You've heard me say it on here constantly, baseball is measured in months. No single game generally is life or death. But, you can put yourself into a situation over 40 games where one game IS life or death (hopefully the difference is clear).
That happened on Wednesday. We were just outside the hosting picture with a chance (a good B1G tournament showing potentially would have done it). Then SDSU happened. SDSU tanked us because of the 45ish games before that. Finish vs Oklahoma and Texas Tech. Rutgers. Win 1 or 2 of the Creighton games. Then SDSU doesn't matter. Hopefully that all makes sense.
Anyway, so here we are, likely a decent #2 seed unless we collapse the rest of the year. To me that is absolutely a success. I will take that every year. Especially after replacing what we lost last year.
Last year we had these two guys:
Max .414 21 HR 70 RBI
Brice .359 20 HR 67 RBI
That's 41 bombs. We have 49 as a team this year. Not a total shock we took a step back offensively. They also would be #1 and #3 in batting average.
We also lost Ornelas, Kaminska and Olson as our entire weekend of starters. We lost Shay Shanaman (3.07 era) who was HUGE out of the bullpen last year (26 appearances). Corbin Hawkins (2.23 era) who was AWESOME. Bunz...(3.86 era)
That's a lot to lose in a given year.
So we lost all that and we're having a more successful season all but a lock for postseason play? Impressive for sure.
So some comparisons:
Team Batting
2023: .294 avg (B1G 5th) ----- 97 HR (School record, B1G 2nd) ----- 7.5 runs per game ----- 8.3 LOB per game ------ 8.5 k / game
2024: .294 avg (B1G 7th) ----- 49 HR (B1G 9th) ---------------------- 7 runs per game ------- 8.5 LOB per game ------ 8.3 k / game
*** crazy...last year Maryland had 131 HRs as a team. DANG.
Team Pitching
2023: 4.64 era (B1G 3rd) ----- 8.2 k / game ----- 3.4 BB / game (B1G 1st) ----- .251 opp avg ----- 0 no hitters
2024: 4.51 era (B1G 1st) ------ 8.5 k / game ----- 3.1 BB / game (B1G 1st) ----- .246 opp avg ----- 1 no hitter
Seems like pitching improved a bit, hitting took a small step back (was surprised we're striking out slightly less this year).
Here's the biggest thing to me. All these dudes were not on the roster last year:
Case Sanderson
Rhett Stokes
Tyler Stone
Josh Overbeek
Riley Silva
That's a LOT of our production this year. Caron, Columbus, Brumbaugh and Evans are the biggest contributors that were on the roster last year.
Probably the biggest disappointments have been Swansen and Anglim not returning to form from last year. Swanney freaking had 18 HR last year and a .291 average. Imagine what that kind of production would do to help this team this year. Anglim was hurt most of last year but still hit 5 (he was RED HOT to start, but never was the same after coming back from injury).
Overall, despite some tougher times down the stretch, I personally believe (barring a collapse) this season is a success. It could have been special (sorry, if you host you're special and until Wednesday we were still on the bubble to host). But very decent no less.
Any season is a success we're:
1) In the hunt for B1G #1 on the last weekend of the year
2) Solid lock in the postseason
Until we get serious (AD, not the fans) about supporting this team, that's a good season. If we have that 7 out of 10 years in our current state, I'm good.
As for 2024....
We lose for sure: Columbus, Evans, Sears, Froelich, Sanders.
Sears is tough. But McConnaughey is only a soph and I really really really like his arm.
Going to have to do some serious work in the offseason to replace your offensive losses but really really need to build some pitching depth. I do like the class coming in, but we need some portal help too I think. (Maybe @RobsterMobster or @NU HZKRZ can comment more on the incoming guys, I didn't pay as much attention this year).
That happened on Wednesday. We were just outside the hosting picture with a chance (a good B1G tournament showing potentially would have done it). Then SDSU happened. SDSU tanked us because of the 45ish games before that. Finish vs Oklahoma and Texas Tech. Rutgers. Win 1 or 2 of the Creighton games. Then SDSU doesn't matter. Hopefully that all makes sense.
Anyway, so here we are, likely a decent #2 seed unless we collapse the rest of the year. To me that is absolutely a success. I will take that every year. Especially after replacing what we lost last year.
Last year we had these two guys:
Max .414 21 HR 70 RBI
Brice .359 20 HR 67 RBI
That's 41 bombs. We have 49 as a team this year. Not a total shock we took a step back offensively. They also would be #1 and #3 in batting average.
We also lost Ornelas, Kaminska and Olson as our entire weekend of starters. We lost Shay Shanaman (3.07 era) who was HUGE out of the bullpen last year (26 appearances). Corbin Hawkins (2.23 era) who was AWESOME. Bunz...(3.86 era)
That's a lot to lose in a given year.
So we lost all that and we're having a more successful season all but a lock for postseason play? Impressive for sure.
So some comparisons:
Team Batting
2023: .294 avg (B1G 5th) ----- 97 HR (School record, B1G 2nd) ----- 7.5 runs per game ----- 8.3 LOB per game ------ 8.5 k / game
2024: .294 avg (B1G 7th) ----- 49 HR (B1G 9th) ---------------------- 7 runs per game ------- 8.5 LOB per game ------ 8.3 k / game
*** crazy...last year Maryland had 131 HRs as a team. DANG.
Team Pitching
2023: 4.64 era (B1G 3rd) ----- 8.2 k / game ----- 3.4 BB / game (B1G 1st) ----- .251 opp avg ----- 0 no hitters
2024: 4.51 era (B1G 1st) ------ 8.5 k / game ----- 3.1 BB / game (B1G 1st) ----- .246 opp avg ----- 1 no hitter
Seems like pitching improved a bit, hitting took a small step back (was surprised we're striking out slightly less this year).
Here's the biggest thing to me. All these dudes were not on the roster last year:
Case Sanderson
Rhett Stokes
Tyler Stone
Josh Overbeek
Riley Silva
That's a LOT of our production this year. Caron, Columbus, Brumbaugh and Evans are the biggest contributors that were on the roster last year.
Probably the biggest disappointments have been Swansen and Anglim not returning to form from last year. Swanney freaking had 18 HR last year and a .291 average. Imagine what that kind of production would do to help this team this year. Anglim was hurt most of last year but still hit 5 (he was RED HOT to start, but never was the same after coming back from injury).
Overall, despite some tougher times down the stretch, I personally believe (barring a collapse) this season is a success. It could have been special (sorry, if you host you're special and until Wednesday we were still on the bubble to host). But very decent no less.
Any season is a success we're:
1) In the hunt for B1G #1 on the last weekend of the year
2) Solid lock in the postseason
Until we get serious (AD, not the fans) about supporting this team, that's a good season. If we have that 7 out of 10 years in our current state, I'm good.
As for 2024....
We lose for sure: Columbus, Evans, Sears, Froelich, Sanders.
Sears is tough. But McConnaughey is only a soph and I really really really like his arm.
Going to have to do some serious work in the offseason to replace your offensive losses but really really need to build some pitching depth. I do like the class coming in, but we need some portal help too I think. (Maybe @RobsterMobster or @NU HZKRZ can comment more on the incoming guys, I didn't pay as much attention this year).
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