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RU baseball opens 2/16 in Miami

RUboston

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Sep 13, 2002
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How does the team look this year? 19-34 last year, 7-16 in the Big Ten; 27-28 and 9-16 in 2016; 19-35-1 and 7-17 in 2015.

Any chance we improve this year and make it to the 8 team Big Ten Tournament? How is the pitching and will the new pitching coach improve the staff?
 
Are there any baseball insider’s on the board? I took a look at the roster and noticed a couple of newcomers who had signed with St. John’s and University of Charleston respectively. Does anyone know how they came to be at RU and whether they are immediately eligible? They seemed to have very good credentials.
 
I don’t know much. I know we stole Seton Hall’s pitching coach who is very good and has some good recruiting juice in this area. It looks like we lightened up the OOC schedule a bit. Last year we played 3 or 4 Florida teams. It was a total train wreck of a schedule.
 
Anyone else? It seems that the two late additions who were committed elsewhere really add a lot of pop to the incoming class. I would love to know if we will see them this year.
 
Playing Florida programs early in the season at their place is nice travel but bad from a competitive standpoint. I live in southwest Florida and saw Rutgers play at Florida Golf (make that Gulf) Coast University. They kicked our butt. FGCU had a roster with JUCOs and student/athletes from the Dominican Republic. We participated— they play to win. We should be playing neutral site Florida contests against teams like Eastern Michigan and Bowling Green. The highlight for me was meeting former AD Fred Gruninger at FGCU. Quite a gentleman and ambassador for Rutgers. He could not have been nicer.
 
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I am actually going to be in Miami that weekend. Maybe I will try to catch a game.
 
Litterio has zero respect within NJ. Hobbs did a great job with hiring Cundari with how much respect he has, but he needs to take over this program full time. Since Cundari came on board, there have been some commits from outside NJ which never used to happen. So that indicates Litterio isn't running this program anymore. Make Cundari the official head coach so this program can build its new identity. Cundari's credentials also dwarf Litterio's so I can't imagine he left SHU to make a lateral move to RU under Litterio
 
Playing Florida programs early in the season at their place is nice travel but bad from a competitive standpoint. I live in southwest Florida and saw Rutgers play at Florida Golf (make that Gulf) Coast University. They kicked our butt. FGCU had a roster with JUCOs and student/athletes from the Dominican Republic. We participated— they play to win. We should be playing neutral site Florida contests against teams like Eastern Michigan and Bowling Green. The highlight for me was meeting former AD Fred Gruninger at FGCU. Quite a gentleman and ambassador for Rutgers. He could not have been nicer.
Last year we played Miami, UVA, Florid gulf coast, northern Florida, and Old Dominion. That’s a rough stretch. It’s very diffixukt to figure out your pitching staff with that type of schedule. This year we have Miami, old dominion, Florida gulf coast and one with FIU in the early stretch. We added BC, Indiana, yes Indiana, Wagner, Army, etc in our early Feb/March games. I think we can be pretty good. We scored last year, but our pitching was meh. The kid Rutkowski should help. He was drafted in the 28th round
 
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Rutgers baseball will continue to get beat up until their roster begins to look like the rosters of the teams we play. Geographically diverse and JUCOs. The recruit locally (NJ) paradigm is ludicrous. You need proven, mature JUCOs and players from areas of the country where baseball can be played outdoors for most of the year. We are a long way from competing.
 
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It sure would be nice if our baseball team could finally have a winning season. The last few years our pitching has been bad and we keep coming up empty. I think we had a good player who can pitch & hit from Woodbridge and thought we have a good pitcher from Verona as a freshman. we need some good new blood.
 
Last year I saw games in-person for our team as well as two of the NJ in-state Div-III baseball programs, Ramapo and College of New Jersey. Both of those Div-III teams could compete with Rutgers and not get embarrassed.
 
Playing Florida programs early in the season at their place is nice travel but bad from a competitive standpoint. I live in southwest Florida and saw Rutgers play at Florida Golf (make that Gulf) Coast University. They kicked our butt. FGCU had a roster with JUCOs and student/athletes from the Dominican Republic. We participated— they play to win. We should be playing neutral site Florida contests against teams like Eastern Michigan and Bowling Green. The highlight for me was meeting former AD Fred Gruninger at FGCU. Quite a gentleman and ambassador for Rutgers. He could not have been nicer.

Here we go again...unreal.
 
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Last year I saw games in-person for our team as well as two of the NJ in-state Div-III baseball programs, Ramapo and College of New Jersey. Both of those Div-III teams could compete with Rutgers and not get embarrassed.

Thos schools would (maybe) beat is 1 in 5 games.
 
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How does the team look this year? 19-34 last year, 7-16 in the Big Ten; 27-28 and 9-16 in 2016; 19-35-1 and 7-17 in 2015.

