Coach Carbone has provided many sound bytes and newspaper fodder that this is a rebuilding season, with the loss of high productivity to the draft and graduation.  Seems as though we should have had winning seasons with that  kind of talent last year.  We didn't.  So this isn't really rebuilding. 

The pitching is fairly solid, weekend and mid-week, but cannot get much run production.  However, embarrassing defense overshadows any hitting prowess.  This team does not take infield during practice, save fielding balls during BP.  How does that improve fielding?  We really should have more errors scored than we do.  If you have been at the home games 2 weeks ago and again this weekend, you will probably not understand how 5-6 total hits were scored as such for the opposition and Ohio players were not dinged for the infraction.  So Joe, 3/4 of the infield HAVE to be freshmen?  With all of those errors, there are several guys riding the pine who would LOVE the chance to make a difference in a game.   I believe it was the Ball State opener when you said emphatically, 'This is our best defensive lineup'.  Yep, we haven't seen them since. 

Along with this is the influx of juco players.  It appears as though jucos have the high hand when it comes to playing time.  Yes they have some experience, but it doesn't mean that they should stay in the lineup if they aren't hitting or have fielding problems.  Are all jucos worth all of the risk?  No.  There is a reason they are jucos, whether grades or other issues.  With this you have recruits who continue to leave.  What do we have, 4 senior soldiers remaining at the end of every season?  Is that common with most other teams in the MAC?  No.  If you are a Ohio recruit, you should think seriously about your other options.  If you are a juco, welcome aboard. 

The recruits are fine.  They don't need to be constantly scrutinized.  Take a look at the leadership.  Does the athletic department ever look at the baseball staff and the program turnover if their coach is penny pinching?  Probably not.  Should they?  Definitely.

I think you could find newspaper clips from any season starting with a 2 and it would at some point be billed as a rebuilding season.

On a side note, where did Keen go? He was playing as a freshman, and I would have thought maybe he'd be a senior to anchor a team now. I don't even see him on a roster. Same thing happened to Rehak last year. From playing a lot as a freshman, to not even on the roster as a senior.

Sounds like "same ****, different year"

Can't believe the apologists haven't been all over this yet.

Keen quit?  After playing every game for the past 3 years, we now put him on the bench?

Wesley O'Neil has to be one of the worst bobcats of recent memory.

Also, The bobcats have been rebuilding since '97. 

I'm seriously sick of hearing how young we are, I wish someone in the papers would actually reply, "Please explain to me why you say our team is young every year?"

Also the Juco's we bring in are terrible.  Save a couple good seasons, like the Columbus State kid about 5 or 6 years ago, every transfer/juco has been a bust.  You got to believe they are getting big bucks too.

It's almost like a running joke in the conference.  Ohio could be one of the most dangerous programs in baseball once things change.

When the going gets tough quit?  Is that what you are abdicating?  Simply blame the coaches and walk away?  Heck, I am glad the guy isn't on the team anymore then.  If you cannot work through a little adversity, they what good are you?

So you agree that if you don't start, quit? Thank God you don't coach my kids.

One would only need to look at the overall record of the teams since 2005 to understand why support of the team has diminished!!!!  These "administrators" shouldn't need a bunch of restless fans to explain everything to them.  They aren't in D3/NAIA/high school any longer. 

...but what exactly did we do with all those guys plus Krauss 2 years ago, and those guys last year? We had our worst start ever last season.

Carbone is starting to sound like the rest of the board!

Sure, he was talking about all of the rain, but that's not the point.

thepost.ohiou.edu/content/baseball-rain-continues-wash-out-season

Just thought I would share a few of the quotes I read in regards to having a young team every year. 

On 2011's Team
http://www.thepost.ohiou.edu/content/baseball-2011-bobcat...

"It’s a young team that’s performing pretty well right now.”

http://www.thepost.ohiou.edu/content/baseball-rain-preven...

With such a young team, Carbone said the weather has made it difficult for the team to gain the experience it needs to improve.

“Young guys need to play. They need reps and they need at bats,” Carbone said. “An older team can adjust because they’ve had more experience, but with a younger team, it’s a lot more difficult.”

On 2010's Team
4/8/10
http://speakeasymag.com/sports/fast-start-leads-to-ohios-.../

“We’re a work in progress, we’re getting better. This is what we’re capable of doing, but we’re very young … Just because we’re capable of it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again,” Carbone said. “This game is over with, winning a midweek game doesn’t mean you’re going to win a weekend game.”


Reference to the 2008 Team

http://www.ohiobobcats.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/02180...

"Our goals as a team are to win a Mid-American Conference regular season championship and get into the (MAC) Tournament and win the Tournament and go to the NCAA Tournament," Ohio head coach Joe Carbone said. "I think we got to the semifinals (last year) with a young team, of course this is a new year and anything can happen, good or bad. Hopefully we'll stay injury free and with the talent we have on the team we're very capable of challenging anybody for the MAC Championship, but we have to go play well."


About the 2007 Team (FYI they returned 18 letterwinners and had something like 10 seniors and only lost 3 players)

1/29/2007
http://www.ohiobobcats.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/01290...

"We are all very excited about the first day of practice," Carbone said. "We have a very challenging opening series with Vanderbilt University, one of the top teams in the country. We got started today and we look forward to a challenge with a lot of new faces and a whole new coaching staff.


You could probably keep going, but it gets pretty repetitive

Taking the top 10 at-bat guys and top 5 innings pitched, here is the breakdown.

2011

Senior - 5
Junior - 4
Sophomore - 3 (counting Streich twice)
Freshman - 3


2010

Senior - 4
Junior - 7
Sophomore - 2
Freshman - 2 (counting Streich twice)


2009

Senior - 6
Junior - 5
Sophomore - 4
Freshman - 0



2008

Senior - 3
Junior - 5
Sophomore - 3
Freshman - 4


Basically, the only team you could call young was the 2008 team, but even that team 2 of their 3 sophomores who saw significant time played a ton as freshmen. Krauss, Eldemire and Maddox were basically upperclassman by the end of their freshman/start of their sophomore years.

Yet only 3 of the top 10 had more than 100 at bats at the DI level last year.

Black, Emody, and Ward are your young guys.  All Freshmen seeing significant time.

You could argue that Streich is young because he's a sophomore, however he saw significant time as a freshmen playing in 40 games with 123 at bats.  I would say he's had way more experience than your average sophomore and I wouldn't consider him young, as far as college baseball experience.

Players such as Newton, who were 2 year starters in Junior College, went to the JUCO World Series and set the all-time hits record at his Junior College are not new to college baseball.

Out of the 11 players that have had 84 or more at bats so far, only 3 i would consider young and inexperienced to college baseball.  And for the record, I would not call Black (106 ab's in 37 gms), Emody (177 in 45), and Ward (176 in 47) "young" next year.  They have played quite a bit, and I'm sure all will play in a high level college baseball summer league this year.