Gopher Softball 2020

[rowdaboat]

Do the volleyball and WBB teams have a similar percentage of injuries? It seems to me that softball has a lot of overuse type injuries. Not just at the U but at other schools as well.

Women's sports generally higher than men just from body distribution/hips vs legs, makes sense for softball to be higher than baseball since I'd expect schools spend more time/money on making the baseball fields perfect than softball. No safety base at first gives a higher rate there of collisions or rolling ankles on the base. Rachel was an outlier, she was already 3 or 4 surgeries before school

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

“makes sense for softball to be higher than baseball” -

I also think that college baseball is more cautious about their student athletes because they don’t want to burn them out before they get the chance to make real money in professional baseball. Whereas college softball is essentially the mountaintop of the sport. Unless your an Olympian (less than 20 people in the country every four years) you can’t make a living wage playing softball. Therefore, for these women you might as well leave it all out on the field in their college years because that will be the end of their elite playing careers. And Softball coaches therefore have no reason to second guess burning out their players. “Better to burn out than fade away” in this sport.

 

[rugger14]

Women's sports generally higher than men just from body distribution/hips vs legs, makes sense for softball to be higher than baseball since I'd expect schools spend more time/money on making the baseball fields perfect than softball. No safety base at first gives a higher rate there of collisions or rolling ankles on the base. Rachel was an outlier, she was already 3 or 4 surgeries before school

I don't see many injuries happening in games.

 

[4EverAGopher]

I don't see many injuries happening in games.

I more or less stated the same thing about a week ago in one of my posts. i am surprised at the number of those injured on this team whether they are starters or not. Didn't Partain's injury start her Sophomore year? Or at least I thought that is when it began with her.

I am not a season ticket holder for softball, but an avid streamer of Gopher sports for at least 20 years. Did anybody attend these last games that can speak on how Carlie and Ava did on the mound Sunday seeing as this was an untelevised game? They were not necessarily pitching against a top hitting team in the NCAA. But still glad they were given the opportunity to go out there and give Fiser and Pease some relief.

 

[rowdaboat]

I don't see many injuries happening in games.

True, seems like the main cause for travel ball in games is just people who don't know how to slide

 

[rugger14]

“makes sense for softball to be higher than baseball” -

I also think that college baseball is more cautious about their student athletes because they don’t want to burn them out before they get the chance to make real money in professional baseball. Whereas college softball is essentially the mountaintop of the sport. Unless your an Olympian (less than 20 people in the country every four years) you can’t make a living wage playing softball. Therefore, for these women you might as well leave it all out on the field in their college years because that will be the end of their elite playing careers. And Softball coaches therefore have no reason to second guess burning out their players. “Better to burn out than fade away” in this sport.

Interesting take. I don't see how burning them out to the point of hurting them can possibly help the team. What do you gain by having all these players out of the game entirely due to injuries and others dinged up, on the roster, and not being able to play? Leaving it all out on the field?

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

Who again is presently injured? I know Delani Cox and she has been unable to play this season so far. Elle Jensen seems to have some chronic lower leg problems that have effected her the last two seasons, which is worrisome given that she is our speedster threat. And Partain appears a little gimpy on her leg, as she did at the very end of last year, but still having an awesome season so far, as she is a rare talent. But who else do we in the general public KNOW is injured in this roster?

 

[Belzx009]

I am a Gopher fan. I have no good feelings or well wishes toward Kendyl Lindaman walking out on the Gophers after the great season they had and (as it turned out) the WCWS season they were going to have. I know that most people nowadays disagree and wish them the best.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I want her to have a bad life. But as a softball player, I would be perfectly happy for her to bat .100 and Florida to do poorly.

If she was leaving for playing time like Jasmyn Martin on the volleyball team I could muster some good wishes. But Lauren Barnes leaving for Wisconsin volleyball, or Kendyl Lindman leaving for Florida? Nah!

I agree with all of this so much!!

 

[Hrothgar]

Who again is presently injured? I know Delani Cox and she has been unable to play this season so far. Elle Jensen seems to have some chronic lower leg problems that have effected her the last two seasons, which is worrisome given that she is our speedster threat. And Partain appears a little gimpy on her leg, as she did at the very end of last year, but still having an awesome season so far, as she is a rare talent. But who else do we in the general public KNOW is injured in this roster?

How many are seemingly injured? And why? Why do they struggle in this game? But romp to a win in the next? Why are half the lineup hitting 200 or less? Why are traditionally strong programs, like Michigan, MN, FSU, Alabama, etc., now with less than spectacular W-L records?

