Baseball Season Preview: Rutgers adds 16 new faces, ready for Miami
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
That starting rotation is unfortunately going to put games out of reach for us to win early and often.
I will tell you who's going to win the game by watching the starting pitcher warm up and infield practice before the game.
Don't need to watch batting practice, it tells me nothing.
You will never drive in enough runs to make up for the runs you let in.
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It’s unfortunate, but true. We were thin to begin with and then we lost 2 of our 3 best young pitchers. The unfortunate thing is it looked like they had a decent young foundation for the next coach. I don’t see how we don’t take a step back this year
Id almost bet money that we hire a new baseball coach after the season. Litterio is awful.
I posted on the round table version thread. It sucks that we had what looks like a real core rotation and now a disaster. We have virtually zero power in the hitters. Rutkowski can certinly be good however 1 legit starter doesnt even include the mid week games. Brito is solid so I guess 2 is more accurate.
I think captain unqualified may actually break his own record for most single season losses. Rutgers baseball was top quality northern program now we cannot even make our tournament in conference. Fire litterio and have a real search dont just hire an alum. e need someone with a proven track record of recruiting and getting players drafted. Like the michigan coach who was at maryland. He takes over they are regular in the super regionals. The vandy assistant the west chester coach. There are others.
I think captain unqualified may actually break his own record for most single season losses. Rutgers baseball was top quality northern program now we cannot even make our tournament in conference. Fire litterio and have a real search dont just hire an alum. e need someone with a proven track record of recruiting and getting players drafted. Like the michigan coach who was at maryland. He takes over they are regular in the super regionals. The vandy assistant the west chester coach. There are others.
I dont know about that. Also I am not saying cundari wouldnt be a good candidate. The problem is we need a real search like good athletic departments, It looks like more money is being put into baseball, except the joke of a hs field we call a stadium, so pay a real number and get a top coach. Cundari has a performance coaching practice in nj so I dont think he would be as likely to leave. If we have a real coaching search and cundari is selected. I would be fine with that.
Yeah. Obviously most cannot be getting much money. Adn frankly most look like backgrounds rankings of walkons
There are plenty of head coaches at Southern programs that would welcome the opportunity to lead a Big Ten program. Would help immensely with recruiting. Right now we recruit NJ, NY, and PA. That’s not the way to seriously compete with other Big Ten programs. We have to move beyond “participant” status. We have to move beyond a staff whose recruiting reach is about a 2-hour drive in any direction. A team like Nebraska baseball lands athletes from Texas, California, and Georgia. That sounds more like it to me. Other teams are outworking us on the recruiting trails, and staffs with better connections to talent.
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I cannot believe that Rutkowski is our # 1. He is good but he didn't do that great last year. that worries me. Rutkowski led the state in home runs in 2017 and was player of the year and he NEVER even bats. I just cannot understand that. Also our shortstop who was a very good freshman last year and was one of our best players is out until maybe April with an injury. i sure hope some of our guys have improved but I am very concerned about our lineup. Why didn't we bring in a couple of really good pitchers. We were bad last year and I fear that this season might be even worse.
we have benn bad woth varying talent every year litterio has been coach. he is a record setting loser he was terrible at wagner and is terrible here. i agree this likley now going to be a disaster compared to typyical litterio/ hill never should have been able if he did name him as syuccessor.
