GT Baseball Primer
by Tedward09 on Feb 16, 2010 8:00 AM EST
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PrintBird posed a couple of questions to me about our baseball team in preparation for OPENING DAY on Friday. Here is the Q&A, my answers in italics. It's kind of long, but maybe it'll help you get through the day...
Finally, Matt Skole will be an important piece of our team this year. Last season, Matt began the season on an offensive tear the likes of which I hadn't seen before. In my opinion, he started faster than Derek Dietrich did the year before. However, he cooled off tremendously during the ACC season. His numbers for the year were respectable: .302 avg, 17 HR, and 58 RBI. But Skole struck out a whopping 69 times last season. He'll have to improve his discipline and not try to smash every pitch he likes at the plate. Matt has world class power (any of you that were at the second game of the Clemson series last year when he hit the roof of the freaking field house in right field on the fly can vouch for that). He will need to maintain this power, but also learn to take more pitches and get on base. Also, Matt will be assuming the role of backup catcher in addition to starting at 3rd base. Generally, Danny Hall plays his backup catcher twice a week on Wednesday and Sunday. Coach Hall has stated that he has confidence in Matt taking on that role, but it remains to be seen how he will perform there. We need Matt to maintain his offensive production while taking on an extra challenge on defense.
Now, some of you might be saying (Winfield especially), "What about Derek Dietrich??" Well, since I don't have a man crush on double-D (anymore) and Winfield does, I'll give you the straight talk about Derek as I see it. My dislike for his current game doesn't come close to the level of YellowJackette, but I've grown less and less fond of his game from last season until now. Derek came in as a highly touted freshman (he was drafted in the 3rd round by the Astros as a senior is high school, but came to Tech because of an injury to his throwing shoulder) and lit up the ACC. I won't even bother posting the stats because they were out of this world. But last year, Derek never got it going and to me, he really didn't seem to care. He swung at bad pitches all year and was unreliable at the end of games. Throw in his ultra-erratic fielding (14 errors at short last year) and you've got one frustrating player to watch. I hope Derek gets it together this year, we need him to. But for now, he's on my "F*cking Chris House" list, along with Zach Peacock, and Chris House.
For those of you that need an explanation, I have invented a list of players that the general public views as a "good" player, but who is actually terrible. Thus was born the "F*cking Chris House" list.
Number 1 on the list, ahead of the man the list is named for incredibly, is Zach Peacock. For some strange reason, Zach thinks that since he's a shooting guard trapped in the body of a 6'10 center. He takes step-back 3s and crazy fade-away jump shots while being quite possibly the worst defender ever. Even after 3.5 years of playing college basketball, he still has no clue who to cover on a switch. Just stop already Zach, you're not a 3 man, you are a freaking 4 or 5 and you can't play any defense. Sorry you have to hear this, but someone needs to shout the truth from the mountain tops. I will say it's not all Zach's fault. He can't help it that his coach is incompetent (yeah that's right Bird, I said it) and has actually managed a losing ACC record with 3 McDonald's All-Americans on the roster. I mean we have absolutely no offense. I'm watching the Kansas vs. Texas A&M game now and Kansas just ran a 3-man weave to get Sherron Collins open. Does Paul Hewitt know what a 3-man weave is?
And Chris House, don't even get me started... yeah yeah he never made an error in the field, I know but you know what? He only hit HRs against Mercer and didn't steal a base till his senior season. He's a nice guy and all, but seriously, I'm so glad we'll have an actual right fielder this year.
I don't like to hate on our players, but I've given up hope on the baketball team this season and Chris House has graduated, so it's fair game.
Alright, happy thoughts people. How did I start ranting about Zach Peacock during my baseball preview?? Let's get back to the subject at hand...
