[Chippy]

FlameFans - "throwing people under the bus since the early 2000's"

I still say this team overachieved and most of you expected much less from this transfer laden team. Do I wholeheartedly agree with the coach, um no. Too much bunting and not enough turn the bats loose for me. However, I will fully support him and his staff and the players going forward.

This team had great year considering we had okay pitching and decent hitting and few returning starters. For those who get hung up on bunting, let it go. It's not why we're not BSC champions. Coastal had guys on first and second with nobody out in the 1st inning against us in the CHAMPIONSHIP GAME and had Dan Bowman bunt. He was hitting .401 at the time. Does that mean Gilmore should be fired because he took the bat out of the BSC POY's hands? Bunting is a big part of the game, especially in college. College baseball is not based on Earl Weaver's philosophy which was play for the 3 run homer.

[SuperJon]

SJ -- So can Layer get the men's Hoops over the hump? At least Toman is playing for a championship, that's the first step.

Layer hasn't been here long enough to know if he can or not. Toman has had five years.

[Rooster Cogburn]

What is the cut-off? 5 years?

[Purple Haize]

Maybe what Toman needs is an "Offensive Coordinator" for baseball: how about Sid Bream?

That would be a VERY LU move.

[SuperJon]

What is the cut-off? 5 years?

In my mind a coach gets at least 4 years and sometimes 5 before this stuff is discussed.

[BJWilliams]

Thats a fair length of time...its essentially a full recruiting cycle. As I said, I would not be surprised if JB gave some thought to buying Toman out and sending him on along with all the departing coaches. I like the guy, but you do get to a point where you have to make the hard decisions, even if its one of your "guys". Its either that or the decision is made for you...and doesnt end well for you either.

[Stevev]

I would support keeping Coach Toman. It seems as if he is doing an okay job and this year he had to replace a ton of talent from a somewhat mediocre season the year before so I think that he is doing an acceptable job as coach overall. I think that the good he did with wins vs UVA, UNC, and some others outweighed the bad (weak scheduling and loosing to Coastal). The Coastal jinx is mystifying and frustrating but we are not quite on their level quite yet.

[Hold My Own]

Maybe what Toman needs is an "Offensive Coordinator" for baseball: how about Sid Bream?

That would be a VERY LU move.

Batting quality control is the new LU style

[SuperJon]

he had to replace a ton of talent from a somewhat mediocre season the year before

Had a "somewhat mediocre season" with "a ton of talent?"

If the talent is there and the results are still mediocre, isn't that the coaches fault?

[Stevev]

I figured it was more of a situation where we didn't have the right combination of players at certain positions, and some underachievment (T Bream's 260 BA for example), and not enough depth at pitching particularly in our OOC midweek games that was our downfall last year . I wouldn't want to put it all on Toman. I think that he has done a fairly descent job so far for LU but a little underachieving at times.

[mlschubert]

We need to show some patience. We are building and growing a winning tradition. We lost most of our starters and hardly blinked. We had some great wins and we saw some good things from our young players as well as JUCO transfers. You could argue that this team over achieved, the early games weren't a great barometer of where we were as the competition was weak. The UVA & UNC wins were program wins. If we continue to win we will break through and get in the tournament, and overtime we will get the benefit of the doubt as we continue to develop a winning tradition. It would be foolish to make a head coaching change.

I've never been more excited for an upcoming season - can't wait to support the team in the new stadium next Spring.

[Hold My Own]

My personal opinion is if I only had 1 hour to evaluate a coaching decision, wins and losses would be considered around the 58th minute or so. I think fans place to much power in the bottom line.

[SuperJon]

My personal opinion is if I only had 1 hour to evaluate a coaching decision, wins and losses would be considered around the 58th minute or so. I think fans place to much power in the bottom line.

Hmm. Seems like I know of someone with a similar name to you with a similar opinion.

[SuperJon]

It's amazing all the people that'll come out of the woodwork to share information when they realize you agree with them. Things I have learned in the past day:

We have 3-4 players transferring out or thinking of transferring out, two of which are starting position players and one is one of our better relievers.

We know about the two coaches that have already left and the one about to leave. There's a very good chance that another coach leaves this summer and a possible chance for another. That means we could theoretically lose our entire assistant coaching staff in one summer.