It all seems kinda whacko, to me, in a humorous way. I read a quote from the Auburn coach the other day. He said that after the MN/Auburn game he took his players aside and explained that they're not a white collar team, but a blue collar team that has to fight for everything they get on the field. The problem about his message, he said, was that not a single player on his team knew what those terms meant. He had to try to explain it their way. It dawned on me that maybe us posters on this site are out-thinking ourselves with our questions. Could be nobody but us cares about the answers or even understands our questions. Maybe we should just watch the games & enjoy what we can of them? I dunno.

 

[ComoGopher]

Who again is presently injured? I know Delani Cox and she has been unable to play this season so far. Elle Jensen seems to have some chronic lower leg problems that have effected her the last two seasons, which is worrisome given that she is our speedster threat. And Partain appears a little gimpy on her leg, as she did at the very end of last year, but still having an awesome season so far, as she is a rare talent. But who else do we in the general public KNOW is injured in this roster?

Please try to stick with the thread. We have a junior class with one player left from a class of seven. That player is a pinch runner. YOU said softball treats their players harder than baseball because there is no MLB for softball players. Leave it all on the field was something that I think you said. Our best player and starting catcher (Lindaman) transferred and the following year our replacement starting catcher left softball entirely. I think we would like Emma's bat in the line-up and we would definitely prefer her glove behind the plate and her cannon arm to what we have playing catcher now. 68 might disagree.

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

ComoGopher, I have thoughts on the Burns situation based on what I was seeing as a fan through publicly posted twitter, and clearly the current Junior class has been unproductive to the extreme - that is obvious. But I will let that go in effort to keep my post short and drill right down to what appears to this reader to be the at bottom point.

Do you want the coaching staff fired today, or at the end of the year?

 

[ComoGopher]

ComoGopher, I have thoughts on the Burns situation based on what I was seeing as a fan through publicly posted twitter, and clearly the current Junior class has been unproductive to the extreme - that is obvious. But I will let that go in effort to keep my post short and drill right down to what appears to this reader to be the at bottom point.

Do you want the coaching staff fired today, or at the end of the year?

I don't want anyone fired. I want the team to sustain success and keep building. I am skeptical about whether or not Jamie is the long-term answer. If she proves me wrong I will be a happy Gopher SB fan. I was skeptical about Pitino from day #1. I still watch Gopher MBB and want them to win every game. I don't want him fired. I want him to prove me wrong but I think he might be done. I watch Gopher SB, I have season tickets, I have traveled to away games. I want them to win every game. Some things going on with WBB make me wonder if Saint Lindsay is the right WBB coach. I am watching right now and hope like hell they can beat tOSU. Not looking good after the 10-0 tOSU run. I actually care about the non-revenue sports.

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

ComoGopher, That does makes sense. Fans want their teams to win and they should. Winning makes sports more entertaining.

I don’t know Jamie and I can’t tell you that I think we will be in the top tier if the Big Ten 2-3 years from now. Maybe, maybe not. I guess my own philosophy on coaching and players has changed some over the years. I generally want Gopher coaches to be people that view their job as their dream job. I think that is Jamie Trachsel in our softball program. It sure wasn’t Jess Allister, unfortunately. Coaches can still deserve firing if they pass this threshold but I can say that is a big plus for Jamie in my mind.

Secondly, I think Gopher fans on the baseball side give John Anderson quite a bit of leash to rise and fall as we understand that it is tough to be continuously good in baseball (and softball) for a far northern team. Yet most people believe, over the long run, that Anderson has given us more wins and more Big Ten championships than our fair share. That seems like a fair way of judging success to me.

Finally, I want players that wear the maroon and gold to want to be on the team. I want them to live their team. If they don’t want to be on the team, and if they don’t bleed Marion and Gold, well there are just too few scholarships in these non-revenue sports to be giving away U of M goodies to players that don’t appreciate what our University provides them.

In a nutshell, that is part of my philosophy that has caused me to make the posts that I have. I sure do value fans who love college softball. Reading passionate fans also makes sports fun.

 

[rowdaboat]

new lineup for today

Partain 2B
Jensen DP
DenHartog LF
Hansen 1B
Strelow C
Kemmetmueller 3B
Vander Heide CF
Lindner RF
Brandt SS

 

[Panthadad2]

new lineup for today

Partain 2B
Jensen DP
DenHartog LF
Hansen 1B
Strelow C
Kemmetmueller 3B
Vander Heide CF
Lindner RF
Brandt SS

Happy to see Jensen made the lineup.

