What is up with Austin? Is he injured? His playing time seems rather reduced recently.

Sophomore slump. He'll improve...




Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6 - NIV

Batting .210 with no pop will generally increase your bench time. He tailed off a decent amount at the end of last year as well, so his lack of production is quite concerning.

He got banged up this year playing for the Marshalls. I'm not sure that he has fully recovered.

quote:

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Batting .210 with no pop will generally increase your bench time. He tailed off a decent amount at the end of last year as well, so his lack of production is quite concerning.

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Especially since he has a fairly big scholorship...

The size of his scholarship has absolutely nothing to do with his lack of playing time. If his scholarship had anything to do with it, it would be the other way around. The bigger the scholarship the more playing time. But, that does not matter. If you perform you'll play and if you don't you won't.

...I'm not saying he should play because of the ship...But it does make it more concerning because he could taking up a valuable half ride (roughly) for two more years. A walk-on that starts sucking doesn't block new players from coming in- while riding the bench.

But I think he'll get back on track & then it'll be a non-issue.

[This message has been edited by Aston04 (edited 3/24/2005 1:24p).]

no Cory Patton in the batting order behind him to provide protection may be part of the problem too

Still should be hitting better than .210.

i predict we'll see boggs in the starting lineup this weekend,..however, that is all im predicting

Bottom line is that he is not hitting the baseball! You either produce and get PT or you sit on the bench. We are 25 games into the season and he has had time to find his stroke. It is time to give somebody else a chance. There was no sympathy for Matt Alexander having to go to the bench last year when other people stepped up and took his position.


[This message has been edited by satx 98 ag (edited 3/24/2005 1:52p).]

[This message has been edited by satx 98 ag (edited 3/24/2005 1:52p).]

satx,

so who exactly has stepped up and taken his position?

boggs BA .205 17k's in 78 ab's
carpenter BA .222 9ks in 18 ab's

The only way we can get a significant upgrade in the game to replace boggs would be to put hill at 2nd and move dalton to 3rd. The lineup would be something like this:

Bartek LF
Dalton 3b
Penny SS
Hill 2b
Pouk C
Baldwin RF
Mavroulis 1b
Infante CF

This leaves a spot somewhere for a DH. Lee Harughty has looked good as has Sebek and Stein at times. I dont think that sacrificing defense is worth it to get a guy in the game that is batting .260 instead of a guy batting .205.


[This message has been edited by byron06 (edited 3/24/2005 2:01p).]

I say you play Boggs and let him find his stroke. He is the first true 3rd baseman we have had in at least a decade. I don't care if he is not hitting. His glove at 3rd is worth him being on the field. IMO he is the best pure hitter we have, he is just struggling right now. Only way he is going to get out of this funk is to keep hacking away. I still say that with Boggs at 3rd we have the best defensive infield in the Big 12 and maybe the nation.

"Sometimes a guy will go down, and I'll let him scream a bit to destroy the morale of his buddies," said the Marine corporal. "Then I'll use a second shot."
-Sniper in Iraq

i agree, we have to have boggs in the lineup...carpenter hasnt shown much. and once we get by OU,.then we have kansas and mizzu......this will give boggs plenty of batting practice for neb, okla st, baylor and texas,..

haahah

He has not only NOT been hitting, but he is terrible in situational hitting as well. I don't know how many times he needs to move a runner over and he either hits into a DP, or pops out weakly to the infield or shallow outfield. He may find his stroke, I hope he does, but at this point I agree with the decision to bench him.

If we dont play boggs, stein, or glover, we become VERY right hand dominated against a pretty much right handed pitching conference

I say we move Sebek to 3rd or 2nd and put Hill in at DH and problem solved. I do not think we would lose much defensively in the infield. Sebek was a great shortstop in high school and would no doubt have a problem playing 2nd or 3rd. I'll give a up an error here or there for a guy who can hit. Give somebody else 20 games to see if they can hit better than Boggs has.

Boggs at 3rd is better than Hill at 2nd. Defensively at least.

satx ag,
a good shortstop in high school means absolutely nothing in Div. I baseball. Sebek can not play in the infield. If he doesn't event take ground balls in practice, he surely isn't going to play in the games.

