Texas Baseball

[Neil Leininger]

I hope Pierce realizes it is over for him now.

[horns96]

2 hours ago, Neil Leininger said:

I hope Pierce realizes it is over for him now.

Two games against Texas State this week.   Losing a season series against Texas State would be a another black eye (and we have an L against the Bobcats in the books).

Big XII baseball sucks this year and schedule was so favorable for a conference run.  We still might sneak into the postseason, but it's fools gold.

 

 

 

[Realist Horn]

I’ve been banging the ‘Pierce Ain’t It’ drum for a while. Rumors of him being hard to work with, poor coaching hires (tied to the first reason?), in game decisions, wouldn’t know the portal of it him….Texas deserves better. 
 

that said, what are realistic options for coaching replacements?

1) Erik Bakich? (ACC stability concern him?)

2) Tim Tadlock? (Gets to the premier baseball conference)

3) Dan Heefner? (Always heard he was content at DBU)

[Drunk randoke]

Thanks for your time David. It’s over. 

[Blake Munroe]

I’ve had a lot of people ask me who I’d go after if I had the opportunity. Thinking on that today. I’ll post a list this afternoon. 

[horns96]

11 minutes ago, Blake Munroe said:

I’ve had a lot of people ask me who I’d go after if I had the opportunity. Thinking on that today. I’ll post a list this afternoon. 

Other than Sark, CDC’s coaching searches seem to begin in the top 5-top 10 programs in the country.

 

[Blake Munroe]

17 minutes ago, horns96 said:

Other than Sark, CDC’s coaching searches seem to begin in the top 5-top 10 programs in the country.

 

Two (LSU, Vandy) of the top 3-4 ain’t coming for sure. But going after a well known, established name would be ideal for sure. 

[Hashtag]

Oregon St coach

Clemson coach 

Wake Forest coach

 

would be my top 3 candidates

 

 

[GoHorns1]

On 4/4/2024 at 8:00 PM, Neil Leininger said:

Pierce has cost Johnson millions.

Johnson has cost himself millions not Pierce

[Realist Horn]

4 hours ago, Blake Munroe said:

I’ve had a lot of people ask me who I’d go after if I had the opportunity. Thinking on that today. I’ll post a list this afternoon. 

I like my list above 😉, maybe a coaching search will open up some NIL dollars? 

[Derek Handler]

Canham might be an easy get with no conference for him to play in next year.

Edited April 8 by Derek Handler

[Jerry K]

On 4/7/2024 at 11:21 AM, GoHorns1 said:

Johnson has cost himself millions not Pierce

Curious how do you know it’s LBJ’s fault?

[Blake Munroe]

On 4/7/2024 at 9:55 AM, Blake Munroe said:

I’ve had a lot of people ask me who I’d go after if I had the opportunity. Thinking on that today. I’ll post a list this afternoon. 

Just realized I never pressed “Submit” after typing it out and revisiting this thread just now. 
 

Here is my REALISTIC list. 
 

Tier 1:

Mitch Canham (Oregon State)

Erik Bakich (Clemson)

Chris Pollard (Duke)

Tony Vitello (Tennessee)

Tom Walter (Wake Forest) 

Rob Vaughn (Alabama)

 

Tier 2:

Ben Orloff (UC Irvine)

Mark Wasikowski (Oregon)

Cliff Godwin (ECU)

Justin Haire (Campbell)

Alex Sogard (Wright State)

Jordan Bischell (Cincinnati) 

[Blake Munroe]

A few notes on the guys above.

- As @Derek Handler said, Canham definitely might be the easiest to go after in my "Tier 1" category. And he's proven. Does a phenomenal job.

- Bakich has Clemson rolling. He also has SEC experience. He's 70-22 at Clemson. I like what he did at Michigan too.

- Pollard is consistent. Three Super Regionals in five years at Duke. 

- Vitello might not leave Tennessee, but he has no direct ties. Graduated from Missouri. Great coach though. Fun fact: he once flipped me off.

- Walter might be the hardest to get to leave, but the man does more with less. Imagine what he could do at Texas. 

- Vaughn just got to Alabama this year, but he's an absolute stud at coaching. Look at what he did with Maryland... who has zero support for baseball. Younger guy who is originally from Texas. I would be ecstatic with Texas hiring him.

 

Any of those guys would be awesome. Canham and Vaughn would be my two top choices.

 

I'll break down Tier 2 later.

[Hashtag]

2 hours ago, Blake Munroe said:

Rob Vaughn (Alabama)

Vaughn would crush it at Texas. I'm friends with a private trainer that knows him well and he said of the list I saw of potential replacement candidates that Vaughn would crush it at Texas because how he recruits, his personality and that he's a players coach that lets them have their own personality. 

 

I don't personally like Vitello but his personality and fire would ignite the NIL side of Texas baseball and he's a hell of a recruiter(relentless). 

Edited April 10 by Hashtag

[Blake Munroe]

1 hour ago, Hashtag said:

Vaughn would crush it at Texas. I'm friends with a private trainer that knows him well and he said of the list I saw of potential replacement candidates that Vaughn would crush it at Texas because how he recruits, his personality and that he's a players coach that lets them have their own personality. 

 

I don't personally like Vitello but his personality and fire would ignite the NIL side of Texas baseball and he's a hell of a recruiter(relentless). 

Vaughn is going to do really well at Alabama if they'll get behind him NIL wise. He may do good regardless. He is legit.

You're spot on with Vitello as well.

 

Also, before anyone says what about LSU/Vandy/Ark/Virginia coach... those guys aren't leaving. I almost put the Stanford coach on here as well, despite their bad season this year, but he isn't leaving either.

