How bad is Michigan baseball?
After losing its home opener today to Oakland -- Oakland U, not the Athletics -- Michigan is 4-8 with another southern trip looming. Can't seem to get anyone out and can barely hit.
I did not even bother to try seeing them play when they were in Calif. due to the weather (and bad play). Any hope for this team doing anything in the Big Ten? How bad are they?
So bad that they're 4-8 with another southern trip looming. Can't seem to get anyone out and can barely hit.
+1 informative
"How bad are they?"
You forgot to add #FIRESMITH
Glad you said not the Athletics.
So, Oakland was in play?
How on earth are we supposed to top that??
Only 1 good starting pitcher. They will probably lose a lot of games.
Oakland U might be better than the Athletics.
-A's fan here
A's fan here, too!
Remember recently when some folks were calling them the AAA's? I feel like that might be aspirational this year The A's are in a desperate need of a budget that allows them to sign good players.
Moneyball!
Moneyball 2 - Nashville
Moving may give them a smidgebit more revenue, but they still have to win to put cheeks in the seats.
Sign Giambi?
As a Rockies fan I feel your pain
You are Athletics supporters?
So close. You almost had it.
I’m an A’s fan, as well! And considering our usernames, I’m getting strong Spider-Man-pointing-at-Spider-Man vibes…
Start the hashtag.
#HireBakich
We finally had a really good couch a few yeasrs bakc and they let him go without a fight IMO. To me that´s been the worst mistake of Warde´s tenure.
Warde never picks good couches. Aleast he doesn't burn them
The East Lansing special:
There's no way UM can pay their coach what an ACC or SEC team can. Nobody goes to the games, they are hardly ever on tv, and their travel costs are massive compared to the southern schools.
This. The big ten is a mid major in baseball for this very reason. Does not mean you can't have good teams and can't compete, but never going to be able to match the resources of the southern schools.
Why not? With revenue sharing from football and basketball, why is not possible to match the resources. Women's softball consistently does well. The athletic department is consistently in the top 5 in revenue. I'm sorry, I don't buy the "we can't match resources" argument. They easily could if they chose to.
I'm guessing we don't have to pay our women's softball coach what we would have to pay our men's baseball coach to compete with teams down south. Seems like apples and oranges in terms of finances.
She makes $488,000 a year. 10th highest salary in the athletic department. $88,000 more than the current baseball coach.
Because having an elite baseball team would not bring in much more revenue than having an average baseball team and cost a heck of a lot more money.
Baseball in the South and the West is more of an arms race. Salary, facilities, etc. Even if Michigan could match dollar for dollar the best kids are still going to want to play in warmer climates. Playing baseball in the cold sucks. What softball has been able to build and maintain is an outlier and a real testement to the people that run that program.
Probably not worth sinking a ton of money into a team that averages maybe a few hundred people for home games and then when you do that do you feel the need or pressure to up your investment in other non revenue sports too? Baseball in the south is the #2 or #3 sport at most of those schools. At Michigan I don't think it's top 5
Definitely worse than Clemson.
RPI heading into today checks out.
Clemson- 99th
Michigan- 100th
I had to look it up out of curiosity of where others were also.the mitten state seems to be sticking together
Central Michigan 97
Michigan State 98
Clemson 99
Michigan 100
If the weather holds I will be checking them out when they come down to Georgia next weekend. Hopefully they don’t shit the bed.
Fire Bakich.
If Randy would just change hats with the baby in the profile pic this would be perfect.
when i go to baseball games, i still randomly say on deep bomb homers.. "too high". I usually get 3-4 chuckles from around me.
True story!!!!!!!
Let's see if we can get don brown to coach the baseball team. I think he did pretty good at that before
A shortstop blitz might be a bit hazardous to one's health...
Uh, Lord, hallowed be Thy name. May our feet be swift; may our bats be mighty; may our balls... be plentiful.
“Dear lord Thank you for that waitress in South Bend you know who she is she kept screaming your name”
March 11th, 2023 at 12:57 PM ^
"Avoid The Clap".
--Jimmy Dugan
Bullpen was a dumpster fire last season. Michigan was definitely screwed by the umpires in the Louisville game. That said even if they were heading into the 9th inning with a 2 run lead like they should have been, I would not have had any confidence in the bullpen to close it out. Couple that with the players that transferred out or decided to decommit and here we are. It was fun following baseball the last few seasons but I am not holding my breath that it will ever get back to that.
"Ever"? Jesus man no program is great all the time. New coach in a transition year... it'll be ok.
A lot of success and tradition in Michigan baseball. This is not the new standard, just probably a clunker of a season. Better years ahead.
The story is that Bakich went to Warde to ask for facility improvements and boosted assistant pay and Warde said no. Maybe Bakich would have left anyway but not a good look.
That's kind of like living in a neighborhood where the median house price is $400,000 and you want to put a $300,000 addition on to your house, as well as a heated pool, a tennis court, and a new garage. You could justify it by saying it'd be worth the enjoyment you'd get out of it, or you could say you'll never get your money out on the other side so no way. Neither answer is wrong, it's just two different philosophies.
A wise baseball philosopher once said “if you build it, they will come” or something like that but probably not if it’s snowing.
We're a baseball family who lives outside of Chicago. My kids played for 16 years. I spent a lot of time watching from my car in April and even the beginning of May. Baseball is just not that enjoyable up north.
At some point, facilities need upgraded anyway, so why not strike while the iron is hot? Worst case, you don't have to invest in the program again for another decade+. Best case? Bakich stays awhile longer and maybe UM is able to win a NC. Would that be a good ROI?
In the grand scheme of things, I don't think many people would have balked at a decision to spend some money. I do understand the other side of the argument, but what kind of money were we talking? A few million dollars can go a long way and that is small potatoes for the Athletic Department. $15M+ then that is a different story.
Regardless, I'm not sure Warde made the best hire to rebuild the program after all of the transfers/decommits. Time will tell.
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I don’t blame Warde for not throwing a bunch of money towards a mid-major sport. The ROI just isn’t there. The Big Ten doesn’t care about baseball, and the best players don’t want to play in the north. It doesn’t make much sense to invest what the western and southern schools do.
Yep. It's easy for us with no idea how their budget works to just say "Upgrade everything and pay everybody everything". Football and basketball monies can only be stretched so far.