We get out hit again and get 8 walks and 3 errors and score only 5 runs and still get a win. CAP is not doing too good of a job with our hitters . When we get into sec play we are in trouble if we cant get some more players that can hit some more opportunities .Thank goodness for good pitching.
Samford observations ?
- Thread starter heathco9
- Start date
Yes I was at the game 8 walks and 8 hits with 5 runs and 3 of those unearned. I had high hopes just by looking at our record 7-1. We better improve with the bats before SEC play. Pitching is very deep I have to give the pitching coach credit for his work with them but the hitting coach has turned a freshman all American into a 150 hitter. I am still hoping our bats wake up because samford isn't a very good pitching team by there stats in this early year.
Ping if it aint the coaches fault ,it sure aint all the players fault either, then whos is it. I can tell you this also ,when you have the kind of experience on the bench that we have ,that by all accounts was our hottest hitter during fall and spring practices and he only gets 1 or 2 bats a week then whos fault is that. Our batting averages should be out the roof right now for the 9 starters, they have played almost all of every game against less than average pitching.this early in the season ,with this many at bats ,and especially with this low caliber of pitching that we have faced, we as a team should be very concerned. we better find some offense and find it soon .
very happy to be 7-1. i give credit to the hard work of the players, coaches and others invilved.
defensively we are very good, especially up the middle. i hope every reserve player in the dugout disappointed to the point that they keep working hard and take advantage of every opportunity they get. one thing to remember if a coach is reponsible for turning a frehman aa into a sub 200 hitter he also should get credit for turning booth into a .400 hitter with a .500 obp.
i mean we are 7-1. yeah there are better teams out there. the dh spot looks to still be open so a hot hitter can take advantage of that and claim a spot.
rtr
defensively we are very good, especially up the middle. i hope every reserve player in the dugout disappointed to the point that they keep working hard and take advantage of every opportunity they get. one thing to remember if a coach is reponsible for turning a frehman aa into a sub 200 hitter he also should get credit for turning booth into a .400 hitter with a .500 obp.
i mean we are 7-1. yeah there are better teams out there. the dh spot looks to still be open so a hot hitter can take advantage of that and claim a spot.
rtr
Austin and Ben are the only two guys we have who I have faith in as far as power goes, and both will get it going sooner or later. Booth has some pop every now and then. Roberts on rare occasions. Other than that we are going to have to hit and run, steal scrape and claw to score runs. It's no different than it has been since 2010. What is different is pitching and defense, which ARE better. If that's not enough to give you hope then you will have to do without it, but I do have some hope that we will be a better team.
Winning these first two middies is a help.
rtr
Winning these first two middies is a help.
rtr
You are correct on the type team we have not much pop in the bats so we will have to play all out every at bat. Booth is the best catcher we have defensively but his average dropped 300 points in 4 games against average at best pitching he needs to be consistent but the SEC pitcher will make him and average hitter as always. It is time to change our DH and give someone at least 15 at bats to see if they can get hot Baxter is struggling against average pitching and he has had enough time to get better. We are better in the middle infield and I have high hopes for them they will struggle with the bat some but will make it up on defense. Moore should get going but our history shows recently that 2 years with our hitting coach changing you up sets you back, also last night there was several balls Moore should have caught just looked like his effort wasn't there his hitting woes may be affecting his effort in the field. Overall watching the game at Sewell Thomas last night gave me a little hope we can compete but still waiting to give praise to the coaches. Kids are playing hard as a whole. We have a chance to win this weekend Tulane isn't that good this year but starting next week we will start having to improve.
30-35 wins, playing in the SEC should be good enough to get us to the NCAA Tourney, and hopefully we should have enough quality pitching depth that we could make some noise once we get there.
But yeah, offensively, we are not quite getting it done. If not for the stellar pitching and defense, we'd be around the 4-5 win mark rather than 7.
But yeah, offensively, we are not quite getting it done. If not for the stellar pitching and defense, we'd be around the 4-5 win mark rather than 7.
I work with a guy whose son plays for Samford. He has seen us and Miss State play and said they hit the ball a lot better than us right now. He was impressed with the three pitchers we threw last night. But as most of these post state; we need to start hitting the ball a lot better if we are going to turn things around in conference play.
It's the player's fault. If a guy's average dipped from .310 to .270, I might listen to an argument about coaching/philosophy/etc. But when you're hitting .150, the man in the mirror is the most likely issue.
Of course, the sample size is still a little small to make any lasting declarations.
