Need insight into the baseball team

AtlAtty

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Maude
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Jan 30, 2012
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For those of us who have been ensconced in Canes basketball and have yet to get involved with baseball, can some of the baseball experts fill us in on the strengths/weaknesses of this team, specific players, and the coaches?
 
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Such a simple question but such a rabbit hole. Let’s start with the coaches. JD and Gino have been there forever. Were both great players for miami and have had success as assistant coaches at miami. But As a skipper Gino has been beyond underwhelming and deserved to be fired last year but nepotism is at play with his now deceased father being the biggest donor to the university for decades. JD has also been very underwhelming for about a decade now. Both are true canes and it’s tough to see them fail but they both simply stink at this time at every detail needed to operate a successful baseball program.

From a team perspective we don’t do much well but we hit a lot of home runs and have an excellent closer. Unfortunately everything else were pretty poor at. This year our true downfall will be our pitching rotation.

Players to know:
Yoyo morales 3B- complete stud. Likely a top 10 draft pick

Andrew walters- our ace closer

Carson Ligon- our Saturday starter that likely moves to Friday

Blake Cyr- true freshman 2b who has come onto the scene hot.

CJ Kayfus 1B- excellent hitter


Also let me just add for your own sanity… this probably isn’t a good year to start following the team. The vast majority on here would likely agree with me when I say this looks like a team whose going to struggle to make a regional
 
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I guess because most top prospects head to the majors faster, we still are generally thought to be in the top 30, maybe higher, nationwide. And the limited talent (even with the coaching) can get hot at times. It sure keeps it interesting and far from hopeless, though weekly there seems to be plenty to mope about in just about every facet of the game except the closer.
 
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Such a simple question but such a rabbit hole. Let’s start with the coaches. JD and Gino have been there forever. Were both great players for miami and have had success as assistant coaches at miami. But As a skipper Gino has been beyond underwhelming and deserved to be fired last year but nepotism is at play with his now deceased father being the biggest donor to the university for decades. JD has also been very underwhelming for about a decade now. Both are true canes and it’s tough to see them fail but they both simply stink at this time at every detail needed to operate a successful baseball program.

From a team perspective we don’t do much well but we hit a lot of home runs and have an excellent closer. Unfortunately everything else were pretty poor at. This year our true downfall will be our pitching rotation.

Players to know:
Yoyo morales 3B- complete stud. Likely a top 10 draft pick

Andrew walters- our ace closer

Carson Ligon- our Saturday starter that likely moves to Friday

Blake Cyr- true freshman 2b who has come onto the scene hot.

CJ Kayfus 1B- excellent hitter


Also let me just add for your own sanity… this probably isn’t a good year to start following the team. The vast majority on here would likely agree with me when I say this looks like a team whose going to struggle to make a regional
Thanks a lot. This is exactly what I hoped for.
I followed the team way back when we had players like Pat Burrell. Those were fun teams to watch.
But I’m happy to read that UM has another potential 1st round pick. Seems like its been a while since UM was producing pro players.
 
After seeing Florida own Miami game one, the Canes big-headed after game two and then no-showing on Sunday—this year seems par for the course for the Canes.

Probably looking at another 37-20 kind of regular season. One win and bounced from ACC playoffs. Might get to host a home regional—and could easily get run out again by a two-seed road team.

The DiMare Experiment is too little too late. I've written about it before, but Miami needed to toss him the keys in 2013, after Jim Morris got smoked in the home regional by Stony Brook and Missouri State.

That should've been the end of #3. Instead, the equivalent of a gold watch and extension for a job well done—when in reality he needed the bread because he had alimony, a new young wife and a new young son.

Morris hung around through 2018, had a few embarrassing CWS appearances in 2015-2016 (run out of Omaha by Florida—just wrecked in 2015—and a 1-4 record over two seasons.)

