Memphis Flashback: Missed Opportunities For John Savage’s UCLA Baseball Program
by Nestor on Jun 30, 2010 5:36 AM PDT
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UCLA baseball team deserves all the credit for an unforgettable year. By all accounts the program under John Savage stepped up to whole another level this past season. They broke all kinds of records during the regular season and tournament run, and in the process reignited interest in the game among the Bruin family.
That said this morning I am feeling the same way I feel today after Ben Howland's Ben Ball warriors underachieved against Memphis Tigers from few years ago. I understand and appreciate Savage's post game comments:
"I'm so proud of our players and our program and the strides we've made," sixth-year UCLA head coach John Savage said. "I told the players that they've reached the pinnacle in college baseball. They've experienced the rigors of the Regionals and Super Regionals and the bracket in playing for the national championship.
"Every player in our locker room now knows what it feels like. We can sit there and be very proud of our entire program. The bar has been raised, and we look to be back as soon as possible. This team can say they're the best team in UCLA history, which has a long and rich tradition. I'm proud of every single person who has been a part of this program."
However, it isn't easy coming back to this stage just like that. When UCLA lost to Memphis in the Final-4 few years ago we were extremely proud (deservedly so) for the kind of run our Ben Ball warriors put together. Yet while keeping in the mind the big picture, at the time some of us failed to appreciate the opportunity missed by Ben Howland in the tactical and strategic miscues made during that game.
Now that we looking back at it I am not sure if it is possible for Howland again to have NBA stars like DC, RW, KL, LRMAM with role-players such as PAA, LMR, JS, and JK regularly on his roster. Perhaps he will strike gold again. We will see. Similarly, right now I am not sure if the Bruins or any other college team can put together a pitching staff of three aces with a dynamite closer every season. In other words, just like Howland's Ben Ball Warriors, John Savage's Bruins had a golden opportunity to do something really special this week and we didn't get it done. It hurts to think about it that way but it's reality.
I love the job John Savage has done for our program. I appreciate the way he has built it after decades of malaise and chronic underachievement under the previous coach. However, from what I saw last two days, I didn't see a baseball team which played best when the best was needed.
I didn't see the competitive greatness from our offense which was riddled with mental errors, base running mistakes through the championship series. It hurts to type that after such a wonderful season. It doesn't take away anything from the aggregate accomplishment of this season. Still I am sharing with you exactly how I feel about our offense from last two nights. They were excruciatingly disappointing.
Rob Rasmussen, one of the three brilliant Bruin starters who stepped up HUGE on Tuesday night said the following:
"In the locker room, obviously, it's hard to hold your emotions in," Rasmussen said. "To get so close and to fall short hurts. But I think maybe later tonight or tomorrow, as it all kind of sinks in, and as we look back on it, we're all going to be proud of what we did. We were under .500 last year at 27-29. We really were, like coach said, the best team that this school has ever seen.
"We set the bar for this program, really."
Well, I hope that means the team will come back with a vengeance next season and will make another run in next year's post-season. All of the accomplishments from this season are not going to mean much, if the Bruins put together a subpar 30 win season next year and weakly exit out of the Regionals. The expectations are going to be high from here on out and I hope the baseball program is up for meeting them. Of course goes without saying, all this has to be accompanied by a legitimate commitment from the UCLA athletic department, in making sure they are providing reasonable resources necessary for the program to maintain its elite level of performance.
We also offer sincere congratulations to Garnet and Black Attack and all USC fans across the country for winning the national championship. While I am being hard on the Bruin hitters, I cannot take away from the act that USC played brilliantly and stepped up when it mattered. Winning 6 straight games after dropping the first one in Omaha was nothing short of amazing and they truly deserve to be champions in the very last College World Series at Rosenblatt Stadium. So congrats to them. That was an USC championship without any kind of asterisk.
Oh and since we are talking about an SEC blog, thanks so much again to Kyle from Dawg Sports and PodKatt and his crew from And The Valley Shook, for hanging out with us in recent weeks during our run in the tourney. They made it even more fun (even though the results from last two nights really hurts). The interaction we have had with those guys along with folks from Roll Bama Roll and Rocky Top Talk, further underscores the need for UCLA to schedule more games with the programs from SEC. They just make following college sports lot more fun (even when it hurts).
Perhaps the Bruins will learn something from Gamecocks and will use it motivate themselves to make more memorable runs in the coming seasons. Hope we are not going to look back at this CWS and not end up lamenting it like Ben Howland's missed opportunity against Memphis years from now like we do today.