It's also been said that Coach Klein wants out and is looking for jobs elsewhere. He's tired of having to recruit to Liberty with our restrictions and morals.

Other than that, the baseball team is in great shape.

[jcmanson]

Things are never as bad as they seem when you lose and things are never as good as they seem when you win.
It’s easy to hear things like that when things don’t work out the way you had hoped (make Regionals).

[BJWilliams]

As I said before, Barber has to make a tough decision here (although if Toman wants out that will make it a bit easier for him) for the future of the baseball program, especially with a new stadium coming for next season.

[logic]

It's amazing all the people that'll come out of the woodwork to share information when they realize you agree with them. Things I have learned in the past day:

We have 3-4 players transferring out or thinking of transferring out, two of which are starting position players and one is one of our better relievers.

We know about the two coaches that have already left and the one about to leave. There's a very good chance that another coach leaves this summer and a possible chance for another. That means we could theoretically lose our entire assistant coaching staff in one summer.

It's also been said that Coach Klein wants out and is looking for jobs elsewhere. He's tired of having to recruit to Liberty with our restrictions and morals.

Other than that, the baseball team is in great shape.

Not sure that is information you should be posting publically, espsecially when people know who you are. We're talking about people's jobs here, people with kids and so forth.... Could be burning a few bridges here.

[thepostman]

I am pretty sure he was making fun of the people who gave him that info....

[SuperJon]

Actually I wasn't making fun of them.

These are people actively seeking to leave. I don't see any reason why that can't be said publicly.

And why should it matter if people know who I am? I respect someone more for putting their name to something than anonymously posting crap on a message board.

[JK37]

HMO, that was a GREAT post! Too many fans forget that while coaches chosethe profession, it is BRUTAL in this way. Sadly, because fans like so many here do exactly this, AD's have chosen to place greater emphasis on it as well. This of course trickles down to the coaches' level, and the result is a generation of intercollegiate coaches so desperate to keep their jobs, we neglect to do our real jobs.

Manson, your post started out so well, then nosedived. LU baseball WON this year. The inability to win one game against a more talented and better managed team (no disgrace in this; Gilmore's MUCH more experienced) was evidence of cracks - CRACKS that showed things may not be as GOOD as they seem from the winning, not vice versa.

[jbock13]

This should say it all.

17 straight losses to Coastal.

Winning 40 games doesn't matter when you're playing the likes of Coppin State. We didn't win the games we should have, to advance. It's always a losing season, when you don't advance to the postseason. (at least that's my philosophy)

[Hold My Own]

17-0 blows my mind...its honestly unheard of in baseball. You are bound to get a matchup or manufacture a run at the right time to win a game at least once.

If LU was to play the Hillcats 17 times I can almost guarantee LU wins 2 or 3 of them. Seriously...and we're talking about players that are the best of every conference making up one team. Heck our second basemen is the Big South player of the year last year (from CCU).


...well because of that last point I'm concerned with my 2-3 prediction....I'm not sure if a curse is transferable or not.

[ballah09]

whenever Toman leaves (if all that stuff is true) then Barber better open the checkbook for Dan Heefner.

[SuperJon]

whenever Toman leaves (if all that stuff is true) then Barber better open the checkbook for Dan Heefner.

Or Rich Maloney.

Or Graham Sykes.

[From the class of 09]

On the field, things went well. The outfielder hit .322, second on the team, and he hit eight home runs and stole 10 bases. Not bad numbers considering he had a few hamstring issues. The Flames went 41-19, beat bigger schools such as North Carolina and Virginia and almost made it to the NCAA Regionals (Smith feels they were snubbed).

Academically, things were frustrating as he wasn't allowed to pursue a business major because of school rules involving his transferring credits. Smith was put into whatever degree he could fit so he could be eligible to play, he said. At first, it was religion; then it was sports management. For the most part, he took school-required classes. The idea was he could take all the sports management classes his senior year so he could still graduate on time.

Smith, who takes academics seriously and sports a 3.85 grade-point average, wasn't happy with how things went. He's thinking about not returning.

"I'm kind of up in the air," he said, "but I'm leaning more to not."

If he doesn't return, it means the year he spent a year taking classes didn't get him any closer to a degree.

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2012/may/ ... -smith-to/