Ye Olde Green Wave Forum

Gillies started shaky. Jensen had a big 3 run bomb T9 but it wasn't enough. Mathews stays hot.
I hope the hemlock society thinks about this one longer than the team because ultimately it's a meaningless result to everything except our own self esteem. Delete it from the memory bank and focus on our extended Florida stay.

_________________

Ultimately it is a meaningless result but it’s just another indication that we are a bad team. Our best pitcher on the mound in a midweek game and we lost to a team that isn’t exactly a juggernaut.
We now have to sweep UCF and win the first 3 of the AAC to finish .500

We have gotten better as the season has progressed. Our hitting has been very good and some of the guys have developed power. Why Matthews hasn’t played every day is anyone’s guess. When you look to next year, you will probably see a starting lineup of -

1B - Jensen
2B - Artigues
SS - Gozzo and 3 incoming freshman will compete for this position
3B - Hoese
LF - Ty Johnson
CF - Owen, or incoming freshman
RF - Matthews, Bedgood or Glancy
C - open competition between four guys
DH - Matthews

Weekend Pitchers - Gillies, Roper, and possibly Trent Johnson/Bates or incoming freshman
Weekday Starter - Bates/Johnson or incoming freshman
Prominent Relievers - Massey (who pitched well tonight), Pellerin, and several incoming freshman

I like what we have coming back. The key will be the incoming pitchers, a pitching coach that can grow the staff, a year of maturity, and cleaning up the walks and pass balls. We are not that far away despite the record.

It's not anyone's guess. He wasn't hitting like this earlier in the year and a lot of those were not tough outs. But the facts never stop the agenda.

As far as next year there better be several new names especially at the key positions are we will still be far away.

You sound like the one with an agenda.

No I have the facts. He was 0-17 from 3-7 to 3-21. I see the games in person you watch from Houston. The coaches kept working with him and he seems to have found himself.

Yep. I’m fine with Jensen, Artigues, Hoese and Johnson but the rest of the lineup should be up for grabs. We need improvement in those other spots.
And that’s not even getting started on the pitching staff. It’s a long way away from being good.

It can be true that Mathews wasn’t really hitting earlier in the year and that he should have gotten more at-bats. Both can be true, just because you believe one or the other doesn’t mean you have an agenda.
We have several spots in the lineup that he could have taken at-bats from. A .171 hitting JR and .221 hitting senior have combined for 60 starts.
I don’t really blame the coaches for not playing Mathews more but a decent case can be made that he should have

He can't play catcher. As for Rowland he got off to a decent start before falling back to his old ways at the plate. So no it wasn't there for Mathews at that point. The staff kept working with him and now it's paying off. There's a lot to criticize coaching wise this isn't one of them.

We need a lot more pitching depth to be good. Right now we have 1 arm out of the pen in Pellerin and I would say 3 Saturday/Sunday guys in Roper, Gillies and Johnson but no ace. We have had no success with midweek starts. Massey/Bates and 3 freshman need to be contributors next year.

We hit enough to win this year.

He wouldn’t need to play catcher.
.171 is Heinrich in the outfield

I’ve already said that I mostly agree with you.
that he got his shot and didn’t do enough to keep himself in the lineup but I can understand if people think that he should have gotten more at-bats.

I don’t remember Rowland’s numbers ever being anything good for any stretch of time.

Watched the game last night over CST. Man it certainly is difficult to listen to the other team's announcers. And I inderstand the "homerism", since we definitely have a "homer" announcer ourselves. But that doesn't make it any easier. The only time Tulane is on CST is when the play "away" games.

Now, about the game. Not much to cheer about. We didn't even crack the scoreboard until we trailed by 7. And the 6 we put up after that weren't enough. The memories from the first decade are fading and it is hard watching TU baseball most times now. But I still do it, hopeing for the best.

Fan since '54

_________________
"...a hellava Hullabaloo"

I am curious about some of the catchers we bring in as freshmen -- Blake Johnson from Gulfport for one and Aaron McKeithan out of N. Carolina -- since we definitely need an upgrade there; then I have high hopes for Ethan Groff at SS (hope he can take over for Gozzo who is very average at his position and at bat); in OF Logan Stevens of John Curtis and Hudson Haskin coming from a top program in Conn.; plus Zach Goberville; as far as pitching goes there seems to a powerful strikeout artist -- Sean Chandler -- coming to us from a top JC in Iowa who hasn't lost a game for his 50-5 club and has an ERA around 1.00 with nearly 15 K's per game. Right now, our hitters 6-9 are woefully inadequate. Our base running and OF defense are weak spots that need to get better. Pitching has inched up a notch in the last few weeks but so much work remains to be done there.

