During the regular practice sessions are we not working on hitting? Looking at the current trend we should be spending more time on driving the baseball, situational hitting and execution of small ball to manufacture runs. What are your thoughts?

You are expecting too much! You can't get blood out of a turnip!

The primary missed opportunity was bottom of the first. The rest was just grinding out runs.

It's a shame. And I hope it leads to good conversations on waking up to the opportunities. Better discipline at the plate often conflicts with comfort and looseness. The latter are the only hope to sustain during the entire season.

So if we were to go back say 20 years, what would our team OPS look like year to year?

Hop said:

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histag10 said:

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Okay. Here's my respectful, 100% serious answer:

Yes, they practice batting during practice. That is why they pay a hitting coach, and also, it is one of the key parts of baseball. Batting practice can make you better, but no one bats perfectly, and everyone has bad days. It is unfortunate that several people struggled last night in positions where there were opportunities for an RBI. Its also unfortunate that these conversations start after a loss, and only seem to imply that the coaching staff really screwed up by not ever practicing batting.

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But it is a legitimate discussion point that for several years now, the A&M offense as a whole has been struggling. For many years, this has been a dead red hitting team. This isn't just one bad game, or even one bad season at the plate. Talent or approach? That's the question.

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But that's not the question that was asked. The question that was asked was whether or not the team practices hitting during practice.

Your answer is valid, just not to the question that was asked. I answered the question that was asked, not the question that some might think he meant to ask.

Hop said:

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histag10 said:

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Okay. Here's my respectful, 100% serious answer:

Yes, they practice batting during practice. That is why they pay a hitting coach, and also, it is one of the key parts of baseball. Batting practice can make you better, but no one bats perfectly, and everyone has bad days. It is unfortunate that several people struggled last night in positions where there were opportunities for an RBI. Its also unfortunate that these conversations start after a loss, and only seem to imply that the coaching staff really screwed up by not ever practicing batting.

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But it is a legitimate discussion point that for several years now, the A&M offense as a whole has been struggling. For many years, this has been a dead red hitting team. This isn't just one bad game, or even one bad season at the plate. Talent or approach? That's the question.

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IMO it is 100% approach. There is a number of things that I've noticed over the last few years that I would change immediately if given the opportunity.

We stand to far from the plate (this is why offspeed kills us)

We stand to far back in the box (see comment about offspeed)

We have a fear of striking out that causes a lot of weak swings and swings at marginal pitches (watch any of our games and the opposition pretty consistently swings a lot harder than we do and strikes out looking a lot more than we do)

We play small ball...sometimes, other times we don't. Small ball is dead and we shouldn't do it unless the winning or tying run is on base in the last 2 innings.

We don't emphasize the opposite field enough (notice the consistent shifts the opposition uses against us)

We don't develop power hitters (man I wish Shew had put on 20 pounds)

I could go on.

Flame away.

W said:

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kind of the bottomline...the Ags have played 8 weekends of baseball.

for 2 of the 8 weekends...the hitting was great (vs. Vanderbilt and Kentucky).

for the other 6 weekends...it's been average to below average to dreadful.

the bats need to get going vs. Auburn. We want the Vandy & UK series to be the norm...not the exceptions

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What is your bottomline sense of the opposing pitching.

Childress teams are never really known for offense. I think we got spoiled by the 2015 and 2016 teams having upperclassmen that could hit .300 and 10 homeruns with ease. That was kind of an anomoly.

This team is just very inconsistent offensively.

Hop said:

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histag10 said:

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Okay. Here's my respectful, 100% serious answer:

Yes, they practice batting during practice. That is why they pay a hitting coach, and also, it is one of the key parts of baseball. Batting practice can make you better, but no one bats perfectly, and everyone has bad days. It is unfortunate that several people struggled last night in positions where there were opportunities for an RBI. Its also unfortunate that these conversations start after a loss, and only seem to imply that the coaching staff really screwed up by not ever practicing batting.

---

But it is a legitimate discussion point that for several years now, the A&M offense as a whole has been struggling. For many years, this has been a dead red hitting team. This isn't just one bad game, or even one bad season at the plate. Talent or approach? That's the question.

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Should've used GR Hinsely more, eh, Hop?

