Murphy has done a terrific job with the team this season after the debacle of 2018. They execute fundamentally and show good baseball IQ.

My guess is that much of it stems from the very hot start for the team. As a parent of a college student, at times early returns lead to unreasonable expectations. That being said, Waldman has had a very tough few days at the plate. But, that is baseball. I think we have exceeded expectations this year. 2nd guessing is a part of life and has no reflection on Murphy as a coach or manager of the Tribe unless Huge reads everything we post here and uses it to fire another wonderful W&M employee.

I am concerned about that already.

As for the tourney, we simply haven't hit anything. Some of that could be good pitching against us. But, despite the fact that we basically haven't scored, we were leading into the 6th in a game that would have put us in the finals. Fantastic pitching and defense overall. But, when you don't score, the margin for error is basically zero.(and the 2 HRS in the 6th basically won it for the Hawks) If we can pitch today and get the hitting going, we might have a real chance in a rematch against the Seahawks. Sometimes in baseball, once the hits start coming, everyone gets into the act. The Tribe is 3 wins away from a championship. Certainly better than if we had lost to Charleston. But, UNCW has been the best team in the tournament and has hit in every game. Beating Elon today will be a very difficult task on its own.

(05-25-2019 12:15 AM)zablenoise Wrote:  All I know is the team was terrible last year and there was nothing.

(05-25-2019 05:50 AM)bubbadog57 Wrote:  Murphy has done a terrific job with the team this season after the debacle of 2018.

Uh, hello, but Murphy was the manager last year, too. My opinion of Murphy is mostly neutral. As I said, I hate how he sacrifice bunts so much.

On the CAA site there are highlights from yesterday's game. At the 4:06 mark it shows the last out at first base. Judging by how far past the bag Socher is when the ball gets in the glove, I think that he beat it out. $%^#%%^#^#!!!!! If the pitch had been another inch in any direction, then it is a run-scoring HBP with Raquet coming up. I guess it is cosmic karma for the Tribe getting lucky in throwing out that CofC runner at the plate when Hunter Smith (catcher) tried to pick him off first base. That is the only thought that will allow me to move forward from the what-might-have-been if Socher had been ruled safe.

Will be tough to beat Elon today who also has a good lineup and has played 1 less game than us and has a rested bullpen

Any idea who is starting for us against Elon?

(05-25-2019 12:15 AM)zablenoise Wrote:  Ok I'll ask: what's up with all the Murphy hate this year? Influx of angry parents? Something happen in the off-season?

All I know is the team was terrible last year and there was nothing. This year the team is actually decent but some posters have been critical right from the gate.

I think that a lot of the criticisms are valid. I'm also not a fan of sac bunts and our lineup can be odd a lot of the time. But I think Murphy is mostly a good coach. I don't know what our Pythagorean win rate is but I bet we're beating it. And he's gotten the most out of these odd lineups he plays. The guy isn't Joe Maddon but we have had some real success under him.

Edit: Pythagorean wins are .609 and actual wins are .611. So almost exactly even. It's not the most rigorous metric but it can be a good guideline.

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I think the annoyances with Murphy comes from a lot of questionable decisions he makes. While the team has been much improved this year, they should not have been as pathetic as they were last year.

That being said, we need to find some hitters. Outside of Cone and to a lesser extent Trehub and Smith, nobody has looked comfortable at the plate. It is just unrealistic to expect to continue to win games scoring 2 runs or less

Just saw Nick Butts is starting today. Guessing this is going to be a bullpen type of day.

Bats are going to have to produce today. Don't see us holding Elon to anything less than 5 runs

Yikes, this dude on the mound has no control of his pitches

Sadly, that might already be game.... This pitcher is a gascan though - none of his pitches look good

Remove Butts NOW!! Tribe cannot give up any more runs -- b/c we don't score many runs.

Almost expected Elon to roll the dice and save Brnovich for the second game today assuming they'd readily handle us.

Butts seems to have settled down. It might have been too late, though, since those three horses have already left the barn. The Tribe just has two 2-out singles so far. Need to get some offense going this inning ......

Aw geez! Finally get a clutch 2-out hit to score a run but the batter (Hunter Smith) makes too wide of a turn at first and gets caught off the bag. Rally killed.

Can't afford dumb base running errors like that, though.

