AAC Baseball Bracket

[JTrue]

[JoeB]

What a downer.  You win 40 games and you wind up in 4th place.  And to have the Tinmen get the top spot makes it even worse.  Hopefully they lose in the opener and we win.  I don't want to face those guys again this season unless its in a Super Regional

[Brad]

Still like the progress..  Much better than when Kingston arrived.

I'll take it and let's keep playing.

[JoeB]

2 minutes ago, Brad said:

Still like the progress..  Much better than when Kingston arrived.

I'll take it and let's keep playing.

No doubt.  Maybe that will make us hungry heading into the postseason.  The biggest thing is to get healthy.  We need Shane and DJ at 100% or the AAC Tourney could be a quick one for us.

[Ionbull]

It was posted by Mike Lefko that the #1 seed has never won the tourney, so there's that. The chips fell awkwardly in conference play with the long road trip and they finish off the year .500 on the road. No bueno. But still steps forward or the program. I honestly don't look at what transpired as a horrible thing. Just lost one too many conference games. Shouldn't have dropped 2 of 3 to Cincy at home. Losing the series to UConn looks much worse too. It's OK though, here's still plenty of baseball to play. 

Edited May 20, 2017 by Ionbull

[JoeB]

6 minutes ago, Ionbull said:

It was posted by Mike Lefko that the #1 seed has never won the tourney, so there's that. The chips fell awkwardly in conference play with the long road trip and they finish off the year .500 on the road. No bueno. But still steps forward or the program. I honestly don't look at what transpired as a horrible thing. Just lost one too many conference games. Shouldn't have dropped 2 of 3 to Cincy at home. Losing the series to UConn looks much worse too. It's OK though, here's still plenty of baseball to play. 

Agree that we lost one too many.  After I've settled down, I'll be addressing that.  I disagree with the long road trip though.  It was only two weekend series (one of which was a short bus ride) and two midweek games (also bus rides).  I think the seed has very little to do with winning or losing a tournament.  It really only matters for the first game of said tournament due to matchups.  We won't be facing Tim Cate (UConn) in Game 1 and that is a good thing.  He owns us in 3 career starts against us.  I think he's the best pitcher in the conference too.  Cumbie from UH is pretty good too and there is a chance we could face him in Game 2 if we both win but thats looking a bit ahead.  I believe you have to have 5 solid arms to win a tournament.  I don't think we have that going for us.  We have Phoenix Sanders and Pete Stryzelecki and after that alot of question marks.  Is Shane healthy?  If so great, if not we're in trouble.  Is DJ healthy?  Can he give us 5 good innings?  If we're going into Championship Weekend and he's not ready to go, we have to turn to Ryan Valdes as a starter.  We all saw what that looked like yesterday.  He's best suited for a few innings out of the bullpen every so often in the middle of a game (like after DJ gets pulled in the 5th).  I think in the last 10 years or so of really following USF Baseball, we've only had a couple of years where I thought we had the arms to compete for a Tourney Championship.  I could be wrong, but I don't see it this year.

[Ionbull]

31 minutes ago, JoeB said:

Agree that we lost one too many.  After I've settled down, I'll be addressing that.  I disagree with the long road trip though.  It was only two weekend series (one of which was a short bus ride) and two midweek games (also bus rides).  I think the seed has very little to do with winning or losing a tournament.  It really only matters for the first game of said tournament due to matchups.  We won't be facing Tim Cate (UConn) in Game 1 and that is a good thing.  He owns us in 3 career starts against us.  I think he's the best pitcher in the conference too.  Cumbie from UH is pretty good too and there is a chance we could face him in Game 2 if we both win but thats looking a bit ahead.  I believe you have to have 5 solid arms to win a tournament.  I don't think we have that going for us.  We have Phoenix Sanders and Pete Stryzelecki and after that alot of question marks.  Is Shane healthy?  If so great, if not we're in trouble.  Is DJ healthy?  Can he give us 5 good innings?  If we're going into Championship Weekend and he's not ready to go, we have to turn to Ryan Valdes as a starter.  We all saw what that looked like yesterday.  He's best suited for a few innings out of the bullpen every so often in the middle of a game (like after DJ gets pulled in the 5th).  I think in the last 10 years or so of really following USF Baseball, we've only had a couple of years where I thought we had the arms to compete for a Tourney Championship.  I could be wrong, but I don't see it this year.

Shane and DJ's health are paramount. It honestly sounded as if Shane didn't pitch yesterday because of discomfort so they decided to push his start, but USF can also get creative with pitching. I do agree with you that they probably don't have five starters without someone pitching on short rest, but Valdes pitched that game not knowing he would be the starter; can't imagine how that messed with his routine. USF's hitting has to wake up and get guys home. Way too many ducks left on the pond the last two series'. Honestly offense blew it in the first, seventh and to a lesser extent the ninth in this game.

that being said this season has been very entertaining. Only four games I can recall that were blow outs. If the bats wake up, I like our chances. 

[JoeB]

8 minutes ago, Ionbull said:

Shane and DJ's health are paramount. It honestly sounded as if Shane didn't pitch yesterday because of discomfort so they decided to push his start, but USF can also get creative with pitching. I do agree with you that they probably don't have five starters without someone pitching on short rest, but Valdes pitched that game not knowing he would be the starter; can't imagine how that messed with his routine. USF's hitting has to wake up and get guys home. Way too many ducks left on the pond the last two series'. Honestly offense blew it in the first, seventh and to a lesser extent the ninth in this game.

that being said this season has been very entertaining. Only four games I can recall that were blow outs. If the bats wake up, I like our chances. 

Valdes knew he would be pitching 2 days prior...at least I did so I assume he did.  I'm thinking he knew even prior to that or he would have been the pitcher to come in after DJ got injured on Tuesday.  Instead they brought in Savarese, so I'm guessing he already knew at that point.  Not knocking him, but it is what it is.  He's a very reliable relief pitcher.  As for Shane, he hasn't won since early March.  His four wins on the year are Miami (OH), Toledo, Valparaiso, and Harvard...not exactly AAC level talent.  If he's on he at least gives us a chance to win going 6 innings normally.  We can definitely agree on one thing, these bats need to get rolling...and quick! 

[charsibb]

I don't like the way we're doing the loser's bracket. If we beat Tulane and lose to UCF, then win the next one, we're right back facing UCF again.

The loser should have to slide over to the OTHER side of the bracket so you never have to face the same team twice until the championship game.

[JoeB]

2 minutes ago, charsibb said:

I don't like the way we're doing the loser's bracket. If we beat Tulane and lose to UCF, then win the next one, we're right back facing UCF again.

The loser should have to slide over to the OTHER side of the bracket so you never have to face the same team twice until the championship game.

They've done it this way since I can remember