NOVAbasebllfan

Staff seemed to marginally improve toward the end of the season. But still exhibited a lack of depth and endurance across both starters and bullpen. Overall pitching stats were last across 16-team ACC; 10th using conference-only stats per https://theacc.com/stats.aspx?path=baseball&year=2026... Year-over-year - very difficult to identify meaningful improvement.....

Here we go again.... For all the talk about recent teams having greater pitching talent than what Szefc inherited in his early years, the last 4 seasons sure don't show it.

helps get the pitchers and position players better prepared for ACC play - in contrast to past years when ACC competition seemed to increasingly overwhelm the Hokies as the season wore on.

https://www.si.com/college/virginiatech/other-sports/virg...

It's still very early to speculate, but here's what they say today: Oxford, MS Regional 1. Ole Miss (13) 2. Southern Miss 3. Virginia Tech 4. Missouri State They currently have 10 ACC teams making the field: #1 seeds/regional hosts (Clemson (3), UNC (12), Ga. Tech (7), FSU (10)); #2 seeds (Louisville, Wake, NC State); and #3 seeds other than VT (Duke, UVA). Overall they project 13 teams from the SEC, 6 Big 12, 4 Big 10, 3 Sunbelt, and 2 each from Big West, Southland and Conference USA.

"Not fair. Tech has spent the whole season just on the cusp of the national spotlight but after going 7-2 in their previous three ACC weekends they finally snuck into the rankings last week at No. 25. Well lo and behold, instead of conquering the tormenting Seminoles here they are on the Ouch List instead after getting skunked at home. This was supposed to be the weekend they took down the Seminoles and thrust themselves into all the Regional hosting discussions and whatnot. Instead, the Hokies saw their bats get shut down, hitting a boney-armed .187, gathering just four runs on 17 hits in the three games. The Gobblers also saw their RPI drop to No. 40, which is starting edge its way into the danger zone for ACC teams."

I wholeheartedly agree about your last point - returning players often regress during a second or subsequent year under Fecteau, or at least don't materially improve. There's also been incredible turnover in the pitching staff from one season to the next. Increasing use of the transfer portal undoubtedly is a major contributor, but you have to wonder if inability of the Hokies staff to improve and further develop pitcher performance may be another.

has seemed to plateau, if not decline - particularly against ACC competition. So I decided to run a comparison of the Hokies' basic pitching stats in ACC games since 2019 (excluding 2020). Sure looks like a regression in several categories: Hokies Pitching Stats in ACC Games Season Games Innings ERA B/Avg BB BB/g BB/inn SO SO/g SO/inn HR HR/g HR/inn 2025 9 75.10 7.05 0.301 45 5.00 0.60 65 7.22 0.87 9 1.00 0.12 2024 30 266.00 6.67 0.287 138 4.60 0.52 282 9.40 1.06 63 2.10 0.24 2023 29 252.67 6.91 0.297 152 5.24 0.60 271 9.34 1.07 42 1.45 0.17 2022 28 253.00 4.52 0.257 114 4.07 0.45 257 9.18 1.02 37 1.32 0.15 2021 36 315.00 5.34 0.262 140 3.89 0.44 392 10.89 1.24 42 1.17 0.13 2019 30 263.67 4.68 0.258 154 5.13 0.58 272 9.07 1.03 24 0.80 0.09 ** Edited by NOVAbasebllfan at 3/28/2025, 1:26:32 PM

“Second base is an open competition between juco transfer Jared Davis (who started the Liberty game) and returning sophomore Ethan Gibson, who played served as a utilityman last year. Davis looks like the front-runner; he hit in the 2-hole vs. the Flames and showed off a quick line-drive swing from the right side, barreling up a couple of singles to center. A compact 5-foot-9 athlete, Davis is also the best runner on the roster, capable of running the 60-yard dash in 6.5 or 6.6 seconds, Szefc said. Freshman Ryder Kirtley could also factor into the middle infield mix; Szefc calls him “uber-talented” but said he just has to get a feel for the speed of the college game and the caliber of pitchers he’ll face. Like French, Kirtley looks like a key building block for the future.”

