Is Timely Hitting A Concern?

During one game in March vs a top 5 draft pick, why yes it was.

Does Florida have some kind of factory on campus that mass produces dominant future top draft pick pitchers? Asking for a friend.

We need a little patience at the plate

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We need a little patience at the plate

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Was thinking the same thing.

This lineup-top to Bottom-has failed to produce enough XBH vs plus arms early this year (Shriner's series and again last night). The Head Coach has made a decision to go with the Freshman from jump in SEC Play and he's sitting kids like Reid and Romero, the latter decision removing his semblance of home run power out of our lineup outside of Deichmann. The former decision puts an undue amount of pressure on the younger kids to protect the one true power threat we have that Mainieri won't frick with in the lineup.

What's really interesting to me is that with a lineup that obviously doesn't hit to the gaps, with consistent power or extra bases consistently, late in the game when that was holding true to form, Mainieri didn't play station-to-station and, "went with his gut," for the big inning instead of bunting the runner to 3rd. The stats are actually better by a slim margin to get the runner in from 3rd with 1 out than from getting the runner home from 2nd with 0 outs.

With a Freshman pitcher in a pressure situation and a catcher that's had some issues fielding it later in the game and-more importantly, IMO at least-a back end of the order up that had done nothing and looked inept and overmatched the entire game, we didn't pinch hit with Reid, Romero or anyone else.

Once again placing pressure on Freshman and back of the order kids who showed zero propensity to produce in those situations all night. Much less versus any plus arms this year in the times we faced them.

It's inexplicable to me. He knows the game but never ever seems to press the right buttons. It's genuinely confusing to try and understand what or why he's doing what he's doing.

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Swinging at ball 4 on a 3-1 count that's above your head is a concern

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I often wonder how many times we've done that because the hit-and-run was called?

There are times when I'll be watching a game and I'll say to myself "bet he swings at this no matter where it is, because I feel a hit-and-run coming."

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This lineup-top to Bottom-has failed to produce enough XBH vs plus arms early this year (Shriner's series and again last night). The Head Coach has made a decision to go with the Freshman from jump in SEC Play and he's sitting kids like Reid and Romero, the latter decision removing his semblance of home run power out of our lineup outside of Deichmann. The former decision puts an undue amount of pressure on the younger kids to protect the one true power threat we have that Mainieri won't frick with in the lineup.

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Romero is hurt. Reid is not a power hitter. Slaughter, one of the freshman, does have pretty good pop in his bat. But like most of our power hitters (really all but one) he is struggling with swinging at balls out of the strike zone. He may break out of this by the end of this season, or it may take until next season. Or he may never break out of it, as in Foster and both Jordan twins. Smith, who I don't expect to hit lots of homeruns, I believe has some gap power. I don't think we have a power shortage so much as we swing at poor pitches a lot of times. But then again, in some games where you face great pitchers like last night, great pitching can make you look bad, especially freshmen.

Timely hitting is always a concern for every team in the history of baseball. It's how 100% of games are won