huskerbaseball13

Yeah I was being a bit facetious. If Mitchell makes it to the NBA kudos to him as there are not many of his stature that do so. I just hope some day we start to produce NBA level talent on a regular basis. Would be pretty cool to see a Sker go in the first round.

Are we sure about that? While at Nebraska Miles is 2 for 2 in not offering Omaha prospects that ended up in the NBA. I really like Amir Harris, I think he will be a good one and is probably our future at the PG position. It's my understanding that there is some reservation in regards to Mitchell due to his size. I have no idea if Mitchell would have came here had we offered but it seems to be a habit that we are either not interested or late to the party on local prospects. Perhaps Miles felt burned by the whole Arop deal. The good news is that we were first to offer Hepburn and being the first to offer usually accounts for something with a prospect.

Jordy for me is probably the biggest wildcard going into next year. If we can get a solid Jordy it just further expands on the potential matchup problems Miles and company can toy around with. And we don't even need an All Conference type player at the 5....we just need Jordy to not average a foul every six minutes of game time and be closer to shooting 60% from the field rather than 40%.

I do like some of the arms we have coming in...I think Colby Gomes will end up being very good. That of course is assuming he doesn't blow his arm out like quite a few of our other pitchers and that Silva can actually develop him. Both seem to be big ifs. I'm not as optimistic as you on the offensive side of the ball though. I think Altavilla will have a bounce back type of year but I'm not sure where the power/speed is going to come from unless the new blood impresses. Eventually, Erstad will have to come to a realization that grinding out games and trying to manufacture runs each and every game is not sustainable for long term success.

Per Wilkening's dad, Jesse plans to sign. That leaves us with one player returning that hit over .300 this past year, Gunner Hellstrom who only had 71 AB's. We need to hope like hell the incoming class has some major contributors that are ready to go right away.

Erstad has said many times that he plans on building the program around pitching/defense. That's great, but you need to be able to develop and recruit quality starters in order to do that. This staff has really struggled in finding a Friday night ace which is crucial in the college game.

Papillion native Sean Chandler who finished his Husker career with 9 innings pitching and an ERA just shy of 10 gets taken in the sixth round of the draft after dominating at Iowa Western. You can't make this stuff up. We could have probably used him this past year. But, his arm probably would have fallen off had he stayed.

I would say those people aren't fans then. It's in Nebraska's best interest that we kick ass this year and finally make Nebrasketball history in the big dance. Assuming we have no major injuries, this upcoming year is the best chance we have had since god knows when.

I think everybody wants that. Miles engages the fanbase, sells the program. There is real no reason not to like the guy from a personable standpoint. It just boils down to can he take the program to the next level. It seems like we say this every year but it's hard not to see this upcoming year as do or die for Miles future at Nebraska.

Looks like it will be mostly the name schools again this year and heavy SEC. Tall task for Minnesota to go into Oregon St and win two games. Would like to see Duke/Wilmington/Stetson make it to get some underdogs to root for.

Late to the party but sound the cowbell. I had a decent feeling Palmer would be back but did not expect Isaac back. I thought we could still be a pretty good team with losing Copeland but getting him back is just icing on the cake. Our 7-8 man rotation is going to be pretty darn good. If someone like Thor or Nana takes the next step and gets us some good minutes watch out.

+1. Alec Bohm is a prime example of this staffs failures on the recruiting trail. You have a Omaha kid who is projected to go top 5 in the draft and it was reported in the OWH that this staff did not feel the need to recruit him. Just mind boggling. What really grinds my gears the most though is thinking about Erstad's opening press conference in which he pumped up the fanbase with the talks of how his philosophy will be very aggressive on offense and "chaos on the basepaths." The program has been the exact opposite to where Erstad and his offense is almost too conservative. I don't want to call him a liar because again. that may very well boil down to his inability to get the job done on the recruiting trail. He has a lot to work to do and I don't think expectations should be lowered with a guy going into his 8th year at a program.

Unfortunatly, just making it into the top 8 of the Big Ten will be seen as improvement and probably get an atta boy for Erstad.

Status quo remains in Lincoln. Which means a mediocre at best baseball program.

With a loss tomorrow, it will be the worst Husker season in regards to win % since 1975. The program will be hitting the reset button in year 8 of Erstad after an over all mediocre 7 years.

I definitely don't think our issues stem from it being a Nebraska problem. Many were concerned with Erstad having zero recruiting connections when hired and I think that has come to rear its ugly head. To top it off, Erstad has zero experience in managing a program. While he was a great ballplayer and a year removed from the majors Erstad said so himself...he would need to surround himself with great recruiters and unfortunately the main guy he hired and has leaned on (Silva) has turned out to be a dud. It looked like a great hire initially but it has not panned out and it sounds as if Silva has rubbed quite a few people the wrong way. I think Nebraska still has everything in place to be the premier baseball program in the Midwest. Whether Moos cares enough remains to be seen. I've said it before, but the guy who should have had the job is currently recognized as one of the best recruiters in the nation and moving right along with A&M. I think he would still be VERY interested in this job if it were to come open. Osborne hired Erstad knowing that he would likely be a lifer and would not leave the program for greener pastures. That's nice if its working out...but, it hasn't worked out in the first seven years. In the end, we probably have to hope Erstad has some sort of itch to get back to the majors or Erstad quickly figures out how to replenish the program with talent.

The talent within the program has been depleted. This year was terrible, as bad as its been since the Sanders ERA but what is more concerning is that we likely lose our only two consistent hitters, and...we still don't have an established Friday night guy in the program. I have no inside information but I fully expect Silva will be gone. The good news is we get some key guys back in the bullpen but they will be recovering from major arm injuries so who knows how that will pan out. I'm still going to hold out for a glimmer of hope that Erstad may put his name in the ring for a MLB job this offseason.

Sorry I don’t. I listen via the 1620thezone app. It’s from Monday’s broadcast.

Speaking of IWCC a local kid who was at NU and did nothing had an absolute crazy good year for them. I’m guessing Erstad/Silva would love to have Sean Chandler right about now.

Just got around to listening to Sharp n Bennings Monday podcast. Sheds quite a bit of light on our struggles keeping in state talent. If Erstad is serious about turning around this program what he does this offseason with Ted Silva will say a lot.

Oh no, I get that...I just am not buying what Erstad is selling. At the end of the day it's not a huge deal but I'm surprised at how much play its got around the country.

Do what again? Show a little energy instead of the cold lifeless team Erstad has assembled? That's fine if you want to sit the kid to save him from possibly being plunked but Erstad was jawing at him before he even got back to the dugout telling him to never do that again. Altavilla was right back in the lineup the following day and Indiana had four chances to throw at him and did not do so. Not only that, but he was immediately pulled. Not just pinched hit for. Again, if it was a Jose Bautista bat flip and Altavilla is mean mugging Indiana players around the bases.....fine, that's a teaching moment. But, what Altavilla did should have just garnered a high five by Erstad when he was back in the dugout.

I don't tweet much so I'm not sure if a coach responding is common practice but I don't mind DE's response. With that said, I call BS. Perhaps he didn't sit him for the bat flip but he was none too happy. Which IMO is quite dumb. Let the players have some fun and what Altavilla did was not even close to egregious. That might explain as to why his teams always play so tight especially when the pressure is on. But hey, atleast the baseball program is getting some national press. Albeit, it's bad press. But you know that they say...any press is good press.

We must lower expectations because Erstad has been a failure thus far. Sounds about right.