It's time to tell it like it is, sports fans. And this is the most wretched road trip I've seen in 20 years. And possibly the worst Durham team in half a century.
- Teddy Cullinane Radio Announcer in Bull Durham
I am reminded of Bull Durham rather consistently when it comes to weirdness of sport and how things can conspire to great and awful performances not only within the same game but the same inning. There was legitimately nothing, at least from a fans perspective to grab a hold of in what was the worst season ever for UM softball.
Positives: It is over.
Negatives: Literally everything.
Joe Reardon: He walked 18.
Larry: New league record!
Joe Reardon: Struck out 18.
Larry: Another new league record! In addition he hit the sportswriter, the public address announcer, the bull mascot twice...
The season and the vibes of the season trended negatively when Dana Butterfield was injured just days before the beginning of the season. They didn't just have the worst pitching staff in the BSC conference, Weber State was a close second, the pitching staff finished 283rd in D1 for softball with a season long ERA of 6.23. They ended up the season in the conference last in ERA, last in Walks, last in HBP from the mound.
Not having Butterfields mid-4 ERA and 150 innings, the staff buckled under the pressure. The ERA ballooned from 4.83 last year to that unsightly 6.23 era. Brock struck out more per inning this year but walked and hit more. She threw 40 less innings, partly because of injury, but couldn't get any consistent traction and her ERA increased by half a run from last year. Had the rest of the staff picked up the slack, or at least matched Brock's totals throughout the year, the team would have had a fighting chance in games. Yet at the end of the year Joseph, O'Brien and Haegele all posted ERA's over 6, and had a nearly 1:2 strikeout to walk ratio. As a team their WHIP was north of 2, gave a staggering 167 free passes and hit 64 batters in 285 innings. Outside of Brock, the rest of the staff gave up a walk/HBP an inning. That was just how bad it got this year for the pitching staff. Just by missing one player who threw 140 innings last year, to a mid 4.00 ERA and won 10 games.
“You know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It’s 25 hits. Twenty-five hits in 500 at-bats is 50 points, OK? There’s six months in a season. That’s about 25 weeks. That means if you get just one extra flare a week, just one, a gork, a ground ball — a ground ball with eyes! — you get a dying quail, just one more dying quail a week and you’re in Yankee Stadium.
-- Crash Davis
It is hard to imagine with a team that returned 4 players who all hit .290 or higher last year, including Jantzi and Ontiveros who both hit above .350, that the offense averaged 5rpg a year ago would be 230th in runs in D1 at just under 3 a game. They had only one player (Ontiveros) finish above .290, and had five players with qualifying at-bats finish .250 or lower. Obviously the team missed McGrath and Sellers power (26 HR's last year between them, team barely eclipsed McGraths total this year 21), as anyone would, but the team hit not only hit .50 points lower but its OPS number was .150 points lower from a year ago.
When you are out pitched by the opponent every game, it puts extreme pressure on the offense to pick up the slack and that never happened. Team started off cold in the tournament season in January (only 1 player hitting above .250 at one point) and they never really recovered. The 2022 team hit more, walked more and hit for more power (which was expected), but it was the totality of the teams decline was stunning. When players press at the plate, which they did, it resulted in nearly as many K's as a year ago but in nearly 200 less at bats. Moreover they walked less and the team had vastly less opportunities to drive in runs. Only 1 player had a slugging percentage above .400, and no player had more than 19 RBI's, last year comparatively they had 6 players slug over .400 and had 5 players with 20 or more RBI's.
"This is a simple game. You throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball. You got it. Now we have got a 12-day road trip starting tomorrow. Bus leaves six in the morning.”
- Skip
The defense which returned most of its lineup in key positions, committed 20 (54 total) more errors on less chances and consequently had less PO's on the season than a year ago. They expected to have one of the best defensive cores in the league and in some ways the pitching impacted the defense. Klucewich who had a few more chances than a year ago committed 10 more errors. The teams fielding percentage overall declined, from nearly .980 down to .950 and played sloppier defense than their opponents which wasn't the case a year ago. They had less action, longer innings, and it led to negative results. Most coaches (including this guy) will tell you that pitching issues typically have negative impacts on how your team plays defense.
