Sorry if this has been discussed, but was out of computer range until now, but we made one error the whole tourney, none the last 3 games.

When you hit like that, it cures a lot of ills. Not to mention 3 or 4 very nice but unlikely pitching performances. Otherwise, just a ho hum tourney. Let's try that again!

it is kind of strange how things worked out for the Ags

A&M did finish tied for last in the conference in defense, but yet is a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament

Several key defensive stats in which the Ags excelled:

- Tied for 1st with the fewest passed ball allowed (5)

- Finished 2nd in most double plays turned (59)

- Led the conference with most runners thrown out attempting to steal (25)

Craig Stinson arguably had one of the best complete (both offense and defense) seasons for an aggie catcher in, frankly, school history. His draft stock is definitely rising.

I tried to say this at mid-season, but the defensive stats, the way they are calculated, are very misleading. You say "last place" and it sounds like you can't catch a pop up or something. All it means is that you make like 1 error per game more than the first place defensive team.

All things considered, I'd rather be first than last, but it's like the difference in a .325 hitting team and a .315 hitting team. In the course of any one game, it ain't gonna matter much.

All that stat is REALLY saying is that ALL Big 12 teams are good defensive teams.

Wow, you underestimate defense quite a bit.

We played great this weekend, but errors can and have killed us this year.

And remember, our official scorer is very lenient. At many other fields, a lot of base hits would be ruled errors

Ruggiano and Carter played a more solid 3rd than Blake was doing. That's certainly made me feel a lot better about our D. Blake is making a lot of nice scoops over at first too.

Here are our records depeding on the number of errors we make.

0 errors 12-3 (.800)
1 error 14-4 (.778)
>1 error 18-9 (.666)

That is pretty telling.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Check out "Texas A&M & Baseball In No Particular Order"
at tamu-and-baseball.com

Rugg made some REALLY great plays on the hot corner at the Brick, and he really started to hit the ball well there as well.

Keith Moreland said postgame after the ags beat the horns that Rugg made a bigtime play every time texas had a chance to start something. The great throw home to get the lead runner. The huge play to his left on the big hop, and a great double play all killed tu chances.

Both Stouffer and Ruggiano have stepped up and are making absolutely great plays at 1B and 3B. I was at the game yesterday in OKC, and Stouffer made a few plays that could have/should have/would have been hits. But he's an absolute gamer out there. And RC has said a few times that the way Rugg plays at 3B is what keeps him in that lineup.

This team has come a LONG way since the 7 errors in the game against Nebraska.

-----
Proud fan of the Oakland Athletics - if our best player isn't injured, it's not baseball season.

Let's hope this error free defense carries into the final game of the CWS. I only got to see the Baylor game but I really felt Rugg had a shot as a tournament player. Oh well, here's to a CWS Championship for the men and a WCWS championship for the women.

The personnel change on the corners made a huge difference in the infield. Hicks settled down considerably, and our outfielders became a little steadier as the season went on. I think our double play numbers were high due to the fact that we have several pitchers whose forte is inducing ground balls, and we had a lot of baserunners thanks to walks and errors.

I agree with Rocks...we get some home cooking from time to time that could have made our fielding percentage better than it really should have been.

Another thing to consider is TIMELY errors. If we kick the ball around and make 3 errors while we're beating Texas Southern, who really notices? But if we make one simple little misplay in a 1-run game vs. oSu or UT or tech, then that single error is magnified big time.

Finally, when looking at defense, you have to look beyond the stats. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Stats are for losers.

You have to look at things that don't show up in the box score like hitting the cutoff man, throwing to the right base, actually turning the double-play instead of settling for a fielder's choice force out at second. While our defensive stat numbers took a tumble this year, I really believe that we're doing MUCH better with the fundamentals that I just mentioned above. That's how we can have a poor fielding percentage, but lead the league in double play's turned and runners thrown out.

Sure, we may have given some away with errors this year, but I have to think we took some back with smarter, more heads-up plays that you don't see on the stat sheet.





If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. - James 1:5 (NIV)

quote:

---

You have to look at things that don't show up in the box score like hitting the cutoff man, throwing to the right base, actually turning the double-play instead of settling for a fielder's choice force out at second. While our defensive stat numbers took a tumble this year, I really believe that we're doing MUCH better with the fundamentals that I just mentioned above.

---

In our game against Baylor we made several illadvised throws. Our guys need to learn to hang onto the ball in certain situations. We threw the ball away once which would have been an error, but it was backed up nicely so the runner couldn't advance. This throw was totally unnecessary as the ball was being thrown from the outfield and the guy was starting to dive into 3rd already.
Our fielding was pretty solid though.

Well, here's where I'm going to disagree. I think our outfield play has been worse than the statistics suggest because we have missed a lot of cutoff men and thrown to the wrong base way too many times--things which, as Luke points out, don't show up in the box score. We've gotten better as the season goes along, but this is a very average outfield defensively, at best. In contrast, I think the infield play has improved dramatically. I'm now hoping that the other team hits the ball on the ground because I feel fairly confident that we'll make the play in the infield.

As to the scoring, in past years, we have been very lenient on scoring, but in the games that I've seen, either in person or on the computer, it seems to me that we have been scoring a little bit tougher this year. Early in the season, I sort of got the impression that the staff had given word to the scorer to stop coddling players with generous scoring and call it straight up. It would certainly be consistent with Childress's attitude on tolerance of mistakes.

"0 errors 12-3 (.800)
1 error 14-4 (.778)
>1 error 18-9 (.666)

That is pretty telling."

No, not really. What's it's telling is that out of 50 games, we would be expected to lose one additional game between 0 errors and 1 error. tu was the only team in the conference who averaged less than an error a game at .86/game.

Inasmuch as the average team is in the 1.5 error range, if you would give the stat for our record with 2 errors or less vs. 2 errors or more THEN it might become meaningful, or it might just say that we are likely to lose 2 or 3 games out of 50 for games in which we made two errors.

So, the difference would be 4 games or so lost in games with 1 or 2 errors vs. 0 errors over the course of the season. Since we lost 16 games, I think it's pretty obvious that there are other factors than our "poor" fielding....home/away, hits for and hits against, whatever.

Yes, 3 or 4 games would have meant several places in the conference, but you could just as easily say that about hitting a better average, fewer walks and on and on. Pretty soon, we're undefeated!

And, yes, I'm too lazy to do it, but thanks for what you provided.


[This message has been edited by txag72 (edited 5/29/2007 11:38a).]