GO BRUINS.
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Understand the bittersweet sentiments...
It was a great run, but a disappointing end.
I appreciate the comparison to Memphis, but I’m not sure that’s totally fair to Savage and his team. I don’t think the loss of Tyler Rahmatulla can be over emphasized. That was a big blow, and the guys made a good run without him. He had been pretty hot with the bat and could have helped in the last series for certain. You could also argue that some of the key errors were the result of shuffling the lineup to adjust for Tyler’s absence.
Coupled with the loss of Espy at the end of last night’s game, Savage wasn’t playing with a full deck in the most critical innings of the season. Disappointing as it is, like Nestor, I am proud of the team and hope they make it to the big stage again soon.
Good thoughts Andrew
We def felt Tyler’s loss last 2 games. Perhaps it was too much to expect from Regis and co to continue to step up like the way they did earlier.
Still the visions of one out bunt efforts is going to haunt me for a while.
by Nestor on Jun 30, 2010 6:57 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Couldn't help being disappointed last night
We watched both games live with the family and were so hoping we could pull this off. It was a great run as Andrewsm78 said which made it all the more difficult to handle when it ended.
Nestor was right in that it seems unlikely that we’ll have the type of pitching depth again in the future, but maybe in years to come, if we can build on this run, we’ll get some added pop in the lineup along with solid pitching and bring home a baseball National Championship.
The guys should hold their heads high. They put UCLA baseball on the map. Now the challenge is to remain relevant in years to come.
Agree 100%
Almost posted these same thoughts last night, but wouldn’t have done so so eloquently.
Not sure why our offense crapped out in two straight games as the SC pitching was good but not any better than anything else we faced in the CWS.
Personally, I think we a) just ran out of gas and b) didn’t deal with the pressure well on the big stage.
Also, Espy losing his composure reminded me of DC fouling out nearly on purpose in the Memphis game.
Our pitching staff was always better than our offense
We had great pitchers, but as exemplified in the ninth inning, when Niko struck out with the bases loaded (no swipe meant against him, mind you), it just exemplified the fact that we didn’t have the hitters needed to complement the pitchers. Despite the bad game he had last night, we needed a guy like Carolina’s Jackie Bradley, Jr. As stated above, the loss of TR after the Super Regionals may have finally caught up with us – he was usually money in the clutch moments.
I should also mention that South Carolina is the team that beat ASU – the #1 seeded team and the team that beat us 3 times in a row on a bad weekend a little while ago. I felt that we were destined to meet up with ASU in the CWS, and even though that didn’t happen, we couldn’t duck around the team that was responsible for sending them home.
Nevertheless – this team has brought UCLA baseball into national prominence. It points up the fact that we should have televised games all the time at JRS, and continue to upgrade that facility. Kudos to Coach Savage and all the team, regardless. What an amazing run!
Why not walk the bases loaded?
First, I completely agree with what N has to say about our team. This was a great season which had many more ups than downs. Coach Savage has done an excellent job with the team. He and the entire team should be proud of their season even if they aren’t happy with the conclusion.
With that said, why not walk the bases loaded in the final inning? Playing as the away team, the run on third is the only run that matters. By walking the bases loaded, the team could have maximized its chances to survive the inning. It would have set up a force at home, allowing the infield to play back in double play depth. A ground ball likely would have gotten the Bruins to the 12th inning. Perhaps most importantly, it would have given Bauer an opportunity to throw a few more warm up pitches, and then come in and try to strike out the first batter. While the more pressing issue is how the team found itself in a 1-1 tie in the 11th in the first place, I am a bit disappointed with Coach Savage’s final inning. I have honestly never seen a team pitch to a batter with the winning run on third and first and second open. Any ideas why you wouldn’t walk the bases loaded and go with the fresh pitcher in that spot?
one possibility
is he was going for a 2-for-1 – tell your pitcher to pitch around him, try to get him to do something stupid (strike out, weak ground out, pop out), but then walk him if you have to and go at the next guy. (obviously relies on your pitcher being able to make sure he doesn’t throw anything hittable…)
But to be honest, I think walking the bases loaded would have made more sense, particularly as that wouild have allowed them to get round Bradley Jr as well.
by britishbruin on Jun 30, 2010 11:21 AM PDT up reply actions
poor execution of fundamentals
We couldn’t move runners over in key spots and couldn’t drive them home with less than two out. We also played poor poor defense that came back to bite us in the ass..
