6 runs in three games only 4 were earned you need to go hire a hitting coach.
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And the players who hit well last year? Besides Triolo and Davis, that is the part I don’t understand…
When you don’t have a hitting coach that knows something about hitting they are going to screw up the kids swing and approach. It is sad because this team has good talent
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I was at the game Friday…amazed we won given how we played. But we looked the part. We should have won the 3rd game as well given Aguilar’s performance. Too many mistakes across the board. Just seems there is no focus nor cohesion in the dugout. We see individual examples of excellence, but in the end victories are the result of team excellence, most of the time. From top to bottom.
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Went to the first game of the doubleheader. I am 50 - 50 on Whitting. He needs some quality assistants which he does not have right now. We lost Anderson and Couch to SEC schools paying more money.
Our assistants now are not cutting it both coaching and recruiting wise. It has been a long time since we have had a team that does not have at least two or three quality draftable pitchers in the lineup. We have none right now. Aquilar maybe as he gets healthier. (I was talking to a scout at the game watching ECU’s first baseman and left fielder and Triolo.)
Right now Lockhart is our best pitcher but in my opinion, he should be focused on fielding and hitting. I am pretty sure his hitting is suffering from having to focus on pitching. But he is the best we got.
Yesterday, Mooney brought Bayless out to pitch after letting the previous pitcher throw 8 straight balls and walk two batters. Anderson would have never left someone in that long. With Anderson you attack the strike zone or sit. Bayless threw his 8 warm up pitches and maybe threw two strikes. Someone in the bullpen should have said he does not have control and not put him in. He walked the first batter on five pitches and I just looked at the scout and said, grand slam coming with Blackstone at the plate. He hit it a mile and the game was effectively over at the point.
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I agree with your first paragraph especially regarding the assitant staff but I disagree with you on having draftable pitchers on the staff. There are two pitchers that I know of for sure that have already been drafted straight out of high school and both were mid to upper 90’s guys in high school. Both chose to come to UH instead of starting a pro career because of Anderson and Couch. Anderson developed power pitchers and you are right, he demanded that they throw strikes in order to set up off speed out pitches. Current staff calls the pitches and from what I’ve seen, it’s at least 50% off speed. That just doesn’t get it in D1 baseball at this level and is detrimental to the pitchers health not to mention it’s extremely hard to command off speed for strikes at a high percentage.
However, there is no developmental program for any aspect of the game, since Anderson and Couch left and I’m not sure if it’s because current staff doesn’t know how to get it done or what it is. It’s just not there and not going to be there.
Any kid coming to UH thinking he’s going be developed into a great college baseball player or MLB prospect needs to seriously reconsider his decision if he has other options.
With that said, I am a Coog fan. There is a ton of talent on that team with I think at least 4 maybe 5 kids drafted out of High School and there is no reason that UH Baseball should be struggling like they are.
When MLB teams don’t perform to potential they don’t fire rhe whole team, maybe trade a few, Management makes changes in coaching. Winning starts at the top with the leadership. We don’t seem to have any at this time.
These players are used to winning and want to win but they are literally boys, young men that require continued development both physically and mentally. They’re just not getting that it seems.
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TW just got an extension, so he’s not going anywhere. Losing Trip and Frank was big blow
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HC contract extension was great and granted because there is demonstrated past success in the program. Extension also requires that the success continues. It is the Head Coach’s responsibility to make sure the program’s success is carried out by the assistant coach leadership and that his developmental vision is executed exactly the way he wants it and that’s just not happening. Not putting this all on HC but I do know that changes have to be made across the board at assistant coach level. Clean house!!! The talent is there and most of these kids will run through a brick wall to win. They aren’t doing that for these coaches so it’s obvious where the problem lies and it appears tobe a systemic issue that’s needs immediate and exacting action. Contracts and Extensions mean nothing when it comes down to it! Every loyal alumni and fan in the stands sees it and it’s a consensus… GoCoogs!
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For whatever reasons, this is not a good team. Period.
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I hear you P, long-time Coog Baseball supporter as well. I wouldn’t be shocked to see some staff changes in off-season. Anxious to see what the incoming JUCO class brings to the dish. A healthy Cherry Bomb is huge plus…kid is real deal, one of the few HS position players seen in last couple years that could actually play D1 as a true Frosh at effective level IMO
I’ll remain a huge TW defender in terms of him leading the program in the future and what he’s done in both the on field and off field. In so many ways he checks every theoretical box on what we should want from a UH baseball coach.
But this year’s been pretty disappointing. I am not the biggest fan of the new pitching coach (more on that later) but there are guys like Lockhart, Bond, Villareal and Aguilar who didn’t come into the year as sure things and have on the whole been net positives. The bullpen is kind of a mixed bag, but it’s dramatically deeper than last year’s 'pen and I’d take Villareal over last year’s high leverage relief guys. The pitching has aspects I’m pretty disappointed about, but if you’d told me some of our top line numbers before the season, knowing what we had returning/coming in I’d probably take them.
The lineup outside of Davis has been pretty disappointing. Big Joe is spectacular and I’m sure he would trade most of his homers for the team playing better on the whole. Great kid and ballplayer and I’ll miss seeing him play for us. Triolo has had his moments, but has regressed from 2018. And after him? Who in this line-up has performed above replacement level as a college hitter? I really like the future potentials from Cherry and Burckel, but right now its not close to realized. Lockhart has improved lately at the plate, but its hard to say his hitting hasn’t suffered from pitching as well. The pitching staff did well enough for this team to take 2/3 from UConn and ECU, which would’ve been MASSIVE for the season. Unfortunately those are 2 home series losses.
