No, this wasn't a real surprise. When Texas didn't win, with French on the hill, on Friday, that was pretty much it. This team isn't going to rattle off four straight wins, against this kind of competition. It hasn't done that all year. This piecemeal staff, decimated by injuries wasn't going to get it done, they just don't have the experience. You have relievers starting, that wouldn't be, you never developed a closer, you couldn't really, under the circumstances This should change next year, if the injured arms like Cooper, Hollingsworth, French, and another freshman named Parker Joe Robinson, who showed much promise, as a prized recruit, but joined the injured arms, before the season started. I have no doubt that the pitching staff will be solid again next year, barring more injuries. There will be more good arms recruited and signed. Skip will keep the tradition of good pitching going, I certainly have no doubt about that. The offense is a different matter. Each year we hear that the offense will be greatly improved. The new ball would by default, assure improvement. It never happens, this team even when it hits some, struggles to score runs. Way too many strikeouts, often on pitches out of the strike zone. I see bad mechanics, by talented players, it's hard to explain. If that wasn't bad enough, the base running has been an adventure, to say the least. More and more teams are putting on pick off plays, because the word is out, on this. That's something that just can't happen, as often as it has. You combine that with a struggling offense, it's a two edged sword for disaster. This has to stop, by whatever means it takes. As far as the coaching goes, Augie is not going to retire, you can nearly take that to the bank. He doesn't want to go out this way, and he's not going to be let go. Will Nicholson be sent packing, there is certainly a better chance for that, but probably not. I still say if your not going to get rid of Nicholson, then let somebody come in and do an evaluation, as they do in football. Moreland or somebody of his caliber should come in and just ask each position player, what his approach to hitting is, what could it hurt. Some fresh ideas sure look to be needed, in this aspect of the game. This pattern of poor run production has gone on, much too long. It's killing Texas, if they don't get excellent pitching, there just not going to win, especially against the better teams. It's really that simple, it has been for a long time. That's it, another season of Texas baseball in the books. It's been a pleasure to do these threads, even if it does get hard at times. When things go wrong like a power outage, or a video or audio feed goes down, it can be exasperating. Still it's baseball and that is something I have loved all my life and participated in, in about every way you can, on and off the field. Texas Baseball means even more to me, if that's possible, as it does for many on this board. It's been a tough season, but it's still Texas Baseball. As long as I am able, I am going to follow and participate in it. See you again next season, and still on the different forums. So for this season anyway, the games threads are closed. But as February rolls around, we will all convene again, for what we Longhorn Baseball alumni and fans know, is as much a right of spring, as bluebonnets and paintbrushes. Till then, it's a wrap.
Augie may not want to retire, but neither did Mack and neither did Barnes, but they were "retired" anyway. OK, Barnes resigned, but it's an "r" word so it counts.
Always enjoy what you do for this forum....and you're so right.......with 3 pitchers done for the year before the season even started, we're lucky we got to where we were today. But, we got a Big XII Tournament Championship, so that's a big plus for this team. And yes, a really good assessment of our hitting mechanics is in order. I think when the season started, all the player thought "wow, with the new baseballs, we'll be able to hit it out of the park all the time."-----WRONG! You still have to get the ball in play, and not swing for the fence on every pitch. A few particular players got into that habit early on, and they never got back to what took them to Omaha last season. I counted 13 games this season where running errors, pickoff's, and mental mistakes cost us the games. And that doesn't include the batting woes. Augie needs to stay. But he needs someone to access the hitting woes. You're so right on that! And let's cross our fingers that Baylor doesn't hire Skip. We should have great depth with our pitching staff next season, if everyone comes back from injuries/surgeries. And the freshmen showed tremendous talent at their positions, as well. I want Augie to get over the 2000 career win mark here at Texas, as well as over 1,000 wins here at UT (of course at least 2 more national championships during that time, as well). Then, he can retire....but not until those #'s are achieved. I anxiously await the start of next season! Hook'Em!
If Skip goes and it is early enough, AG will be gone also after that. I do not see where Patterson will have enough patience to let Augie start over at that position coach ---- no matter what wins are needed. Augie has just underachieved the last few years.
He underacheived last season? And this season was not too bad considering the starting pitcher injuries. The end results are the end results. In Basketball and Baseball postseason accomplishments trump the regular season. We had a 3rd place finish in the CWS (according to the polls) and won a Big 12 tournament title this year. Is it a national title? No, but it certainly is not fireable.