Some excerpts: "There’s plenty of reason to believe the Hokies will remain potent offensively in 2025, and whether they are able to get back into the postseason for the first time since 2022 will depend upon the growth of the pitching staff." "Virginia Tech hit the jackpot when outfielder Ben Watson returned as a sixth-year senior despite leading the ACC with a .417 average last year, adding 21 doubles and a 1.056 OPS. Watson didn’t play this fall while recovering from a stress fracture in his hip, but Szefc said it’s “nothing serious, just something where we had to rest him.” So Watson will be ready to hit the ground running in the spring, anchoring the lineup and providing strong outfield defense, whether he returns to center field (where he started 45 games last year) or slides to a corner to make room for a transfer in center." "One of Virginia Tech’s biggest portal acquisitions is a candidate for that center field job: Treyson Hughes, who put up big numbers for two years at Mercer before struggling last year at Ole Miss. he was on base in all five trips over the first nine innings during my visit to Blacksburg for the Liberty scrimmage, and he drew 47 walks against 35 strikeouts two years ago, so his maturity at the plate gives optimism that he can post a bounceback year." "McCann should back up Cooke behind the plate, along with exciting freshman Anderson French, a 6-foot-5 lefthanded hitter with very exciting potential. Good luck finding a better catcher’s room in college baseball. But McCann’s bat will be in the lineup every day whether he’s catching or not; he stepped into the DH spot as a freshman last year after Micheletti went down, slugging .574, and he looked primed for a big year as a sophomore. A powerful and compact 6-foot, 185-pound lefthanded hitter, McCann was the star of the day against Liberty, crushing three homers, to all parts of the yard." "Adding to the length of this powerful lineup, look for transfer David Lewis to step into the big shoes of Carson DeMartini at third base. Lewis began his career at Clemson before hitting 42 homers over the next two years at Division II North Greenville. Extremely physical at 6-2, 220 pounds, Lewis put his righthanded power on display against Liberty as well, hitting a slider out to left field for a solo homer. He was slowed by a knee injury this fall, but surgery to repair a torn meniscus should get him back to 100 percent by the spring." "Virginia Tech suffered a huge blow when righthander Griffin Stieg — a rock in the rotation last year — blew out his elbow in the final series of the regular season last year; he’ll miss all of 2025 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. That leaves sophomore Brett Renfrow (6-4, 4.92 with a 78-32 K-BB in 75 IP over 15 starts as a freshman) as the undisputed ace of the staff. Renfrow showed elite stuff this summer with the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team, spotting up at 95-97 mph and showing an above-average power breaking ball in the mid-80s along with a functional changeup." "the top pitchers who took the mound against the Flames were sophomore lefty Madden Clement and McNeese transfer Cameron Lejeune, both of whom should occupy key roles on this staff, potential both as starters. Clement, the son of longtime big leaguer Matt Clement, logged six starts among his 12 appearances as a freshman last year, and Szefc tabbed him as the top breakout candidate on the pitching staff. He’s plenty physical at 6-3, 210, and he hides the ball well before releasing it from a tick above three-quarters.... Lejeune had a rough outing against Liberty, when he was coming off an illness, but I still saw plenty to like from the big 6-4, 230-pound righty, who ran his heater up to 93 mph. His best pitch was a good 85-87 mph cutter, but he also mixed in a bigger three-quarters slurve around 80 and a functional but firm changeup at 87-88." "Four other key older arms plus four promising freshmen did not pitch against Liberty, either due to injury, soreness or getting ramped back up gradually." - Fitt was referring to "older" guys Sentlinger, Crowl, Exum and transfer Mathieu Curtis, plus frosh lefties Brendan Cowen, Jake Marciano, and righties Ryan Pugh and Logan Eisenreich. "freshman, Marcel Kulik, did pitch against Liberty and showed promise. He’s a power righty from New York capable of producing 92-95 mph heat."

