New to Baseball

Genghis Cane

Chicken Wing Connoisseur
Joined
Jan 26, 2014
Messages
9,209
Hey, everyone, so I follow our football team religiously and also follow the basketball team closely, but I’ve never really been a huge baseball guy in general. When the Canes have made playoff runs in the past, I’ve usually watched some of the games, but that’s been about it.

This year I plan to get more involved in the sport. I don’t have any real interest in the MLB, but I plan to follow our Canes as much as possible going forward.

Baseball was one of the only sports I didn’t play growing up so my understanding of the game is severely lacking. With that said, if you see me ask what seems like a stupid or common sense question, you now know why.

I’m looking forward to being active on this board and following our team.

Go Canes!
 
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Honestly me too. Im trying to get into this baseball team. The only baseball I ever watch are the Marlins and the cuban national team but I love all things Miami so I wanna support this team as well. Anything I should know?
 
Honestly me too. Im trying to get into this baseball team. The only baseball I ever watch are the Marlins and the cuban national team but I love all things Miami so I wanna support this team as well. Anything I should know?

Big differences in the college game vs pros:
  • Bullpens are the worst part of your pitching staff. In the pros, you see dudes coming in throwing 100 and it's light's out if you're trailing after 6 innings. In the college game, you want to get the starter out as quickly as possible because that middle relief is where a lot of teams win their games. Lower tier teams will take leads into the 6th or 7th inning and still lose the majority of times because most teams only have a few good relievers.
  • There are quite a few more runs scored in the college game than the pros. You might read me write about "linear weights" for baseball outcomes etc. and those are based on the run environment. The college game plays so far outside of what the professional game plays I had to calculate my own linear weights because there aren't any professional seasons to use as a guide.
  • In the college game the strike zones are FAR different than the major leagues. You will routinely see a strike called that is 6" off the plate at the college level. It's accepted that the strike zone will be huge, so while it is frustrating to see calls against your team at times, it'll be the same on the other side as well.
  • A good college arm throws low 90's. That's not maxed out and touches that mark, but consistently keeps his fastball at 91-93 mph as a starter. It is not unusual for a guy to throw upper 80's but be successful with his off-speed stuff and getting the wide strikes called.
  • It is far more important to have control in the college game than huge velocity. If you throw strikes in the college game you will have a good chance of success because there are just so fewer hitters that are dangerous at that level.
  • It's more of a breaking ball level. Hitters have a lot more trouble with good breaking pitches in college than they do at the professional level. A guy like Miami's best pitcher- Evan McKendry- will get huge strikeout numbers because of his breaking pitch (in his case a changeup) more than because he has huge velocity.
  • Miami is one of the perennial powerhouses in college baseball. They had the longest NCAA tournament streak in any sport snapped a couple of years ago and they are looking to get back to that level again. For that reason, this board is a bit mercurial as frustration over dropping from the top tier has set in. The board is full of very knowledgeable posters who are full of angst over the decline. Don't let it get to you at first, it's only because they care so much.
 
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Big differences in the college game vs pros:
  • Bullpens are the worst part of your pitching staff. In the pros, you see dudes coming in throwing 100 and it's light's out if you're trailing after 6 innings. In the college game, you want to get the starter out as quickly as possible because that middle relief is where a lot of teams win their games. Lower tier teams will take leads into the 6th or 7th inning and still lose the majority of times because most teams only have a few good relievers.
  • There are quite a few more runs scored in the college game than the pros. You might read me write about "linear weights" for baseball outcomes etc. and those are based on the run environment. The college game plays so far outside of what the professional game plays I had to calculate my own linear weights because there aren't any professional seasons to use as a guide.
  • In the college game the strike zones are FAR different than the major leagues. You will routinely see a strike called that is 6" off the plate at the college level. It's accepted that the strike zone will be huge, so while it is frustrating to see calls against your team at times, it'll be the same on the other side as well.
  • A good college arm throws low 90's. That's not maxed out and touches that mark, but consistently keeps his fastball at 91-93 mph as a starter. It is not unusual for a guy to throw upper 80's but be successful with his off-speed stuff and getting the wide strikes called.
  • It is far more important to have control in the college game than huge velocity. If you throw strikes in the college game you will have a good chance of success because there are just so fewer hitters that are dangerous at that level.
  • It's more of a breaking ball level. Hitters have a lot more trouble with good breaking pitches in college than they do at the professional level. A guy like Miami's best pitcher- Evan McKendry- will get huge strikeout numbers because of his breaking pitch (in his case a changeup) more than because he has huge velocity.
  • Miami is one of the perennial powerhouses in college baseball. They had the longest NCAA tournament streak in any sport snapped a couple of years ago and they are looking to get back to that level again. For that reason, this board is a bit mercurial as frustration over dropping from the top tier has set in. The board is full of very knowledgeable posters who are full of angst over the decline. Don't let it get to you at first, it's only because they care so much.
**** lance I don’t now you but I love you man. You give great breakdowns in every sport. Much appreciated my dude. I’m very familiar with baseball as a whole. In Cuba they put a bat and a ball in our hands as toddlers and the only way to make a name for yourself in that **** whole is by baseball or boxing. However this is my first time getting into the college game and that helps a lot!!!
 