[Derek Handler]

Ok @Blake Munroe - need the Vitello "bird" story....

Edited April 10 by Derek Handler

[Blake Munroe]

Just now, Derek Handler said:

Ok @Blake Munroe - need the Vitello story....

Haha. Well... Not one of my prouder moments but I was in full fan mode and, at the time, not covering Texas. 

Horns vs Tennessee @ CWS in 2021. I had seats VERY close to the Tennessee dugout. Tennessee fans and coaches were already heated and I was stoking the fire after a few beers and days in the sun. 

One of their assistants, Ross Kivett, was ejected from the game. I started yelling loudly and waving bye to him. They didn't take very kindly to it. He clearly saw me do it and wasn't happy. It was very quick. He was mad. I kept on heckling. We won.

[Derek Handler]

8 minutes ago, Blake Munroe said:

Haha. Well... Not one of my prouder moments but I was in full fan mode and, at the time, not covering Texas. 

Horns vs Tennessee @ CWS in 2021. I had seats VERY close to the Tennessee dugout. Tennessee fans and coaches were already heated and I was stoking the fire after a few beers and days in the sun. 

One of their assistants, Ross Kivett, was ejected from the game. I started yelling loudly and waving bye to him. They didn't take very kindly to it. He clearly saw me do it and wasn't happy. It was very quick. He was mad. I kept on heckling. We won.

Scoreboard!

[Blake Munroe]

Just posted an update on a player who is no longer with the team. It's pinned at the top of the board.

[McCoy2Shipley]

24 minutes ago, Blake Munroe said:

Haha. Well... Not one of my prouder moments but I was in full fan mode and, at the time, not covering Texas. 

Horns vs Tennessee @ CWS in 2021. I had seats VERY close to the Tennessee dugout. Tennessee fans and coaches were already heated and I was stoking the fire after a few beers and days in the sun. 

One of their assistants, Ross Kivett, was ejected from the game. I started yelling loudly and waving bye to him. They didn't take very kindly to it. He clearly saw me do it and wasn't happy. It was very quick. He was mad. I kept on heckling. We won.

That game was awesome. We got down early and I thought it was over. Then the DP happened and Kennedy had that HR.

[CJ Vogel]

22 hours ago, Jerry K said:

Curious how do you know it’s LBJ’s fault?

Few things, on LBJ. 

He throws hard, but he has not secondary pitch. LBJ's fastball is extremely flat. There is not side to side movement, there is no jump. Kids see 95 mph every weekend now, it just doesn't have the same juice as it once was.

LBJ certainly hasn't helped himself with the body language as of late either. The Texas State showing Tuesday night was abysmal. Texas would be better off with a new Friday night starter.

[Jerry K]

6 minutes ago, CJ Vogel said:

Few things, on LBJ. 

He throws hard, but he has not secondary pitch. LBJ's fastball is extremely flat. There is not side to side movement, there is no jump. Kids see 95 mph every weekend now, it just doesn't have the same juice as it once was.

LBJ certainly hasn't helped himself with the body language as of late either. The Texas State showing Tuesday night was abysmal. Texas would be better off with a new Friday night starter.

I respectfully disagree. LBJ has (or had) one of the best sliders/cutters in the game as a secondary pitch. When they played LSU earlier this season their head coach referred to LBJ as one of the best pitchers in the country. 

If it was just LBJ that is battling regression I would tend to agree but it’s not. David Shaw, Charlie Hurley and Cody Howard have all regressed from where they were last year in addition to LBJ. To me seems like there’s more to it. 

[CJ Vogel]

11 minutes ago, Jerry K said:

I respectfully disagree. LBJ has (or had) one of the best sliders/cutters in the game as a secondary pitch. When they played LSU earlier this season their head coach referred to LBJ as one of the best pitchers in the country. 

If it was just LBJ that is battling regression I would tend to agree but it’s not. David Shaw, Charlie Hurley and Cody Howard have all regressed from where they were last year in addition to LBJ. To me seems like there’s more to it. 

LBJ has extremely average vertical rise with his pitch at 16 inches vertical movement. For guys in the MLB that average 95 mph on their fastballs, you see a mark round 18.5"– 19.5". Point being, there is no jump or extra juice on the fastball for LBJ. 

Looking at the BYU start last Thursday, BYU's lineup sat dead red on the fastball and hit four to the tennis courts.

[Jerry K]

10 minutes ago, CJ Vogel said:

LBJ has extremely average vertical rise with his pitch at 16 inches vertical movement. For guys in the MLB that average 95 mph on their fastballs, you see a mark round 18.5"– 19.5". Point being, there is no jump or extra juice on the fastball for LBJ. 

Looking at the BYU start last Thursday, BYU's lineup sat dead red on the fastball and hit four to the tennis courts.

Fair point on his fastball. When his only other pitch (slider or cutter or whatever that pitch is he has is) isn’t working he’s easy to hit off of.  His true slider isn’t that great. 

However last year he was tougher to hit off of which is why he had a lot of eyes on him coming into this year. 

Your point about BYU sitting on heaters speaks to what I’m getting at. The fact that Pierce kept calling those pitches is a head scratcher. Coach Pierce knows a lot about baseball but we are seeing he’s not hard to out coach in a game. I’ve been a supporter of him for a while even on this board mostly because I think 1/3 into the season is too early to say he needs to be replaced and I wanted to avoid the knee jerk reaction. But now we are half way through the season and little has changed or improved. I’m not saying he needs to go but he’s proven so far he can’t be the pitching coach and head coach at the same time. Maybe that will change. Sure hope so!