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vtfin91

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Member since: January 26, 2000
Last post: 05/02/2022 10:10 AM ET

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A pitcher leaving the game mid-inning due to arm injury is severe

Heck, I watch a ton of baseball and it doesn't happen that often - Matthew Clement walked off last February and hasn't appeared in a game since. Guys will usually finish the inning - plenty of ucl injuries where guy tried to pitch thru it. It is very bad 90% of the time. Don't need AI to figure that one out - you are spot on. ** Edited by vtfin91 at 3/13/2026, 8:23:08 PM

He looked completely lost all day in LF. Team had 4 errors but 4 more mis-

played balls that weren't ruled errors, plus Locurto inexplicably throwing to 2nd on that play mentioned above. Grube can hit but looks like he has maybe never played first....really shows and killing us there. Gates was bad in right - 2 misplayed flies resulting in "hits", etc. Shame on Szefc for sleeping thru any HS recruiting of note the past few years. You won't win much in the ACC with a portal-led team. You have got to recruit HS players at a high level, and coming off 2022 he had a ton to sell, especially to hitters. Ball is the only solid hitter in our lineup today recruited out of HS, maybe Locurto but he has not show a lot yet. ** Edited by vtfin91 at 3/13/2026, 7:02:03 PM

Grim out due to injury - makes 3 of our top 6 pitchers who are now injured

These are generally season ending, injured arm after a pitch. Eisenreich went down last weekend, Clement of course has not pitched. I do hope Szefc will take a hard look at what we have been doing - we seem to lead the nation in pitching injuries, fairly consistently past 4 years.

It's just a really bad vt team this year from what I see - fielding has

been atrocious all year and continues to be...feel for Grim, bad news bears out there. Gave them 6 outs.

Assuming Bedford gets another year, why is consensus here that he will be

leaving? Rumors? I know the word is Neo will leave either way, but had not heard Bedford, other than randomly here the past few days.

Congrats Will! I remember finding this site back then, as this new

toy called the internet was taking off. First hokie site I saw was hokiebrad with the "informed source report", and then you. Been here ever since!

Interesting point about Grady/Daniel. Grady was super steady but his range

was noticeably limited...so many balls to the hole that looked playable off the bat that he just didn't get to, so they went out and got Daniel who was one of the better SS's in the country using advanced metrics. 5 errors is a bunch, but maybe he has gotten to more than 5 that others wouldn't. Szefc mentioned Grady playing of in preseason interviews, so will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

New day in college sports, 100% about the $. See Indiana football.

Texas Tech football, SEC hoops. It is all about the $, and how effectively you can manage your resources and coach up that group.

Yes, but the coach is responsible for constructing a roster of guys

with the hoops IQ and toughness to compete. MY failed miserably on that front this season. Very talented roster but to me, I want Hammond, Hansberry and T. Johnson on the court late for toughness.

Hope he is not injured - no other reason to pull the only guy who got outs

up to that point. If he is healthy, then that was completely inept bullpen management.

Preciselyâ€Ļfeel that way most games. Tough year for Mike Young, just didn’t

Get it done with this group. Team lacks toughness, grit, intensity, want-to. Just a collection of talented dudes, most of whom don’t play much D. MY does not seem to hold guys accountable for defensive lapses, that is for sure.

Szefc made the point in the tsl podcast that it really impacts ability

to carry guys on the roster who are not ready to play. Guys 32-40 historically don't play at all, just developing. So now with 34, freshmen need to be more ready to contribute, so we may see fewer of them.

Has he pitched since Game 1 of last season when he got hurt? Thought he

pitched in the fall a little, but maybe not. Big blow to this team if he can't go this season, but given last year's injury and being out now, it doesn't look promising.

Big time hitter - maybe the best on the team. I do think this team is a

fairly big dropoff in hitting from recent years. We have not recruited well offensively in past few cycles - we went Carson Jones/Cross/Cade Hunter, followed the next year by Hurley/Schobel/Tackett, followed by Martin/DeMartini out of HS. Since, we have certainly not come close to duplicating. No chance you build a strong ACC team with much from the portal, so here we are. Our homegrown pitchers are looking strong - and include Renfrow/Crowl/Clement/Swift/Eisenreich/Stieg and Grim....most of our top pitchers.

Disastrous start to the year for Robertson

comes into a game Saturday with a shutout lead and Stieg's 2 runners on, and promptly gives up a 3 run bomb. Starts today, walks 2 in the first and gives up another 3 run bomb.

