Iowa Baseball Offensive Woes

[IowaHawkeyeFBnBB4Life]

Anybody with any insight on what's going on offensively? If we had a tad more O, we'd probably have 3-4 more wins. With that being said our lineup has been jumbled all year besides the 1-2-3 spots of Toole-Mangler-Peyton. They have been pretty solid.

At this point, I think it'd be worth giving a guy like Nick Day a shot in the cleanup spot and having a combo of Booker/Potempa behind him or even Booker/Goodman. I know Day has always hit in the 9 spot, but he has a good average and obp this year.

 

[2bagger22]

Originally posted by IowaHawkeyeFBnBB4Life:
Anybody with any insight on what's going on offensively? If we had a tad more O, we'd probably have 3-4 more wins. With that being said our lineup has been jumbled all year besides the 1-2-3 spots of Toole-Mangler-Peyton. They have been pretty solid.

At this point, I think it'd be worth giving a guy like Nick Day a shot in the cleanup spot and having a combo of Booker/Potempa behind him or even Booker/Goodman. I know Day has always hit in the 9 spot, but he has a good average and obp this year.

The impact Zeutenhorst and Yacinich had on last year's lineup cannot be undersold. The majority of last year's nine is back but they don't have the same punch.

 

[DodgerHawki]

Those changes you suggest could be made (and might be at some point this year). There are studies that show lineup construction has minimal impact on the amount of runs scored. The main thing is choosing the right guys to be in the lineup (and I see no evidence that Heller is stashing a potent bat on the bench).

Heller is likely concerned that putting Day at cleanup would over-expose him a bit, perhaps cause him to put too much pressure on himself to do things he's not capable of.

As others have said, the loss of Zeutenhorst and Yacinich just hasn't been replaced, along with a couple of guys (Potempa, Frankos and Goodman) not having the years they had last year. For Potempa/Frankos/Goodman, they likely had better than expected batting averages on balls in play last year, and are experiencing the opposite side of that luck spectrum this year.

It's one of those things that is hard to find a solution for. You can't magically make guys hit better, other than working through mechanical flaws. And this staff is good enough that I'm sure any of those issues have already been addressed. The team kind of is what it is at this point, very good on the mound and defensively, and so-so at scoring runs.

 

[funnyfletcher]

Is Day injured right now? Haven't seen him in the lineup recently. I always wondered why he was always batting towards the bottom of the order. Booker started off on a roll and has cooled off, Roscetti has been the opposite, started really slow and has been doing well as of late. It seems like they're leaving a lot of base runners on.

 

[2bagger22]

Originally posted by funnyfletcher:
Is Day injured right now? Haven't seen him in the lineup recently. I always wondered why he was always batting towards the bottom of the order. Booker started off on a roll and has cooled off, Roscetti has been the opposite, started really slow and has been doing well as of late. It seems like they're leaving a lot of base runners on.

The radio broadcast last weekend mentioned Day hurt his back in the Purdue series and he's not 100%.

Iowa leads the conference in the GDP category, leading to a lot of guys left on base.

 

[IowaHawkeyeFBnBB4Life]

They also strike out a lot, at least compared to last year it seems. I realize guys like Potempa and Frankos may have overachieved a bit last year hitting wise. However, even if a guy like Jimmy Frankos hits .225 this year, we would have done more offensively. His batting avg was below .100 until the Cornell game. So hopefully he can find a way to get hits as well as guys like Potempa and Goodman.

Iowa did what they had to offensively vs Cornell, now lets see if it can spark some confidence for NW.