Larry: “Excuse me, but what the hell's going on out here?
Crash: “Well, Nuke's scared because his eyelids are jammed and his old man's here. We need a live ... is it a live rooster?”
[Jose nods]
Crash: “We need a live rooster to take the curse off Jose's glove and nobody seems to know what to get Millie or Jimmy for their wedding present. That about right? We're dealing with a lot of s—.”
Larry: “Okay, well ... candlesticks always make a nice gift, and uh, maybe you could find out where she's registered and maybe a place-setting or maybe a silverware pattern. Okay, let's get two! Go get ‘em.”
- Mound meeting.
It was really awful year, no bones about it. There isn't a player or coach that felt very good about how they lost yesterday and how they played this season. Somethings are really apparent after the fact, but in doing the statistical deep dive it was just how much everything conspired together. There was a lot of s---. Nothing went right.
Several years ago when I was a head baseball coach in Idaho, I got this letter from a frustrated grandparent who questioned if I ever had played or coached the game of baseball. At that point I had been playing or coaching the game for about 30 years consecutively. We were mired in what was the worst season the program had in a decade. I had parents in the stands conspiring, and it was an awful year and there was nearly nothing we could do to right the ship. All the good will I had built over a decade in the program was gone because I didn't have pitching to save my life. Its awful when you look down the roster and your options are a kid that can't throw 70, and your shortstop who normally is a great glove guy just booted two easy DP ball that led to 4 runs. Your kid on the mound was pitch capped to begin with and had thrown 85 pitches in three innings. So you go to a kid who can't throw 70 against a team with the deepest lineup in the league and you lose 19-7 in six innings. It happens, and in the haze of the aftermath you realize that you should have spent more time doing x, y or z. Community members, fans, rarely recognize there is a level of hopelessness that overwhelms you as a coach when you look down your bench or onto the field and no there is no silver bullet. You never want as a coach to put kids in a position to fail. I hate that more than anything in the world, and at times there is just no more bright siding you can do, tweaking the lineup or the the plan, that the result just feels inevitable and something bad will happen.
In the moment, there is just nothing you can do. We kept plowing forward that year, and the Grizzly softball team kept plowing forward all year. Kept competing, even yesterday as they gave up 9 in the top of the 5th. Those girls, when the game was over were dejected, crushed, and as was the staff. For those Seniors, it is highly likely that many of them won't play another game of competitive softball again.
I understand that fans have high expectations. Hell people are still embittered about stuff that went on twenty years ago with the football program. People took joy when Bob Stitt was not hired back. This is the worst thing about coaching and sport. All the effort and preparation the goes into to getting the most of a season only to have it go sideways. Sometimes it is a direct reflection of staff, and other times it is a confluence. I think that is what the season was, a confluence. I don't know that it was ever a direct reflection on players nor should it be.
You can fault the staff for the season and they know ultimately that if anyone should take the blame and responsibility it will be them. They are professionals. Mel has been a college softball coach her whole adult life and likely understands that reality. But it wasn't because they were incompetent. Maybe they didn't have the answers in their vast database of softball knowledge how to band-aid and repair the season. There are years, and I do believe this year was, that there aren't just enough answers to all the questions that are being asked.
I go back to yesterdays game. Haegele froze on the bunt back to her, a play that she's executed numerous times in her life. She couldn't make the throw, to first or second and was stuck as everyone was safe. Optically it looks terrible, but if you go to practice, once or twice a week, you'll see the defense working through PFP's. Those events prompted the start of the 9 run inning. Some years a line drive that hits your pitchers leg bounces right to a defender and other times it rolls into the outfield. Instead of the 12 pitch at bat in the second inning where the PSU player fouled off 6 to 8 strike 2 pitches and then lines a ball to left to make the score 4-0, the ball is a simple one-hop to your 3B to record the out.
