Grade the season.....

[Comish]

I was one who drank too much of that little flavored drink invented out in good ol' Hastings, NE.............so I really expected to fare better in the B!G.

 

I give this season a C.

 

So I am disappointed in this season, but think much better times are ahead!

[EbylHusker]

All things considered, B.

[hskrfan4life]

B+, made the postseason first time since 2008. Finished in the top half of conference. Got our first Conference series sweep. Took the series against Iowa. Competed against Cal.

[Blackshirt316]

B-

 

Love the staff and like where they are trending but the pitching simply didn't come around and there were a few mental breakdowns that cost us a couple games they had no buisness losing. IE. Getting swept by Gonzaga, Not sweeping LA Tech, Losing the series to Northwestern, Losing both sides of the doubleheader against Indiana, not showing up against Creighton and Witchita State at the end of the year.

 

You win 70% of those mistakes and maybe you get an at large bid or at least get a bye in the Big Ten Tournament.

 

Next year if they can clean up those mental lapses, continue to fix the arms we have and bring in a couple more of them they should be pretty good. They need to at least finish top 2 in the conference next year though for this season's work to pay off and keep an upward trend.

[Lyons in the Sea of Red.]

This team is about 3 pitchers away from being a 40+ winner.

[HuskersNC949597]

B-. Fundamentally they were pretty good in a lot of areas, namely at the plate and in the field (exception: shortstop, 18 errors is too dang many, plus however many Kelly/Farmer had in their stints). Logan Ehlers (12-1, 1.17 ERA at Howard College this year) would have been nice to have around. Tyler Niederklein's hip problems holding him back (if I'm to believe Greg Sharpe) along with Tom Lemke's shoulder, huge blow to the pitching staff. Pitchers were the clear weakness, but there's not much you can do about things like blood clots, so they get a pass this year, too many experienced guys with legitimate health issues and too many inexperienced guys being forced to step up. But a lot of credit goes to Kyle Kubat and Ryan Hander for stabilizing the weekends at the end of the regular season, finally. At least we know there will be one or two guys who should be reliable starters next year. Didn't have that at the start of this season.

[Blackshirts007]

B's really? Some people must not have very high expectations, i'd say a C or C+

[EbylHusker]

They did better than I expected them to, especially when you consider the obstacles this season. I'd say it's more like some people drink too much koolaid.

[MLB 51]

C+. We need pitching.

[Husker John]

Give it a C+

[flatwaterfan]

I don't think a B is unreasonable nor is a C.

 

They were kind of all over the place so for me I tried to break it down to help myself

 

Offense = 3.5

pitching = 2.0

defense = 3.5

Staff = 3.0

Intangibles = 2.0

======

14

14/5 = 2.8 ===> C+ (I graded on a curve based off of past 3 years. Grading will be tougher next year)

 

 

Offense = Lead the b1g in a lot of categories. They were bit streaky though. It looked to me like lefties gave them issues, although I don't know the numbers. Will be interesting to see who returns for next year.

 

pitching = The rotation never solidified. Still a work in progress. Didn't do bad though. Still working on the changeup. They need to keep developing and the staff needs to upgrade the talent.

 

defense = Lead the b1g in defense. Some spots don't have the greatest range though

 

Staff = 3.0 They did a good job for their first year. Brand new HC. Can they recruit? It appears so but we shall see how it pans out.

 

Intangibles = 2.0 Tended to break down and fall into bad habits at times. Clutch hitting not always there. Pitchers still learning that change. I thought we would fare a little better in the B1G and think we would of if we had a Friday Ace.

 

Next year will be interesting as to who comes back from the junior ranks. Our offense&defense could be extremely salty & experienced or it might need to be retooled a bit. It just depends on who & how many comeback.

 

With our pitching it's all about development this summer. I think we have a lot of Sunday pitchers yet.

 

I suppose you could make it easy and say:

 

c- = Winning record

c = Make conference tourney

C+ = Make Regional

B = Make Super or (Win b1g & do well in super)

B+ = Win Super regional

A = CWS

A+ = Win CWS

[RedRedJarvisRedwine]

B+. the tide is a turnin boys! No quit in these guys. Can't say that about the last couple years. I think we get better as a pitching staff and take off next year! And I'm talking a top 15 national ranking. Regional. Super regional. The f@ cling enchilada!!! Then CWS bitches!!! Sh!t yea!!! Must....... Find..... Bump..... When..... Drunk.... Thread!!

[HuskerHacker]

I don't think a B is unreasonable nor is a C.

 

They were kind of all over the place so for me I tried to break it down to help myself

 

Offense = 3.5

pitching = 2.0

defense = 3.5

Staff = 3.0

Intangibles = 2.0

======

14

14/5 = 2.8 ===> C+ (I graded on a curve based off of past 3 years. Grading will be tougher next year)

 

 

Offense = Lead the b1g in a lot of categories. They were bit streaky though. It looked to me like lefties gave them issues, although I don't know the numbers. Will be interesting to see who returns for next year.

 

pitching = The rotation never solidified. Still a work in progress. Didn't do bad though. Still working on the changeup. They need to keep developing and the staff needs to upgrade the talent.

 

defense = Lead the b1g in defense. Some spots don't have the greatest range though

 

Staff = 3.0 They did a good job for their first year. Brand new HC. Can they recruit? It appears so but we shall see how it pans out.

