Had Enough

Bottom portions of batting orders are typically inconsistent messes. All levels. To mitigate that you go matchups and hot hands. There’s no need to run Borba out every day for 3-20. Or Brown or Kennedy or ODowd. You keep them all engaged so that when they need to pinch hit you give them a fighting chance. They might even get hot. Hell Borba sitting might have done him some good. I’d run him out there tomorrow to try and build on it. I was the one advocating Borba playing and sitting some starters against ACU for these same reasons. One of Pierces biggest issues is getting fixated on a lineup. So when you get 2-3 guys not hitting, he’s stuck. And guys will go 0-10 so you either ride that or throw in a guy that’s swung 3 times in a month. That’s not ideal when you’re at the CWS or a super.

He’s struck out 22 of 71 ABs. 3 for his last 20 or so before tonight. So really true.

Gage has pitched 3 times in 6 days. All high intensity. All 2 innings. He’s now matched his career high in collegiate innings. There’s potentially a month left to go. Im not sure there’s a manager in history that wants to blow his closer in game 1 of any series. For a school that only dog piles in Omaha, this board sure does shit it’s pants for dumb shit every game. And at some point, we’ll need guys to contribute. The key is to win. We’re doing a decent job of that now.

An interesting note on OU and their conference record. They lost their first conference game to WVU 4-3. Since then the winner has scored at least 7 runs in every game. They score often. That’s pretty offensive.

Yeah, not a very smart slide. He might have been in had he gone head or feet first.

Do we think he’s really throwing 93/94?

Maybe we can ask Daly to come back.

TCUs and Techs non conference records are solid. UCF has a rather high RPI because of their non-conference work. Adding 6 conference games adds an element of difficulty. The conference isn’t comparable to any previous version but it’s still 3rd in the RPI. Looking at scores and records, I think there’s more volatility than ever. There are several oddities about this year. The two finalists from last year are getting knocked around in conference. Stanford, Miami are not doing well. Hitting dominating pitching for the most part. Its an odd year.

I’d say the concern with this team is that many guys have pitched more innings than in previous years to go along with limited depth. It’s preservation of total innings/pitches more than recovery time from the tourney.

I’m betting Penix plays some on that rookie contract. As a starter. Assuming Cousins is and stays healthy, he’s the better option and likely makes their team better in year 1 and probably year 2. I am surprised Atlanta did what they did. As a fan, I’m a trade down and build up your team with more picks. From the organizations view, I can see why they jumped on Cousins then had time to evaluate Penix as a 2nd rounder. And possibly came to the conclusion he’s a no doubt franchise QB.

That’s an oddity for sure. Then we won the series from the two teams ahead of us and didn’t the one tied with us.

I thought Dallas Turner was everyone’s favorite to be a bust. Perhaps Atlanta felt that way too. The only other guy they missed out on was Verse. They then get the Clemson DT, Trice and Oregon DL in the next 3 picks. So they have attempted to address the positions you’ve highlighted. They believe they have their QB for the next decade plus. If they are correct, that’s not a boneheaded pick.

Since you put it like that, how are we tied for 3rd in conference?

That seems significant. There were likely others that were influenced by that even if not the primary reason.

What is the impact of the move to the SEC on recruiting? Is it enough to be part of the equation?

I suppose my question is more about the volatility of past RPIs. Were there highly ranked teams with so many negatives? And since it’s mostly ACC/SEC teams, there will be more losses to come for those teams. I don’t think we’ll win out. But say we did, there’s little justification for a .500 or worse team in conference to host over us. I would not be shocked if TCU somehow pulled it together and won out. Then how do they figure into the mix. Same for OSU. Looks like compared to last year there were no Top 20 RPI teams with a .500 conference record. 2 this year and 9 top 40 teams this year to 5 last year. Then 6 and 9 in 2022. So maybe that’s no different.

Is it healthy? Witt, LBJ, Porter Brown, Powell all came back with reasons to go. We have at least 3 guys with parents with professional baseball ties. Tulo came back. That’s is a lot people reflecting some faith in their futures with DP. That’s too much to represent a shitshow. Losing 3 pitchers is bad luck unless we’re doing something that is causing that. Name another time in Texas baseball history that has occurred. The staff turnover is no doubt concerning. CDC should have better info on it than anyone here. Otherwise, it’s just speculation. I bet the other Big 12 teams wish they had 3 pitchers around the top 10 in conference ERA. Two of which are most likely back. We don’t need an insane portal haul. We need to hit on several. In 3 years time, the number of teams with sub-4 and sub-5 ERAs has been cut in half. All pitching staffs are struggling a bit. Yet let’s hang on to the notion this is the 1980s. More big arms would be helpful, but we are a competitive pitching staff. A question that can be asked is NIL/scholarship allocation. Is it balanced in the best manner? No idea. I do believe we have more potential hitters than Texas has had in 30+ years. Some of this ties into a healthy program too. No idea where our program sits, but there’s absolutely enough to say it’s in a reasonable position including the fact that these dudes keep playing and have fought thru some adversity. But hell we could lose the next 5 games and who knows what happens there.

I don’t know what the RPI reflected historically, but there are a number of highly rated teams with losing conference records. We may have a large number of Q4 losses, but the next highest rated team with a winning Q1 record is Miss State at 22. Four top 10 in the RPI have losing Q1 records. TCU at 28 with a losing conference record. OU is top 20 but 11-11 in non-conference. Xavier at 25 at only 5 games over .500 and only 4 games over in conference. Coastal Carolina at 30 and 2 games under .500 in the Sun Belt. Our winning percentage in Q1-Q3 games looks to be amongst top 15. If we win out, we absolutely have an argument to host.

That’s quite the confidence. I’d agree we’re comfortably in as of now but a 2-5 finish that allows WVU back in front of us and allows Cincy to jump us. Who knows.

Unfortunately we don’t have a postseason birth locked up so we may have to play to win in the Big 12 tourney. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be concerned about the tourney. Whether we are a 2 or 3 seed in a regional doesn’t matter. I’m not sure a 4 would matter either. It might even be better as we’d get Grubbs versus the #1 seed. For me, I’d rather have Gage for 2, 3 games a weekend than 1 one extended game. I’m not a fan of guys trying things they’re not accustomed to when it matters. Early season is fine. It’s not even about him as I think mentally he’s good out of structure but what happens the next game when other guys are having to fill roles they aren’t accustomed to filling. We are going to need a surprise or two or three in the post season. Yes, I’d say Shaw is the first lefty out of the pen, but 4th inning versus 7th inning may make a difference whether it’s him or Lummus. I’m reasonably satisfied with the options we have. I’m not sure there are any wrong choices on who is used and when, but that’s in part because there aren’t many definitive correct choices.

I don’t think we’ll be structured that way. It’ll most likely be situational. I have hard time believing that Tumis or Hurley get the call against a lefty lineup for say an inning. Lummus or Hurley make the most sense in long relief as we’ve seen them extended previously. DP is probably playing the analytics game so there may be odd looking decisions based on that. Shaw will likely factor into the equation. Speculating on the approach from tonight’s game would have seen Duplantier go another inning or maybe finish had it gone that well. But I think he was going Boehm in the 8th and 9th and have each of them once more this weekend. Tomorrow will be interesting if Ace doesn’t go deep into the game. If he doesn’t, it probably is Tumis or Hurley.

Inexcusable.

Not very good Gasparino

Odd at bat from Powell going bunt then hit and run.

That’s a terrible call.