Or a diving play for a ground ball results the ball going into your glove, and instead of over it. Other times that perfectly placed bunt rolls foul instead of sitting on the line that leaves your pitcher with no play. You are in the right place, at the right time, and the result is still negative. There is little you can watch or observe from a game feed that at times is a direct result of poor coaching. Bad outcomes sometimes are the result of everything but bad preparation.
"Crash: “Yeah, where can I go?”
Skip: “You can keep going to the ballpark, keep getting paid to do it. Beats the hell out of working at Sears.”
Larry: “Sears sucks, Crash. Boy, I once worked there. Sold Lady Kenmores. Nasty. Nasty work.”
Skip: “Even if it is the Carolina League, this is a chance to play every day!”
Crash: “You don’t want a player. You want a stable pony.”
Skip: “Nah.”
Crash: “My Triple-A contract gets bought out so I can hold the flavor of the month’s d— in the bus leagues? Is that it? Well, f— this f—ing game.”
(Long pause)
Crash: “I f—ing quit. Alright? I quit.”
(walks out, then back in)
Crash: “Who do we play tomorrow?”
Skip: “Winston-Salem. Batting practice at 11:30.”
- Conversation that happens when Crash reports to Durham.
The season is over. Maybe we have a whole new roster, staff, next year. There are worse alternatives. Things need to change, but honestly as much as the season sucked. We can look forward to next year. Flush the awful no good year. Easy to lament. To fixate on. Blame someone else. That staff should be commended for keeping the team together, and the team for competing.
Next year will be different, not only because it has to be, because next year is a separate set of events. I think several things can be true about next year without being a referendum on one thing. Literally they could just as easily run things back and be 20 games better next year. They could change the whole staff, cut several players from the program and finish two games worse than this year. But it is a game and it is a super frustrating one even when things are going well.
We saw the worst outcomes this year. We hit rock bottom in so many ways, and the only way to look at it is that most of the roster and the staff regardless of what may or may not happen started working on analyzing what they can build on, revamping what they can't and preparing for next year. Fall games will be here before you know it, and then you'll hear that crack of the bat and everything is right in the world again.
-- Thanks for reading. GF24.
- Teddy Cullinane Radio Announcer in Bull Durham
I am reminded of Bull Durham rather consistently when it comes to weirdness of sport and how things can conspire to great and awful performances not only within the same game but the same inning. There was legitimately nothing, at least from a fans perspective to grab a hold of in what was the worst season ever for UM softball.
Positives: It is over.
Negatives: Literally everything.
Joe Reardon: He walked 18.
Larry: New league record!
Joe Reardon: Struck out 18.
Larry: Another new league record! In addition he hit the sportswriter, the public address announcer, the bull mascot twice...
The season and the vibes of the season trended negatively when Dana Butterfield was injured just days before the beginning of the season. They didn't just have the worst pitching staff in the BSC conference, Weber State was a close second, the pitching staff finished 283rd in D1 for softball with a season long ERA of 6.23. They ended up the season in the conference last in ERA, last in Walks, last in HBP from the mound.
Not having Butterfields mid-4 ERA and 150 innings, the staff buckled under the pressure. The ERA ballooned from 4.83 last year to that unsightly 6.23 era. Brock struck out more per inning this year but walked and hit more. She threw 40 less innings, partly because of injury, but couldn't get any consistent traction and her ERA increased by half a run from last year. Had the rest of the staff picked up the slack, or at least matched Brock's totals throughout the year, the team would have had a fighting chance in games. Yet at the end of the year Joseph, O'Brien and Haegele all posted ERA's over 6, and had a nearly 1:2 strikeout to walk ratio. As a team their WHIP was north of 2, gave a staggering 167 free passes and hit 64 batters in 285 innings. Outside of Brock, the rest of the staff gave up a walk/HBP an inning. That was just how bad it got this year for the pitching staff. Just by missing one player who threw 140 innings last year, to a mid 4.00 ERA and won 10 games.
