Baseball Continues to Slide (no pun intended)

[WataugaMan]

App lost again today in familiar style, 3-6. Seven pitchers were used today, Georgia scores in every inning starting in the 5th, 6 pitchers were used from the 5th inning on. We have now lost 5 in a row and are 1-6 for our last 7 games.

Because (as TDog would say)

[dlh71]

Do we just draw a name out of the hat when we bring in someone from the bull pen. Plus I do not understand this far along and we still are not settled on batting order and who plays where in the field. I must be clueless on how coaches manage the game of baseball anymore.

[AppDawg]

Do we just draw a name out of the hat when we bring in someone from the bull pen. Plus I do not understand this far along and we still are not settled on batting order and who plays where in the field. I must be clueless on how coaches manage the game of baseball anymore.

Just Jonesey-ball. No method to the madness.

[Saint3333]

19

[mtnjax]

Do we just draw a name out of the hat when we bring in someone from the bull pen. Plus I do not understand this far along and we still are not settled on batting order and who plays where in the field. I must be clueless on how coaches manage the game of baseball anymore.

Just Jonesey-ball. No method to the madness.

we are now referring to any situation where Jones makes a dumb decision as #Jonesing

[Goapps15]

Do we just draw a name out of the hat when we bring in someone from the bull pen. Plus I do not understand this far along and we still are not settled on batting order and who plays where in the field. I must be clueless on how coaches manage the game of baseball anymore.

Just Jonesey-ball. No method to the madness.

we are now referring to any situation where Jones makes a dumb decision as #Jonesing

The bullpen decisions I cannot speak for but the lineup I can. His top dogs (Davis, Dobson, Atwood, Pierson, etc) are not getting it done. Without these guys stepping up, why not give others a shot? The offense has not contributed very much to this team and that must change if this team is going to turn it around. This season could get away from Billy pretty quickly if he doesn't sure up problems.

[T-Dog]

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.

[AppDawg]

Our National Rankings Statistically per NCAA.com (Games through Sun 3/9/15).

293 Teams Ranked in Each Category. Rankings of extremes bolded. The #'s really seem to indicate a Jekyll and Hyde team. I found this site this weekend, as I wanted to put my claim that walks and HBP's are self-destroying us into perspective - was it truly as bad as I perceived it to be. Unfortunately, it is. The truth is in the #'s.

We are slightly out-hitting our opponents and are scoring a decent number of runs (albeit could improve slightly), our pitching is getting its fair share of K's however letting too many batters get a free pass, such that when they give up a "rare" hit - it hurts and hurts bad. I wish I could find a stat, short of searching the play-by-play records, to see how many batters walked/HBP have scored on us this year. On a positive note, what the stats do show me is if we get the free passes in check some of these close losses will hopefully start to reverse.

Team Batting Average - #185 - .245
Hits - #124 - 122 (8.7/game)
Walks - #199 - 39 (2.7/game)
On Base % - #240 - .3178
Home Runs - #30 - 11
Runs Scored - #170 - 63 (4.5/game) - 65 have been scored against us.
Fielding % - #112 - .968
Team ERA - #129 - 4.02
Hits Allowed per 9 Innings - #93 - 8.26
Hit Batters - #232 - 17
Walks Issued/Nine Innings - #239 - 5.06
Strikeouts/Nine Innings - #87 - 8.3
Strikeout to Walk Ratio - #193 - 1.65
W/L % - #200 - .357

[Goapps15]

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.

[WataugaMan]

In a nutshell the baseball program has been in a steady decline since Pollard left, how a contract extension was given is beyond belief. Hopefully things get corrected and I'm proven wrong. However, the same issues continue season after season.

[T-Dog]

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.

Looking at the stats, I was fine with benching Dobson as he went 0-fer with multiple errors on the weekend (he responded well at UGA so that looks solid). Davis had one big hit and Atwood was mostly quiet as well. Pierson is the one I have a big problem with. He was getting on base literally every game, but the 3-4-5 hitters (i.e. the others benched) weren't getting him home.

