What changed against Vandy? Going forward...

[chuckiepoo]

1-9 on the road in SEC play. That's why I think getting 2 in Athens and 1 in Columbia will be a win for this team, as long as we take care of business in the 2 remaining home series'. Two in Columbia would have me over the moon...but that team is playing lights out right now.

…a clear opportunity for regression. Give it a couple of weeks.

 

[preacherman20]

D1Baseball makes no mention of UT sweeping Vandy on weekly chat.

 

[chuckiepoo]

D1Baseball makes no mention of UT sweeping Vandy on weekly chat.

So clearly, it didn’t happen…

 

[Orange931]

It was the hat and coat coming back.

 

[chuckiepoo]

It was the hat and coat coming back.

Ya prolly got something there. Talismans can be huge in a sport exceedingly driven by superstition.

 

[WallyBalls]

I've been surprised by the guys who have stepped up and leading. Kinda like the disciples in the Bible, not the ones we would pick.

Pretty cool way to describe it.

The good ones rarely are the ones we'd pick.

More than anything, this is what excites me about the hopeful feeling moving forward.

 

[AthensVol2007]

UF hosted at 15-15 last year. I see no scenario where an 18-12 SEC team isn’t hosting. Unless they just insist on having 2 FL teams Miami may get the boot. They still have series at UofL and at Pitt (who’s split the last 6 with WF and UVA) and host Duke who’s playing lights out. You can’t give a hosting site to a .500 ACC team over .600 SEC team in that best case scenario.

 

[Gorilla33]

One thing that changed this weekend, is that we were swinging some Demarini bats. Maui was using last years “The Goods”. How do we do that with the LS contract? Of note, Gilbert’s walkoff against Wright State was with a Demarini Voodoo one. Always been curious about that as other pics of him that year he was swinging a LS.

 

[Aerie Vol]

The mind. It's simply amazing what you mind can do for you, or against you. Momentum is an actual thing.

There's a reason Smoltz and others pay sports psychologists millions to keep them in game shape mentally.

Historical cliche: the sub-four minute mile.

"The human body simply is; incapable of propelling itself the distance of a mile in less than 4 minutes."

Decades pass.

Decades pass.

Decades pass.

Banister runs 3:59.4.

Six weeks later another dude does it in 3:58.

Within a few years at least 10 more do it.

The power of the mind. Friday gave us the belief.

 

[taylorvol]

D1Baseball makes no mention of UT sweeping Vandy on weekly chat.

Hmmmm. I wonder who is VolNation on the D1 chat?

VolNation: Florida gets swept by South Carolina and drops from 3 to 4. I know I know you’re going to say everyone else lost, that’s their first weekend loss, South Carolina is really good etc etc but come on man Florida fed off the bottom of the conference and didn’t look like they belonged on the same field with the Gamecocks. .
Aaron Fitt: And who would you put at No. 4 then? I’ll wait.

 

[preacherman20]

I decided not to share the info about swinging Demarini’s this weekend. They are actually both companies owned by Wilson so that is probably what allows it. I understand there were several guys swinging different bats this weekend. It is pretty much like the coat and cap thing. Vitello told them whatever it takes for y’all to win ballgames. Within reason.
Maybe Kirby taking balls at shortstop on Thursday scared Maui into thinking he might lose his job .

 

[preacherman20]

Hmmmm. I wonder who is VolNation on the D1 chat?

VolNation: Florida gets swept by South Carolina and drops from 3 to 4. I know I know you’re going to say everyone else lost, that’s their first weekend loss, South Carolina is really good etc etc but come on man Florida fed off the bottom of the conference and didn’t look like they belonged on the same field with the Gamecocks. .
Aaron Fitt: And who would you put at No. 4 then? I’ll wait.

Not me. I sent one in, but they did not answer mine.
I wanted to know how bad Vanderbilt had to be to lose to the worst team in the nation.

 

[BruisedOrange]

I've been surprised by the guys who have stepped up and leading. Kinda like the disciples in the Bible, not the ones we would pick.

