Sure, he’s not the guy out there making all the fielding errors or pitching poorly in relief but he did recruit them and I don’t see a lot of development or coaching up.

To me, after now watching about 75% of this season’s games in one form or another, this team looks to me like a patchwork collection of guys, not a cohesive unit.

You can say, well baseball isn’t like football, basketball, or soccer because each play often only involves one guy, baseball is not a flowy or transition type of game. That may be true but the best baseball managers still find ways to “assemble” teams that have all of the critical pieces. Speed, power, discipline, hustle, and excellent fundamentals at the plate, on the base paths, and in the field. Then you find a few high quality starters and middlemen with a complete repertoire of pitches, who know how and when to use those pitches, and an ace closer.

This team is not what I just described. It’s more like a random collection of guys, many of whom seem to be pretty average at many things but don’t seem to excel at all that much. The whole is less than the sum of the parts. Gerard and Simonelli are out best assets and are clearly above average talent, but our bullpen and the position players just continue to let us down.

So, back to my original point, I’m not sure Szefc is our guy. Fading (and fading hard) late in the season is never a good sign. It’s actually a pretty big red flag, in my opinion. Other teams are out-preparing, out-hustling, and just playing with a lot more overall discipline and inspiration than we are.

I try not to make it about one game or one series. Getting swept by NC State in the way we did wasn’t pretty. The blowout loss to UVA stunk, but it was only one game. Getting swept by lowly Duke was enough for me. The team is on a downward spiral, and wouldn’t you know it, the best team in the league is coming to town for a likely sweep.

Our momentum heading into the offseason will be nonexistent and I don’t see a lot of optimism for next season given the construction of the roster I described above. I think we are probably better off starting from scratch but of course that starts the conversation of how much emphasis ($$) we want to, or are able to, devote to baseball given that we are very focused on getting the football team more resources and now have to replace one or more men’s basketball assistants.

No joy in Mudville.