I think coach Savage deserves credit for getting this light hitting team to play in a system and find a away to win games – great job coach..
I too was disappointed at the loss to Memphis but i think D Rose and C Dougless had more to do with that than Coach Howland – but i understand as a die hard Bruin how you feel N.
Great run boys – Go Bruins…
"Success is never final, Failure is never fatal. It's Courage that count's"
John Wooden.....
It was a great season
Couldn’t help but get the feeling as I was watching that I was watching a SF Giants game. Great pitching, suspect hitting. Only on the Giants can you pitch a one hitter and lose a game because your offense can’t get the hit it needs to push one little run across the plate, or in the last two days, make base running mistakes.
It was a blast watching the baseball team on TV regularly. The exposure can only mean good things. And I loved seeing CRN in the stands last night!
I was thinking the exact same thing
At times, I even felt that Bruce Bochy was managing the game. Still, I’d rather have the best pitching and no hitting than the other way around. Let’s hope the team figures out how to be the Rays instead of the Giants in the offseason.
Florida part 1, not Memphis
I was thinking about missed opportunities last night myself, and thought specifically about basketball. But I think the baseball team’s run is more akin to the AA and JF basketball team that reached the final in 2006.
Their appearance in the championship game against Florida was an overachievement that ended with us falling flat at the last game. Still, that team got further in the tourney than anyone could have reasonably expected, until the moment became too big for them. Same with this baseball team.
Comparatively, the 2008 team with DC, RW, KL, etc had more high-end talent, and importantly, much more experience on the biggest stage than this baseball team had. If baseball had a couple huge bats in the lineup, and had been deep in the post season before, then I think we could compare this loss to the Memphis loss. But basketball team that lost to Memphis had the talent, and should have known how to handle that game and situation better. This baseball team didn’t have those tools or expectations.
greg in denver - UCLA guy for life
opportunity
I find it hard to bang on Savage or the team. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with some post game analysis. Especially if you can learn from it. The toughest thing for me is that these opportunities only come around so often and it’s frustrating not having won the championship. Our team is going to be stacked next year, but that guarantees us nothing. Anything can happen next year from a drop off in performance, injuries, etc. I just hope that this all put us on a path to consistent participation in the tourney and in Omaha. I can’t wait for next season. More so for just being out at JRS taking in games. For those not getting out to games, you have to take it in. It such a great experience from the baseball to just being out enjoying the crowd, kids, atmosphere, etc.
Great season
Personally, I think it was a great season. I agree with being hard on the guys for their mental mistakes, but for everyone who was mentally prepared, tried their best and just couldn’t get it done, that’s baseball.
Rasmussen was great last night. Bauer was great throughout the series. It was definitely bittersweet and the Bruins definitely hurt themselves. There is definitely disappointment, but it was a great season overall.
Agree about Rasmussen ...
and Bauer’s performance makes last night more bitter, because he was going to win the game tonight. Those long at bats that ended up as walks or hits were not going to happen tonight, Bauer was going to strike out 10.
We were leading with six outs to go and ready to hand the season over to the hottest pitcher in the country … man it stings when I say it like that.
Memphis ...
my big second guess from the Memphis game was why didn’t we let Russell Westbrook guard Derrick Rose, who was killing Darren Collison. Who knows if that would have won us the game, but it was a gamble worth taking. Heck, you could have even tried Luc on Rose — the point is Howland stuck with Collison and Collison couldn’t guard him and we lost.
So when I try to relate last night to the Memphis game, I find myself second guessing the coach more than the players. Two instances stick with me the morning after:
The first was why didn’t Klein come in to start the 8th inning. Clearly he was ready to get six outs. Goeddel pitched the seventh and we led 1-0 starting the bottom of the 8th. Goeddel gave up a single to start the 8th and Klein came in and eventually we had the error at first and they tied the game. In the chat last night, during the commercials before the bottom of the 8th I wondered if Klein would start the inning. He didn’t they got a hit to start it and he came around to score and tie the game.
Then, as others have pointed out, why not walk the bases loaded to set up the force at the plate? If nothing else, the two hitters we would have walked were more dangerous than the guy who would have hit with the bases loaded.
Those are my thoughts, anyway. I don’t disagree with some of the other comments (like whether or not SRod should have been bunting when he hit into a double play), but my two main questions are why Klein didn’t start the 8th and why we didn’t walk the bases loaded?
westbrook
was getting blasted by Chris Dougless who lit him up for 28 points.. Their back court was just too much for ours that game…
"Success is never final, Failure is never fatal. It's Courage that count's"
John Wooden.....