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Wagner Seahawks (Northeast Conference) (2000–2011)
2000 Wagner 24–30–1 14–8 3rd (South) NCAA Regional
2001 Wagner 16–30–1 8–14 4th(South)
2002 Wagner 10–39 8–19 T–8th
2003 Wagner 11–36 10–16 9th
2004 Wagner 20–29 12–11 4th NEC Tournament
2005 Wagner 22–27 13–10 4th NEC Tournament
2006 Wagner 18–34 15–9 3rd NEC Tournament
2007 Wagner 17–34 11–17 6th
2008 Wagner 27–28 17–11 3rd
2009 Wagner 31–21 17–9 1st NEC Tournament
2010 Wagner 26–31 17–15 4th NEC Tournament
2011 Wagner 18–33 12–20 6th
Wagner: 240–372–2 154–159
Rutgers Scarlet Knights (American Athletic Conference) (2014)
2014 Rutgers 30–25 14–9 T–3rd AAC Tournament
Rutgers Scarlet Knights (Big Ten Conference) (2015–present)
2015 Rutgers 19–35–1 7–17 11th
2016 Rutgers 27–28 9–15 11th
2017 Rutgers 19–34 7–16 10th
2018 Rutgers 25–25 7–16 11th
Rutgers: 120–147–1 44–73
Total: 360–519–3
7 conference wins not making the conference tournament I mean you should have to try to be that bad. How is this man a college head coach. I dont know what hobbs is planning but you should immediately be on the watch for being fired if you miss your conference tournament.
You do realize baseball only gets 11.7 scholarships (go figure how NCAA came up with 11.7 and not 12). The max is 27 players receiving money so you can break them into partial scholarships but smallest is 0.25. Very few players on full scholarships. Teams need walkons. Walkons being significant contributors is common in sports like baseball, softball as opposed to football.
yes. I am aware that most players are not full. I have nothing against walkons. I am talking about the fact that we replaced three players who looked like scholarship types with a bunch of walkons . kiernan heatter and myles all had resumes and offers of big ten players. We brought in a bunch of walkons that look like walkons, not good resume walkons due to scholarship issues in baseball. Those are two very different types and you know that. I hope they are all all conference. However on paper it isnt debatable that they dont look like good major college walkon types.
Yeah I bet CURRNT HEAD COACHES at WARM WEATHER programs are just dying to come up here. Probably knocking down our doors already!!!
:eyes::eyes::eyes:
I would think plenty of warm weather assistants with ne backgrounds certainly would. Regardless there are plenty of north east options.
well the vandy assistant would be great. Frankly I am fine with cundari as long as he is selected from a national search.
And I would think even lower level southern head coaches if we are going to pay well would be interested. The money as you know if nothing compared to other sports if we offered 125-150. We could get a lower level southern school head coach. For reference fiu head coach makes 59,000 base and fau coach makes 72 we are not talking about serious money to at elast be in contention to take a qualified southern coach. Sec is obviously different. However the statment that many southern or warm weather coaches would be interested would be correct.
Litterio is massively overpaid, just like ash. He is paid 140,000 even with cost of living it is probably top 20% That was before he wasnt fired in 2017 for some insane reason. You dont think there are many coaches who wouldnt consider coming here to double their salary.A sport we pay competitively and managed to have the worst coach in the country.
Litterio is massively overpaid, just like ash. He is paid 140,000 even with cost of living it is probably top 20% That was before he wasnt fired in 2017 for some insane reason. You dont think there are many coaches who wouldnt consider coming here to double their salary.A sport we pay competitively and managed to have the worst coach in the country.
Give it a rest. Joe Lit is a loyal Rutgers guy who deserves better than your pointless diatribe. He may not be the answer but I for one don’t want to see the program become run by Seton Hall guys or people with no connection to RU/Coach Hill. I wonder if Joe Lit’s teammate Neil Ioverio would be interested.
Even in the programs’ best years we struggled to get the best NJ talent or compete consistently outside the region. Southern coaches can’t bring the weather with them and you’re deluding yourself if you think they’re bringing players up north. When I was at RU the roster was full of NJ schoolboy studs who came back after not making it down south. Moose figured out how to recruit enough and get the most of the limited ships but all it takes is a few misses or injuries to a projected weekend pitcher or guy up the middle and it’s a multi-year setback.
I have nothing against the coach, but the results are not good and, in his case, neither were they remarkable at his previous stop. The successor needs to have recruiting connections beyond NJ, NY, and PA, especially when it comes to pitching. Even lower level schools in Florida like FIU, FAU, FGCU have stronger pitching staffs than our Big Ten program. The right head coach should be able to remedy that.