This year's staff is one of the strongest ever at Tech. The weekend rotation is as solid as I've ever seen it. All-American Deck McGuire will anchor the staff. Last season, Deck went 11-2 with a 3.50 ERA, 118 SO, and 41 BB. He's a typical power pitcher with a ridiculous fastball (in the mid 90s with excellent movement) and a devastating changeup. His only issue last season was getting off to a slow start. If Deck can get rid of the early inning jitters, we won't lose a Friday game this year. That's just a fact.
The Saturday starter is Brandon Cumpton, who started most Sunday games for us last year. Brandon has excellent stuff. His problem has always been control and the mental side of the game. Once things start going wrong, Brandon seems to have a tough time recovering. Hopefully, another year of seasoning has helped his game and he'll be able to use his great stuff to the team's advantage this year.
The bullpen will be led by senior Andrew Robinson (ARob to me, obviously) and Kevin Jacob. ARob is a great setup man who throws hard and has been in tough spots before. His leadership will be big for our younger pitchers. Kevin Jacob has the best stuff of anyone on the team, even McGuire. Last season he rotated between starter and long-reliever. He had a lot of issues with his control last season but it seems he solved those problems this past summer when he played in the Alaska Baseball League and was named the number one prospect in that league at the end of the summer by Baseball America. His final stats from the Summer League were outrageous: 2-1 record, 0.34 ERA, 46 SO, in 26.2 IP. 0.34 ERA!!!!!!! HE ALLOWED ONE EARNED RUN THE ENTIRE SUMMER... AND ONLY 9 HITS. Try to wrap your mind around that... you can't do it, it's impossible. Kevin will serve as the closer this year. His fastball can hit 98mph, plus some good off-speed stuff. Combine that with his highly unusual delivery motion (it's kind of a shortened version of Hideo Nomo combined with Hideki Okajima) and you have a deadly combination. As long as he has control, I feel really comfortable with the back end of the bullpen.
Who are the big dogs in the ACC this year? Will UVA repeat as tourney champs?
Like every year, the ACC is probably the strongest baseball conference in America. There are 6 teams in Baseball America's Preseason Top-25 including 3 in the top-10. UVA is ranked 2nd, Tech is 6th, and FSU is 9th. UVA should be very strong, like usual, but obviously GT will be winning the ACC and NCAA tournaments this year, without question. Clemson will be much improved from a year ago. UNC is down a little bit, but Mike Fox always brings a good team that is well coached and has good pitching. I'd watch out for them again this year.
If you could recommend one baseball game or series for non-baseball fans to attend, what game or series would it be?
I would say the Clemson series, for a couple of reasons. First and most importantly, I will be at this series and it will be the only regular season series I plan on attending this year unfortunately. So I will be unleashing heckles the likes of which won't be heard during the rest of the season. It will probably be worth coming just to hear that. Plus, Jack Leggett is the worst human being on the face of this planet and deserves to hear the wrath of every Georgia Tech fan present. If you don't hate him yet, you will after this series. Plus this series is always fun. Both teams are perennial powerhouses, have great baseball tradition (ours is much better than Clemson, obviously). I think this will be the marquee match-up at the Rusty C this season
I have to say this as well... If you're not a baseball fan, make an effort to become one this season. Baseball at Georgia Tech is unappreciated and is taken for granted by far too many Georgia Tech fans. We have one of the best programs in the country, yet we are at the bottom of the ACC in terms of attendance. So here's my pitch to you. Come out to at least 3 weekend series this season... bring the whole family if you'd like (don't worry, I always keep the heckles clean, for the kids). I think you'll like what you see. We have a lot of great players and a great coach who put a great product out on that field. Come out and hang with Reck Club at the top of Section 10, or some of my crew in section 12. I promise you'll have a good time.
That's my pitch, I'll get off the soapbox.
Speed round...first thoughts in three words or less...
Preseason MVP: Tony Plagman
Post-seaston Goals: National Championship
Delta Derby: Kind of boring
Ring of Fire: Drunk
Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road: Drunker
I'll add a couple of my own...