(same comment as above)
maybe theory is that you give yourself multiple ways to get out of the inning if you pitch to the guy – don’t throw him anything hittable, let him get himself out if he wants to, but happily give up the walk if he’s not biting at stuff that is way out of the zone. Unfortunately Klein was tired and left one too close.
by britishbruin on Jun 30, 2010 11:25 AM PDT up reply actions
(additional thought)
one other additional idea on ‘why not walk the bases loaded’ is that Savage may not have had so much faith in the revamped (due to self-inflicted injury) infield and wanted to have maximum opportunities for the pitching staff to get them unassisted?
That might be a bit too speculative, but it was something that came to mind.
by britishbruin on Jun 30, 2010 11:28 AM PDT up reply actions
Or maybe Savage liked the match up that he had? I’m not sure how you can get enough information to pick one match up over another in a sport like College Baseball, but that’s the only other possibility I can think of.
As to your theories, the first one might explain it. If that was the case, it wasn’t a horrible call, even though an IBB would have been better. I would’ve hated to see him bring in Bauer and then force Bauer to start his outing by throwing eight straight balls. That would’ve been an even worse option.
by Class of 09 on Jun 30, 2010 11:43 AM PDT up reply actions
well
in hindsight, we can all agree an IBB would have been preferable to giving up a walkoff hit, certainly… did anyone see any comments from Savage about the decision?
by britishbruin on Jun 30, 2010 1:25 PM PDT up reply actions
I didn’t get to see the last two games. I expected Robbie to have a big night, and apparently he did. He will be irreplaceable.
I get the loading the bases (and maybe bringing in T), and I’ve always felt that we pull our starters a little too early. But it’s college baseball. You see mistakes that you just don’t see at the major league level. But it’s part of the character of the game and the reason why, as someone who forgot he was a baseball fan until this year, I will take a ticket to JRS over Chavez Ravine any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
I’m not going to bag on the hitters. They were lighting it up during the CWS. Sometimes the bats go cold. And keep in mind that it was SC’s fourth or fifth trip to the CWS without a championship. Imagine their disappointment if they had come up short again.
I don’t know why this hurts as much as it does, but I like everything about this team and I can’t wait to see them back on the field next year.
And what about next year. Who do we lose (Claypool, Justin and Robbie), and who are the prospects? You can take this momentum and exposure and build on it.
A record that probably won't be broken any time soon
is that 20+ winning streak at the start of the season – what a sweet memory, even if it feels like eons ago!
Should have mentioned above
I believe that’s a UCLA record – certainly not a conference or national one (didn’t ASU have a longer streak this year?)…
Damn it, Bruins. Now I have to endure SEC supremacy talk for another year!
Just kidding, way to represent the Conf. of Champions and make it to the final.
Don't look those hoodie-clad Huskies in the eyes. They'll give you lupus.
by TennesseeQuackAttack8 on Jun 30, 2010 12:12 PM PDT reply actions
Strange ending to the season
I had been impressed throughout the CWS at how UCLA played like they belonged there… poised and confident.
But on the biggest stage, the CWS Finals, we seemed to shrink from the moment. Too many errors, too many mistakes. We gave that game away last night. Conversely, South Carolina played with a lot of confidence in both games. They knew they were good enough to win it all, and they played like it.
Really disappointing way to go out.
The first game of the Finals
was a case of nerves and bad bounces. The second game was a lack of situational hitting and suspect defense.
I found it interesting in the last game for a stadium known as a bandbox, it was not going to allow a homer the last two games. There were at least two shots for each team that were crushed and yet either died in an outfielder’s glove or hit the fence for a loud single.
Biggest beef with coaching was first inning
We had men on first and second, no out, and a three-ball count. You never, ever, ever even think of stealing third there. The pitcher can hardly throw a strike. Even if he successfully stole instead of getting picked off, it would’ve been pointless. As it happened, that play cost us at least one run in that inning and who knows how many more.
Errors are part of the game, but careless daring on the basepaths is either called for or permitted by coaches, and it’s been proven through every measure to be very counterproductive. Especially when you’re the superior team and you don’t need hocus pocus to score some runs.
Aggressive base running has been a hallmark of this team. Were you upset with the double steal in their first outing?