This. Lets relax on the team BA. It's real early and we have an extremely young team. A lot of teams go through tough stretches at the plate and we just happen to be starting that way. Plus lets play some games when the temps get above 60 degrees. This makes a big difference in hitting.
i am sure that every position player in the dugout believes that given 15 at bats they would hit a gain a starting position, if they didn't feel that way i would not want them on the team. my point is that everybody blames the coaches for last year so lets give them credit for the record so far this year. it may chang, i hope not. lets remember that averages will rise and fall but our pitching and defense need to stay steady and improve. rtr
Not sure why we are complaining. We are 7-1 atm. I don't care if we win every game 1-0 on a passed ball in the bottom of the 9th and went undefeated for the year. A win is a win. Period. Why can't we say, hey guys nice start, keep it up? Reminds me of all the people that are riding Coach Grant on the basketball forum. The negativity gets old after awhile. Why don't we pull for them instead of tearing them down.
In keeping with the theme of this thread, I will add the observations of someone who has been a loyal, vocal supporter of the Tide for many years. It is nice to be 7-1 at this point. I am optimistic that this year will end up being better than last year. However, I am not ready to make reservations in Omaha just yet. Honestly, I'm not even sure that it is a good idea to make reservations for Hoover yet. I do not know if our early season success is a function of us having a good team or of our opponents not being very good. Truthfully, I think is is a combination of both.
Our pitching has looked pretty good overall. There have been some rocky times but the guys have gutted it out. Overall, I am pleased with our pitching. Again, though, how much of that is a function of our pitching and how much is a function of our opponents' hitting?
Defensively, I think we are better than last year. White and Overstreet look like an incredible double play combination. They are going to be fun to watch.
Offensively ... I am going to try to be careful not to offend people here, but I am not impressed with our offense. We have some guys who have shown that they can look pretty good at the plate at some points and pretty bad at others. I am very concerned that we will struggle even more when we get to SEC play. The level of pitching in the SEC is better than anything that we have seen so far. If we are going to make a run in the SEC, we better be ready to win a bunch of 2-1 and 3-2 ballgames because I just don't see us scoring bunches of runs in conference play. I hope I am wrong, but that's just the way that I see it.
Earlier in this thread, someone griped about our hitting coach turning a freshman All American into a .150 hitter. First, and foremost, I think Ben will turn things around and that he will do so soon. My biggest concern is that he already has 9 strikeouts this season and he only had 26 all of last season. The biggest change I have seen in Ben is his approach at the plate. He seems to be trying to pull everything and hit it out of the park instead spraying line drives all over the park like he did last year. That is an easy fix. Ben just needs to concentrate on making solid contact and forget about trying to be Hank Aaron and he will be fine.
Why has Ben's approach changed this year? My guess is that it is due to coaching. Over the past two seasons, I have watched as a number of guys who in their first year hit pretty well started their second year trying to be a homerun hitter. When that happens, batting averages drop and strikeouts go up. It has happened too many times to be a coincidence. I know that there are those who will disagree with me. I can back my observation up with stats. Here is a list of several players since Andy became our hitting coach and what they did in their first year under him compared to their second year:
Player First Year Second Year
Brett Booth .257 .240
Andrew Miller .250 .185
Austen Smith .297 .240
Jared Reeves .340 .316
Josh Rosecrans .248 .182
Add to that one of the best Bama hitters of all time - Taylor Dugas - who hit .352 as a freshman and .395 as a sophomore under Dax and then hit .349 and .343 under Andy. Andy was a great player and a great hitter when he played here. However, he needs to understand that the days of gorilla ball are gone. Players today need to try to hit singles and doubles and let homers come when they come. They do not need to try to hit bombs. We have tried that for the past two years and it got us nowhere. We have great team speed this year. We need to get base hits and let our speed work for us.
It is quite simple to me. It we do what we are capable of doing -- pitch well, play good defense, string together base hits and use our speed, we will be very competitive in the SEC. If we all try to hit bombs, we won't go far at all.
Our pitching has looked pretty good overall. There have been some rocky times but the guys have gutted it out. Overall, I am pleased with our pitching. Again, though, how much of that is a function of our pitching and how much is a function of our opponents' hitting?
Defensively, I think we are better than last year. White and Overstreet look like an incredible double play combination. They are going to be fun to watch.
Offensively ... I am going to try to be careful not to offend people here, but I am not impressed with our offense. We have some guys who have shown that they can look pretty good at the plate at some points and pretty bad at others. I am very concerned that we will struggle even more when we get to SEC play. The level of pitching in the SEC is better than anything that we have seen so far. If we are going to make a run in the SEC, we better be ready to win a bunch of 2-1 and 3-2 ballgames because I just don't see us scoring bunches of runs in conference play. I hope I am wrong, but that's just the way that I see it.
