PonyBoy said:

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HuskerBaseball said:

first 9 is a GAUNTLET

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SoCal_Corn said:

View attachment 59380

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Kaladin said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if Vanderbilt, Grand Canyon, and San Diego State play in the Desert Invitational. They’ve all played in it multiple times.

Vanderbilt - 3 RPI
GCU - 108 RPI
San Diego State - 237 RPI

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PonyBoy said:

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HuskerBaseball said:

Having an interesting convo this morning and the conversation of why do Rob's pitching staffs seem to underperform vs the talent they have and this point came up.
This coaching staff has zero value for defense.
Last year we trotted out 8 guys on defense and only 2 were average or better and 4! were poor
scale= 5 Outstanding 4 good 3 average 2 below average 1 poor

C- Heligso/Jeeske combo 2 Hogan had average moments but Jesske was poor
1b- Sanderson 1 Poor virtually a statue over there
2b- Brumbaugh -1 Poor how many college kids need a defensive replacement every game?
3b- Overbeek 2 below average
SS- Carey 3 Average played a pretty good SS but defensively id say middle of the pack in B1G
LF- Swanson 1 poor he would deserve a 0 if it was on the scale
CF-Silva 5 outstanding Just a great defensive CF
RF Frost 1 Poor, You could have put a normal above ground swimming pool in left and right last year and called guys out if it landed in the pools and we would have same results

Bolin and Heligso played well during our tourney run

This begged the question do our pitchers walk guys because they cant throw strikes? or do they nibble thinking they need more strikeouts because of the balls in play have no chance to be caught?

who plays 2B this year?

Do Jesske and Buettenback play LF and RF and how far up the scale does that duo bring those positions?

Going from Silva to anybody is a downgrade but going to a kid who never played the outfield until his 4-5 games in LF last year and has an injured throwing arm is going to be a failed experiment. Moyer looks like he can play CF very well

looks like there is room for improvement defensively this year and lets see if that translates to the mound for us.

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PonyBoy said:

Zero value for defense is a ridiculous statement to make.

.975 FLD % is top 50. .001 from top 40 & .002 from top 25. I do agree though, there were weak spots, just like every team has.

FLD %; 5 seasons under Bolt (2021-2025)
.979 - .969 - .978 - .974 - .975

BB/G (2021-2025)
3.43 - 3.56 - 3.35 - 2.85 - 4.04

Tough crowd if this isn't good enough. Pitchers should look in the mirror instead of pointing fingers.

P.S.
.958, .970 & .975 were the FLD %'s are our 3 CWS teams. And those teams had elite pitching & damn good defenses. I don't recall any pitchers complaining back then.

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Bulldog10 said:

Using fielding percentage to judge baseball defense in 2025 is wild. (I realize the stats you need to judge defense probably aren’t available for college baseball)

Swanson doesn’t have the range to get to many balls so that saves his fielding percentage. A lot of the best infielders in pro baseball, are towards the top of the league in errors because they have elite range and get to balls other guys won’t even touch.

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PonyBoy said:

Nope, they're not but it's all we have. @...TrueColors... mentioned a year or so ago it'd be nice to have some data like MLB. But holy heck the investment would be off the charts. Advanced defensive analytics for college is somewhat ridiculous too. Judging amateurs (- NIL) to perform at the level of professionals isn't really fair to anyone and that's exactly what the highly advanced analytics will do.

Yep, Swanny wasn't a good OF'er. Value his offensive production vs defensive liability and purely a guess, his offense offset the defense? I'm aware of the next level, understand it and agree with you.

MLB has 30 teams. D1 has 300 teams. The standards have to be different. It's unrealistic to expect the same.

Analytics is really good for the game, up to a certain point. But honestly, in a 56-game schedule; FIP, xFIP, UZR, DRS, etc, etc would drive a lot of people in the game nuts. And I don't think it's needed, or warranted. AA works much better over a 162-game schedule with the best ball players in the world. Which college athletes aren't.

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Bulldog10 said:

There’s no way you can honestly think using those analytics would make teams worse, I would be surprised if most of the top programs don’t already have access to them. i agree that I wouldn’t expect a top college SS to rack up 25 OAA but that doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t be able to use it to your benefit. Also the fact that we don’t have access to them doesn’t mean that you should use fielding percentage. Use your eyes, who would you say we had that was an above average defender other than Silva & Bolin. I could hear an argument for Carey too.

