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Weekend Baseball Roundup

After surprisingly taking back-to-back series from nationally ranked Ole Miss and Vanderbilt, the Tide seemed to be in good shape heading into a week that features series with UAB and LSU. The Blazers are nothing overly special, and LSU is probably, at best, the seventh best team in the conference, so things looked to shape up nicely.

It didn't quite go as well as planned.

A late double secured victory for the Tide in game one against UAB, but the following night the Blazers soundly outplayed the Tide en route to a relatively easy victory, thus forcing a series split. On Friday, we traveled to Baton Rouge to play LSU, but the game was postponed, forcing a doubleheader on Saturday. After getting a split in the doubleheader, Alabama had the Sunday game, and therefore the series, seemingly locked up. After a big sixth inning the Tide carried a three run lead, but it all fell apart amid a myriad of poor hitting and poor pitching. We ended up losing 9-7, with the go-ahead run coming on a wild pitch, after leaving eight runners on base and having eight strikeouts, to go along with two errors. At the end of the day, we lost a game, and a series, that we should have won based solely upon a complete lack of execution of the most elementary of baseball fundamentals.

Our continued lack of competent execution of fundamental baseball remains a major concern. We do not have an in-state scholarship program, nor do we have any institutional support for baseball in general. It all combines to mean that we aren't going to beat many conference teams with superior depth and talent, so we have to play sound baseball to get the job done. Unfortunately, we seemingly cannot do that. We walk entirely too many batters, have too many wild pitches and errors, and on the offensive side of the ball we leave entirely too many runners in scoring position because of an inability to put the ball in play during key situations. None of that bodes well for the Tide.

The one positive, I suppose, you could take from the LSU series is that it was on the road, and thus far SEC teams have struggled greatly on the road in conference play. I have long argued against the traditional belief of home field advantage in football, but in baseball it's another story, and in particular it seems to be a very big advantage in SEC baseball. So far this season, the home team has won 20 of 24 conference series, and we have yet to break that trend in our own right (2-0 at home, 0-2 on the road). However, regardless of home field advantage, the point remains that at some point we will have to go on the road and win some series, and being quite frank, we won't have many easier opportunities than we had in Baton Rouge this past weekend. Arkansas and Mississippi State may be easier, but only slightly so, and after this past weekend you cannot feel good about our chances there either.

Either way, after losing the series to LSU and splitting with UAB, the Tide sits tied for third in the SEC West with the Bayou Bengals. And that's bad news for us. Only the top eight teams make the SEC Tournament, and with essentially the entire Eastern division looking superior to just about everyone in the West, we will probably need to finish second in the West to just secure ourselves a spot in Hoover.

Things won't get any easier for the Tide this week. After two relatively light games against Mississippi Valley State and Southeastern Louisiana, we will have to travel to Knoxville to face a good Tennessee team. The Vols are one of the best teams in the conference, and are fresh off taking a series from nationally ranked Florida. Sufficed to say, we've got our work cut out for us as we go on yet another road trip this weekend.

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What is an in state scholarship program?

by 5026 on Apr 8, 2008 3:16 PM CDT reply actions  

Well
Georgia, Tennesse, Florida, etc. are in states that have lotteries and are able to offer academic scholarships to players that qualify to free up scholarships for players that don't. Alabama doesn't have a similar system in place so our potential player pool is diminished.
Roll Tide!

by Nico2.0 on Apr 8, 2008 3:21 PM CDT up reply actions  

Ok
that makes sense...outside of a state lottery is there anyway to give that benefit to students without giving a scholarship?  

by 5026 on Apr 8, 2008 4:13 PM CDT reply actions  

No...
Anything made available to a student athlete must also be made available to regular students, so in that sense no. Aside from an in-state scholarship program, you just cannot do it.

by outsidethesidelines on Apr 8, 2008 8:16 PM CDT up reply actions  

State scholarship programs...
...won't make as big of a difference in the future.  With new roster limitations being imposed next season I believe, don't quote me on this, that you can only have 7 walk-ons on the team.  In other words, UGA can't get the best players to come in on lottery scholarships while saving baseball money for kids from Georgia without a B average, or for out of state prospects.  Rosters will be limited to 35 players if I am not mistaken.  Scholarship players must have at least a 25% baseball scholarship.  The rest cannot be made up by such state sponsored scholarship programs.  

by BigCountry85 on Apr 8, 2008 7:56 PM CDT reply actions  

Eh...
It won't make as big of a difference with roster limits, but it will still make a difference.

The point remains that by these in-state schools being able to give over 90% of the in-state student body free tuition, that frees up a ton of scholarships to use on other players. That can be recycled, to a degree, by using that excess amount to give other players even more in financial aid, i.e. more money.

For example, say Wells is going after a kid in his hometown of Bossier City, Louisiana and his main competition is the in-state school, LSU. Of course, LSU has the TOPS program, and can thus give him free in-state tuition. Also consider that tuition is approximately half of the real cost of attendance at either school. Now, let's assume we both have one .25 scholarships available to give this kid. All other things being equal, who does he pick? Obviously, LSU. He can half approximately half of his cost of attendance paid for there, plus his .25 scholarship, thus he is only required to pay 25% of his education. On the other hand, if he were to come to Alabama, he would have to pay 75%.

Obviously, as the scenario above shows, schools with in-state scholarship programs have big advantages in that regard. And roster limits will do nothing to change that fundamental fact. True, they will help schools like us because opponents won't be able to pad the roster with a million players, but they will still have an inherent advantage.

Either way though, that really can't be used as an excuse for us. We don't have an in-state scholarship program, nor are we getting one. Moreover, given their long track record of greatly lowering both graduation rates and academic quality, I would raise pure hell if one were to be put in place in the state of Alabama, I don't care how many baseball games it causes us to lose. The point remains, though, that we don't have one, we will be at a disadvantage in that sense, and it's up to us to consistently play very fundamentally sound baseball, and that's something we have not been able to do at all this season.

by outsidethesidelines on Apr 8, 2008 8:30 PM CDT up reply actions  

This is a great point
and is something that has been known and discussed for several years.  As a college professor I could not support the lottery in Alabama any more.  I saw first hand what it did to higher education in TN.  My first semster there (2004) as a PhD student and instructor was the initial semester of the TN Hope Scholarship.  In just a few yrs remarkable improvements have been made.  Now at UT the average freshman has an ACT of 26.  That is average, so obviously the standards for admission are increasing as well.  Academics are the most important part of any university (obviously) but the lottery does indeed benefit athletics as is the case with UT or UGA or . . .
I wouldn't piss off the boys from Alabama . . .

by I hate UT on Apr 9, 2008 11:25 AM CDT reply actions  

We are going to fall behind
The entire state of AL lags most others in education standards and we will just widen the gap every year that we do not have the lottery.  I live in a border county and so many people here drive to TN to buy lottery tix.  Including Bama fans that hate UT who are in a sense giving money to the orange nation.  Go figure.  This state must adopt the lottery or we will most certainly fall further behind.  Is is really that simple in my humble opinion.
I wouldn't piss off the boys from Alabama . . .

by I hate UT on Apr 9, 2008 11:27 AM CDT reply actions  

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