MLB Draft Thread

First, let's get some facts straight. We didn't implode down the stretch in '09. We played a ridiculously hot Arkansas team that went to the CWS.

If you'll recall we swept a nationally ranked A&M team in the last series of the year to earn a national seed.

That team had no pitching. We had Doyle, Anderson and Duke. That's about it.

Now that we have that straightened out, I agree with you, we did implode this season. But there's not one thing you can point to as the culprit.

Were the some of the guys sick of SG? Yeah. On top of that we had some nagging injuries that killed our momentum at times. Some of our best hitters from the CWS team were exposed by the BBCore bats, too.

It was a slew of issues that caused this team to fall way short of the finish line, not just the coach, or the bats, or any other singular variable.

 

haters gonna hate... i played for some bad baseball coaches and i played for some real major a-holes... neither case did our team quit playing hard... this team may have just been full of a bunch of pu**ies, i dont know...

 

We can agree to disagree on that year. First, you did forget about Richards, who pitched his best game of his career during the regional. The problem was the position players were mentally gassed. Yes, Arkansas got hot, but we couldn't hit our way out of a paper sack and we really didn't look like we cared. Those players were ready for the season to be over. Would we have won if we had played up to our potential? I don't know, but we didn't even compete against Arkansas. We almost got no hit in the last game. It was ridiculous. There was a ton of drama in the lockeroom that season as well and I think the kids were just ready to move on. It was an upperclassman team, much like this season, who had had enough of SG's mental games. There is a pattern that has developed over more than one season and it needs to change. I have no problem with SG being a hardass. I played for coaches that would make SG look like a little girl in college. He has to do a better job of managing the team's psyche throughout the whole season. You can't go to the well so many times during the season. And you can't have your team ready for the season to be over when the tournaments start.

This year, SG did a poor job of managing the team. I don't know how you can question that fact. Yes, there were a number of factors we had to deal with, i.e. the bats and nagging injuries, but so did every other team in the country. His X's and O's decisions were the worst I have seen from him since he has been at OU. He absolutely started to panic in the middle of the year, and not coincidentally, that is when the chemistry issues really came to fruitiion. He can blame it on anything else he wants to, but he didn't do a very good job of maximizing this team's potential.

This program is close to being one of the top programs in the country, but this issue is keeping us from reaching our potential, IMO. It is very hard to get to Omaha and you can't have these issues popping up in multiple years. Everything else is in place for us to be at least a super regional player every year.

 

Lost in all this rhetoric is the fact that, you know, sometimes teams just ... lose. Only 16 can make the super regionals and only 8 can make the CWS. I've been hearing of drama in the OU baseball program since 1995 when supposedly Cochell hated certain players' guts. I think the "drama" comes from too many people who think they have access to the program but really have no basis to compare it to any other program in any other sport. I have a sneaking suspicion that our "drama" is no more or less -- or at least in the general neighborhood -- of other programs at other schools.

Essentially: all you whiners bore me. We've hosted three of the past six years (SG's reign), been to two super regionals and a CWS during that time. We've won 40-plus games in half those seasons, won more NCAA Tournament games than we have in the previous 10 years COMBINED. Yeah, I wish we could do better. I wish the football team could do better too. But we're doing pretty darned good for a program that everyone has been telling menhas been falling apart and ripping asunder from within since about 2004.

 

Here we go...

 

agree!!

 

IMO, we are talking about the difference between being a top 25 program and a top 10 program. The difference between being a super regional performer more years than not. There is no doubt SG has elevated the program. However, I don't think we reach the elite level until these issues are addressed and a change in philosophy is made. When a coach who thrives on having a chip on his shoulder says "it was his least fun season to coach ever" then you know there was a huge problem within the clubhouse. He lives for drama and even he couldnt handle it. That should tell you something right there. Doing a pretty good job for having a program under turmoil isn't getting it done, IMO. We had elite talent this year and we should have expected elite results. I know SG had elite expectations.

 

We haven't been "elite" in the history of the program, except for a stretch in the 70s and a short 4-year period in the 90s. We are what we are -- a top 25 program, NOT a top 10 or 16. So, the odds are that the Sunny-bashers and drama-whiners will NEVER be happy with the direction of the program or how things are playing out REGARDLESS of who is the head coach.

