I hate to beat a dead cliche horse.
But after taking a few minutes to scan the statistics for all of NCAA Division I baseball, I have a firmer grasp on the depths of the Terrapin baseball team’s offensive struggles. I feel obligated to share and consolidate this information for our devoted readers so they too can understand the root of most of the Terps’ failure this season..
In all seriousness, for those who have watched the Terps play all season, it is painfully obvious that the team’s offensive ineptitude is the primary reason for their struggles as a whole.
The pitching has been inconsistent, and there have been instances of sloppy play that has cost them late in games. But for the most part, the Terps lose games because they can’t score runs.
Only outfielder Brandon Padula is hitting over .300. The team leader in home runs — Matt Marquis — has as just one more home runs on the season (5), than Georgia Tech slugged against the Terps in its 24-4 win March 20. And only Padula has more RBI on the season (30) than Virginia scored in its 27-4 win last Saturday.
There have been bright spots. Padula is 10th in the conference in batting average (.374) and that is without any semblance of protection in the lineup. Shortstop Alfredo Rodriguez has made huge strides at the plate and has emerged as one of the conference’s best base-stealers.
But there just hasn’t been enough consistent offensive output as a team all season, and it has the Terps fighting to avoid ignomity if they can’t improve and win a few games down the stretch.
Follow after the jump for a look at just how bad things have gotten for the Terps offensively.
I have compiled a list of the major offensive categories (that the NCAA keeps track of) below.
The first number is the Terps’ statistics in that category and the number in the parentheses is where that ranks nationally.
Unfortunately the NCAA statistics have the Terps as only having played 38 games when in reality they have played 43.
For contextual purposes, keep in mind there are 292 teams in Division I:
Batting Average: .256 (288th)
Hits: 358 (232nd)
Home Runs: 24 (202nd)
Runs: 195 (258th)
Sacrifice Bunts: 46 (4th)
Slugging percentage: .357 (285th)
Runs per game: 4.6 (285th)
Stolen Bases per game: 2.29 (15th)
Even the casual baseball fan can recognize offensive futility when they see it, and if their struggles continue — and with a tough schedule remaining they should — this year’s Terps would rank right near the bottom in program history offensively.
As of right now, the Terps are joined near the bottom of the list by teams like UMBC and Dartmouth. But even more frightening is the thought that if Bakich hadn’t been able to recruit the services of Padula and Marquis, both of whom transferred into the program this season, this could be the worst offense in the entire country.
Of course no coach with 17 games left to play would ever admit on the record that the offense is terrible, and Bakich isn’t the type of coach who would throw his players under the bus.
But he also spent the last month championing the team’s conference-best sacrifices and stolen bases. And unfortunately for Bakich, those statistics are better indicators of how much of a challenege it has been to score runs this season.
There is hope on the horizon in the form of a terrific recruiting class which I will talk about later this week.
But it seems as if it will be a long final stretch of the season for Bakich and the rest of his coaching staff. None of whom have ever experienced this level of losing in their coaching history.
Michael Lemaire is the Terrapin baseball beat writer. He can be reached at lemaire@umdbk.com