NC State Baseball's Brutal Honest Autopsy (Part 1) | Tuffy Talk

The 2026 NC State baseball season is over. 32-24. Fourteen wins in ACC play. Zero road series wins. A second straight early exit in the Auburn Regional.

So what actually happened?

In Part 1 of this two-part series, Greg and Ethan pull no punches on the full season breakdown. They start where every honest conversation has to start — did this team meet expectations? Coming in as a top-15 program with what looked like the most talented roster in years, the answer is complicated. And the reasons why are even more so.

They dig into the offensive identity crisis that plagued this team all year — a roster built for speed that rarely ran, and supposedly built for power that finished second to last in the ACC in home runs. The DH carousel that went unsolved for the second straight season. The Brayden Freeman decision that lingered too long. The Andrew Wiggins debate, was he the problem or was he exactly what he was always going to be? And the Chris McHugh 74 wRC+ that nobody in the fanbase wants to talk about.

Then there's the schedule. Greg and Ethan make the case that NC State went five years without playing a true power-conference non-conference opponent on a weekend, and why that has to change in the Chris Hart era. The Puerto Rico trip was fun. Lafayette and Princeton were not a schedule.

They close Part 1 on the pitching staff, the injuries to Jacob Dudan and Ryan Marone that derailed the Omaha dream, the freshman pitchers thrown into the fire too early, the Consiglio versus Andrews rotation confusion that went two months too long, and why Anderson Nance being moved into the starting rotation felt like a panic move rather than a plan.

Part 2 covers Elliott Avent's full legacy, the Chris Hart era, and everything coming in the offseason.

Tuffy Talk is NC State's home for sports talk, hot takes, and everything Wolfpack. New episodes every Monday at 8:30 PM ET on YouTube. Subscribe at patreon.com/cw/ncstatestats for exclusive weekly breakdowns from Ethan — $5/month.

Transcript

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Like on some big TV stages, passing the fans and a whole lot of faith. So if you bleed red and you holler all night, then brother, you're exactly right. This is tough talk where the black fans long for an out for the red and the white. Sing along. We'll break it all down. Yeah, we'll call it straight. This is our show. Go back. Go state. Tough talk. Fired up. And like the Wolf Pack Nation, we're a hell of a crowd. From the first pitch to the final. Play tough talk. Let's roll today. What's going on? Wolf Pack Nation and especially you guys out there in Tuffy Talk Land. You listen to IPS, and if you listen to Tuffy talk, you know we are two baseball nerds. And that's exactly what we're going to do tonight. Sadly, the NC state baseball season came to an end this past weekend down in Auburn. Uh, myself and Ethan will be recapping some of the season where we got to hang out some superlatives and then get into the off season. Right. And, uh, especially, you know, give, uh, give Coach Avon his flowers and then walk him in. Chris, the Chris Harte era. But, uh, first off, Ethan, you ready for some baseball talk? I'm ready. And I feel like, Greg, there's nothing more appropriate for you and I to start with than baseball. I agree, I, I I'm so jazzed up. Um, ever since we kind of, we started putting these wheels in motion, uh, when we did our preseason baseball talk with Cal Parker over at PAC. Homer, um, those guys do a great job, but I think we're going to get a little bit more baseball content going now that we have you on the team. And I couldn't be more excited about this. Any any baseballs? Great baseball. More baseballs. Great baseball. If you want to talk baseball in the middle of a football game, please. I'm all yours. We will. You and I will be breaking baseball news to each other. I think, for from here to eternity. So, uh. 12, 12 months a year. 12 months a year, right? I mean, and that's what all college sports. And we'll get into this. But these sports go year round. Now, now that you have these fall balls and you know, you have, you know, the portal season and then you have the high school prep, you know, recruits coming in. There's there's always something, uh, in every sport. But I especially like it when we have it baseball talk. But, uh, let's get into it, uh, you know. Let me, let me ask you this question to start off with, uh, as a whole for the, for the, for the NC state baseball team. Was this a successful season and met expectations? Uh, what do you what do you think? And then I'll give you my thoughts on it. I don't think so. Um, which part? You don't think so? But that it was a success? I don't think they met expectations. No, I don't think they met expectations. I mean, this was a team that came into the year. Um, top 15, I want to say on D1 baseball. Mhm. Uh, top four, maybe fifth in the ACC in the in the coaches poll. Mhm. Um, and I think expectation among the fan base was, was at a pretty high level. Um, and you came up short of that obviously. For various reasons. And we'll get into this. For, for various reasons. And to me that's kind of what I go to. Like, I don't know that I would necessarily label this a failure like I it's making the base tournament in baseball is hard. It's not like making a bowl game, right? It's not like making the basketball tournament where it's like, man, can we even get to 68 teams? Yeah. You know, like making the tournament in baseball is legitimately hard. Uh, and so just making it alone is an accomplishment. Now, does that make it a success? No, I don't think it does. But, um. Yeah, yeah, you fell short of expectations, as you said. There's reasons for that. And and certainly reasons that we're understanding of while also saying, you know, you could have done X, Y and Z better. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, the, the, the Pac nine ends their season 32 and 24. Uh, that's a 571 win percentage. Uh, they went 14 and 16 in the conference finishing ninth. And then we kind of got, you know, touched on it just gently there we went. Oh, and two in the Auburn Regional for the second time in you know in a row. Our season ends in Auburn. Um, you know to your point right. Like the season just had a lot of hope. You kind of laid it out there with, uh, where, you know, some of the prognosticators kind of had us pinned, you know, where they thought we would finish. And this, this squad. Right? This, this junior class. Because I always like to, um, you know, for baseball, I always base it on the junior class, right. Because that's always your draft eligible year. And so you always look. Okay. What is that junior class going to look like when they come in as freshmen? And um, kind of the take on it was this was going to be the year that we thought Omaha was going to be in our sights. Uh, you you brought back all the pitching. You know, those that true freshman, that freshman class, by the way, of pitchers, was really good, really strong. Um, and you thought, okay, they got there a year early, you know, as their freshman, you know, had a nice mixer, mixture of veterans and freshmen, and it had the right combination. And then last year, kind of just, you know, I thought the I thought the squad was good last year. Um, but again didn't meet the expectation. And then this year just felt like, okay, this is the run right. Yeah. Yeah. And to be honest, like, I, I feel like this happens with football a lot where it's like, okay, you feel like this is your year. This is an opportunity. This is a chance to make a big run. And it doesn't. Sometimes things go wrong or other teams end up being better than expected, and you're not