@ Clemson Baseball (Poll)

[Eli]

I

Plus,iirc, he was in a bit of a mini-slump at the plate

Speaking of slump.. Burress is now statistically the worst hitter on the team with at least 50 plate appearances.

 

[FredJacket]

Fred, your knowledge of the game is far superior to mine. I want to make that clear. However, I think this comment deserves a little pushback. I just looked up most CWS appearances by teams in the last 25 years. Texas and UF have been there 11 times, almost a 50% clip. Multiple other teams have 8 or 9 appearances. So, getting there is more than just lucks or breaks imo. Some programs just have figured it out. In college golf, OSU (Stillwater) is this team. They get in the national tournament almost without fail and have to navigate the same regional process that other teams do. If you look at their roster, they don't outrecruit any of the other golf heavyweights (GT included). This "secret sauce" that some teams or programs have and others don't is one of the most fascinating aspects of sports imo.

Note - I am not projecting or forecasting here how this season will unfold. Like all GT teams, I will root for them to do well (just from a much farther distance than you and several other forum regulars do.)

Geez man... facts! Why did you go and do that? I appreciate the pushback. I stopped looking stuff up a long time ago (not really... but sometimes). I can just say something on here and the facts come raining down on me. It's a solid strategy.

ETA... both things can be true. Some seem to have figured it out. Some seem to have had bad luck.

 

[Eli]

The lineup Ramsey rolled out this weekend scored 26 runs. Not sure I'm messin with that. There is only room for 9 hitters. Some really good players are going to be unable to crack this lineup on the regular.

Ramsey claims everyone is onboard and he's had zero conversations with players unhappy about their roles. Not sure why he even feels like he needs to say that publicly. He is not asked directly... but he does mention it often. No judgement from me. It is relatively insignificant and I'm sure he has reason. Now that I wrote that "outloud" ... he's probably always recruiting and working PR. I'm not his audience.

Everyone knew what they signed up for. I saw Shouse dad in the offseason on X pissed at what his kid was told. We are deep and if you want to win a national championship then you are good with it.

 

[Mandingo Finkelstein]

Just to make sure, when I mentioned Rogers not playing in Clemson, I wasn't questioning Ramsey or suggesting he should've been in the order. I was more concerned whether he is OK - injury or illness or whatever? The immediate reply I was provided that he was in the pen catching warmups made me feel better that he is fine.

 

[TechPhi97]

While i do generalky agree and honestly expected the Tigers to win today (road sweeps against top teams are VERY rare). I was shocked by how poorly our bullpen performed. One game doesn’t mean anything, but this is two straight where our bullpen collpsed.

we desperately need the pitching depth that it was rumored we have. These two games start to raise questions…

I don’t understand “two straight where our bullpen collapsed.” We gave up 1 run in 4 2/3 innings on Friday after pulling Loy.

Baseball is a mental game. It’s streaky and superstitious, and every play gets dissected after games. Yesterday turned pretty ugly for the Pen, but to quote Paul Johnson “it’s never as good or bad as it seems.” After Thursday’s game you could’ve predicted as as Omaha finalists.

The best teams have minimal cold streaks and rebound quickly. We will see what happens at Auburn.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Geez man... facts! Why did you go and do that? I appreciate the pushback. I stopped looking stuff up a long time ago (not really... but sometimes). I can just say something on here and the facts come raining down on me. It's a solid strategy.

ETA... both things can be true. Some seem to have figured it out. Some seem to have had bad luck.

Pitching wins championships and tournaments. Our pitching has sucked overall for decades.

It's bad luck to not win a regional for 10 years. It's systemic to not win a regional for 20 years.

For me... it is never CWS or bust. There's much more nuance to the season.

I consider getting to Omaha the correct goal & this team has the makeup to do it. It's just very difficult. You need things to fall your way.