Earlier in this thread, someone griped about our hitting coach turning a freshman All American into a .150 hitter. First, and foremost, I think Ben will turn things around and that he will do so soon. My biggest concern is that he already has 9 strikeouts this season and he only had 26 all of last season. The biggest change I have seen in Ben is his approach at the plate. He seems to be trying to pull everything and hit it out of the park instead spraying line drives all over the park like he did last year. That is an easy fix. Ben just needs to concentrate on making solid contact and forget about trying to be Hank Aaron and he will be fine.
Why has Ben's approach changed this year? My guess is that it is due to coaching. Over the past two seasons, I have watched as a number of guys who in their first year hit pretty well started their second year trying to be a homerun hitter. When that happens, batting averages drop and strikeouts go up. It has happened too many times to be a coincidence. I know that there are those who will disagree with me. I can back my observation up with stats. Here is a list of several players since Andy became our hitting coach and what they did in their first year under him compared to their second year:
Player First Year Second Year
Brett Booth .257 .240
Andrew Miller .250 .185
Austen Smith .297 .240
Jared Reeves .340 .316
Josh Rosecrans .248 .182
Add to that one of the best Bama hitters of all time - Taylor Dugas - who hit .352 as a freshman and .395 as a sophomore under Dax and then hit .349 and .343 under Andy. Andy was a great player and a great hitter when he played here. However, he needs to understand that the days of gorilla ball are gone. Players today need to try to hit singles and doubles and let homers come when they come. They do not need to try to hit bombs. We have tried that for the past two years and it got us nowhere. We have great team speed this year. We need to get base hits and let our speed work for us.
It is quite simple to me. It we do what we are capable of doing -- pitch well, play good defense, string together base hits and use our speed, we will be very competitive in the SEC. If we all try to hit bombs, we won't go far at all.
bamajake you make a lot of sense. some of the drop off could be the thinking of hitting 15 homers equals draft potential. we don't have a true homerun hitter. as you say we need hits, speed and to some's dismay a sac.-bunt whenever the coach thinks its needed. some want to run coaches after a good start, i say i will support them and their decisions. i mean you typed a lot didn't cut no players or fire no coaches, you just offered what some would call constructive comments. well done. rtr
Preach on Bama Jake you are correct they are trying to get him to hit with power. He just needs to do what Ben does. As far as AP Hitting coach great guy and ten years from now might be best hitting coach out there. 11 of the SEC programs have hitting coaches with somewhere between 9 and 15 years of experiance in coaching and not handed a job because you played college or pro baseball in my concern. I think you are right on.
Our pitching has looked pretty good overall. There have been some rocky times but the guys have gutted it out. Overall, I am pleased with our pitching. Again, though, how much of that is a function of our pitching and how much is a function of our opponents' hitting?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Spot on Bama Jake
I said earlier we are deep with the arms but our middle inning guys are a blown umpire call vs So Miss and double play ball from taking 2 L's, Even the Greer boy that pitched last night had a FB that was low 9s with below average secondary. SEC teams will rock a guy just with 1 pitch in low 9s
To survive the SEC you better have 3 quality pitches that you can throw any count any spot. Hopefully we throw the better hitting teams backwards and mix some things up.
Really not sure what happened to Alan Dye but from the 3 scrimmages i watched in the fall and 1 this spring, he could hit
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Spot on Bama Jake
I said earlier we are deep with the arms but our middle inning guys are a blown umpire call vs So Miss and double play ball from taking 2 L's, Even the Greer boy that pitched last night had a FB that was low 9s with below average secondary. SEC teams will rock a guy just with 1 pitch in low 9s
To survive the SEC you better have 3 quality pitches that you can throw any count any spot. Hopefully we throw the better hitting teams backwards and mix some things up.
Really not sure what happened to Alan Dye but from the 3 scrimmages i watched in the fall and 1 this spring, he could hit
Last edited:
In my mind at least, it's been obvious from the first game that we are going to have to fight like hell in every single game to be competitive. It's going to be like watching the basketball team, except we play a lot more often. From reading the aTm boards, they are in the same boat. I don't keep up with very many other teams, but it just seems like hitting is not anyone's strong point these days.
rtr
rtr
i looked back at the box scores from our season so far. as far as hitting we have only be out hit in our loss. in 2 or 3 games we got out hit by a hit or 2. overall we probably have more hits than the teams we played. looking at the upside i like this team. rtr
Latest threads
-
-
-
SIAP there was an article that Joe K interviewed for assistant coach
- Started by mlingerfelt31
- Replies: 11
-
Final Home Midweek for Alabama Brings Samford to The Joe- Started by Diamond Tide
- Replies: 0
-
-