able to make that happen. And that's why to me, when you do have an opportunity to make a run, it's important to take advantage of it. And we saw that in 2024. You didn't necessarily as you said, you didn't necessarily expect that to be a this is an Omaha team. And they were what, the 10th 10th overall seed in the country that year. Um, that was the surprise. But they took advantage of it. They made a run. They got there, as you mentioned, the last. Again, I kind of go back to last year where it's like, man, that really feels like your missed opportunity. As this season unfolded, I don't know how much opportunity was really missed. I don't know where you were going without Jacob Newton and Ryan Marone. I mean, you had, you know, poor Sherman Johnson's looks like he needs to get wheeled around in a wheelchair out there, still gutting it out. And that was your best. That was your best hitter down the stretch? Absolutely was. You know, um, you know, the time that Mikey Ryan missed, uh, Dalton Vargo was never really the same after his injury. Yeah, yeah. I don't necessarily look at this season and say, hey, this was a missed opportunity. You thought that going in, but it didn't unfold that way, right? And so that's when you go back to last year where it was like, hey, you had an ACC title in front of you. You stayed healthy for the most part. You had some opportunity there this year. Everything everything broke wrong. And yeah, as a result, you know, you it wasn't a great year. But again, how many teams would have had a great year in this position. Yeah. Uh, you know it's tough because you when you look at it on paper, this team was like okay, this this, you know, there was some question marks and we'll definitely talk about those. And you know, but you looking at some of the last year's numbers. Right. You look at bar goes home runs from Tennessee. You thought okay look at Braden Freeman's home run numbers. You looked at Chris McHugh and saw kind of what he was doing in the Cape over the over the summer. Cooper Consiglio had a bounce back up in the Cape. So you saw some signs where you're thinking, okay, and then you're just thinking the guys that are sophomores into juniors and juniors into seniors, can they just take one more step? Right. If you get that one more step up. Yeah. This has the potential. And like you saw like like there was question marks on the squad. Like on the back end. Like how was the bullpen going to look like how was how was doing going to be used. Uh, you know, who was going to be your weekend starters, who was going to be your closer? And that was a position that never really did get figured out throughout the season. Right. So to me, there was like three positions where you just didn't get what you were hoping for. Right. And that was to me, that was the closer your right fielder, your DH. And then you can maybe even throw in your catcher. Kind of give me your thoughts in those areas. Yeah. DH is hard. I mean, it's been two years in a row now. Yeah. It's just, you know, a carousel stand out. Yeah. And it's frustrating because it feels like that should be the easiest position to fill. Um, because you don't just put the best back there, right? You know, and I don't know. Like, it shouldn't be that hard. Obviously, your better players are going to want to play, uh, the field to help their their value in the draft. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Tough, tough. And I think the frustrating thing is it's not like there haven't been options. So part of that is on the coaches to get the right guys out there. Part of it's on the players to get out there and perform. So yeah, I don't think there's necessarily one guy you point to again, if Dalton Vargo never gets hurt and he hits 20 home runs this year, who knows. Like was he on his way to an Alec Markovich type senior season? Maybe. Yeah. I mean, he had five home runs in the first two weeks of the season. Yeah, yeah. And and he did back up at the end. Yeah he did. You know I certainly think that's within the realm of possibility. Um yeah. Well not only that catcher. Right. But yeah. And I know, uh, I'm going to kind of poke the bear here. Um, you know, there was some talk that he could maybe play catcher. Right? And, you know, play like third base play right field, play first base like he you never really saw Bargo in the field at all this year. Like like he was pretty much. And you never saw McHugh. You never saw McHugh move around either right. Except for the first weekend. And that. Was when. We saw that the first weekend. And they never went back to it. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, again like. Again I don't think those are what cost NC state the season. So like I don't want like people listening to this podcast saying okay like because Chris McHugh didn't play left field. We didn't make it to Omaha. Like no. Like you had Rhett Johnson. Yeah. I mean, um. Right. But you move guys around. Now read Johnson's and right fields, you know, and or if Dalton Bargo is can catch. I, I don't know like, you know that's something we'll never have the answer to. Um, it's tough because you have to feel like if if he could catch that state would have given him a look back there. Considering they did play Preston Bourne, they did play Vincent de Carlo at times. So. Um, well. And then once he had you know. Yeah. Quad injury, whatever it exactly was, I think it was a quad. I can't remember, but I think it was a quad once that happened. Like they pretty much punted, if you will, on Bargo playing the field for the rest of the season except for an injury, you know. Like one game at first base. Yeah. He played like 1 or 2 games. He he had a he was a defensive substitution against Georgia Tech when that game was kind of already out of hand. Um, but yeah, didn't really didn't really see the field. And so, I mean, let me, let me shift the conversation before we kind of get into some of the other players in, in the schedule and how it kind of worked itself out. Um, do you think some of that and for as much as we love Elliot Avent and you know, his, uh, I don't think college baseball has a Hall of Fame, maybe it does. I don't even know. Do you know if college baseball has a Hall of Fame? It doesn't sound familiar. Yeah, I don't think so. Yeah. I mean, I mean, basketball doesn't have a college basketball. It's the basketball Hall of Fame. But. But football definitely has a college football. But, uh, I'll say it in this manner. Like in in Eliot Avon's illustrious career, it always just feels like he just went with the safe decisions. Does that feel like at least in the last couple of years anyway, where he he didn't get, you know, and this isn't necessarily on Avon, but you know, the buck stops there, if you will. Um, because since he's the head coach. But it just felt like we didn't get creative in some of the things that we could have done. Kind of. What do you think about that statement? I think lack of creativity is one of the biggest things that I would like to see change. Yes, agreed. And when I think of creativity, I look at the pitching staff, um, first, but I, I certainly think it applies here. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, yeah, I yeah, I mean, it's tough and. I mean, we can, we can we can money Monday morning quarterback this thing. Right. Because it's easy. This is over. Yeah. Like you saw what guys ended up doing. But when we preview the season, it's like, well, this guy like, and again, I'm not. So many guys. I'm not into like calling guys out, right. But if you just look at statistics, you look at some of the analytics, it's like, and I'm going to use this name and it's not because of hate or anything, but this, this. The staff rode with Brayden Freeman until like the last 2 or 3 weeks of the season, like like there were signs there, um, you know, and I get it. His defense was good, like, you know, but, um, was it enough to keep him in the lineup every day? I, I don't think it was that that spectacular. Like, it was solid. But, you know, you you got to find a way to score runs, especially when you lost dude in, in maroon. Like you're going to have to outhit a lot of people. And that was just kind of one of those things where if you look at the amount of runs that when we were like in the we'll get into the schedule, but you look at the pre priest like the priest out of conference games. The runs per game are like 12, 13 runs a game like. And so you can mask some of the problems that you had with your pitching and all that because you were just out slugging everybody. But when you got into conference play, it was much, much different. Yeah. Yeah. I think to me, the, you know, when you bring up phrase, man, the difficult thing to me is that it was like the last game of the season. It wasn't the last game, but it was like the last week. Of the last week. Where state then decided, oh, we're going to play Andrew Wiggins now. And it's like, well. And Moses was like, you're throwing him away now. It almost looks like you're throwing a bone for draft stats. Yeah. Maybe I guess like I don't know like I, I guess to me my thing is if like if you don't like Andrew Wiggins for whatever reason, don't play him. Yeah. Don't play him. But it was like they couldn't it was like your ex-girlfriend that you just can't quit. You know, you keep going back there. You keep going back to her, you keep going back. It's like you delete her phone number, but it's still in your deleted items, right? Right. It's blocked, but then it's unblocked. That's right. Right. Yeah. And it was like that all year with Andrew Wiggins. Yeah. And I. Think and. The problem with the casual fan too. Sorry I didn't mean it. But the problem with the casual fan is when they tuned in and Andrew Wiggins was in a ball game, it felt like he was doing something right. Like he had some some home runs in there. He had some big hits and then. It was on base. A lot. He was on base a lot. And and I know you carried the Andrew Wiggins pail of water through the preseason and I don't know, were you proven right. I mean yeah. Let me stop you there. Like, were you proven right to me? Andrew Wiggins was the exact type of player that I thought he was. Yeah. Where there's a ton of upside with the bat, he hits the ball as hard as anybody. Yeah. Um, harder than probably anybody on the team. Now, the problem is, you know, he hits the ball into the ground a ton. And I think we saw that play out. Um, I want to say it was a it was a 67% ground ball, which is somehow inexplicably higher than it was at Indiana when you were like, hey, man, you got to get this down. Um, but do you think that's just because he's better players, better pitching in the ACC than the Big Ten? Yeah, I'm sure that's part of it. But it was also, again, like I wanted Andrew Wiggins in the lineup for his ability to get on base. It was a 20% walk rate, fourth on the team with a 449 OBP and his upside with power. Like, as hard as he hits the ball, you know, if he puts the ball in play, there's the possibility, um, of an extra base hit of a home run. You know, he hit six home runs this year, which was his career high. You know, he had seven coming in. Uh, he only had two doubles. But again, the pop that he gave you in 89 at bats. Yeah. And he was flawed defensively. 100% I get it. I would have had him at DH all year. Like that was something I said coming in. And so yeah I was there a little bit of swing and miss. Yeah. It was a 27% strikeout rate. It was a little high. But again it's only 89 at bats like you know. Yeah. You know, four at bats without striking out. And it's going to drop a percent, uh, of 45%. So. Yeah. To me, Wiggins was the exact type of guy that, um, I expected him to be. And he's not everybody's cup of tea. I totally get that. If Braden Freeman has a good year, you're probably not even having this conversation. You know, if Dalton Vargo has a good year, you're not even having this conversation. But I think what he gave you, producing all year in an in and out role where I, I don't think state just said, hey, here you go. Go play. We're not going to pinch it for you or anything for like just a week. That never happened. You know he stays best player down in Puerto Rico. And then they come back and he's on the bench. Yeah. And you're like, well, what are we doing here? Yeah. So you know, again like you said, is this the difference between state, you know, winning 14 ACC games and winning 18. No. But you know, could it have gotten you to 15. Maybe could have gotten you to 16. Could you have, you know, gotten yourself into a different regional that ends up being more winnable. I, you know, who knows? But, uh, yeah, at least for me, Wiggins ended up being exactly the guy I thought he would be. And I think he will end up getting drafted, uh, next month. Yeah, I agree. Um, yeah. So you you touched on, you know, Puerto Rico and, you know, you go you go two and zero down there. You don't get to play the third game. Um, come home, start the season. Um, I, I think we'll talk about this when we get to Chris heart. You know, when we when we kind of get to the Chris heart error beginning, but like the the the schedule, the scheduling has to get better. Like, um, I know that you've you've pounded your, your, um, your, your chest on that one. Um, I would love to just go because NC state and the last at least 3 or 4 years that I that recent memory, like I'm sure it's maybe happened before then we haven't played a true road series out of conference in gosh knows how long. I know they haven't played an SEC. Actually, they played, uh. They played Alabama last year down in Jacksonville. Yeah, but that was neutral. I'm talking about like a true. It was neutral. Yeah. Yeah yeah I was just saying pure sec. They played Alabama and Ohio State down there before that. It was pre-COVID. Yeah I think it was the week before the season got. Or maybe it was two weeks before the season got canceled. Yeah. Back in 2020 they played up in Minnesota a couple of Big Ten teams I think. Yeah. But Big Ten I mean again, but their neutral site like. I'll take anything. Yeah I'm not I'm not I don't judge I'll take anything at this point. Yeah. So Alabama that was the first game you played Alabama in February 2025. You went five years in between playing non-conference games. Meanwhile you played him in Omaha. You played him in Super regionals. Um, I don't know how that's possible. You weren't playing other powerful power four teams. You're not playing big 12 teams. You're not even playing ACC teams. And in non-conference games. Yeah. Good. Like Greg, when I'm hiring a coach, I would straight up not hire somebody who was not going to put together a real non-conference schedule. Like, to me, like you, you just hurt yourself so much. But did you play the card? But do you do you play the card because the ACC is so good when you get 19? Now granted they they fell apart in the in the. But there's just no benefit but there's no benefit to it. Yeah. There's no there's no benefit to beating up on Princeton. Um I don't even remember who else state played. Lafayette. Well, they lost. There's no there's no benefit. Yeah, they lost Lafayette. And they lost. They lost to Princeton. Yeah. There's no benefit. Yeah, there's just not you. You don't learn anything about you. I mean, we look at all their stats. They just patted stats. They patted stats, they patted stats, and they, you know, we thought they were there was a possibility they missed the