We do mostly agree. However Mathews is limited defensively. He's not an outfielder. He was put out there and had a lot of trouble. He's a 1B/DH. Plus Heinrich's is the only OF that we have that has an arm. Rowland was given more of a chance than he had previously been given and started hitting well and displaying his power. NO ONE was saying then that he should be benched and NO ONE was saying he should be benched for Mathews.

Jose Altuve goes 0-17. Hoese had a bad stretch this year and has had a terrific season. 17 at-bats is not enough at-bats to make any judgement. Grant was hitting the ball hard a lot of the times and had some quality at-bats. He also hit the ball very well in the fall when he was facing live pitching everyday. He deserved a longer look at that time. If Rowland would have produced, Grant would never have been National player of the week. This is where the good coaches earn their keep.

He's not Altuve and had no history to allow the staff to make such a decision. We don't have anyone else that can play 3rd. As I said above we don't have any depth. Also as I said above the facts never stop your agenda. Please show us where you were saying back then that he should be the 1b/DH . You weren't.

There was no reason to because it was obvious by the quality at-bats he was having.

Sean Chandler
Iowa Western took all three first-team pitcher selections. Sean Chandler doubled as a pitcher and was voted 2018 ICCAC Division I Baseball Player of the Year. The red-shirt sophomore from Bellevue, Neb. tossed 60 total innings this season appearing 12 times, 11 of them starts.

In those 60 innings, Chandler mowed down 102 hitters and allowed just seven earned runs, giving him an ERA of 1.05. In his most recent performance in the Region XI Championship, Chandler struck out 14 batters in 8 innings of work allowing just two hits against Indian Hills.

If easy fly outs are quality at bats that's news to everyone. Fact is he often looked overmatched but carry on.

Aaron McKeithan had TJ surgery in January
He came back to DH in April

If those are our choices in the outfield (the Curtis kid coming in is pretty good) we won’t be much better defensively. We need speed at both outside OF positions.

_________________
Tulane Greenbackers

"It's my job to prepare the coaches. It's their job is to prepare the players and the players' job is to play lights out." Willie Fritz

"If you want to win you have to have good players." Vince Gibson

We need pitching, pitching, pitching. It has been the issue since this staff took over - if its not addressed, the overall record will not get any better. We have a team ERA over 5! Offensively, we are averaging nearly 6 runs a game and 9 hits - plenty good enough in the bbcor bat era.

Matthews has gotten hot, which bods well for next year. Hitting is timing and rhythm (Jew says it all of the time), so its hard to judge some of these guys, especially Matthews when prior to our game at USM he was getting nothing more than a pinch hit here and there. The summer will be big for some of these freshman position players (Bedgood, Sepcich, Niemann, Revere) who will get a chance to play everyday. Even Dansby Swanson hit .188 as a freshman in limited time (20-25 AB's) with 30% being k's - big jumps can be made between year 1 and 2 (Hoese certainly has made great strides).

Its unfortunate about the McKeithen kid because we need to find a more consistent defensive catcher (at the very least). I don't know what the percentage of throwing kids out stealing is this year but my eyes tell me it isn't good enough. The same goes for our inability to block balls in the dirt - needs to improve drastically.

The Stevens kid is a good player, but by no means college ready. He will need some time to develop - he hit .275 this year with 2 HR's playing on a HS field that is no bigger than a softball field (305 down lines and 330 in gaps). Stevens will be a nice player for us in time but no way he walks on campus as a starter.

The wildcard is the draft - Spoon is gone. I would not be surprised if Roper and Jensen get picked up either. This roster will turnover again - 13 HS commits and a couple of JUCO kids. Sam, Issa, Rowland, White, Spoon and Mangurian are all definitely gone. Given how the season has shaken out, I suspect Koppenhaver, Pough and Solesky won't be back either.

I agree that Spoon is likely gone but I wouldn't be surprised if he's back. He's hit well this year but he is average at best in the outfield. I don't see him as a high pick. He may just be ready to move on and will leave no matter the round but it probably won't be for a lot of money.

This is Spoon's leverage year - I've heard that his projection is between rounds 4-8. We will see in a few weeks.

I totally agree with this. I have not been impressed with his fielding out in center? Didn't he play a lot of 1st base his Freshman year. Wonder if he'd play there at the next level.