State of Alabama Baseball

[pmull]

Alabama got beat by Memphis last night 6-0. We got 4 hits, 0 extra base hits and only left 3 men on base. We also committed 3 errors.

We play Memphis again tonight at home before opening conference play against Tenn on Friday. The Tenn series is in Tuscaloosa. We are currently 8-8 on the season. We got off to a fast start by winning our first 6 games. Since then we are 2-8.

We are not a good offensive ball club. We have a .221 team batting average. We have 113 base hits. Only 18 of those hits were extra base hits. After 16 games we have 13 doubles, 1 triple and 4 HR. We average scoring 4.75 runs per game. We have been shutout 4 times.

We have above average pitching. We have a team ERA of 3.56. Both starting pitching and relief pitching has improved since last year.

We are a decent defensive team. We have committed 17 errors on the year for an average of 1.06 per game. That is not bad but you would like to see that number under 1.0 per game. The errors have hurt us. They have lead to 16 unearned runs. By comparison our opponents have committed 26 errors that have lead to 15 unearned runs. We have turned 19 double plays.

We have played a difficult schedule to this point but it is no where near as difficult as the SEC schedule will be. The SEC is again this year the # 1 rated baseball conference. There will be no easy wins in the SEC.

We can win with our pitching and defense but we will struggle as a team until our offense improves. We have to hit for a better average and for more power (slugging pct.). Wade Wass, JUCO transfer catcher power hitter, is expected back from preseason injury soon. His bat will help tremendously if he preforms as expected. He should be able to DH soon and begin catching later in the season. DH has been a weak position for us. Our DH has been hitting in the #8 spot and not producing hits or runs. Somewhere on the bench CMG has to find a bat for the DH. We can be a good team if our hitting improves. Otherwise we will struggle.

Coach Mitch Gaspard and staff have to get this team winning games. There are a lot of excuses like our facilities are not the best in the league and we do not have Hope Scholarship money to help bring in players. That may be a small part of the problem. We need better coaching. We are a young team so we should see improvement as the season goes on. Last year our team did not show any improvement. The staff has not shown the ability to develop the talent. We are getting good players. CMG is on the hot seat.

[pmull]

It is being reported today that Wade Wass will not be available to DH for the Tenn series this weekend. He should be ready to go next week against UGA.

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[Marshal Dillon]

I have NEVER claimed to have 'inside" information on this board, but this time I might have something of note. Recently, I was talking to a local high school baseball coach who has been to the state baseball championships on more than one occasion. A high profile state baseball prospect had just announced he was signing with Miss. State and I wondered out loud how we were missing out on this talent at Bama. He quickly replied that the Tide HC, Gaspard, was an ass clown who had zero rapport and respect with the high school baseball coaches in the state. If the Tide continues with its problems, the coach might have nailed the problem.


 

[pmull]

I have NEVER claimed to have 'inside" information on this board, but this time I might have something of note. Recently, I was talking to a local high school baseball coach who has been to the state baseball championships on more than one occasion. A high profile state baseball prospect had just announced he was signing with Miss. State and I wondered out loud how we were missing out on this talent at Bama. He quickly replied that the Tide HC, Gaspard, was an ass clown who had zero rapport and respect with the high school baseball coaches in the state. If the Tide continues with its problems, the coach might have nailed the problem.

You may be right, I don't know.

CMG seems like a nice guy and he has recruited pretty good. His last two classes were # 24 and # 16 in the country but that is only good for middle of the SEC. Most of the players are coming from the state of Alabama. My concern is the players are not getting better under the present staff once they get on campus.

[pmull]

We played a 17 game pre-conference schedule. Our record is 9-8.

We played a difficult schedule so far. Our SOS is 39. We have faced some very good pitching which is one of the reasons for our lack of offensive production.

We have an RPI of 74. Not terrible but not good enough to do well in the SEC. There are 9 SEC teams with better RPI than us. USCe, LSU, Vandy and Ole Miss are top 10. USCe and LSU are # 1 & 2.

The real season starts Friday when we face Tenn at home for the SEC opener. Tenn has an RPI of 57.

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