Augie needs 50 wins to reach 2000 career wins and 201 to reach 1000 wins at UT. So, he'll likely need 2 more years to reach 2000 & probably 5-6 years for the 1000 UT mark. I would love to see him reach those milestones, but how many really think he'll be here 5-6 more years? Not me! I'm on the fence as to whether he should go or not. There are valid points made here on both sides. He certainly has the overall resume to stay for the last 2 years of his contract. But, the fact is, he is NOT going to build a team in the next 2 years that can win with hitting and improved run production. If he stays, we will remain status quo with a game of pitching and small ball. Even those on this site who want to keep Augie are demanding a radical change in our offensive coaching philosophy. As debated here, where is that going to come from? Replace Nicholson? Hire a consultant? Hire Keith Moreland? The HEAD COACH needs to make that happen, by whatever strategy is necessary! The question is.....will THIS head coach accomplish that?!? Discuss....
Augie won't make any voluntary changes to his staff or himself! He should retire tomorrow. Don't go like the other two Augie, please.
geez, the thoughts on the lack of offense sound like the lack of hitting during the Cat Osterman years in softball. Sure hope a change is made to provide offense. Can' be a one dimensional team and expect to be in the national championship chase.
He gets next year, that is just a fact, Patterson is going to give him that. If things go well, he will get the final year of his contract. That is just the way it is. I just report the news, I don't make it. Patterson would love to be able to promote a run to 2000 wins, for Augie, it will sell those tickets. Still he needs the team to show some improvement, to get that final contract year. Since he is going to be here next year, I am looking for some way to improve things, whether that is getting rid of Nicholson or bringing in somebody to help the offense, or both. Nothing will change till the offense improves. Texas hitters have for the most part terrible mechanics, for long periods of times and are very undisciplined at the plate. The large number of strikeouts kill small ball or any type of offense, for that matter. For every batter that gets hot for awhile, there are four others in a slump. It's gone on for years, I think anybody that reads this board knows, how I have talked about it, even when it wasn't a big deal, to many. Then there is the bad base running, it is just amazing, the mistakes this team has made on the base paths, over the last few years. Why this can't be corrected is beyond me, it's just a matter of recognizing situations. As much baseball as these players play, from Little League till now, almost year round, in today's world of select teams. You would think they would have a good grasp of just about every situation possible. This team can only go as far as Skip Johnson's pitching staff can take it. It took it a long way last season. This year with all the injuries, and many young pitchers, it couldn't take it as far. Till something is done somehow about the offense, it will remain so. Augie is not staying for more than the length of the contract. He really wants 2000 wins, nobody has ever done it, it would never be broken. Nobody will coach that long again, to even have a chance. I don't know what else to say, we can talk about him leaving all we want, but it's not happening, this year.
They should announce Augie is retiring after next year with Skip taking over with a 6 year deal after that.
Better yet, Skip takes over as soon as Augie gets 2000 wins. Don't care if it is in the middle of a series.
And if Augie wants to hang around he can still be allowed to talk to batters during crucial situations, one bottle of JW Blue per successful outcome/occurrence as payment. ****, maybe they ought to add that as a rider for next year regardless?
NB, I'm back from three painful days at the DBU regional. Texas didn't play well at a host site that should never have been. The DBU AD was clearly learning OJT and it made for a difficult fan experience. I must admit that I have a soft spot for a team like DBU that has so few resources, but can put together a really good program. However, as good as DBU's team was, it was embarrassing to see how amateurish their regional management was. If they can't get their act together with more than a 28-year old AD who clearly is more interested in pursuing his PhD at TCU than creating a successful regional, then the NCAA should NEVER give DBU another regional. They were clearly not ready for this one. I appreciate all your incredible efforts throughout this season. Your diligence is simply remarkable. See you in February.
