(04-29-2024, 10:23 AM)Brickcity Wrote:(04-28-2024, 11:35 PM)norcard10 Wrote: Is this team making the post season this year?
Good question. My assumption is they would have to have a really gaudy record the rest of the way (which still might not be enough) or win the Pac-12 tournament.
This team is likely making the conference trounament postseason, but not the NCAA tournament postseason.
There is always the possibility of winning the Pac 12 tournament and thus making NCAAs, and the conference really is quite tightly bunched. However, I don't think this team has the pitching depth or consistency to do so.
A Short Recap of the Season To Date:
Overall I'd say that while the team has not been as good as I had hoped, but it has progressed and seems to have reasonably bright prospects going forward.
A perspective on this team should note how young it is.
Every pitcher who has thrown 5 innings or more on the year is a frosh or soph. Of those, only two had significant innings last year: Scott and Dugan (well, borderline O'Harran who pitched 17 total innings last year).
The team also lost 6 of its top 7 hitters from last year in terms of at bats and in terms of slugging percentage. Those returning were Moore, Cobb, and the rotating cast at DH. The team lost 90 of its 117 home runs. Of those currently getting regular at bats, the only one who can't come back is Cobb.
The team remains frustrating. They lose lots of games they shouldn't. Lots of guys left on base; lots of errors (and not quite called errors); lots of free passes. On the season Stanford has needed 1.72 hits to score a run while their opponents only needed 1.34 hits per run - a big difference over a season.
They also tend to fail miserably at playing small-ball, though those attempts seemed to have slacked off. I don't think anyone keeps failed sacrifices as a stat, but Stanford had to be at the top (bottom) of that after what seemed like hundreds of bunt fouls and pop-ups. They're last in the conference on percent of stolen base attempts successful.
However, they've been getting better over the season.
That's most clear on offense. For example, over the past month Stanford has hit for a team average of .326 whereas before that the team BA was .259. For comparison, last year on the season the team hit .316. Over that same past month this year Stanford has scored 7.6 runs per game versus 4.4 earlier.
Pitching is less clear.
Two solid starters have emerged in Scott and Lim.
Moore has emerged as a strong long relief man. Had a rough start to the season (gave up 1/2 of earned runs in first 3 games), but a 2.9 ERA since.
O'Harran has emerged as a closer. Had a couple disaster outings but a reasonable 2.7 ERA over past month (since Tech series).
After that it gets thin. Dugan has been up and down. Speshyock was scary wild early. He's still walking too many, but he's had some decent outings and opponents are only hitting .225 against him.
Losing Uber and O'Rourke for the year really hurt. They could have been upper-class workhorses for the team. I hope they'll get a chance to play again.
I'm encouraged for next year, though as always how next year's team does will depend on who returns and how younger players develop. Will look at that more after the season.
