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2/28/24 Game 9: FGCU 5-3 L

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allaboutu said:
At least he donated his salary back to the University.
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I thought Gino was a pretty good coach. We had a championship caliber team the covid year when baseball got canceled. A lot of those guys turned pro and didn't come back. He couldn't get his teams back to that level.
 
Handsome Squidbum said:
You think the UM brass has the cojones to fire Arteaga after one year if this year turns out to be a complete disaster?
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The whole hiring process was a disaster.
The chance to upgrade the roster was lost when there was no coach in place.
Once JD was hired, the hiring of Laz, Anderson and Cooper was not impressive. Fenster was a good hire....
Morales would have been a great hire...
Question? Does Laz' or JD make the pitching changes? Who decides who starts and comes into the game?

The manager coming to town this weekend handles every aspect of their staff.
No, they will not fire him if we have a disaster season.
 
As I stated previously in another thread, my biggest disappointment is our pitching outside of the weekend starters.

If JD was a new head coach from outside of the program, he'd get a pass. However, the pitching staff has been his baby for 2 decades now. We should not be relying on so many young arms and so many guys who don't have experience at this level.

It becomes crystal clear when you look at Sullivan at UF. Every year his pitching staff is stacked with arms. He mixes in young arms to fill in the gaps, getting them experience, but not relying on them as a foundation unless they are exceptional.

Outside of JD's starters, I see him relying on a lot of young arms and/or arms without experience at the ACC level.

FGCU is a good team, but they'd be a mid-level ACC team at best.

I am very concerned about the UF series. JD is already feeling the pressure and I think his players are going to try too hard. Thst usually backfires. Baseball is a game you have to relax and let come to you. That's why Cyr was so successful last year. He had that "Hey dude" surfer mentality where nothing seemed to bother him.

The series with UF is going to be so telling for the season. I think there is already too much pressure on the coaches and players given the lackluster start to the season.

I'm going to try not to do too much complaining. Just take it all in and accept the outcome. Hopefully it's a competitive series.
 
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Plymouth99 said:
The whole hiring process was a disaster.
The chance to upgrade the roster was lost when there was no coach in place.
Once JD was hired, the hiring of Laz, Anderson and Cooper was not impressive. Fenster was a good hire....
Morales would have been a great hire...
Question? Does Laz' or JD make the pitching changes? Who decides who starts and comes into the game?

The manager coming to town this weekend handles every aspect of their staff.
No, they will not fire him if we have a disaster season.
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I don't think whose making the pitching decisions really matters. I'm taking a big picture approach.

If you follow Canes football, you see that Mario is a program builder. In a short period of time, Mario has flipped the roster into the best roster in the ACC.

When I look at JD, I'm asking myself, why is he relying on so many young arms? Guys I've never heard of. His pitching staff should be stacked with arms like Mario has done with his OL, and DL. If JD was hired from outside the program, he'd get a pass. However, pitching has been his baby for the past 20 years.

So, my judgment isn't about who starts or the order of relievers, it's about the pitching position group and why it isn't one of the strongest in the ACC and country? There are no excuses. Look at Wake Forest and Vandy who are both private institutions just like UM. They have figured out how to attract and develop some of the best arms that college baseball has seen. Even better, WF has taken some mediocre high school pitchers and developed them into MLB draft prospects.

A few years ago, I watched a short story on WF pitching. They literally have a pitching lab using sports science to develop their pitchers. That's their big selling point. They use sports science technology to develop and measure improvement.

Are the powers that be committed to baseball in the way they are for football in building a new $100M football only facility? Will JD take more of a program building approach?
....TBD
 
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Pitcher in the Rye said:
No. Cora will be in a holding pattern elsewhere for another year or two is my guess.
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No knock to JD, but the Wake Forest coach Tom Walter was the guy to hire. Has the #1 program st a private institution in the ACC.

The fact that he wanted the job and I believe he interviewed for the job makes it inexcusable. If there were guys similar or even slightly better than JD, then hire JD. Walter is light years ahead in program building and development. He would have had Miami on top in a short period of time.

The difference I see in JD versus Walter or even Sullivan at UF is JD like many coaches, has a plan on how he's going to coach his team. Walter and Sullivan have a plan on how they'll build their programs and have done so to a national top 5 level.

Just like UM football, you need a program builder and the administration behind him with the financial support required to be the best.
 
Allabouttheu95 said:
After Sunday we will likely be 0-5 against state of Florida schools to start the season 🤣

The sad part is none of us are surprised but are so sick in the head that it still affects all of us greatly
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And if that wasn't bad enough we play Florida Atlantic 3 times this year.
 
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I will say though that FGCU did put up 25 runs in a 3 game series against a very good TCU team. That being said it is inexcusable how few guys we have that throw even in the 90s right now. Even Indiana state has 3 or 4 guys that throw upper 90s.
 