W said:

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the Missouri staff is excellent and LSU's is very good / above average.

but the other 4 weekends...not so much.

need to get back on track vs. an Auburn staff that was hit hard by Arkansas and State

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To be absolutely crystal clear: are you complaining specifically about the three series we won but dropped a game, then? UIC, Gonzaga, and then #1 Vandy?? The UIC loss was more pitching (all seven runs earned) than batting and the other two games we delivered. The Gonzaga loss was again all earned runs and we had more hits than they did (16-14) so we weren't plating runs but wasn't batting per se.

Vandy almost certainly has a better #1 pitcher and limiting us to five hits demonstrates that. But we were tied after seven and Weber got tagged with two earned runs.

So I'm going to suggest better pitching has caused us fits and prior to that we really didn't have as bad of a hitting problem. Which isn't to suggest our offense has been great. Just not terrible.

Let's use Hoehner as an example:
All year he has been a sucker for the high cheese. Teams now have the book on him. In the first w bases juiced and no outs with 2 strikes they know to throw one chin high. Can't hit it and can't lay off it.

Somebody teach him how to lay off, please!

BTW, he K'd again w 2nd and 3rd w one out later.

I agree with all "sell the farm" states except for one point. Small ball. I love small ball however, we cannot do it because we cannot bunt! I blame that on Bolt. I have been to many practices and watch them bunt. They practice bunting when BP is taken behind the batting catch with a pitching machine is throwing balls to them. Not much super vision there. What small ball does is puts pressure on the defense to make plays. Bolt will put it on the first strike then take it off on the second only b/c he knows we can't execute, I guess! There are a few situations we did get a hit on the second or third strike but, only a few times.

Another thing we still swing at too many bad pitches, Shew, Ducoff, Hoenher, Coleman, Mikey, Blaum. Please don't get me wrong, I love all of our guys they just need to be more selective.

We are still in a good position in the West and can win the West if we get better timely hitting. Our pitching is very good. IMO Lacy is the best, then Dox, then Roa. Jaws looked nasty last night -- he had some rest. Dox just throws too many pitches in the first inning.

:Let win this weekend series against Auburn.

Maybe if they removed all the crap they wear on the hands, wrists, forearms, shoulders, and calves they could focus on hitting instead rearranging the crap after each pitch.
Just my psychological 2 cents!

Hop said:

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histag10 said:

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Okay. Here's my respectful, 100% serious answer:

Yes, they practice batting during practice. That is why they pay a hitting coach, and also, it is one of the key parts of baseball. Batting practice can make you better, but no one bats perfectly, and everyone has bad days. It is unfortunate that several people struggled last night in positions where there were opportunities for an RBI. Its also unfortunate that these conversations start after a loss, and only seem to imply that the coaching staff really screwed up by not ever practicing batting.

---

But it is a legitimate discussion point that for several years now, the A&M offense as a whole has been struggling. For many years, this has been a dead red hitting team. This isn't just one bad game, or even one bad season at the plate. Talent or approach? That's the question.

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Nonsense. You can't talk like that here. We can't have a serious discussion about why we consistently underperform at the plate. /que the magic stats that say we better than the '27 Yankees

HoustonAg2106 said:

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We are 6th in the SEC in runs scored and only 6 runs behind LSU for 5th place....also good for 25th in the country. Can/should we be better? Yes of course, but to act like our offense never produces is just false.

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Our ground crew is amazing and our weather is pretty good. That means we generally end up playing more games than most teams and that inflates our counting stats. If you look at runs per game, we are 8th in the SEC and 58th in the country.

The biggest thing for me is we are 220th in doubles and 192nd in stolen bases. We have got to be able to do one of those things well. Too many times we have to string 3 (sometimes even 4) hits together in an inning to score a run. That isn't an issue of timely hitting. That is just creating long odds.

It's a Childress issue

We've had hitting coaches that do well elsewhere

The Childress/Bolt offense is boring.

Quote:

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Small ball is dead and we shouldn't do it unless the winning or tying run is on base in the last 2 innings.

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I don't think small ball is dead at the college level, but you have to commit to it and recruit the right guys to play it.

I think most of our issues are approach/mental. We are not consistent in anything we do. Sometimes we try to be an aggressive power hitting team, then we try small ball, then we are try to be aggresive on the bases, then we play it safe. Certain game situations dictate a different approach but it would be nice to have an identity.