Tennessee Baseball

[MSUDC11]

Baseball is a funky sport and things can change quickly, but the Vols may be about to have an all time great regular season for SEC standards.

27-1 (9-0) currently and this is their remaining schedule:

Bama
Mizzou
at Florida
Auburn
at Kentucky
Georgia
at MSU

They play one series the rest of the year against a current Top 25 team. Do they break 2013 Vandy’s record of 26 SEC wins in a single season?

 

[Bulldog from Birth]

It’s certainly in play. But that is just so hard to do. Vandy only lost 3 SEC games. I’m going to say they cool off a bit and finish 25-5, assuming nothing gets rained out. I just don’t see how a 26-3 SEC record can ever be topped.

 

[57stratdawg]

It's not out of the question. This is as early of a SEC regular season chase I can remember where the favorite was so established. Maybe they stumble some in the UF, UGA and MSU series, but it's hard to see them winning less than 22 or 23 games. The high side is definitely 26+.

It's just as important they play all 30 games as anything.

 

[ZombieKissinger]

We’re going to ruin it last series of the year

 

[Smoked Toag]

So, a couple of things on Tennessee:

1) First, how have they amassed this level of talent? I have not paid much attention. It is COVID seniors? Are his classes actually ranked highly? Do they have a bunch of MLB guys all the sudden? Has he figured out a recruiting niche, whether scholarships or what? I mean not many teams, even blue bloods, have put together a season like this one. I think La-Lafayette was like 50-8 one year.

2) I noticed Tony Vitello is a Mizzou alumnus. Their current coach sucks. I wonder if he'd take that job? You know they are sure to contact him, if they are even halfway serious about winning in baseball. I know they are in the SEC but better him be at Mizzou than continue to build Tennessee, which is where we get a lot of our talent.

3) These teams with insane records are the ones who lose in the postseason historically, since they have so much pressure. But, does Tennessee simply have too much talent due to #1 above?

 

[WrapItDog]

1) First, how have they amassed this level of talent? I have not paid much attention. It is COVID seniors?

Freshman Pitchers - Friday & Saturday
Drew Beam 6-0, 0.88 ERA, 41.0 IP, 29Ks, 6 BBs Opponent BA .098
Chase Burns 6-0, 1.15 ERA, 39.0 IP, 52Ks, 10 BBs Opponent BA .154

 

[MSUDC11]

So, a couple of things on Tennessee:

1) First, how have they amassed this level of talent? I have not paid much attention. It is COVID seniors? Are his classes actually ranked highly? Do they have a bunch of MLB guys all the sudden? Has he figured out a recruiting niche, whether scholarships or what? I mean not many teams, even blue bloods, have put together a season like this one. I think La-Lafayette was like 50-8 one year.

2) I noticed Tony Vitello is a Mizzou alumnus. Their current coach sucks. I wonder if he'd take that job? You know they are sure to contact him, if they are even halfway serious about winning in baseball. I know they are in the SEC but better him be at Mizzou than continue to build Tennessee, which is where we get a lot of our talent.

3) These teams with insane records are the ones who lose in the postseason historically, since they have so much pressure. But, does Tennessee simply have too much talent due to #1 above?

1. Vitello is an elite, elite recruiter. And their rise has been more gradual than some realize. NCAA Tourney in 2019, started 15-2 before the shutdown in 2020, No. 3 national seed last year, and now they seemingly have a chance to run away with the SEC.

2. Mizzou hasn’t shown the nearest inkling that they are committed to baseball. He may leave Tennessee at some point but don’t think it would be for Mizzou. He is being paid very handsomely at UT.

3. Nobody has too much talent to flame out early. All it takes is a couple of games where your bats go cold and the other team musters just enough offense against you. That said, at this point it would be a pretty big surprise if they’re not at least in Omaha.