My level of concern regarding getting through a regional or super is quite elevated based on years & years of being unable to do it. If this 2026 team arrived to it's regional 55-3... I'd have the same concern that baseball breaks were going to (potentially) open the door for a team (not Ga Tech) to get through to next round.

For me it's win a regional or bust. I think our pitching staff should be good enough to do that this year.

Does this weekend answer more question or raise more questions?

Note, I'll do the poll review later. 60% thought we'd win 2, score what we did and give up what we did. Weekend answers more questions for me than raises. Our O still cooked against what some think is a good pitching staff (the fullness of time will show how good they and we are). Our pitching was good for most of the 24 innings they pitched including most high leverage situations.

It's baseball.

 

[GTGoldout]

Agreed, Navy. Our offense is Omaha level. Pitching, and the bullpen in particular, needs to improve over the course of the season for me to feel more confident about winning a regional. Luckily we just started conference play and some time

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

I don’t understand “two straight where our bullpen collapsed.” We gave up 1 run in 4 2/3 innings on Friday after pulling Loy.

Baseball is a mental game. It’s streaky and superstitious, and every play gets dissected after games. Yesterday turned pretty ugly for the Pen, but to quote Paul Johnson “it’s never as good or bad as it seems.” After Thursday’s game you could’ve predicted as as Omaha finalists.

The best teams have minimal cold streaks and rebound quickly. We will see what happens at Auburn.

I was assuming MWBATL meant 2 straight Sundays, but that's not what was typed.

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

Note, I'll do the poll review later. 60% thought we'd win 2, score what we did and give up what we did. Weekend answers more questions for me than raises. Our O still cooked against what some think is a good pitching staff (the fullness of time will show how good they and we are). Our pitching was good for most of the 24 innings they pitched including most high leverage situations.

It's baseball.

Yup. 1 inning. Take away that one 8 run inning, which we obviously can't do, we outscored them yesterday 7-5.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Agreed, Navy. Our offense is Omaha level. Pitching, and the bullpen in particular, needs to improve over the course of the season for me to feel more confident about winning a regional. Luckily we just started conference play and some time

I think we win a regional this year largely because Ramsey is more winning to pull pitchers and find out who can come in to shine.

There were at least two times he pulled pitchers mid count. And the one awful inning we've had this year had 6 pitchers. Our guys just couldn't throw strikes. But pulling pitchers will lead to others getting the chance and all my observations are that Ramsey/Taylor will reward those who pitch best.

I had to refresh myself on odds of winning a regional. 69% 1 seed, 20% 2 seed.

 

[FredJacket]

It's bad luck to not win a regional for 10 years. It's systemic to not win a regional for 20 years.

For me it's win a regional or bust. I think our pitching staff should be good enough to do that this year.

This is where my "side" of the discussion has the most difficult time explaining itself. 20 years is a pretty large dataset. Your point is well taken.

I just have a hard time reconciling how good our teams have been during regular seasons & conference weekends (over the years) & conclude we are just not good enough because of the postseason results. I think it's probably both. Some years we're actually good enough & didn't catch a break in a key moment of a regional. Some years the team just wasn't talented enough or prepared to win a regional.

 

[FredJacket]

I think we win a regional this year largely because Ramsey is more winning to pull pitchers and find out who can come in to shine.

There were at least two times he pulled pitchers mid count. And the one awful inning we've had this year had 6 pitchers. Our guys just couldn't throw strikes. But pulling pitchers will lead to others getting the chance and all my observations are that Ramsey/Taylor will reward those who pitch best.

I had to refresh myself on odds of winning a regional. 69% 1 seed, 20% 2 seed.
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When the opposition scores 8 runs in an inning, I'm not going to give anybody any credit (coaches or players).

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

When the opposition scores 8 runs in an inning, I'm not going to give anybody any credit (coaches or players).

And it was 8 runs on what, 4 hits?

 

[YoungSting]

This is where my "side" of the discussion has the most difficult time explaining itself. 20 years is a pretty large dataset. Your point is well taken.