Good point, though Matthias was liked lots.

 

[vegasvolfan]

It would be the understatement of the year to say that that Vandy series was exactly what this team needed. Couldn't draw up a better script than to win a huge gut-check comeback win over the #2 team in America and your top instate rival, then blow them out of the water twice. From a psychological standpoint, those are games that will win other games. But specifically, what changed this weekend in areas that needed to change? As I said in another post, I think something had changed even before the comeback on Friday. We were already playing much better baseball prior to the 9th inning comeback. A switch seemed to have flipped between Tuesday and Friday...then that comeback win flipped all the switches and breakers, to stick with a bad analogy.

-Maui Ahuna. I don't know if it was the back issues or confidence or something else. But he wasn't what we thought he would be leading up to the Vandy series, either at the plate or in the field. But in one weekend series, he suddenly became a totally different player. He went from a liability at SS to a kid who looks like a gold glover. That play he made to throw out Bradfield was MLB elite. There aren't 5 college SS's in America who make that play. And he was making great plays all weekend. At the plate, he finally found it. As great as the HR, doubles, and RBIs were, he had an at bat yesterday when he came back from down 0-2 and drew a walk...that was the quintessence of how different he's hitting right now. His whole approach looks different. It was a great at bat. Glad to have Maui on board.

-The swagger. We seemed to go too far in the other direction trying to avoid the "over the line" stuff the team was criticized for last year. And it cost us our energy. This is a program that thrives on being a confident, fun-loving, chirpy, energetic team with an edge. That's just the identity under TV and always will be. The trick is to find the medium and not cross the line. This weekend, that energy and swagger was back. Nobody flipped the bird, but we brought the coat/hat back, danced, celebrated, and looked like 2021 Tennessee. It needs to stay. Maybe Moore went too far before getting ejected (don't know what he said), but at he end of the day, I'd rather see that than passivity.

-Chase Burns. No denying his talent. But he has a defined role now that works for him. He's going to be a terror out of the pen going forward. And thankfully, we have Andrew Lindsey who allows Burns to move into that role. We have a great 3-headed monster again with our weekend rotation.

-Defense. Yeah, we had a couple of errors from Denton and Kendro late in Sunday's game that sorta put a blemish on things, but for the most part, the team played really good defense this weekend. And it's not just about avoiding errors. They made some really great plays that they just weren't making before.

-Dollander is back. Nuff said. Man, he was elite when he got rolling.

-Beam bounced back from the Arkansas struggle. That was obviously an aberration.

-Hunter Ensley is getting better and better. He is going to be a star going forward. Kind of in that Trey Lipscomb mold...just a solid, steady player who sticks with the program, bides his time, gets better and better...then (I predict) blossoms into a star as a senior.

Going forward:

-I think we've found our lineup and defined roles for the most part. Stark has settled into the Catcher role. We've settled the weekend rotation and bullpen. The only area that is unsettled is the RF spot (which also affects the DH spot). I think it's time to put Merritt in the RF spot and DH Tears/Dreiling. I love what Scott has brought to the program, but his lack of ability at the plate puts a hole in the lineup. His role should be a late inning defensive replacement. I think we've seen enough of a sample size there. Besides, Merritt is a very good OF himself, so it's not like there would be a huge dropoff. We saw what Merritt did with his arm on Friday. He's at least as good in RF as Jordan Beck was. Further, we need another good right-handed bat to even things out in the lineup between lefties and righties. I think the primary lineup going forward should be:

C- Stark (R)
1B- Burke (L)
2B- Moore (R)
SS- Ahuna (L)
3B- Denton (S)
LF- Dickey (L)
CF- Ensley (R)
RF- Merritt (R)
DH- Tears (L)

Then I'd have Dreiling be the next man up in both LF when Dickey catches and at DH when you wanna play him instead of Tears. That lineup gives you 4 lefties, 4 righties, and a switch hitter. Very even.

-I hope Moore and Ahuna rest tomorrow. Let the foot and back heal more. Looking back, Moore getting Sunday off was a good thing.

