out 2012 and Pollard's conference record really wasn't anything exceptional.

There is a difference in winning 30+ games and making a run at 40 wins to where we are now struggling to hit 20-25 wins. We also played in a strong baseball conference where .500 was much better than where we were prior to Pollard coming aboard.

[AppDawg]

Bottom line is.. Pitching numbers aren't bad by any means (besides a couple guys that have super limited innings). Team is not hitting well, especially with men on base. Can't score, can't win. Pitching can kill you too, but that's not the issue right now. We gave up 14 runs at Georgia southern. Only scored 10 runs. Gotta score more than 10 runs a weekend, unless you have our 2012 pitching staff.

If you look at pitching in a vaccum - just strikeouts and hits allowed. Yeah, they are doing great. But there is another side. They are single handedly beating ourselves with walks and HBP. I just spent 15 minutes scrolling through our box scores and by my count 25 of those that have reached against us via walk or HBP have ultimately scored. That is about 1/3 of the total runs scores against us. Knock the walk rate down and all of a sudden the 4.5 runs we average scoring a game will turn into some wins.

[WataugaMan]

"There is a difference in winning 30+ games and making a run at 40 wins to where we are now struggling to hit 20-25 wins."

With only 5 wins to date, beginning to wonder if we will even reach the 20 win mark.

[JTApps1]

JT this is season three, in baseball that's a full rotation of płayers.

See Cincy App's response to this post. Let's see where we stand at the end of this year.

[WataugaMan]

JT this is season three, in baseball that's a full rotation of płayers.

See Cincy App's response to this post. Let's see where we stand at the end of this year.

This weekend series with Texas State should provide a good indicator, seeing it appears they are a middle of the pack conference team.

[JTApps1]

Appalachian State (Southern Conference) (2005–2012)
2005 Appalachian State 10–42 5–24 11th
2006 Appalachian State 24–31 9–18 8th SoCon Tournament
2007 Appalachian State 33–26 14–13 T–4th SoCon Tournament
2008 Appalachian State 32–27 14–13 T–6th SoCon Tournament
2009 Appalachian State 33–21 15–13 6th SoCon Tournament
2010 Appalachian State 38–18–1 14–14–1 7th SoCon Tournament
2011 Appalachian State 33–27 15–15 6th SoCon Tournament
2012 Appalachian State 41–18 21–9 T–1st NCAA Regional

I liked Pollard a lot, but take out 2012 and Pollard's conference record really wasn't anything exceptional.

There is a difference in winning 30+ games and making a run at 40 wins to where we are now struggling to hit 20-25 wins. We also played in a strong baseball conference where .500 was much better than where we were prior to Pollard coming aboard.

We played a tougher OOC schedule last year and so far this year than Pollards teams usually did. The SoCon was a good conference, but the Sun Belt is an even better league than it. It's going to be hard to directly relate the win totals of those years to now.

Just to be clear, I'm not knocking Chris in any way. I knew him well and even played golf with him a few times so I don't want to discount what he did here. The 2012 season was special but even he had a hard time winning against the best SoCon teams consistently.

[Saint3333]

JT this is season three, in baseball that's a full rotation of płayers.

See Cincy App's response to this post. Let's see where we stand at the end of this year.

No problem, I'm hoping you're right. But equating this program to what football went through and what basketball is going through is apples and oranges.

We should have no problem winning 30 games and the losing after leading after the 6th inning has to stop.

[Blackandgold]

Bottom line is.. Pitching numbers aren't bad by any means (besides a couple guys that have super limited innings). Team is not hitting well, especially with men on base. Can't score, can't win. Pitching can kill you too, but that's not the issue right now. We gave up 14 runs at Georgia southern. Only scored 10 runs. Gotta score more than 10 runs a weekend, unless you have our 2012 pitching staff.

If you look at pitching in a vaccum - just strikeouts and hits allowed. Yeah, they are doing great. But there is another side. They are single handedly beating ourselves with walks and HBP. I just spent 15 minutes scrolling through our box scores and by my count 25 of those that have reached against us via walk or HBP have ultimately scored. That is about 1/3 of the total runs scores against us. Knock the walk rate down and all of a sudden the 4.5 runs we average scoring a game will turn into some wins.

I look at ERA. take away bottom highest two ERAs which are skewed due to limited innings, and the staff has a 3.81 ERA as a whole. That should win games in college baseball. No ifs,ands, or buts about it.

[Blackandgold]

Appalachian State (Southern Conference) (2005–2012)
2005 Appalachian State 10–42 5–24 11th
2006 Appalachian State 24–31 9–18 8th SoCon Tournament
2007 Appalachian State 33–26 14–13 T–4th SoCon Tournament
2008 Appalachian State 32–27 14–13 T–6th SoCon Tournament
2009 Appalachian State 33–21 15–13 6th SoCon Tournament
2010 Appalachian State 38–18–1 14–14–1 7th SoCon Tournament
2011 Appalachian State 33–27 15–15 6th SoCon Tournament
2012 Appalachian State 41–18 21–9 T–1st NCAA Regional

I liked Pollard a lot, but take out 2012 and Pollard's conference record really wasn't anything exceptional.

There is a difference in winning 30+ games and making a run at 40 wins to where we are now struggling to hit 20-25 wins. We also played in a strong baseball conference where .500 was much better than where we were prior to Pollard coming aboard.

We played a tougher OOC schedule last year and so far this year than Pollards teams usually did. The SoCon was a good conference, but the Sun Belt is an even better league than it. It's going to be hard to directly relate the win totals of those years to now.

Just to be clear, I'm not knocking Chris in any way. I knew him well and even played golf with him a few times so I don't want to discount what he did here. The 2012 season was special but even he had a hard time winning against the best SoCon teams consistently.

If I'm not mistaken 2012 team played #6 lsu second weekend of the season. Also played South Carolina, Tennessee ?, duke (although not good, still acc team). Socon was also very very strong that year. 3 teams in ncaa tourney. All three collecting at least one win. Two teams making championship of regional.

Edit: disregard above. I just now saw your "usual" part.

[mtnjax]

Just a PSA, but tread lightly when tweeting any criticism of Jones. His son will find a week old tweet to respond to.

Giants camp must be exciting with that much free time