This mini-run clouded so many people's view of what this year was. Pretty much the French show and not a lot else. 1) OUR REG SEASON SUCKED We almost finished the reg season with a losing record...26-25. 2) CONF TOURNEY WINS ADMIRABLE, BUT NOTHING SPECIAL The conf tourney run was not that impressive, except in terms of pitching and being very LUCKY. 3 of our 4 wins were against non-playoff teams, and the OSU win was a GIFT. French outdueled a pretty good Tech team to save our lame offensive effort of 2 runs. We beat a very bad 23-32 Baylor team TWICE. And finally, we got HANDED the OSU win in the 8th by 3 straight infield errors. That inning is over and done with no runs without them melting down like tee ballers. We would've been trailing 2-1 heading to last at bat, season over, no playoffs. We were handed playoff entry by French, fortunate matchups within our bracket, then OSU spewing on the 8th. 3) WE WENT 0-2 IN THE REGIONAL We saw what happened when French wasn't the savior. The team played admirable but as they have countless times this year, blew it. The coaching moves were suspect like many all season. Legacy Boy continued to waste a spot in the order for the 2nd year, and Mayes might have been allowed to go a little further to hold the momentum. 4) BOTTOM LINE: STOP MAKING EXCUSES We had a 3rd very bad season in 4 years. We got handed the conf tourney by OSU to even qualify. Then got bounced from the playoffs without a single win. Not to mention small-school DBU knocked us out in dominant, embarrassing fashion. It's time for Augie to move on. That's my opinion and I'm not gonna buy lame excuses of those trying to tell me we are still in a good place and injuries, etc ruined our season. I watched the WHOLE season. We were never good. We had little heart or will which is why we lost so many close games. We never adjusted and improved in hitting areas. We had no identity for the first time in a long while as nobody had a clue when we would use small ball or not. This team was just bad in general and embarrassed us a lot before the conf tourney. And the truth is, they are that bad because of Augie. It's not that they don't have the talent to win a regional. And with the playoff flop, it's still time for Augie to go. But sure, I'll wait another year and watch the rest pass us by further. I'm used to it here now. The burning hunger and demand for winning was removed from our fanbase years back after all the losing in our programs. Brown hung on too long, and now fans are ready to accept 7-6 next year with Strong allowing for excuses. Pathetic. The same is being done with baseball. Augie is hanging on and the fanbase is making excuses to not desire and demand a program that is back competing for a CWS nearly every year. We had a playoff team once in last 4 years and that is good enough for them. Trust me, 2015 was no playoff season. It was a luck job not to have watched from home. And since we got smoked 0-2, it's clear we should've been at home.
Brad seems on point on this....I think Augie's done a lot here, but unless we're all ready to watch him slowly retire Paterno-style, and maybe get back to Omaha a couple of times over the next few years, it is time to give the program a kick-start back to prominence. In response to having the record for most wins (another post, perhaps), Mike Martin at FSU is 5 years younger, less than 100 games behind Augie, and winning 40-plus games a year. No titles, but lots and lots of wins.....
The reason why I'm certain the decline falls on coaching and not injuries, etc is simple to prove. A team's success is determined by the performance of the group as a whole. An individual player's performance falls at the feet of each player. So how did our significant players do in individual performance after an extra year of experience and teaching? BATTING: Improved - Johnson, Barrera (2) Declined - Gurwitz, Marlow, Shaw, Hiojosa, Clements (5) PITCHING: Improved - Sawyer (1) Declined - French, Duke, Culbreth, Hollingsworth (4) 3 of 12 (25%) significant players actually performed better with another year of coaching and experience. And these improvements and declines weren't minor in any case but Clements dropping .008 in average. Since he hasn't batted .215 yet, both of his tries were failures anyway. We can debate the program and if Augie deserves to stay all day long. But the fact remains the individual performance of 75% of our returning significant players declined. And in many cases they declined drastically. No way to blame injuries or bad luck for that. No way NOT TO blame coaching for failing to advance the performance of the players. Isn't that what a coach does, teaches, guides, and helps you get better? Not in our case, we failed that miserably...to the tune of 9 of 12 players regressing in a year.
Injuries are not an excuse. They are an explanation. Changes need to be made, but not at the top. What I'd like to see is Keith Moreland hired as a hitting coach. Imagine a team with Augie at the helm; Skip Johnson pitching; and Keith Moreland hitting. The Horns would be contenders every year - barring injuries. I don't know if it is even a possibility, but I can dream - can't I?
A week ago we were singing praises, and rightly so. The team showed heart and won the B12 tourney against all odds. Congrats to the team for giving it their all and making the playoffs. Lots of fine teams are going home after the weekend. Nothing to hang your head about.
