What Rudy, Joe Echevarria, and Rad Should Look at In Terms of JD's Assessment

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Gross.

Welp another year where I won’t be watching canes baseball and only loosely following the continued decline of a once great program.

Safe to say this program is officially dead and gone. I’ll continue to say it… SHAMEFUL!

We need an article on the death of the program.
 
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I know you said former head coach, but it would be a total UM move to hire washed up Paul Manieri and claim we stole him from USCe
I could see it. We all thought Manieri would be an old hire... until we realized the hire was JD... Miami-ing would be to correct one mistake with another...
 
Team Stats- 2025- No National Seeding, 9th Place Finish ACC, 1st Round Exit to #16 Cal, Regional Appearance- TBA, 31-24 Record

Only 3 Hitters hit above .300
412 Strikeouts in 1829 At bats (22.5% of our AB's were K's)
61 for 73 on Stolen Bases (83.5%)
Team RBI's - 330
Daniel Cuvet RBI's 76 (23% of teams RBIs)

Pitching Team ERA - 5.03
78 HBP
119 Walks

Team Fielding Percentage- .972

Notable Wins- Florida (1), Florida St (1), UNC (1), Duke (2), Pitt (2), GT (3), BC (3), NC State (2)
Notable Losses-FAU, UCONN (2), UCF (Run Rule), Swept by Wake Forest, Stetson, FIU (2), Virginia (3), Notre Dame (2), Cal


Team Stats- 2024- No National Seeding, 11th Place Finish ACC, ACC Semifinal Loss to Duke, No Regional Appearance. 27-30 Record

Only 4 Hitters hit above .300
483 Strikeouts in 1934 At bats (25% of our AB's were K's)
28 for 39 on Stolen Bases (71.8%)
Team RBI's - 355
Daniel Cuvet RBI's 75 (21.1% of teams RBIs)

Pitching Team ERA - 5.76
76 HBP
243 Walks

Team Fielding Percentage- .970

Notable Wins- Florida (1), Virginia (2), UNC (2), Clemson (1), Louisville (1), GT (1), BYU (2), VTech (2), ACC tournament wins vs Louisville & Clemson.
Notable Losses- UCF, LIU, FGCU, Florida (2), Notre Dame (2), Clemson (2), FAU, Duke (3), FSU (3), Louisville (2), Georgia Tech (2), FIU, Pitt (2)


Recommended Questions for JD:

  1. Two years in — do you believe the program is moving in the right direction, and how can you prove that with results, not potential?
  2. We didn't meet expectations this season — what went wrong, and how much of that falls on your leadership?
  3. What tangible improvements have we seen in player development under your staff — and where have we fallen short?
  4. Are you satisfied with the toughness, discipline, and identity of this team? If not, why haven’t you fixed it?
  5. Recruiting is the lifeblood of this program — are you confident you're landing the type of talent Miami needs to win at a national level?
  6. You’ve had two full years to shape the culture — what is the culture today, and does it reflect Miami’s championship standard?
  7. How would you evaluate your assistant coaches’ performance — and are changes needed to improve results?
  8. What’s your biggest coaching mistake over the past two seasons, and what have you learned from it?
  9. Fans and alumni are questioning the direction of the program — what’s your message to them right now?
  10. If we’re sitting here next year having the same conversation, do you believe you should still be the head coach?


Report Card:

Failure to Meet Miami’s Competitive Standard — Especially in the Postseason

Miami is a blue-blood baseball program with a long history of success, national championships, and high expectations. Anything short of consistent NCAA Tournament appearances, deep postseason runs (regionals/super regionals), and ACC contention is seen as underperformance. If the program has:

  • Missed the NCAA Tournament or made early exits,
  • Struggled in ACC play or fallen short in key rivalry games,
  • Lacked consistency or direction on the field,
—then the ultimate responsibility falls on Arteaga’s leadership, preparation, and decision-making.


Supporting Factors That Could Add to the Blame:​

  1. Lack of Identity or Culture: If two years in, the team doesn’t have a clear playing style, culture, or locker room leadership, that’s on him.
  2. Recruiting Gaps: If the talent level is slipping or transfers and top prospects aren’t materializing, that points to a failure in recruiting strategy.
  3. Underdevelopment of Players: If players aren’t progressing — particularly pitchers, given his background — it raises serious red flags.
  4. In-Game Management: repeated poor tactical decisions, bullpen mismanagement, or situational lapses also fall squarely on the head coach.

In short: The biggest blame is failing to elevate (or even maintain) Miami's elite standard — with no clear evidence that the program is on a trajectory to return to national prominence.

Question is: Would anyone recommend a Year 3 under JD or a National Search for someone who can steer this trajectory?



Fantastic post.

Annnnnd, JD will be back in 2026.

Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just saying it is going to happen.
 
Fantastic post.

Annnnnd, JD will be back in 2026.

Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just saying it is going to happen.

So we keep the corpse of the baseball program on ice for another year...

oh well, by now we are used to it.
We need to rename our Athletic Dept to the Athletic Morgue...
 
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My understanding is that there’s two schools of thought right now.

Group 1 wants to bring JD back. They like him personally, and think the program is making progress, even if only incremental. He’s a budget friendly choice and provides stability. I’d say Rad is in this boat firmly. This is the larger of the two groups. This is the same group of people that was lobbying to bring Manny back for 2022.

Group 2 wants JD out. With momentum in football and basketball, they see this as an opportunity to get all three sports moving in the same direction. Smaller than Group 1 by quite a bit.

I 95% expect JD to be back next year, a regional appearance would seal it no matter the result.

The thing about UM Athletics is that they’ll fight to the bitter end as long as slightly above average is being met. Unless they get called out nationally (like we did in 2021), or we just crater, the change nothing group wins out.
 
That little ACC game win streak was the worse thing that could have happened for the program.

Allocate all baseball NIL funds to football, I'd rather Mario be able to sign an 8th OL in this class than have JD have funds to keep Miami hovering around .500
 
That little ACC game win streak was the worse thing that could have happened for the program.

Allocate all baseball NIL funds to football, I'd rather Mario be able to sign an 8th OL in this class than have JD have funds to keep Miami hovering around .500

No. Miami isn’t broke. Baseball shouldn’t be paying for Mario’s suck tax.
 
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