I just have a hard time reconciling how good our teams have been during regular seasons & conference weekends (over the years) & conclude we are just not good enough because of the postseason results. I think it's probably both. Some years we're actually good enough & didn't catch a break in a key moment of a regional. Some years the team just wasn't talented enough or prepared to win a regional.

I think this is one of the situations where 2 things can be true. You have to be lucky with your draw, have to be a good enough team already, or super hot with lucky some lucky bounces. In a super regional of best out of 3, I would take our chances with anybody. But it’s the regional that seems to be much harder to get through. You have to be able to match and be ready for so many scenarios because of the different teams.

So we answered a lot of important questions and looked amazing. but as you’re saying you’re not going to worry because baseball is going to happen. I just want us to prove that we can stay consistent for 3 days in a row

 

[FredJacket]

I think this is one of the situations where 2 things can be true. You have to be lucky with your draw, have to be a good enough team already, or super hot with lucky some lucky bounces. In a super regional of best out of 3, I would take our chances with anybody. But it’s the regional that seems to be much harder to get through. You have to be able to match and be ready for so many scenarios because of the different teams.

So we answered a lot of important questions and looked amazing. but as you’re saying you’re not going to worry because baseball is going to happen. I just want us to prove that we can stay consistent for 3 days in a row

Agree. I REALLY don't like how we lost 2 games in ACC play already with very similar scripts. A decent lead in mid/late innings that slipped away behind multiple relief pitchers unable to stop the opposition.

On the other hand... we won 4 conference games with ease. I do like that & this team doesn't appear to be one that will lay many eggs in succession. How that translates to a regional? I can't tell you.

 

[MWBATL]

I don’t understand “two straight where our bullpen collapsed.” We gave up 1 run in 4 2/3 innings on Friday after pulling Loy.

Baseball is a mental game. It’s streaky and superstitious, and every play gets dissected after games. Yesterday turned pretty ugly for the Pen, but to quote Paul Johnson “it’s never as good or bad as it seems.” After Thursday’s game you could’ve predicted as as Omaha finalists.

The best teams have minimal cold streaks and rebound quickly. We will see what happens at Auburn.

Apologies for not being clearer…the ‘two games in a row’ comment was referring to last Sunday’s poor bullpen performance and then another game 3 collapse yesterday.
I do agree that good teams bounce back and it is too early to pronounce judgement. But maybe it’s not too early to express a concern. We will need bullpen depth in a 4 or 5 game Regional run…

 

[FredJacket]

Apologies for not being clearer…the ‘two games in a row’ comment was referring to last Sunday’s poor bullpen performance and then another game 3 collapse yesterday.
I do agree that good teams bounce back and it is too early to pronounce judgement. But maybe it’s not too early to express a concern. We will need bullpen depth in a 4 or 5 game Regional run…

Too early to pronounce judgement? Have swallowed a whole bottle of "reasonable fan" pills?

 

[L41k18]

Many fans have imposed too high an expectation on this team. Omaha or bust has been thrown out there. I interpret that to mean anything short of being a "final 8" team is a disappointment. I just can't get behind that sentiment.

This.
Let's just win a regional first for crying out loud.
That would be a big step forward.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

When the opposition scores 8 runs in an inning, I'm not going to give anybody any credit (coaches or players).

Sure but I take into account we have pitched something like 164 innings and this was by far the worst. (I know you do too ) My point (which will remain consistent whether I'm right or wrrong) is that at least Ramsey tried 6 frickin pitchers in that inning. Just not meant to be.

We are in the middle (8th) of the ACC in pitching. While Clemson is still #1, their ERA went from something like 1.8 to 2.98. Hitting beat pitching there.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

The moment you have all been waiting for. Winners of this week's poll:

• @bensaysitathome
• @Buzz Rules!
• @GTHomer
• @Home Park Jacket
• @Mandingo Finkelstein
• @techbball21
• @WearGoldToGameDays