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BamaNation Citizen
Sep 27, 2011
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taped the game last nite -
the tide has some problems but most seem fixable.

turnbull, keller and hubbard have a brite future. pitch calling and struggling behind the plate hurt them last nite.

i see roberts moved to the 5 hole. he may need to slide further down till he gets some hits. i did not realize booth was leading rbi guy- might need to move him back in the mix a little more. carlise looks comfortable. smith, reaves, duga, and miller need to have years like they had last year. kelton needs to somehow be in the game.

defensively we looked good with the exception of catcher. booth probably needs to move there and we need to find a 3b, we have cole, tulledge, dye and maybe moore.

all these things are within reach. when a pitcher is on a 90-95 pitch count and we are hoping for 4 innings - thats an average of nearly 25 per inning. our pitchers are young but talented so we need to do everything we can to help them from defense - pitching - timely hitting.

i am still with the tide and look forward to them improving throughout the year.
 
bench said:
miller need to have years like they had last year.

defensively we looked good with the exception of catcher. booth probably needs to move there and we need to find a 3b, we have cole, tulledge, dye and maybe moore.
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Agree with most of your post, but just a couple of exceptions. We don't need Miller to have another year like he did in 2011 - he was punchless at the plate. As for third base, I'd rather give Cole, a freshman with legitimate upside, more of a chance than hand the job to a known-quantity utility guy who's well below average offensively and defensively.
 
Heck Fire! put the 2nd string in, they get cussed out and made to run when the team suffers a loss. Lets see if they can help this team get another win. I know the ticket sales would go up.
 
crimsonkelly said:
Season is starting to feel like a 10 year old baseball that has been left outside in the sun and is starting to unravel.
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I know what you mean. I keep waiting to see some serious evidence of a turnaround, but aside from the first inning of last Saturday's win over Tulane, there hasn't been much to be overly impressed about thus far. There's still time, but the schedule doesn't get any easier from here on out.
 
JoJoforHeisman said:
I know what you mean. I keep waiting to see some serious evidence of a turnaround, but aside from the first inning of last Saturday's win over Tulane, there hasn't been much to be overly impressed about thus far. There's still time, but the schedule doesn't get any easier from here on out.
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No doubt. It is possible to turn it around, but as you stated, not gonna get any easier. I am thinking another couple of weeks of uninspired play and lets see what the youngsters can do and even strip off some red shirts. Might as well give them some playing time.
 
We knew the staff was going to have some up and down moments. That was always a given, but we were 'promised' better hitting and defense and those things haven't come to fruition.

This could get very ugly.

rtr
 
Gaspard has not developed anyone at the plate or at the mound. I don't know if he plays favorites or what, but I believe my first sentence is correct.

2010 was a great end, going to the Super Regional, but that was a team with the draft picks Wells left over, and we underachieved in the regular season going 15-15 only because we swept Tennessee at the end.

2011 sucked and the only way we even got into a regional was thanks to four quality losses to Florida. (SOS)
 
one lineup i have not heard would be kelton to 2b, roberts to 3b, moore to lf and booth to c.
hitting has to be better for the tide to win. without pine-bluff roberts is about .110 and moore is about .160 and both have been in the top of the lineup. i'd like to see the hitters that are struggling move to the bottom to take some pressure off.
all that said the sec starts next week and we have to start by throwing strikes. we need to have timely hitting and good defense. i think our coaches, players and fans want to win and as much as i (and some others) always want better players and coaches - we are we have what we have. so good luck to all and roll tide!
 
Yea I saw that earlier, hopefully Kamplain isn't hurt, he looked solid against Tulane.
 
