Caleb was a favorite of mine when he played here. Good, hard-nosed catcher that called good games and had the trust of the pitchers. He was the reason Connor Wong ended up not playing catcher when he 1st got here. I hope they can find a position for him, but the world of volunteer assistants is so hard. It really is too bad that the NCAA (including our Cincy rep that voted against the conference’s wishes) didn’t approve the 3rd coach.
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I’m talking about stand out pitchers that could be relied upon such as a Trey Cumbie, Seth Romero, Andrew Lantrip, Aaron Fletcher, Aaron Garza, Jake Lemoine and someone mentioned Brad Lincoln. I thought we had some good pitchers this year but not some of the more dominant performances that we have had in the past. I would like to get a few stud arms next year.
Pretty good resume; was with South Carolina during their strong run earlier in the decade. Shockers offense was 45th in runs/game last season, but tumbled this season to 154th. Of course, that was still better than our 232nd rank.
Small world note: Esposito was the guy that Trip Couch replaced at South Carolina.
He was part of the staff that got let go after that strong run though. He was a volunteer assistant before Tanner quit coaching in 2012 and moved up when he left. I’m not blaming him for the downfall but he was there for it.
I’m Missouri with this hire. He may be good but need to see it. The last 2 guys he hitched his wagon to got fired while he was there.
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True, South Carolina’s strength during his years as hitting coach was their pitching. In his 5 years there as hitting coach, only 2 of them saw the team score more than 330 runs (around 5.5 runs per game); both years they did, they made the super regionals. They did make the NCAA tourney one other year he was there when they managed 330 runs in 62 games on the season, but that was mainly due to their pitching which was giving up less than 3 runs per game.
In Couch’s 1st season there, they scored 390 runs in 63 games…last year that fell to 308
Looking at Esposito’s Wichita State’s years, they scored 375 runs in his 1st year there, which was the highest total they’d had since 2013 when they scored 376 runs and was the last time they went to the NCAA tourney. Last year, that total fell to 331 which is about what they averaged during the Todd Butler years.
But, scoring 330 runs in a season would probably mean that we’re going to the NCAA tourney. Every year under Whiting (not counting the 1st one) that we scored over 320 runs in a season ended up in an NCAA tourney berth. The two recent years that we missed the tourney: 2016 - 289 runs in 59 games and 2019 - 278 runs in 56 games.
So, on the surface, I don’t think this is a home run hire, but it’s not a bad hire. We’ll have to wait and see.
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Shotz ends up at UIW as a head coach
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Yeah, its not a home run hire but not head scratching either. That WSU lineup in 2017 was tourney worthy but they had an absolutely abysmal pitching staff. It’s a good sign that we have a dedicated hitting coach on staff after last year, if nothing else.
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The question I have about Rooney is, there is a perception that he might not be a great pitching coach and that could hurt is ability to recruit pitchers effectively!
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