tournament because of RPI. Why do you why was your RPI bad? Because you played those teams. Right. And again it applies to the other sports. Look at what Wes Moore has done. Mhm. Why are they why are they a high higher seeded team. He challenges his team. He challenges his team. Absolutely. There's no throwaway games on that schedule. None. No, no. Because even when you thought the Rhode Island game last, we'll touch basketball and then get back to baseball, we promise. But even when you played Rhode Island thinking, oh, that's a throw away game at home, you go lose. And Rhode Island was a really good team. You lose. But that was a tournament team. Yeah, it was a good team. Yeah. And so to me there's just no there's no upside. Look at what Troy did this year. Troy played the second. I was one of the five hardest schedules in the country. Yeah they were barely over 500. You have to be over 500. And that's why they got in over Mercer. Right? Because that that was the whole argument. Like, you know, but. And I think Troy was 32 and 29 and Mercer was 44 and 12 or something like that this year, but. Played nobody like. Who cares, right. It's the difference of 12 wins. And the committee says, yeah, we're going to reward the team that played real teams. Like it would just be a non-negotiable for me. Like I like. And it's funny, like the years that they've ended up playing good non-conference teams. They've it's worked out like in 20 2024 when they hosted VCU in Hawaii. Were good teams. Yeah. I don't know if state intended for that to happen, but they were good teams. I, I am dead serious when I say I would not hire a coach who was not going to put together a serious non-conference schedule. Look at what Justin Gagne is doing. I think he's doing a good job right now that matters. I agree now. Like, it just can't. It can't happen. Yeah, I mean, state did play a couple non-conference games that were against tournament teams. They played Liberty, they played TCU twice and they played cold. Yeah the mid weeks. Are hard weeks. The mid weeks are fine. Yep. Yeah the mid weeks are fine. And you're going to pull good midweek because again the Carolinas are so rich in in college baseball with talent and good programs. So I'm okay there. But I'm with you like we did not play one in the non-conference weekend and that's including Puerto Rico. We did not play one tournament team not one. And they got they lucked out on Seton Hall getting canceled. Yeah. Seton Hall ended up being terrible. Yeah. Seton Hall was that would have 71 and. That would have. Caused him to miss the. 30. I was getting ready to say if we played that Seton Hall game, you probably don't make the tournament. Played, let alone win. Correct? Correct. And and you played Washington like I guess Washington's a Big Ten team. We got to throw that out there. Yeah but but they're the bottom tier. Like how good did you expect them to be. Like I, I just I again I know it's difficult with logistics but where's USC upstate. They made the tournament. Where's where's Western Carolina? They were a bubble team with a couple of weeks ago. Where's high point? Get those teams on the schedule. Yeah yeah. But again so we're we're. That's right. Now I'm. Fired up. I know all right. Who had 23 minutes into the podcast I get, uh, Ethan fired up, but, uh, no, I, I, I get it like, I, I do really want to see that stepped up in the Chris Harte era. And again, I'm not saying you got to go play like, as you like to say, the 27 Yankees, you know, on a weekend series. Yeah. Like. And it doesn't like if you want to have if you want to have a softball team to get your season started. Sure. Okay. I can live with that. Yeah. But but at least. Give yourself a hope. Yeah. Travel a little bit. You know, we know they went to Puerto Rico. I mean, I enjoyed. Puerto. Rico. Like, there you go. But, yeah, give Greg somewhere to go. It's not Brazil, but we won't go there. Well, I will say at times this team almost gave me a heart attack. Um, and if there was only a sponsor, maybe that could help with someone. Maybe getting a heart attack. You got anything over there? I do have something for you. Greg, if you are looking to get CPR certified for your business, school, church team, or any organization, helpful CPR trainings makes it easy to by bringing the training directly to you. Alpha Wolf CPR trainings is an American Red cross licensed training provider offering adult and pediatric first aid, CPR, and AED certification courses. Whether you prefer hybrid learning or a fully instructor led class, we customize the training to fit your needs, including adult or pediatric only certifications. With successful completion, participants receive an official American Red cross certifications valid for two years and meets OSHA standards convenient, professional, and tailored to your schedule. Although CPR trainings helps you stay prepared when every second matters. Contact. Alpha Wolf CPR trainings today to schedule your class. 14 and 16 in this. Well, I mean on paper it was the second toughest conference. I don't know. You know, if you're going to count the tournament as part of that argument, like basically only one team advancing. And it's hard like when you get to post. Yeah, it's hard when you get to regionals and it's about matchups and teams that are hot. You saw what Milwaukee did in the Auburn Regional. Um, they were they were a below 500 team for three quarters of the season. Um, so you just get on a heater and get some good matchups and you can and off you go. But, um, state played a really tough, tough ACC schedule. And this is kind of where I was going with it. So even when you see a 14 and 16 record, it's not like not all 14 and 16 records are created equal in the way the ACC kind of runs through their schedule. State played eight. Was it 7 or 8 of the top ACC teams in the part of the week? Seven of seven of the. Yeah. Yeah. Because Virginia was the eight seed. They didn't play Virginia. Gotcha. Yeah. And then we ended up nine. And then ten was Notre Dame or 11 I can't remember, but. I can't. Remember. But anyway, that being said, state arguably played the toughest ACC schedule. And I think they were rewarded for that. Right. Even going 14 and 16 in the conference play. I think that's why state made the tournament, not even in the last four. And I think that's exactly why. Yeah, yeah. 14 um 14 wins. Yeah. Uh is a good number right. Like and I know people were like oh during the season it was like, oh you got to get to 15. And I was kind of the one saying no, like 14 might be good enough. Might, might not, but it might. Yeah. Uh, and so doing it against the seven best teams in the league, you didn't get to play. This is a this is a question I would ask you. Take, uh, uncW, Georgia Tech and Florida State. Who? You played two of them on the road, one of them at home. If you replace those three teams with Boston College, not Boston College. Wake, Clemson. Clemson and Louisville. Cal and Pitt. Yeah, Louisville. Any of those three teams? Are you getting three more wins? Oh, yeah, you're getting the wins. But your RPI is not going to be there. More wins. Yeah, but I don't. Well, I don't know. I think a 17 win ACC team would get in. But as we saw with Boston College and Boston College had a lot of issues. But they had 17 ACC wins. And so that was fine. But that's kind of my thing is like that strength. The schedule matters. Like I if you're not going to win 17 games, if you're not going to win 17 games, the strength of schedule matters. Yes. Agreed. And that's asking I mean, 17 in the ACC is hard, you know. And so getting there at 14 wins. Yeah. What do we have. Last year 1819. I think. It was 19. I want to say it was 17 and 11 off the top of my head. Okay. Yeah. We