Yeah. I went back and forth with this but what makes me say pitching is Erstad is the hitting coach. If he is staying I don't see major changes in the hitting. Pitching will have to improve from being adequate to a little more on the dominant side. K to W ratio and full counts have been bad for awhile now.
I agree, maybe try to work out a week 1 tournament with multiple northern teams on the off-chance that at least one of them will have a decent year in the Mo Valley or something and not cause too much RPI damage.I would like to see a bit of a philosophy change when it comes to early season scheduling. The current coach likes to play the best possible which I agree with to a point. But we've gotten off to very poor starts the last few years. We have to go south to start the year but can't we schedule some neutral site games against other northern teams instead of playing all sun belt programs? I'd like to see something like this:
Week 1: Series against a historically bad program. Like, say, North Dakota. Work out the kinks against someone else whose been cooped up all winter and hopefully win 3-4 games to build some confidence and momentum.
Week 2: Series against a northern power five program like Boston College or Washington State.
Weeks 3-4: Now play the Oklahoma States, Arkansas and Arizonas.
Actually, the best setup ever was when we played five exempt games at Hawaii-Hilo to start the season. Can we do that again?
I agree about the scheduling. I understand the desire to play tougher schedules, and I think it's great-up to a point. I'd rather we play a tougher schedule than fill it up with teams like UNK and Wayne State. But we need to find some more winnable games early in the season. Every year we fall behind early in the season and have to go on a tear to get to being into at-large consideration. The 2013 season was the worst example of having too tough of a schedule. We finished tied for 2nd in the conference, made it to the championship game of the B1G tournament and had an RPI(31) high enough to be in consideration for an at-large bid. But we were ineligible because we were one game below .500. Just a slightly easier schedule-enough to get us a couple more wins, and we were probably in. And the way that team was playing in the B1G tournament-they could have really made some noise in a regional.I would like to see a bit of a philosophy change when it comes to early season scheduling. The current coach likes to play the best possible which I agree with to a point. But we've gotten off to very poor starts the last few years. We have to go south to start the year but can't we schedule some neutral site games against other northern teams instead of playing all sun belt programs? I'd like to see something like this:
Week 1: Series against a historically bad program. Like, say, North Dakota. Work out the kinks against someone else whose been cooped up all winter and hopefully win 3-4 games to build some confidence and momentum.
Week 2: Series against a northern power five program like Boston College or Washington State.
Weeks 3-4: Now play the Oklahoma States, Arkansas and Arizonas.
Actually, the best setup ever was when we played five exempt games at Hawaii-Hilo to start the season. Can we do that again?
What frustrated me most that season was we had a couple games canceled and Erstad never even tried to reschedule a game. I believe even UNO would have been available for a quick game.
He had a bad outing before the tourney and this last one as well but overall he was our best all year. Keep in mind the kid is a full time position player unlike the other two. Quite impressive even if not the end he had hoped for. Also felt he, like so many others, were left in to long which helped inflate our ERA's a tad.
