Canes Baseball Coaching Staff Discussion

Fire Gino DiMare


  • Total voters
    89
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I guess its true you cant teach an old dog new tricks but im not sure i buy into us having all this great young talent that more than anything needs coaching and development. Besides being unathletic in places, i see guys with poor habits and styles that are already hard to break or change, more than not.

Maybe poor attitudes and training discipline can be changed by different coaching regime or scheme, but im all for NIL and/or better recruiting evaluation bringing in a new cast of players. With very few exceptions, this group sadly doesn't strike me as being CWS "raw" material.
 
Our pitching staff is going to be good Next year? Am I missing something?

Palmquist and Walters are gone.

Arms: Ligon, Ziehl, Mcfarlane?, Gallo, Rosario?, Garland?, Rafe… I know I’m missing a few

That’s ^ the best pitching rotation in the acc? Not seeing that at all
It’s all relative. The ACC is losing so much pitching. Ligon on paper is good. He was very reliable for half the year. He should be better and not run out of gas next year. If Ziehl can make the switch and Mac takes the next step that’s as solid as a rotation I can point to in this league. But that’s all hype until we see it live
 
Our pitching staff is going to be good Next year? Am I missing something?

Palmquist and Walters are gone.

Arms: Ligon, Ziehl, Mcfarlane?, Gallo, Rosario?, Garland?, Rafe… I know I’m missing a few

That’s ^ the best pitching rotation in the acc? Not seeing that at all
Yeah we have a terrible pitching coach. We need better development from these guys. Rosario and Mcfarlane should be much better than they are.
 
I hope Gino loads up on portal guys, mostly because they weren't scouted by him out of HS nor developed by him. That being said, you shouldn't have to tear apart a roster year after year when you are the one who built the rosters to begin with, both in 4 years as manager and before that as recruiting coordinator/hitting coach. There shouldn't be so many shouldn'ts around this program. You shouldn't go 4-6 in your 3 tournament appearances while only playing 1 of those games against a higher seed. It shouldn't take an absolute pitching gem to squeak by South Alabama. You shouldn't have to burn your all-world closer against Canisius after your top slugger blasts 3 HR. I can accept a fluky game in a tournament setting, I can begrudgingly accept a rare flameout in a tourney. But this isn't happening in one game, or one year. This is happening year after year. I guess the biggest shouldn't is that you shouldn't hire a first-time manager fresh off a disappointing period who is also the son of a mega-donor, but that's just toothpaste out of the tube.
 
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I think it's time to clean house—and am not of the opinion the next hire is Greg Lovelady, or no one else—or the sake of "keeping it in the family".

Gino DiMare "deserved" the keys to this program in 2013, as soon as Jim Morris was escorted out of the 2012 Coral Gables Regional by Stony Brook (10-2) and Missouri State (12-2).

Instead, Morris got his "gold watch" in the form of a contract extension and stuck around another six dismal seasons. Had Blake James done his job—big ask, I know—the DiMare experiment happens almost a decade ago, instead of starting in 2019.

We're four years in (minus a COVID-cancelled season which every bleeding heart believes would've been Omaha and potentially a title) and this feels like latter-year Morris-era baseball; underachieving, going into a shell, pitching falling apart, bats going cold, unclutch baseball (where it looks like everyone forgot fundamentals) as well as enough small coaching blunders to cost Miami big games.

Great, all these kids come back next year and the Canes "talent" themselves to a Super Regional—they'll eventually run into a buzzsaw with a better-coached, more fundamentally-sound, clutch team with some real heart and swag.

Look at the last two Omaha appearances—a 1-4 record and 14 runs scored in five games:

2016
Arizona 5, Miami 1
Santa Barbara 3, Miami 2

2015
Florida 15, Miami 5
Miami 4, Arkansas 3
Florida 10, Miami 2


— Gino is 111-61 (throwing out the 16-game COVID season)—finishing second in the Coastal all three seasons.

— 1-4 in 2022 postseason; 0-2 at ACC Tourney, 1-2 in Coral Gables Regional. Outscored 25-9 by NC State and Wake Forest in conference tourney; manufactured three runs at home against Ole Miss and Arizona—stranded 17 runners over two games.

— Run out of Gainesville Regional in 2021 without even having to face host Florida; 10-2 loss to South Florida and 7-2 loss to South Alabama—out of winner's bracket, after 1-0 win over South Alabama in opener.

— Lost opener to Central Michigan in Starkville Regional in 2019; fell to Mississippi State, 5-2 (needed to beat Bulldogs twice to advance.)

— 13-14 since going into VT series 27-6 with #2 ranking—six of those 13 wins were against North Dakota State, Canisius, Central Florida and Bethune-Cookman.

The billion dollar question; who wins a battle of wills—Paul DiMare or Dan Radakovich? Hard to believe that Gino gets run off after his third full season with the money his family has donated to the program, but Radakovich obviously has his own plans for athletics.

Safe to say DiMare will return in 2023, unless for some reason he doesn't want to—but anything less than an impressive run in Omaha should be the benchmark for a 2024 run. If this looks and smells like it has the past few years—long-time holdovers from the Morris era in DiMare and Arteaga—this program is going to continue looking like it's over version of the Morris era.

New blood is absolutely necessary, but because of logistics and money (DiMare family money; not program's lack of money)—can't imagine any off-season change. Better home John Ruiz throws some LifeWallet NIL money at kids to come to Coral Gables to play baseball as talent is going to have to make up for low energy coaching and unclutch performances.
If we’re talking about next hires then Steven Trout of Texas State and Andy Stankiewicz of Grand Canyon have to be considered as well. I would love to see if we could get Scott Berry from Southern Miss but he’s been there for years. Greg has lost a bit of luster for me. He’s in too good of a baseball area to be a 30-35 win coach.
 
Our pitching staff is going to be good Next year? Am I missing something?

Palmquist and Walters are gone.

Arms: Ligon, Ziehl, Mcfarlane?, Gallo, Rosario?, Garland?, Rafe… I know I’m missing a few

That’s ^ the best pitching rotation in the acc? Not seeing that at all
McFarlane could be gone too. He’s ranked 136th right now in the prospect rankings
 
After speaking with a close family member of Walters, there is a good chance he comes back. Obviously depends on where he goes in the draft and what his signing bonus would be
 
After speaking with a close family member of Walters, there is a good chance he comes back. Obviously depends on where he goes in the draft and what his signing bonus would be
He trying to go the Palm route and be the Friday/Saturday guy?
 
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If Walters wants to be a weekend guy he needs to get into a lower level summer league and work on a change and consistency with his breaking ball. Forget results just work on stuff…or take the summer off all together and get to a place like Tread or BPC and get to work.
 
After speaking with a close family member of Walters, there is a good chance he comes back. Obviously depends on where he goes in the draft and what his signing bonus would be
A guy legitimately touted as the best college pitcher in the country for most of the season surely is worth an NIL deal perhaps good enough to make that signing bonus ok to wait another year for. (RUIZ?)
 
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