I’m the biggest Swansen hater of all time so I’m the wrong person to ask because I thought he was terrible at every facet of the game since his sophomore year. Had a couple weeks where he was red hot with the bat but overall he was dog shit.

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PonyBoy said:

Zero value for defense is a ridiculous statement to make.

.975 FLD % is top 50. .001 from top 40 & .002 from top 25. I do agree though, there were weak spots, just like every team has.

FLD %; 5 seasons under Bolt (2021-2025)
.979 - .969 - .978 - .974 - .975

BB/G (2021-2025)
3.43 - 3.56 - 3.35 - 2.85 - 4.04

Tough crowd if this isn't good enough. Pitchers should look in the mirror instead of pointing fingers.

P.S.
.958, .970 & .975 were the FLD %'s are our 3 CWS teams. And those teams had elite pitching & damn good defenses. I don't recall any pitchers complaining back then.

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PonyBoy said:

Zero value for defense is a ridiculous statement to make.

.975 FLD % is top 50. .001 from top 40 & .002 from top 25. I do agree though, there were weak spots, just like every team has.

FLD %; 5 seasons under Bolt (2021-2025)
.979 - .969 - .978 - .974 - .975

BB/G (2021-2025)
3.43 - 3.56 - 3.35 - 2.85 - 4.04

Tough crowd if this isn't good enough. Pitchers should look in the mirror instead of pointing fingers.

P.S.
.958, .970 & .975 were the FLD %'s are our 3 CWS teams. And those teams had elite pitching & damn good defenses. I don't recall any pitchers complaining back then.

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Bulldog10 said:

There’s no way you can honestly think using those analytics would make teams worse, I would be surprised if most of the top programs don’t already have access to them. i agree that I wouldn’t expect a top college SS to rack up 25 OAA but that doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t be able to use it to your benefit. Also the fact that we don’t have access to them doesn’t mean that you should use fielding percentage. Use your eyes, who would you say we had that was an above average defender other than Silva & Bolin. I could hear an argument for Carey too.

I’m the biggest Swansen hater of all time so I’m the wrong person to ask because I thought he was terrible at every facet of the game since his sophomore year. Had a couple weeks where he was red hot with the bat but overall he was dog shit.

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HuskerBaseball said:

fielding percentage takes no account of balls the fielders didnt get to.

Guys like Max Anderson and Brumbaugh caught almost everything they got to. Just didnt get to much.

can't make many errors if they are statues and every things a hit Pony 🙂

Swanny dropped 1 ball in three years and so his fielding percentage is sky high, must be a great defender?

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HuskerBaseball said:

This isn't a coach bashing post
Its a post throwing out pieces of a conversation:
It wasn't a STATEMENT, it was repeating a question asked.

Conversation was with adults , thinking out loud and there are ( as far as I know) no pitchers complaining.
Topics included
Pitchers recruited the last couple years who have stayed vs guys who left
How the staff is built and are the guys who dont end up pitching at all guys who failed to pan out or projects that were brought in to see if they would/could pop and coaches knew there was a high chance they wouldnt pitch

are all pitchers brought in with the expectation to compete or are there actual filler and projects.

my posts here were thinking out loud and i'm glad it got some discussion, thanks

there a million ways to build a roster, one handcuff college coaches have is they have to want a kid and the kid has to want to be here. I am sure there are hundreds of kids the staff would love to have who never or would never consider lincoln nebraska for four years of their life. people forget that often.

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HuskerBaseball said:

This coaching staff has zero value for defense.

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PonyBoy said:

I didn't say it would. No, most top programs don't have access to them but they do manually track them. As does Nebraska. My eyes are used, I was very clear - "there were weak spots." So maybe take your own advice.

You have every right to be. He wasn't good outside of 2023.



No shit.

Although he made plenty of outstanding plays, Max isn't a true 2B hence why he's not there at his current level. He's a pretty good 3B though, which he showed his true freshmen year.

No shit x2.

Nowhere did I say Swanny was a good defender. Your whataboutism isn't going to work here.

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PonyBoy said:

I didn't say it would. No, most top programs don't have access to them but they do manually track them. As does Nebraska. My eyes are used, I was very clear - "there were weak spots." So maybe take your own advice.

You have every right to be. He wasn't good outside of 2023.



No shit.

Although he made plenty of outstanding plays, Max isn't a true 2B hence why he's not there at his current level. He's a pretty good 3B though, which he showed his true freshmen year.

No shit x2.

Nowhere did I say Swanny was a good defender. Your whataboutism isn't going to work here.

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