“You know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It’s 25 hits. Twenty-five hits in 500 at-bats is 50 points, OK? There’s six months in a season. That’s about 25 weeks. That means if you get just one extra flare a week, just one, a gork, a ground ball — a ground ball with eyes! — you get a dying quail, just one more dying quail a week and you’re in Yankee Stadium.
-- Crash Davis
It is hard to imagine with a team that returned 4 players who all hit .290 or higher last year, including Jantzi and Ontiveros who both hit above .350, that the offense averaged 5rpg a year ago would be 230th in runs in D1 at just under 3 a game. They had only one player (Ontiveros) finish above .290, and had five players with qualifying at-bats finish .250 or lower. Obviously the team missed McGrath and Sellers power (26 HR's last year between them, team barely eclipsed McGraths total this year 21), as anyone would, but the team hit not only hit .50 points lower but its OPS number was .150 points lower from a year ago.
When you are out pitched by the opponent every game, it puts extreme pressure on the offense to pick up the slack and that never happened. Team started off cold in the tournament season in January (only 1 player hitting above .250 at one point) and they never really recovered. The 2022 team hit more, walked more and hit for more power (which was expected), but it was the totality of the teams decline was stunning. When players press at the plate, which they did, it resulted in nearly as many K's as a year ago but in nearly 200 less at bats. Moreover they walked less and the team had vastly less opportunities to drive in runs. Only 1 player had a slugging percentage above .400, and no player had more than 19 RBI's, last year comparatively they had 6 players slug over .400 and had 5 players with 20 or more RBI's.
"This is a simple game. You throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball. You got it. Now we have got a 12-day road trip starting tomorrow. Bus leaves six in the morning.”
- Skip
The defense which returned most of its lineup in key positions, committed 20 (54 total) more errors on less chances and consequently had less PO's on the season than a year ago. They expected to have one of the best defensive cores in the league and in some ways the pitching impacted the defense. Klucewich who had a few more chances than a year ago committed 10 more errors. The teams fielding percentage overall declined, from nearly .980 down to .950 and played sloppier defense than their opponents which wasn't the case a year ago. They had less action, longer innings, and it led to negative results. Most coaches (including this guy) will tell you that pitching issues typically have negative impacts on how your team plays defense.
Larry: “Excuse me, but what the hell's going on out here?
Crash: “Well, Nuke's scared because his eyelids are jammed and his old man's here. We need a live ... is it a live rooster?”
[Jose nods]
Crash: “We need a live rooster to take the curse off Jose's glove and nobody seems to know what to get Millie or Jimmy for their wedding present. That about right? We're dealing with a lot of s—.”
Larry: “Okay, well ... candlesticks always make a nice gift, and uh, maybe you could find out where she's registered and maybe a place-setting or maybe a silverware pattern. Okay, let's get two! Go get ‘em.”
- Mound meeting.
It was really awful year, no bones about it. There isn't a player or coach that felt very good about how they lost yesterday and how they played this season. Somethings are really apparent after the fact, but in doing the statistical deep dive it was just how much everything conspired together. There was a lot of s---. Nothing went right.
Several years ago when I was a head baseball coach in Idaho, I got this letter from a frustrated grandparent who questioned if I ever had played or coached the game of baseball. At that point I had been playing or coaching the game for about 30 years consecutively. We were mired in what was the worst season the program had in a decade. I had parents in the stands conspiring, and it was an awful year and there was nearly nothing we could do to right the ship. All the good will I had built over a decade in the program was gone because I didn't have pitching to save my life. Its awful when you look down the roster and your options are a kid that can't throw 70, and your shortstop who normally is a great glove guy just booted two easy DP ball that led to 4 runs. Your kid on the mound was pitch capped to begin with and had thrown 85 pitches in three innings. So you go to a kid who can't throw 70 against a team with the deepest lineup in the league and you lose 19-7 in six innings. It happens, and in the haze of the aftermath you realize that you should have spent more time doing x, y or z. Community members, fans, rarely recognize there is a level of hopelessness that overwhelms you as a coach when you look down your bench or onto the field and no there is no silver bullet. You never want as a coach to put kids in a position to fail. I hate that more than anything in the world, and at times there is just no more bright siding you can do, tweaking the lineup or the the plan, that the result just feels inevitable and something bad will happen.
