The Official #10 Auburn @ #12 Tennessee Series Thread (Sat. May 3 11AM EDT) (Sun. May 4 1PM EDT) (Sun. May 4 45 mins after) (All games SECNET+)

#3,601
#3,601
txbo said:
Most of the mid-week competition recently has been pretty poor. I can understand why fans don't want to pay to see it.
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Non conference teams have gotten worse because they‘ve been raided by the portal. Exceptions being ETSU, Northern KY, and Indiana St. Regardless, it’s s deal for mid-week baseball.
 
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#3,602
#3,602
taylorvol said:
Non conference teams have gotten worse because they‘ve been raided by the portal. Exceptions being ETSU, Northern KY, and Indiana St. Regardless, it’s s deal for mid-week baseball.
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Yea, I get it. Regardless, I understand fans having no interest in sitting through a 4 hour game with 10 pitching changes as we bludgeon Bellarmine or Lipscomb.
 
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#3,603
#3,603
Volstylexx said:
Imagine the message it sends in recruiting when a coach can say, “Did you see how they handled their All-American? One rough stretch and they benched him for someone else.” That’s why it speaks volumes that Tony has continued to back Curley. It’s a strong reflection of the program’s culture—loyalty, trust, and letting guys play their way through adversity. As someone mentioned earlier, we've seen this with Beck and Ensley in prior years. The pure vitriol spewed at Ensley and then he literally sacrificed his body when it mattered most. All it takes is that one hit at the right time in post-season to change the trajectory. No one remembers Amick being 1-17 in Omaha because of the one hit that mattered the most.

Curley has earned the right to work through this funk, and i hope there comes a point and time where he makes TN fans look silly for wanting him benched.
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Or a recruit could say " I know that if I produce, I have a chance to play" rather than saying, " I don't want to go there because I will be sitting on the bench while the guy in front of me is not producing".
 
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#3,604
#3,604
taylorvol said:
6 tickets for two games for $500+ for a weekend SEC series is reasonable for defending NC and for the top program in the country (based on wins for past 5 seasons). Prices typically go down closer to game time at every SEC venue vs looking a week or more ahead. Regarding Friday and Saturday, of course the fan turnout was low—-the weather was terrible! Thunderstorms and heavy rain don’t result in good baseball crowds anywhere in the country. However, I guarantee you could have made the drive and secured very cheap tickets. GBO!
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You may be right...I'm in the consumer good industry now after several years in higher ed and you need need more than visuals on tv and an internet price scan to gauge if tickets are priced correctly.

I'll just say a lot of pricing is breaking in the marketplace right now. I'll be surprised if sports are exempt.
 
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#3,605
#3,605
txbo said:
Yea, I get it. Regardless, I understand fans having no interest in sitting through a 4 hour game with 10 pitching changes as we bludgeon Bellarmine or Lipscomb.
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Based on the non conf teams getting picked over by the big boys, TN had a very deceptive 20-0 start. I hope UT adds a home and away team to future schedules. I’m thinking VA Tech and/or GA Tech would be great additions for a non conf weekend series.
 
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#3,606
#3,606
taylorvol said:
Based on the non conf teams getting picked over by the big boys, TN had a very deceptive 20-0 start. I hope UT adds a home and away team to future schedules. I’m thinking VA Tech and/or GA Tech would be great additions for a non conf weekend series.
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Either of those would be fun to watch.
 
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#3,609
#3,609
MoCo_Vol said:
1 out with bases loaded a good bunt to 1st could have also won it if infield was back.
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Right, play with your corners in and the middle at double play depth. You take away the bunt and still have the ability to make the double play. This leaves the gaps open but less likely to hit there anyway and takes away the easiest options.

Of course, Newstrom could have had a different approach at the plate if this were the alignment.
 
#3,610
#3,610
The game #3 loss was more the result of the Friday night play-in-the-rain decision than even the game #1 loss.

We used a lot of our Sunday staff game guys in game #1.

I try not to be too negative- at least since Todd Raleigh was kicked outta town, but that Friday night fiasco had me steamed all weekend. Then watching the amoeba strike zone -especially in game 1 really drove me over the edge.
 
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#3,611
#3,611
taylorvol said:
Based on the non conf teams getting picked over by the big boys, TN had a very deceptive 20-0 start. I hope UT adds a home and away team to future schedules. I’m thinking VA Tech and/or GA Tech would be great additions for a non conf weekend series.
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I would like to see us play at least 1 in-state road game. And do it for the teams closest to us.