Even with the pitching staff performing at a reasonable level I’m not sold on Terry Rooney on this staff. That has as much to do with him as recruiting coordinator as his work as pitching coach. Like most of y’all, I’m not thrilled with the amount of walks and the inconsistency of a lot of the staff. The in-game decisions of when to take a guy out are frustrating, especially after years of Frank Anderson’s notoriously low tolerance for walks. But, how many major positive impact guys have we gotten from the last 2 recruiting classes? There are a few, but it seems like we’re hitting at a much lower rate than Couch’s last few classes.
The defense and approach at the plate have looked really bad lately. We’re deep enough into the season to say with certainty this is a below average defensive team. We’re deep enough into the season to say with certainty this is a below average hitting team and I didn’t think I’d be saying that before the season with all the returning talent in the lineup.
Like I said at the top, I believe in TW as the leader of the program. I’m not so sure about the rest of the staff and deep sigh this is what happened with Coach Noble as well.
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Agree with you 100% with your take on Head Coach. He’s done a great job building the “brand” and making UH a top prospect destination and I don’t see that changing. It’s a thankless job at times but it will turn around for him.
I also concur with you regarding the recruiting coordinator and pitching coach. IMO he does not demonstrate knowledge or expertise in mananging a pitching staff, a craft skill developmental program or managing in-game strategical decisions.
I feel HC will do the right thing and recruit the right man for that role for next year. UH cannot move forward until he’s gone!
With that said, I will reiterate that there is depth of talent on that pitching staff. Pitching coach doesn’t know how to get that talent translated to game time performance. Just doesn’t…i.e. Definition of Insanity! Hello??? What you’re doing isn’t working.
Offense and Defense is another story. If this team can reduce base running and fielding errors and hit a few ticks higher than they are now they can still finish strong.
Inspite of pitching coach woes, I think the pitching staff has kept the team IN most games with a chance to win. They LOB 14 on Friday night and still pulled off the W.
GoCoogs!
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This team has no hitting coach nobody to help them when they are struggling if you watch this team in the fall they are all hitting very well because they just came from their summer programs that had coaches that knew what they were talking about could help them with their swing but here once they get into a slump they’re done they have nobody to help them and as far as the pitching we’ve had guys in the fall throwing well over 90 because they were throwing only fastballs and very little off speed Rooney has no idea how to call pitches and everyone around the country knows what he’s going to call it’s sad because on paper this is a very very good team. If Whitting wants to save his job in the future he better get some good coaches around him the ones he has now are horrible Carter Henry last year was throwing in the 90s with a good sharp curve and Rooney made him throw that 90% of the time sad. Pitch calling is very important and Rooney has no idea that’s why these kids don’t throw too many strikes
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Funny you mention Henry. Kid was amazing last year and delivered in close games. Go to guy when it counted out of the pen. Haven’t seen much of him at all but last week or so he seems to be getting some work. He actually looked good on Saturday despite a few hits given up. His FB looked sharp! Need him back to finish this run strong.
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Carter was banged up prior to the season and has been recovering early in the year. Only lately, has his confidence started returning. He’s pitched well lately. Injuries have been a huge issue for this team so far. Cherry getting hurt in the spring game, Henry, Pettitte, Aguilar, Padgett, Bielamowicz, and Hyland have all been on the shelf or recovering at some point this season. That’s a lot of key players that have been out at times.
But, the biggest issue is the hitting. We can’t hit. 2.88 average runs scored so far in conference just ain’t gonna cut it. Strikeouts have gone way up, power (outside of Davis) has gone way down this season and that does point to the hitting coach.
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I am not saying there is talent on the team. It is there but right now the only one showing MLB potential is Triolo. And I am going based on the scouts actions. What I am saying is what a lot on this board is saying and that we do not have assistant coaches developing and working with these players. I read through the comments above and no one mentioned Minter. Look at this kid coming out of high school and where he is today.
I do think that with the right coaching you could have a power hitter lineup with four or five guys able to go yard at anytime and also hit for average. I also agree with the pitching. We don’t let our pitchers challenge the hitters. It is breaking balls and try to hit the black. I noticed the radar gun was not working on Saturday and thought maybe because we don’t want people to see our velocity.
Note: I am not putting on the kids. I am putting it squarely where it belongs which is the assistant coaching staff. I also put some of it on Whitting as well, but, and I do not know this for a fact, but my guess he has not had the $s to go out and hire good assistants.
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Minter has been baffling. Kid tore it up in high school and tore it up over the summer, along with Ron Brown. How neither of them are able to do anything of note with the Cougars is pretty damning. Those were supposed to be our two top recruits last year and neither seem to be able to get going at the plate.
Just looking at stats on site ( as of 4/3 ) There’s always lies, damn lies and statistics. Overall UH was at .236 BA vs opp .228 The thing that stands out to me and that’s only cause have been looking at it in depth lately is, Frosh/Soph players are hitting 20/150 @ .134 BA… hard to transition from the HS level to collegiate, especially D1
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The approach at the plate is as bad as our approach on the mound. Goes back to coaching.
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