I hate to beat a dead horse, but it's really been a failure of the bullpen. Who knew with Hooper and Anderson leaving the player we'd be missing the most would be reliever Connor Loar ?

And it isn't just that it's been ineffective. The coach has not always been using his relievers effectively this year, and that in the right situations. I previously cited the example of the Utah Valley meltdown. Spillane was left in to pitch the 6th after he just barely got out of the 5th until he created a difficult situation and Moffitt was brought in, then despite his wildness he was left in to allow a few runs. By the time Andres Lara was brought in he was just working to preserve a tie. That was Spillane's first start. He should have been treated with kid gloves, but WTH?

Also in the first game against Pacific they had a big lead and Spillane was left in when he was struggling badly. Since it was the last game before a long finals break every pitcher except Brown was available for an inning or two, but he waited until they only had a 1- run lead and runners on to summon Brett Erwin, who is more effective this year than all the relievers. Brett could have given the team a 2- 3 inning save with no game that weekend, but instead was set up to fail.

That said the bullpen did its job yesterday, and on Wed. Ouellette is looking like a better pitcher each time I see him. Unfortunately the bullpen as a whole has been so ineffective. It seems Vaughn has so little confidence in it he tries to squeeze as many outs as humanly possible out of his starters. That's not good for the starters or the rest of the team.

It just seems random coincidences are things I like to notice. Another example would be how when I went to Salt Lake City last year UCD baseball alum Ty Kelly was in the lineup for the Las Vegas 51's (Mets) against the Salt Lake Bees (Angels). He had a terrible series at the plate. As rare as it is to see a UCD player in a pro game, let alone at the AAA level, it got even stranger. Last week I saw Kelly play against the River Cats- as a member of the Salt Lake Bees. The life of a minor league ballplayer...

I meant optimal not optional

And they were 1- hit by a Santa Clara team that wass no- hit by Pacific on Sunday. Not to take anything away from the Aggies ' accomplishment, but it's really frustrating when you see them beat Stanford and they cough up big leads against Utah Valley, Pacific (twice), and Cal Poly and lose.

Nice to see Lara get his first homerun and Lyford have a stress- free inning after all the rough games he's had lately. Also nice appearances by Hannah, Rodriguez, Wieser, Johnson, and of course- Ouellette. Steve's going to remember this game the rest of his life.

I think part of the bullpen's struggles is that the relievers haven't been used in optional situations. I don't know why Vaughn is so fond of going to Lyford in save situations. I went Sunday (got back early from my trip) and I got uneasy when he went to the bullpen in the eighth. Ok, he did very well opening day, but that was a 4 inning appearance against Northern Colorado. When the Aggies have a lead late he's left in too long to create near- impossible situations for Johnson and Ouellette. And Ouellette's first collegiate pitching appearance after 2 years in the infield- a 1- run pressure- cooker outing against Nevada. Ryan Rodriguez' first appearance of the season- Stanford ? And that's to say nothing of the messes Moffitt, Smith, and Lemos were left in when they were struggling. In any case Lyford is a senior. There's no need to leave him in to have these teachable moments where he gets creamed and learns from it. Save those lessons for the guys who'll actually be around next year to build off the experience. He either pitches well or he doesn't. No need to lose games over it. This reminds of what happened with Barraza last year

To be fair the bullpen picture has been pretty nebulous. Even Erwin struggled in his only game there. With this many pitching options there's really no reason to leave anyone to give up 4+ runs, at least not at home where all the walk- ons are available. They play 3- 4 games a week. Using too many relievers is not a concern; over- using the same ones is.

Oh well, I guess I have one more game in me this year. I've got that Zia's gift certificate I need to use before the end of June + darned if I'm coming to Davis when there's no baseball.

Never mind. The gametracker made me think it wa s his 2nd.

Whoops ! Apparently that wasn't Meredith's first appearance.

Here's a weird coincidence. Fresno State has a first baseman whose last name is Presno. This beats the time Sac State had an outfielder surnamed Davis.

DrMike- I believe that. There are some really strange people. I took Greyhound there + at the station on the way back there was a border patrol agent and what looked like two police officers disguised as as gang members or drug dealers. Wonder what was happening there.

