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2024 Wake Baseball Thread: What Did We Do To Deserve This?

Pilchard said:
Burns is unbeaten and rolling as the middle game starter, and is on the short list as the best 2024 pitcher in college baseball. Not sure why you would mess with that. Also, factoring in bullpen usage, Burns is the pitcher most likely to give the bullpen a rest. In a three game series, it helps to have that rest in the middle game. Particularly knowing Massey is good for 3 innings at best. You want to avoid major bullpen usage in the game before Massey.
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Fair points. However, Hartle has not been good, so he might benefit from pitching Saturday after the opponent sees Burns' right handed gas Friday. Or not. And Burns strikes me as a guy who doesn't care if he pitches the first or second day of a series. I certainly understand not changing the rotation, but Burns/Hartle/Massey makes sense to me.
 
Saw that #1 Arkansas, whose pitching dominance looks a lot like ours last season, is switching up their weekend rotation. Incidentally, the Arkansas pitching coach proceeded Muscara at Wake.
 
Buttermaker said:
Fair points. However, Hartle has not been good, so he might benefit from pitching Saturday after the opponent sees Burns' right handed gas Friday. Or not. And Burns strikes me as a guy who doesn't care if he pitches the first or second day of a series. I certainly understand not changing the rotation, but Burns/Hartle/Massey makes sense to me.
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Wasn’t the report on Burns at ut that he really struggled going to the Friday night spotlight last year?
 
BigEastDeac said:
Saw that #1 Arkansas, whose pitching dominance looks a lot like ours last season, is switching up their weekend rotation. Incidentally, the Arkansas pitching coach proceeded Muscara at Wake.
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Interested to see how it works out for them.
 
There are pros and cons to both Hartle Friday or Saturday. I don't envy the decision or think its smart right now.

The big cons of him pitching Saturday to me are:
-Could send the wrong message to him(could also light a fire under him)
-If Burns struggles, now we've put more pressure on a kid struggling
-If we need big bullpen innings after Hartle Saturday, then they're spent for sure for Massey

Now if Hartle struggles Friday, and we drop the series to go 1-3 in weekend series.... Then I think we're likely forced to try something different, even at the risk of shaking up Burns' mojo.
 
Turd Ferguson said:
Let's just move Kurtz up to leadoff. He has the highest on base % on the team, and Tellier, Winnay, King, and Reinisch all have significantly more HRs and RBIs than Kurtz.
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Hasn’t this already been done with Kurtz at some point? Feels like it. But can’t recall if it was last year or this.

And as for the catcher discussion I would agree with Gill out of the known options . At least he has a few memorable defensive plays with the back to back throw outs last weekend including the guy with like 14 or 15 stolen bases. And the throw yesterday on that horrible pitch was pretty impressive even though the guy got the SB. For sure needs to button up the passed balls though. And like one of the earlier posters I had the same thought about the possibility that Katz could shake off the rust and be serviceable in some way….did come to Wake as a fairly highly ranked catcher.
 
I'm pretty sure Kurtz hit leadoff for some games in '22, but Hawke settled into that spot for the postseason.
 
Houston has done well in the leadoff spot but I feel like he is better suited to bat in the 2 hole. We seem to be very station to station on the bases. Not sure if that is a reflection of our team speed, third base coaching, lots of line drives, etc. Williams and Nelson seem to possess the most speed but not sure if either is ready to step into the leadoff or 2 hole. That is asking a lot of freshmen.
 
rutmanchoo said:
Houston has done well in the leadoff spot but I feel like he is better suited to bat in the 2 hole. We seem to be very station to station on the bases. Not sure if that is a reflection of our team speed, third base coaching, lots of line drives, etc. Williams and Nelson seem to possess the most speed but not sure if either is ready to step into the leadoff or 2 hole. That is asking a lot of freshmen.
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We’ve played most games at home. The Couch lends itself to station to station baseball
 
vtwhat etc said:
I trust this to be true.

But, as a '23+ bandwagon fan this is pretty mind blowing.
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Kurtz definitely led off for a good portion of ‘22. I distinctly remember joking about our super traditional 6’6” leadoff hitter.
 
For any interested nerds:

D1baseball has started sharing advanced defensive stats (DRS) this season. If you recall, Cameron Gill was ranked super highly last year at Wofford.

From looking at the data, I think it's because DRS is purely derived from synergy / pitchfx style stats -- so for catchers, the only metrics are on pitch framing (which can easily be derived from pitchfx data) and preventing stolen bases. both gill and ballestero rank solidly in DRS. Ballestero is allegedly really good at pitch framing, and Gill is decent and framing and good at throwing. Catching the ball isn't part of the equation.
 
IAppreciateIt said:
For any interested nerds:

D1baseball has started sharing advanced defensive stats (DRS) this season. If you recall, Cameron Gill was ranked super highly last year at Wofford.

From looking at the data, I think it's because DRS is purely derived from synergy / pitchfx style stats -- so for catchers, the only metrics are on pitch framing (which can easily be derived from pitchfx data) and preventing stolen bases. both gill and ballestero rank solidly in DRS. Ballestero is allegedly really good at pitch framing, and Gill is decent and framing and good at throwing. Catching the ball isn't part of the equation.
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Passed balls play no part in DRS for catchers? That's absolutely insane to me, keeping the ball in front of them is absolutely a skill that some catchers are better at than others, and passed balls obviously have a huge impact on defensive runs allowed.
 
IAppreciateIt said:
For any interested nerds:

D1baseball has started sharing advanced defensive stats (DRS) this season. If you recall, Cameron Gill was ranked super highly last year at Wofford.

From looking at the data, I think it's because DRS is purely derived from synergy / pitchfx style stats -- so for catchers, the only metrics are on pitch framing (which can easily be derived from pitchfx data) and preventing stolen bases. both gill and ballestero rank solidly in DRS. Ballestero is allegedly really good at pitch framing, and Gill is decent and framing and good at throwing. Catching the ball isn't part of the equation.
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This literally made me laugh out loud.
 
deacon14 said:
Passed balls play no part in DRS for catchers? That's absolutely insane to me, keeping the ball in front of them is absolutely a skill that some catchers are better at than others, and passed balls obviously have a huge impact on defensive runs allowed.
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from what i can tell, it's not included. i think it's just difficult to track overall pitch blocking and there is so much subjectivity between a passed ball and wild pitch (esp. w/ college scorekeepers) that they probably decided it isn't helpful to just use PBs. our catchers have six passed balls this season vs. 43 wild pitches, and the #eyetest would suggest a lot of those WPs could have been blocked at the plate (or just caught outright). our opponents only have one passed ball (32 WP) which might tell you something -- but in either case, stopping WPs have much greater impact, and i don't think they have a way to splitting blame between catcher and pitcher.

it looks like errors aren't explicitly part of the equation either, just whether an out was made or not.
 
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