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2023 Texas Baseball


Fletch

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9 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

It’s dumb in the context of firing the D1 baseball assistant of the year from last season that finished 1st and 26th in team ERA the last 2 seasons. 

Rolling the dice on somebody with no experience as an assistant at this level makes no sense after firing Allen. If you’re firing a coach like Allen it’s to swing for a big name with proven success. Not for a “this assistant might be good” because of one success story from the JUCO ranks. 

What’s dumb is the context you’ve put around the decision. All your posts write as if Allen is solely responsible for the pitching success of the last two years when he’s not even a pitching coach by trade, but Pierce was for years and years. What you’re saying is the same as giving Milwee all the credit for offensive success instead of Sark.
 

Pierce knows pitching and is extremely involved. He decided he wants a real pitching coach in that spot. It’s that simple. 

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11 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

What’s dumb is the context you’ve put around the decision. All your posts write as if Allen is solely responsible for the pitching success of the last two years when he’s not even a pitching coach by trade, but Pierce was for years and years. What you’re saying is the same as giving Milwee all the credit for offensive success instead of Sark.
 

Pierce knows pitching and is extremely involved. He decided he wants a real pitching coach in that spot. It’s that simple. 

Not really.

Everyone knows Pierce is involved with the pitching staff. The same will apply with the next hire. I'm not upset Pierce wants a "real pitching coach" but that wasn't the point. The point was this model of Pierce being involved with Allen still produced two top 25  pitching staffs in the last 2 seasons and that was with Witt being injured. If you're going to disrupt a model  of success you need an upgrade and the spin of a "real pitching coach" is just that if the pitching coach has no track record of success at this level. 

Whether you consider Allen a "real pitching coach" the model of Pierce with Allen was still producing good results. That's a fact based on the team ERA the last two seasons. Real pitching coach, or whatever, the next hire needs to be an upgrade and some of the names being mentioned are far from that. Throwing out this argument about "real pitching coach" doesn't mean anything either if it's a random pitching coach with no skins on the wall. 

With that said,  I don't believe this is the direction Texas is going as Kendall Rogers mentioned at D1 baseball. Texas would not have fired Allen unless there was a legitimate candidate with a track record of success as a pitching coach. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Rickylovesweed said:

One of the Baseball America writers is bringing up Childress as a replacement. 

No idea if he knows anything or if he's just speculating like we are with Childress. It does seem like a good fit.  

 

He is what? Director of Player Development at Nebraska? What even is that position?

I can't imagine he would turn down being a pitching coach at Texas for whatever that is.

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Just now, Valmy77 said:

He is what? Director of Player Development at Nebraska? What even is that position?

I can't imagine he would turn down being a pitching coach at Texas for whatever that is.

I believe people are just speculating because it makes sense. I don't believe Childress would turn it down but there hasn't been any confirmation that Pierce actually wants him. 

 

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It makes sense since he has been one of the best pitching coaches around for a long time and currently doesn't have a real job in College Baseball. I guess its just a question if he prefers a cushy AD job to coaching, or if we just don't like him for some reason.

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6 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

It makes sense since he has been one of the best pitching coaches around for a long time and currently doesn't have a real job in College Baseball. I guess its just a question if he prefers a cushy AD job to coaching, or if we just don't like him for some reason.

I didn't follow the aggy program closely under Childress but he always had a great reputation as a pitching coach and recruiter. Their issue was always hitting under Childress. 

 

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15 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

I agree with this sentiment. I don’t even think it needs to be a sitting college assistant. 

Kendall Rogers mentioned that he believes Texas wants a proven college coach. 

Based on what I've read at D1 baseball and Baseball America, Texas is big game hunting for an assistant at a D1 program. I guess Texas could go outside the box with an Alaniz,  Woody Williams, or MLB scouting hire but nothing mentioned suggests that is what Texas is doing. Then again Kendall Rogers might not know anything but I tend to agree with his sentiment on that being the most logical conclusion after firing Allen. 

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26 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

I didn't follow the aggy program closely under Childress but he always had a great reputation as a pitching coach and recruiter. Their issue was always hitting under Childress. 

 

and aggyness

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1 minute ago, Hookem2147 said:

Childress’ recruiting really took a nosedive his last few years at A&M but he obviously wouldn’t be as high up on the food chain at Texas in that regard.

I also wonder if being a sitting duck hurt recruiting. Didn't everyone know Childress was about to be fired in the last couple of years? 

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2 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

I also wonder if being a sitting duck hurt recruiting. Didn't everyone know Childress was about to be fired in the last couple of years? 

Eh, I don’t really think that plays too big of a role in baseball. Classes are put together extremely early. Like we already have the majority of our 2023 kids committed and will focus on 2024 and 2025 this summer.