Danny Hall: you're the greatest
Baseball drink: The Turkey
Best snack: sunflower seeds
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I wish them well
and I’ll try to watch as many games as possible, but I still have two fundamental problems with college baseball:
1. DH
2. That noise
I will try to overcome these prejudices, but they run very deep. Maybe I can just turn the sound off and pretend that the pitchers are batting.
at first I read it as
1. Danny Hall.
2. The ping of the metal bats.
Then, I realized you meant designated hitter. I don’t know what #2 is… I think the sound of a metal ping is awesome. College batters aren’t good enough to use wood. Hitting and runs are important for college baseball. They make the games less predictable and more likely to end in dramatic offensive fashion than in a pitcher’s dual (borefest).
I spun around... and there I was, face-to-face with a six-year old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass.
So basically you have a problem with every form of baseball between Little League and the National League since everyone else uses a DH…. With the Ping of metal bats…. the average college player is not strong enough nor consistent enough to play with wood bats. the average pitcer in college is way farther along in the development department than the average hitter and it would make a fairly boring (to the average person) sport into the most boring event ever. The amount of baseball knowledge and appreciation it takes just to watch it as it already is. Want to raise those attendence numbers? Yea just add wood bats to the mix and see if you can set record lows. I suggest you take college baseball for what it is and go out and enjoy a few games.
Sorry if that came out ruder than I meant for it to but I’m just respectfully disagreeing with those two problems with college baseball
P.S. better watch out for TCU this year after a breakout year last year.
I said they were MY problems with college baseball,
so your disagreement is just wrong. I didn’t say they were college baseball’s problems. My statement of my opinion is correct.
The Designated Hitter changes the strategy of the game. Clearly half of Major League Baseball and everyone else playing the sport disagrees that this is a significant change, but it is to me. I like when managers have to pull a pitcher who is doing well to pinch hit. I love it when teams run out of pitchers in extra innings. It’s part of the game.
I have heard the nasty pinging noise a lot. I started going to Tech baseball games at the start of the Modern Era, when Jim Morris was hired.
Those were exciting days, especially since Bill Curry was still our football coach and Dwayne Morrison was still our basketball coach. Here, finally, we had a winning team, one that competed on a national level, one that we could be proud of.
Still hate the ping.
And it's telling
that it was clear what I meant by “that noise”. It’s not just me.
I guess the ping for me
is just a reminder of the difference between college and pro sports. Like going to a Braves game and hearing rock and roll/country over the giant speakers and such versus hearing the marching band at Tech games.
The ping just reminds me that it’s a bunch of amateurs and all for fun not for big bucks. Plus, Tech has done fairly well lately as the Braves have dropped off so the ping is even more appealing than the thud of a wooden bat, to me, as of late.
I spun around... and there I was, face-to-face with a six-year old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass.
I'm not a fan of metal bats
But I’ll take them because we have to.
The college football season is so fragile. It's like a glass ball being pushed around from stadium to stadium by a rhinoceros.
by Winfield Featherston on Feb 16, 2010 10:50 AM EST reply actions
I dont mind them
It’s the douchebag players that fling them that gets me pissed. If you can’t hold on to the bat, play a different sport imo.
Other than that, I love college baseball, so much so, I have created my own fantasy college baseball league where each manager picks a set number of teams each week of play and accumulates stat-based points. But you can only pick each team a few times before they are locked. Total points wins. Now if I could just get it web-based that would be awesome because then I could dump all the Excel spreadsheets.
"Big Ten can have this challenge. Duke loses, we all win..."
-Marcus Ginyard, G - UNC
We use metal in college because wood bats break constantly and would be far too expensive for college teams to maintain. The reason isn’t because the guys aren’t strong enough. Many of them play in summer leagues that use wood bats (Cape Cod league, etc.). That being said, I enjoy the ping of the metal bat just as much as the crack of a wooden one… and I consider myself a traditional baseball fan.
