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Post by acutrackfan on Feb 24, 2017 14:16:29 GMT -6
Gato, thanks for providing excellent context for the discussion. It certainly puts our current situation into perspective.
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Post by wildcatter on Feb 24, 2017 14:21:24 GMT -6
Very well thought out post, thanks for the info. It still doesn't make me feel any better about the turnover of our roster though.
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Post by acuwildcat86 on Feb 24, 2017 15:34:15 GMT -6
I'm not taking catattax's side on this, but I feel like I'm experiencing a little Deja Vu.
Gato, I feel like your post was a mirror image of the same thing said about Coach Collums. The strange thing is, just like the football program, our baseball program hit a high about 3 years prior to the transition. Then a slow downward trend since then. And just like football, we have won fewer games in each successive year since the transition. The trend is concerning, just like it was in football.
The difference is that Football is the highest profile sport. Boosters can't stomach the trend in football, but they don't care about baseball, I guess. I do hope we get this thing turned around quickly, but we all know that the leash is short, unfortunately.
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Post by wildcat1997 on Feb 24, 2017 19:44:37 GMT -6
Good 4-1 win.
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Post by catattax on Feb 25, 2017 9:57:43 GMT -6
It's not the losses that concern me. It's the lack of improvement. Based off the arguments in this thread I'm willing to shut up and give Coach B another year. But it definitely needs to be at least a 20+ win season.
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Post by wildcat1997 on Feb 25, 2017 16:49:59 GMT -6
Great 9-1 win. This team looks a lot better than last year.
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Feb 26, 2017 7:08:43 GMT -6
Bienvenidos Gato Salvaje ! Love your screen name. Maybe not quite as much as our other new member though. It's hard to top "gaspasser."
I appreciate your analytic approach to understanding where we are at present. I share 86's concern about trends as much as overall record, but you raise interesting and well researched points.
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Post by wildcat1997 on Feb 26, 2017 16:45:08 GMT -6
Baseball is raking right now. It's good to see we finally have some offense. Let's hope they can keep it up.
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Post by acutrackfan on Feb 27, 2017 10:47:48 GMT -6
Okay, I am certainly one of those people who has been very frustrated with baseball's lack of success since the D-I move. Gatosalvaje provided very interesting context in his post above. I am thrilled to see ACU bounce back and have a terrific weekend against North Dakota State.
This "tale of two weekends" illustrates one of the cold realities of D-I athletics - there is a huge, massive gulf between the athletic programs represented by the Power-5 conferences and everyone else in D-I (both FBS and FCS schools). I just looked it up, Michigan State has an athletic budget of $108 million (!) -- 7th in the Big 12 and 17th in the all of D-I. Think about that - their athletic budget is almost equal to ACU's total university budget!! While the major beneficiaries of this almost obscene amount of budget money is football and men's basketball, that kind of money keeps ALL of their sports afloat.
ACU has an athletic budget somewhere around $10-11 million (that is an educated guess - since ACU does not have to reveal budget numbers as a private school). North Dakota State has a total budget around $20 million. Obviously, there is not the incredible difference in the budgets that we will face in playing a Big 10 school.
I am still in favor of playing one of the BIG schools occasionally in all sports. I think we will eke out some victories in some of the sports - like baseball and even basketball, where the occasional upset occurs. Even in football, I am favor of us playing the occasional Baylor, Mississippi State or TAMU, if the money is right. But, we can realistically only occasionally expect to pull off upsets with these schools.
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Post by Cap'n Cattitude on Feb 27, 2017 11:21:05 GMT -6
$10-11 million seems low. But like you, I have no empirical evidence.
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Post by wildcat1997 on Feb 27, 2017 11:59:55 GMT -6
Something that stuck out to me, they only hit 9 homeruns all of last season but have already hit 4 through 7 games this year. They are also getting many more extra base hits this year as well.
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Post by wildcat1997 on Feb 27, 2017 12:05:08 GMT -6
I wonder why Willie Harris hasn't been getting playing time. Is he injured?
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Post by gatosalvaje on Feb 27, 2017 12:12:54 GMT -6
I'm not taking catattax's side on this, but I feel like I'm experiencing a little Deja Vu. Gato, I feel like your post was a mirror image of the same thing said about Coach Collums. The strange thing is, just like the football program, our baseball program hit a high about 3 years prior to the transition. Then a slow downward trend since then. And just like football, we have won fewer games in each successive year since the transition. The trend is concerning, just like it was in football. The difference is that Football is the highest profile sport. Boosters can't stomach the trend in football, but they don't care about baseball, I guess. I do hope we get this thing turned around quickly, but we all know that the leash is short, unfortunately. Agreed. Similar indeed. I think short leashes are cruel & long leashes are foolish. Although it takes most teams longer to recover, I think 3 or 4 years following the lifting of the restrictions is a reasonable length of leash to see if Bonneau has the right stuff. After that, if not, I'm not sure why he's want to stay.
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Post by wildcat1997 on Feb 28, 2017 22:06:33 GMT -6
Great 13-5 win. Luis Trevino is a great player and has added some much needed offense.
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Post by Outsider on Mar 1, 2017 13:55:29 GMT -6
Without really starting conference play yet, ACU baseball is sitting in the middle of the pack of SLC teams at .500. They are in a position to have a decent year still if they stay together, work hard and fight. I don't predict a breakout season, but I do think they can find a their way. I hope they do.
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