We're now 26-14, 8-10. 4 midweeks and 12 SEC games left. The midweeks are all weak...no TN Techs or Boston Colleges left. My best guess on the outcomes of our remaining schedule ASSUMING this team has turned a corner and we're going to get the good version of this team going forward:

-sweep the midweeks
-MSU: win 2 or 3
-Georgia: win 2 (although I could see a sweep or just 1 win in this one...UGA is tough to read)
-Kentucky: win 2 or 3
South Carolina: win 1 or 2

That puts us at somewhere between 37-19 (15-15) and 40-16 (18-12) going into Hoover.

If this team hits 40 overall wins and 18 SEC wins before the SECT, that's a solid 2 seed and maybe a 1 seed. Am I wrong to think that's possible?

Not sure I’m ready to say anything has changed yet. I think home games favor us, but I think this young team is simply getting better.

 

[tennesseeduke]

It would be the understatement of the year to say that that Vandy series was exactly what this team needed. Couldn't draw up a better script than to win a huge gut-check comeback win over the #2 team in America and your top instate rival, then blow them out of the water twice. From a psychological standpoint, those are games that will win other games. But specifically, what changed this weekend in areas that needed to change? As I said in another post, I think something had changed even before the comeback on Friday. We were already playing much better baseball prior to the 9th inning comeback. A switch seemed to have flipped between Tuesday and Friday...then that comeback win flipped all the switches and breakers, to stick with a bad analogy.

-Maui Ahuna. I don't know if it was the back issues or confidence or something else. But he wasn't what we thought he would be leading up to the Vandy series, either at the plate or in the field. But in one weekend series, he suddenly became a totally different player. He went from a liability at SS to a kid who looks like a gold glover. That play he made to throw out Bradfield was MLB elite. There aren't 5 college SS's in America who make that play. And he was making great plays all weekend. At the plate, he finally found it. As great as the HR, doubles, and RBIs were, he had an at bat yesterday when he came back from down 0-2 and drew a walk...that was the quintessence of how different he's hitting right now. His whole approach looks different. It was a great at bat. Glad to have Maui on board.

-The swagger. We seemed to go too far in the other direction trying to avoid the "over the line" stuff the team was criticized for last year. And it cost us our energy. This is a program that thrives on being a confident, fun-loving, chirpy, energetic team with an edge. That's just the identity under TV and always will be. The trick is to find the medium and not cross the line. This weekend, that energy and swagger was back. Nobody flipped the bird, but we brought the coat/hat back, danced, celebrated, and looked like 2021 Tennessee. It needs to stay. Maybe Moore went too far before getting ejected (don't know what he said), but at he end of the day, I'd rather see that than passivity.

-Chase Burns. No denying his talent. But he has a defined role now that works for him. He's going to be a terror out of the pen going forward. And thankfully, we have Andrew Lindsey who allows Burns to move into that role. We have a great 3-headed monster again with our weekend rotation.

-Defense. Yeah, we had a couple of errors from Denton and Kendro late in Sunday's game that sorta put a blemish on things, but for the most part, the team played really good defense this weekend. And it's not just about avoiding errors. They made some really great plays that they just weren't making before.

-Dollander is back. Nuff said. Man, he was elite when he got rolling.

-Beam bounced back from the Arkansas struggle. That was obviously an aberration.

-Hunter Ensley is getting better and better. He is going to be a star going forward. Kind of in that Trey Lipscomb mold...just a solid, steady player who sticks with the program, bides his time, gets better and better...then (I predict) blossoms into a star as a senior.

