http://www.thepost.ohiou.edu/content/baseball-%E2%80%99ca...

I'm of the opinion Carbone doesn't believe much of what he says to the media, but if you take him at face value, does he have charts of every runner's speed, opposing pitcher time-to-plate, and opposing catcher plate-to-base times?  Seems like a messy operation.

But the sacrifice bunting is what frustrates me.  You have a league with poor pitching, some good hitters on your team (even if they're not quite as good last year), and a ballpark that is like HGH for runs.  And you want to just give outs away?  Dumb, dumb.  Maybe runs are at a premium in part because you're looking to sacrifice all the time.

Meanwhile, Eliot Kalman continues to blaze new trails in self-righteous stupidity:

http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-33673-copperheads-...

I have to agree with this. Sure the bats are different, whatever. Even with wood you don't sacrifice in many areas. There are other ways to move the runner. This isn't the deadball era. There is thorough statistical evidence that goes against runner and sacrificing excessively. Coaches need to know that.

Instead of this new scientific and simple math approach, how about a sabermetric approach? It would make a lot more sense than what these numbers being thrown out in the article. In all actuality, if I gave this article to a lot of baseball minds, they would question it like crazy. This is not progressive thinking. The game has changed and with all the information out there you can use to better you squad and make smarter decisions, you are stuck playing the gambling spin game that is forcing the steal issue.

Come on, it's not time to hit the panic button because you can't hit jam shot home runs every at-bat. Opponents have a .383 OBP this year against a pitching staff that returned a ton of people. How about finding ways to stop the running game against us? Need better defenders (I feel that has always been overlooked in baseball period. Who cares if a guy can mash but gives the runs back with stone hands and little range? Need quality defense).

Sit back, crunch the right numbers and track the right numbers, and stop messing around with sacrifice bunts to death and forcing the steal issue with not so fast guys. That's the opposite of the direction this team should be going after a rough patch.

Attempting more steals at a worse success rate kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? I wonder what the sacrifice bunt success rate is? Can't hit? Quit giving away outs when 1 out of 17 balls put in play are booted or thrown away by the opposite team.

That's my simple math.

The stopwatches are a good thing. At least we're making decisions using quantitative decisions. But you're talking about a program that cant even upload the latest media guide to the website, doesnt realize the benefit of creating social media programs for marketing and recruiting purposes, and you want them to use Sabermetrics? Would love to get some Math major in as an intern and really crunch the numbers for us.

They time in-game?  Interesting.  My thought is how they do it and if they are fast enough to get an accurate time.  One or two tenths of a second makes a huge difference, no?

And there's now live tweeting of baseball and softball games.  There's growth on the social media front.

Oh, and BattleCat: Someone crunched the numbers a year or two ago and showed Bob Wren is still a launching pad. 

I don't know where to find stats.  I see batting average, but what about OBP?  Are we drawing walks, or are we swinging at bad pitches?

Heh.  The weather warms up and the balls were flying again today.

Re: Sacrifice bunts: In the first inning of today's second game, NIU got their first two guys on base, and the third hitter tried to sacrifice bunt.  I wanted to scream, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"  You want your #3 hitter laying down a bunt with two on and no out?  What in the world is wrong with that coach?  Almost to prove my point, he nearly pops out, then ropes a drive an inch foul and crushes one off the wall in center.

Finally, what is it with our pitchers with a guy on first base?  They're obsessed.  I don't know why you'd throw over that many times.

What?  That's crazy.  Doesn't that take some focus off the batter?

You're telling me throwing over 5+ times accomplishes more than 1 or 2?

First I seriously doubt that the bats have much to do with the team hitting a combined .252

To put that .252 into perspective, the Copperheads hit .267 last year in the Great Lakes League which is wooden bat.  And no, the Great Lakes isn't better than the MAC.  Those Copperheads are loaded with D3 players year in and year out.  And if you look at the roster and say "They got 4 guys from Michigan State", Mich St isn't good.  That's why the Bobcats beat them every time they show up to town.

Second, I don't mine the Sac bunt here or there, in important situations late in the game.  Maybe a weak hitter is up, who is struggling and you need that 1 run really bad, sure I'm ok with that.  Other than that I don't think so.  You get only 27 outs in a game.  I hate to see us give them up.  Why not try and a hit & run?

I'm with Donuts on being aggressive on the base paths.  Put some pressure on the other team.  Make the outfielder hit the cutoff man perfectly, then have the infielder turn and throw and make a good throw to the catcher, have him block the plate and make a tag.  If you watch MLB, it doesn't happen all that often.  There are so many things that have to go right in order to hose a guy at the plate.  I'd rather see the overly aggressive base running when we do have runners on, than this sac bunting bs.

FYI, we are 10th (out of 12) in the league in hitting and fielding.  Amazingly enough, we are 6th in pitching (ERA).

Its amazing we've won 16 games considering we can't hit or field.  It's a shame we are wasting our staff's 4.40 ERA.  That is by far the best in recent memory.  If we had this kind of pitching results in the past, we probably would have made the MAC Tournament a couple more times.

Dude, calm down.  All I said is that I don't know where to find stats, not that they aren't out there.  I'm glad they're readily available; I'll have to try again.

And we should at least wait for the season to end to see if the new bats have a big effect.  The balls certainly didn't have much problem leaving the yard last weekend.

It's not a "mute", moot or any other way you try to make your point.

Just because the bats have changed doesn't mean the field changed. It is still a launching pad proportionally. Unless with the bat change came a rule that when you say a field is 340 down the line it has to be 340, and another rule saying you must have more than five feet of foul territory, the field hasn't changed. It's still a hitter's dream, a pitcher's nightmare, and the best place in Ohio to see a double digit scoring D1 college baseball game. So therefore, him stating it is still a launching pad is a very valid point.

The field definitely plays just as friendly. NOTHING CHANGED. You could put two bad D4 baseball teams on that field and it would be a hitter's park. It's a pretty basic concept. If the one constant is the bat, the variables are the different fields.

Also, once again, these metal bats are still more powerful and durable than wood bats. Proportionally, you can't make any significant judgments from 12 MAC games. Look back at all the data though and Bob Wren is a hitter's paradise. If you can't hit when half your games are played there, you simply just can't hit.

The biggest difference is not the park and it is not the players, but rather the equipment.  The technology on these bats was rolled back years, and done so in a quick manner that caught the bat companies unprepared.  In fact the best performing bat right now was absolutely one of the worse last year.

Here's some local D3 school's tuition
1)  Otterbein tution in 2010-11 = $28,413
2) Ohio Wesleyan tuition in 2011-12 = $37,580
3) Marietta College Tuition in 2010-11= $27,640

2010-11 school year for Ohio U, tuition was at $9,537

So what kind of scholarships are they giving out there? 

If D3 Schools so good, what is the Bobcats record against them? I know very rarely do the Bobcats lose to a non D1 team.  Carbone is around a .500 coach if that if you take away all those non-D1 wins.

All I know about Michigan State is in 2003 we took 3 of 4 and in 2006 we split a 4 game series.  I was not very impressed with them.