New Coach

[huskerswrkhavoc]

I've noticed maybe 2 games televised on FSN this year. The Big 12 tv deal across all sports sucks.

 

Did you ever stop and wonder why, say, Zach Herr would want to sign a contract despite being a really late pick? Answer: to flee Anderson's iron fist. It's not enough to just say the draft destroyed us, how about looking at why everybody wanted to leave? Why is it that David Stewart and Jed Hanson transferred despite showing great potential in the few opportunities that Anderson gave them? Oh I suppose after yesterday's wild pitch-fest, I'm dreaming if I think having another catcher around might have helped. And of course we won't need a new right fielder in 2011, so Stewart's no great loss, right? What happens when Mariot, Yost, Ryan Hughes and a number of other players sign contracts this year? Do we reboot the draft excuse? This isn't football where freshmen and sophomores have to hit the weight room and gain 50 pounds. Many teams are playing with just as much, or more, younger players, and that's just in the top 25. Nebraska had as much senior experience in Bailey, Belfonte, Farst and Bubak to go with pretty good juniors on the pitching staff. I imagine we're looking at moderate improvement next season at best, and the best we can do is claim that we're a northern school and thus can't compete

 

 

 

What part of regional don't you understand? As in, when it's not nebraska, it's not going to be on here. If you look at any of the non-FSNMidwest FSN channels, you will see a decent amount of college baseball, i watched it. Herr wasn't good. And wild pitch-fest? You realize that a wild PITCH is just that, NOT THE CATCHERS FAULT. That, sir, would be what the scoring "passed ball" is for. And Hanson was 4 for 9, but he was NOT a good defensive catcher, so I don't know how him behind the plate would help wild pitches.... Mariot could potentially go and sign a contract, it happens. I don't see Yost going anywhere. Our pitching staff is still young and improving. And freshman are playing in baseball just as much as they are in football. Stewart hit .286, that's good?

[HuskersNC949597]

I've noticed maybe 2 games televised on FSN this year. The Big 12 tv deal across all sports sucks.

 

Did you ever stop and wonder why, say, Zach Herr would want to sign a contract despite being a really late pick? Answer: to flee Anderson's iron fist. It's not enough to just say the draft destroyed us, how about looking at why everybody wanted to leave? Why is it that David Stewart and Jed Hanson transferred despite showing great potential in the few opportunities that Anderson gave them? Oh I suppose after yesterday's wild pitch-fest, I'm dreaming if I think having another catcher around might have helped. And of course we won't need a new right fielder in 2011, so Stewart's no great loss, right? What happens when Mariot, Yost, Ryan Hughes and a number of other players sign contracts this year? Do we reboot the draft excuse? This isn't football where freshmen and sophomores have to hit the weight room and gain 50 pounds. Many teams are playing with just as much, or more, younger players, and that's just in the top 25. Nebraska had as much senior experience in Bailey, Belfonte, Farst and Bubak to go with pretty good juniors on the pitching staff. I imagine we're looking at moderate improvement next season at best, and the best we can do is claim that we're a northern school and thus can't compete

 

 

 

What part of regional don't you understand? As in, when it's not nebraska, it's not going to be on here. If you look at any of the non-FSNMidwest FSN channels, you will see a decent amount of college baseball, i watched it. Herr wasn't good. And wild pitch-fest? You realize that a wild PITCH is just that, NOT THE CATCHERS FAULT. That, sir, would be what the scoring "passed ball" is for. And Hanson was 4 for 9, but he was NOT a good defensive catcher, so I don't know how him behind the plate would help wild pitches.... Mariot could potentially go and sign a contract, it happens. I don't see Yost going anywhere. Our pitching staff is still young and improving. And freshman are playing in baseball just as much as they are in football. Stewart hit .286, that's good?

I know what regional means, and that's part of the horrible Big 12 TV deal, if your provider only gives you one FSN channel, you're hosed. I could have watched several games on the Big 10 network, but since Nebraska has not yet joined that conference, I didn't bother. I don't recall the last time ESPN carried a regular season Big 12 game, but I saw a lot of SEC games on.