And to think I could have avoided all the unpleasantness. At that point in my trip I hadn't navigated through the hotels at the row indoors. But no, I had to go walking outside to get to the Silver Legacy to get tickets to Bob Zany's comedy show and Cirque Paris. Zany was actually standing in line next to me. He does not think very highly of Fresno. This one lady made the mistake of admitting to it and periodically he would look at her and explain references slowly and in a loud voice. I think that's part of his routine. He found a millennial in the crowd + heckled him. Worth the trouble. Both good shows.

Law enforcement never showed up. I guess she must have gotten Lt Dangle ( Comedy Central's "Reno 911") on the phone and he lost his bicycle again.

A really nice thing about Santa Clara U is it's very straightforward. You can just walk right past the baseball field/basketball arena + a straight path takes you right to a Safeway + places to eat. On a Saturday(when I've gone to games) you likely don't run into any students because the bookstore isn't open. And that's nice, avoid the suspicious looks that old people get. Think they're used to it though, since the campus is a historic landmark open to the public. Kind of a pain if you want to buy a souvenir of your trip, but they at least sell some stuff at the game. Not to mention all the SWAG you get at the gate. I've got SCU Baseball refrigerator magnets for days. You can tell Santa Clara has serious money. At some of the baseball games last year they were raffling off concert tickets + they give some free food to students on either Tuesdays or Fridays. There are promotions too in which I believe i f a certain player does something you get free popcorn or hot chocolate. To say nothing of the contests where you win a gift certificate to Lunardi's if you guess who will score the first run for the home team. There aren't even any Lunardi's in Santa Clara. Serious money at that college.

Thanks. As you might have been able to see from the photos I visited Seattle + Reno in September, so it wasn't possible to see a game + get closer shots of the field. Had to settle for seeing the Mariners play. Oh well.

It's actually not that easyI've learned to get decent photos in Reno, at least not near the casinos, without arousing suspicion. Apparently in Reno they think that men walking around with their phones out looking at things and taking pictures (tourists in other words ) are sex traffickers. I take one picture of the Circus Circus sign and some idiot woman from a parking garage starts yelling at me + saying she's going to call the police, that I'm taking pictures of girls. I'm like, "I'm a tourist, fool, and I don't know where I'm going, hence the phone for directions. But apparently you're too stupid to see that" Then I had some not so pleasant words for her + went on my way. Needless to say that didn't encourage me to visit again. I had to read up about Reno's paranoia online

Well, that wasn't very good, was it ? Well, how much of that was being rusty from not playing for almost 2 weeks I wonder ? CAL looked rusty too last night, getting shut out by Sac State.

A couple of interesting take- aways from this game. Hannah started, and not Spillane or Weiser. Brown pitched an efficient inning and a third of relief, probably his day to throw between starts. That suggests he's either the Friday or Saturday starter now (likely Saturday) and we have a new Sunday starter, probably Spillane. Maybe Sasaki eventually.

A couple pictures

It's really feast or famine for MacNichols. His 6hr this year give him 20 in 340 career at bats, but his career batting average is an even .200 according to the Santa Clara website.

I was keeping track of the game online + this was another game where Vaughn left Spillane in too long + set the bullpen up to fail in my opinion. I figure he wants these kids to get stronger by working through adversity, but he has to draw a line and decide what's good for the team as well.

They have a nice long break to rest and recover. The good news is their next opponent is Santa Clara, which is doing worse than they are. During this break I would not be surprised to see some role changes.

Another piece of good news is Jared Sasaki should be back shortly, consistent with what ProAggieGuy said. I overheard him week before last tell a parent at the game that he expects to be back soon and that he has been throwing in the bullpen during games. I think Jared will probably begin in the bullpen, but he could also be an "opener" to ensure he gets his work in, maybe have Hannah or Spillane piggyback on those starts until he's ready to go at least 5 innings.

I believe the pitching rotation will change, but just the order for now. Chris Brown has earned a promotion to Saturday starter, whereas Hannah has had 3 poor starts in a row. Still there's really no one else right now that's ready to step into the rotation, although Sasaki will be in fairly short order.

