Was thinking Matt Scott or even throwing Jonah Williams a bone, but hey, if you can get a bunt down and not strike out half the time I could be talked into it.
Vokietaitas shot more free throws last year than any player on the Texas roster despite only playing 17.6 minutes per game. Sounds like he gets to the line a ton but also fouls a lot himself.
Collarbone, right?
I just don’t think it’s realistic to expect contributions from a guy who went 8 months without swinging a bat and should be a senior in HS.
Do we know the freshman are talented? I don’t think they would be purposely holding back more talented players in favor of Jayden Duplantier.
I don’t think any of those freshman outfielders are ready.
UTSA is quietly up to #31 in RPI. 7-2 in the AAC with series wins over solid FAU and UAB teams. It may not happen this week but they might be another good week away from cracking the top 25.
Texas State is also just outside the top 100 in RPI, which is the cutoff for Q4 games so it would be nice if they snuck inside that mark to make that loss sting a little less.
We have quite a few midweek games left against top 100 RPI teams: Houston Christian, Lamar and UTRGV at home + the road game at Texas State. This midweek schedule has turned out to be more challenging than I thought a few months ago.
I don’t really look at our rotation like that.
Riojas might be the second best pitcher on the team and is better than every Sunday starter in the league, but there is value in keeping him in a swing role with the option to start once a week.
When we get into a postseason format we won’t deploy guys like we do now.
I really think Gasparino has the chance to be a special player here. We are seeing it now and maybe it doesn’t fully come together until next year, but he has all 5 tools at a premium position. You can tell Tulo finally has him in a good spot compared to last year when he would seemingly go up to the plate every at bat with a different stance.
He has tools and will probably be drafted in the top 5 rounds in July, but Flores feels like a guy who is going to get eaten alive by breaking balls in pro ball.
Obviously these guys are getting paid and aren’t returning for free, but it’s nice to see that a good chunk of the guys with eligibility left are wanting to stay. Would be pretty easy to bounce after a shitty season and a few of them would have been in pretty good demand by other teams.
Schloss was able to do something similar on the baseball side retaining players and those returning guys have helped set the table in year 1 for what is to come.
He is playing third base for Kansas State, FWIW.
IIRC, he was committed to A&M years ago and Schloss basically dropped him when he took the job in 2022. So I doubt he was very interested in playing for him here.
Hopefully Codie looks healthier in year 2 after the knee injury, because his movement skills left a lot to be desired in the limited minutes he did get. Just did not look comfortable.
Still waiting for the video evidence Beard claimed he had the night of the incident that would prove his innocence. He wouldn't hand it over to police when they asked for it and his lawyer wouldn't release it later on.
I wonder why that is.
Looking through some stats today and was surprised to see that we only have 4 guys hitting above .280 in conference play (Mendoza, Gasparino, Galvan and....Borba). Flores is all the way down at .200.
A few other things that stuck out:
-We have the best team ERA in conference play
-.272 team average in SEC is 8th out of 16 teams
-We are walking more than last year and striking out a tad less. I guess that is a good sign for the overall approach even if it feels frustrating some games
-We are going to surpass last year's stolen base number easily despite losing some good speed (Thomas, Kennedy, Brown). Overall base running has been a plus.