Comments on: Tuesday College Roundup: Tanner Lashes Out At Clemson

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 03:02:06 +0000

Bat heating to control vibrations has been done in baseball from high school to college since the 80's. Some cold weather schools actually have "bat warmers" in the dugout to reduce the pain of hitting a ball with a cold bat. There are two things that factor into this. 1) Kieboom complained about the bat so legget had to support his player by coming out and asking the ump to check it (which the umps said with disgust, "let's play ball" and 2) The Sunday win was the first mens sports head to head win for Clemson over South Carolina this academic year. (and only the 3 of 12 overall) with only mens tennis left. It's hard to be embarrassed like that and not find something to complain about.

By: Aaron Fitt

Aaron Fitt — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 02:20:31 +0000

John, the problem is nobody really knows whether warming the bats does improve performance, first of all. South Carolina seems to think it minimizes vibration (and anyone who’s ever swung a metal bat in cold weather knows the vibrations can be unpleasant), but there is no evidence at this point that a warmer bat will hit a ball farther than a colder bat. There are all kinds of questions here: Should teams be prohibited from storing their bats inside the clubhouse on a cold day? Is it cheating if bats are stored in the sunlight, rather than the shade? Unless you propose all teams store their bats in hermetically sealed vaults between at-bats, there’s going to be some variance here. If you play with metal bats on a 30 degree day, the bats are going to be colder than they will be on a 70 degree day—that seems pretty natural and logical. My impression is that warming bats does not alter them in any unnatural way. If one of those NCAA labs says differently, I will certainly revise my opinion.

By: John

John — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:23:59 +0000

Aaron: Did some follow-on research that may add to the discussion. In accordance with NCAA Baseball Rules, 2011-2012, Rule 1/The Game, Playing Field and Equipment, Section 12, "Any bat that does not display the approved certification mark or in the umpire’s judgment or upon appeal of the opposing team has been altered or flattened so as to affect the distance factor or cause an unusual reaction on the baseball, shall be removed from the game. If detected after the first pitch, the batter shall be declared out, and base runners shall not advance. If detected before the first pitch of an at-bat, an altered or flattened bat shall be removed from the game. The batter will be required to use a bat that conforms to the rule. If detected after an at-bat starts, the batter is out, and no runners may advance." So this begs the question: if the Carolina kids were warming their bats then by the definition of the rules they have altered the bat "so as to affect the distance factor." Leggett was correct in, at least, questioning the bat. While I am not questioning Ray Tanner's integrity, I may challenge the definition of the term "cheating" he may have learned from his days studying at NC State. If Carolina had warmed their bats and Tanner knew about it, wouldn't that constitute "cheating"? Unfortunately there is no smoking gun here. Bottom line: Rules are meant to keep the playing fields level and in this case protecting and ensuring the safety of the kids. There should be no wiggle room. For Carolina, Clemson, or any other school. Consider what happens if some pticher gets pegged between the eyes by a ball being hit off of a juiced (warmed) bat. The game may have been won but at what price?

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:01:53 +0000

Boiler up! Keep rolling Boilers!

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:24:24 +0000

I don't know what Tanner is getting so red faced about. From having played both these teams while in College, with both these coaches heading them up, they are both chippy. And in my opinion, South Carolina is way worse than Clemson!

By: Noah

Noah — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:31:36 +0000

Tyler Webb and Will Lamb both played for the Canes summer ball team and hail from neighboring parts of Virginia. I would assume Lamb's comments reflect some long-standing bad blood between the two.

By: John

John — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:29:31 +0000

Aaron: As a Clemson loyalist the bat warming discussion is to be expected. Leggett, like other coaches, had a responsibility to ask the question. Could it have been construed as a bush gamesmanship move? Perhaps. But I see nothing wrong with a coach standing up for his players. Though, more importantly, the question that needs to be asked (and not sure of the answer) is whether the NCAA allows teams to warm their bats. Iif so, argument over. Let's move on. If not, than coaches like Leggett are going to try and stay one step ahead of the other coach. Let's give USC some credit. They have a hell of a lot of talent on that squad. For us Clemson folks, we need to look forward to the UVA series this weekend. If they kids don't put the USC series behind them, UVA is going to come down to Clemson and smoke us. As for USC, don't think that Kevin O'Sullivan and the other SEC coaches aren't watching and will be dutifully noting any super-hot shots off of USC's bats. Thanks.

By: Will

Will — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:25:57 +0000

Aaron, do you know anyone with a database that would allow you to query stats on pinch-hitters on a team-by-team basis over the last few years? Ray Tanner has to be the about the best in the business here. I can't count the number of times we've had pinch hitters go yard in the last year or so. Our pinch hitters have got to be slugging over 1.000 in the last year. Is there a way to rank teams (and by extension, coaches) on this metric?

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:43:37 +0000

Here's a better link for the Clemson/South Carolina story. The one you used is broken Aaron.
http://www.orangeandwhite.com/....." target=new>Link