State of Baseball

Apr 26, 2023, 1:49 AM

I know I see something special with this team. Not in Bakich’s 2nd year or 3rd, but this team. Im realizing that this lineup is simply loaded. First off, there are basically zero bad hitters in our lineup. Yeah you’ve got the top half, but guys like Blackwell, Amick especially, and Bertram have consistently hit well and had great ABs.

I noticed an AB by Blackwell versus NC State where Erik called him over and slowed him down. Blackwell ended up working it 3-2 and walked. Bakich has control over these guys. He’s making them more consistent. There’s real, actual process being made. It’s not a fake fluke like Monte when he started 13-0 and then sucked.

But since I see good things, I find it safe to start paying attention to the analytics. There were several teams ahead in the RPI that lost midweek games, such as East Carolina, Coastal Carolina, Campbell, Dallas Baptist. 3 of which were beat by ACC teams that we’ve played like NC State, WF, and Duke. Also, the coots are unfortunately having their best year since their great 2010s run. But it’s helping out RPI very much since we have a win against them.

Looking ahead, I would say that if we beat Coastal, we may only need to win 2/3 against one of our remaining ACC opponents (BC, Louisville, UNC). All three are good teams. But beating Coastal would be a tremendous boost. I believe that our team is well good enough to beat any opponent really in the ACC at the moment. With the progress we’ve made by this point, we may be nationally very good by the end.

Love how Bakich chose the approach of taking this slow and getting everything set. It has taken a bunch of switching players around and the pitching has finally shown they’re better. And I’m sure there’s more to do, but we’re just looking unbeatable right now.