 

[8dog]

Both from Tennessee. Beam was 239 overall so thats nothing earth shattering. Burns was a top 100 kid and was drafted in the 20th rd. Being able to sign high level guys at instate tuition prices is huge. They also have Christian Moore who plays some in the lineup. Top 100 kid from Brooklyn.

They got the “juco hitter of the year” to
go along with a lot of other vets in the lineup. Just a really good recruiting class.

 

[onewoof]

So, a couple of things on Tennessee:

1) First, how have they amassed this level of talent?

View attachment 24216

[tweet]​1364339335693230085[/tweet]

 

[Smoked Toag]

Freshman Pitchers - Friday & Saturday
Drew Beam 6-0, 0.88 ERA, 41.0 IP, 29Ks, 6 BBs Opponent BA .098
Chase Burns 6-0, 1.15 ERA, 39.0 IP, 52Ks, 10 BBs Opponent BA .154

Ha, that's insane.

 

[Smoked Toag]

Both from Tennessee. Beam was 239 overall so thats nothing earth shattering. Burns was a top 100 kid and was drafted in the 20th rd. Being able to sign high level guys at instate tuition prices is huge.

Wonder how much of the population boom from California (or really everywhere) has played into that. It's been happening for about 10 years now.

 

[onewoof]

Freshman Pitchers - Friday & Saturday
Drew Beam 6-0, 0.88 ERA, 41.0 IP, 29Ks, 6 BBs Opponent BA .098
Chase Burns 6-0, 1.15 ERA, 39.0 IP, 52Ks, 10 BBs Opponent BA .154

Similar to Vandy. Sign two great pitchers whatever the cost.

 

[Raiderdawg.sixpack]

Beam was missed because he didn’t pitch his junior (Covid) or senior (injury) years of HS. Plus he always wanted to be a Vol.

 

[WilCoDawg]

I’m not discounting how important pitching is, but they’re winning with more than pitching. They’re hitting the hell out of the ball just like they did last year.

I’m not going to look down their schedule, but they are putting the screws to just about everyone with very few close games.

 

[maroonmania]

Maybe so, but they really blew it with that one loss.***

 

[SteelCurtain74]

I think they end up with 5 or 6 losses. I think they'll lose 1 in each of their road series and drop 1 maybe 2 at home.

 

[Smoked Toag]

1. Vitello is an elite, elite recruiter. And their rise has been more gradual than some realize. NCAA Tourney in 2019, started 15-2 before the shutdown in 2020, No. 3 national seed last year, and now they seemingly have a chance to run away with the SEC.

2. Mizzou hasn’t shown the nearest inkling that they are committed to baseball. He may leave Tennessee at some point but don’t think it would be for Mizzou. He is being paid very handsomely at UT.

3. Nobody has too much talent to flame out early. All it takes is a couple of games where your bats go cold and the other team musters just enough offense against you. That said, at this point it would be a pretty big surprise if they’re not at least in Omaha.

Seems like you can recruit outside the 'culture' much easier in baseball. Probably has a lot to do with the less accurate nature of recruiting projections, and obviously scholarship money. Which is why so many teams have been good even if support is not there. That said, no reason Vitello couldn't go win at Mizzou, assuming he CARES enough about his school to do so. I mean Mizzou has won a title, albeit 1954. More than we had until last year.

That really just doesn't happen in football, and much less in basketball. Which begs the question - should MSU be concentrating their resources in basketball over football? You can still make solid money in basketball, and we'll still get the welfare check from football. At minimum, I do think our football program should be 'niche'. Define that however you like. But simply trying to out-recruit others isn't going to get it done.

 

[EmpireDown]

Tennessee grad here. Moved to Brandon when Jerious Norwood was playing there; I could hear the football crowds from my house and started going to games regularly. Norwood was pure electricity. Will Rogers was fun to watch as well.

Back to baseball. We're loving Vitello and he's got UT interested in baseball finally. His salary is $1.5m; hopefully he'll be here a while.