DiMare got the keys in 2019 and hasn't done anything since; looking like an extension of the Morris era—Miami wasting six seasons letting Morris just hang around.

Promoting from within a tired regime was such a beta move; DiMare getting his shot because of his late old man's influence within the program—when in reality, this guy was done when he took his sabbatical over a decade ago, to put in time with his family. Commendable move, but also showed his fire has been out for a long time.

Westminster North has run this program for too long; DiMare first getting on the staff in 1997 and J.D. Arteaga on staff since 2003—all extensions of the Morris era, which started in 1994.

Miami needs new blood and here's hoping Dan Radakovich makes that change in 2024, though I'd assume we're looking at 2025 with the passing of Paul DiMare last December. Can't see Miami canning Gino by June unless this season is just a complete and utter disaster.
 
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basketball is the best coached sport in the AD. yes that includes our football team.

Football is entering year two with Mario while Jim is wrapping up his 12th season in Coral Gables.

Basketball SHOULD be the "best-coached sport in the athletic department" at this rate.
 
Dropped from the rankings by D1 and NCAA (6-7 other ACC schools now ranked)
Dropped to 17 with Baseball America

3 Top 20 teams the next 3 weekends. Then FSU who is playing well but has the same issues as us with arms. Mid Weeks it the usual Jacksonville, FAU, FIU
 
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I’ve always been Anti-Arteaga, our pitchers never develop. You rarely see any growth from them. Rosario is a perfect example, big time arm from HS and has regressed here. I can see him going to the pros under real pitching development staff and improve. Even when we had top 3 round talent, I always felt they weren’t were they need to be i.e. Cecconi, McMahon
 
After seeing Florida own Miami game one, the Canes big-headed after game two and then no-showing on Sunday—this year seems par for the course for the Canes.

Probably looking at another 37-20 kind of regular season. One win and bounced from ACC playoffs. Might get to host a home regional—and could easily get run out again by a two-seed road team.

The DiMare Experiment is too little too late. I've written about it before, but Miami needed to toss him the keys in 2013, after Jim Morris got smoked in the home regional by Stony Brook and Missouri State.

That should've been the end of #3. Instead, the equivalent of a gold watch and extension for a job well done—when in reality he needed the bread because he had alimony, a new young wife and a new young son.

Morris hung around through 2018, had a few embarrassing CWS appearances in 2015-2016 (run out of Omaha by Florida—just wrecked in 2015—and a 1-4 record over two seasons.)

DiMare got the keys in 2019 and hasn't done anything since; looking like an extension of the Morris era—Miami wasting six seasons letting Morris just hang around.

Promoting from within a tired regime was such a beta move; DiMare getting his shot because of his late old man's influence within the program—when in reality, this guy was done when he took his sabbatical over a decade ago, to put in time with his family. Commendable move, but also showed his fire has been out for a long time.

Westminster North has run this program for too long; DiMare first getting on the staff in 1997 and J.D. Arteaga on staff since 2003—all extensions of the Morris era, which started in 1994.

Miami needs new blood and here's hoping Dan Radakovich makes that change in 2024, though I'd assume we're looking at 2025 with the passing of Paul DiMare last December. Can't see Miami canning Gino by June unless this season is just a complete and utter disaster.
Didn't Gino just get extended?
 
I'm not absolving ANYONE... we have issues, at the top for sure, and elsewhere. But AWAY from Gino's evaluation (any mouth-breathers who need to read that again, please do so)...

I just can't get over the inequity of us having 11.7 scholarships for 27 players when our school costs $70k a year while other state schools have 11.7 scholarships for 27 players when their school costs $25k a year.

That's $688,500 more non-athletic scholarship money our players have to find a way to cover, either financially, or via other earned scholarships I guess, than the players at UF, FSU, etc. have to cover.

It's an incredible disadvantage, and until something is done to somewhat even it out, we are going to be playing behind the 8-ball for a long while, regardless who our coach is.