In the moment, there is just nothing you can do. We kept plowing forward that year, and the Grizzly softball team kept plowing forward all year. Kept competing, even yesterday as they gave up 9 in the top of the 5th. Those girls, when the game was over were dejected, crushed, and as was the staff. For those Seniors, it is highly likely that many of them won't play another game of competitive softball again.
I understand that fans have high expectations. Hell people are still embittered about stuff that went on twenty years ago with the football program. People took joy when Bob Stitt was not hired back. This is the worst thing about coaching and sport. All the effort and preparation the goes into to getting the most of a season only to have it go sideways. Sometimes it is a direct reflection of staff, and other times it is a confluence. I think that is what the season was, a confluence. I don't know that it was ever a direct reflection on players nor should it be.
You can fault the staff for the season and they know ultimately that if anyone should take the blame and responsibility it will be them. They are professionals. Mel has been a college softball coach her whole adult life and likely understands that reality. But it wasn't because they were incompetent. Maybe they didn't have the answers in their vast database of softball knowledge how to band-aid and repair the season. There are years, and I do believe this year was, that there aren't just enough answers to all the questions that are being asked.
I go back to yesterdays game. Haegele froze on the bunt back to her, a play that she's executed numerous times in her life. She couldn't make the throw, to first or second and was stuck as everyone was safe. Optically it looks terrible, but if you go to practice, once or twice a week, you'll see the defense working through PFP's. Those events prompted the start of the 9 run inning. Some years a line drive that hits your pitchers leg bounces right to a defender and other times it rolls into the outfield. Instead of the 12 pitch at bat in the second inning where the PSU player fouled off 6 to 8 strike 2 pitches and then lines a ball to left to make the score 4-0, the ball is a simple one-hop to your 3B to record the out.
Or a diving play for a ground ball results the ball going into your glove, and instead of over it. Other times that perfectly placed bunt rolls foul instead of sitting on the line that leaves your pitcher with no play. You are in the right place, at the right time, and the result is still negative. There is little you can watch or observe from a game feed that at times is a direct result of poor coaching. Bad outcomes sometimes are the result of everything but bad preparation.
"Crash: “Yeah, where can I go?”
Skip: “You can keep going to the ballpark, keep getting paid to do it. Beats the hell out of working at Sears.”
Larry: “Sears sucks, Crash. Boy, I once worked there. Sold Lady Kenmores. Nasty. Nasty work.”
Skip: “Even if it is the Carolina League, this is a chance to play every day!”
Crash: “You don’t want a player. You want a stable pony.”
Skip: “Nah.”
Crash: “My Triple-A contract gets bought out so I can hold the flavor of the month’s d— in the bus leagues? Is that it? Well, f— this f—ing game.”
(Long pause)
Crash: “I f—ing quit. Alright? I quit.”
(walks out, then back in)
Crash: “Who do we play tomorrow?”
Skip: “Winston-Salem. Batting practice at 11:30.”
- Conversation that happens when Crash reports to Durham.
The season is over. Maybe we have a whole new roster, staff, next year. There are worse alternatives. Things need to change, but honestly as much as the season sucked. We can look forward to next year. Flush the awful no good year. Easy to lament. To fixate on. Blame someone else. That staff should be commended for keeping the team together, and the team for competing.
Next year will be different, not only because it has to be, because next year is a separate set of events. I think several things can be true about next year without being a referendum on one thing. Literally they could just as easily run things back and be 20 games better next year. They could change the whole staff, cut several players from the program and finish two games worse than this year. But it is a game and it is a super frustrating one even when things are going well.
We saw the worst outcomes this year. We hit rock bottom in so many ways, and the only way to look at it is that most of the roster and the staff regardless of what may or may not happen started working on analyzing what they can build on, revamping what they can't and preparing for next year. Fall games will be here before you know it, and then you'll hear that crack of the bat and everything is right in the world again.
-- Thanks for reading. GF24.
