South Carolina vs Florida..How far off are the huskers?

[flatwaterfan]

Just watching the game last night I can't help but think of what separates those teams from the Huskers at this time.

 

Offensively we are not that far off. Just need to have a little more clutch hitting to go with the Batting ave. You couldn't really see a difference IMO.

 

The defensive plays really jumped out. South Carolina flashed some great range & glove. That kept Florida at bay.

We are not too far off here, but not as close as we are with the bats. We are solid but could use more range and play makers. There were some wow plays last night

 

The pitching was a bit surprising to me. I thought they would be more overpowering but they were not. They did have pretty good zip, but I'd say command was the biggest difference. They had good command & pitch mix They worked fast. While this is the area we need to make up the most ground, I was happy to see that there's not a huge talent separation.

 

Anyone else have thoughts or different observations?

[Omaha-Husker]

I think USC and Florida's backups would beat Nebraska in a series right now. They are loaded.

[95huskers]

nebraska had good average this year. The B1G was "better" than we anticipated, but look at those teams schedules. they played far superior talent and far superior pitchers than nebraska did. i agree with you that the defenses of these teams are very good. I think both pitchers last night were pitchers that through pitches that were to be hit because of their good defense. They stayed around the zone pretty well and tried to manufacture ground balls. When you have a D like these teams do they can do that. I think that we have a ways to go to be at par with these teams. Definitely need to improve pitching

[flatwaterfan]

Someone will have to explain how the details of 'pitch to contact' work as I struggle comprehend it a bit. I understand the principal is that you don't walk batters and depend upon your defense to get outs, but where is the defining difference. Is it that they pitch to a 1/3 of the plate vs trying to have the pitcher hit the edges? Or does the difference come in the types of pitches and when they are thrown to batters?

[Omaha-Husker]

Someone will have to explain how the details of 'pitch to contact' work as I struggle comprehend it a bit. I understand the principal is that you don't walk batters and depend upon your defense to get outs, but where is the defining difference. Is it that they pitch to a 1/3 of the plate vs trying to have the pitcher hit the edges? Or does the difference come in the types of pitches and when they are thrown to batters?

 

Basically not necessarily trying striking guys out every at bat, but putting your pitches in spots where the hitters can only get weak grounders.

[flatwaterfan]

Someone will have to explain how the details of 'pitch to contact' work as I struggle comprehend it a bit. I understand the principal is that you don't walk batters and depend upon your defense to get outs, but where is the defining difference. Is it that they pitch to a 1/3 of the plate vs trying to have the pitcher hit the edges? Or does the difference come in the types of pitches and when they are thrown to batters?

 

Basically not necessarily trying striking guys out every at bat, but putting your pitches in spots where the hitters can only get weak grounders.

 

Is there much difference in location between that and a strike out pitch? Is a strike out pitch off the plate ie start in the zone but finish out of the zone. Where as a pitch to contact pitch has less movement? Or is that the difference between throwing more change ups vs curves and sliders?

[Omaha-Husker]

Someone will have to explain how the details of 'pitch to contact' work as I struggle comprehend it a bit. I understand the principal is that you don't walk batters and depend upon your defense to get outs, but where is the defining difference. Is it that they pitch to a 1/3 of the plate vs trying to have the pitcher hit the edges? Or does the difference come in the types of pitches and when they are thrown to batters?

 

Basically not necessarily trying striking guys out every at bat, but putting your pitches in spots where the hitters can only get weak grounders.

 

Is there much difference in location between that and a strike out pitch? Is a strike out pitch off the plate ie start in the zone but finish out of the zone. Where as a pitch to contact pitch has less movement? Or is that the difference between throwing more change ups vs curves and sliders?

 

Keeping the ball down and near the zone with more off speed stuff. It really can help extend a pitchers innings count and can be an equalizer for pitchers w/o over powering stuff, but good control. Skrikeout guys are going to try high heat and breaking balls off the plate. Some hate the hit to contact concept others have embraced it. Tony LaRussa was a big fan of hit to contact.

[flatwaterfan]

Thanks for the clarification.

[huskerbronco1997]

i think that in terms of hitting we are right there with anyone in country, batting avaerage and power. I also agree that as far a defense we are good there as well, we could get a little better range but i dont think we are really too far off.

 

I think the big difference is pitching. We have plenty of guy that hit high 80s or 90s on the gun, however they have no secondary pitch that they can locate. It doesnt matter if you are throwing 95mph, if you cant mix your pitching and throw off speed pitches for strikes hitters will get the timing down and tee off on the fast ball. We walk way too many guy and gave up alot of 2 out runs this year. It seems that none of our pitchers have developed an out pitch, they have a fastball and changeup that for the most part they can throw for strikes however that is it, none can locate a curve or a slider that they can throw and get hitters to chase. When Childress was the pitching coach our pitchers were all known to be able to throw a great slider to get hitters to chase with two strikes to get the K or a weak ground out. It seems like all our pitchers have now is a fastball and average to below average change up.

 

I think if we can develop the pitching and get them to throw strikes and to be able to loacte off speed pithes for strike we will be right in there next season. I would also like to see us run the bases alot more, i would like us to have between 2-3 guys that have 15 or more stolen bases. I like the idea of stealing second and bunting over to third, similar to what happened early in the Van Horn days.

[Hayseed]

Apples and oranges......who really knows how we compare to the competition those teams faced? The BIG isn't exactly a baseball powerhouse and we definitely need better starting pitching before we start worrying about competing at the CWS. Stats are deceiving, a look at the averages against the best teams is probably the best indicator of where we are.

[Blackshirts007]

Pitching, pitching, pitching. We can hit with anyone in the country but when you give up 5+ runs a game you are a .500 team