Going forward:

-I think we've found our lineup and defined roles for the most part. Stark has settled into the Catcher role. We've settled the weekend rotation and bullpen. The only area that is unsettled is the RF spot (which also affects the DH spot). I think it's time to put Merritt in the RF spot and DH Tears/Dreiling. I love what Scott has brought to the program, but his lack of ability at the plate puts a hole in the lineup. His role should be a late inning defensive replacement. I think we've seen enough of a sample size there. Besides, Merritt is a very good OF himself, so it's not like there would be a huge dropoff. We saw what Merritt did with his arm on Friday. He's at least as good in RF as Jordan Beck was. Further, we need another good right-handed bat to even things out in the lineup between lefties and righties. I think the primary lineup going forward should be:

C- Stark (R)
1B- Burke (L)
2B- Moore (R)
SS- Ahuna (L)
3B- Denton (S)
LF- Dickey (L)
CF- Ensley (R)
RF- Merritt (R)
DH- Tears (L)

Then I'd have Dreiling be the next man up in both LF when Dickey catches and at DH when you wanna play him instead of Tears. That lineup gives you 4 lefties, 4 righties, and a switch hitter. Very even.

-I hope Moore and Ahuna rest tomorrow. Let the foot and back heal more. Looking back, Moore getting Sunday off was a good thing.

We're now 26-14, 8-10. 4 midweeks and 12 SEC games left. The midweeks are all weak...no TN Techs or Boston Colleges left. My best guess on the outcomes of our remaining schedule ASSUMING this team has turned a corner and we're going to get the good version of this team going forward:

-sweep the midweeks
-MSU: win 2 or 3
-Georgia: win 2 (although I could see a sweep or just 1 win in this one...UGA is tough to read)
-Kentucky: win 2 or 3
South Carolina: win 1 or 2

That puts us at somewhere between 37-19 (15-15) and 40-16 (18-12) going into Hoover.

If this team hits 40 overall wins and 18 SEC wins before the SECT, that's a solid 2 seed and maybe a 1 seed. Am I wrong to think that's possible?

Simple: game 1 hitting 2 hrs bottom of the ninth and Burns blanking for 5 innings!

 

[bonnieandclyde]

I don't know that Frank's calls were different but I'm guessing by something that V has said over the past few weeks, putting things together, that some don't have the ability to shake like they did at the start of the season. He has said point blank a couple of times that if when they throw what Coach Anderson calls it works a lot better for them. Then something along the lines of We are understanding more that the one calling the pitches knows more than they do. Then I heard they had less control of shaking pitches for some pitchers.
The problem was some were leaving pitches over the plate too much thinking they could just throw it by everyone and that is not the case in SEC play.
It's like Frank told Kirby. I know you can throw 94 but after 90 it gets flat and straight and flat and straight in the SEC gets hit over those trees. Keep your location and movement and we are fine. Has worked pretty good for him. Enrique finally got back at him yesterday after I think 4 strikeouts in a row against Kirby.

Interesting that Kirby can keep command despite being able to throw much harder than he normally does in-game. I know a lot of pitchers are the opposite. I used to hang around with a former pro guy who was low 90s, but after he was done playing, struggled to throw batting practice. Something about trying to guide the ball to a spot instead of just throwing hard and trusting arm.

 

[NighthawkVol]

You know another delicious irony about beating the snot out of Vandy?

Y'all remember at the beginning of the season when Ahuna had to sit? Of course, it was because Vitello was accused of tampering in the portal (funny, because USC clearly did it in football and Alabama just did it with the Miami QB...neither were punished). And while no one definitively reported who the snitch was, Rucker all but said it was Corbin without saying it was Corbin.

So after that, not only does Tennessee pound Vandy, but Ahuna has his coming out party against them. Revenge is nice.

 

[AthensVol2007]

You know another delicious irony about beating the snot out of Vandy?

Y'all remember at the beginning of the season when Ahuna had to sit? Of course, it was because Vitello was accused of tampering in the portal (funny, because USC clearly did it in football and Alabama just did it with the Miami QB...neither were punished). And while no one definitively reported who the snitch was, Rucker all but said it was Corbin without saying it was Corbin.

So after that, not only does Tennessee pound Vandy, but Ahuna has his coming out party against them. Revenge is nice.