we we I, I know we had a couple of canceled. Last year, but. Yeah. Um, it's it's just one of those conferences where it's a gantlet every week, every weekend. And you're going to face some of the most premier players. You know, you're you're going to see it here next month in the, in the MLB draft. And you're going to you're going to hear a lot of SEC names. I mean, there's just so many good players. Um, but, uh, where do you want to go here. Like we kind of touched on the on the like, oh here, here's the here's one point I wanted to bring up like not one ACC Road Series win this year. Like that's that just. Yeah that's that has a couple opportunities. Yeah. Yeah I thought that was going to. Look at the Stanford and the Virginia Tech series. Yeah yeah yeah. And I think I you might you might push back here. But I would even argue the Wake Forest game, you had a chance in game two. Had you managed that a little bit better, had you not left coop out there? Um, because you'd cut it down to, like, 1 or 2 runs at one. Then what a Sunday look like? Yeah, yeah. I mean, you go out and, you know, get a win because you want an extra. Eye. Right. And again, we're sitting here in hindsight state wasn't even on the bubble according to the committee. So. Right. Like we're dissecting stuff that really didn't end up mattering. But you know, if you get to 15 and 15 with one of those road series wins. Particularly Virginia Tech, who ended up being in the tournament, wasn't at the time that they played them, but ended up being in. Well, here you sit there and say. Well, here's the thing. You maybe don't end up in the Auburn Regional. That's the thing, right? Maybe you don't have a tougher a tougher region to get into. Like maybe, maybe you pull one of those lesser ones because you you saw a ton of upsets. Like, like there was talk at one point that we ended up we could have ended up in southern Mississippi's, uh, region like that. There was opportunity for that in states regional, too. There was 100%. 100%. I. I can't. That's the frustrating thing, right? When you when you look at this like there was opportunity, we just weren't able to kick the door down. But let's talk about that right. Like let's talk about why it ended up this way. And I think there's so many points we can talk about. Let's talk about the offense first. This was such a Jekyll and Hyde offense right where we we've talked about it during, you know some some other times. But this team was not like this team was built a certain way. But then we didn't play that way. Right. This team was built on some speed. Like you had opportunities where you could play small ball. But we we didn't like times we would play like a power team, that we weren't a power team. Like, I don't think we ever truly had an identity offensively. What would you what would you say to that? I completely agree. It was like half of the lineup was guys who should be running. Those are the guys hitting your home runs and Luke Nixon and Ty ahead. Right. And then you have the other half of the home run should be hitting for power. But they weren't. Yeah. And so it was just yeah, I agree they never found an identity I agree. What I don't understand. Uh, let's see, where were they? They were fifth in the ACC in steals at 37. Yeah. Um, 37 for 44. Basically middle of the pack. To me, that's just not good enough. When you're second to last in the ACC and home runs, right? 29 home runs in ACC play. 15th Boston College hit 20. To me it's just not. And when you do your. When you're looking at home run numbers you're looking at uh from conference player ACC. Yeah I'm not giving them credit for the padding the stats. I'm sorry. No I'm going to apologize. No I get it to anybody who wants to see padded stats. Yeah. Um, I call that the nevermind. Um, that's that's to mean. Greg. I don't want to be too mean. No, no. Um, yeah I again. Which which one are you? Yeah. And it was like sometimes you you did one and it was like, oh, man, look at this offense. They could really do some damage. Mhm. And then other times you'd go a week and be like wait a second. We haven't hit a home run in five games. Why are we not running. Why is Rhett Johnson on first base. Well I think you know and honestly if I'm just speculating, it's because you had Luke Nixon hitting behind him as a lefty and you want to keep that hole open between first and second base because Luke is a straight up pull hitter. Um, and but you don't agree with that? No, I mean, I get what you're saying. I don't think that's a good enough reason for him not run 100%. I agree, but I'm just I'm just saying they again, they wanted to play either you're. And this was the problem. If you're not going to be a power hitting team, you better hit for a high average. And we just didn't do that right. And it you know, you look at um when you're looking at your stats I'm having some issues bringing mine up on a couple of things, but do they have a stack of left on base? Like where? Like where are you ranking that in that category? That would be an amazing one. I don't have that anywhere. Yeah. To me, I don't know. Like, I know I'm the only guy who's like, I don't really care about left on base, but it's just such a fluky stat. Like it's just one game. It's great. The next game is terrible. Game. It's great. Like, that's why I look at. That's why I want to see power numbers. Are you running? Yeah. You know, stuff like that. And obviously we feel like the answer was was no, not enough. Yeah. And I'm with you too. Like about the left on base and the average, like, first off, like, like the way they play defense is now the way the scoring is done. Um, it's not it's not an indicative like really good stat for me either. Um, I think there's better ways to measure those things. Um, but I it just always felt that state was hanging on for one more hit, right? Like, if we got one more hit, you break up an A, you know, you you get one run. But if you got one more hit, You get A44 run inning or, um, it just it just always felt we were one something away, right? A wild pitch or an error. Um, and I thought state did, like, especially like Rhett Johnson. You know, he did such a great job of putting the ball in play and that he made he made it tough on on defense. They all did. Yeah yeah. Yeah. Luke Luke's Luke was the same way. Ty. Head to head. I mean, Ty head had a 9% strikeout rate this year. I mean, you had a couple of those guys where it was like, they they never strike out. I mean, here's your strikeout rates. Uh, Rhett Johnson 7%. Ty had 9%. Luke Nixon 14%. Sherman Johnson 14%. Obviously, Johnson and Head are are elite numbers. Yeah, but even though you know Nixon and Sherman, 15% like, those are solid numbers. Mike Ryan with the power he gave you is that 16%? So I'm going to guess like what was it? Lanphier 16% CU 16. That was actually better. I mean, I hate to see look at freshman. So it was probably 29%. Um, Raisman was 23. Wiggins was 27. Those are total. Total. Yeah. They're not conference. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm including I'm including the stat padding here. If we filter out the uh yeah. This is the stat padding anti stat padding podcast. Yeah. Um ACC play freshman Wiggins were both 29%. Yeah I said 29. Yeah McHugh was 21 Mikey Ryan was 21 Lanphier 20. Yeah. Bargo 20. Um and so on Sherman. So for for for listeners out there, what would you tell them is a good strikeout rate. Anything under what. Um, anything under I mean, if you're looking at ACC play like under 15% I would say is good. Yeah. Like that's a real strength of yours. I think in the teens 15 to 18%. Like you can live with that once you get up closer to 20. It's kind of like, okay. Right. Against this caliber of pitching, you better. You better be giving me something else at that point. Yeah, yeah. So speaking, obviously you get up into the 20s, you know. Yeah it's rough. But again. Those guys are there. Yeah. But if they're giving you other stuff it's fine, you know. Right. Like you, you can live with an attack or ravage having a 20% strikeout or 25%. Yeah. When he's hitting 25 bombs, it's okay. Yeah, I think he was 24, but. Yeah. Um. Yeah. You you just. Right. And and and if you're not going to hit the home runs and you're going to have the high strikeout rate. All right, something's got to give. Can you help me defensively. Are you good on the bases. You know things like that. If you're not hitting for power and have a high high strikeout rate, it's just you know, at that point it's tough to find a successful offensive profile right there. Right. At that point you're probably looking at catchers. Um, but you better. Be a little defensive, like. 15 to 20% of your runners at that point. Like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Finding ways to contribute? Yeah. For sure. Yeah. For sure. And you can. And you and again there's certain positions you can live with that. Right. If your shortstop has a 20% strikeout rate. But he's like a Gold Glove guy. You can you can deal with the light hitting shortstop. Oh, yeah. Like that was the 1980s of MLB was, you know, light hitting shortstops that had amazing gloves. You know, obviously the game has evolved and changed. And it's it's like everyone has to hit at least 15, 20 bombs. It feels like in today's game. But yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah I let's let's give out a superlative here. Who's your offensive MVP MVP this year and give me. Why offensive MVP. Uh. Oh. I'll go Rhett Johnson. Okay. Um. and 142 WRC plus and ACC play 42% above league average. Yeah. Really strong number. Mikey Ryan was actually a little bit higher. Eileen Johnson just because, you know he was a little bit more consistent. I thought he saw some real rallies for Mikey Ryan. He also gave you power that um, uh, you know, Rhett Johnson didn't necessarily bring to the table, but for year one, what he's able to do 5% strikeout rate. Um, just unbelievable year. Put the ball in play, make things happen. Feels like going into next year. This is a guy who should be a, you know, you expect him to hit 380 again with a 500 OBP. And I think the difference for next year is you hope he steals 40 bags for you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna go, uh, Luke Nixon I think, uh, yeah, I think, uh, I, I was, I was between him and Ty Head who both had really nice profiles each. Um, Luke gave you more total bases? uh, slightly better average, uh, about 42 points higher. And then the slug was more than Ty. Uh, the only negative where I almost didn't give it to the Luke was his, um, his, uh, strikeout rates. Um, he struck out 12 more times. Um, and his ob, uh, percentage was a little bit lower, but, um, I think, you know, Ty, uh, the. Did Luke, was it Luke or Ty? Ty led us in home runs right in ACC play. And then Luke and. Luke Luke in ACC play and then Ty overall. Um, so yeah, I, I slightly give it a bo, uh, give my nod slightly above Ty to Luke. Uh, yeah. I think you could pick any of those guys. Yeah, yeah, I don't think like, I don't, you know, I think you had. And that was where you were good this year. You had your. One. Two punch depth at the top of your line. Yeah, yeah. And to that point, I thought the bottom of the lineup was really was really rough. Like last year you had. I thought last year you had a nice job where you had Ty leading off. Um, but because Rhett was so good, like, he he sort of, um, he he he, um, took took Ty's lead off away from him. But Ty was good in other ways. Where? Okay. Like you can you can slightly move him down. I think where we really got hurt, um, was probably, um, seven, eight, nine in the batting order. Just couldn't get that consistency down there. You were always seeing people shuffled around down there. Um, and and I disagree. Are you disagree? Okay. Why is that? Yeah, I think we've seen state get by with seven, eight, nine. Like, do you remember what the seven eight, nine was in 2021 and 21? I dude, my memory is so bad. Um, I don't. It was Devonte Brown. It was either trash or brown. One of the. Two. Yeah, trash was pretty low. He was like 8 or 9. J.T. Jarrett. Yeah. Jarrett was nine. Yeah. Chic was eight. Yeah. 2024. Brandon Butterworth was hitting fifth in Omaha. I love Brandon Butterworth. Shouldn't be hitting fifth. So to me, I look at the top of the order and I say, man, Chris McHugh had a 74 WRC plus this year. Yeah, 26% below league average. It was a 258, 341 350 8/6.99 Ops. He gave you one home run in ACC play. It was tough. That was the guy who hit in the middle of your order all year. Yeah, no. I, I you can get away with a, with a you know I don't say underperforming but a, you know some some gloves at the bottom of your order. But but see the problem was, is again get that from Chris McHugh. Yeah. Again this isn't this isn't a knock or you know we're not you know hammering anybody here But like this is where you would maybe like, okay, can Dalton Embargo carry you a little bit and you put him at first and maybe then D.H. and we just didn't see those types of things. And again, I don't know if that changes the the outcome of the season. Like Bargo, Bargo just wasn't the same for for a while after that, after that injury, I mean, it really derailed his season. It wasn't like it just I mean, you saw him out there gutting it out and trying to play through it and, um, you know, he's, you know, he's a team guy first. And it was just tough to watch him every day, you know. And some of like the I just saw him after Georgia Tech just I mean just it felt like I don't I don't know the kid a lot. I know, you know, talked to his parents and, you know, amazing people. He just didn't look in the right place. And then, you know, talking to Margo's dad, he's like, he's just mentally just frustrated and and those things take away and and those are one of the things that I kind of want to, like, press upon people when they're like, dude, hitting 258. He sucks. You know, well, like, you don't know everything. He's dealing with. That. Simple. Yeah. It's just not like these. These guys are busting their hump and, um, you know, trying to work through things, you know, coaching staffs, having them try new things and, and and none of these guys wanted to succeed more than the next guy. I mean, they all all want to give it what they what they can and what they want to see this team do. And and so it's really not fair for, you know, people that want to pick up baseball in April, May and be like, oh God, this guy's hitting 258. He's he's horrible. That just doesn't paint the picture. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, but, uh, all right. Well, let's, um, um, defensively, I thought this team was pretty good. Um, was, you know, was running two, uh, for the most part in the conference play, uh, and, uh, you saw some guys, you saw some guys struggle early. Especially like Mikey Ryan, who really got good. Uh, as he got more comfortable playing shortstop every day. Um, you know. Sherman Johnson. Too. I was getting ready to say that same name. So you guys, you saw guys really working on their craft and getting better as the season wore on? Um, that wasn't again where this team faltered. Um, now. No, it was a good defensive team. I thought it really was, um, I mean, you had the no fly zone out there with Ty had made some amazing catches this year. I mean, he probably made, what, a half dozen Sportscenter worthy top ten plays like that. That home run ball he robbed in Georgia Tech was just a thing of beauty. Um, I think he had, like, a couple of those this year and then a couple of great diving. Like, he makes it look effortlessly, I, I will say. Yeah. And then you have. He's a he's a cool character. Dude. He he is I mean he's a baseball dude. I mean, he looks like a baseball player. Like he lives the baseball life. And then you have Rhett Johnson throwing his body to the wind, not giving a damn like he'll run into a wall a hundred miles an hour and try to catch up. Catch a fly ball. Um, I am definitely, um, as we talk about next year, excited to see what he can do out in center field, but, uh, all right, uh, you want to move over to pitching? Let's do it. All right. Go ahead. What do you got? Where do you want to start? You got to start with the injuries, right? Yeah. I mean, that was the storyline, right? That's the that's the story of the season. Um, yeah. It's what could have been I think, um, yeah. You know, even with these issues that we've discussed, it feels like if you have gotten in with Marone and Judon ready to go, you had a chance against anybody. Yeah. Um, and they're just. Injuries happen. You know, like, it's. But not to your two aces. I mean, I mean to say, dude was number one or Marone was number one isn't fair to the other guy. I mean, they were they were that good. Like, either one of them could be your number one guy. I mean, before they got injured. But they were probably they were being talked about, you know, top two rounds, three rounds of the of the MLB draft. And as it is, I still think they'll probably both go in the top six rounds. I don't even know how much, if any, they're going to drop. Yeah, I think top five. Yeah I was being super conservative there. But um, but. I think my pushback would be like, you should expect injuries to your pitching staff. It's just the nature of the beast. Yeah. And you look at the injuries that states dealt with, even the years they've made it to Omaha. You lose a weekend starter pretty much every year. Yeah, pretty much every year you are going to lose a weekend. Or a significant piece. During the season. Yeah. Yeah. You you lost Matt Wilson last year. Didn't throw a pitch for you. Know, he. Uh, you lost. Wilson pitched last year. Oh I'm sorry he lost. Uh, 20 2424. Yeah. Yeah. 24. He didn't throw a single pitch for you. He would have been your best pitcher. Yeah. And go back to 23. Uh, you had, uh, 22, 23. You had, um, Sam Highfield deal. Yeah, yeah. Deal with injuries. Yeah. So it's part of it, right? And and you're able to overcome it. Um. And I shouldn't say you're able to overcome it, but you should expect it. You can manage it a little bit better. What are we going to do if x, y and Z gets hurt? Because you've got to know it's a possibility. It always is. Like, that's just it's the nature of pitching. And I'm sure Ryan Rowan and Jacob Newton would be the first ones to tell you that. So, um, I yeah, it's it's something you got to be ready for. But losing two of those guys, man. Well, and here's, here's a, here's a point since now we're we're postseason I want to push back again on those casual fans that oh dude was throwing too many pitches. We're running off all our casual fans, Greg. Well, maybe they'll come more seriously because we're serious about baseball. We gotta say something to rope them in. Yeah. Uh, the doc is awesome. Uh, yeah. Go going to a ball game. You know, nothing beats going to the doke. I'm sorry. Like now hot dogs are too expensive. But dude. Yeah, yeah, they're like eight bucks for a freaking hot dog. Like it's crazy, but. You could shave a year off my retirement to get a hot dog. That's true, it's true. But my doctor probably is okay with it being an$8 hot dog. Um, but, uh, you know, we can kind of push back on, on some of the fans out there that, you know, why is dude and throwing 116 pitches. And by the way, I will remember that number to the day I die, because that was what everyone was focused on like 116 pitches. That's crazy. Um, it's too early in the season, and I think it was his fifth or sixth start of the season. I don't remember exactly what. It was like. It was more than that. I think it was like eight. It might have been eight. Yeah. Um, again, I tell you, my memory sucks, but I some things I can remember. But, but. But you know, when he didn't need to throw 115 pitches was against Lafayette. And you know what? I have no arguments there, right? That's where you. That's where you go into some of your freshmen and some of your other guys to see what you really have in those guys. Um, hey, Aiden Catchings, here's an inning for you. We don't need Jacob Newton to to throw these extra 20 pitches. We know what he's capable of. Yeah. And you had guys early in the season that, you know, weren't available for a little bit. Or coming back from stuff. You had Mikey Ragusa who was dealing with some stuff, and you had, um, Ryder Guarino that was coming back from some stuff. So, um, but, you know, those were guys at the end of the season. And, look, I thought you could have used Mikey Ragusa more. Um, I thought he did some really nice stuff. You asked an awful lot from your freshman, right? Um, yeah. But again, I'm not saying this class is going to be the class of, like, dude in and maroon and Cooper and Heath Andrews. I'm not saying that this is going to be the case, but if these guys stay together and continue to develop, you might have something in a couple of years right where you can make another run. Um, but. There's some pieces there for sure. There is some pieces, and we'll talk about them a little bit more when we get to the, you know, the off season. But it just felt like to your point, we could have done more with the staff. I think to your point, when you're playing cupcake, you early in the season that you can get some of these guys some. Really offensive to cupcakes. Greg. Come on now. Well, at least I'm not offending other colleges in the state of North Carolina. So I'll go with cupcake. You. Um, but it's just those things, right? Yeah. Yeah. And again, it's like, can't you fit, you know, figure out. And, you know, Ryan Marone missing the game against Lafayette that you ended up losing. That was a nice little test for you. Okay. Let's see what we have with these other. It wasn't good. And it blew up on you. It blew up on you. But at least you knew. Hey, we you know, we got some issues here. Like we need to sort this out. Yeah. Um. And again, I. Thought, and. Yeah. So, like, just not being able to settle on your third weekend starter before all the injuries happen, right? The back and forth with coop and Heath. Andrews and these injuries, these injuries is why I would always tell you just start your best, guys. It'll work itself out. Just start your best pitchers. It always works itself out. You need a fourth starter in the postseason. You need somebody to give you 4 or 5 innings anyway. Start your best pitchers. It'll work itself out. Let the bullpen take care of itself. Yeah. Agreed. Um, now, I'm sure people will sit here and tell you, oh, the bullpen didn't take care of itself. Neither did the starting rotation. Yeah. But again. And then you you get stuck moving Anderson Nance into the into the into a starting role. Right. And but assuming you. Don't it doesn't. Work. Yeah. But assuming and again we'll just play this out audience humerus for 2 to 3 minutes as we talk this through. If you don't lose maroon and dude and you don't see some of the things that you that may pay dividends to you in the future that we just kind of talked about. But you also aren't putting these guys into high stress situations as true freshmen, right? You can ease them in. Get them in an inning or two here. Inning to their like. Like when you suffer those injuries it just throws