Gophs getting shut out by a relatively high ERA pitcher through 5 according to Livestats. Hopefully they can pull this out.

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

It has to be mentally fatiguing on Partain this season to have all the pressure to generate the offense every game. I gotta think that could wear someone out.

 

[Panthadad2]

The Gophs simply don't have an awe inspiring batting lineup this year. I might need to lower expectations unless some of the new faces really come on strong.

 

[rowdaboat]

Shitty start to the weekend. At least the LOB was low

 

[Panthadad2]

Shitty start to the weekend. At least the LOB was low

 

[Panthadad2]

Gopher runs scored in Amber's seven losses:

4 Mizzou
0 Kentucky
0 OK State
1 V. Tech
1 Baylor (8)
1 Auburn
0 CS effing Fullerton

= 1 Avg runs scored in Amber's losses

 

[ComoGopher]

Happy to see Jensen made the lineup.

Me too. She will have to knock some rust off but we know what she is capable of. Unfortunate game result but great to have another proven offensive weapon back in the lineup.

 

[rwlarson]

Gopher runs scored in Amber's seven losses:

4 Mizzou
0 Kentucky
0 OK State
1 V. Tech
1 Baylor (8)
1 Auburn
0 CS effing Fullerton

= 1 Avg runs scored in Amber's losses
[/QUOTE

Thanks for the info, Panthadad. I was lamenting Amber’s lack of run support, too. Three goose eggs in seven losses. Can’t win if you don’t score no matter how good your pitching is.

It’s continuing to appear that this team will just have to accept that they will be offensively-challenged compared to last year’s team. Obviously missing Brandner is huge as there doesn’t appear to be any one player capable of making up for most of Hope’s production. If Jensen is able to play more and perform at something approaching her healthy potential it would really help.

That said, Michigan really struggled at the plate for much of the pre-conference last year before catching fire right before B1G play started. Maybe we can do the same.

 

[rowdaboat]

Won on only 3 hits

 

[rugger14]

Won on only 3 hits

Thank goodness for good pitching!

 

[Hrothgar]

Thank goodness for good pitching!

The offensive anemia is really disturbing; there were only a handful of hard hit balls today, and that's happened in more than one or two games. They hit so few balls out of the infield. With even average hitting, the Gophers would've won 5 or 6 more games at this point. It's hard to know how far they can ride the pitching & defense as the season moves on.

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

The offensive anemia is really disturbing; there were only a handful of hard hit balls today, and that's happened in more than one or two games. They hit so few balls out of the infield. With even average hitting, the Gophers would've won 5 or 6 more games at this point. It's hard to know how far they can ride the pitching & defense as the season moves on.

I totally agree. I am more worried about what the Gophers’ results will be against the Big Ten teams (excluding Michigan and Northwestern). I figured out win-loss record and stats would get healthy like they have for the last six years once we got into the BigTen schedule and played all of those overmatched teams. I am not sure that Big Ten teams we will play will be as overmatched this year against us as I have come to assume.

I can’t believe how much any run we make at a B1G title rides on Elle Jensen getting consistent quality at bats day in and day out to help get some kind of regular offense going. I just don’t know if she is the same as she once was. Let’s hope so.

 

[4EverAGopher]

My suggestion is, to start or continue watching RuPaul's Drag Race new season. It will cure all questions we might have on what is or is not going on with this Gopher team this year. Now...Shantay You Stay or Sashay Away!!!

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

Even with Jensen back in the lineup, and if she can hit with a high batting average again which is an “if”, it doesn’t deal with the lack of pop in most of the bats that step to the plate for the Gophers (DenHartog and Partain excluded). It will be a real problem this year that can only be overcome with exceptional pitching and defense combined with clutch hitting each and every game. Possible to win the Big Ten that way? Maybe. But not likely.

 

[rowdaboat]

Even with Jensen back in the lineup, and if she can hit with a high batting average again which is an “if”, it doesn’t deal with the lack of pop in most of the bats that step to the plate for the Gophers (DenHartog and Partain excluded). It will be a real problem this year that can only be overcome with exceptional pitching and defense combined with clutch hitting each and every game. Possible to win the Big Ten that way? Maybe. But not likely.

And currently have no extra PH depth

 

[Hrothgar]

What's missing most is Brandner's bat and on-field leadership. W/o her, it's a win one-lose one team held together by 2 pitchers and 2 hitters.