Give me your opinion....

[NUFootballTim]

i know enough about baseball to be dangerous. i don't follow the team much, but i def. jump on the bandwagon when they win. I check the forum every night to see if we won or lost, but thats about the extent of my NU baseball interaction, for the most part. So those of you who do know what you see, tell me, whats the deal with NU baseball? Should the team be better then they are? are they getting the kids they should be? is the pitching bad? whats the state of the program? do we have the right coach? Sometimes great players make for terrible coaches. Is that the case with HCDE?

inform me because i honestly have no clue. all i know is the team seems to be pretty bad and the program doesn't appear to have any momentum. the whole thing just seems stuck.

 

[Smoker]

Great questions, I don't follow baseball either, hope somebody on here knows the answers

 

[Cyberbach]

Not a big fan of Silva, seems to react late but maybe that's just me.

 

[HUSKER HOT SAUCE]

Great questions, I don't follow baseball either, hope somebody on here knows the answers

Slacker

 

[Smoker]

Slacker

 

[ShortSideOption]

i know enough about baseball to be dangerous. i don't follow the team much, but i def. jump on the bandwagon when they win. I check the forum every night to see if we won or lost, but thats about the extent of my NU baseball interaction, for the most part. So those of you who do know what you see, tell me, whats the deal with NU baseball? Should the team be better then they are? are they getting the kids they should be? is the pitching bad? whats the state of the program? do we have the right coach? Sometimes great players make for terrible coaches. Is that the case with HCDE?

inform me because i honestly have no clue. all i know is the team seems to be pretty bad and the program doesn't appear to have any momentum. the whole thing just seems stuck.

We are defending conference champions and Darin Erstad was the coach of the year for 2017.

 

[HuskerWeatherman]

Erstad's winning percentage is at .596.

This is, of course, lower than DVH. But also significantly lower than both Mike Anderson and John Sanders. With Erstad coaching in a very mediocre conference.

Also, 1-6 in the NCAA Tournament. And a losing record in Big Ten tournaments.

 

[ShortSideOption]

Erstad's winning percentage is at .596.

This is, of course, lower than DVH. But also significantly lower than both Mike Anderson and John Sanders. With Erstad coaching in a very mediocre conference.

That allows less scholarships than any of the people you just compared him to. You're comparing apples to oranges. If we were still in the Big12 like you are neglecting, we would get the best kids in Nebraska every year and be extremely dangerous. As it stands, we can't even compete for kids like Logan Foster, Cole Stobbe, and others. Because if they get drafted, you play without their scholarship for that year. The Big12 allowed us to back fill those spots, which is the conference the coaches were in you just rattled off comparing Erstad to.

 

[HuskerDB]

I'm not a huge Silva fan -- I think he's too slow to pull pitchers -- but I've generally been okay with our pitching.

Historically I've also thought our D was pretty good.

Our batting has been consistently poor. I'm totally ready for Kirby to be fired. Erstad I can wait on, but time is running out -- he needs to show progress and I'm scared this year and next year will be the worst of his tenure here -- that isn't progress.

I'm no guru, so I can't say why we're bad, but I can tell a bad product when I see it and this year's team is flat out bad. This isn't because of the injuries to the pitchers -- its because we play bad D and we have no batters.

 

[HuskerWeatherman]

That allows less scholarships than any of the people you just compared him to. You're comparing apples to oranges. If we were still in the Big12 like you are neglecting, we would get the best kids in Nebraska every year and be extremely dangerous. As it stands, we can't even compete for kids like Logan Foster, Cole Stobbe, and others. Because if they get drafted, you play without their scholarship for that year. The Big12 allowed us to back fill those spots, which is the conference the coaches were in you just rattled off comparing Erstad to.

And, it's counteracted by playing in a significantly weaker conference now. If we played in the Big 12, we'd probably get some better kids -- and we'd definitely be playing against more difficult competition. And all of those Big 12 schools would have the same advantages of back-filling spots due to the draft. There's zero to suggest we'd be more successful in the Big 12. For every positive spin, there's a negative spin that is equally valid. And it's probably a wash.

I can compare Nebraska to the Big Ten schools. And reality is, our success has been very limited in 5-6 years. Obviously, this season is starting out poorly (long ways to go, however).

 

[ShortSideOption]

Here's the question for everyone because it is the best comparison you can have...

How would Scott Frost do if he had no +3 that he could recruit to every cycle, and had to have the scholarship open immediately to be able to recruit a kid? For example, if he knew of three kids leaving after spring ball, he could not offer their scholarship until the kids were truly gone, leaving only grad transfers or JUCO guys in the summer to go after, not able to use those scholarships for high school kids that recruiting class? Further, a great high school player could go pro right out of high school, and if you go after the top end guys you run the risk of them leaving and getting drafted, and that scholarship if they accepted and signed with you, could not be back filled so you play with one less scholarship that year. Further, if a guy leaves early in the draft after his sophomore or junior year, you can not back fill that position either with high school recruits. Now imagine that Scott Frost and the Big10 are one of the only conferences that have that rule, and the SEC, Big12, ACC, Pac12 all can recruit the same way we currently know for football. They can recruit over the limit and not have to worry about the draft or attrition, because they can recruit to it, where Nebraska could not. That's the literal situation we are in right now.