I have a cousin on the elite travel ball circuit in the southeast, who will be attending Bama for baseball in 2024-25, and the scuttlebutt in the travel ball circles was that it was Vandy/Corbin FWIW. Not saying it’s gospel or that coaches at that level would necessarily know definitively, but many of the coaches/teams he has played for, have had serious contact with SEC coaches over the years and he himself was recruited by multiple SEC schools so I’m not sure how much/ what gets said in those recruiting conversations.

 

[bonnieandclyde]

You know another delicious irony about beating the snot out of Vandy?

Y'all remember at the beginning of the season when Ahuna had to sit? Of course, it was because Vitello was accused of tampering in the portal (funny, because USC clearly did it in football and Alabama just did it with the Miami QB...neither were punished). And while no one definitively reported who the snitch was, Rucker all but said it was Corbin without saying it was Corbin.

So after that, not only does Tennessee pound Vandy, but Ahuna has his coming out party against them. Revenge is nice.

Not sure that USC and Alabama not getting caught/punished makes it ok for Vitello and Tennessee to do what they did though.. at the end of the day, a rule is a rule, regardless of how much someone likes it or how often teams can get away with breaking it and not getting caught. Vitello and UT just got caught

 

[NighthawkVol]

Not sure that USC and Alabama not getting caught/punished makes it ok for Vitello and Tennessee to do what they did though.. at the end of the day, a rule is a rule, regardless of how much someone likes it or how often teams can get away with breaking it and not getting caught. Vitello and UT just got caught

That’s fine. I’m not saying it’s okay. I’m saying enforce the rules evenly or don’t have them. It’s evident that it’s happening all over the place, but I’ve not heard of anyone being punished other than TV.

 

[taylorvol]

Not sure that USC and Alabama not getting caught/punished makes it ok for Vitello and Tennessee to do what they did though.. at the end of the day, a rule is a rule, regardless of how much someone likes it or how often teams can get away with breaking it and not getting caught. Vitello and UT just got caught

Meh. UT Compliance approved booking Ahuna’s flight from Kilo, Hawaii to Knoxville prior to receiving transcripts bc of scarcity of flights and assumed they’d have transcripts in hand prior to his arrival. Transcripts didn’t arrive until after Ahuna’s visit. Minor infraction that UT self reported. Not. A. Big. Deal.

 

[chuckiepoo]

Meh. UT Compliance approved booking Ahuna’s flight from Kilo, Hawaii to Knoxville prior to receiving transcripts bc of scarcity of flights and assumed they’d have transcripts in hand prior to his arrival. Transcripts didn’t arrive until after Ahuna’s visit. Minor infraction that UT self reported. Not. A. Big. Deal.

Moving on….
…it’s not like Corbin wears a golf visor…

 

[Volprofch05]

You know another delicious irony about beating the snot out of Vandy?

Y'all remember at the beginning of the season when Ahuna had to sit? Of course, it was because Vitello was accused of tampering in the portal (funny, because USC clearly did it in football and Alabama just did it with the Miami QB...neither were punished). And while no one definitively reported who the snitch was, Rucker all but said it was Corbin without saying it was Corbin.

So after that, not only does Tennessee pound Vandy, but Ahuna has his coming out party against them. Revenge is nice.

I had heard that the new Kansas coach (who was an assistant coach at LSU last year) learned of the Maui deal and turned us in, but either way Corbin is a stiff and it’s great fun to beat him.

 

[chuckiepoo]

I had heard that the new Kansas coach (who was an assistant coach at LSU last year) learned of the Maui deal and turned us in, but either way Corbin is a stiff and it’s great fun to beat him.

Shhhh. We don’t play Kansas this year ….

 

[bonnieandclyde]

Meh. UT Compliance approved booking Ahuna’s flight from Kilo, Hawaii to Knoxville prior to receiving transcripts bc of scarcity of flights and assumed they’d have transcripts in hand prior to his arrival. Transcripts didn’t arrive until after Ahuna’s visit. Minor infraction that UT self reported. Not. A. Big. Deal.

Was it self-reported, or did Corbin turn them in?