Serious evaluation also needed for the men put in charge of recruiting, developing and leading the players. Although the comments may be factually accurate - seeing the following quote in print from your head coach can’t be terribly inspiring to the players: “We didn’t pitch,” Tech head coach John Szefc said of the five-run sixth after the game. “That was the ballgame, pretty much. If you can’t minimize damage in these kinds of games, that’s exactly what happens.” In contrast - seeing cosches offer some self-criticism might instead be more fruitful. ** Edited by NOVAbasebllfan at 5/12/2024, 1:00:01 PM

Projected to be the 3 seed in a Knoxville regional, with Tennessee as 1 seed, WVU as 2, and Bryant as 4. They currently have 10 SEC teams and 9 ACC schools projected to be in

But as your stats demonstrate - lefty on lefty doesn’t seem to work for Shoemaker

It’s at this point of the season - well past mid-point - and in this sort of situation

But seeing post-game comments or quotes from the coaching staff would be great - particularly in articles after a loss. Coach Szefc was quite willing to comment about GT’s gifting VT so many BBs after the Friday game. I wonder what his comments are after game 2. Or what his rationale was for removing Stieg so quickly in game 3.

Touting Wake-VT match-up this weekend: “Virginia Tech is a very good club that has yet to lose a weekend series this year, though this will be its toughest test of the season to date. The Hokies expected to have a stellar group of position players heading into the season, and it’s no surprise to see them leading the ACC with a 1.059 team OPS.” “The question for Virginia Tech was a pitching staff that was lacking in any experienced starters, so it’s considerably more surprising to see the Hokies ranking fifth in the ACC with a 4.13 ERA, including a league-best 4.88 ERA in conference-only games. The emergence of sophomore Griffin Stieg (3-1, 3.60) plus freshman Brett Renfrow (4-1, 3.26) and Rutgers transfer Wyatt Parliament (3-1, 5.59) as a rock-solid weekend rotation has changed the entire outlook for the Hokies, who now find themselves chasing a home regional for the second time in three years, after entering the season outside the field of 64 projections.”

Might baseball make a similar move?

at-large bid with a losing conference record since 2016."

This is obviously a welcome development and one that hopefully bodes well for future recruiting and competitive performance. With all this though comes the difficult task for the coaching staff of maintaining year-over-year consistency and even improvement. Some posters are quick to say just wait for next year, it’s a young team, but for injuries things would’ve been better. All true. But with increasing use of the transfer portal, ability of age 21 guys to get drafted after only 2 yrs in college, and losing high upside recruits and players to the draft - every year it’s relatively likely the team will consist of mainly younger guys. So pressure is on the staff to quickly coach up the young guys, sprinkle in some experienced So-Jr & Grad transfers, and add at least a couple Fr players who are D1-ready - each and every year. That’s the only way to sustain an upper level program. Szefc seems to be on the right track with this. Nonetheless pitching depth and effective progression/development still seems lacking as many others have noted. Definitely room for improvement there.

Arguelles is a newcomer, as are the freshmen, so can't say they've regressed. But team ERA in ACC and overall play over the past several years has bounced up and down without a consistent improving trend. Also interesting that 2022's excellent season may have been due more to a great lineup that absolutely pounded the ball, and less so to great pitching, as 2022 ERAs were generally similar to those in 2019 while W-L records were much different - 2022 (19-9; 45-22); 2019 (9-21; 26-27). 2023 ERA is on track to be comparable to Szefc/Fecteau's first season in 2018, particularly with two difficult series yet to play against top ACC teams. Team ERAs: ACC Overall 2023 ytd: 6.59 5.33 2022: 4.52 4.41 2021: 5.13 4.82 2019: 4.68 3.98 2018: 5.96 5.61 ** Edited by NOVAbasebllfan at 5/8/2023, 2:23:38 PM

** Edited by NOVAbasebllfan at 4/22/2023, 5:29:29 PM

“In the ACC, teams typically must get to .500 in conference play, as no ACC team has earned an at-large bid with a losing conference record since 2016.”

ACC teams with lower RPIs: Clemson (47); ND (49); FSU (73); GT (74); Pitt (96). Week 10 D1 Baseball Field of 64 projections: Hokies are a #3 seed in Gainesville regional with Fla (1), So Miss (2) & Maine (4).