Texas v Aggy College World Series June 19, 2022

[Chinstrap]

I don't doubt that, but you mentioned Skip as being the "real deal" in the same sentence as Schlossnaggy. Just trying to understand why you think Skip is the real deal over Pierce, when Skip has less success as a head coach (and I love Skip, by the way, wish he was still our pitching coach).

Nope, didn’t say that. Never said any coach was better than Pierce. Just said he must be successful against those coaches.

 

[Vol Horn 4 Life]

But my point is that his two biggest rivals are still playing and if he starts coming in third behind them that is all that will matter to the fans. You can’t go from “bell cow” to runner-up to aggies and boomers and keep your job at Texas. That’s just the way it is

I completely agree with you and to a degree I think we're saying the same thing. My point is that neither of those teams could be there next year while we keep chugging along. If Pierce doesn't keep improving he won't last anyway. I'm not concerned about the aggy and the land thieves doing something this year with their flash in the pan success.

 

[Chop]

I completely agree with you and to a degree I think we're saying the same thing. My point is that neither of those teams could be there next year while we keep chugging along. If Pierce doesn't keep improving he won't last anyway. I'm not concerned about the aggy and the land thieves doing something this year with their flash in the pan success.

True. Miss State and Vanderbilt were the top two teams last year. Vandy faltered and Miss State nosedived.

 

[aUTfan]

And we have had a nationally competitive squad 4 times.

Very true. I consider this year a success and have maintained that it would be if we made it to Omaha but nothing less than that considering the talent. I’m more concerned about a repeat of 2019 where we DNQ’d and our lack of a proven pitching coach. I guess I expect some consistency especially at year 6 when coaches at other schools in only their 1-2 years, surpass us. There are no excuses for that at Texas. Texas is a PREMIER college baseball school or one of a short list and in one of the hot beds for talent, to me that means we are always in the top 20 at the end of the season with serious runs pretty frequently.

Texas should rarely ever get sent home from a regional, almost never!! I don’t think my expectations are out of whack. That means next year, we see some serious fight at a super regional but maybe we win, maybe we lose but it’s a dogfight cause it’s a down year for Texas.

 

[aUTfan]

Texas fans tend to be way too quick with the hook. I still recall the fans who wanted Augie gone after Texas lost two games to Stanford in 2001 in the regional after winning the first game and having the advantage to get to a super. Augie had one trip to Omaha that was a quick 2 and Q and with two losing seasons at Texas the talk was that he was washed up and needed to go. Everyone remembers the run Texas started the very next year.

Of course its not just baseball that Texas fans are quick with the hook, don't get me started about the folks who wanted Mack gone in 2003 right before Texas went on a 69-8 run over the next six years, won an NC, played for another and finished in the top five four times.

There is a reason Allen was assistant of the year last year. Yes things fell apart (somewhat as team did still make it to Omaha this year for crying out loud) but there was a lot more going on than coaching including some untimely injuries and frankly a couple of kids who just fell apart. Also, If Allen gets the blame for some things he needs to get credit for getting Tristan back into a good place at end of the year and for bringing along some young relievers who showed out in the regional and super regionals.

Look, I am a realist, and if one season becomes a trend then we need to talk about changes but pointing to this year alone as a reason to change is not right no matter how emotional you get. Stability is critical for recruiting and for program culture and right now this program has that stability. Its not time yet for a change at pitching coach. Not yet.

I agree with most of what you said except at pitching coach. If he doesn’t make a change there soon, it may be too late to make that change later for his own sake. Look, if you want to give Sean the opportunity to learn to be a great pitching coach, then hire one and let him learn from a proven commodity but learning at Texas from scratch at a place like Texas is absurd with the history and tradition at that position. Thats just like putting a guy in at offensive coordinator with zero experience at the position at Texas football and all the guy has ever coached is defense. Makes no sense at all.

Nothing wrong with hiring an offensive coordinator for him to follow around. There are some intricacies to pitching that a guy isn’t going to pick up on his own for years and years!! He is at a disadvantage and that puts Texas at a disadvantage.

 

[Phil Elliott]

Nope, didn’t say that. Never said any coach was better than Pierce. Just said he must be successful against those coaches.

He *has* been successful against those coaches if you will look beyond just this one year.

Look, if you want to give Sean the opportunity to learn to be a great pitching coach, then hire one and let him learn from a proven commodity but learning at Texas from scratch at a place like Texas is absurd with the history and tradition at that position.

Coach Pierce was a pitching coach before he was a head coach.

 

[Vol Horn 4 Life]

Coach Pierce was a pitching coach before he was a head coach.

Local sports talk said he took over pitching duties when the staff nose dived in the middle of the year. That's why they steadied toward the end of the year.

 

[aUTfan]

Local sports talk said he took over pitching duties when the staff nose dived in the middle of the year. That's why they steadied toward the end of the year.

Cool, I asked about that yesterday and my thought was that he had taken over but wasnt sure if or when. I asked how long had he been the one coming out to get the pitchers cause it looked as if Sean wasn't as involved in the pitching staff.

