2019 Season Thread

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sun Mar 03, 2019 1:34 pm

We get 4 to tie it up so back to the pen holding things down

Haha, not gonna happen. Pen gives up 4 runs and we trail in the 8th 11-7

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sun Mar 03, 2019 2:54 pm

Cats get 1 in the 8th and 4 in the 9th and walk it off winning 12-11. Really needed to win this series but man they have some things to work out. The worst team in our conference is much better than we have played so far

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Sun Mar 03, 2019 3:07 pm

No win is a bad win, but man our defense and pitching is just bad so far.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sun Mar 03, 2019 3:11 pm

P5 team in Michigan St coming in Tuesday night and then next weeks team has the highest RPI we have played so far. Important week as far as our OOC scheduleis concerned.

Hard to imagine our pitching being as bad as it has been. Hope someone asked JJ about tha

Siempre Verde · Post by **Siempre Verde** » Sun Mar 03, 2019 4:40 pm

ChooChooCat wrote:No win is a bad win, but man our defense and pitching is just bad so far.

This, re: defense. It’s not just commission errors. It’s stupid, compounding decisions. You fielded badly, then you throw it away at first, too! Or you have a force at second, but throw it away at first instead! Bottom line, I see a lot of lack of baseball IQ in the field. I hope that gets corrected soon.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Tue Mar 05, 2019 8:54 pm

Cats lead 4-2 in the top of the 7th vs Sparty but they have things brewing

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Tue Mar 05, 2019 8:58 pm

Well that 4-0 lead didn’t last long. Sparty scores 8 to lead 9-4. Devils swept them. Might be a long year especially pitching wise. Certainly a disappointing home stand so far.

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Tue Mar 05, 2019 9:06 pm

Our defense is utterly pathetic, good lord. Michigan State is 1-9...

Newportcat · Post by **Newportcat** » Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:12 am

I think Jay is in over his head

I think his seat should be getting warm. Baseball is one sport there is no reason we should not be a Top 15 program year after year. We literally check every box possible. Unlike football, our expectations for performance should be very high year in and year out.

RynoatSecond · Post by **RynoatSecond** » Wed Mar 06, 2019 8:46 pm

According to boydsworld.com the Cats current RPI is 193! Terrible! About the only chance they have of making the tournament is to win the Pac-12, because they've been losing a bunch of games to teams they should be crushing.

BTW, Umass-Lowell is 0-10 and ranked 222. Oh boy...

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:01 pm

Almost imperative we sweep College of Charleston this weekend who come in with an ROI of 60. Not a chance we win the conference as Oregon St has not even given up an unearned ur this year (we gave up 8 in one inning)and they have 3 all Americans on that staff.

We need to win 18-20 games in conference which we have not done since 2012. We have Utah at home and we always seem to struggle with them but they are a team we should win a series at home against

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Mar 08, 2019 9:07 pm

Cats get a big opening series win tonight 7-5. Had a 6-0 lead but of course gave up 5 to make it tight. Made 3 errors tonight so they haven’t quite figured that out

RynoatSecond · Post by **RynoatSecond** » Fri Mar 08, 2019 9:21 pm

It was a nice win for the Cats, lots of good hitting and pitching by Weems and Collins.

I like Cannon, nice player, can swing the stick, but hopefully Jay has seen the light and will no longer play him at short. 3 more errors there tonight, ouch!

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Mar 08, 2019 9:25 pm

The regular SS went out for personal reasons so who else do they have?

Siempre Verde · Post by **Siempre Verde** » Fri Mar 08, 2019 9:45 pm

azcat49 wrote:The regular SS went out for personal reasons so who else do they have?

I heard around the ballpark that he is on his way back. Let’s hope that’s true.

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Fri Mar 08, 2019 10:22 pm

Siempre Verde wrote:
azcat49 wrote:The regular SS went out for personal reasons so who else do they have?
I heard around the ballpark that he is on his way back. Let’s hope that’s true.

He's back with the team now, just a matter of getting back up to speed. I think we see him tomorrow or Sunday.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sat Mar 09, 2019 8:54 pm

Cats win another 7-5. They moved Cannon to left field. Had a 7-4 lead going into the 9th and they brought in Labeult and his 5 plus ERA in and he gives up back to back doubles and then walks the tying run. They brought in Arias and he got 3 quick outs

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Sat Mar 09, 2019 8:54 pm

RynoatSecond · Post by **RynoatSecond** » Sun Mar 10, 2019 5:53 pm

I love the Cats lineup, even though Quintana is really struggling, the rest of the lineup is really dangerous. Problem is clearly the pitching.