DieHardCane27 said:
I will say though that FGCU did put up 25 runs in a 3 game series against a very good TCU team. That being said it is inexcusable how few guys we have that throw even in the 90s right now. Even Indiana state has 3 or 4 guys that throw upper 90s.
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IMO pitching is the most important thing in baseball - little league to MLB. The fact that our bullpen is where it is at this point is disgraceful. That said, we have some really, really good arms coming in next year (if they don't get drafted). If he can actually work the portal with some studs, we can fix things quickly. This year is what it is. We go .500 in the ACC and I'll be pleasantly surprised.
 
DieHardCane27 said:
I will say though that FGCU did put up 25 runs in a 3 game series against a very good TCU team. That being said it is inexcusable how few guys we have that throw even in the 90s right now. Even Indiana state has 3 or 4 guys that throw upper 90s.
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Who is our hardest thrower?
Handsome Squidbum said:
You think the UM brass has the cojones to fire Arteaga after one year if this year turns out to be a complete disaster?
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Not unless he is caught drinking with the players. lol..
 
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Canesfreak said:
IMO pitching is the most important thing in baseball - little league to MLB. The fact that our bullpen is where it is at this point is disgraceful. That said, we have some really, really good arms coming in next year (if they don't get drafted). If he can actually work the portal with some studs, we can fix things quickly. This year is what it is. We go .500 in the ACC and I'll be pleasantly surprised.
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It feels like with pitching we just have to get lucky and hope that some guys wanna come to Miami, because you can't sell them on getting developed or point to very many pitchers in the pros now or historically. The only selling point really is playing time. Sadly I agree with your assessment about the season
 
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Number1CanesFan said:
No knock to JD, but the Wake Forest coach Tom Walter was the guy to hire. Has the #1 program st a private institution in the ACC.

The fact that he wanted the job and I believe he interviewed for the job makes it inexcusable. If there were guys similar or even slightly better than JD, then hire JD. Walter is light years ahead in program building and development. He would have had Miami on top in a short period of time.

The difference I see in JD versus Walter or even Sullivan at UF is JD like many coaches, has a plan on how he's going to coach his team. Walter and Sullivan have a plan on how they'll build their programs and have done so to a national top 5 level.

Just like UM football, you need a program builder and the administration behind him with the financial support required to be the best.
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Walter was only the guy to hire if he brought Muscara, who is about to be a HC elsewhere after this year.

People forget he’s a .550 coach at Wake. Yes I know he’s built the program up, but he did that by bringing in Muscara. He only had one good season at Wake prior to 2022. They completely revamped their pitching philosophies and recruiting philosophies for hitters. Bring in the hardest throwers you can find and the guys who hit long fly balls that will carry out of that Cracker Jack box they play in.

You notice how they struggled to score in Omaha? 8 runs in 4 games. Strikeouts and fly balls don’t get it done out there. And they couldn’t do anything else to manufacture runs either.
 
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NC_Canes_11 said:
You notice how they struggled to score in Omaha? 8 runs in 4 games. Strikeouts and fly balls don’t get it done out there. And they couldn’t do anything else to manufacture runs either.
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told myself I will never go back to Omaha until I knew that we were built to win there. I knew in 16 and 18 we had no prayer of winning for that exact reason listed above. The late Morris teams and the Gino tenure teams had no prayer of scoring runs in Omaha. Early but this years team under JD doesn’t look like it has a prayer of manufacturing runs consistently without the long ball either. It’s been a real issue and will continue to be if we don’t change our recruiting philosophy
 
NC_Canes_11 said:
Walter was only the guy to hire if he brought Muscara, who is about to be a HC elsewhere after this year.

People forget he’s a .550 coach at Wake. Yes I know he’s built the program up, but he did that by bringing in Muscara. He only had one good season at Wake prior to 2022. They completely revamped their pitching philosophies and recruiting philosophies for hitters. Bring in the hardest throwers you can find and the guys who hit long fly balls that will carry out of that Cracker Jack box they play in.

You notice how they struggled to score in Omaha? 8 runs in 4 games. Strikeouts and fly balls don’t get it done out there. And they couldn’t do anything else to manufacture runs either.
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And what's interesting is Muscara came from Maryland and the Big Ten not exactly an obvious hotbed area or conference for baseball.
 
Allabouttheu95 said:
told myself I will never go back to Omaha until I knew that we were built to win there. I knew in 16 and 18 we had no prayer of winning for that exact reason listed above. The late Morris teams and the Gino tenure teams had no prayer of scoring runs in Omaha. Early but this years team under JD doesn’t look like it has a prayer of manufacturing runs consistently without the long ball either. It’s been a real issue and will continue to be if we don’t change our recruiting philosophy
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I think it has to do with the lack of development and fundamentals more than anything. Last years team was more than capable and talented enough to win a regional. But when you can’t run bases, can’t get guys over and in with less than two outs, refuse to work counts or layoff breaking balls, when a starter is at 85 pitches in the 6th, you don’t win playoff/tournament games. And to your recruiting point, the talent wasn’t overwhelming enough to overcome that.

Overall I don’t think any team since 2008 was good enough to win it all, but plenty were good enough to do much better than they did (aside from the two years of no tourney that ended the streak. Those teams were god awful). You can’t be poorly coached and not talented enough.
 
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