Lindsey Nelson stadium(cap. 4300, don't laugh) has $67million earmarked for renovations. IIRC UT has hired the Poplulous group, who was involved in the Dudy Noble rebuild. I can just hope our field turns out as well.

We look great now, but postseason baseball, as others said, can be cruel and capricious.

 

[Wizard.sixpack]

Tennessee will be busted at some point this season. Corbin obviously was suspecting something with the bats and I think they are juicing. Go look at their schedule and look at the scores. It's not normal for a team to all of a sudden be this dominant.

 

[johnson86-1]

Freshman Pitchers - Friday & Saturday
Drew Beam 6-0, 0.88 ERA, 41.0 IP, 29Ks, 6 BBs Opponent BA .098
Chase Burns 6-0, 1.15 ERA, 39.0 IP, 52Ks, 10 BBs Opponent BA .154

Wonder if they will hit a wall being freshmen. Beam is averaging 6.83 innings per start. Burns is 6.5 per start. Don't know if there is somewhere easy to find pitch counts that might give better info.

Maybe with players playing so much travel ball the college season isn't that much more of a grind than high school and travel ball.

 

[Smoked Toag]

Wonder if they will hit a wall being freshmen. Beam is averaging 6.83 innings per start. Burns is 6.5 per start. Don't know if there is somewhere easy to find pitch counts that might give better info.

Maybe with players playing so much travel ball the college season isn't that much more of a grind than high school and travel ball.

Sounds like they are on the fast track to TJ to me. Especially Burns, who played nothing but baseball all his life and is throwing over 100 mph. It's almost like clock-work.

 

[Smoked Toag]

Tennessee will be busted at some point this season. Corbin obviously was suspecting something with the bats and I think they are juicing. Go look at their schedule and look at the scores. It's not normal for a team to all of a sudden be this dominant.

Bombs have exploded across the board. I too wonder if there's some type of training method that's responsible for it (I highly doubt it's simply roids). Not that there's anything wrong with training for power, but it's obvious that the push for velo has come at the expense of players' elbows. Seems like power could do it too. Sort of like how over-training soccer has caused an explosion in knee surgeries.

 

[Phil Wenneck.sixpack]

They're absolutely juicing. And not just the hitters. You mean to tell me there

are that many guys on 1 team that can reach 100 mph? And the most dominant one with the highest fastball just had TJ surgery. I'm sorry but something's off. While they've got a great recruiter and coach, it simply isn't possible to dominate every statistical category both hitting and pitching without there being something illegal going on.

 

[Forrest4Moore]

Freshman Pitchers - Friday & Saturday
Drew Beam 6-0, 0.88 ERA, 41.0 IP, 29Ks, 6 BBs Opponent BA .098
Chase Burns 6-0, 1.15 ERA, 39.0 IP, 52Ks, 10 BBs Opponent BA .154

Another way of looking at this. These 2 freshmen have allowed only 52 base runners in 80 innings pitched. Which is just absurd.

For comparison, Cam Tullar has allowed 39 base runners in 12.1 innings pitched.
For his career, he has allowed 74 base runners in 31 innings pitched.

 

[PartTimeGenius]

Bombs now come at the expense of player's averages. Also the more in the rear view mirror that the inaugural BBCOR season of 2011 is, the more HR we'll see. Bat manufacturers continue to make their products better and better (but yet still within the "guidelines", the ball changed, plus the emphasis on launch angle has created more HR.

 

[8dog]

This. These bats are nothing like what was introduced in 2011. Those games were brutal.

 

[PartTimeGenius]

It was like taking an aluminum fence post and trying to hit with it. Hitting with wood was a drastic improvement.

 

[Smoked Toag]

Bombs now come at the expense of player's averages. Also the more in the rear view mirror that the inaugural BBCOR season of 2011 is, the more HR we'll see. Bat manufacturers continue to make their products better and better (but yet still within the "guidelines", the ball changed, plus the emphasis on launch angle has created more HR.

