2023 Baseball Mega Thread

[bigdaddyg]

Just looked at team stats. Pretty remarkable to be in this position with a staff ERA over 8 runs a game. We are next to last. Guess as long as you score 1 run more than you allow it's all good.

[AppGrad78]

As someone who has been a strong advocate of coach Smith and his staff from the get-go, I look forward to hearing about an extension. But I also know we’ll be in rebuilding mode next season and hope the pitchfork crowd will give him a little grace when that time comes.

[311neers]

Wonder why we play anywhere between 3 to 7 fewer games than our conference foes do. I know we had a couple cancelled games but for a conference team to be playing 7 more games than us is pretty odd. Do we just not schedule as many midweeks due to travel/budget and cold weather early on?

[spacemonkey]

I like coach Smith and I know the portal is part of the game now...but did we not get lucky to land three ECU disgruntled pitchers to this team. I know Wilson was one of them...not sure who the other two were but this pitching group is weak even with those three that coach had little to do with coaching. I do like our team so I am good with an extension but without those three ECU transfers this pitching group may have been a disaster and that is on the coach by now. Maybe we lost to the portal as well. I don't keep up with it enough to know but I bet Gillin knows.

[Appmountaineers19]

I like coach Smith and I know the portal is part of the game now...but did we not get lucky to land three ECU disgruntled pitchers to this team. I know Wilson was one of them...not sure who the other two were but this pitching group is weak even with those three that coach had little to do with coaching. I do like our team so I am good with an extension but without those three ECU transfers this pitching group may have been a disaster and that is on the coach by now. Maybe we lost to the portal as well. I don't keep up with it enough to know but I bet Gillin knows.

I don't want to belittle any player (they have done way more than most of us on here). Boyd has been outstanding (he is a positional player). As for the other 2 transfers - one has not played all year while the other has almost a double digit ERA.

Other than Boyd, several of the other transfers not from ECU (Hamilton/Gillespie/Moranto) made the most significant contributions.

[AppSt94]

I like coach Smith and I know the portal is part of the game now...but did we not get lucky to land three ECU disgruntled pitchers to this team. I know Wilson was one of them...not sure who the other two were but this pitching group is weak even with those three that coach had little to do with coaching. I do like our team so I am good with an extension but without those three ECU transfers this pitching group may have been a disaster and that is on the coach by now. Maybe we lost to the portal as well. I don't keep up with it enough to know but I bet Gillin knows.

Well former App pitcher Noah Hall is the Sunday starter at South Carolina. We got three players from a good program (ECU) but that doesn’t necessarily translate to getting three good players. We recruited them so maybe there is something there and it takes some time to develop. Who knows.

[311neers]

I like coach Smith and I know the portal is part of the game now...but did we not get lucky to land three ECU disgruntled pitchers to this team. I know Wilson was one of them...not sure who the other two were but this pitching group is weak even with those three that coach had little to do with coaching. I do like our team so I am good with an extension but without those three ECU transfers this pitching group may have been a disaster and that is on the coach by now. Maybe we lost to the portal as well. I don't keep up with it enough to know but I bet Gillin knows.

Well former App pitcher Noah Hall is the Sunday starter at South Carolina. We got three players from a good program (ECU) but that doesn’t necessarily translate to getting three good players. We recruited them so maybe there is something there and it takes some time to develop. Who knows.

Hall had been their Friday/Saturday guy until he got hurt 2 months ago. Hoping it’s not that serious but back injuries are never good. He’s been their best arm for the better part of 2 years. He looked very good 2020 covid year and would have been good for 8-10 wins a year from then on.

The portal giveth and taketh away! Don’t want to look ahead as we are making a run at a title but Terrell, Cross, Drum, Gillespie, Reed all gone next year. That’s A TON of production.

[JTApps1]

I like coach Smith and I know the portal is part of the game now...but did we not get lucky to land three ECU disgruntled pitchers to this team. I know Wilson was one of them...not sure who the other two were but this pitching group is weak even with those three that coach had little to do with coaching. I do like our team so I am good with an extension but without those three ECU transfers this pitching group may have been a disaster and that is on the coach by now. Maybe we lost to the portal as well. I don't keep up with it enough to know but I bet Gillin knows.

We only brought in two pitchers from ECU (Wilson and Brooks). Keep in mind we were supposed to have Tuthill back this year along with Noah Hall that left for SC. Imagine a starting rotation of Hamilton, Tuthill, and Hall. We'd likely be fighting for 1st place or an at large birth.

I don't see much difference in filling a hole with a portal guy vs a JUCO or HS recruit. That's just standard procedure now.

[Oldlknapp]

I understand the Noah Hall back injury is serious and may alter his future options.

[311neers]

I understand the Noah Hall back injury is serious and may alter his future options.

Have heard this as well from Gamecock Insiders. May be a broken lower back. Hope it isn’t so

[APPdiesel]

As someone who has been a strong advocate of coach Smith and his staff from the get-go, I look forward to hearing about an extension. But I also know we’ll be in rebuilding mode next season and hope the pitchfork crowd will give him a little grace when that time comes.

It’s counter intuitive to simultaneously offer an extension and lower expectations at the same time. No boss or customer of any company ever has said “here’s more money and time…by the way it’s ok if your performance slips a little”.

If I was DG I’d offer a short extension. 2 seasons and tell him “+.500 is the new standard”. Coaches are big boys. They’re paid a ton of money to operate in big boy D1 baseball. Kermit knows the pressure is on. He’s going to have to crash the portal and find damn near everything: offensive production, defensive proficiency, and pitching depth.