Augie's not staying past the length of the present contract, if that long. This means one more year, at the most two. The reason the extension was two years, was to give him the chance to get 2000 wins. He won't be coaching into his 80's. He is going to be here, at least one more year, just trying to go from there and see if improvements can be made. Nobody on this board, can change that. Moreland has too many other responsibilities, to be hired as a full time coach, he could be an adviser, to help when possible, especially in the fall. Skip has done a remarkable job, under the circumstances. The pressure put on the pitchers is immense, with the lack of offense. You know your not able to give up much and win. Hard to relax and pitch well, under these conditions. Pitchers were pitching out of their regular roles, and some not at all, like Cooper, a huge loss. Hollngsworth had still not recovered from the off season surgery, he was never effective really. Clemens has had arm trouble, ever since arriving. Injuries were a key factor and still the staff did well, not perfect, but plenty well to win, with even an average offense, for support. The pitching staff was way overused, they had to be. Hard to forget all those extra inning games, where with just a little offense, those games could have been won. Several went on and on, but no offense. The game in Nebraska, where Texas went nine consecutive innings without a hit, is the poster child for those games. Texas certainly got a favorable draw, in the Big 12 Tourney. Errors by Tech and OSU won those games. The pitching was the reason, there was an opportunity, to win all those games. Three consecutive complete games had never been done before, in the history of the Tournament, then a great outing by the freshman, Johnston, who Skip had changed his grip, on the baseball, to give him better control. Texas was never going to win that regional, unless the pitching was lights out again, like last season. It wasn't, for many of the reasons above and you can't expect that kind of pitching time after time, especially with the new baseball in play. Nobody else gets that kind of pitching, on a regular basis, against good teams either. When you have such a huge gap between the two phases of the game, like Texas does, it leads to the type games seen time after time. Then sometimes, the pitching just breaks down, it happens to all teams. That's when the offense has to step up and carry it's share of the load. It's a two way street, that has been turned into a one way street, for way too long. The use of the new ball was going to hurt pitching also, it did, it was designed to do so. French's stats are almost identical to last year. Just a bit more offense and his record would have been much better. Texas can't score runs, on any type of consistent basis for years now, due to poor hitting and base running. This is the problem, not pitching or fielding. You can blame whoever you want for this problem, but the one person you can't blame for it, Skip Johnson. He has complete control over the pitching staff. The rest, to whoever you want to pick, Augie or Nicholson or a combination of both. Fingers can be pointed in several places, but the pitching staff, is not one of them. It's the only thing that has kept the team going at all, for several years. It's the reason why Aguie hasn't already been "retired."
Was curious as to our recent run scoring trend, so did an analysis. UT run production stats (runs/9 innnings) for the last 4 seasons.... 2015: 4.58 2014: 4.61 2013: 4.00 2012: 4.90 National average has been trending downward from from 6.98 (2010) to 5.08 (2014). So at best, we have not even been an average team regarding run production....no surprise there!!!
Hopefully Patterson will gain some respect by having a productive meeting with Augie and then Skip to then hammer out the realistic and timely provisions for the future of the program. So there is continuity for recruiting, so the team can grow from here and the young talent can gain going forward with less uncertainty that a Barnes/Patterson situation or Brown/Patterson situation. Patterson needs to drive this thing and get the messaging out so Texas Baseball can succeed. It would be nice to have Augie go out as a hero that he was mostly for the program. Don't overdo it necessarily but make it a genuine goodbye situation with the before mentioned continuity plan in place. (no BS coach in waiting like the football disaster though)
The fact that several here just assume Augie is back next year says it all, and it turns my stomach! The entire athletic department is a steaming pile of ****! I have never seen the willingness of Longhorns to accept this level of garbage! The very fact that plonsky is still employed is an outrage, and shows pattersons's ineptitude full blown.
I don't think that baseball is a big issue to Patterson, not saying that is right. He knows he can wait, before doing much of anything about it. It's not big bucks like football or even basketball. He just gave Augie a two year extension, no way he was going to fire him or ask him to resign, retire, or whatever you want to call it. Right or wrong it would make him look bad, especially after raising ticket prices. He would like to promote a run to 2000 wins for Augie, to sell more tickets. That was the reason, for a two year extension, after last season. Augie isn't going to get to 2000 wins next year, even with a good year, most likely. I still think he needs a good season next year, to get the final year, of the contract. Those stands have looked pretty empty, most of the year. I bet ticket sales and season tickets are going down. That has been a big change too, even the big draws haven't done well lately, for the most part. That certainly didn't use to be the case. I wonder if he has thought of all the lost revenue, by not hosting a regional, since 2011 and only one Super Regional, since then. It would save money on those chartered buses, when we do make a regional too.
NB, you are spot on....Augie WILL be back for 2016, like-it-or-not!! And you can count on another year of silent bats. Augie certainly defines insanity....keep on doing the same thing, but expecting different results!
Here's the rub folks-we are or were a baseball school, first and foremost. Then football took over. Then basketball rose. We can't let baseball go to the shitter. WE ARE TEXAS! We played Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and the Yankees at Clark field, for God's sake! Don't let this go!!!!!!!!!!
Patteson does not have control over women's athletics. Thanks to DKR, we have separate, independent athletic departments (which I actually think has been a good idea as it gives women's athletics more power and protection). If you are upset wih her being here, blame Bill Powers. She does not answer to Patterson.