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1 hour ago, Rickylovesweed said:

Somebody can do a better deep dive on Childress but based on his old aggy bio they finished 3rd nationally in ERA for 2019 and several other top 25 finishes in team ERA. Based on proven success, I don't think there's many better options. 

https://12thman.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/rob-childress/1143

Well here are the rankings of his staffs at Nebraska:

Year Ranking ERA
1998             ?? 5.70
1999             ?? 5.61
2000 1 3.14
2001             ?? 4.41
2002 15 3.64
2003 29 3.79
2004 25 3.76
2005 2 2.69

 

And at Texas A&M:

Year Ranking ERA
2006 25 3.56
2007 32 3.84
2008 19 4.01
2009 33 4.49
2010 13 3.70
2011 14 2.90
2012 9 2.92
2013 50 3.43
2014 101 3.67
2015 22 3.04
2016 10 3.05
2017 20 3.48
2018 16 3.38
2019 3 3.21
2020 43 2.94
2021 77

4.55

 

I kind of like the different time periods there. Back in the Gorilla Ball era having a 3.14 was the best in the country. In the BBCOR era 3.67 is good enough for 101st.

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10/15 seasons in top 25 ERA is nothing to sneeze at.  Plus 5 seasons in the top 15.  That'll make Omaha more often than not with our offense under Pierce. 

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1 minute ago, Rickylovesweed said:

Yeah the part about the booster makes me question the legitimacy. Does anyone believe Pierce is firing assistants because of what a booster wants? 

Maybe if a large number of boosters were united. But surely there is always somebody pushing for somebody to be fired, that is just the nature of boosters. It might be true that one of the boosters just did not like coach Allen but that might not be why he was fired.

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6 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

Yeah the part about the booster makes me question the legitimacy. Does anyone believe Pierce is firing assistants because of what a booster wants? 

Depends - I doubt the booster called up Pierce and was like WTF BRO FIRE ALLEN but I'm sure CDC has to hear this shit all the time by boosters/alum while he's at the games visiting with the money guys and the former players in his box and they've already had an end-of-season discussion and Allen/pitching came up as part of it. 

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1 minute ago, Valmy77 said:

Maybe if a large number of boosters were united. But surely there is always somebody pushing for somebody to be fired, that is just the nature of boosters. It might be true that one of the boosters just did not like coach Allen but that might not be why he was fired.

True but the wording was framed as if the booster played a role in Allen being fired. I don't believe that for a second and I hope it isn't true or there are bigger problems. 

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Pierce and Allen did not see eye to eye for quite some time this year. The fact he was let go within hours of the team getting back to Austin means it was probably something Pierce knew he was going to do for a while.

I can't speak to the booster part. Maybe he wanted Allen fired but Allen was being fired regardless. That type of stuff can get lost in translation in a game of telephone.

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4 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

The only other name that comes to mind based on the description above is Kyle Van Hook. He's a well-known MLB scout with a lot of experience at Blinn and San Jac. 

Wasn't he a voluntary assistant for 1 year at Texas? Or was that his son? 

 

That was his son, Clay, who's now at OU.

Kyle is pretty old at this point. At least 65, so I'm not sure he would come back to the college game.

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12 hours ago, D3zii said:

CDBB6EBA-6AFE-4F41-A78F-F13C83CBB972.thumb.jpeg.7f08fd2e1e0a1523dc896926e2aee10b.jpeg
 

has some skins on the wall!!!! Wouldn’t be a bad get but I think it’s someone bigger 

So you have no frame of reference here, Donny. You're like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie and wants to know -

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1 hour ago, HenryJames said:

That all sounds like bullshit.

😊

Yeah,  the thing that gives the story credence is the IT poster,  djb, is well connected.   Not sure how much under Pierce and staff.   He is a teacher in Austin and has a side gig photographing and videoing prep baseball.  Quite successful,  has really grown.    He was a regular poster on Shaggy.   Good guy.

The scout "may" be Chase Lummus' Dad, Mark, who is a scout with the Mariners and pitched at Texas in the early 90's.    Chase is a LHP from the '19 class who has not pitched due to Covid season and TJ surgery.     I met Mark at a high school game sitting in front of him when he saw my Texas cap.   He really follows Texas Baseball not only because of his son but as a former player and alum.      He is really enthusiastic and likely has a close relationship with Pierce.

 

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2 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

Yeah the part about the booster makes me question the legitimacy. Does anyone believe Pierce is firing assistants because of what a booster wants? 

Well, he's fired two now.  After bringing them with him and making such a huge fucking deal about how they were a package/team.

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5 hours ago, SizzleChest said:

It sounds like someone providing Pierce some cover.

“Months ago”? So when we got back from Lubbock? Guess I can see that. 
 

I don’t give a shit who ultimately pulled the trigger, I’m just glad he’s gone. Watching Texas baseball have an average pitching staff is fucked up. 

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7 minutes ago, Fletch said:

“Months ago”? So when we got back from Lubbock? Guess I can see that. 
 

I don’t give a shit who ultimately pulled the trigger, I’m just glad he’s gone. Watching Texas baseball have an average pitching staff is fucked up. 

No, the blaming it on the “booster”.  The booster stuff is bullshit.

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