Spectators + players

Looking forward to my first game in 5 years. I do know that a baseball game is not being played.

Ok, I added it. Thanks !

Here's some news on another recruit. According to the L.A. Times Daily Pilot dated 4-13-2017 the Aggies have also added pitcher Jared Sasaki from Edison HS in Huntington Beach, the same school as fellow recruit SS Kyler Arenado. Edison didn't post their baseball stats on Maxpreps.com so I don't know how he did this year. He talked a bit about his recruiting process a bit on wordpress.com . Apparently he'll walk onto the team.

We need pitchers, so this is also a good sign..

According to the Aggie Stadium A-Z (under Fan Zone) on the ucdavisaggies.com website bags and backpacks are subject to search, and they have to fit under your seat. If it''s just a regular school backpack you should be iok. They will probably ask you to open it. I recommend keeping your unmentionables toward the bottom so they aren't on display if you get an intrusive security guard.

Not sure about Unitrans, but if it isn't you can likely catch a Yolo Bus after the game at the MU. You can walk quickly from downtown. I can usually make it from near the Amtrak to Dobbins in less than 30 min.

Count on it being at least $20 for a ticket. You can buy flex tickets now (5 vouchers for any games) for $100. I remember these tickets were $8 when I was a student.

A person in a yellow jacket would probably tell you to stop lol.

The roster is outdated. If you look at Dale''s profile it''s from the 2016 season. Culberson''s is up-to-date. He must have obtained a 6th year of eligibility for the seasons he was unable to play.

There was a HS recruiting board I saw the other day (will post the link if I find it)again) on which one would-be recruit''s parent was stating UCD told his son they don't offer baseball scholarships to out-of-state players due to the extra tuition pricing him out of the department budget. I don't know if this is true, but I can't remember any out-of state baseball players during the D-I era. I remember in the late 90''s the Aggies had a shortstop from TX, but he probably wasn't on an athletic scholarship.

If true it just goes to show how under-funded the baseball program is compared to other programs. The basketball and football programs hand out these scholarships every year.

If you're referring to the Stanford football coach, Wikipedia says he makes $3.9 million per year.

Movielover, you know from my previous rants I think they have too much gameday staff >:O Just because we have a medical school doesn't mean our sporting events need to be bland, sterile affairs. They have to spend some money to get more fans in the park. They can't get around it.

We do have a sports marketing dept, and per former interim director Gould there is a separate baseball marketing person or persons responsible. At least, that''s where she said she forwarded it. It didn't wind up in the delete box to be certain because Coach Vaughn told me that he also read it . Good thing I talked business exclusively and left my opinions of the team''s play out of it, right ?

How do they market it better ? Not my job, not my prob. :) The person or people getting paid to market the team need to find some creative ways to attract fans. I already gave them some free suggestions. Any more and I need some compensation. All I know is there''s something wrong when Davis residents and businesspeople don't even know UCD has a baseball team, much less the dates + times of the games. Lack of interest is one thing, but the nearby community isn't even aware of it to not be interested.

Razo signed with Seattle. I didn'the catch the bonus amount. Both players have made impressive debuts in relief for their Arizona League teams. They will probably face each other at some point this summer.

Only in terms of homerun power. They lose some of that with Olson leaving, but it should be replaced by Denholm, assuming he''s going to play (First base ? Catcher?) The team still struggled to execute with men in scoring position. I will concede that several players took a step forward offensively.

Pitching is likely to be a big mess. Mullins and Stone graduated. Razo and Garcia both signed pro contracts per the draft database at Baseballamerica. They leaned very heavily on those 4 in 2017. The new recruits may be good, but they'really true freshmen. True frosh pitches usually don't make an immediate impact at UCD. I' say the pitching staff took a big step back for 2018. At least in 2016 you could identify pitchers to start. Aside from Blais and maybe Hannah I haven't any idea who starts.

Graduate programs can be ridiculously difficult to get into at UCD. Too many hoops to jump through. I wonder if he'll actually play for U of A. I can't imagine he receives an athletic scholarship for just 1 year. Grad school can be pretty time-consuming.

Lights. They serve additional purposes besides attracting fans. They would allow the team more flexibility in scheduling games +practices, allowing students to miss fewer classes. Also, when weather is a consideration, they may help to avoid games getting scheduled for other days or cancelled altpgether.

I donated to baseball, but not on give day ;)

It would be nice if they would at the very least give free admission if you show up in the 5th inning or later. Why should you have to pay to watch half the game or less ? Send the ticket salesperson and ticket takers home. This would encourage some walk- up traffic from campus visitors, such as visiting parents (that is to say parents of students that are not players). You save a little money on wages. Not like you're selling tickets then anyway- they're just farting around. Maybe they buy a hot dog or a soda ?