I think that 2011 Florida team would have set stupid records for HRs if they played today. The bats were the only reason they didn't walk to the national title. Those fools could rake.

 

[BiscuitEater]

Baseball is a funky sport and things can change quickly, but the Vols may be about to have an all time great regular season for SEC standards.

It's 'easier' WHEN you cheat!

 

[Beretta.sixpack]

A guy I work with played for Vitello at Mizzou....

A guy i work with played at mizzou when Vitello was an grad assistant/assitant.....back in January we were talking college baseball and he got to talking about Vitello....said the guy was super, super intense (IB) and could take a team of misfits and beat anybody and guys would run through a wall for him.....He is legit....

 

[WilCoDawg]

One of them just had surgery, right? The heat thrower whichever that is.

 

[WrapItDog]

One of them just had surgery, right? The heat thrower whichever that is.

Ben Joyce is the flame thrower with 100+ mph. He missed last season rehabbing. Relief pitcher

 

[Mobile Bay]

Tennessee will be busted at some point this season. Corbin obviously was suspecting something with the bats and I think they are juicing. Go look at their schedule and look at the scores. It's not normal for a team to all of a sudden be this dominant.

I read a little bit about bat rolling the other day. Prior to that I had never heard of it. It doesn't seem to be enough extra to justify the risk.

 

[Dawghouse]

Freshman Pitchers - Friday & Saturday
Drew Beam 6-0, 0.88 ERA, 41.0 IP, 29Ks, 6 BBs Opponent BA .098
Chase Burns 6-0, 1.15 ERA, 39.0 IP, 52Ks, 10 BBs Opponent BA .154

Isn't that generally a recipe for disaster by season's end. Freshman pitchers usually (at least in our case) start falling off about the halfway point in the season.

But it definitely bodes well for them over the next couple of years I guess.

 

[WrapItDog]

Isn't that generally a recipe for disaster by season's end. Freshman pitchers usually (at least in our case) start falling off about the halfway point in the season.

TN has probably three other pitchers that aren't the freshman Fri & Sat guy that would start in our weekend rotation. Beam 6-0 .88 ERA, Dollander 5-0 2.58 ERA, Tidwell was 10-3 last season and is just now starting to pitch due to injury before season started.

 

[Emma’s Dad]

Tenn is a great team (obviously) and I’d be surprised if they lose 5 games. But things tighten up in the post season. Will be fun to watch. Their only loss was to Texas, with Tenn pitching Chase Burns. Texas only scored one run off of Burns but did get his pitch count up and then scored several runs on Tenn’s bullpen. The bullpen took the loss. Perhaps that is the key to beating them.

 

[WTNduck35]

Thank god TV didnt go to LSU. Could you imagine him there with juiced bats/players and LSU's rinky dink stadium....

Something is going on at Tennessee... Here are some numbers for you....

Tenn batting .325, next closest is .302 (Auburn) us at .263
Tenn has 69 Homers, next closest is 54 (Florida) us at 48.
Tenn has 79 doubles, next closest is 63 (LSU/Ken) us at 48
Tenn has 14 triples, next closest is 8 (Vandy, UGA, Ken) us at 2
Tenn has 48 SB, next closest is 42 (Vandy) us at 19
Tenn has scored 293 runs, next closest 248 (LSU) us at 223
Tenn has 314 hits, next closest is 298 (Ken) we have 263. NO ONE is over 300 hits except Tenn, not even the vaunted OM line up that was suppose to be all world....

Now for the real shocker... Lets look at pitching...

Tenn has 1.80 ERA, next closest is .271 at Vandy, we have 5.10
Tenn has a .166 OBA, next closest is .196 at Vandy, we have .242
Tenn averages 2.2 Walks per game. next closest is 3.06 at Bama, we are 4.58
Tenn has a WHIP of .082, next closest is 1.19 at Ark, we are at 1.42...

There is no way a team can lead in so many categories and somethign not be going on,...