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(A lot of) Thoughts from a bad baseball opening weekend
Posted on: February 22, 2021 at 08:04:28 CT
MizzouAstro MU
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-First and foremost, that was the worst performance by an entire Mizzou pitching staff I've ever seen over a 4 game stretch. All 4 starters were not good-to-terrible. With only 2.5 exceptions, no one from the bullpen could throw strikes at all. This staff gave up 36 runs in 4 games. That is a 9.00 ERA.
-The only bright spots were Juergens and Hise on Saturday night. Both looked very good. Lohse had a pretty decent freshman debut on Sunday as well, but eventually lost it after about 2 innings.
-The offense was not much better. McDaniel looked locked in until he was pulled mid-third game with some kind of injury, but since no one reports on Mizzou baseball, it's impossible to know if he blew out a knee or bruised a toe. I guess we'll find out if and when he plays again. I thought Mann and Swanger looked pretty decent as well. We had quite a few hard hit balls that GCU players made good defensive plays on, so can't really fault them for that.
-With the exception of the game we won, the strike zones were really bad, but I was entirely put off by how much whining the batters did when they didn't get calls. While the zones were very large, at least they were consistent and batters were still complaining in the 7th inning on when a ball outside was still called a strike. That seems to be the biggest downside to Bieser's hitting approach. It's great when you can recognize balls and strikes that are in a conventional zone, but if an ump has a bad zone, they are often completely unable to adjust.
-The defense was not good. Several balls fell in in the outfield that I felt the outfielders could have been more aggressive on. A few infield errors. A couple sloppy double play opportunities that only got 1 out (both times leading to runs.) The pitching defense was not good either.
-Overall this team was flat out not ready to play. You can blame the weather, but it's no different than every other year and it can't really be an excuse. GCU was flat out the much superior team. Which is great for them, they will probably win the WAC this year, but Mizzou has to play in the SEC east.
-They started 2-4 a couple years ago against much worse teams in North Florida, Rhode Island and Northeastern and then turned it around, so the season is definitely not over, but the difference there was the pitching was at least competent. There wasn't any aspect of the game where the team was competitive this past weekend. Quite disappointing.
Edited by MizzouAstro at 08:34:19 on 02/22/21
-The only bright spots were Juergens and Hise on Saturday night. Both looked very good. Lohse had a pretty decent freshman debut on Sunday as well, but eventually lost it after about 2 innings.
-The offense was not much better. McDaniel looked locked in until he was pulled mid-third game with some kind of injury, but since no one reports on Mizzou baseball, it's impossible to know if he blew out a knee or bruised a toe. I guess we'll find out if and when he plays again. I thought Mann and Swanger looked pretty decent as well. We had quite a few hard hit balls that GCU players made good defensive plays on, so can't really fault them for that.
-With the exception of the game we won, the strike zones were really bad, but I was entirely put off by how much whining the batters did when they didn't get calls. While the zones were very large, at least they were consistent and batters were still complaining in the 7th inning on when a ball outside was still called a strike. That seems to be the biggest downside to Bieser's hitting approach. It's great when you can recognize balls and strikes that are in a conventional zone, but if an ump has a bad zone, they are often completely unable to adjust.
-The defense was not good. Several balls fell in in the outfield that I felt the outfielders could have been more aggressive on. A few infield errors. A couple sloppy double play opportunities that only got 1 out (both times leading to runs.) The pitching defense was not good either.
-Overall this team was flat out not ready to play. You can blame the weather, but it's no different than every other year and it can't really be an excuse. GCU was flat out the much superior team. Which is great for them, they will probably win the WAC this year, but Mizzou has to play in the SEC east.
-They started 2-4 a couple years ago against much worse teams in North Florida, Rhode Island and Northeastern and then turned it around, so the season is definitely not over, but the difference there was the pitching was at least competent. There wasn't any aspect of the game where the team was competitive this past weekend. Quite disappointing.
Edited by MizzouAstro at 08:34:19 on 02/22/21
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(A lot of) Thoughts from a bad baseball opening weekend - MizzouAstro MU - 2/22 08:04:28