Interesting contrast between how Jay Johnson runs his staff vs Andy Lopez. Before the season started, Andy would typically identify his #1, 2, and 3 starters and ride those guys hard all season long, every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Figure out something on Tuesday, but generally Andy worked his top pitchers more and gave less innings to the rest of the staff. Jay likes to use a lot of his staff, and it seems pretty apparent that several of these guys probably have no business pitching right now at the high D1 level, but I guess those are the desperate straights we are in.

Given how tough the rest of the Pac-12 looks, it sure looks like another season with no NCAA's...

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sun Mar 10, 2019 6:43 pm

The PAC looks good. Oregon St throws out 3 top shelf starters. Today’s Sunday starter throws a shit out. Stanford beats Texas this weekend, cal beats LSU. ASSU is undefeated and UCKA is ranked #2.

Ryno , on your above commentary. Jay loves to see himself manage

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Mar 15, 2019 5:37 pm

Utah tonight. Blass back at SS with Cannon at 2nd base. I think it’s Weems as our Friday night guy. JJ is 1-8 vs Utah FYI

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Mar 15, 2019 6:26 pm

Utah 3-0 after their top half of the first. Going to be a disappointing season

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Fri Mar 15, 2019 8:13 pm

It took Utah only 4 innings to get to 15 runs. We're just extraordinarily bad for the talent we have.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Fri Mar 15, 2019 8:20 pm

Sucks. Very disappointing. JJ needs to answer some tough questions

Siempre Verde · Post by **Siempre Verde** » Fri Mar 15, 2019 10:27 pm

ChooChooCat wrote:It took Utah only 4 innings to get to 15 runs. We're just extraordinarily bad for the talent we have.

As a season ticket holder told me tonight, we need to bring in a little league coach to teach these guys some basic fundamentals. Ouch!!! I did, however, appreciate the fight they showed in the end.

Siempre Verde · Post by **Siempre Verde** » Fri Mar 15, 2019 10:28 pm

azcat49 wrote:Sucks. Very disappointing. JJ needs to answer some tough questions

There are some important people getting restless with this staff.

Newportcat · Post by **Newportcat** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 2:47 am

Jay needs to be fired at the end of this season

Way in over his head

RynoatSecond · Post by **RynoatSecond** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 9:07 am

It's pretty clear that Arizona has people pitching right now who have no business pitching on a Division 1 team. I don't know what happened with recruiting and signing JUCO guys, but a lot of the guys they are running out there right now would not have been considered Arizona Pac-12 quality in the past. Dave Lawn didn't suddenly get stupid, he's not working with much, easy to see.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 9:11 am

But Ryno, that is Jays strength recruiting. Are you saying it was poor evaluation we got these guys or just a poor job of recruiting that we couldn’t get better pitchers?

I am concerned that since JJ got here he hasn’t brought in one quality arm that I can remember. It was all Lopes guys

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 9:22 am

Most of these pitchers were all top 300 in their classes (in a world where obviously the top rated pitchers go straight to the pros), so I have no idea what the deal is quite frankly. Next year's class will be very telling, because the vast majority of it is made up of pitchers and all rated fairly highly.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 9:32 am

Some of this seems like coaching as they continue to walk guys and fall behind in the count. The mentality just doesn’t seem to be to challenge and go after the hitters. We just can’t get anyone out. 21 runs is a flat out embarrassment

RynoatSecond · Post by **RynoatSecond** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:01 am

Well, to cite an example, in previous years teams, there is no way a young man like George Arias Jr. would be pitching right now. Andy Lopez did recruit local talent as good as, or better than, him and those kids found out quickly they needed to transfer because they weren't going to pitch a lick, they just weren't ready and/or good enough at that time. But on this year's team, George is pitching, a lot. George is a fine young man and his dad is a UA legend, but he probably should be pitching at Pima right now. It's not his fault, we apparently just don't have people better than him. Now that's weak recruiting and not signing good JUCO pitchers, period.

I'm not sure how much time Johnson gets. Jerry Stitt followed the Hall of Famer Jerry Kindall, coached the Wildcats for 5 unremarkable years and had an average record of 31-25 in that stretch. Kindall's program was already in a bit of decline when Stitt took over. So far Jay has been:

2016 49-24
2017 38-21
2018 34-22
2019 10- 7 so far

Obviously, a steady decline every year. We shall see...