 

Sure, Zach Herr wasn't any good. Neither are many of the other younger pitchers brought in since Childress left. All have been prone to give up walks, hit batters, and just generally have ERAs so high they'd make your nose bleed. Because they're not being coached very well at any point. Part of that's Newman's responsibility, then again he's the 2nd pitching coach hired by Anderson, and the staff ERA has sucked harder with every new hire (save for being carried by Johnny Dorn and, for a while anyway, Thad Weber in '08). So either Anderson can't hire decent assistants, or it's true what they say about him being a micromanaging freak. Or a little bit of both.

 

Did you see the wild pitches? These one's ricocheted not all that far from whoever was catching, it's not impossible for a catcher to smother a bad pitch, so yes, senor caps lock, SOMETIMES THE CATCHER CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. But you may be right, Hanson might not have been any better at defense, however he had a pretty good year going here at UNO (ended with an injury), so I'm still not entirely convinced. Same thing goes for Stewart, scouts were bullish on his upside potential, he hit 3 home runs in two games to start his season at Grayson County college down in TX after leaving here, then got hit by a pitch and broke his hand or something, ended his season. I suppose Anderson knew that was going to happen so he sent him off. Of course, those two guys are the least of Anderson's problems, the dude is sabotaging the program.

[huskerswrkhavoc]

I've noticed maybe 2 games televised on FSN this year. The Big 12 tv deal across all sports sucks.

 

Did you ever stop and wonder why, say, Zach Herr would want to sign a contract despite being a really late pick? Answer: to flee Anderson's iron fist. It's not enough to just say the draft destroyed us, how about looking at why everybody wanted to leave? Why is it that David Stewart and Jed Hanson transferred despite showing great potential in the few opportunities that Anderson gave them? Oh I suppose after yesterday's wild pitch-fest, I'm dreaming if I think having another catcher around might have helped. And of course we won't need a new right fielder in 2011, so Stewart's no great loss, right? What happens when Mariot, Yost, Ryan Hughes and a number of other players sign contracts this year? Do we reboot the draft excuse? This isn't football where freshmen and sophomores have to hit the weight room and gain 50 pounds. Many teams are playing with just as much, or more, younger players, and that's just in the top 25. Nebraska had as much senior experience in Bailey, Belfonte, Farst and Bubak to go with pretty good juniors on the pitching staff. I imagine we're looking at moderate improvement next season at best, and the best we can do is claim that we're a northern school and thus can't compete

 

What part of regional don't you understand? As in, when it's not nebraska, it's not going to be on here. If you look at any of the non-FSNMidwest FSN channels, you will see a decent amount of college baseball, i watched it. Herr wasn't good. And wild pitch-fest? You realize that a wild PITCH is just that, NOT THE CATCHERS FAULT. That, sir, would be what the scoring "passed ball" is for. And Hanson was 4 for 9, but he was NOT a good defensive catcher, so I don't know how him behind the plate would help wild pitches.... Mariot could potentially go and sign a contract, it happens. I don't see Yost going anywhere. Our pitching staff is still young and improving. And freshman are playing in baseball just as much as they are in football. Stewart hit .286, that's good?

I know what regional means, and that's part of the horrible Big 12 TV deal, if your provider only gives you one FSN channel, you're hosed. I could have watched several games on the Big 10 network, but since Nebraska has not yet joined that conference, I didn't bother. I don't recall the last time ESPN carried a regular season Big 12 game, but I saw a lot of SEC games on.

 

Sure, Zach Herr wasn't any good. Neither are many of the other younger pitchers brought in since Childress left. All have been prone to give up walks, hit batters, and just generally have ERAs so high they'd make your nose bleed. Because they're not being coached very well at any point. Part of that's Newman's responsibility, then again he's the 2nd pitching coach hired by Anderson, and the staff ERA has sucked harder with every new hire (save for being carried by Johnny Dorn and, for a while anyway, Thad Weber in '08). So either Anderson can't hire decent assistants, or it's true what they say about him being a micromanaging freak. Or a little bit of both.

