Its the beginning of March, and we need help. About half our lineup has been swinging frozen bats lately or something...
Dylan campbell is in a slump. I would like to see more Peyton Powell, Carlson, Constantine, belyue, duplantier (only in the DH role) and ace whitehead.
Give him a try. O'Dowd has the power, but he's slumping so deep right now that it's hurting the team, and we've got to give someone else a shot. Ace Whitehead has an excellent batting avg (last year and this year in limited action), and his OB% in Summer League ball was very good. Dude can get on base, and he's fast.
Campbell did the same thing last year. Started out cold, got warmer, and warmer, and warmer, and was red hot by the time of the tournaments.
I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I'm worried about everyone hitting under .200 after 8 games. I love Campbell and O'Dowd, but you can count on one hand the number of hits they each have for the season. And most of those hits came in the A&M-CC game. Dylan does draw some walks so his OBP is way better than his batting average. But somehow, somewhere, some way Pierce is going to have to find someone who can hit the ball besides just Kennedy, Porter & Guillemette.
Campbell hit two ropes straight to the LF Tuesday night against LSU. sometimes they fall, sometimes they don't. not disagreeing with you but he, kennedy, brown and I might throw Guillemette in there now are the last ones we need to worry about. You don't pull Michael Young just because he started off the season slow. I'm 100% confident Campbell will be one of the top hitters come the playoffs. I wasn't expecting this team to have it together already, they had a lot to figure out and still do. I'm impressed with what Woody has done with the pitching staff, this staff is looking really, really good. This Cal St. Fullerton team will be as good a test as any for this pitching staff. If this staff is really making strides, we should see it this weekend. Rodriguez has his work cut out for him, fixing offense is a lot harder to me than pitching. I'm expecting the pitching to continue to grow to the point that we have 4 legitimate shut down starters by playoff time. Dup made another mistake Tuesday night, hopefully he learns from it cause the guy CAN pitch. No one is hitting his off speed pitches, they are filthy.
What LBJ did Tuesday night puts a lot of pressure on Stehle and Morehouse this weekend, if one falters, then LBJ will get a shot. That shouldn't be what anyone wants though, I want depth and if we have 4 guys that are rock solid, and anyone of them can walk out there and keep any team to less than 3 runs then we have a very good shot at going deep. I love pitching and defense cause if you can't score, you can't win.
If we need “help” in the coaching of batters Dept, what are we to do? Could we not hire Tulo and pay him because he has no college degree?
No options, you have to give Rodriquez time, it takes a lot of work to get someone right and then they have to make the right guess on a pitch when they are in the box (mental game). I don't know of any home run hires (pun intended) for help on hitting, its the most difficult thing in all of sports. No one in his right mind would ever claim to be a hitting guru but i do like ex major leaguers who were successful hitters. If Belyeu, Thomas, Duplantier, and other freshman were good hitters in high school, they will likely hit well in college they just need to adjust to the college skill level, they are facing kids that have 4-5 years of experience on them.
On another more positive note, Thomas has made a couple of good stops at first base to get the lead runner at second. Those plays can sometimes go wrong for a freshman trying to anticipate a DP.
I think Thomas looks like his bat is finally starting to warm up a bit. We need good offensive production from the corners.
Nothing cures a slump like having 5 games in 6 days against Sam, Mercer and Manhattan coming up. Sam is not the Sam of old, they're not very good. Let's hope some game live batting practice gets them in the groove. We need something good to happen this weekend though.
Powell continues to bat well. O'Dowd's bat is finally waking up. Campbell looks like he's starting to get going. Brown is still on fire. Kennedy is still solid.
Kennedy’s batting in the high 300s. Powell is batting in the mid 300s and continues to produce. Jayden DuPlantier is in the mid or upper 300s. Powell and DuP ought to be in the everyday lineup unless and until they really cool down.
Gotta get the entire starting lineup batting up around 0.250 (or North of there) by conference play. Else, this chain will have some weak links. The bottom half of the lineup has to be at least decent for a strong run in conference and in the tournaments. It's still early, but we're seeing the rise of some players in the right direction.
Ace Whitehead is showing up well on the mound. But I still think we should also play him in the field and get his bat in the lineup frequently. He's done well when he's had the shot last year. And his OB% was real good in Summer league ball. This is college ball. Guys can play both pitcher and hit. Consider Brooks Kieschnik. We need Ace as an option for conference play if someone's bat goes into deep freeze.
I’m concerned about Daly and whoever takes 1st base or third opposite Powell. Thomas plays 1st well but we need more offense from that position and I do like another lefty in the lineup, I think Powell can play either so we need Flores or Thomas to come through. Or Galvan. Or Carlson, not sure what happened there and why he hasn’t been given just as many opportunities as the freshmen.
I agree and had forgotten about him. It’s not too late to put campbell at 2nd, move O’Dowd to 3rd, Powell to 1st and put Ace in RF (or Kennedy.)
Campbell started out slow, but I think we've got to keep him in there. He's just too good, and his bat is starting to heat up. If he gets on a roll, he's a guy that can knock 15-20 homeruns on the year.
Yeah, I’m worried about him coming through in the clutch against top competition, I don’t think he did against LSU or Cal St. Fullerton and we will need it come playoff time from our experienced players. the batting stats will get inflated during this home stretch but instead of looking at their avg, I’ll be looking to see who makes good contact and doesn’t strike out with the lowered competition. These are key metrics for me and more of a tell for me on how they are actually progressing.
I’ll be worried about campbell if he’s still struggling well into conference play. I still have no doubts about him.
Jack is starting to heat up. He's batting 0.261 with a homerun and 2 triples. OBS right around 0.750. I think he's a guy who can hit North of 0.300 and into the double digits for homeruns on the year. He also draws plenty of walks. Jack currently has a 6 game hitting streak that goes back to LSU. Jack O'Dowd - Baseball - University of Texas Athletics