Szefc hinted at it - said Grady may play some outfield as he raved about

Daniel and Ethan Ball. Daniel has better range at SS, and Ethan Ball is going to be really good, probably one of our best hitters. Surprising thing to me was Lutterman in the OF, wow. He has a good glove but didn't think he hits enough to be an ACC OF. ** Edited by vtfin91 at 2/13/2026, 3:57:28 PM ** Edited by vtfin91 at 2/13/2026, 4:03:21 PM

I hope David or another tsl journalist will ask this of athletic dept.

we are the only school in the acc not streaming in Feb, all others are streaming this weekend.

I like your lineup, that would be mine exactly. Per weekday pitching

Szefc gave an interview the other day for media day, Dylan had good article here but you can google the transcript - a lot of insight. Coach sounded like they will treat mid-weeks as an extension of the weekend, as though our next best starter may start Tuesday. Not sure if that was an early-season deal. They have a lot of depth potentially on the mound.

Has nothing to do with when anyone comes back. Mike Young uses injury

communication as a clear strategy for hopefully getting opponents to use practice time inefficiently in prep work. He does this every year. My point is that when Tyler Johnson comes back has nothing to do with anything Mike Young says - I am not criticizing Young, just pointing this out.

I would guess Stieg on Saturday, Robertson Sunday. Szefc mentioned the

other day that Renfrow and Stieg would start, Robertson was "likely" but he also mentioned Grim and Eisenreich were in the mix, and that Sunday/Tuesday games would be kinda intertwined early on, which makes sense. Sure sounds like Grim is really good.

shocked they can't easily clear the field with modern tools - that is 80s

era stuff. It is 50 degrees, 60 yesterday and they have field turf. Snow is mostly gone in the burg. I figured they were running scrimmages all this week.

Unrelated I guess, but our baseball team has been likely most injured

team in the country over past 3 years....maybe even every year individually over past 3 years. Completely decimated - pitchers you expect but we are losing position players to all kinds of injuries, and most end up being season enders.

Our 2027 recruiting class is crazy good. Something like 4 of the top 6 in

VA, plus guys in the top 3-5 in several other states, and a top 10 from NC. Szefc appears to be a top-5 in state type talent. ** Edited by vtfin91 at 2/6/2026, 9:38:10 AM

The fact he is ok with guys who can’t shoot well, jacking 3s, is coaching

Establish what a good shot is. Why not work to get Lawal on the block? Shot selection is always poor with this team.

* I think press break is responsible for most of this debacle

especially the lack of layups on the other end. If you are being aggressively pressed you will very likely have some turnovers....but the flip side is you will get easy buckets often when you beat it. We are turning the ball over, but intentionally forgoing the layup and dunk attempts, opting to get it across and burn clock....terrible approach. When you break a press, you first hunt layups, then pull ball out and burn clock. We have no late press-break layups during this past 7 or so games of frequent late-game disaster. I love Mike, but man this is a really bad look. We just look like a really poorly coached team out there, hope he is embarrassed enough by it to dedicate significant time to fixing it.

Agreed - at this point tsl has most of the better journalists covering vt.

It is ok to step up and ask a few tough questions, you guys are the leaders at this point.

Great way to look at it - and don't those tiers become more fluid as

various ultra-wealthy alums decide - "hey, I want to fund a top 15 basketball program for the next 5 years" and stroke a $25 million check to add to existing program funding. Seems to be happening in football.

I've seen many players "slump" once they get into ACC play. Competition

might be playing a massive role in that. Bigger, more physical defenders bullying him.

at 9-9 in ACC play, will have to win a few road games, at least 2

conference road games for resume...have some Q3 home games. I believe road are all potentially Q1. Lose to Duke and we would need 2 just to get to 9-9. 10-8 we are in, 9-9 firmly on the bubble, and you know how that usually goes.

They were in the last scandal, 2 months ago, involving Hysier Miller

Miller received a permanent ban, and 2 Temple staffers received a slap on the wrist. 20 years ago this stuff was major, and schools would be put on probation, players to prison potentially. Crazy times, basically nothing now - 20 schools listed, not much will come of it, maybe a few bookies do some time.

Eh, we MY has not adjusted to our difficulties with inbounding the ball

when pressured. To me that is schematic. A guy as quick as Hammond, with a screen or 2. Late game I'm leaning on toughness - in our case that is Hammond, Hansberry and Tyler Johnson. Neo is super-skilled and charmin soft, I want him nowhere near the ball late game.

this point is why the Mike Young criticism is warranted. Inexcusably dumb

as though these guys had not been drilled over and over on late game situations....the very very basics of clock management. Never overreact to 1 game, but often there is a turning point in a coach's tenure. That is certainly the type of game that tends to be a driver of that. I've been a big supporter of MY, but getting much harder.

Post-game uva press conference. I took it to mean at least

1 was out for the year, another most of the year. Mike Young usually says the opposite of the truth when it comes to injuries....what he says publically means nothing.