A Troubled Season

BY Phillip Marshall
AuburnUndercover
06 May 2012

After watching almost an entire season of Southeastern Conference baseball and talking to scouts and coaches who know far more than I know, I'm convinced Auburn's baseball team is not lacking for talent.

So why are the Tigers 10-14 in SEC play with two weekends to go? How can they be first in the league in batting average, sixth in earned run average and 10th in the standings?

The answers are clear to anyone who has watched. Auburn is last in the league in fielding, gets more runners picked off and thrown out for no reason than any team in the league, walks hitters at the most inopportune times and is not nearly as good at the plate when it matters most.

The answers that aren't clear is why those things are happening. It doesn't take great talent to play solid defense. It doesn't take any talent at all to know when to run and when not to run. It doesn't take talent to know you can't walk the No. 9 hitter to lead off a crucial inning or to know not to unleash a wild throw trying to make a play that can't be made and put the winning run in scoring position.

The season-killer has been three sweeps, one to a woeful Alabama team and one to an ordinary at best Georgia team. There are no bigger games for SEC teams than Sundays when they are down 0-2 in a series. If Auburn had won just one each from Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia, it would be 13-11 in the league, in second place in the West and regional-bound. Instead, though they are 4-4 in series, the Tigers sit at four games below .500.

This team has underachieved. Of that there is no question. Even fourth-year head coach John Pawlowski says as much when he says if they play like they are capable of playing they can beat anybody on their schedule.

To be fair, losing starting pitcher Will Kendall to an elbow injury was costly. It certainly didn't help Friday night when Cullen Wacker went down with a knee injury. But those things don't explain much.

As it stands today, Auburn would get into the SEC Tournament as the No. 10 seed. Honestly, that's no accomplishment at all. With the field expanded, the days when making the SEC Tournament was tantamount to making a regional are gone. Being the No. 10 seed just means you weren't one of the two worst teams in the league. That's not much of a goal.

Unless this team can win series from Arkansas on the road and Florida at home, it will face an uphill battle to play beyond the SEC Tournament. Part of the reason for that is a schedule that includes seven games against SWAC teams. When Auburn beat Alabama A&M a couple of weeks ago, it dropped 12 spots in the RPI. And RPI is what counts most when it comes regional time.

Pawlowski inherited a loaded roster when he arrived in 2009 to replace Tommy Slater. And in 2010, his team won 20 SEC games, the SEC West title and hosted a regional. Last season, his third Auburn team lost the West Division championship on the last day of the regular season. But it finished 29-29 and was not eligible for a regional.

Eleven players off the 2010 team were chosen in the draft and six off the 2009 team, but even after that, there were enough players to win last season, too. A total of 23 players off the previous three Auburn teams have been drafted.

Where does Auburn baseball stand today in the big picture? Is the future bright? Is it not?

I like John Pawlowski. He's a good man. His track record says he's a good coach. He put together one of the great seasons in Auburn history, though it ended earlier than it should have. I'm not here to call for anyone's job. I haven't done that and I won't. I don't know why this Auburn team plays so poorly so often. But I know it should be better than it has been.

Despite another weekend of woe, all is not lost. Arkansas is certainly not unbeatable. Neither is Florida, for that matter. But to make a run, these Tigers will have to once again find the mojo they had when they bolted out of the gate with three series wins.

Maybe it can happen. But there was sure no sign of it Sunday as Georgia celebrated its first SEC sweep of the season.