Aggressive baserunning is usually wrong
And I suspect it’s the cause of many of the underachievements in Savage’s previous years. The updated cardinal rule is that you should NEVER make an out at third. Let alone on a three-ball count that’s about to load the bases. It’s not worth the gain. It’s a large risk which, even if successful, might be completely unnecessary. Outs are too precious.
I think we way overbunted as well. That’s another play whose proficiency has been seriously undermined by statisticians in recent years. Again, it depends who is bunting, but a team with a high on-base percentage should not be sacrificing outs on a platter. That so many bunts failed is only gravy on that rule.
Personally,
I think bunting is the weakest part of the game – it fails far more than it succeeds, or so it seems.
I don’t know. As a result of this style of play, the Bruins were one of two teams standing at the end of the day. What were the statisticians guessing at the beginning of the season?
If you are going to pull a double steal, I think no outs and a ball three count is the time to do it, both because it is unexpected and also because ball four negates the force. I think the argument here is that you should never pull a double steal; I don’t think it makes more sense with one out.
Bunting to move a man into scoring position for a team that doesn’t hit well or with a great deal of power (and maybe even on that does) is a pretty solid play. Bunting with speed and catching the defense deep can work as well, particularly when you are struggling at the plate.
You can pick apart the style a team plays, but I think you have to look at the overall style of play; it’s the combination of the parts rather than the individual parts themselves.
College coaching
I think both blue and daggy have hit on what appears to me to be the biggest difference between managing at the college level and at the MLB level. From what I’ve seen, the majority of college coaches haven’t realized that a manager’s decisions during the course of a game are far more likely to lose the game than to win it. This leads to over-managing, which sometimes has positive results like a successful double steal, but more often ends up negatively, like the ill-advised steal against CSUF. For what it’s worth, most college coaches also pitch out and bunt more than I think is advisable.
That's what it looks like
Our success did not have anything to do necessarily with basestealing and bunting. That could’ve reduced our success as much as helped. I didn’t follow the team minutely all year, but the numbers speak for themselves, and we were successful because we had an amazing pitching staff and very good hitting. Stealing may have won us a game or three and it may have lost us just as many or more (a closer follow would know better). Most of our playoff victories were by several runs, and some of our losses were very close, which leads me to believe we may have blown them with bad decisions.
I certainly know that a ridiculous double-steal cost us yesterday’s game, and possibly the championship. And I remember from Ryan’s reports last year that aggressive baserunning ended up costing us a lot during our horrible underachievement after being preseason No. 1. Savage might be a great coach in many respects — calling pitches, teaching, etc. and still be way behind the facts on when and when not to risk outs.
I don’t know what those numbers are, but I don’t think anyone considered UCLA much of an offensive threat.
I doubt that the double steal cost UCLA the game or the championship. I’m not saying that it may not have been a factor, but I would point first to an uncharacteristic outing by GCole, sloppy defense (partly attributable to Rammy’s injury) and the lack of hitting as the primary factors.
If all coaches over manage at the college level, then it should even out. I think coaches bear a much greater burden at the collegiate level.
I cringed at times this season, but to some degree these guys are playing the odds and looking to manufacture runs based on the assets (human assets, with human frailties) available to them and the manner in which they are performing. And those people who know far better than I do are subject to human error as well.
I think what this team’s success (particularly when judged against last year) speaks for itself.
Coaches in the NCAA definitely bear a greater burden than coaches at higher levels because they need to make up for weaknesses that wouldn’t exist in the majors, like a battery that can’t hold runners. While no single decision cost UCLA the championship, I do wonder how much constant pitch outs, bunts and steal attempts help the team. Outs are a precious commodity, as are counts favoring the pitcher.
Hard to say.
Wasn’t Niko the team’s leading thief? I’m sure my number is wrong, but I thought he got picked off once during the regular season and had steals in the double digits. There’s got to be some benefit there.
I suppose you can look at the number of pitchouts that resulted in walks and compare it against pickoffs (you can’t compare it against the effect it may have had on a steal that didn’t occur or a throw out at second because of a late jump whose proximate cause was the pitch out).
I suppose you can compare bunts for hits vs. bunts for outs and measure that against a hitter’s batting average. You could look at sacrifice bunts and runs scored and attempt to compare that against runs not scored because of the failure to put runners in scoring position.
The other thing that struck me about a collegiate coach’s burden was watching Savage talk to GCole in the dugout and the look on G’s face. The players these guys are coach are kids, kids who still cry at the end of a season. They have to factor that emotion and immaturity (not in a bad way) into their decisions.
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