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...

Keith Law Lays Down The Proverbial 'Law' On Kyle Parker

Dinich talks Kyle Parker with someone who knows his stuff, Keith Law. He says what we have been saying on the blog (scroll down for TigerMax's recent blurb) that KP is a second to fourth round draft pick and not a first round grade. KP would play first base and some LF in the MLB--those are positions usually reserved for non-athletes. I think KP is a better football athlete than he is a baseball one, which sounds strange but as Law says he isn't "the typical two-sport guy who's fast and flexible." Statistically 1st base and LF aren't your high value positions in baseball, but wait--he can hit you say...

For you, Law finishes with this gem, "He's also more of a mistake hitter whose power is more evident in BP than in games." Ouch. Still he is putting up good numbers, so the hope is that once the scouts start spreading this around and do some deeper analysis his stock will drop. Not that I want him to fail, I just want him to play football in the spring and have the team succeed over the individual--yeah I am that selfish...


(photo courtesy of the Anderson Independent Mail--yeah, this isn't a myspace picture, its from a newspaper...haha)

The real question Kyle and his family will ask is what is best for his future...will he be able to be drafted as a QB? Then you have to ask, will his baseball draft stock ever get higher than it currently is?? And then finally--do you risk it all to play another year of Clemson football???(yes, three question marks) They actually are tough questions when it all boils down...

So yeah...Kyle Parker

I've been too busy with work to write much lately. But I've been following baseball and yeah, Kyle Parker currently sports a slash line of .391/.519/.751. 169 at bats is still a small sample size for projecting future performance in baseball, but that's still a mighty impressive line for a third-year player in the ACC. His batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is .412 which seems a bit high and could imply that some regression is coming. For reference sake, average BABIP in the big leagues is around .290. On the other hand, the average ACC BABIP is undoubtedly higher and this stat can mislead at the college level if players consistently square up on pitchers from weak out-of-conference competition.

It's not just the numbers, most of the scouting sites I've read are now pretty much sold on his power and approach at the plate. No one is willing to go out on a limb and say he'll hit for good average in the pros, but now everyone seems to acknowledge it as a distinct possibility. He is still rated as raw on the defensive skills side. The stupid errors are down this season, but that's something that's not really that important and can be improved through repetition. What scouts are looking for is range, jump as the ball comes off the bat, and route-running (in roughly that order). Arm strength then comes in as a pretty distant fourth, although Parker has plenty of arm. To me he still seems to get poor jumps and take pretty lousy routes, but his range might have improved a bit from years past. The routes can be fixed with experience, but jump is more instinctive. Good range will make up for below-average jump, though.

I have always felt that Parker's defense would keep him from getting drafted high enough to tempt him away from another season of football. My reasoning: there isn't a lot of demand right now for all bat, no glove players--even at a corner outfield position. If your ceiling includes the DH position, that automatically cuts the number of interested teams in half and recently even the DH slot has been used by American League teams for purposes other than stashing away a slugger. Ultimately, however, I think Parker's overall athleticism (bolstered in part by a strong showing on the football field last season?) is causing concerns about his defense to fade, at least somewhat. Coupled with an improved plate approach, his stock has really been rising. There was always the danger that a team with a lot of money to burn on the draft (Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Tigers, etc.) would select him trying to snag higher-level talent later in the draft. At this point, he seems likely to get a good offer from whatever team drafts him.

I'm curious what others think about his defensive play this season. My eye doesn't have the best training in the world, but if we can get a few opinions we'll have a better idea--a wisdom of crowds kind of thing. At any rate, it's going to be a tenser summer for Clemson football fans than I previously anticipated.