For years, this former Florida Atlantic coach would have tackled the job. A NJ native who had great success at Montclair State before getting a Div-1 job. If I’m not mistaken Kevin Cooney’s teams fared well against Rutgers and the roster often had NJ athletes supplementing his Florida-rich roster. I bet (I know) Cooney never got a sniff from Rutgers.
https://fausports.com/hof.aspx?hof=10
I brought him up specfically. It is also why it is so absurd that people are taking a national search to mean looking for a southern coach only. I am saying hire someone with a great track record of recruiting and coaching. If he has rutgers ties great. if he doesnt that shouldnt matter at all.
Come on. Not good. The results have been an absolute disaster. Conference record is what matters not beating some nobody team out of conference. And wagner isnt a place that is easy to win. However his results were an absolute disaster there. It is a case of someone consistently demonstrating he isnt a winning coach and continuing to get promoted. His record is the record of someone who should not be coaching at the college level. Definitely agree with the recruiting getting bats is doable, however we need to find better arms. A good coach can get the pitching back to a level where we are solid or better. I dont know how our lack of a baseball stadium is going to impact coaches.
Absolutely pathetic. Rutgers baseball is not here to subsidize litterio;s inability to be even remotely competitive, because he happens to be a rutgers alumni. News flash Hill is not a rutgers graduate. We need to stop worrying about hiring rutgers alumni and hire the coach that gives us the best chance of winning. If you have a problem with that then you are a problem. We have had way to o many hires that werent qualified. This is common in northeast baseball.
Hiring a southern coach is not about bringing southern players it is about hiring someone who has a legitimate record of winning and developing hitters or pitchers. what is so complicated about that. This isnt a high school team. We to hire the best coach not the best rutgers graduate. That is a complete loser mentality. Fred Hill would not have been hired. If the best coach is a northeast coach, like the uconn guy or the west chester guy, great. The point is that it should have nothing to do with if they are from rutgers.
And we dont need to get close to the best nj talent to be competitive. We need to get more and develop them better. And sure getting better transfers can help. Like mcarthy etc. However to suggest that we couldnt compete with top teams in our best seasons with hill is just absurd. You clearly like litterio that all time single season loss record holder twice in his tenure here. Eeveryone know litterio shouldnt be the coach and shouldnt have been hired. Neil apparently doesnt want to leave kean, or at least that was the case previously. Just answer one question- does litterio deserve to be fired based on his record. If not how in any possible metric does he not.
I know Hill wasn’t an RU grad and always admired the Sheppard’s/SHU - I’m from Essex county so a lot of ties there including my hs and legion coaches. My point on Fred isn’t that someone needs to be an RU guy but I really bristle at the notion that the coach is always to blame for what are often systemic issues at RU. You can call it a loser mentality but thinking you can take a “proven winner” from another part of the country and take that as an indication he might come into RU as some kind of simple solution lacks any real insight.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having our own identity as a program and going a little further to try to build on Fred’s legacy to the extent possible. I know I am biased there and also have strong feelings about Joe. I was a fresh his sr yr and that team was good but arrogant. He really knows the game but more importantly is a great guy who won’t back down from adversity and loves RU. Joe represents the university well and as an alum that means something to me.
You seem to have strong opinions on what is needed to win at RU and no doubt player development and recruiting are cumulative things. It is by no means linear or as easy as chasing just the big name kids. Read the story of how Doug Alongi came to RU from his HoF induction and realize so much about success as a coach is also about being lucky and open minded once the kids get on campus. Most of the best guys who play in college won’t make it past AA so what is really needed is a robust program with a lot of guys competing to see who emerges as they grow from boys to men. I like the staff we have - it’s a veteran crew and the pitching coach especially can have a big impact. I haven’t given up on Joe and am excited to see what the team looks like this spring especially once Digeorgio comes back and our pitching gets a little more established.