Difference in CJW and CMG is that Wells didn't mind offending anyone, and have people complain and moan about deserved playing time. He found 9 guys, and 5-6 pitchers and went to work, and those guys figured it out. He got a bad rap for not letting certain guys get a shot and running up pitch counts but it won and it won consistantly. Gaspard likes playing the roster and giving as many people opportunities as they can to win and earn spots and the problem with that we haven't the depth for it. I mean the Tulliedge boys from near by Tuscaloosa Academy actually got at-bats at Alabama. No way in hell would that happen under Wells. And while the Tulliedges are getting at-bats someone with tons more ability and promise is sitting the bench and not getting the confidence and experience under their belts. By this time of year under Wells, everyone knew the lineup, the mid week starters, the weekend starters, the weekend relivers, etc, under Gaspard we could all list a lineup today and chances are no one would be 100% on it

Also fully agree that Phillips, albeit a great person, doesn't need to be coaching at this level. This was a friendly hire, not a hire that benefits the program or the kids in the program.
 
It says a lot about the state of the pitching staff when a possible injury to a freshman Sunday starter with command and control issues has grave repercussions. That Pilkington is getting the call to start does come as a bit of a surprise given his abysmal performance thus far, but that's the situation we're having to contend with. He's the most experienced option, and he does good enough stuff to perform better than his current stats indicate, but when you're nearly a month into the season and running a guy with a near-12 ERA out there to start on a weekend...that's not good.
 
rolltydebb said:
Difference in CJW and CMG is that Wells didn't mind offending anyone, and have people complain and moan about deserved playing time. He found 9 guys, and 5-6 pitchers and went to work, and those guys figured it out. He got a bad rap for not letting certain guys get a shot and running up pitch counts but it won and it won consistantly. Gaspard likes playing the roster and giving as many people opportunities as they can to win and earn spots and the problem with that we haven't the depth for it. I mean the Tulliedge boys from near by Tuscaloosa Academy actually got at-bats at Alabama. No way in hell would that happen under Wells. And while the Tulliedges are getting at-bats someone with tons more ability and promise is sitting the bench and not getting the confidence and experience under their belts. By this time of year under Wells, everyone knew the lineup, the mid week starters, the weekend starters, the weekend relivers, etc, under Gaspard we could all list a lineup today and chances are no one would be 100% on it

Also fully agree that Phillips, albeit a great person, doesn't need to be coaching at this level. This was a friendly hire, not a hire that benefits the program or the kids in the program.
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This is A DAMN GOOD POST

We did lose a few guys who transferred out that we thought were talented, or maybe he screwed with their windups, or whatever. But yeah, we were in contention for a regional every year and we had several players, hitters mostly, who got better.
 
Now, a few years removed from the JW era, there are people that want him back?!?... I for one wanted never wanted him gone. While he was frustrating at times, he put a decent product on the field almost year in and year out. Time to move on from him people and support the current staff. It may not be who you want it to be, but they coach OUR team.
 
Well, being the idiot that I am I spent the time to go back and look at Mitch's tenure here at Alabama.

Our overall record with Mitch as the head coach is 73-61. Not very good, really, but it gets a lot worse. Ten of those wins were against MVSU, Alcorn, and Pine Bluff, which are all HBC's and not schools with much of a baseball tradition. So you take those away and we are 63-61. Now, take away the 17-1 start from 2010 and we are 46-60 since that wonderful run to begin the year two seasons ago.

So yeah, we played in two regionals and took one of them. Other than that we are two games below .500 in SEC play and not exactly tearing it up in our other OOC games.

I have nothing whatsoever against Mitch Gaspard. I never met the man. But I do know that our baseball program is not improving with him as head coach, and I don't believe the cupboard was exactly bare when he took over.

rtr
 
bamamick said:
I have nothing whatsoever against Mitch Gaspard. I never met the man. But I do know that our baseball program is not improving with him as head coach, and I don't believe the cupboard was exactly bare when he took over.

rtr
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Not saying that it's the root of the program's problems, but it never helps when you reassign your hitting coach to a job he's never held before and replace him by hiring one of your buddies simply because he's a nice guy and was a good ballplayer. How many hitters on the roster have actually shown marked improvement since Andy was hired? Zero.

The SEC is not where assistant coaches are supposed to just learn on the job. Most have to prove themselves by working their way up the ladder. I want these guys to succeed, but it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that the nonsensical reshuffling of the staff has not been a success.
 