You never know who will stop by just to see what's going on. It could be alumni visiting campus. A lot of these international student programs or business conferences (which are mainly during the summer so not entirely applicable to baseball)

Also I think it would be nice if re- scheduled games were free. Sometimes they don't do a good job of updating people. This was especially true during the D2 era. You can't accurately predict whether a game will actually be played or not based on the weather forecast. Opening day last year they played through a soggy mess to a 12- 0 loss. Last Tuesday they were rained out with the sun shining because of the field condition. In 2011 they cancelled the game (rightfully so- no one could've expected them to play) the day after Scott Heinig passed away. The only problem I had w/that was that they didn't update the website w/that into or even put a sign out at the ballpark that said the game was cancelled. So I went all the way to Davis for no reason at all. When people show up +they don't play that's an inconvenience to the fans. If the rescheduled game forms a double- header, the double- header should be free. That would really encourage people to show up + spend that ticket money on concessions.

The games used to be free for several years. It wasn't until the Dobbins family gift came in that they were able to put in the fancy new gate and build a new ticket booth. I can understand them wanting to get a little help offsetting the game costs, but it is very little help. I doubt if they average 100 paid admissions per game- that's $800.00. But it's probably closer to 70- 80, which is $560- $640. At least $100- $150 of that is paid to people to either sell you a ticket or prevent you from entering without one. So in the end you wind up with enough money for a bucket or two of baseball's.

I noticed they did start charging only $2 for Tuesday games. That's a good start. Why should you pay full price when neither team is going to be using all of their best players ?

69Aggie. I think all of the other BW teams either do or They're close to getting them. Santa Barbara had a recent fundraiser to get them; I think they succeeded. I haven't been following it. Northridge is getting some big upgrades, which include lights.

Long Beach, Fullerton, and Hawaii's ballparks have all hosted professional baseball in the past (independent teams for the first two and a winter league for the third, which Buster Posey played in before he hit full- season ball) so we don't have to ask about them. Hawaii hosted a AAA team long ago, but I don't know if they played at Murakami Stadium. Long ago (as recently as 1992 I think), Riverside had a Single- A team called the Pilots, but I don't think that park was on the college campus. Also the Highlanders have gotten anew stadium since then. Who does that leave ? Cal Poly has them. That leaves Irvine. They're kind of a big deal, so they probably do. A look at the game schedule will confirm that.

I agree with you. I would come to fewer games if there were night games too. I'm old by my standards, and don't like being out of town at night unless I'm on a trip and staying in a hotel. I'll see a night game at Raley Field, Sac State, or Sac City because these are all a quck trip home.

Let's not forget too that nighttime is study time at Davis, even if it's Saturday, and our students are pretty devoted. You also have a fair number who hop on Amtrak or Yolobus and skip town after Friday classes because it's easy to do and they're bored. I suppose if you had a big event once a homestand you could drag a lot of Segundo/Primero dorm kids. Tercero maybe. Cuarto ? Forget about it. I lived there during summer sessions . Once you cross that street (Russell) after classes, you aren't going back to campus !

And that brings up one other struggle- off- campus students. If you live off campus more than a couple blocks away, the school might as well be on the moon. I remember my senior year I lived at F and Covell, barely a mile away. What an ordeal to get to/from school ! These students will make it out for something where they can drink and engage in boorish behavior to let off steam. That might not mix well with an event officiated by Ken "Full of Bull" Durham, and where you're supposed to golf clap and refrain from discouragin' words.

I think the number one question the athletics dept has to address w/students when marketing baseball is, why should I care ? The team needs to hold up their end of it by playing better. Maybe they lack the athleticism to make the diving and bang- bang plays of a Fullerton, but they can play smarter and play as a team. Right now I don't see a team; I see a bunch of guys who like to hang out and showcase their abilities. The massive hiccups on plays involving multiple infielders tells me all I need to know.

The downtown is nice in Davis because it doesn't cater to anyone (except lovers of sushi and noodle dishes) in particular. They're not trying to do a poor imitation of SF, as Sacramento has been doing for the last few years.

All the same there's not so much to do there that the city can't come out and support the baseball team. There are two major factors at work there- lack of interest and lack of information.

The first is cured by making the team relevant to people. Nothing does that better than winning. To do this the university is really going to need to do more than force the baseball team make do with what scraps are left over after football + basketball are satisfied. It has to be more than an ugly redheaded stepchild of a program.

And then there is the matter of coaching. I'm not going to going to throw Vaughn under the bus and say he and his staff are terrible and need to go or anything. They have a lot of improvements to make, and I'm ok with them remaining in their roles if we can see consistent improvement, not only in the field, but in their decision- making. For example, I don't want to see Chris Brown pitching in the 7th inning until that kid stops putting his first three pitches way out of the strike zone. I don't want to see the starting catcher get pinch- hit for in the 4th or 5th inning unless he's hurt. And I sure as heck don't want to see them allow the worst possible kind of clusterfudge to happen before they take a struggling pitcher out.