 
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After seeing Florida own Miami game one, the Canes big-headed after game two and then no-showing on Sunday—this year seems par for the course for the Canes.

Probably looking at another 37-20 kind of regular season. One win and bounced from ACC playoffs. Might get to host a home regional—and could easily get run out again by a two-seed road team.

The DiMare Experiment is too little too late. I've written about it before, but Miami needed to toss him the keys in 2013, after Jim Morris got smoked in the home regional by Stony Brook and Missouri State.

That should've been the end of #3. Instead, the equivalent of a gold watch and extension for a job well done—when in reality he needed the bread because he had alimony, a new young wife and a new young son.

Morris hung around through 2018, had a few embarrassing CWS appearances in 2015-2016 (run out of Omaha by Florida—just wrecked in 2015—and a 1-4 record over two seasons.)

DiMare got the keys in 2019 and hasn't done anything since; looking like an extension of the Morris era—Miami wasting six seasons letting Morris just hang around.

Promoting from within a tired regime was such a beta move; DiMare getting his shot because of his late old man's influence within the program—when in reality, this guy was done when he took his sabbatical over a decade ago, to put in time with his family. Commendable move, but also showed his fire has been out for a long time.

Westminster North has run this program for too long; DiMare first getting on the staff in 1997 and J.D. Arteaga on staff since 2003—all extensions of the Morris era, which started in 1994.

Miami needs new blood and here's hoping Dan Radakovich makes that change in 2024, though I'd assume we're looking at 2025 with the passing of Paul DiMare last December. Can't see Miami canning Gino by June unless this season is just a complete and utter disaster.
The sad part is that some of us were saying it while it was happening.
 
I'm not absolving ANYONE... we have issues, at the top for sure, and elsewhere. But AWAY from Gino's evaluation (any mouth-breathers who need to read that again, please do so)...

I just can't get over the inequity of us having 11.7 scholarships for 27 players when our school costs $70k a year while other state schools have 11.7 scholarships for 27 players when their school costs $25k a year.

That's $688,500 more non-athletic scholarship money our players have to find a way to cover, either financially, or via other earned scholarships I guess, than the players at UF, FSU, etc. have to cover.

It's an incredible disadvantage, and until something is done to somewhat even it out, we are going to be playing behind the 8-ball for a long while, regardless who our coach is.


You’re misinformed as usual. That’s not how it works.
 
I'm not absolving ANYONE... we have issues, at the top for sure, and elsewhere. But AWAY from Gino's evaluation (any mouth-breathers who need to read that again, please do so)...

I just can't get over the inequity of us having 11.7 scholarships for 27 players when our school costs $70k a year while other state schools have 11.7 scholarships for 27 players when their school costs $25k a year.

That's $688,500 more non-athletic scholarship money our players have to find a way to cover, either financially, or via other earned scholarships I guess, than the players at UF, FSU, etc. have to cover.

It's an incredible disadvantage, and until something is done to somewhat even it out, we are going to be playing behind the 8-ball for a long while, regardless who our coach is.



This is a challenge, but it is made worse by laziness.

Baseball is now a money sport. Parents are already paying thousands just for travel ball. There are PLENTY of elite D1 baseball players who have some combination of money and/or academic success to make Miami very affordable. But we don't go out and find them. We rely on local south Florida travel ball coaches to tell us who to recruit.
 
I'm not absolving ANYONE... we have issues, at the top for sure, and elsewhere. But AWAY from Gino's evaluation (any mouth-breathers who need to read that again, please do so)...

I just can't get over the inequity of us having 11.7 scholarships for 27 players when our school costs $70k a year while other state schools have 11.7 scholarships for 27 players when their school costs $25k a year.

That's $688,500 more non-athletic scholarship money our players have to find a way to cover, either financially, or via other earned scholarships I guess, than the players at UF, FSU, etc. have to cover.
Vandy had that same issue.
 
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