Watching this year's team is pure agony. Simply put, we can't hit our way out of a wet paper bag. How in the world can we only manage two runs against the Sunday starter for ORU? It was pathetic. My opinion is that the problem is not the players. We have guys who can hit. Our problem seems to be the approach that we as a team are taking. Why does it seem like every player is trying to yank the ball out of the park and ends up either whiffing, hitting weak grounders or popups that a three year old can catch? What happened to guys taking the outside corner pitch to the opposite field? Why does it seem like every hitter is taking the first pitch, usually a get over fastball or a lollipop curve for a strike? Oh, yeah. I forgot. The guy who had our hitters being aggressive and using all fields and hitting line drives is now coaching our pitchers and not our hitters.

Andy is one of my all time favorite Bama players. He is also a first class individual. But, and this is a big but, the game of college baseball is not the same as it was when he played. The days of pounding five or six homeruns per game are gone. That approach simply will not work now. Successful teams are those that hit for a good average and run the bases intelligently.

I took a quick look at the archives and what I found was even more shocking than I expected. In the five years before Dax came here, the team batting averages were .297, .283, .280, .291, and .288. During the three years that Dax coached the hitters (2008-2010), our team averages were .310, .330 and .296 (remember that 2010 was the first year of the Nike "wonder bats" that hit about as well as a piece of PVC pipe). Last year we hit .276 as a team and this year, even after not being forced to hit with Nike crap, we are hitting an astonishing .259. Look for this year's average to drop even further as we get into SEC play and see deeper, better pitching staffs. I do not claim to be a master statistician, but I see a definite pattern in those numbers. When Dax played, he could flat out hit. Now that he is a coach, he can obviously coach hitters. He should be allowed to do what he does best.

Can the problems be fixed? I am afraid that, at least for this year, the answer is no. To fix the problems that we have, we have to have a different approach at the plate. Forget trying to hit everything out of the park. Hit line drives and use the entire field. I don't think that we can make that change in mid-season.

There may be one possible solution. Move Dax back to coaching hitters and not pitchers. Who, then, will coach the pitchers? A former Bama pitcher was at the games this weekend. He was overheard saying that his ultimate goal is to get back into the Bama dugout. I don't know if NCAA rules allow the addition of a volunteer coach during the middle of the season, but if they do, I would love to see it.

Even though things are not going well at this time (major understatement), I will not give up on the team and the players. I will still be at the games and will still support them as much as possible. I hope the other fans will do the same.
 
Great post, bamajake. You're exactly right about the overall approach of the hitters this season (aside from Dugas, obviously, and maybe Kelton and Moore) being terrible through fifteen games. What's particularly concerning is the fact that some players appear to actually be regressing, or their development appears to have stagnated with no signs of improvement. As a true freshman, Austen Smith demonstrated a fairly mature approach at the plate; fifteen games into the current season and his plate discipline has been horrendous. Jared Reaves has taken a step in the wrong direction as well here in the early going. Kenny Roberts takes some vicious cuts and usually hits the ball hard when he makes contact, but he makes no effort to shorten up with two strikes and as a result, racks up way too many K's for a guy who should be more concerned with getting on base and using his speed than trying to yank the ball out of the park. Booth appears to be the same hitter he has been since he arrived - a guy who'll provide some decent contact ability, albeit with a mediocre batting average, very little power or speed, and well below-average on-base skills. Three years in the system and Andrew Miller has gone from promising upstart freshman to punchless automatic out. Brandt Hendricks is all of 0-for-5 on the season after posting a .385 OBP last year (but with lots of strikeouts) and Josh Rosecrans has all of four starts after showing some promising power in 2011, yet Cary Baxter has played in all but two games thus far and posted a .179/.179/.179 line with K's in a third of his at bats.

It seems as if a lot of the hitters waver between overly passive and hyper-aggressive, taking hittable fastballs and falling behind, then chasing garbage out of the zone. Pitch recognition is a huge weakness, as several of these guys look utterly helpless against even the most generic, get-me-over curveballs.

There's still plenty of baseball left to be played, so improvements can be implemented, but it just doesn't look like the pieces are there to contend with the better teams in the conference right now.
 
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