📡 Bama Baseball swept by Mizzou

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[18Champs]

The University of Alabama baseball program has a long way to go.

That was Greg Goff’s message following his team’s listless offensive performance in its 3-0 SEC-opening series loss against Missouri on Friday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. It was a game in which his team struck out 14 times, collected just two hits and didn’t execute the little things that separate winning from losing.

“We’re definitely a long way from where we need to be, A long way,” Goff said. “Walking 13 and punching out (14 times)? We’re a long way.

“I think you’ve seen us play the last few weeks. We’re not where we need to be at the University of Alabama and the baseball program.”

Alabama falls in SEC opener to Missouri | TideSports.com

Posted without comment.

 

[EasyTider]

How many years do we give a baseball coach. Obviously this team doesn't have many SEC caliber baseball players.

 

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[TerryP]

How many years do we give a baseball coach.

Not as long as Mitch?

My skepticism of the Goff hire has been voiced here (and granted it extends a bit beyond the playing field.) I do think it's fair to give him a few years. I see his best season being a tad over .650 and that's a cause for concern but that's balanced out by the DII CWS win at Montevallo and his turnaround--a pretty quick one--at La Tech.

 

[UAgrad93]

How many years do we give a baseball coach. Obviously this team doesn't have many SEC caliber baseball players.

I would say give him 3 no more than 4!

 

[TheChief]

How many years do we give a baseball coach. Obviously this team doesn't have many SEC caliber baseball players.

Okay, I finally got to really absorb a Bama baseball game. This team has some SEC talent. Short and second are talented players. In fact, the infield is pretty good. Catching? Big, big problem. He doesn't frame pitches particularly well. He's not in position to block pitches and tries to glove when he is. He doesn't have a strong arm and has a funky motion throwing. Kid can hit though, so geez, dh him? Pitching will be an issue all year as well. If you don't have pitching, forget about it. So, they've got some players....but not many!

All that being said, this is not a smart team (from what I saw and my sample size is really small). I complained all last year (and got to see more games last season) that we don't take a smart approach hitting, and I'm not just talking about situational hitting but rather every single at bat. Yesterday, players wasted lots of at bats. But, not always. It's almost like the players know what to do and then don't do it sometimes, you know, like it's not habit.

I vowed I wasn't going to watch as much this season, and after the start they had I thought it would be easy not to watch. I can't help myself though. Sure is sad to see that big, new stadium practically empty.

The jury's not even deliberating yet on this coach. I figure he's in T-town for three or more years before it's even considered. Expectations are low just like in basketball. Make the tourney and you're a hero.

 

[TerryP]

Pitching will be an issue all year as well. If you don't have pitching, forget about it. So, they've got some players....but not many!

One thing to consider is Goff came up as a pitching coach so there's a reason to have some patience.

Sure is sad to see that big, new stadium practically empty.

It's spring break. What more do you expect?

 

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[UAgrad93]

@TheChief , our approach to hitting has been a shit show for 7-8 years!! Like you said, "they have no approach to the at bat!" I witnessed countless times during the Gaspard "error", first pitch, regardless of the location, they hack away. Then flail away harmlessly at another awful pitch and then take a called third strike down the pipe. When I coached HS baseball, my former coach introduced me to an approach called, "hitting by the numbers". This approach broke it down by the count. Example, 0-0, sit dead red fastball because the pitcher doesn't want to fall behind so he will pump in a fastball in an attempt to get ahead. Don't swing at any another pitch on the first pitch!!! My old coach used it and swore by it. He tested his guys on it and their numbers were outstanding!! They set the Alabama HS state record for HRs in 5A in 1999. I used it and saw all of our numbers skyrocket the first year! BA ballooned .200 points!!! Power numbers HRs, doubles, triples, OBP all exploded.

 

[TheChief]

Exactly @uagrad93 . Lots of variations on that style. But I totally agree you have to have some sort of idea when you go to the plate. Even if it's the wrong idea, have some thought process helping you hit. Watch Christian Yelich (US plays Japan tomorrow night, by the way).

The only problem with hitting by the count, and I think there's quite a bit of validity in lots of cases, is that a pitcher with really good command can exploit that. I caught or coached about five guys that I had no trouble calling any pitch in any count. A telling stat, four of those guys played some level of pro baseball. The higher the level, the tougher it would be to hit with that prediction model. I coached freshman ball one season, and we used a similar approach to the one you speak of (23-5 or 25-3 - it's been a long time - lost in the championship game).

@TerryP I would still expect a bigger crowd than what is in attendance. It doesn't seem like the majority of attending fans would be students anyway. Maybe there's a larger dynamic I'm not aware of.

Update on my criticisms of the position of catcher at UA. I saw a short bit of the game yesterday, and whoever was catching yesterday looked vastly different from the catcher on Friday. One inning sample size. Still a big difference. Nice mechanics. Good snap throw.

 

[UAgrad93]

@TheChief, I agree about the approach. As the level of athlete improves, a greater idea is needed. Middle School and HS, most pitchers aren't advanced enough to get more than 1 pitch across consistenly and 9/10 times it is the fastball. It is so frustrating to watch when there is clearly no set approach or idea when they stride to the plate.

 

[TerryP]

@TerryP I would still expect a bigger crowd than what is in attendance. It doesn't seem like the majority of attending fans would be students anyway. Maybe there's a larger dynamic I'm not aware of.

I'm not sure if you watched the game Friday night or the game Saturday afternoon. Friday had 3700 or so (I looked to see how many showed up to get those ridiculous Notre Dame shirts) and Saturday was around 3400.

It wasn't just spring break for UA but since it was let's keep in mind those ticket buyers also consist of faculty and staff. Friday was St. Patty's Day...so, it's reasonable to assume you can subtract a good number who were out the night before.

The crowd was smaller than normal for a Saturday outing, but not by a great deal. If we set aside opening weekend against Presbyterian it was about 500/600 lower than normal attendance. Is it reasonable to assume that 500/600 were students, faculty, and staff? I think so.

3400 is a small number when you consider--including the right field seating--capacity is at 8500. However, the product they are fielding right now isn't something that's going to make families plan on a Saturday afternoon game especially when they are facing Mizzou. Anyone who's following baseball this year knew that was going to be one hell of a hard series--even to avoid a sweep by winning one game of three.