SOCON PREVIEW

[wocogoose94]

http://collegebaseballtoday.com/?p=2926

[woffordgrad94]

A nice writeup. But does anyone have any real hopes for our baseball team this spring? Even though we have some good hitters, our pitching is quite young, and no one on the staff has proven that they can consistently get SoCon hitters out. Since pitching is so much of baseball, I must sadly conclude that we won't escape the SoCon cellar in 2010. I am not trying to down the team, I am just trying to be realistic. Whatever the reason may be (lack of money, scholarships, injuries, transfers, etc.), we just don' have the arms to win in our conference at this point in time. I hope there are better days ahead. I know this program consists of hard-working, dedicated young men who deserve better results.

[reggie warren jr]

But does anyone have any real hopes for our baseball team this spring?

let me first start by saying that this type of attitude troubles me, for it is the attitude that seems to run rampent in wofford athletics. this season will be successful and productive. the team is younng, and yes the pitching is somewhat skeptical and unproven at this point, but thats always been the case.

let me also address the pitching aspect. pitching and hitting for that matter is more mental than anything. sure if you look across the country, there are some teams that are stacked with talent, but then there are also teams that who little "talent," that seem to always put together good productive seasons. the mental makeup of a team and of a pitching staff is far more important and plays a much bigger role than the talent aspect of things. especially at the div 1 level. i would much rather have a friday night guy with a good i dont give a f u c k attitude about the other team and im going to win attitude even if he only sits at 86 with avg off speed stuff. i will take that type of guy any day over a guy who signed with clemson or carolina or georgia or wherever who throws 98 with great off speed stuff. lots of those guys who have the so called "talent" are soft. what wofford needs to do in order to be successful especially with the scholarship money they have is recruit hardnose blue collar ball players who are grinders and go out there everyday with one goal and one goal only: to win a mother f in game. wofford athletics as to the this date has been soft, with a few exceptions of course, but in general thats the way it has been. i believe that the baseball team is in the process of turning that around and they are working their asses off to do so.

[reggie warren jr]

apologies for my cursing, just fed up with bad attitudes thats all

[woffordgrad94]

Reggie, I don't think I am displaying a "bad attitude". I am simply pointing out that the pitching is young and unproven, and you know that to be true yourself. You also know that after so many unsuccessful campaigns in this conference(even the year of"five days in May" we were only 8-19 during the regular season), most people are going to be somewhat skeptical that thi year will be any different, especially when they see nothing to indicate that it will be. I love baseball, and I wish we could field a team that is compeptitive within our conference. From what I hear, recruiting is slowly starting to pick up a little. But you know that we have a long way to go and we are in an extremely tough mid-major conference. And right now, any unbiased objective person would predict us to finish last in the SoCon, and to deny that is to be out of touch with reality. Better days will one day come to this program. Heart, attitude, desire, effort, all those things do indeed count a lot-but so does talent level. And our problems have gone beyond simply having what you call "soft" players- we have had problems recruiting talented enough pitchers to win in the league, and injuries, transfers, coach incidents, and coaching changes have all added to our woes. Stability has been lacking in the program. In short, Wofford baseball is a project right now- a project with a lot of work left to be done on it. And it is tougher for baseball to gain ground than it is for many other sports, such a football, basketball, and soccer, because the conference is better and tougher from top to bottom in baseball. And with our limited resources, it is really an uphill climb. It's not an impossible one, though, and one day Wofford will get it all figured out and turn this program around. I just have my doubts that it will be this year...you are free to disagree. Opinions are like butts...everybody has one, but everybody's is different in some way.

P.S. Don't worry about the language- I can take it.

[reggie warren jr]

i know you are not displaying a bad attitude wofford grad. and i agree with you 100 percent that the staff is unproven. but i still believe talent level is overrated. especially in college baseball in a mid major conference. talent only goes so far. lets look at carolina when they had smoak and havens and darnell and numerous others. how many college world series did they win? and georgia, they got beat by a sub sub par fresno state team who played in a conference that is not as good as the socon.

[woffordgrad94]

I agree that talent level is not everything. But it's something.

Maybe I'm being too modest, but I'd be thrilled if we could just get to the middle of the pack this year. You have to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run. Maybe, somehow, someway, this team has that extra something that I can't see on paper, and we will have a better season than I expect. I continue to hold out hope.

Moreso than any other sport, baseball is a game of streaks. If you get a bunch of guys hot at once, you can definitely overachieve. We got hot in the tournament in '07, and Fresno State got hot in the playoffs and CWS. Both teams rode their momentum and did things no one expected...those kinds of stories are what makes baseball special. There's always that chance...

[terriers]

Hope springs eternal!

[dialing8]

This team could do something special if they just play like they are able to.
There are only three teams that are returning a team that puts them at the top of the conference.
They are App. State, Elon, and Ga. Southern. Besides these three, the other teams in the conference
have all slipped from last year. The Terriers on the other hand should be better due to experience and the return of two arms that were injured last year.
I will go on record and predict a middle of the pack finish. I am glad everyone thinks this team will finish last so they can slip up on the rest of the league.

[wocogoose94]

What conference record does "successful and productive" translate to?

[woffordgrad94]

What conference record does "successful and productive" translate to?

IMO,for us this year, a .500 conference record would be very successful and productive given our past history...it would at leat be a step in the right direction, and hopefully we could improve from there.

[woffordgrad94]

This team could do something special if they just play like they are able to.
There are only three teams that are returning a team that puts them at the top of the conference.
They are App. State, Elon, and Ga. Southern. Besides these three, the other teams in the conference
have all slipped from last year. The Terriers on the other hand should be better due to experience and the return of two arms that were injured last year.
I will go on record and predict a middle of the pack finish. I am glad everyone thinks this team will finish last so they can slip up on the rest of the league.

App. State has certainly turned things around. For a while, they were down in the standings. Hopefully, we can be the next program to turn it around.

[Natural]

App State is a public school with enrollment of over 19,000 students, lower academic standards, and many more dollars spent on athletics. These factors do separate the two schools.