A Work In Progress

[vol66]

A while back I posted some charts comparing the last 10 seasons of Vols Baseball. When I was putting those together I had to acknowledge that for all the progress that had been made, we still had a ways to go before we caught up to some of the elite SEC teams.

I thought it would be interesting to see where UT stands, statistically, with the final eight teams in this years NCAA tournament.

(NR)= National Rank

TEAM BATTING AVERAGE

(14) Ole Miss - .303
(47) Louisville - .287
(50) Texas Tech - .287
(65) TCU - .283
(67) Vandy - .282
(76) UVA - .281
(110) Tenn. - .275
(132) UC Irvine - .272
(161) Texas - .268

TEAM FIELDING PERCENTAGE

(3) UVA - .982
(5) Texas Tech - .979
(11) TCU - .978
(26) Texas - .975
(33) Vandy - .975
(38) UC Irvine - .974
(77) Ole Miss - .971
(80) Tenn. - .971
(84) Louisville - .971

TEAM EARNED RUN AVERAGE

(1) TCU - 2.19
(5) UVA - 2.31
(6) Texas - 2.32
(16) Ole Miss - 2.72
(19) Vandy - 2.75
(20) UC Irvine - 2.76
(21) Louisville - 2.78
(42) TexTch - 3.17
(68) Tenn. - 3.41

HITS ALLOWED PER 9 INNINGS

(1) UVA - 6.50
(2) Vandy - 6.70
(6) TCU - 7.01
(11) Louisville - 7.40
(12) Texas - 7.41
(44) Tenn. - 8.00
(56) UC Irvine - 8.19
(58) Ole Miss - 8.22
(61) TexTch - 8.25

WALKS ALLOWED PER 9 INNINGS

(4) UC Irvine - 2.09
(5) TCU - 2.22
(17) Ole Miss - 2.63
(28) UVA - 2.78
(54) TexTch - 3.01
(118) Vandy - 3.40
(122) Texas - 3.42
(165) Louisville - 3.68
(185) Tenn. - 3.81

STRIKE OUTS PER 9 INNINGS

(3) Vandy - 9.0
(5) Louisville - 8.5
(6) TCU - 8.4
(12) UVA - 8.1
(60) Ole Miss - 7.3
(78) UC Irvine - 7.1
(105) Tenn. - 6.8
(136) TexTch - 6.5
(232) Texas - 5.7

 

[fade route]

You could have just typed "we suck" and saved yourself all the stat work.

 

[vol66]

You could have just typed "we suck" and saved yourself all the stat work.

Never ceases to amaze how two people can look at the same data and come to wildly different conclusions.

 

[vol66]

.

 

[orangeluvr]

You could have just typed "we suck" and saved yourself all the stat work.

I've called you down for saying that sh*t before . :stop:

 

[DownTheField]

You could have just typed "we suck" and saved yourself all the stat work.

I'm pretty sure copy/paste is just as quick and I'm also pretty sure that "we suck" doesn't contain as much information and it doesn't really apply in this situation.

 

[lovavol]

era and walks....that sucks, the rest is meh

 

[vol66]

Lol, welp...I guess some context is in order...

In 2013 our ERA rank was (243) with a 5.37 ERA. We allowed 10.09 hits per game ranking us at (217) out of about 300 teams. That is what "suck" looks like.

I agree that the walks per game was actually a bit worse this year than last(3.70) but let's face this fact...what we're looking at is the final 8 teams in the CWS.

How many of those teams would have placed Kyle Serrano (for instance) in the weekend rotation? Let's take Jordan Sheffield for example, how many innings did he pitch for Vandy this year? Zero. In fact, he was in Laconia with Eric Freeman when VU won the CWS. Throw in Hunter Martin and Andrew Lee, and you have three pitchers that had never pitched in an SEC game in the weekend rotation.

This team was carrying a .976 fielding percentage into the last 13 games of the season. In other words, for 2/3's of the season they were performing as a top 25 defense, we had 4 extra inning games during that stretch as well and some of those errors, costly as they were, were uncharacteristic of how they had performed throughout most of the season.

As for the team batting average, ours was the same both years. It seemed like it should be included but the truth is when 47 of the top 50 don't make the final 8, it makes one wonder if it's a meaningful stat. Conversely, 7 of the top 21 in ERA rank made the elite 8.

Just some food for thought...you know...in the off season...

 

[Freddie32]

Jordan Sheffield is a bad example. He was recovering from TJ surgery all season.

 

[vol66]

Jordan Sheffield is a bad example. He was recovering from TJ surgery all season.

I didn't realize that, I thought it was just a redshirt, so in that regard it is a bad example, but the over all point is the same. The programs we're talking about have the luxury of red shirting guys that aren't ready.

Jordan last pitched on July 2nd: 4 IP, 6 R, 6 ER, 7 BB, 3 SO, ERA 7.16

 

[BigOrange51]

I didn't realize that, I thought it was just a redshirt, so in that regard it is a bad example, but the over all point is the same. The programs we're talking about have the luxury of red shirting guys that aren't ready.

Jordan last pitched on July 2nd: 4 IP, 6 R, 6 ER, 7 BB, 3 SO, ERA 7.16

He was recovering from TJ, but he blew out his arm in the middle of last spring. He was likely throwing full pens and scrimmage games in April. Add to that the fact that he was a 1st round talent prior to blowing out his arm in HS, which makes him likely a goner after his junior year in school, and it is definitely valid to point out his lack of playing time. Vanderbilt is probably the only team in the country that would have finished him as a redshirt. That not only separates them from us, but from the rest of the nation.