Ted wishes
we went back to wool uniforms, natural leather baseballs/gloves, and the funny hats that are way TOO small for players’ heads.
Here’s a clip for those who need help understanding Ted’s train of thought: clip. Give me a good apple, hurler!
I spun around... and there I was, face-to-face with a six-year old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass.
Ted I played baseball till last semester. I have used wood bats in summer leagues. The strength is a small issue but the major issue is the ability to consistently hit the ball on the sweet spot of the bat. Wood bats sweet spots are much smaller. If you look at summer leagues pitchers dominate. The one assumption is the pitchers throw strikes you don’t throw strikes you will struggle.
Colleges are sponsored by bat companies and the cost to use wood bats is not the issue. Alot of college team use wood bats during practice to improve their consistency. They break a ton of bats. Cost is not a problem.
by TCUFAN28 on Feb 16, 2010 12:50 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Interesting to hear that… would a bat company really want to front the cost of all those bats? Does every school have a bat sponsor? Plus, do some of the current metal bat makers even manufacture wood bats? I don’t know if those are dumb questions, but I’m just ignorant of that whole side of the game. I agree with the sweet spot aspect though of the wooden bats.
Do you think college hitters would benefit from using a wood bat full time? Perhaps it would help them in the pros later on?
Ted. to your questions. I played at TCU and would assume the same for most DIv 1 schools. Yes most schools have a sponsor for the following items and these are TCUs
Bats-Easton
Gloves-Easton
Cleats-Nike
Uniforms-Nike and Proline
Batting gloves-Easton
Workout Shoes-Nike
Workout clothing-Nike
TCU is sponsered by Easton and Nike.In the past we werent held strictly by our contracts and we wore some rawlings gloves and underarmor shoes, last year with us being the only Super-regional game on a monday night on ESPN against Texas Easton was upset that we were wearing rawlings gloves and demanded that this year we only use their equipment.
Yes every metal bat company makes wood bats, just look in a baseball express magazine and you can see all the different brands. I think in the long run the players who advanced to the minors and majors would benefit, but I feel the average player would struggle from this.
My one tid bit to think about is Barry Bonds, The year he hit his record homers he was walked and never pitched too, but if he saw ONE pitch that was hittable over the course of a game he hit it for a HR. This is just the incredible thing to me, I dont care if he was on steroids or not. The hand eye consistency to hit the ONE pitch every single time is just amazing. No player in the game has that ability even though Albert Pujols isnt far behind. I think Arod is a good player but I dont think hes on that level.
I completely agree about Bonds. I have long believed that Bonds was an extraordinary hitter, steroids or not. He was absolutely incredible back then.
Thanks for the education about baseball equipment… being a fan I never learned about any of those details. I agree the average player would suffer and I think the game would be much less exciting with wood bats. And plus, the real pro prospects get to practice with wood bats during the summer leagues.
yep everything TCUFAN says is truth
Next time you’re in a sporting goods store, go check out the bats section. Look at how many logos have a school logo that uses their bat.
Note: You won’t see WORTH baseball bats anywhere
The college football season is so fragile. It's like a glass ball being pushed around from stadium to stadium by a rhinoceros.
by Winfield Featherston on Feb 16, 2010 2:26 PM EST up reply actions
I'm not saying anything negative about either kind of bat
Just saying I dislike players who fling bats in general. I watched in horror at a minor league game where a playe got pissed and attempted to fling his bat at the backstop but let go too soon and the bat went into the stands and hit a couple of kids. I’ve seen in happen in college games, at little league games, the pros, etc. If a player flings a bat, accident or not, they should be kicked out of the game. Either hold onto the damn thing or play a different sport.
"Big Ten can have this challenge. Duke loses, we all win..."