 

Intangibles = 2.0 Tended to break down and fall into bad habits at times. Clutch hitting not always there. Pitchers still learning that change. I thought we would fare a little better in the B1G and think we would of if we had a Friday Ace.

 

Next year will be interesting as to who comes back from the junior ranks. Our offense&defense could be extremely salty & experienced or it might need to be retooled a bit. It just depends on who & how many comeback.

 

With our pitching it's all about development this summer. I think we have a lot of Sunday pitchers yet.

 

I suppose you could make it easy and say:

 

c- = Winning record

c = Make conference tourney

C+ = Make Regional

B = Make Super or (Win b1g & do well in super)

B+ = Win Super regional

A = CWS

A+ = Win CWS

 

Like what Flat said here.

 

Honestly though... grading right now is difficult because most of us were drinking the koolaid and had high expectations and when we fail to reach the championship our judgement is clouded and tempered. Also, considering that we've struggled in every men's sport this year (the "new" conference facilities and atmosphere's) one has to think a little higher of what the baseball team did.

 

The staff, though relatively young and with little D1 experience, did perform IMO admirably. Yes there were times the young men fell back into old habits, especially on the road but.... in all, they play with passion, heart and never quit attitude. I think Kale Keiser was a huge part of that. He played with a lot of fire and I am thankful for his senior year efforts. I also think the team chemistry under anderwatson was off. Little to no senior (upper classmen) leadership and I believe Kale was a very good role model for our younger players this year. I believe they will progress into very good leaders soon.

 

Pitching, though often sparadic, also often it was very solid. Considering the fact that Anderwatson despised the change-up and wouldn't coach it, one who knows the game, knows how difficult it is to master that pitch, also knows how impressive it was that Silva was able to come in and begin to teach that pitch. Bright things are ahead for Silva and this staff/pitchers.

 

Television issues. Seems to me that we struggled when under the bright lights of TV more then we should have. Again, another growing pain but we improved as the year progressed.

Freshmen class is loaded and that talent will only get better.

Incoming class is solid and pitcher heavy. If as successful as the last class... Wow!!!

Bolt's defense... simply put, he gets it. He knows how to postion players, he knows how to coach, how to encourage and obviously understands that he and Silva need to be on the same page throughout the game. Much respect to Bolt and Silva.

 

The BIG and lack of fan attendance had to have an effect on us. Imagine playing in front of 2, 3, 4K fan's at home and traveling to sites where you play in front of 1,2, 300. Huge disappointment and in that, huge hill to climb for this staff. In all, I think they (the staff) managed that monstorous challenge admirably with the exception of the Northwestern series.

 

Guess what I'm saying is the grade that I'd provide right now would be a B-. However, when given time to look back.. understand the difficulty of changing conferences, facing new umpires, new gaming philosophies all with a Completely New Coaching Staff, I might reconsider that grade.

 

Disappointed, yes... I desperately wanted to win it all this year. To set a tone and say "This is Husker Baseball" and at first thought, I found I was highly disappointed. Then I slept on it and was reminded of these things:

- The BIG schools are in awe of our game atmosphere and the fan base.

- Our offense led the BIG

- Our defense led the BIG

- Our facilities by far outshine the BIG's

-The BIG network commentators poured out praise. (To the point of saying the BIG tourney should be held at Haymarket.)

 

So... did the sker's achieve that goal of saying "This is Husker Baseball"? Absolutely!!! From the staff, to the players, the university and the fan's. The BIG teams do envy our program and that friends places us in a very strong position.

 

The future is bright.

The coaching staff will obviously get better.

The pitching staff is young and will also improve and with the new recruits, the depth will be awesome!

Our offense and defense, as impressive as it was, is only going to improve.

and...

I refuse to hang my head. Instead I want to thank the players (especially Keiser), the staff and the fan's for achieving the goals I hoped we would (and did) set this year.

 

GBR!!!

[Vizsla1]

C+, we could have done better

[knapplc]

I won't even hazard a letter grade. Not sure what it would mean anyway.

 

I figured heading into this season we'd struggle some. Erstad has never been a head coach at any level. The guys weren't used to him or Bolt or anyone else on the staff. We lacked quality pitching (which was Anderson's big recruiting problem), and I had no illusions that these problems would be fixed in one season.

 

We had some good wins. We had some baffling losses. Questions answered this season:

 

- Erstad can coach, as can the rest of the staff. They just need experience and time to get better. This coaching staff isn't a finished product by any means.

 

- We have some decent bats. We disappeared at times (more on that in a second) but overall we have reason for optimism here.

 

- We need arms in the Pen. When it went bad, it went bad in a hurry. I don't know if we're going to be able to coach these guys up or if it's a recruiting issue, but this is the Primary A#1 need on this team. Kubat may be a Friday Starter, and he's young, but behind him it's still a mess.

 

- This team is very shaky on the road. Gotta figure that one out, because talent is talent, and doesn't just go away because we've left home. We pull our heads out and stop with the bizarre road-woes and this team makes the NCAAs. It's almost that simple.

 

 

 

 

Overall I'm not surprised that we ended up where we ended up. I didn't expect much with the new staff, Erstad's lack of experience and the lack of killer mentality this team has showed over the last few years.

 

Final word - Optimism. It looked to my untrained eye like we have a lot of the pieces in place. Let that percolate for a year and let's see what happens next year. I expect better things in 2013.