I’m new too for the baseball team. I know they had two bad prior seasons. Should they be better this year? NCAA tourney worthy?
 
Also what happened to us? I always heard of Miami as a power house and I know a bunch of great players came here once. I have observed from a far and it seems like lately there’s very little hype. What Exaclty happened and do you think we get back there soon? I know we have a rookie coach but is it realistic to get back soon? @Lance Roffers
 
Big differences in the college game vs pros:
  • Bullpens are the worst part of your pitching staff. In the pros, you see dudes coming in throwing 100 and it's light's out if you're trailing after 6 innings. In the college game, you want to get the starter out as quickly as possible because that middle relief is where a lot of teams win their games. Lower tier teams will take leads into the 6th or 7th inning and still lose the majority of times because most teams only have a few good relievers.
  • There are quite a few more runs scored in the college game than the pros. You might read me write about "linear weights" for baseball outcomes etc. and those are based on the run environment. The college game plays so far outside of what the professional game plays I had to calculate my own linear weights because there aren't any professional seasons to use as a guide.
  • In the college game the strike zones are FAR different than the major leagues. You will routinely see a strike called that is 6" off the plate at the college level. It's accepted that the strike zone will be huge, so while it is frustrating to see calls against your team at times, it'll be the same on the other side as well.
  • A good college arm throws low 90's. That's not maxed out and touches that mark, but consistently keeps his fastball at 91-93 mph as a starter. It is not unusual for a guy to throw upper 80's but be successful with his off-speed stuff and getting the wide strikes called.
  • It is far more important to have control in the college game than huge velocity. If you throw strikes in the college game you will have a good chance of success because there are just so fewer hitters that are dangerous at that level.
  • It's more of a breaking ball level. Hitters have a lot more trouble with good breaking pitches in college than they do at the professional level. A guy like Miami's best pitcher- Evan McKendry- will get huge strikeout numbers because of his breaking pitch (in his case a changeup) more than because he has huge velocity.
  • Miami is one of the perennial powerhouses in college baseball. They had the longest NCAA tournament streak in any sport snapped a couple of years ago and they are looking to get back to that level again. For that reason, this board is a bit mercurial as frustration over dropping from the top tier has set in. The board is full of very knowledgeable posters who are full of angst over the decline. Don't let it get to you at first, it's only because they care so much.

Bruh. If you don’t mind me asking what is your profession. You sound like a College professor in intergalactic quantum theories. PHD of course.
 
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Also what happened to us? I always heard of Miami as a power house and I know a bunch of great players came here once. I have observed from a far and it seems like lately there’s very little hype. What Exaclty happened and do you think we get back there soon? I know we have a rookie coach but is it realistic to get back soon? @Lance Roffers

Jim Morris recruiting the wrong players, hurt us a lot. In football you have to be 3 years removed from HS to go to the next draft, in baseball you can go from HS to the pros. Morris was known for recruiting players that had 0 chance of ever playing for us, and went straight to the league. This last recruiting class was a lot better for us.
 
I’m new too for the baseball team. I know they had two bad prior seasons. Should they be better this year? NCAA tourney worthy?

For sure. Offense was lacking the last couple years. Youth on offense last year with a lot of guys returning and some former highly touted freshmen that struggled last year looking to bounce back. Also another good freshman class that we’ll be relying on.

Should be a great pitching staff with power arms and tons of depth at starting pitching. Lost the 2 back end guys of the bull pen for the last 2 years so it could hinge on how well they fill in.

Arguably one of the best defensive infields in the country this year with 2 sophomores and a freshman playing 2B, SS, and 3rd and a couple other sophomores expected to play 1B and 3B.

My expectation is 35-40 wins and a regional and possibly even hosting a regional. We have the pitching to make it to Omaha if it lines up correctly. A lot rides on the middle of the order offensively. We’ll see if former highly touted Alex Toral, true freshman Del Castillo, and budding star Freddy Zamora can carry the offense batting 3-4-5
 
Well good day to get into it I guess lol. Good ol fashioned *** kicking. Spectacular discipline at the plate. When you got that pitcher into deep counts he always hanged the fast ball right on top of the plate and we capitalized. I know it’s rutgers but good game.
 
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Well good day to get into it I guess lol. Good ol fashioned *** kicking. Spectacular discipline at the plate. When you got that pitcher into deep counts he always hanged the fast ball right on top of the plate and we capitalized. I know it’s rutgers but good game.

Welcome to the board. If last night was any indication, maybe you'll bring us some better luck this year.
 
Also what happened to us? I always heard of Miami as a power house and I know a bunch of great players came here once. I have observed from a far and it seems like lately there’s very little hype. What Exaclty happened and do you think we get back there soon? I know we have a rookie coach but is it realistic to get back soon? @Lance Roffers

Horrid roster management left us with a depleted club in 2017. Instead of sucking it up, accepting one bad year, and rebuilding the team the right way, they panicked and tried to patch holes with JUCO transfers. That plan failed miserably, leading to not one, but two missed postseasons.
 
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