 

Did you see the wild pitches? These one's ricocheted not all that far from whoever was catching, it's not impossible for a catcher to smother a bad pitch, so yes, senor caps lock, SOMETIMES THE CATCHER CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. But you may be right, Hanson might not have been any better at defense, however he had a pretty good year going here at UNO (ended with an injury), so I'm still not entirely convinced. Same thing goes for Stewart, scouts were bullish on his upside potential, he hit 3 home runs in two games to start his season at Grayson County college down in TX after leaving here, then got hit by a pitch and broke his hand or something, ended his season. I suppose Anderson knew that was going to happen so he sent him off. Of course, those two guys are the least of Anderson's problems, the dude is sabotaging the program.

 

I never said that the pitching staff hasn't walking issues, I know they have, I get that. All I said is Herr wasn't good, so why make a big deal about one kid seeing that he wasn't going to get PT and took the pro route while he had the chance..

 

Catchers can make a difference, when its the catchers fault.. If the scoring is a passed ball, then its his fault. Wild Pitch is technically the pitchers fault, hence why it's scored that way..

 

Listen, I have no problem with Anderson getting fired, trust me, I don't. What I do have a problem with is people who want to fire Anderson but have ZERO idea on what direction to go after that. And by an idea, I don't mean O'Connor. Bolt is a great suggestion, honestly. Possible up and comer, played here at the high point of the program, was a volunteer coach here a few years back also. But people who are clueless on what direction to go really shouldn't be leading the head hunt for Anderson.

[CBHusker]

Havoc, you challenged me in some other message to locate possible regional coaches for suggestible alternatives to Anderson. I agree - that's what should be done. I have been distracted by another idea: "Is the region producing baseball talent, or are we in a dearth of players?" Actually, yes. There is a rather precipitous drop in Nebraska-Kansas-Iowa HS players in the pro's in the last four years, compared to the previous 4, and the previous 4 to that. In fact, the 3-state region has less than half of the players in minor league systems now than they did 12 years ago. A major drop-off.

 

This is a tidal issue, I believe. Maybe talent isn't truly lacking, but DISCOVERED and SIGNED talent is, and that could be a function of economic (travel) cut-backs. "Why travel 1000 miles when I can sign up equal talent within 100 or 200?" Fair point. Pro Baseball moves to LA and SF (away from New York) to gain some geographically-based income, but "geographical fairness" was NEVER the issue.

 

What "less Regional Talent" means rather undercuts my argument that "Regional Coach can tap into Regional Talent", however. If the perception is that the region isn't producing a lot of baseball talent, fewer high schoolers aim for baseball excellence. And it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

All of which means "A regional coach with regional ties won't necessarily benefit the program more quickly than a good coach with no regional ties."

 

I'm not finished looking, of course, but when I fell into those "talent numbers", I was aware that's only a tidal issue - it comes and goes. I think those are probably a reflection of Scout Travel Expenses as much as true baseball talent among the 15-18 year-old set.

 

I was not impressed with the season-ending sweep at all. Tech was fairly shell-shocked by the DQ'ing of their best arm - all of which showed what kind of Head Case that player is. I'm rather surprised that the Tech team didn't fully understand this player's weak-link and that they hadn't learned to compensate for him in the past. But obviously, they didn't. OR ELSE they truly showed their .500 season-status against the Big 12's other .500 season-status team. Nebraska could have easily given away Game 3 and no one would have thought less of them, I think. But the Huskers' decision not to give up and try to win was the impressive point of this past weekend.

 

Thanks again for your good posts over the end of this season.

[huskerswrkhavoc]

Good point there bringing up the talent levels there and that is an issue. However, we shouldn't be allowing that to stop us with recruiting or use it as an excuse to why we aren't as good as we used to be, and i know you aren't saying its an excuse, just using that point. We have pulled good talent from Colorado, and need to continue to do so. While I don't exactly have a good sample size to say this from, but I was up in South Dakota watching some HS baseball yesterday and I must say, it's not very impressive. I know from playing here that the talent level here in Nebraska isn't the greatest either.. And there is still plenty of baseball interest, just seems possibly our HS coaches aren't as good as they should be or as they used to be...? And I still agree with your point that a regional coach may be better for the long run, especially since we would have a better chance of retaining him, but there has to be someone. I still don't think we have a chance in hell with O'Connor, but he's always worth a shot also....