It appears that more than the wheels have fallen off!

A couple of observations. Like I mentioned before the season began, the loss of Coach Spencer was bigger than anyone anticipated. Look at the team ERA, look at Stutes & Reyes… Playing at this advanced level you cant under estimate how important the pitching and batting coaches are. I’m not saying that Coach Wong is the issue, it’s just our pitching has not been up to the standards of the previous 3 years and this will have to watched closely in 2009.

Regarding the Pac-10 season the Washington State series was very telling. After loosing 2 at Gonzaga there were signs of potential breakdown while loosing 2 of 3 to the last place (at that time) Cougs. In the series v. UCLA the Beavers showed signs of a pulse, then the USC fiasco.

I hope the pitching can be shored up by a couple of the freshmen by becoming sophomores, however they will have to challenge themselves in the off-season to improve physically as well as mentally. I dont have any doubts that Coach Casey can pull everyone together, it’s just going to take more than just showing up on the diamond to get back to being the Pac-10 Champions.

I hope everyone rallies around the team this weekend and the Beavs end 2008 on a good note. Any positive momentum at this point will do the team well going into the off season.

but I have to agree with much of both postings above. Been trying to see the bright side of things. I actually felt if the Beavs lost to Long Beach State, BUT at least made a game out of it then a sweep of Pacific would still get them in. But the performance was flat at best (though Starr did show some good things I thought). I really don’t know how the committee looks at things but not being able to compete can’t be a good thing.

I also agree with calripken08 above and the Washington trip was very telling and showed some warning signs of the team losing big time focus and fire. Also, JP brought up some excellent points about leadership during last night’s game, and this team just didn’t have it. But that all said it can’t happen every year for we do have to remember these are 18-22 year olds and most are out on their own for the first time in their lives and learning to cope with a lot of things, and wow to throw in having to live up to two National Championships—yikes. So that is my bit to agree that yes everyone does need to rally and show support.

Pitching, good observations calripken08, and one other thing the team will need is for Reyes to show up as a leader here. That is part of what we will need to look for also, can the coaching staff get a spark into Reyes and at the same time get the technique back for him?

I think there is a lot here to work with for 2009, heck I think this team could still be dangerous in the 2008 post season if they get in and get a fire burning again.