The game against Sac State really just proved one thing: that the Hornets' less- used relievers are better than the Aggies' less- used relievers right now. It was nifty to see Tim Weiser strike out the side after the bases were loaded though

Perhaps it might be time to re- define bullpen roles by eliminating the current ones + letting the players' decide that with their performance instead. Ouellette clearly isn't ready to close, but he has potential. He needs more pitching experience period. Lyford is better than I thought he'd be, but he's over- used in my opinion, to the point where his stats aren't even impressive anymore. I liked the first inning I saw from Lara on Tuesday + that he got a 2nd inning to show what he can do. Moffitt's better than he's looked the past 2 appearances. Perhaps he needs a low- pressure garbage inning or two to boost his confidence. Would like to see more from Johnson.
Justin Smith was missing the strike zone pretty badly against Sac State, but that wasn't the case in fall ball.

I am assuming Ryan Rodriguez is red- shirting this year. He was kind of wild last year, was wild when I saw him in fall ball. If they can get him to control his above- average velocity fastball he would be a good late- inning option. Also guessing that Jordan, Wesolowsky, and Meredith are redshirting, especially Meredith. I noticed he was on foul ball retrieval duty + that is a role typically reserved for redshirts. Wonder about Wyatt Tucker though. Would be kind of strange to redshirt a JC transfer, unless he's hurt.

They should also make a point of giving O'Boy a start each week at catcher. He looks better defensively this year + his hitting is coming around. Need to have a fall- back plan if Denholm gets drafted in June.

Lastly I wouldn't be surprised to see Myers get more playing time at first.

I don't think they even started this well the year they won the Division II national championship (2003)

I saw an Aggie softball no- hitter as a student. It was hardly celebrated at all. You would've thought it was just any other game. I forget her name, but the pitcher was one of two good- looking redheads. Sac State just threw a no- hitter the other day.

Ugh ! Must UCD always play like a D- 2 team against Sac State ? Wake me up in late May.

That was the impression I got as well. When Sac State added a Sunday game against Marge Simpson College the press release said it was to replace the rained out game against UCD. Then they cancelled that game due to rain that never happened. UCD may not make up the Santa Clara game either. They made it difficult to do sp by adding extra games against UOP and USF.

This is a 7pm game on a work night. I will be shocked if I last past the 5th inning.

To be fair I think two of the losses this year were the result of what I think were questionable decisions by the coach. A high- pressure save situation against a quality opponent (Nevada) was not, in my opinion, the time to give junior Steven Ouellette his first collegiate pitching appearance- I don't care how hard he throws. Surely there was an opportunity to get him a tune- up when they were slaughtering Northern Colorado.

The last Utah Valley game was just a big mess that didn't have to be. First of all the online schedule said it was a 7 inning game. Then they made it 9 inning game without telling the fans ahead of time. If they'd kept it at 7 the Aggies would have gone right to Johnson or Lyford after the starter left.

The error in this game was the management of the pitching staff. For what it's worth Jake Spillane was pretty impressive. He has no fear of pitching inside, just goes right after the hitters. He's going to be a good one for the Aggies. However, it was also his first collegiate start after a few short relief appearances. When he struggled in the 5th that was a sign he was getting tired. He got out of the jam, and that should have been it, but he was run out for the 6th + left in to load the bases. Why ? Then Moffitt got the call, which I was happy about, but such an infrequently- used pitcher should not be entering with so little margin for error (see Ouellette, Steve). He should have started the inning. That extremely wild pitch Moffit threw should have been a clue he was ready to be removed. Then he's left in to cough up the rest of the lead + Andres Lara is brought in with the bases loaded to try to preserve a tie. To Lara's credit he only allowed 1 runner to score. Then they come back + Lyford gives up the winning runs. If Johnson +Lyford were available, why didn't they enter the game earlier- the coach had no qualms using the latter for four innings on opening day ?

And that leads me to another thought. Has Andres Lara ever pitched in a game UCD has won ? Usually he's pitching during garbage time in blowout losses to the likes of Stanford + doing a good job. Why doesn't he get more meaningful innings- he's good.

I will probably see some of the game against Sac State tomorrow, weather permitting. I'll explain why "some in a separate post + give kind of a preview of the hornets.