Gator Baseball 2022 Gator Baseball

[Spurdog98]

Season over?

It will be if we don't find a defensive catcher and learn how to put the ball in play with runners on.

I'm sure you'll have some smart azz comment for this but it would be refreshing if you posted some sort of useful commentary, and I'd welcome the rebuttal of some of my previous observations about the Gator brand of baseball.

 

[FireFoley]

I did not see the game last night but some of the overall observations are quintessential Sully. Can't get runners over or in. Lots of K's in critical situations. Base running blunders, which has been going on for years, and will only get worse with the return of Bell as 3B coach. Regarding catching, it is interesting how for years we had solid defensive catching with Jeroloman, Zunino and Rivera. Hell even Kolazvary (sp?) was a good defensive catcher with a great arm but played behind Rivera and Schwarz. Since Rivera, we have had to endure Schwarz, Matt Damon, Hickey, Greenfield (good arm though) and whoever else could not catch a lick or throw out a runner even if they ran backwards. Sully sacrificed defense at that position for offense and it has not been a good recipe.

 

[Spurdog98]

I did not see the game last night but some of the overall observations are quintessential Sully. Can't get runners over or in. Lots of K's in critical situations. Base running blunders, which has been going on for years, and will only get worse with the return of Bell as 3B coach. Regarding catching, it is interesting how for years we had solid defensive catching with Jeroloman, Zunino and Rivera. Hell even Kolazvary (sp?) was a good defensive catcher with a great arm but played behind Rivera and Schwarz. Since Rivera, we have had to endure Schwarz, Matt Damon, Hickey, and whoever else could not catch a lick or throw out a runner even if they ran backwards. Sully sacrificed defense at that position for offense and it has not been a good recipe.

The base running is just plain inexcusable and even the commentators were pointing it out. It amazes me that a power 5 school would have kids that don't know that 2 outs full count, you should be running on the next pitch. That's just flat out fundamental baseball.

 

[FireFoley]

The base running is just plain inexcusable and even the commentators were pointing it out. It amazes me that a power 5 school would have kids that don't know that 2 outs full count, you should be running on the next pitch. That's just flat out fundamental baseball.

It is a disease that permeates throughout all of UF's sports programs and stems from having poor head coaches in regarding fundamentals. I have said it over and over and over.......................... Football, Basketball, baseball there is no evidence that any of them ever physically practice the mental aspects of the game.

 

[Jbossgator8]

@FireFoley do you think its overdue time to move on from Sully? We want to see a specific brand of baseball but he seems to be too stubborn to conform to today's game and what fans want to see. Getting to the CWS is nice but we should have won more than 1 NC

 

[FireFoley]

No we are not going to move on from Sully b/c just like we won;t move on from Mike. Fooley and Fooley 2.0 are numbers lookers, they are not day to day, game to game, play to play AD's. They are not process guys, they are morons. I don;t think we want to see any specific style of baseball, but if you choose to play a style then you have to have the guys who can do that. Sully is trying to adapt to gorilla ball, but without gorilla's. We have one guy on the team that plays who at any time can go yard, and that is Armstrong. We have other guys who can hit a good number of HR's but that is really not their MO. We have gone from a team that use to be good pitching and good defense, to little pitching and no defense, yet we don;t seem to try and improve that lately, especially defense. So if that is the case you better have gorilla's but this is not the Aluminum Bat era. the point we are all trying to make is we would like the team to look like it understands the basic ABC's of the game. When is the last time a guy looked like he knew how to stand and hold the proper angle for a bunt, just to sacrifice? The baserunning BS all the time, not hitting the cut off man, etc. Fooley and Fooley 2.0 don;t see these things, just like they did not see what they hired in Cousin Eddie. Same with Mike and MIM (mired in mediocrity).

Just like Cousin Eddie wanted out and he got himself axed and same with Butters, Sully will only be gone when he tires of the fan's and his view that they are complaining and spoiled. But since there are only 5 or 6 baseball fans it won't happen. the majority of fans can think what they want when a big job comes open and supposedly Sully's name comes up. I an quite sure that just like Cousin Eddie, who was never considered by any other legit team, that Sully is not really a serious contender for a top flight job like when Texas, LSU, etc. went looking. Sully's rep was he got good pitching, played good defense and won consistently b/c he had a lot if not most of the best players. But when the money was on the line, Sully's sac shrunk and he had a lump in his throat that he used to piss with. Vanderbilt is an outlier, but there are reasons why teams that should not be on our level in the SEC are now on our level in baseball.