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:16 am

RynoatSecond wrote:Well, to cite an example, in previous years teams, there is no way a young man like George Arias Jr. would be pitching right now. Andy Lopez did recruit local talent as good as, or better than, him and those kids found out quickly they needed to transfer because they weren't going to pitch a lick, they just weren't ready and/or good enough at that time. But on this year's team, George is pitching, a lot. George is a fine young man and his dad is a UA legend, but he probably should be pitching at Pima right now. It's not his fault, we apparently just don't have people better than him. Now that's weak recruiting and not signing good JUCO pitchers, period.

I'm not sure how much time Johnson gets. Jerry Stitt followed the Hall of Famer Jerry Kindall, coached the Wildcats for 5 unremarkable years and had an average record of 31-25 in that stretch. Kindall's program was already in a bit of decline when Stitt took over. So far Jay has been:

2016 49-24
2017 38-21
2018 34-22
2019 10- 7 so far

Obviously, a steady decline every year. We shall see...

We play numerous pitching newcomers who were drafted in this past MLB draft. Arias is one of them, Bryce Collins, Andrew Nardi, & Ian Mejia (who hasn't pitched all year yet, not sure why). These guys were drafted in the late rounds, but obviously there's something there in regards to talent otherwise those MLB teams wouldn't bother trying to build that relationship with them by drafting them and starting the opening dialogue. So far all of those guys haven't done much yet for us and two of them were opening weekend starters. Is that a talent problem or is that a coaching problem? I'm not sure yet.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:34 am

Appreciate both of your guys knowledge. One thing for certain, it has been a steady downturn since Lopes retired.

JJ seemed to have been highly regarded when we conducted our search and had some sparkling records at San Diego and Nevada. Just a bit surprised we/he has struggled with the development of the program given his forte is recruiting

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 6:37 pm

Cats go back to back, Cannon and Q! They lead 3-0 in the first

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 9:12 pm

Well it appears we have one competent pitcher on staff. Great game Flanagan.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 9:15 pm

Needs to move to Friday night off of that start alone. Absolutely need the series win tomorrow

UAEebs86 · Post by **UAEebs86** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:17 pm

Meanwhile up north the Scummies are 18-0

RynoatSecond · Post by **RynoatSecond** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 6:38 am

Great job by Flanagan, needed so much given the bullpen collapse the night before. I was just hoping Jay wouldn't go to the bullpen up 8-0, and he didn't thankfully. Give Quinn six days of rest and run him back out there next Saturday.

Cannon is unbelievable right now, Williams doing a great job in the leadoff spot.

Lets get the rubber game!

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 9:36 am

RynoatSecond wrote:Great job by Flanagan, needed so much given the bullpen collapse the night before. I was just hoping Jay wouldn't go to the bullpen up 8-0, and he didn't thankfully. Give Quinn six days of rest and run him back out there next Saturday.

Cannon is unbelievable right now, Williams doing a great job in the leadoff spot.

Lets get the rubber game!

The starter collapsed as much as the bullpen did on Friday night.

The bats are certainly doing their job, which is Jay's department. Hopefully the pitchers catch up starting with Quinn's performance.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 10:22 am

We need to find 3 guys who we can count on for quality starts! Collins today? I don’t even know who they are thinking

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 12:44 pm

Freshman Bryce Collins gets the mound today.

ChooChooCat · Post by **ChooChooCat** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:34 pm

azgreg wrote:Freshman Bryce Collins gets the mound today.

And gives up 3 runs in the 1st inning. He's at least sticking to the script.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 2:04 pm

Looks like a pitchers dual at Hi Corbet Field.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:43 pm

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 5:11 pm

Much needed series win. Have to figure we just beat the last place team in the conference. Think we have a mid week game before we play the next two conference series on the road at UCLA and ASSU. Not sure we can go 3-3 in those games but we have to find a way

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 3:35 pm

Top two offenses going at it tonight in T-town. Would never think that a team from Las Cruces would have a higher RPI than our cats but they do. Need all these wins as the next two conference series are on the road against #1 in the nation and an undefeated ranked Scum devil team

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 6:02 pm

Tonight's game is on the PAC-12 Network.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 6:32 pm

Nardi on the bump for the cats.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 6:51 pm

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