Fightin' Ersrad's at Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge

[hskrfan4life]

nice to get the win today, but out hitting them 10-3, yet only winning 4-3?

Team is really struggling to hit with runners on base. Hopefully it's just a small sample size issue.

Yea, especially since Erstad said he was changing things

 

[Savage Husker]

nice to get the win today, but out hitting them 10-3, yet only winning 4-3?

Team is really struggling to hit with runners on base. Hopefully it's just a small sample size issue.

Yea, especially since Erstad said he was changing things

Did they put runners in motion this past weekend? I was only able to follow box score updates.
This sounds like what we saw last year too. Get runners on and then sit back and wait for the big hit, sometimes the lid would pop and they'd smack it around the park, too many times they didn't. The B1G tourney I saw them hit into 4-5 DPs per game, thus their 0-2 or 1-2 showing. When you're struggling to push runners across the plate, they have to get creative to make something happen...steal, hit and run, bunt and run, run and hit, etc. Something to make the defense uncomfortable and force them to make a play on one runner instead of a routine out or the double plays. They'll run into an out here and there, which you can live with if you're being aggressive and forcing the defense to make a harder play, but this station to station philosophy is BS baseball.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

nice to get the win today, but out hitting them 10-3, yet only winning 4-3?

Team is really struggling to hit with runners on base. Hopefully it's just a small sample size issue.

Yea, especially since Erstad said he was changing things

Did they put runners in motion this past weekend? I was only able to follow box score updates.
This sounds like what we saw last year too. Get runners on and then sit back and wait for the big hit, sometimes the lid would pop and they'd smack it around the park, too many times they didn't. The B1G tourney I saw them hit into 4-5 DPs per game, thus their 0-2 or 1-2 showing. When you're struggling to push runners across the plate, they have to get creative to make something happen...steal, hit and run, bunt and run, run and hit, etc. Something to make the defense uncomfortable and force them to make a play on one runner instead of a routine out or the double plays. They'll run into an out here and there, which you can live with if you're being aggressive and forcing the defense to make a harder play, but this station to station philosophy is BS baseball.

It's hard to put runners in motion when the based are loaded or there are runners on 2nd and 3rd. When a team is 0 for 6 with the bases loaded like on Friday, it's hard to blame the coach on being more aggressive. With bases loaded an less than 2 outs, the hitter's responsibility is to put the ball in play (preferably a fly ball) to at least get one run in. That didn't happen on Friday.

I wasn't able to follow the action this weekend very closely, but I agree that it's concerning that team is struggling to hit in key situations. Again, hopefully it's only a small-sample size issue, and won't be a season-long trend.

 

[Savage Husker]

nice to get the win today, but out hitting them 10-3, yet only winning 4-3?

Team is really struggling to hit with runners on base. Hopefully it's just a small sample size issue.

Yea, especially since Erstad said he was changing things

Did they put runners in motion this past weekend? I was only able to follow box score updates.
This sounds like what we saw last year too. Get runners on and then sit back and wait for the big hit, sometimes the lid would pop and they'd smack it around the park, too many times they didn't. The B1G tourney I saw them hit into 4-5 DPs per game, thus their 0-2 or 1-2 showing. When you're struggling to push runners across the plate, they have to get creative to make something happen...steal, hit and run, bunt and run, run and hit, etc. Something to make the defense uncomfortable and force them to make a play on one runner instead of a routine out or the double plays. They'll run into an out here and there, which you can live with if you're being aggressive and forcing the defense to make a harder play, but this station to station philosophy is BS baseball.

It's hard to put runners in motion when the based are loaded or there are runners on 2nd and 3rd. When a team is 0 for 6 with the bases loaded like on Friday, it's hard to blame the coach on being more aggressive. With bases loaded an less than 2 outs, the hitter's responsibility is to put the ball in play (preferably a fly ball) to at least get one run in. That didn't happen on Friday.
I wasn't able to follow the action this weekend very closely, but I agree that it's concerning that team is struggling to hit in key situations. Again, hopefully it's only a small-sample size issue, and won't be a season-long trend.