Any chance we improve this year and make it to the 8 team Big Ten Tournament? How is the pitching and will the new pitching coach improve the staff?
Team profile in S-L. “Culture change” talk is always whistling in the wind stuff. That said ... go Rutgers. Some of the notes in the article about our lack of competing in the Big Ten are staggering.

http://www.nj.com/rutgers/index.ssf/2018/02/rutgers_baseball_2018_season_preview_culture_change.html
 
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Team profile in S-L. “Culture change” talk is always whistling in the wind stuff. That said ... go Rutgers. Some of the notes in the article about our lack of competing in the Big Ten are staggering.

http://www.nj.com/rutgers/index.ssf/2018/02/rutgers_baseball_2018_season_preview_culture_change.html

Haha I love how the Harris quote about how practice last year everyone just went through the motions. And somehow Litterio is still the head coach. Laughable. If the assistants are the ones changing the culture than what the hell is Litterio still doing here?
 
Areyounuts, what would you think about Rutgers going the JUCO route ? :popcorn:
He will be the first to tell you that playing with one arm tied behind your back and serving as the league's perennial doormat is a time-honored and venerable athletic endeavor.
 
I saw that there were two freshman transfers on the roster, one from St. John’s and one from Charleston, that seem to have been highly sought after coming out of high school. Does anybody have any information on them, why they transferred in their freshman year and whether they are eligible now?
 
Looking at the box score, a positive that you can take is the pitching of the relievers over the last six innings. There was only one hit allowed. A guy who appears to be a converted outfielder pitched the last two, faced the minimum six batters and had three strikeouts.
 
Mr Twister,gruninger may be a nice guy and most people would say I am too most of the time,but I don't think Ford,ATT,Exxon,Microsoft,etc. will be hiring me to run their companies anytime soon.I have been following Rutgers sports since 1976 and every time I hear gruningers name I want to throw up. Did he take any responsibility for the state of the Rutgers baseball program for among his endless stupid decisions having them play in a high school facility instead of a great place
 
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like the Patriots ballpark that we could have had next to the RAC. How many tens or hundreds of millions in TV revenue,ticket sales,merchandise sales and donations did he cost us with his horrible era? How many hundreds of more wins would our sports teams have had? He basically stole millions from us between his salary and pension for doing nothing right.Heck I don't even think he won any national or conference golf championships. Couldn't we have found anyone with more experience and sense to lead our Athletic Department? Year after year for decades he got a nice fat paycheck for continually making horrible choices in regards to conference,facilities,marketing,and just doing anything a huge state university in a rich state would do to build a major sports program. It takes a lot to get me going,but it just made me sick what he didn't do for our university and athletic department. I better cut back on the caffeine.
 
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Why is Mr Twister tied to your perception of the Gruninger tenure at Rutgers? I met him once and I can only say he is a fine gentleman.
 
Looking at the box score, a positive that you can take is the pitching of the relievers over the last six innings. There was only one hit allowed. A guy who appears to be a converted outfielder pitched the last two, faced the minimum six batters and had three strikeouts.
Lost in there was the starter issuing back to back walks in the second inning to set up their three runs. Probably would not have made much of a difference since we only got one more hit after three anyway, but these are the kind of gaffs that give away runs and games.
 
Haha I love how the Harris quote about how practice last year everyone just went through the motions. And somehow Litterio is still the head coach. Laughable. If the assistants are the ones changing the culture than what the hell is Litterio still doing here?

Maybe one or more of the assistants were the problem last year? And Joe realized that and made sure to make changes as soon as possible? Everyone I know in the baseball community, including several former collegiate head coaches in New Jersey, all said that the pick up made at pitching coach was a very important move to get the ship steered in the right direction. Let’s see what happens. Something needed to change, that’s for sure, no one is arguing that much for sure!!
 
So we gave up 6 runs on 6 hits to a top 10 team, in the season opener, and people are already bitching lol gonna be a fun season!!
 
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Maybe one or more of the assistants were the problem last year? And Joe realized that and made sure to make changes as soon as possible? Everyone I know in the baseball community, including several former collegiate head coaches in New Jersey, all said that the pick up made at pitching coach was a very important move to get the ship steered in the right direction. Let’s see what happens. Something needed to change, that’s for sure, no one is arguing that much for sure!!

I agree with the changes at the assistant level and they are very good changes. But the head coach is always responsible for the culture of the program. Litterio has been running this program for the last 6 years basically and now is the time for a culture change? This program has been god awful ever since he's gotten involved and it's only gotten worse. If last night is any indication this may be the worst season of them all. It's time to just cut bait and get rid of the guy. He has no respect in-state anyway and it's a dead end with him. Promote Cundari and Fire Litterio so this program can start to change it's identity for real.
 
You are the free Rutgers message board dilettante. You are amusing. You need to get out more.

I get out plenty, dear Lord my checking account hates me, so don’t worry about my lifestyle buddy. I also have issues with certain aspects of our athletic department, and certain programs, I just don’t bring up the same thing time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time again. I appreciate your concern, however, don’t get me wrong!
 
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Team looks terrible again tonight. Had every opportunity to score runs and only get two. Then Brito gets blasted. RU teams in the past would at least compete somewhat in these games against Miami. Awful
 
RU fighting back, now trailing 8-5 heading in to the top of the 7th. Game can be seen for free on ESPN3.
 
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