Better take your energy drinks because there's going to be a lot of whining to do over the next few decades as the odds are against us EVER becoming Texas or Fullerton. But we are Oklahoma, which is pretty darned good and something that's better than about all but 20 or so programs in the country. Too bad people are too busy whining about SG or LC or whomever the coach is at the moment to enjoy it a bit.

 

I think you're being a bit harsh, TD. You know me. You know I'm not a whiner. In fact, I've been 100% on Sunny's side until lately. Now I'm about 85% on his side. I think it's a legitimate concern that every year there's this much drama within the program. It's pretty obvious to me at this point that Sunny doesn't work well with others. It may be by design, but if it is, he may need to re-evaluate. His assistant coaches are never happy or on the same page, his players are burnt out by the end of the season, etc.

That said, I think you're right that some will never be happy. The bottom line is that Sunny has won at Oklahoma. Most years, he's overachieved. This year, he may or may not have underachieved. (I think it's debatable that the team overachieved so much at the end of last year that maybe this team didn't underachieve at all this year. It was what it was.) I'm not worried about the players, frankly. They are here at Oklahoma for a few years and then most of them move on without having anything to do with the program anyway. Some will come back and be a part, but for the most part, they move on. What I am worried about is the long-term health of the program and I'm afraid that the bridges he seems to be burning may have a negative effect on the state of the program in the future.

 

His assistant coaches are never happy. Considering he's only had one different assistant in his 6-plus years, I'm really not sure how to evaluate that one. I'm afraid there's too much hearsay going on in that regards and until I see Tadlock and Bell leaving, I'll believe it. I've been hearing one or the other has been leaving for about 5 years ... and nothing has happened.

 

There's absolutely too much smoke with Tadlock for there not to be some fire. I've heard from WAY too many people with many different connections to the situation that he's not happy and they're not on the same page.

 

Until he leaves, I'll remain skeptical. Last I heard, him, SG and Bushyhead were all taking hunting trips together in the fall and winter. Now, all of a sudden, they hate each other. Again, I think it's too many people who *think* they have access to the pulse of the program.

 

Let me also add that six years is a long time to be an assistant coach in one place if you have aspirations of moving up into a head job. Maybe it's just time for Tadlock to move on? Maybe that's the issue, I don't know. I haven't heard that Bell's unhappy, but I'm about 99% sure that Tadlock is based on everything I have heard, and it had an effect on this year's team. Does the team need to toughen up? Probably. But they're 18-22 year old guys, and I know I wasn't very tough at that age.

 

I'm not buying that Tadlock is unhappy. Until he tells you or me personally, or leaves, I'm just not buying it. Again, too many people with too much hearsay. And I'm done with the hearsay.

Until these people who have the "inside" info want to actually give their names and, therefore, stand behind what they say, I'm not buying. Sorry, I didn't go to 5 years of journalism school to give credence to every Tom, Dick and Harry who wants complete anonymity.

 

This is one of the things I love about college baseball, though, is that you can get close to the team, etc., and feel a part of it. I agree, though, that it is probably part of the problem, because unlike the basketball and football programs, that access shows people the inner-workings of the program. All programs have these kinds of issues & drama. Just ask Cody Reine about LSU.

Those guys going hunting in the fall doesn't mean they're getting along today, though. I don't know anything about that, but the fact that they were happy then doesn't prove they are happy now.

 

By the way, this is my last post on this subject. I don't want to keep posting negative things about the program. It's not my style and it's not what I intend to do.

 

That's the problem. 95% of the people who have inside information, have it from one source, with one point of view. An unhappy parent and/or player probably won't have much good to say about the program or the head coach. That doesn't mean the majority of players and parents are unhappy or that the program is fundamentally flawed.

There were unhappy players and parents last year, (The same year we went to the CWS for the first time in 15 years) that should tell you a little bit about some of the 'unhappiness.' Being unhappy with a situation doesn't necessarily make you justified.

In general, unhappy players and parents can take a long walk off a short pier. They're a dime-a-dozen in any college baseball program.That said, we all know things weren't right in the clubhouse this season.

I think we'll get that fixed, though. SG has won over 500 games in his career, he's not some drunken old fool spouting off his mouth and pissing people off for no reason. There's a method to the madness.

 

100% agree with this by the way. Now THIS is my last post on the subject!

 

Amen brother.

 

There is definitely a "method to his madness." I just think those "methods" need to be re-evaluated.