(SB) Ongoing UF Softball Commentary

I think Ava Brown is going to be a stud for the Gators in her career. Really love her competitive nature and fire.

 

Roe and Pollard batted 308 and 314 respectively which is pretty darn good for as young as they are. Oh , by the way, Skylar Wallace batted 295 her Freshman year. How is that working out.

 

Sam's lack of power this year was very surprising to me. Only one home run and only 18 rbis. Granted, numbers could have been somewhat better with more at bats than she got this year. Lefty (Pollard) simply didn't have an opportunity to fully prove herself with missing a month with an injury. She did show some really good gap power and in very limited at bats had two home runs and 15 rbis. That's in about half of the at bats that Sam got. Lefty has got to cut down on her strike outs. As for the Keagan/Ava discussion, I have seen Keagan pitch more times than I can count. She is legit. Much, much fewer times with Ava as her travel club's games are harder to find. (Keagan's mom for years streamed all of her games that weren't streamed officially.) The times I've seen Ava pitch, admittedly with limited numbers, she seemed to get into trouble with control at times. If Ava can actually match Keagan, then we're in good shape. Still, these two kids are going to be freshmen being thrown into the SEC. They need to be given some slack as they are going to almost assuredly have some good and bad days. Maddie Penta is a pretty good example on how tough that first year is in the SEC....she was 9-9 with a 2.78 ERA her first year. We desperately need an elite level transfer pitcher to take some of the pressure off the two kids.

 

There were at least 5 freshman pitchers that played for power five teams this year that had ERA'S of around 1. All were highly touted but none of them had the credentials as good as Keagon or Ava.

 

A top notch portal pitcher (if we can acquire) would be a nice bridge for the new girls to learn from. A stud pitching coach would be ideal to go along with their development. With hitting (Sam could be an example of this), it seems the younger players come in with fire, then struggle to implement CTW’s technique of being patient and working the count. Opposing pitchers, knowing we’re likely to take the first few pitches, notch a couple of easy strikes, thus putting the pressure on the hitters to stay alive, many times forcing swings at poor pitches. I see the uncertainty in the hitters faces at the plate. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in the CTW’s strategy of working the count, it’s just that it can be a double edged sword, especially with the less experienced.

 

FYI. As of 5/4 two of the lowest ERA'S in the country are by freshman pitchers. #1 Nijaree Canady .34 Stanford and #5 MaKenna Reid .90 FSU.

 

I wonder how many HBP we have. Just think how many games these freebies cost us.

 

This years demise was all about pitching pitching pitching
2022 Conference #3 ERA 3.65
2023 Conference #12 ERA 5.06
2022 Conference #8 BA 2.57
2023 Conference #3 BA 2.79
If this years pitching was as good as last year we probably would have won the SEC

 

Continuation of above post
RT's ERA went from 1.80 to 4.00 conference
EH's ERA went from 3.25 to 4.30 conference
LD's ERA went from 3.71 to 6.10 conference

 

Makenna Reid is a talent. No question. But, take a close look at the way she was handled. She was used very judiciously against anything that could be considered other than a cupcake team. She did not have the pressure of being expected to be the ace and carry the load the way we expect for our two kids coming in. She pitched less than half of the innings Sandercock threw. I identified 17 games where she appeared against a non-cupcake team. In those 17 games she only pitched a total of 28.5 innings or an average of 1.67 innings per game. Only once did she pitch more than 3 innings in any of those games, and rarely 3 innings, and that was 4.2 innings. Take away that one 4.2 inning and in the other 16 appearances she averaged only 1.5 innings per game. Only 6 of those 17 games did she pitch more than 2 innings. Reid is a solid talent but in her freshman year she was protected by having an ace on the staff and a full compliment of other pitchers. At this point it doesn't look like Keagan or Ava will be in the same protected position.

 

I partially agree with you. Barnhill pitched 108 innings her freshman year with an ERA of 1. 36 and she was the #3 behind Gourley and Ocasio.

 

We should never be in last place in the SEC for strikeouts. Ugh! If ever change was needed it is now. Time for an executive decision coach.

 

IF, CTW refuses to make significant changes on the staff and things aren’t much improved two years from now despite the talent infusion, then at that point there definitely WILL be an ‘elephant’ in the room that needs to be addressed. He’s been a great Coach and hope that he makes the necessary changes to continue to deserve that label. But only time will tell.

 

Even more indicative.....in those 17 non-cupcake games, even with very rarely ever going through the opposing lineup more than once, her ERA was 2.456. Again, Reid is a talent, but she was extremely protected and her overall seemingly outstanding stat was earned against low-level opposition.

 

It's probably worth pointing out that the effective magnitude is probably larger than what this shows here. When you factor in the SEC averages you get the following:

2022 SEC-only ERA 3.65 (-0.64 better than average), WH(+HBP)IP 1.62 (-0.04 better than average)
2022 SEC-only BA .257 (-0.008 below average)

2023 SEC-only ERA 5.06 (+1.55 worse than average), WH(+HBP)IP 1.80 (+0.29 worse than average)
2023 SEC-only BA .279 (+.030 better than average)

2022 SEC-average ERA: 4.29, SEC-average WH(+HBP)IP: 1.66
2023 SEC-average ERA: 3.51, SEC-average WH(+HBP)IP: 1.51

2022 SEC-average BA: .265
2023 SEC-average BA: .248

TL;DR:

- our numbers for hitting have improved when the league average has declined
- our numbers for pitching have declined when the league average has improved
- only 4 teams improved in hitting from last year to this year; UF had the biggest improvement
- only 4 teams declined in pitching from last year to this year; UF had the second biggest decline (UK)

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

UF pitchers have plunked 39 (Delbrey with 20)
UF batters have been hit 46 times (Egan with 10)

 

Just tossing this out for thoughts. I am not advocating getting rid of Walton. But....if for whatever reason the head coach position was open, where do we realistically go? First place I go is to Fayetteville with a million dollar contract. I doubt that would be good enough to get Deifel out of Arkansas but you can't know if you don't try. Assuming that doesn't work.....what about getting Kenny G. back from Okie State? I think that is more realistic. He knows UF and vice-versa. The Okie State stadium is putrid. I don't know if they have a new one planned. The Big 12 in a year is crap with OU and Texas leaving. (Might make it easier for him to win championships, though). Thoughts? Good or bad idea. What other tantalizing and realistic options exist?

 

This was kicked around a few weeks ago....most hoped that Lorenz might be established and experienced when that day arrives. If that day arrives tommorrow, Beth Torina at LSU is an alum and a successful SEC resume. Kenny G would almost certainly be approached, no idea how that would play...he did play at OU so there are state roots. I would also look at the Duke coach....she has turned that program into something, she's a young AA, former elite pitcher, and her daughter is a top 5 recruit headed to UF in a couple of years with another daughter in the wings.

 

177 free bases. Ouch.