-Marcus Ginyard, G - UNC
Zach rant
Looks like everyone has basketball fatigue and is ignoring this, but not sure why you have decided to target Peacock of all players for a rant. I don’t know how to pull data to address your assessment of his defense but defense is not this team’s problem. This rant strikes me as out of place.
Zach brings much needed shooting to our team. A solid three point shooter, strong overall shooting numbers and our best free throw shooter (sorry, but Oliver doesn’t shoot anything but threes and therefore never shoots free throws). Exaclty the kind of player this team needs. If Peacock is taking “step back” threes he is doing a solid job making 40% of his threes on 40 attempts.
Udofia is shooting .295 on 78 attempts, Miller is shooting .125 on 24 attempts, shumpert is shooting .305 on 59 attempts. We need a someone besides Oliver to occasionally make a three and Zach is doing an admirable job filling that role.
Now for a big guy Zach’s turnover rate (our biggest problem) is a little high but then he is being asked to play outside at times and handle the ball more than the average big guy, so I don’t really have an issue with it.
Zach friend here
I like Peacock’s play, too. He’s one of the few consistent hustle guys outside of Gani. I don’t get to see enough of the team to comment on his defense (since none of our games are televised in rural SC)…
I spun around... and there I was, face-to-face with a six-year old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass.
Ted's a hater.
We all hate. No matter what you show Ted, he won’t believe. you. Gotta get used it.
The college football season is so fragile. It's like a glass ball being pushed around from stadium to stadium by a rhinoceros.
by Winfield Featherston on Feb 16, 2010 1:29 PM EST up reply actions
Agreed
Peacock has the 2nd highest ORtg, 3rd in eFG%, 3rd in TS%, 4th in OR%, 4th in DR%, 4th in TORate, 4th in Stl%, tied for 2nd in FT%, tied for 2nd in FG%, and 4th in 3pt%. In fact, the only two bad things about his game is his low ARate of 9.2 (which should be expected considering not only his role on the team, but also the overall lack of assisted shots in general for this team) and the high TORate (which again, should be expected because it’s a plague on this team as a whole and not an individualized issue).
I say focus the anger on the coach, not the players.
"Big Ten can have this challenge. Duke loses, we all win..."
-Marcus Ginyard, G - UNC
To Winfield’s point, you can’t convince me otherwise about Peacock, and I’m a numbers person. Sometimes you just have to watch and see that this guy doesn’t fit in on the court. Yes he can go off for a lot of points… but are the shots he’s taking good for the team? Almost every time he touches the ball, he’s shooting, for better or worse. My point is, and i guess I didn’t make this evident enough in the post, but he doesn’t make the team better AT ALL even when he’s on a hot streak. He doesn’t make the players around him better.
He’s not a scorer, he’s a center. And CPH even made a point in the early part of the season that the goal was to NOT have Zach playing the 3 as he did last year. Yet, somehow Zach is still playing the 3. Now that’s partly Hewitt’s fault. But Zach doesn’t do what is best for the team in my opinion. He’s selfish, turnover prone, and seems to only care about his own stats. That’s my take, I don’t care how good his FG percentage is.
Our point is...
even if he is his selfish (low Arate), turnover prone (high TOrate), and only cares about his own stats, he fills a much needed role on this team. We need his shooting. Also his usage rate (%Poss) is the fifth highest on the team so he clearly is not shooting whenever he is touching the ball. I would say you could argue that he should be shooting more.
Besides, if we didn’t have Peacock, who would get his minutes? Sheehan (since you insist he is a center, which I disagree with)?
Well, i probably went too far
His %shots is third on the team behind Lawal and Oliver, so that is probably about right. I think we would all like to see Favors get more shots, but i would like to see those shots be at the expense of Shumpert and Udofia
And on defense
I have been giving this a lot of thought since I don’t really know how to pull data on defensive numbers on players but in todays AJC article Hewitt discusses Shumpert and really emphasizes his ability to create deflections on defense which got me thinking. Hewitt likes to play really aggressive defense. As I have mentioned before Hewitt’s teams defensive ranks are: 22nd in eFG%, 20th in TO% , and 68th in FTA/FGA. Therefore we commit a lot of fouls in order to create turnovers and force bad shots. I wish I had these numbers on an individual basis but I don’t. What we do have are stl% and blk%, which I think Hewitt would agree are probably the best data we have on creating deflections.