[Cincy App]

I didn't have a problem with benching our top 4 batters in the middle of Sunday's game. It doesn't hurt to send a message occasionally.

My biggest issue with last week was starting our 2 best relievers (Thurber and Ross) in mid-week games and thus, not having them as fresh for the conference weekend series.

[JTApps1]

While I certainly don't agree with every decision Billy has made with pitching changes I would like to point out that of our 18 pitchers we have 4 Sr, 2 Jr, 5 So, and 7 Fr. Of those 4 Seniors 2 have been injured all year, while 2 of the Soph. (Bauk and Brill) played mostly OF last year, and we only have 1 weekend starter returning. Of the 36 players on the roster 22 are Soph. or Freshman.

As we saw in football it takes a little patience when you've got a roster full of young guys especially when we have played good competition most of the year. Hopefully we can see a similar improvement in baseball as we did in football. I do think it is time to move Thurber to the weekend rotation though.

[Saint3333]

While I certainly don't agree with every decision Billy has made with pitching changes I would like to point out that of our 18 pitchers we have 4 Sr, 2 Jr, 5 So, and 7 Fr. Of those 4 Seniors 2 have been injured all year, while 2 of the Soph. (Bauk and Brill) played mostly OF last year, and we only have 1 weekend starter returning. Of the 36 players on the roster 22 are Soph. or Freshman.

As we saw in football it takes a little patience when you've got a roster full of young guys especially when we have played good competition most of the year. Hopefully we can see a similar improvement in baseball as we did in football. I do think it is time to move Thurber to the weekend rotation though.

That is a good excuse for a first or second year manager, or one that just had a great two or three years and lost a ton to graduation/draft. Neither apply here.

I hope Billy can turn things around, but I'm skeptical at this point.

[AppState1]

Go Apps!

[JTApps1]

While I certainly don't agree with every decision Billy has made with pitching changes I would like to point out that of our 18 pitchers we have 4 Sr, 2 Jr, 5 So, and 7 Fr. Of those 4 Seniors 2 have been injured all year, while 2 of the Soph. (Bauk and Brill) played mostly OF last year, and we only have 1 weekend starter returning. Of the 36 players on the roster 22 are Soph. or Freshman.

As we saw in football it takes a little patience when you've got a roster full of young guys especially when we have played good competition most of the year. Hopefully we can see a similar improvement in baseball as we did in football. I do think it is time to move Thurber to the weekend rotation though.

That is a good excuse for a first or second year manager, or one that just had a great two or three years and lost a ton to graduation/draft. Neither apply here.

I hope Billy can turn things around, but I'm skeptical at this point.

Remember that between the draft and graduation nearly every impact player from our 2012 team was gone either before Billy took over or after his first year. There is a reason Pollard left for a bottom level ACC team when he did.

We can debate whether he should have brought in some JUCO's to fill the gap, but he choose to rebuild through high school players. Can you honestly tell me that having 60% of your team and 75% of your pitching staff with a year or less in experience doesn't make a difference in close games?

As I said before I don't agree with every decision Billy has made, but I wonder how much his rosters inexperience comes into play with it?

[WataugaMan]

To date (this season) Pollard has taken a cellar dweller ACC team to a 12-3 start, in just his 3rd season. Granted they haven't hit the meat and taters part of their shcedule yet, time will tell. In the mean time, hopefully App can get things turned around.

[TheMoody1]

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.

[Saint3333]

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

[Cincy App]

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

It's still a really young team. Coach Jones took over the position after the 2012 season which significantly impacted his initial recruiting class and current junior class. Thus, he really has 2 full classes instead of 3. I don't think we need to jump the gun early in the season. After the season is the best time to assess. I have my concerns as well but I plan to wait until the end of the season.