The other part is caused by UCD not doing all it can to promote baseball +other outdoor winter/spring sports. Davis Baseball still has this weird vibe surrounding it where not many people know about it. I tell people I'm going to a UCD baseball game and I might as well be telling them I'm going to watch roosters play magic cards (South Park reference. SP came out my freshman year in Davis.)

Picnic Day games draw a decent crowd. Not this year!

And here's the list:

Robert Garcia: has been a little disappointing as a Friday guy. He hasn't pitched like an ace, but he hasn't been bad. He has done a creditable job keeping the Aggies in games. It's probably unfair to compare this season to last since his sub- 3.00 2016 ERA was more than a little skewed by his early solid relief work.

Orlando Razo: has been the ace, and had some excellent starts against Utah Valley, Northridge, Creighton, and Cal Poly. I still wouldn't move him to Fridays. He's the one consistent performer in the rotation. Don't mess with success. I think thete's a 50- 50 chance he gets drafted.

Justin Mullins: you can pretty much count on his games not being pretty. Sunday games are generally not crisply played by this team anyway, so his best hope of a win is to come out on top of a high- scoring game. Not really his fault. He throws a lot of strikes; he just doesn't get a lot of strikeouts. He needs more of those though, because the defense is usually sloppier behind him. Unfortunately on Sundays the opposing hitters are also fully in the swing of things, no pun intended.

Matt Blais:even with his recent solid starts I wouldn't move him to the weekend yet. His ceiling as a starting pitcher might be Tuesday starter next year, but that's just fine. It's important to note that his starts have mostly come against teams weaker than the ones he would face on the weekend. Remember Max Cordy's junior season ?He earned 8 wins, but only 1 on the weekend. I wouldn't mess with his role.

Zach Stone: clearly not the same pitcher he was a sophomore, with more walks than strikeouts, but who else would you have close ? Sitting out for a year w/a shoulder injury will do that to you. Still the best of the bullpen

Blake Peters: still think he's a good pitcher, but I don't think he pitches well in "pressure cooker" types of situations. The best I ever saw him pitch was the 3+ inning relief job against Portland. That wasn't one of those situations. If they're not already doing so in practice games, they should simulate those types of scenarios by having their pitchers enter w/a couple runners on base.

Chris Brown: why Brown now cow town ? They're trying to use him like a late inning reliever. Every time but one (against SAC State last year) I've seen him pitch he's entered amped- up +walked the leadoff guy (if not additional hitters), and the inning goes downhill from there.. Not sure why he's one of the top 3-used relievers given the results. I think he really could have benefited from a red shirt year as a freshman, given his senior year of us was cut off very early, but the lack of depth from recruiting forced him into being frequently used. I could see him doing well, first as a long reliever/mop- up man, but it's time to give someone else some innings.

Connor Loar: does UCD have something against JC pitchers ? The only ones I've seen get much work have been in years where they've had a big lack of pitching depth (Hamby anyone ?). He's had maybe one bad game (Fullerton), but has fewer innings than Brown despite pitching better. Not a starting pitcher or closer, but this guy should pitch more.

Daniel Barraza:he was obviously recruited as a big arm w/potential and a lot less college game experience. From what I saw in the fall game he was good at getting his teammates out (3 scoreless innings), which tells me at the very least he'd probably be a decent D- II pitcher like Zach Williams. I say if you're going to take on a pitching project you've got to get him chances to compete +get better. Otherwise, what's all the work for ?

Cameron Briggs: I would be ok w/him not pitching if he were a starting infielder, but his playing time at 2B is inconsistent. I saw him pitch last year, and his fastball has a little more zip than the average Aggie pitcher. Let him be a true utility player. There's potential, and they thought enough to hand him the ball in The 9th in a tie game against Utah Valley, then only once since. Needs to pitch more states the broken record...

Blake Hannah: one of the prized pitchers from the 2015 recruiting class. How does he not pitch more ? Gives 4 solid innings (1run allowed) against Penn State and doesn't pitch after that ? Did he need to throw a no- hitter left- handed while blindfolded ? Penn State isn't exactly a pushover team. I think he's at least as good as Blais.

Andres Lara:: I've never seen him pitch because he seems to only get into blow- out ballgames.
So he's a bit short and thin for a pitcher- if he can get outs let him play in meaningful games. Pedro Martinez was an undersized pitcher. The local JC has a guy about his height who's even skinnier and he racks up the strikeouts as a starter. Not the same level of play obviously but short pitchers can still be effective. Realistically Lara's probably just a 1- 2 inning reliever for the Aggies unless he grows a little taller +puts on some weight.