[WVAPPeer]

"Short extensions" are the nail in the coffin for most all coaches/programs - It gives every program we are competing against in recruiting, whether it be from high school or portal, ammo against App State. Something like this, "Look, do you really want to consider App? - they only gave their coach a short extension which means they have lost a lot of confidence in him as coach" - "I" just signed a 6 year extension because we are in the middle of building a long-term winning program and our administration is totally 100% behind what we want to do here" - there are several variations of this response -

[AppSt94]

It is my understanding that the discussion of a contract extension/renewal took place earlier in the season and benchmarks were communicated. It is also my understanding that the benchmarks were met.

[311neers]

"Short extensions" are the nail in the coffin for most all coaches/programs - It gives every program we are competing against in recruiting, whether it be from high school or portal, ammo against App State. Something like this, "Look, do you really want to consider App? - they only gave their coach a short extension which means they have lost a lot of confidence in him as coach" - "I" just signed a 6 year extension because we are in the middle of building a long-term winning program and our administration is totally 100% behind what we want to do here" - there are several variations of this response -

I would think 3 years minimum. Best season since 2013 with a slew of injuries. He will have A LOT of work to do in the Portal/Juco to replace hitting this offseason. We might even have to do some NIL to keep a couple. But, we've got the stadium and facilities to recruit now. Maybe we can sell the new indoor Sofield as we used to practice there alot in the winter/rainy days.

[Appmountaineers19]

Wonder why we play anywhere between 3 to 7 fewer games than our conference foes do. I know we had a couple cancelled games but for a conference team to be playing 7 more games than us is pretty odd. Do we just not schedule as many midweeks due to travel/budget and cold weather early on?

I think you are right. I'm assuming they get more games because (of climate) the northern teams need to play somewhere.

[Appmountaineers19]

He gets at least a 3 year extension.

[bigdaddyg]

I think that expectations in many college and pro sports has gotten ridiculous. At least 2 very good NBA coaches were fired recently after taking their team to the freaking playoffs. College coaches would love to recruit and develop their team and heaven forbid actually redshirt or sit a freshman but now if you don't make a good player happy he's gone. There is a reason why every pitcher doesn't win double digit games and has a sub 3.5 ERA. It's hard. People act like there is some magical solution for our sports and by simply firing and hiring the losses stop and the championships appear. I said it earlier, considering that we are next to last in ERA it's a miracle that we are sitting in this spot heading into this weekend.

I looked at the RPI rankings. The top 13 has Coastal and the rest are SEC and ACC. If you count Clemson, Coastal and C of C and the other NC schools there are I believe 13 ahead of us in the rankings. I realize that those schools have players from outside the Carolinas but if you simply consider the number of southern based schools that shows the recruiting challenges App faces. Factor in the all important pitching and that challenge ramps up.

[Appmountaineers19]

KS is a relative steal in terms of salary. Looks like only 4 coaches make less than him. The next highest is around 160,000

[spacemonkey]

I think that expectations in many college and pro sports has gotten ridiculous. At least 2 very good NBA coaches were fired recently after taking their team to the freaking playoffs. College coaches would love to recruit and develop their team and heaven forbid actually redshirt or sit a freshman but now if you don't make a good player happy he's gone. There is a reason why every pitcher doesn't win double digit games and has a sub 3.5 ERA. It's hard. People act like there is some magical solution for our sports and by simply firing and hiring the losses stop and the championships appear. I said it earlier, considering that we are next to last in ERA it's a miracle that we are sitting in this spot heading into this weekend.

I looked at the RPI rankings. The top 13 has Coastal and the rest are SEC and ACC. If you count Clemson, Coastal and C of C and the other NC schools there are I believe 13 ahead of us in the rankings. I realize that those schools have players from outside the Carolinas but if you simply consider the number of southern based schools that shows the recruiting challenges App faces. Factor in the all important pitching and that challenge ramps up.

I agree with what you are saying...I hope he gets the extension. Also, with a 14 team conference my beliefs in AppState are top 3 in the division. Any thing less than that I think we should at least be looking around. Top 3 in division for all sports would be my goal for AppState. I should include a caveat,. if we have top notch facilities for the sport we should be top three in our division.

[bigdaddyg]

I think that expectations in many college and pro sports has gotten ridiculous. At least 2 very good NBA coaches were fired recently after taking their team to the freaking playoffs. College coaches would love to recruit and develop their team and heaven forbid actually redshirt or sit a freshman but now if you don't make a good player happy he's gone. There is a reason why every pitcher doesn't win double digit games and has a sub 3.5 ERA. It's hard. People act like there is some magical solution for our sports and by simply firing and hiring the losses stop and the championships appear. I said it earlier, considering that we are next to last in ERA it's a miracle that we are sitting in this spot heading into this weekend.

I looked at the RPI rankings. The top 13 has Coastal and the rest are SEC and ACC. If you count Clemson, Coastal and C of C and the other NC schools there are I believe 13 ahead of us in the rankings. I realize that those schools have players from outside the Carolinas but if you simply consider the number of southern based schools that shows the recruiting challenges App faces. Factor in the all important pitching and that challenge ramps up.

I agree with what you are saying...I hope he gets the extension. Also, with a 14 team conference my beliefs in AppState are top 3 in the division. Any thing less than that I think we should at least be looking around. Top 3 in division for all sports would be my goal for AppState. I should include a caveat,. if we have top notch facilities for the sport we should be top three in our division.

While most of old alumni generally feel that Boone is God's country and also generally think that every kid offered a scholarship should take it without any hesitation the reality is that every kid doesn't want to spend months in crappy weather. The mountain life isn't for everyone- shocker. I agree that with proper facilities we should maintain a top third level in most of the major sports. Everyone can have a dip, lose a bunch of experience or simply have a tough season but we should not fall off the cliff.