Baseball: End of season thoughts

[kingofnerf]

Here's how Kingston compares to Holbrook as far as W-L records:





Season


Head Coach


Overall Record


Conference Record




2013


Chad Holbrook


43-20


17-12




2014


Chad Holbrook


44-18


18-12




2015


Chad Holbrook


32-25


13-17




2016


Chad Holbrook


46-18


20-19




2017


Chad Holbrook


35-25


13-17




2018


Mark Kingston


37-26


17-13




2019


Mark Kingston


28-28


8-22




2020


Mark Kingston


12-4


0-0




2021


Mark Kingston


34-23


16-14





How is Kingston doing so far?

Holbrook had more overall wins, but it seems to me they're both about the same in terms of conference wins, with the exception of 2019.

Thoughts?

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Very under whelming to this point. 

 

[kingofnerf]

Going back to JV baseball or older rec league stuff, the regular Ps always pitched in batting practices.

I tend to think Mahoney was the lead batting practice pitcher this season and things went south pretty quickly after he got hurt.

It seems like our batters didn't get enough reps with a live pitcher to keep the pitching angle picture in their heads.

I think our problems still come back to pitching depth.

 

[Cockybusiness]

It is all very simple. WE CANNOT HIT. Why I don't know. 

 

[Cockybusiness]

Does anyone else see it as an EMBARRASSMENT that there is a Super Regional being played in our ballpark and we are not in it?

 

[ConwayGamecock]

Does anyone else see it as an EMBARRASSMENT that there is a Super Regional being played in our ballpark and we are not in it?

Its embarrassing but more painful.

Seems we should have had pretty decent pitching staff depth this season - enough to field batting practice pitching. We brought in a good number of pitchers from the previous class. We had a number of pitchers that hardly pitched in games this season - surely THEY could have thrown BP well enough for our batters.

The hitting however wasn't that good all season long. We romped to start the season against OOC opponents, but IMO that was more due to those opponents having poor pitching themselves. Clarke blew up with the homeruns, but the book got put out on him pretty quickly: don't let him pull the pitch, and pitch it to the outside of the plate, and he would struggle mightily. And he did.

But we saw the poor hitting early off: the sweep against Texas showed it substantially, but we started having some rough offensive games even BEFORE that series. That started a 6-7 game losing streak where our hitting disappeared, and the word was out by then. We barely hit above .200 the rest of the way at that point.

The SEC is just too good a conference to have any major weakness team-wide like that. I thought our pitching was decent and improved when Kingston finally replaced Farr as the Friday Ace. For some reason, the team refused to hit for him, but again they were facing opposing SEC team's aces, so I think that's where that issue laid.

I think the pitching is solid enough - we'll have Mahoney back at some point next season, plus Sanders and Bosnic at least. Farr, Jordan, and Kerry are most likely gone. We still need to see something from younger pitchers like Phipps - he started strong but got lit up towards the end of the season - Brett Thomas, RJ Dantin, and Cade Austin. And all players got the extra Covid-19 season of eligibility, so if they had blah seasons they could choose to come back to see if they can improve their draft stock without killing any negotiation wiggle room that happens after they play senior seasons in college.

But the hitting needs some changes done. Either change the philosophy, or change the guy(s) teaching it. Another season like this past one, and we're going to start running in place. Can't let that happen to the program....

 

[Swayin]

My take: big improvement over the "bottoming out" at the end of Holbrook, Kingston year 1. We were relevant again, which was a huge step up! To keep improving, we need to generate more offense, as has been said. But overall, I think this season was a big step up.

 

[Homebrewcock]

As mentioned above - hitting.  Left runners on base, hit into double plays or untimely strikeouts.  I am not sure how to fix it, but our hitting has to get better if we are going to compete in the SEC.  Pitching was OK, but could use some improvement.  I am not sure if Kingston is the answer, but I am willing to see what he can do in the next 2-3 years.