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Let's just win some games this weekend.....

BF101, I don't know if you were referring to my post or not about blaming one person for our lack of winning games because I think there is plenty of blame to go around for practically every one. The point I was trying to make is that there is only one person on the field who is solely responsible for his own actions when it comes to walking batters, hitting batters, and serving up the over the fence fly balls. Ranking dead last in those categories by our pitching staff is shocking to me to say the least.

People are starting to grumble about our poor showing - kinda like they did with women's and men's basketball. We all know what that led to.

Don't know for sure, but I think 101 was referring to:

HB, I think Trey hit it on the head. And your post about the guy on the mound is well received, and you're right it is shocking. That being said, hopefully since we are done playing all the top teams in the SLC now record wise, it might start to come back to us a little bit. I was just also trying to point out to everyone, there are more on the field than that 1 guy on the mound too. Those holding and swinging the bats who could get us some runs and maybe not make the pitchers feel like they have to throw the perfect pitch every time, or those using the gloves behind the pitchers to give them confidence if they do leave one or two up and out over the course of a game, have a direct link to ALL of this as well.

All I know is there is still plenty of time to turn this ship around this season, get into the SLC Tournament and let things fall where they may. The schedule is finally coming back to us after the frickin gauntlet we had the first 5 weeks of SLC play. Hope it starts tonight at Bear Stadium!

If only a couple of guys were struggling it would be one thing but when the whole staff is struggling like they are you have to ask what the common denominator is and what is so different from last year. The talent is there so it seems to be as much a mental thing as anything else. That all seems to point in one direction to me.

We all have our opinions of what is wrong and what needs to change, but we all want the same thing--a good baseball team!

I would like nothing better than to see the bears turn this season around and be successful. Bearfan101 is right about it being a joint effort. It takes the whole team to win and a loss sucks for everybody. They need our support now more than ever!! I hope everyone can come out this weekend and cheer them on. Go Bears!

Geez,
I make a simple post that - in my opinion - a legitimate closer would have the biggest effect on the team's record and then come back a couple of days later to find all of this...wow. I did not mean to imply that the offense was great - it has certainly been less than stellar at times. I also did not mean to imply that the pitching coach is not doing a good job. However, I believe that winning baseball begins with pitching and defense and I have 30+ years of watching the Texas Rangers to prove that winning is not based on offense. The Bears have gotten virtually no contribution from Ball or Ariola due to injuries and it appears a RHP may be pitching hurt based on his decreased velocity and diminished results from previous seasons. Add all that to the fact that there is no true closer and it makes it hard to win consistently.

Earlier in the thread someone asked about scholarships for pitchers. At most schools, the pitchers get the most money. I would expect that to be the case at UCA as well.

Finally, the easiest way to determine if a base is stolen on the catcher is to take your Iron Man Triathlon watch to the game and time the pop to pop of the catcher's throws to second. If the pop time is 2.0 to 2.1 seconds and the runner is safe, the base was stolen on the pitcher... or the coach.

Go Bears!

"I believe that winning baseball begins with pitching and defense "

Amen, brother (coming from an old shortshop)

Hey UE,

Just wanted to again say that I think most of the response was due to someone else sounding as if the season's results were mostly the fault of one man.

I think the lack of wins just threw extra fire into everyone's argument that not only can you not blame one man but not even one entire part of the game - pitching.

This weekend continues to show that the offense (and defense) is not holding up its share of the game as well. Somehow we scored 7 on only 6 hits yesterday and won. Today, 5 hits, only two walks and a decent pitching performance is wasted because of a poor day at the plate.

I was actually able to see most of (had kids with me today, so there were many times I was quite distracted) both games this weekend. Today, we couldn't find the holes in the Nicholls defense. We hit it right at their guys - a lot. And even when we didn't, they did a great job of getting to it and making plays.

Anyway, I don't think anyone was trying to jump on you or anything. Or, at least I wasn't. Let's just hope we can win tomorrow and get the series. It'll be Sunday, and it'll likely take more than 6 or 5 hits to win it.

Oh, and my comment about not knowing how many steals were off pitchers or catchers was about me not seeing the games to know. I know how to keep time on a pitcher's delivery. And you should really choose a different team after 30 years. Nolan Ryan's not there any more.

What exactly are the pitching coaches credentials? I haven't seen anything showing where he ever pitched. Even if he was a catcher at some high level of play would help. This is supposed to be Div. 1 baseball...right?

okay here's my .02

I've been around baseball my whole life and I breathe this stuff, but Coach Clark has forgotten more baseball than I KNOW. Believe me, i played for him. IMHO the best pitch in baseball is a well located fastball. You can have great sliders, curves, cutters, etc. but unless you can get a hitter off balance and hitting your pitch you're SOL. Right now we seem to be a "try to get em to bite early" squad and get behind in counts and have to serve up MEAT because we're pitching from behind in the count. That would actually be a very interesting stat - see what the count was on the batters that hit HR's or RBI's. I'm confident these guy's arms are in shape and not "tired"

Now, on to offense. We lack a true power threat. All of our hitters have VERY low SLG% so I would like to see us create more opportunities. If you can't drive a runner in from 1st with the long ball you've got to bunt - steal -squeeze - Hit &Run. Our opponents out hit us in the long ball AND create more scoring opportunities on the bases (our opponents have attempted 98 stolen bases in head to head games this year to our 46)

" If you can't drive a runner in from 1st with the long ball you've got to bunt - steal -squeeze - Hit &Run."

Great description of Whitey (Herzog) Ball....well said