App wins last weeks rain shortened game 3-1. Getting ready to start game 2.

Apps lead 5-2 top 7. Rain delay.

Marcelo to the rescue. Now 5-4 and he has walked three men in the top of the 7th.

Awful inning. Walks, errors, trail 6-5 now with runners at the corners for ETSU and just 1 out.

Mid 7. Trail 7-5. Ugh.

7-6 going to the 9th.

Callaway and Davis strike out to strand Crespo at third.

Think Davis was 0 for 12 at the Citadel and not much better against Samford. He has not adjusted to hit to the opposite field and tries to pull everything and pitchers now curve him to death. Gosh, please wise up and go with the pitch. Can you say "Cerono" sp? from Major League. Marcello gives me throw up reaction.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...

Robert Norton wrote:Think Davis was 0 for 12 at the Citadel and not much better against Samford. He has not adjusted to hit to the opposite field and tries to pull everything and pitchers now curve him to death. Gosh, please wise up and go with the pitch. Can you say "Cerono" sp? from Major League. Marcello gives me throw up reaction.

Davis has one hit in the last seven games.

YesAppCan wrote:Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...

Again!

hapapp wrote:

Robert Norton wrote:Think Davis was 0 for 12 at the Citadel and not much better against Samford. He has not adjusted to hit to the opposite field and tries to pull everything and pitchers now curve him to death. Gosh, please wise up and go with the pitch. Can you say "Cerono" sp? from Major League. Marcello gives me throw up reaction.

Davis has one hit in the last seven games.

He's not hard to scout.

Y'all keep in mind he's a freshman. Of course he's going to have his growing pains. After a couple conference weekends I'm sure the scouting report said to feed him breaking balls. Naturally he will struggle with off speed, as the off speed he faced in high school were no where near as good as the ones he is facing now.

Also, the team is doing as expected. I think expectations set should be realistic. And based off of what we lost, the result this year is as expected. Sure, it's frustrating to lose those close games. But that's what happens when you have a very, very inexperienced team

Jaylin's got tons of ability but he is very young. He started off hot and has struggled to deal with the adjustments that opponents are making for him, as most freshmen do.

From what I can see, he needs to level off his swing and work on taking those outside pitches the other way. He seems to be trying to pull everything and elevate the ball, which is resulting in a lot of lazy fly balls. Still, he is batting .281 and is tied for second on the team with 28 RBI. Not a bad freshman campaign by any means.

Sadly, as DJ mentioned this weekend, I don't think we will see Leach back this season. Not sure how the rules work or if he played too many games but I hope he can get a medical redshirt.

The only hope for the postseason this year is getting hot in the SoCon tournament but I still think the future is bright for App baseball. Dobson, Leach and Davis will make a very strong middle of the line-up for the next few years and with Head, Holmes and Zupcic back next season, the line-up will be formidable.

Always need more pitching depth but the entire weekend rotation returns along with Thurber, Howard and Springs. Billy Jones came to Boone with a reputation as a strong recruiter, just need some more arms.

For a young team that lost their top two starters, closer, set-up man, two all-conference outfielders and clean-up man, then had the anchor of the line-up go down a month into the season, it would have been easy to completely fall apart at the seams. Getting 30+ wins and finishing .500 or better in conference would be a nice accomplishment for this team.

Blackandgold wrote:Y'all keep in mind he's a freshman. Of course he's going to have his growing pains. After a couple conference weekends I'm sure the scouting report said to feed him breaking balls. Naturally he will struggle with off speed, as the off speed he faced in high school were no where near as good as the ones he is facing now.

Also, the team is doing as expected. I think expectations set should be realistic. And based off of what we lost, the result this year is as expected. Sure, it's frustrating to lose those close games. But that's what happens when you have a very, very inexperienced team

He is a talent, no doubt. He will be a great one before he leaves ASU. However, his slump is corresponding to the team's struggles. I believe the early season start raised expectations beyond where they should have been.

It's all about pitching. This is once again proving itself true. Pitching wins championships. Which we are lacking consistency and depth

Blackandgold wrote:But that's what happens when you have a very, very inexperienced team

Might I add, an inexperienced head coach as well. I can deal with the young team and mistakes that are bound to happen. What I have a difficult time getting over are the situations Jones puts these players in time after time - specifically the pitchers. How many times has he left a pitcher in 2 or 3 batters too long rather than going to the 'pen? How many 5 run innings have we given up? Jones seems to leave them out there on an island and let the game get out of our reach. It has been this way since the 1st conference series against Davidson and has continued all year. I haven't seen any improvement on his management of a game and that is the most frustrating to me.

AppDawg wrote:

Blackandgold wrote:But that's what happens when you have a very, very inexperienced team

Might I add, an inexperienced head coach as well. I can deal with the young team and mistakes that are bound to happen. What I have a difficult time getting over are the situations Jones puts these players in time after time - specifically the pitchers. How many times has he left a pitcher in 2 or 3 batters too long rather than going to the 'pen? How many 5 run innings have we given up? Jones seems to leave them out there on an island and let the game get out of our reach. It has been this way since the 1st conference series against Davidson and has continued all year. I haven't seen any improvement on his management of a game and that is the most frustrating to me.

I don't really know who you would want to go to the bullpen to get because i have seen all of our pitchers abused coming out of the pen. Also our pitchers are fine as long as someone is not on base. Once one person gets on its like we start bouncing the ball and leaving it middle of the plate.

3rd wrote:I don't really know who you would want to go to the bullpen to get because i have seen all of our pitchers abused coming out of the pen. Also our pitchers are fine as long as someone is not on base. Once one person gets on its like we start bouncing the ball and leaving it middle of the plate.

Anyone. The point is, make a change and find something that works. I don't care if it requires 3 pitching changes in an inning. The leash should be longer in the 4th - 6th innings, but a lot of the time we are getting killed in the 7th - 9th when the leash on pitchers should be very short but for some reason it is not. Yes, we have a young staff - performance is going to be sporadic. However, if you get someone in there who obviously doesn't have "his stuff" on that particular day, either bounces pitches in warm-ups then walks bases loaded gives up 4 or 5 hits in a row bring someone else in - don't wait until the next guy hits a HR to make a change. Especially when we are leading or down by one, play to win the game. Don't leave the guy in there stranded. It simply seems to me that when it comes to managing the pitching staff, Jones is reactive rather than proactive. We certainly were spoiled the last several years with Pollard and his pitching background.