 

[Bullag8r]

I didn't watch the game last night because I was watching Emmylou Harris at the St Augustine Amphitheatre and she was great!!

But then again I don't have to watch because the boxscore tells me everything I need to know

12 strikeouts
12 men left on base

Let me just add, I think we have the players we just don't have a coach that is teaching the fundamentals of how to play baseball and win games. It appears that Sully is tired of being here and wants to move on.

 

[Spurdog98]

Perfect Game rankings and grades is he worst thing that ever happened to baseball.

 

[Jbossgator8]

@Bullag8r yeah if we have another season like last season or worse then I think he moves on. He has kind of run his course at UF and we need someone more invested in teaching the players the fundamentals and to have a more serious approach to the game of baseball in our new stadium. Top recruiting classes and getting to the CWS 7 times (which is more than anyone else combined in our history) is great but we only have 1 NC to show for it. We need a coach that can win multiple NCs at UF.

 

[dz_23]

We’ll win the next two at UM

 

[grengadgy]

Gators 3 - 0 bottom of 4th. ACCN+

 

[Jbossgator8]

Gators with a 5 spot in the 9th and a 8-1 lead

 

[grengadgy]

Gators with a 5 spot in the 9th and a 8-1 lead

FINAL. 8 - 1

A little small ball thrown in too...

 

[Loogis]

FINAL. 8 - 1

A little small ball thrown in too...

Glad to see that as well. Two well laid bunts, first one advanced the runners, the second one scored. Massive bomb capped off the scoring.

Pitching was on. Hope this is where we found our groove.

 

[Bullag8r]

Jeckyll and Hyde Rubber match tomorrow

 

[saltyg8r]

@Bullag8r yeah if we have another season like last season or worse then I think he moves on. He has kind of run his course at UF and we need someone more invested in teaching the players the fundamentals and to have a more serious approach to the game of baseball in our new stadium. Top recruiting classes and getting to the CWS 7 times (which is more than anyone else combined in our history) is great but we only have 1 NC to show for it. We need a coach that can win multiple NCs at UF.

Sorry but you are fvking idiots. 7 CWS and a NC? Ask FSU. NO NCs!

 

[Great White Buffalo]

Sully is trying to adapt to gorilla ball, but without gorilla's. We have one guy on the team that plays who at any time can go yard, and that is Armstrong. We have other guys who can hit a good number of HR's but that is really not their MO. We have gone from a team that use to be good pitching and good defense, to little pitching and no defense, yet we don;t seem to try and improve that lately, especially defense. When is the last time a guy looked like he knew how to stand and hold the proper angle for a bunt, just to sacrifice? The baserunning BS all the time, not hitting the cut off man, etc. Fooley and Fooley 2.0 don;t see these things, just like they did not see what they hired in Cousin Eddie. Same with Mike and MIM (mired in mediocrity).

I an quite sure that just like Cousin Eddie, who was never considered by any other legit team, that Sully is not really a serious contender for a top flight job like when Texas, LSU, etc. went looking. Sully's rep was he got good pitching, played good defense and won consistently b/c he had a lot if not most of the best players. But when the money was on the line, Sully's sac shrunk and he had a lump in his throat that he used to piss with. Vanderbilt is an outlier, but there are reasons why teams that should not be on our level in the SEC are now on our level in baseball.

It's early, but coming into the weekend we were 2nd in the country in HR's, 16th in fielding percentage, and 23rd in ERA. We may have dropped slightly in HR's, probably around 5th now, but fielding % and ERA haven't been hurt in the last two games. That's against 2 ranked teams, a 3rd that you said is a decent club, and midweek teams that are better than what most teams outside of Florida see.

Today's game is power pitching and power hitting. You like old school, but teams are playing gorilla ball because the analytics dictate it. When pitchers are running it up into the mid 90's and have good secondary stuff, you're not going to string together a bunch of hits. Analytics also say you'll score more runs when you don't sacrifice a runner to 2nd, and while bunting a runner to 3rd with less than 2 outs is a little better, even that should only be done situationally in late innings. There's a time and place for it, but giving away outs for 1 run kills big innings.