What? Butts finally settled down and now they take him out? I don't get it.

(05-25-2019 12:03 PM)Zorch Wrote:  What? Butts finally settled down and now they take him out? I don't get it.

In all fairness, he hadn't thrown more than 4 innings this season and he threw a lot of pitches in the 1st inning

(05-25-2019 12:18 PM)WMtribe17 Wrote:  

(05-25-2019 12:03 PM)Zorch Wrote:  What? Butts finally settled down and now they take him out? I don't get it.

In all fairness, he hadn't thrown more than 4 innings this season and he threw a lot of pitches in the 1st inning

Okay -- but why right in the middle of the inning? Let him finish off the inning and then bring in someone fresh for the next inning. Plus, this would be the one game where he knew he might have to stretch out his output a little bit.

(05-25-2019 12:32 PM)Zorch Wrote:  

(05-25-2019 12:18 PM)WMtribe17 Wrote:  

(05-25-2019 12:03 PM)Zorch Wrote:  What? Butts finally settled down and now they take him out? I don't get it.

In all fairness, he hadn't thrown more than 4 innings this season and he threw a lot of pitches in the 1st inning

Okay -- but why right in the middle of the inning? Let him finish off the inning and then bring in someone fresh for the next inning. Plus, this would be the one game where he knew he might have to stretch out his output a little bit.

Agreed that in the inning was a bad choice, but honestly we were flirting with fire with each extra out he was out there.

Don't think it will matter, as I don't think our offense can get 5 runs if you give them 20 innings

(05-24-2019 10:33 PM)Zorch Wrote:  

(05-24-2019 10:30 PM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  

(05-24-2019 10:26 PM)Zorch Wrote:  

(05-24-2019 10:07 PM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  

(05-24-2019 09:19 PM)Tribal Wrote:  A player's kinfolk weighing in again.

Not a whisper of "outcoached" criticism when we swept uncw 4 weeks ago but popping off after a loss. Bitter trolls.

Looks to me like its only 1 guy, and he's a UNC fan with less than 10 posts, who has never posted on our board. Typical.

Good luck against Elon, hope to see you guys again tomorrow.

Aren't you the guy whose post can be seen on the JMU board wishing them good luck in that first game against us?

Yes, because I wanted to avoid Elon on the 2nd day. It wasn’t out of ill will.

Okay, but then it is out of expediency for UNCW and not out of any sincerity for JMU or W&M (which is what it looks like at first glance).

Seems a little far fetched to think we'd ever be sincere to the detriment of our team wishing WM or JMU "luck". It's a combination of being cordial and respectful with our conference mates and self-serving interests of UNCW's sports teams. Seeing as your WM and not JMU, I expect a little more intellect than thinking anything more is at play here. Just saying.

(05-25-2019 01:18 PM)CG_Hawk06 Wrote:  

(05-24-2019 10:33 PM)Zorch Wrote:  

(05-24-2019 10:30 PM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  

(05-24-2019 10:26 PM)Zorch Wrote:  

(05-24-2019 10:07 PM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  Looks to me like its only 1 guy, and he's a UNC fan with less than 10 posts, who has never posted on our board. Typical.

Good luck against Elon, hope to see you guys again tomorrow.

Aren't you the guy whose post can be seen on the JMU board wishing them good luck in that first game against us?

Yes, because I wanted to avoid Elon on the 2nd day. It wasn’t out of ill will.

Okay, but then it is out of expediency for UNCW and not out of any sincerity for JMU or W&M (which is what it looks like at first glance).

Seems a little far fetched to think we'd ever be sincere to the detriment of our team wishing WM or JMU "luck". It's a combination of being cordial and respectful with our conference mates and self-serving interests of UNCW's sports teams. Seeing as your WM and not JMU, I expect a little more intellect than thinking anything more is at play here. Just saying.

Just saying? Well, I never said that you had to be sincere to the detriment of your team. Just don't say anything at all about the W&M/JMU game if you are not really sincere about their team. I also didn't think "anything more is at play here". I was simply giving Seahawk Nation 08 a ribbing because I had noticed that he had given our competitor a good luck and then he gave us one. I later noticed that he had also done the very same thing on the Northeastern board. So don't make more out of it than it is. Seahawk Nation 08 explained himself.