Well That Sucked

I blame this game on Jack Leggett. He started the wrong pitcher with Leone--you start your best pitcher Harmon and you knew Leone wasn't going to have it after the first game. Leggett looked rattled and showed it--Hinson bunting, are you kidding me?? The hottest hitter in all of college baseball? Why is he batting so low in the line-up anyway?

So Roth took it to us...we struggle against lefties, exposed by the Oklahoma lefty who owned us in the second day of that game. What has helped our team the most is getting ahead early and stying loose. When we get tense we press and suck, not taking pitches--horrible approach etc.

The formula is strong starting pitching--staying away from our awful bullpen(which performed ok tonight all things considered) and piling on runs with Leggett desire for small ball. That gets destroyed if we are tense and get behind early.

Good thing we have another game. 2002 can't be repeated. BENCH EPPS!! He should never be at the plate against a lefty, ever...Lamb should DH, he can pitch and DH--he has done it all year. At least DH someone who doesnt whiff at a LH pitcher--the guy was going to go three innings max and we make him look like Strasburg. Nothing out of the infield...

Pathetic...hope Leggett can right the ship. I wouldn't have minded losing to Oklahoma twice and calling it a good season but losing to South Carolina twice and repeating 2002 is unbearable...

Go Tigers!! Win the big one for once...

Clemson/Oklahoma Weather Delay: Game Suspended

So we are delayed right now but Clemson really came out and took it to Oklahoma. This weather delay is bad news because Weissman was doing well and could have gone at least another inning if not two innings. Frederick pitched last night and he is the best in our weak bullpen.

So the game so far was showing the weakness of our defense--Miller dropped a ball that would have gotten the runner trying to steal second. That fatboy for Oklahoma can run--a bunt and chopped infield single, plus a nice run into the gap to take away a double.

The game turned because Oklahoma pitcher Shore lost his control and threw 14 straight balls. Oklahoma scored a run off of Weissman who has been giving up a lot of fly balls, not keeping the ball down enough but getting some strikeouts and swinging strikes to put together a solid start.

I also had no problem with taking that error by the Oklahoma outfielder because the Kyle Paker bomb was clearly a home run--give me a break...Do we not have someone else to play SS--31 errors, give me a break. I'm not thrilled with Epps as the DH, I guess they are protecting Lamb to use in the bullpen or starting but I don't know.

Worst moment of the game--a double steal?? Boyd wasnt even close at home and you take the bat out of Freeman's hands. A Busch League managing move, you have momentum-with 2 outs, risking Keiboom getting caught stealing with a man on third makes little sense and statistically doesn't improve your chances unless you are close to 80% sure he will be able to steal the base.

Anyway, I would imagine Lamb goes tomorrow but its hard to tell and really a tough break when you have that kind of momentum. We are up 6-1 but that can quickly disappear with our bullpen, although perhaps Frederick can now be used. Winning this game means we get two chances to try to get one win to be in the finals with probably UCLA but need to make 12 outs before we can think of that...(oh wait Im already thinking ahead...)

But I should really leave this on a positive note--we are up 6-1 and poised to put ourselves in the drivers seat for the Championship game...KP hit a blast, we chased another starting pitcher, and KieBOOM is more awesome than Bushytail....

ASU Goes Down, Clemson 6-3!

Tigers win 6-3!! My computer melted down so I havent been posting but had to post. Frederick comes in with the bases loaded in the 7th and no outs--gives up one run and saves the game. He handled the eighth and ninth very well. So we avoid the losers bracket--haha South Carolina, in the losers bracket again!! Harmon was solid until the seventh when he lost his command.

