This patently ridiculous.
When Gino has been on staff, with continuity and balanced classes, we've basically recruited in the top 10 and hit .300 as a team.
But if this keeps up, he won't be successful.
Gotcha.
The status quo = where we're at right meow. Not where Gino has "basically" been over whatever time frame you want to vaguely step back and look at like an impressionist painting at the primo distance/angle/lighting.
And right now, we're staring 2 straight seasons of sitting at home for postseason play square in the face. The bar for this program is much higher than that, and if Gino keeps things where they are today, we'll see more of the same. That's all I'm saying.
What changes have to be made?
We had a back-heavy roster in 2016. The next year we had a bad roster because of it. In 2018, we turned over the roster and started 6 freshmen.
It has nothing to do with nebulous "changes" that need to be made. If pressed, you couldn't even tell us what should be changed.
I have several opinions about what needs to be changed:
1) I agree with the improvements that need to be made to the facilities, and called for the tomato money to cover it. It was announced in the presser introducing Gino that we're doing the improvements, and I'll give benefit of the doubt and say that's coming from the DiMare's. So - step in the right direction, credit where credit's due there. I will say again - I don't think that's the sole reason we've seen struggles (particularly at the plate), but improving the facilities certainly can be helpful.
2) We need a different approach to coaching our hitters. Whether that is more metrics driven (with upgraded facilities), or if it is simply coaching guys to take less pitches and being more aggressive with fastballs...that's up to them to figure out. The current approach ain't cutting it. It needs to be looked at critically by Gino and the staff - he has to take the ego of him being the hitting coach out of it, ask how you as a program can be better and improve. I hope that comes with hiring a good hitting coach with different ideas and approaches.
3) Most importantly - I think we need to find players in recruiting that are more hard-nosed and get the job done no matter how it looks. Our players have dictated our style of play, and our style of play has been soft lately. Give me guys that will hustle, work harder in the postseason to change their bodies and get better, and show some fire on the field. I think we have a few of those on the roster now (like Quinones, Zamora, Escala)...but ditch the pretty boys who are just concerned with how good their swing looks to the MLB scouts when they strike out. Give me a roster full of dirtbags that want to put it all out there and get it done. This is a change in overall mentality and recruiting approach. If you find a guy who checks off those boxes in terms of mentality, and he's talented enough to play at UM - I don't care if PG or other services have him rated low...sign his *** up, and coach him up.
I'm anticipating the comeback here...I'm not saying we stop recruiting the highly ranked players - you have to...it's all an arms race when it comes to recruiting. However, the attitude and mentality has to be more of what we've all liked about every Miami team ever assembled in any sport - us against the world, we're going to go take what's ours. Baseball hasn't had that kind of mentality and heart in a few years. This isn't a tangible, metric-driven change - it's a culture change. The baseball program's culture has degraded a bit. It is still salvageable, but Gino & Co. have to consciously make the decision to fix it. This is where I have my most skepticism as to whether or not Gino will recognize this and fix it. I hope he does.
Those are the changes I want to see...and it's not coming from a place of hatred for Gino or anyone in the program at all. I just want to see this team get back to the prestige that it once was. It's slipping, and Gino has to correct it.