If that's the position they were in, I don't expect putting runners in motion...except maybe with runners on 2nd/3rd I can see a squeeze play, but that depends on who is up and if they failed to push across 1-2 times already.
I've only been able to follow box scores these past couple weekends and the team twitter handle only provides so much with game updates.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

nice to get the win today, but out hitting them 10-3, yet only winning 4-3?

Team is really struggling to hit with runners on base. Hopefully it's just a small sample size issue.

Yea, especially since Erstad said he was changing things

Did they put runners in motion this past weekend? I was only able to follow box score updates.
This sounds like what we saw last year too. Get runners on and then sit back and wait for the big hit, sometimes the lid would pop and they'd smack it around the park, too many times they didn't. The B1G tourney I saw them hit into 4-5 DPs per game, thus their 0-2 or 1-2 showing. When you're struggling to push runners across the plate, they have to get creative to make something happen...steal, hit and run, bunt and run, run and hit, etc. Something to make the defense uncomfortable and force them to make a play on one runner instead of a routine out or the double plays. They'll run into an out here and there, which you can live with if you're being aggressive and forcing the defense to make a harder play, but this station to station philosophy is BS baseball.

It's hard to put runners in motion when the based are loaded or there are runners on 2nd and 3rd. When a team is 0 for 6 with the bases loaded like on Friday, it's hard to blame the coach on being more aggressive. With bases loaded an less than 2 outs, the hitter's responsibility is to put the ball in play (preferably a fly ball) to at least get one run in. That didn't happen on Friday.
I wasn't able to follow the action this weekend very closely, but I agree that it's concerning that team is struggling to hit in key situations. Again, hopefully it's only a small-sample size issue, and won't be a season-long trend.

If that's the position they were in, I don't expect putting runners in motion...except maybe with runners on 2nd/3rd I can see a squeeze play, but that depends on who is up and if they failed to push across 1-2 times already.
I've only been able to follow box scores these past couple weekends and the team twitter handle only provides so much with game updates.

No problem. I started listening to Friday's game midway in thru, and NU had left the bases loaded 3 times in the first 4 or 5 innings. Then I saw the stat that NU was 0 for 6 with the bases loaded against Utah on Friday.

I remember that Erstad would get a lot of criticism for having sacrifice bunts early in games in the first couple years of Erstad's tenure at NU. So, now he is trying to let his kids produce with runners on and not give the opponent free outs, and it's just not happening.

I agree that there are things that can be done in terms of hit and run or squeeze plays. But, let's see where the team is at the end of March and headed into conference play before making too many judgments.

 

[Savage Husker]

Oh of course, I'll let the season run its course to see how it turns out, but It just appears like it's starting where it left off...and yeah, I'm getting restless

 

[HuskersNC949597]

Meyers laid down a bunt with runners at second and third yesterday, Hagge got thrown out between third and home

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Meyers laid down a bunt with runners at second and third yesterday, Hagge got thrown out between third and home

I guess it was a safety squeeze, and it wasn't executed properly.

One thing to consider is that it's easier to be more aggressive in the running game (steals, hit and runs) when the team is ahead, and NU has fallen behind early in most of the games so far this year. So some blame can be put on the pitching and defense.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Oh of course, I'll let the season run its course to see how it turns out, but It just appears like it's starting where it left off...and yeah, I'm getting restless

Oh yeah, most NU baseball fans are getting restless, as it appears NU is starting off where it ended last year. I was definitely getting frustrated while listening to the game on Friday.

 

[hskrfan4life]

Meyers laid down a bunt with runners at second and third yesterday, Hagge got thrown out between third and home

I guess it was a safety squeeze, and it wasn't executed properly.
One thing to consider is that it's easier to be more aggressive in the running game (steals, hit and runs) when the team is ahead, and NU has fallen behind early in most of the games so far this year. So some blame can be put on the pitching and defense.

With Hagge's speed I would like a Suicide squeeze, considering Meyers is one of our better hitters. With a safety squeeze you are too reliant on a perfectly placed bunt most of the time.