We will see what coach Pierce does going into next year. Obviously if thats the case, then he knew as well as I did that Sean wasn't up to the task, that was a really bad call on coach Pierces shoulders truth be told, he never should have put Sean in that position. its an extremely tough position, pitching is complicated but simple. complicated to fix when its going south not just with the mechanics but the mental part of the game and this staff was completely screwed up in the head. Which leads me to the point of if Pierce would make such a colossal bad call in judgement like that in such an important position, what other calls will he make to jeopardize a season?? just wow.

 

[aUTfan]

[/QUOTE]Coach Pierce was a pitching coach before he was a head coach.[/QUOTE]

at Rice! where they were only good for about 10 years in their entire existence. I respect coach Graham alot, he is a fine coach and a Texas alum. Texas isn't the place to learn though, in my opinion. I don't know what the dynamics were back then with Graham. Rice did well Pierce's first year at pitching coach. in fact his first three seasons, then they couldn't make it past the super regional, then they couldn't make it past the regional. not a good trend. I'm not trying to read too much into that trend but it did trend downward.

his ERA the last year was a respectable 3.18, thats pretty good. maybe he needs to be the head/pitching coach, i'm sure thats what Skip is doing.

 

[Sangre Naranjada]

at Rice! where they were only good for about 10 years in their entire existence.

Which coincided with Pierce's tenure under Graham.

 

[ViperHorn]

The concern that I have are all of the mental errors on defense that Texas had against aggy. Not saying a defeat would have been prevented, but the "best defensive team" cratered on Sunday. The questions are 1) when (if) the coach pick up on this, and 2) what did he do to correct whatever the issue was?

 

[Sangre Naranjada]

Pierce was known for his ability to recruit pitchers out of greater Houston, first to Rice, now to Texas. Getting the arms is task 1. Getting the arms to perform is task 2.

After this season, I feel some disquiet about task 2, but I also know when stuff goes south it can snowball in a hurry. I am gruntled about the late season improvement among some pitchers we had already written off, but that is tempered by the dismay of seeing our ace having consecutive sub-par performances at tourney time. It is a mixed bag for sure, but the standard has always been Omaha which by definition makes you a top 8 team (achieving CDC's stated goal of top-10 for all programs), and we reached that plateau (good) then went 2 and 'cue (bad).

Leaves me feeling ambivalent, but definitely not in the pitchfork and torchbearing crowd.

 

[old65horn]

Pierce was known for his ability to recruit pitchers out of greater Houston, first to Rice, now to Texas. Getting the arms is task 1. Getting the arms to perform is task 2.

After this season, I feel some disquiet about task 2, but I also know when stuff goes south it can snowball in a hurry. I am gruntled about the late season improvement among some pitchers we had already written off, but that is tempered by the dismay of seeing our ace having consecutive sub-par performances at tourney time. It is a mixed bag for sure, but the standard has always been Omaha which by definition makes you a top 8 team (achieving CDC's stated goal of top-10 for all programs), and we reached that plateau (good) then went 2 and 'cue (bad).

Leaves me feeling ambivalent, but definitely not in the pitchfork and torchbearing crowd.

Our “ace” had problems thought out the season. You do not get a +4 ERA IN 2 or 3 games. He got shelled by TTU and OSU amoung other games. He also had total gems also thrown in. Gordon was actually our most consistent starter until his collapse at the durning post season play.

My main concern is what is the reason for the inconsistently and why they were not addressed. I fault that we did not have a competent pitching coach. We had someone that was not a pitcher, and as far as I could tell, had a history of producing strong pitching staffs. That person with the label is a very good coach, but obviously not a good pitching coach.

 

[aUTfan]

Which coincided with Pierce's tenure under Graham.

I think he was the hitting coach his first year there when rice won the national championship. Not the pitching coach. But yes he was there for a good portion of Rice’s success.

 

[Sangre Naranjada]

why they were not addressed.

How do you know issues weren't addressed? That's silly.

Issues persisted, so they may not have been addressed successfully. Or maybe new ones cropped up. You make it sound like you think our coaches have no clue about anything beyond filling out a lineup card, and are completely incompetent to help an athlete improve. I find that notion ludicrous.

 

[old65horn]

How do you know issues weren't addressed? That's silly.

Issues persisted, so they may not have been addressed successfully. Or maybe new ones cropped up. You make it sound like you think our coaches have no clue about anything beyond filling out a lineup card, and are completely incompetent to help an athlete improve. I find that notion ludicrous.

What is silly is to assume issues were addressed. The adjective I attached to pitching coach was “competent”.

I know we recruit good pitchers. Develop the talent. If they did address the issues, they were unsuccessful.

 

[Sangre Naranjada]

If they did address the issues, they were unsuccessful.

Yes, and that can happen to the best of coaches at times.

 

[Chop]

An excellent coaching move—in the Super Regionals, Campbell was red hot at the time, so he started in the OF, Murph started at 2nd base, and Daly sat. It paid dividends as Campbell had some big hits at key moments.

Pierce seems to like to spread the power and batting averages throughout the lineup. I’d prefer more of a murderers row approach.

 

[Gladius&Pilum]

Thank you Chop, MCHammer and a couple others for tracking and posting up good stuff on Horns baseball this season.

We are all disappointed the season ended today and to THAT team.

Just a meaningless Tuesday night opponent.

 

[giveemhell]

Just a meaningless Tuesday night opponent.

Congrats aggy, on winning as many games this week at the CWS as you did in your entire program history before this season. But now you're going home like us, just another also-ran this year.