The literal example is Cole Stobbe out of Millard West, an infielder that was getting high draft grades. Erstad can't match the offer Arkansas gave him, because if he does go pro, we would lose out on the 75% scholarship we offered, we would be penalized that for the year. Arkansas can offer Stobbe 75%, but also go use that same 75% on 2 or 3 other kids and say "if Stobbe goes pro, this is yours." Arkansas gets 3 or 4 kids committed with the same 75% scholarship and can provide a safety net for themselves while going after the top talent. If Nebraska would have gained Stobbe's commitment, he ended up signing after getting drafted, and we would have been playing without that scholarship for the next season.

Would we still expect Scott Frost to be able to compete with any of those other conference schools with that big of a disadvantage in recruiting? Would we still be comparing what he needed to do to what was going on when he was playing here?

 

[ShortSideOption]

And, it's counteracted by playing in a significantly weaker conference now. If we played in the Big 12, we'd probably get some better kids -- and we'd definitely be playing against more difficult competition. And all of those Big 12 schools would have the same advantages of back-filling spots due to the draft. There's zero to suggest we'd be more successful in the Big 12. For every positive spin, there's a negative spin that is equally valid. And it's probably a wash.

I can compare Nebraska to the Big Ten schools. And reality is, our success has been very limited in 5-6 years. Obviously, this season is starting out poorly (long ways to go, however).

Fine, let's say it's a wash and we have the same success: We are defending conference champions, have finished first or second in conference 4 of the last 5 years, have made the NCAA regional 3 of the last 4 years from a mid-major conference.

I'm not sure if you are trolling or being serious right now? We have been dominant in conference the last 4-5 years. If you are truly trying to say we haven't done that well against conference foes who have the same scholarship restrictions, you are trolling after the stats I just told you. If you want to have a discussion about some things we can probably do better and our post-season stuff, i'm on board with that, because we can be better. But let's not go "Nebraska fan" and act like what we are doing in conference isn't good enough.

 

[ShortSideOption]

I'm not a huge Silva fan -- I think he's too slow to pull pitchers -- but I've generally been okay with our pitching.

Historically I've also thought our D was pretty good.

Our batting has been consistently poor. I'm totally ready for Kirby to be fired. Erstad I can wait on, but time is running out -- he needs to show progress and I'm scared this year and next year will be the worst of his tenure here -- that isn't progress.

I'm no guru, so I can't say why we're bad, but I can tell a bad product when I see it and this year's team is flat out bad. This isn't because of the injuries to the pitchers -- its because we play bad D and we have no batters.

I will give you the same stats I just rattled off to HWM...

Defending conference champion, defending coach of the year, first or second in conference 4 of the last 5 years, NCAA regional from a mid-major conference 3 of the last 4 years. How on earth is time running out for Erstad?

If we want to talk why we struggle nationally or in the B1G tourney, i'm cool with that, as there's some things that could change. But let's not act like we haven't had a ton of success recently in conference.

 

[ShortSideOption]

To quote former national coach of the year in the Pac12, just insert "fans" instead of "ADs":

"ADs can say they want to be relevant nationally, but if you are in a conference that handcuffs you and doesn't let you account for the draft when not only juniors are eligible but high school players, you will never be relevant."

Be happy with dominating conference until Delaney puts us on a level playing field with the Big12, ACC, Pac12, and the SEC. Because even schools like Oral Roberts have an advantage on us recruiting.

 

[HuskerWeatherman]

Fine, let's say it's a wash and we have the same success: We are defending conference champions, have finished first or second in conference 4 of the last 5 years, have made the NCAA regional 3 of the last 4 years from a mid-major conference.

I'm not sure if you are trolling or being serious right now? We have been dominant in conference the last 4-5 years. If you are truly trying to say we haven't done that well against conference foes who have the same scholarship restrictions, you are trolling after the stats I just told you. If you want to have a discussion about some things we can probably do better and our post-season stuff, i'm on board with that, because we can be better. But let's not go "Nebraska fan" and act like what we are doing in conference isn't good enough.

You must be new here if you feel I troll.

What we are doing in the subpar Big Ten is not good enough. We've gone 'round and 'round about this for a couple of years now (you and I). We are not near "dominant" in the Big Ten. That's an absolute exaggeration.

Or, as I say with Miles, he's just barely good enough to prevent firing.

And yes, I'm especially emphasizing the postseason, as I did with my previous Miles comparison. Both Erstad and Miles are flame outs in conference tourneys and post-season tournaments. Plenty of underachieving with both programs.

Anyhow, lets see how this season plays out. I have never stated, "fire Erstad," nor am I now. But you protect the heck out of that dude, like he's family. I have seen very little to show that he's an upgrade over Mike Anderson.