You guys need to calm down. Ya'll were the same people talking about how great he was last year. The kid can still hit. Put him in the 9 hole and let him just relax. If he know's he's going to play everyday he won't worry so much and he can just relax and hit. For this team to do anything in the postseason, he has to play a big part in it. We can't win against good pitching with Cliff as our only threat. I'm not giving Hill credit as a threat yet until he does it week in and week out in the Big 12. It's not like this team is so deep and we can just throw another bat out there and we'll be okay. We don't have any other bats.

Including Boggs?

[This message has been edited by byron06 (edited 3/24/2005 4:33p).]

I understand your point Truth and that is typically the case with high school shortstops. It was just a thought. Bottom line though is that Boggs is not hitting and we have other guys that should get a chance to prove themselves. hitting 205. with on OBP of less than .300 does not cut it I'm sorry
I don't care about last years stats either
what has he done lately? NOTHING

I don't have any sort of anti A&M baseball agenda. I agree with MJ's decision to sit Boggs. He has struggled all year, I don't understand what the problem is. What did I say that was so un-tactful?

As I said before, I come on this forum to discuss A&M baseball, good and bad.

Byron,

The last week or two, we have been having very solid baseball talk on this forum. The thread about expectations, etc... I love A&M baseball more than anyone, that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we are underacheiving almost year in and year out. I am just not a sunshine pumper like many on this board.

cj, i think i mixed u up with someone else, i went and looked for the post i was thinking of and couldnt find where you were the one who made it. regardless, you do come off a bit negative but thats understandable with the way we have performed at the plate.


but, since you brought up that thread, ill just say i thought your expectations were a little high. hosting a regional 75% of the time? now your CWS expectations were about right at 2 in 5 years. i just want to know how you expect us to do that poorly in the supers to keep us out of the CWS

one thing i do remember is you being ashamed at the way we lost to tech, yet when baylor got destroyed by TSU you replied "thats baseball"

[This message has been edited by byron06 (edited 3/24/2005 4:35p).]

I would imagine that you did think the expectations were a little high.

On hosting a regional:
We should vitually never finish below 3rd or 4th in Big 12 play. If we do this, coupled with our facilities and fan base, we will host EVERY YEAR.

On the Supers:
We will host maybe 60-75% of those, due to the fact of other regional powers including Rice, Texas, Tulane, LSU, etc. There is no reason why we should not advance at least twice in a five year period rather than twice in 20.

my expectations:

host a regional 4 out of every 5 years
advance to supers 7 of every 10 years
host supers every other year
advance to CWS every other year

i guess mine arent all that different from yours, but i doubt we see a&m acheive either of our expectations all that soon. i just dont see the talent on this team for it to happen, but i could be wrong and juco's can always help cure that problem

[This message has been edited by byron06 (edited 3/24/2005 4:44p).]

Talent is a problem right now. I agree completely, but again the head coach is responsible for every phase of the program.

i dont disagree with that, but i also dont see a clear solution to that problem

the solution is to recruit better hitters. if you know after the fall that you don't have any power you go searching around the jucos for some power and have some January enrolleees. tu does it all the time.

"Sometimes a guy will go down, and I'll let him scream a bit to destroy the morale of his buddies," said the Marine corporal. "Then I'll use a second shot."
-Sniper in Iraq

and back to the topic on hand.....

I'm with Truth and Bo in simply leaving him in the lineup and waiting for him to come around. Slumps happen, and although this one is a bit long, we really don't have any options and we really need him for the second half of Big XII play

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Check out "Texas A&M & Baseball In No Particular Order"
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Boggs really tore it up this series with OU. We should keep him in there huh?
1 for 10
9 LOB
I just do not see how you can justify keeping a guy in there that is batting .193 through 28 games and has an OBP .250, 0 HR, 0 stolen bases. He brings nothing to the table right now!

one of the main reasons Boggs was so productive last year is that he was hitting behind Cory Patton and saw some really good pitches. This year he is not getting the pitches, with our weak lineup, and it is showing. Time to give somebody else a chance..cant do any worse

I agree that it's time for Boggs to sit. He was just lost in the clutch vs. OU this past weekend. His season BA is now .193. In conference play it's .118. What more do the coaches need to see?

Find the third baseman from Bryan or Consol and get 'em in there.