Final Thoughts on the 2018 Regular season

[JackthePantherFan]

First, I am very excited this team made the tournament. I have said it before, and I will say it again, college baseball has the most parity and is the only sport a bottom seed could really make a run.

With that being said, I am not sure the 12-seed is super exciting, nor the trajectory this program should be on. Jordano has one more year on his contract, but I am still interested in seeing what Lyke does. This year the ACC might have the fewest teams make the tournament that is has in years past which is telling of the conference health this past year--UVA down, MIA down, WF down. I do not know how we will spin this year's 1-8 conference finish--injuries, draft, etc?

Am I the only one that has mixed feelings about this season--happy about the tournament, but unhappy with the mediocrity of the program?

Other things to consider: Sabino and Freure have legitimate chances to go in the draft which could be bad news for next year.

 

[California Panther]

I do not know how we will spin this year's 1-8 conference finish--injuries, draft, etc?

Am I the only one that has mixed feelings about this season--happy about the tournament, but unhappy with the mediocrity of the program?

It is always nice to qualify for the tourney and this is our first time ever, even if it is the LAST seed, hey that's better than BC or VT!

I mentioned this below but it may have gotten buried in another thread--why do we always collapse at the end of the season?
This year, we lost 8 of our last 9 ACC games after starting 10-11.
In 2017 (last year), we lost 12 of our last 14 ACC games after starting 7-9
In 2016, we lost 9 of our last 11 ACC games after starting 8-9.
In 2015, we lost 9 of our last 12 ACC games after starting 6-12.

Other than knowing that we have been very bad in conference play, we seem to do semi-decently until roughly the back half or so of the season, when we totally collapse. Is the schedule always slanted for the best teams we face to appear at the end or what?

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

I do not know how we will spin this year's 1-8 conference finish--injuries, draft, etc?

You must have missed it. They had an interview with Jordano on the sports segment on the news last night (channel 2, iirc) after the last regular season game. And he trotted out all the old excuses. Well he has to deal with losing guys in the draft and guys getting hurt and all sorts of other things that apparently he thinks only Pitt ever has to deal with. But he also thinks that in time they will get things turned around. Which is funny, seeing as to how Pitt's best finish ever in the ACC was Pitt's first season in the ACC, when theoretically things should have been at their worst.

If he does only have one year left on his contract I would guess at this point there is a better than 50-50 chance that Wednesday night will be his last game as the Pitt coach.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

By the way, for those interested our game against Georgia Tech is on AT&T Pittsburgh at 11 AM on Tuesday (the opening game of the tournament) and it looks like they are going to show the Wednesday night game (7:00) against North Carolina on an overflow channel since they have a Pirate game on at the same time.

 

[JackthePantherFan]

You're right.. I did miss it. Here is a quote from the article:

http://triblive.com/sports/college/...tt-baseball-makes-acc-tournament-for-1st-time

Since then, Pitt (27-24, 11-18) lost sophomore second baseman Alex Amos for the season with a hand injury. Amos is the second regular lost after sophomore left fielder Nico Popa's season-ending broken hand.

“That's two guys who were in our starting lineup the majority of the season and are now out,” Jordano said.

I knew it was a matter of time before he would use these.. This is not a personal attack on these two player's because I have a tremendous amount of respect for how they play the game, but one was hitting .211 in conference and the other .161...

This reminds me of the same story line last year. Jordano mentioned West, Calvo all of the time and how without them it was impossible to succeed.. West wasn't in the weekend rotation and Calvo was in and out.

I hope Lyke see's through this..

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Amos had 150 plate appearances. He had one extra base hit. One. His slash line for the season was .252/.366/.260. He did one thing well, and that was to take a walk. But overall that line is awful, especially for college baseball.

Popa slashed .181/.269/.314. Again, that's awful. The problem isn't losing guys like that, the problem is that you are in a position that guys like that are the best that you have.

Cole MacLaren slashed .205/.378/.244. He had six doubles in 206 plate appearances. Nick Banman slashed .190/.313/.319. That's your starting first baseman who frequently hit 5th this season. You simply aren't going to win many games at this level if you only have about four good hitters.

I wonder if Jordano knows whose job it is to bring in good players?