WOE is us

I watched several innings last night and just about every Texas batter struck out every time. This Texas team is batting in the .240's currently and they will not be a threat to win anything with this kind of offense. If Texas pitchers dont throw a shutout Texas has little chance to win unless they get lots of walks and passed balls. I have never seen a Texas team hit .240 as a team.
 
Going to the bottom of the 8th down 3-0. Four hits and 6 strikeouts on the day. I can't remember a worse hitting team. I think it might be time for Augie to shake things up a bit. We are far enough in to the season that he should be able to see that some of these guys aren't just off to a slow start.
 
I have a friend who's son is a senior at one of the local high schools and has played with and against several of the UT players. He knows several of the families and they are not very happy with the program and the way it is being run.
 
Show us a program where the parents are always happy.
Those whose sons are not playing are especially unhappy.
It looks as if this team is going to struggle, hitting-wise, but
this 'program' (Augie's) has won more than most, so let's
cut them some slack. The season is just about a third gone.
Plenty of time to get things going.
 
These players can't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle.

The irony is, they could when they got here.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out the problem.
 
The difference between this year and most recent years past, this was still a point in the year you could sub hitters and find your best main guys. At the almost 1/3 mark I can tell you now, we are who we are. There is no help coming from the bench, These current guys we regularly see now either have to step it up, and don't expect too much, or we are in trouble. I'm most disappointed in Tant and Walla. While I do feel they will improve, with so many new faces, I'd hope two of the top returning hitters would pull their weight and lead by example like last year, so the younger ones would come around. Tant is .110 below his season avg. last year, and Walla is .069 below his. Approaching 100 AB's that's a ton off the pace. With those guys setting the standard of mediocre hitting, it seems everyone else will hover in that range, minus Weiss. And even Lusson as a part-time hitter is .114 below last year. That's unacceptable as veterans.

IMO, the turn-around to at least respectable, competitive hitting falls largely on the shoulders of Tant and Walla. Loy is hitting right about where I thought he would be, possibly better. Etier could pick it up some, but he's not expected to light it up. Payton and Felts are doing about what is expected of new faces, maybe little less. I won't even go into Montalbano and Maitland as they never figured in my hopes. But if Tant and Walla were anywhere near last year, they'd be hitting well in the power slots and driving in runs, which is our main downfall. No hitting with runners on. Only change I can see that could help is get Kephard in as DH most of the time. Oh yeah, and thank you Erich Weiss, glad somebody remembers how to slap the ball around. That being said, all is not lost, I move for Tant, Walla, Weiss, and Kephart to turn this K-fest around starting tomorrow and solidify the bats so we can make a hard run at another CWS.
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The mantra of our program is to focus scholarships toward pitching and allow the fielders/hitters to follow. Hope this isnt a repeat of entitled student athletes. There's a long line of players in this country that would be happy to take their places. As my grandfather would say, "shut up and play."
 
freyguy nailed it. We sign a ton of top pitchers hoping a good amount of them will pan and make us one of the top pitching teams. And then have enough hitting to get us through. At least that's what they banked on this year for sure. However, with Walla, Tant, and Lusson hitting like the 8, 9, and bench hitters...it leaves us with little to work with in the driving in runs department. My meaning is we counted on these guys to produce like before with all the new faces and with the returning hitters we knew were abround .250 guys. By those 3 batting in the lower half it makes us inept.
 
Respect for your team and yourself should amount to something. Step it up guys...time's a wasting!! If you have any plans of going past college in baseball you better show up and play ball.
 
I beg to differ - hitting is not mechanical. The swing is mechanical. Jeff Bagwell is proof that bad mechanics will not keep you from hitting, although, in my opinion, he would have been a better hitter if he had good mechanics. The first thing about hitting is a mindset. Good hitters always think (and really expect) to hit the ball well every time they go to bat. That is No. 1. No. 2 is recognition and recognition only comes with repetition. Recognition = where will the ball be when it reaches the plate. The window of opportunity for recognition is very small. Hence, repetition - not hundreds, but thousands. No. 3 is reaction. Once you recognize (or if you will, read) the pitch, it must be linked (through repetition) to the appropriate reaction. There is no time to think about it, just react. Well, that is my theory, anyway.
 
Repitition of solid swing mechanics is what is needed. And they may be getting this. I have no idea. Just taking batting practice is not necessarily creating good swing mechanics. Drills can be done other than just batting practice to help build swing mechanics and build confidence.
 
At the first sign of trouble, the coaches are changing the swing of the hitter and end up making it worse.
 
Some pitchers have the worst mechanics and are aces. Some times screwing with a batters mechanics to make them correct just messes everything up. By the book mechanics aren't always what's best for the individual player.
 
The only known thing is that the offense isn't doing well, particularly guys that were being counted on to produce like the past. To go beyond that is borderline asinine.

To say that kids could hit before they got here and now they can't doesn't factor in the fact that they are facing the equivalent of the best high school's #1 pitcher each and every game. The kids they are facing aren't the #3 starter on the local Legion team.

Every year, there seems to be some bad swoon and people doubt Augie. I've been one of them. I've learned my lesson. Baseball is a fickle game. Just be patient.

To say it's the mechanics that are the problem (which may be right), is to conclude that those mechanics are wrong AND they are not being worked on. It takes thousands of repetitions to create muscle memory. Sometimes you have to take steps backwards to take steps forwards. I'm not saying this is the case, but would you rather have a .220 batter for the rest of his college career, or a year where he makes changes and bats .195 and the rest of his years bats .275?

Just tap the brakes a little bit.
 
After 6 games Texas is batting .210 in conference play, that has to be lowest average in the nation, no one can bat worse than that?
 
cochamps is right. We DOUBLED ORU up, winning 2-1. Because we're TEXAS, we creamed those poor ********.

Winning 2-1 at home against un-ranked, out-of-conference competition while being out-hit 7-3. Welcome to Texas baseball 2011.
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billygoat, i'd be careful there brother. there are some girl posters on here who would cut out your heart and pour warm beer in its spot if they knew your true identity for making comments like that.
 
I don't think it is mechanics, but instead mindset i.e. approach. Way too passive. 21 Ks against OSU, that is terrible. They take too many pitches and strike out looking way too often. They need to see the ball and hit it. Put it in play. I think that is where the coaching problem is at. I am all for hiring a hitting coach so long is it is about less thinking and more aggresive, confident at bats. Enough is enough.
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