The defense was pretty good on our side, ASU had a costly couple of errors especially the throwing error by shortstop Marrero. Very surprising since ASU was known coming in for good defense. Our offense scored six runs but it was mostly from singles here and there. Hopefully our power will return against Oklahoma. I got to say that ol Jack Leggett impressed me today. His team had this rain delay and he had them ready to go and we took down the #1 team in the nation. Weismann will probably go against Oklahoma and if the Tigers can win that we will get Harmon again with a chance to go to the Finals. I think this format favors us, if we can avoid going to that third or fourth starter.

Couldn't have asked for a better start, Go Tigers!!

Auburn Commentators, Kyle Parker

These are two of the worst commentators I have ever heard. Unabashedly bias--even declaring so themselves. Every borderline call is met with an exclamation of "Goodness" or "Good Night", openly criticizing the entire umpire crew. (favoring SEC crews??) Whining about the umps being tough for Auburn all weekend long...

I love the snap judgements too--they can't even see the corner themselves, plus the replay is just as bad. My two cents says the strike zone was equally bad for both teams--Schaus and Freeman got rung up on awful calls. The best was how the tag on the strike out, throw out to end the fifth or sixth inning went from the worst call ever to a quiet admission that the call was obviously the right call. Lets even criticize the guy warming up for Clemson, how many times do we need to hear that Auburn is outhitting Clemson??...unprofessional Auburn...

In other news KP got drafted 26th by the Rockies--good thing they weren't drafting him for his corner outfield defense. He totally blew a couple of plays. Kyle--just sign deal that allows you to play one more season. Without Kyle we are going to struggle this year, thats all there is to it...Boyd is nowhere near being college ready. 1st round money is tough to pass up though, so unless Kyle is the next CJ Spiller, putting Clemson above instant fame and fortune, he is gone--along with our ACC title hopes. Can't blame Parker though, its millions of dollars to play a game he loves. Do you risk injury, can you wait another year for it? Go Tiger baseball!! Lets win that Super Regional...

Jamie Cumbie Post-Mortem

So by now you have probably heard that Jamie Cumbie got kicked off the team and possibly out of school for a case of aggravated assault. Basically kicked the crap out of some kid with connections. Dabo swiftly dismissed him. What I wanted to do was talk about how this impacts the team.

Cumbie was a 4* Defensive end recruit who came into Clemson after playing his senior year of baseball (he was a pretty good prospect) so he lacked some upper body strength for his 6'7" frame. He would have really benefited from a redshirt year but ended up playing his freshman year. He was moved inside his Sophomore year to shore up depth and as a kind of third down, pass rushing interior lineman. He broke his hand and ended up redshirting then played really well last year for us. As a senior this year, he was expected to provide quality minutes as the 2nd string starter because Coach Brooks likes to rotate a lot of bodies, to keep players as fresh as possible. Cumbie really did a good job of rushing the passer, so that will be missed.

Jenkins and Thompson start but now you have Chavis and Rennie Moore playing as the second string and our top rated DL recruit Josh Watson from Hargrave probably playing and avoiding a redshirt. This is one of our deeper positions but it still hurts to lose a guy was going to have played for four years. What will be interesting to see is if Tyler Shatley gets a legit shot at playing time now. Reviews have been positive but Shatley was seen primarily as a really good fullback coming out of high school in the chad diehl mold. If he can play some good minutes, then I doubt we miss Cumbie much and we give more minutes to our future DL--next year we will be severely hurt by graduation, especially if Thompson declares for the NFL Draft (highly unlikely at this point, but not completely outside the realm of possibility).

I'm going to miss seeing Cumbie in a Tiger Uniform, I wish he could apologize and get back on the team because he had a lot of potential he had yet to fulfill on the field. Take care of yourself Jamie. Thanks for the memories.

Quick Edit: So after looking at the police report--he absolutely pummeled the other kid. Brain bleeding, broken teeth, teeth in the gums, multiple nose fractures. This was not a fight it was a beating and that can't be tolerated. One punch and you got my sympathy but this is inexcusable. I also failed to write that Jamie also had some run-ins with the staff before and was left home from the bowl game last year, for what its worth...