We could alternate ETSU and Tennessee Tech every other season. Give the fans from those regions a chance to see us play. I know we have stadium to pay for but one game every season could be done.
 
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#3,612
#3,612
UT (Admin) is definitely burning through fans good-will capital built over the past few years. Perfect storm of incomplete facilities, increased ticket prices, and below expectation performance is hard for fans to stomach.
 
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#3,613
#3,613
Vtonerider said:
UT (Admin) is definitely burning through fans good-will capital built over the past few years. Perfect storm of incomplete facilities, increased ticket prices, and below expectation performance is hard for fans to stomach.
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Below expectation peformance? We are still a top 15 team. Look at how recent National Champions have done the year after they won it all.

It could be A LOT worse
 
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#3,615
#3,615
fryeguy93 said:
I would like to see us play at least 1 in-state road game. And do it for the teams closest to us.

We could alternate ETSU and Tennessee Tech every other season. Give the fans from those regions a chance to see us play. I know we have stadium to pay for but one game every season could be done.
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Wouldn't work at TnTech. Home baseball games are free. We couldn't cover UT's fee off ticket sales..
 
#3,616
#3,616
rockytop25 said:
Below expectation peformance? We are still a top 15 team. Look at how recent National Champions have done the year after they won it all.

It could be A LOT worse
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Or, use SoCar as a case study in 'what the heck happened!'
 
#3,617
#3,617
Baseball is a weird, random sport. It's weirder than college football, which I think many of us instinctively compare other sports to. A good college baseball team can finish SEC play a couple of games above .500. A good college football team doesn't go 4-4 in conference play.

The 2023 team had a very up and down year before getting hot at the best possible time, which was Regionals. In some ways, they were even more sluggish than this team - they lost 2 of 3 to open the season in Arizona, then opened SEC play by getting swept at Mizzou (who turned out to not even be good). That team also had a stretch from March 30 to April 16 where they went 2-7 in SEC play, then lost a midweek game to Tennessee Tech. After getting right against Vandy, they lost the first game of the SECT. They went 16-14 in SEC play, which on the surface doesn't sound particularly good. Honestly, I don't think our fanbase understands that going 25-5 (like in 2022) in abnormal. Even going 22-8 isn't typical. The winner of the SEC in any given year quite often has 10+ conference losses.

Point being, baseball is a very random sport, and they have the talent to make a run. One thing I will say is that someone other than Doyle probably needs to emerge and become a kind of Alpha personality. The 2023 team suffered from a leadership gap as well; that tends to happen when guys like Gilbert, Beck, etc. depart. Losing Moore, Burke, Connell, etc. has left a leadership gap.
 
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#3,618
#3,618
Vtonerider said:
UT (Admin) is definitely burning through fans good-will capital built over the past few years. Perfect storm of incomplete facilities, increased ticket prices, and below expectation performance is hard for fans to stomach.
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I’m not sure there will be a moment any time soon where I think the baseballl program is performing “below expectations.” People have lost sight of where we have come from. We’re not a traditional baseball power and we just won the national championship. We’re in a “down” year and still on the regional host bubble. If we’re performing below expectations, than our expectations as a fanbase have gotten out of touch with reality.
 
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#3,619
#3,619
TheMookieMonster said:
I’m not sure there will be a moment any time soon where I think the baseballl program is performing “below expectations.” People have lost sight of where we have come from. We’re not a traditional baseball power and we just won the national championship. We’re in a “down” year and still on the regional host bubble. If we’re performing below expectations, than our expectations as a fanbase have gotten out of touch with reality.
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That's the point of my post. The objective metrics are facilities and ticket prices the subjective metric is "team performance ". I may have overestimated my audience.
 
#3,622
#3,622
TheMookieMonster said:
I’m not sure there will be a moment any time soon where I think the baseballl program is performing “below expectations.” People have lost sight of where we have come from. We’re not a traditional baseball power and we just won the national championship. We’re in a “down” year and still on the regional host bubble. If we’re performing below expectations, than our expectations as a fanbase have gotten out of touch with reality.
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This fanbase definitely has skewed expectations of what a "good" college baseball team is. If you started paying a lot of attention to college baseball generally or Tennessee in particular (admittedly, I had little interest in Tennessee baseball until 2021), then you think a team having a good year wins 25 out of 30 conference games (in the best conference in the country), wins the SECT, and then at least makes it to Omaha, if not win the whole thing. If you do anything less than that, then you must not be very good.
 
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