Zach is 4th on our team in stl% and 7th in blk%. Clearly he is not blocking shots for our team. Even though he is playing some on the perimeter he is below a lot of our permeter players in this metric. His stl% numbers are quite good. HIs numbers are similiar to Rice and Miller who are ahead of him. Only Shumpert’s numbers are notably better.
I don't think you are actually watching him play
At the rate his shots are falling, of course they are good for the team. They are much better than most of the shot our guards were putting up for most of the season. In fact, without going back and tracking every single game, I’d be willing to bet that most of Peacocks shots are in the second half of the shot clock whereas Udofia, Shumpert, etc are putting up shots in the first half of the shot clock. In the first half of the UNC game tonight, Peacock only took one bad shot that I saw, early in the clock, and I only saw him get beat down low once.
Overall, his game is solid. Your refusal to accept it is dumb and short-sighted.
"Big Ten can have this challenge. Duke loses, we all win..."
-Marcus Ginyard, G - UNC
i didn’t see most of the unc game honestly cause i hate watching games on espn360, but i have 3 zach moments for you…
he also made a great back door pass to dre, then had no idea who to cover on d which led to an easy basket for unc. then about 2 minutes later at the 14:30 mark he switched onto a guard leading to an open 3 for unc (they missed the shot). then with 2:40 to go he takes a pull up 3 with 23 seconds on the shot clock. yeah we had a big lead and all, but why the hell is he taking that shot? We were burning them with backdoor cuts the whole half… he couldn’t wait for that to open up?
I’m sorry, we have enough athletes on this team who could score if we could run some form of an offense. His game might be solid, I would consider it “streaky” at best, but he’s not a team player and that’s what pisses me off the most. He’s almost always looking for his own shot and he’s completely lost on defense most of the time. That’s great that he has enough confidence to switch onto a guard or take up a pull up 3, that doesn’t make it right.
Like Winfield already told you… I will not be convinced that Zach is a good player for the Jackets.
picking examples doesn't prove much either way
You don’t like Zach, fine, but who are you playing and how are we better?
Your statement, “if we could run some sort of offense” is telling. If we can’t run an offense, don’t we need players who can create their own?
What do you think about Oliver? He has a much quicker release than Peacock, do you not mind because he is a better shooter?
Or Bell
Who is this teams version of Mario West, decent college defense, marginal scoring ability, and is absolutely a black hole on offense at times. All of the examples you have provided above Tedward I could easily find for every player on the team in last nights game alone. I saw more ball-hogging from our guards last night than I saw from Peacock and with the way they have been shooting lately I’d much rather have Peacock creating his own shot and making them at a high rate than watching the guards jack up shots they have no business taking, early in the shot clock, without ever looking for the inside play.
If you want to be stubborn about Peacock that is fine, but your reasoning isn’t logical and it sounds like you just want to dislike a player for the sake of disliking someone. If that’s the case, I’d suggest diverting your attention to Hewitt, since it’s his coaching that puts the players in the positions they find themselves in on the court.
"Big Ten can have this challenge. Duke loses, we all win..."
-Marcus Ginyard, G - UNC
Agreed.
Tedward has launched what is basically a character assassination against Peacock. I would avoid using words like selfish unless I had some first hand knowledge of the situation. For all I know he is filling the exact role that Hewitt is asking him to play. How do you know Hewitt is not telling him to look for his shot?
Sure, Peacock dribbles around too much at times, but Bell and Shumpert also tend to do this and I think it is a product of Hewitt’s “offensive system” more than the player’s being selfish.
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