The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(05-22-2017 10:14 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  

(05-22-2017 10:02 AM)84Monarch Wrote:  

(05-22-2017 09:35 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  

(05-21-2017 08:24 PM)84Monarch Wrote:  You don't win 35 games with luck. How about you give credit where credit is due!!

This is patently false. I'm not sure why people get so worked up with the thought of luck being involved in sports....guess what, it exists...big time. Especially in baseball. In the end, results matter, does it really bother you if the team was lucky or unlucky? They still won 36 games either way. I'd much rather them be lucky and win 36 than perform as the numbers suggest and win 29.

Cluster luck is real and I have used it to my advantage in wagering preseason baseball standings for the past 10 years. Fading the Royals has been glorious.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the...heir-luck/

Basically, it comes down to this, if you cluster your hits together as opposed to spread them out, you will score more runs. This works on the mound as well. Give up 1 hit an inning and you won't give up many runs, give up 9 hits in 1 inning and zero the rest of the game and you will give up a lot of runs.

They haven't won 36 games because of some special talent in clustering hits together in the 8/9th inning. They have won because they have happened to get hits in "clusters."

This team is a middle of the pack offensive squad. 7th in slugging at .433 and 4th in OB% at .384. Being better than average at getting on base helps a little bit, but we have no pop. If you look at peripherals, we are not as good hitting wise as Southern Miss, LT, FAU, or UTSA, and pretty close to MTSU, Charlotte, and Rice. Despite this, we've scored more runs than FAU, UTSA, MTSU, and Charlotte.

On the mound, we have the least amount of strikeouts in the entire league and are 5th in ERA. We are about average in giving up homers and walks. Our peripherals suggests, we should have a below average pitching staff.

But guess what, we've won and I hope it continues. "We find ways to win!" Something that no one has ever been able to quantify, but it makes people feel good about themselves.

Finding ways to win is not luck, sure every team needs a break every now and again.
Base hits for the most part are not luck, they are the result of hard work and talent.
The fact that statistically we do not stand out does not mean we are lucky. It means we have a bunch of good ballplayers working hard who get the job done in crunch time.

Some teams get more breaks than others.

We are 6th in the league in hits...but that really can be largely based on luck as well. Batters only have a certain amount of control on whether they get a hit or not (outside of homers, obviously). You can get sawed off and get a double and can hit a rocket right at an outfielder, for example. Does getting sawed off for a base hit show they are working hard and getting the job done?

Getting it done in crunch time is not a skill. If it was, you would imply that the team is not trying earlier in the game.

No I am not implying that, so please do not imply that I am. I fully understand how to hit a baseball and what is involved. I am just not allowing some on here to disrespect and diminish what the team has accomplished thus far, by attributing their success to luck.