question that poor coaching pulls this team down. I still play baseball at 55 and see the value of coaching. As your post deftly points out, Aoki not only lacks the necessary technical coaching skills but also gut feel for flow of the game. Until Jack stops hiding behind the ACC competition, we are going to see baseball ranging from bad baseball to potentially good baseball (that will get derailed in crunch time when we need leadership.)

There is no pitching depth. So, time and again Aoki has to hope/wish/pray that the guy he has in the game can somehow get outs.

Now, this is understandable....understandable that this program is in the hands of someone who can't put together depth over a 9 year period.

The team looks half competent this year. That is miles short of the standard, and should have cost him his job 2 or 3 years ago. That his job is STILL not in jeopardy is absolutely maddening. This program got to the CWS in the past 15-20 years, so there is no excuse for not competing. It has been proven possible. There is no excuse for this mess.

Yet, Aoki seems to be given every excuse (oh, the ACC is hard, Bluto) to fail, and nothing is expected of him in terms of putting together a program that is deeper than 2 decent weekend starters and 2 guys in the bullpen.

This is not hard. He has not done the job over 9 years. Why in God's name would you given him another?

Here’s what I think happens (and I’ll bet you agree): you get into late innings with your starter, who has pitched a great game so far. Then he starts to look a little wobbly. It’s mostly a feel, and baseball is such a mental thing. The opponent gets a hit. The pitcher falls behind on the count and maybe walks a couple of guys. It just begins to feel like things are changing. The coach visits the mound and asks the pitcher how he feels. The pitcher probably says “Coach, I feel good. I still got it!” So the coach turns to the catcher and says “ How does he look?” And the catcher says “Coach, he still has good stuff.” All of that may be true, but something must be done to change the feel, because so much of the game is mental and things happen based upon how things feel. It affects everybody: the pitcher, the catcher, the guys in the field, and also the other team. If your guys start worrying that something bad might happen, that in itself induces bad things to happen. So I think you have to go with the way things feel, even if it happens to defy logic. Sometimes you just need to show the opponent something different, even if you like your starter’s stuff more than your reliever’s stuff. I know it’s a judgment call and sometimes it turns out to be a bad call, but as a matter of philosophy that is what I think, because the game is so darn mental. (But as you point out, sometimes pure logic dictates a change too.) I don’t mean to be guilty of 20/20 hindsight. That isn’t fair. But you made some comments that ring true to me, so I wanted to add my own agreement.