It's the same for middle and high school aged kids, and Perfect Game is definitely a huge influence. I know several high school coaches that still preach hitting the ball on the ground and/or down on the ball for backspin, but the big boys in travel ball teach launch angle/hitting the ball in the air. On the pitching side, I watched two 14 year old kids sit 83-85 in my kid's middle school game the other day. All of the runs in a 4-3 game came on extra base hits, a passed ball and an error. Those are elite arms, but I regularly see kids sitting 78-80 on the travel ball circuit. So when you're going up against the best arms, like in the SEC, you're not going to score much without hitting the ball in the air. Sully is just recruiting what the top players have become.

Sully isn't going anywhere because he recruits top 5 classes and has gotten his team to the CWS as much as any coach in the country. Now that Pat Casey is out of college ball, Tim Corbin is the only coach in the country with more than 1 title. Corbin, who's been at Vandy 5 years longer than Sully's been at UF, only has 1 more title. Since '99, only one No. 1 overall seed has actually won the title. They're not easy to win, even when you have the best team!

 

[Bullag8r]

It's early, but coming into the weekend we were 2nd in the country in HR's, 16th in fielding percentage, and 23rd in ERA. We may have dropped slightly in HR's, probably around 5th now, but fielding % and ERA haven't been hurt in the last two games. That's against 2 ranked teams, a 3rd that you said is a decent club, and midweek teams that are better than what most teams outside of Florida see.

Today's game is power pitching and power hitting. You like old school, but teams are playing gorilla ball because the analytics dictate it. When pitchers are running it up into the mid 90's and have good secondary stuff, you're not going to string together a bunch of hits. Analytics also say you'll score more runs when you don't sacrifice a runner to 2nd, and while bunting a runner to 3rd with less than 2 outs is a little better, even that should only be done situationally in late innings. There's a time and place for it, but giving away outs for 1 run kills big innings.

It's the same for middle and high school aged kids, and Perfect Game is definitely a huge influence. I know several high school coaches that still preach hitting the ball on the ground and/or down on the ball for backspin, but the big boys in travel ball teach launch angle/hitting the ball in the air. On the pitching side, I watched two 14 year old kids sit 83-85 in my kid's middle school game the other day. All of the runs in a 4-3 game came on extra base hits, a passed ball and an error. Those are elite arms, but I regularly see kids sitting 78-80 on the travel ball circuit. So when you're going up against the best arms, like in the SEC, you're not going to score much without hitting the ball in the air. Sully is just recruiting what the top players have become.'s

Sully isn't going anywhere because he recruits top 5 classes and has gotten his team to the CWS as much as any coach in the country. Now that Pat Casey is out of college ball, Tim Corbin is the only coach in the country with more than 1 title. Corbin, who's been at Vandy 5 years longer than Sully's been at UF, only has 1 more title. Since '99, only one No. 1 overall seed has actually won the title. They're not easy to win, even when you have the best team!

That is a great post, discussion and analysis. Admittedly I have been aggravated and befuddled by all of the strikeouts and men left on base which has led me to doubt Sully's coaching. While I understand the analytics, I also know that to win games against top tier pitching a team has to be versatile in its plate approach depending on the circumstances. I also believe that putting the ball in play with men on base is more successful than striking out which proved to be the case so far this weekend. I also know that keeping your eye on the ball combined with a well controlled swing and follow through is more successful at putting the ball over the fence than the wild uncontrolled swings some of these guys are taking regardless of 'launch angle'. Hitting deep fly ball outs is only productive with a man on 3rd and less than 2 outs. On base percentage, RBI's and slugging percentage wins more games than solo home runs and strikeouts, which I will not spend the time or the money to watch. Sully is not going to be fired, I just wish that he would teach the players to choke up on the bat and protect the plate when they have 2 strikes instead of swinging at terrible pitches or watching called 3rd strikes.

 

[FireFoley]

Well I forgot about the game amidst my family obligations, but thought I was reading the wrong recap when I saw the words sacrifice bunt and safety squeeze in the recap, LOL. Good for them and Sully. Yes I understand the concept of the analytics, but that also means that kids can't field for shyt and don;t understand defensive fundamentals b/c while on defense it is either HR or K for the offense so it is a lot of standing and nose picking on defense. All the more reason to put the ball in play. Anyway, different strokes for different folks. And I can't agree with you comparing Vandy and UF in anything, especially sports. I especially said in my earlier post that VU is an outlier in baseball in the SEC. I am pretty sure that if Tim Corbin had access to unlimited players like all the PUBIC state univs. have, I am sure he will do just fine. He has done great and built an entire sport without having access to every player out there. But he sure has gotten a shyt ton of good players, no doubt about it.

 

[Spurdog98]

Love what I see today and yesterday