everything into a flux. Yeah. Yeah. Because you and the. Guys that aren't ready. Like Luke Hemric is the perfect example. Like Luke Hemric had a really nice start to the year. Um, really started to figure some things out in the conference play. I think his last like three starts he was dominant through five six innings. And yeah they were leaving him out there a little bit too long. And then all of a sudden it's oh by the way Luke we need you in ACC play. And it was just right. It was too early for. Us. Again you know and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that 100% agree. So but again it's you know much harder to win games that way. Yeah. But again if he's your midweek guy you can live with him as your midweek guy. Like that's a perfect way to get his feet wet. Get some good reps, decent competition. You're not in, pardon the pun here. You're not throwing them to the wolves, right? Like he's going to be able to get get comfortable. And then, you know, when you and these guys are dudes, they're gonna, they're gonna they're gonna bust their ass and and and play hard and do all those things. But it it really throws off their, their rhythm when they're being inserted into the starting rotation, they're back to the bullpen. Like, they're like you really want to get roles set for your guys. And I felt because of the injuries and because of some other things you saw, guys never really define roles because like if you look at last year, right, you had frickin well, who followed Frinton usually. Nance. Right. And then you had, you know, Marone. Uh, well, Marone was Sunday, but you had, uh, Andrews on on Saturday. Sorry. I said Marone on Sunday, but Andrews on Saturday, who followed him? Right. It was usually, um. Schaffner. Schaffner. Yeah. Yeah, some combination thereof. And then on Sundays, it was Maroon and Cooper and either Schaffner or Duden, right. It's like, again, some, some variation, like guys had their roles last year and again, injuries happen. I've already glossed over that, but I just never felt like guys really knew what they were doing week in and week out. No, no. And it's, you know, tough when you get thrown into the middle of it, right. Like when all that gets thrown up, like you, you went back and forth with Consiglio and Andrews for two months, and then all of a sudden, you needed both of them. Yeah. You know. Um, that's why I pick one and have the other on in the midweek or something like that. So. Uh, you have them in the midweek, and then you bring them back on a Saturday or Sunday, right. I'm not a fan of that, but yeah, you can. Yeah you can. So yeah, you're right. And to me what's, what's frustrating is um, if you, uh, you know, look at the first week that that you were without both of those guys, you gave up, what, 18 and 22 to Wake Forest? Yeah. And then you turn around. Pitch 17. Right. 17 to, uh, Auburn. Yeah. To finish up this season. It just doesn't feel like you got any answers. Yeah, there was a lot you didn't. You didn't get any closer. Even the game without maroon against, uh, Lafayette, you gave up 11. Right. So it's like, it doesn't feel like you really guys had moments, but you you know, where you were in February was kind of where you were when your season ended. Yeah. Yeah, uh, 100% there. But I mean, like, I mean, there was a lot of double digits. Like Tallahassee, you know, you give up 15, you gave up, uh, ten to Georgia Tech. You gave up. Um, you know, Carolina had. No shame in that, by the. Way. No, no. Um, Penn State pitched really well against Georgia Tech. Those first two. Games, they did right. Maroon and dude were good. And 1010 was a down game for Georgia Tech. Correct. And that was Cooper. They loved they. I think again, they left him like that was kind of you know what we'll come back to this when we talk Chris Harp because I think I think this, that this is an important point. I don't want to just kind of touch it. Right, because I will give Elliot his flowers. But then we'll also talk about some of the negatives. Right. And see, you know, maybe if that changes with the Chris Harte era, but, um, no, like, there was times like, like you only won one game against, um, Florida State. Um, that was maroon. He was really good in that game. And then dude and left with a lead. Uh, Duden had a lead at Georgia Tech they couldn't hold on to. I don't know if maroon had a lead. Um, but if not, it was a maroon. Lost that game 3 to 1, so I doubt. Yeah, yeah, we didn't have a I don't think we had a lead in that game. But again you gave up three runs to that offense. Uh, I think I think dude gave up like a win for 3 or 4 runs. Again. Really good against that pitching staff. It's got to be a win right. Um, and again that was the problem this year. You had you had episodes where the pitching was really good, but the offense didn't pick them up. And then you had games where the offense scores 12. But the other team were, you know, 13. But the other team scores 17. You score 13 against Duke, but you give up 22. Or was it 12? It was 21 to 12. I can't remember like I flushed that, but that's the problem. Like the games that your offense showed up, your your your defense or your pitching didn't hold up. Um, and again, this was I, I really feel like this was a Jekyll and Hyde team that never really got true identities on either side of the ball. Um, and and. It never saw. It never felt like we saw their best. Like, what was their best weekend? Miami. Yeah, I would say Miami. Because you had a lead in that game on on the first game in the in you and you lost it. But again they scored over ten runs. Yeah I think it has to be Miami. 1216 would you maybe Boston College or Notre Dame. I mean maybe one of those. Well Notre Dame Notre Dame was they weren't good. Yeah I would throw that. Yeah. So it would either be Boston College or Miami because they were both tournament teams. Yeah. And you know Miami, you gave up 25 runs in three games. You know, so it's just kind of like like you said, you even really got like an yeah, the worst team in the league. Yeah. Yeah. Again, you never really got like an A+ performance. It felt like. No, no it just never felt like everything was put together. Um, but anyway, um, do you want to go. Pitcher of the year, which is kind of. What, this the way this stuff ended? Um, but do. You want Anderson? Yeah, I think I think it has to. I mean, do you really have to? Yeah, I think it has to be. Especially when you when you. After you lost both, uh, Duden and Maroon. There was a stretch there right after that. He was really good. Yeah, yeah, he was excellent. Um, and it kind of sucks, like, you know, the two starts didn't go well, and people are, I'm sure going to point to that. But yeah, asking a guy to to start after being in the bullpen all year, it was just it's a tough ask. And the two biggest games of the year. I mean, that's the thing. Yeah. Like, what does that tell you? Does that tell you that they they really knew that Nance probably needed to be starting. They just could get by without it. Right. And could use them in the bullpen. Like, do you give the staff credit, though, for finally putting him into the starting lineup? Now you had mixed results in that. But like do you give them like because, you know, Elliott, even if nothing else, you know, especially in the last couple of years in his, in his, uh, twilight years, I guess we'll call it twilight years. Seem like a stubborn old guy that he was kind of stuck in his ways. Maybe some somebody got to somebody. I mean, yeah, yeah, you wanted to see it, but it was also kind of too late, and you were just kind of like. It was like a panic move trying to salvage your season. And I really don't understand why it didn't happen halfway through last season.