Had Enough

I believe we’re well positioned for the future. Texas from 1993 thru 1999 had 8 All Americans, 3 of which were honorable mention. No 1st teamers. In 2000, we had a 1st teamer and a 2nd teamer. Nothing in 2001. Then 4 in 2002. Other examples - 1982 and 1983 had 1 each. Lucas Gordon received some 1st team all American recognition last year. LBJ too for 2nd team. Also Dylan Campbell 3rd team. Madden in 2021. Ivan and Stehly in 2022. Flores 3rd team this year. Gage and Thomas were worthy. That doesn’t include your Big 12 player of the year, who won it over 3 players rated in the top 31 draft prospects. The Golden Spikes award has been around since 1978. Only one Horn has ever won it. Ivan. 3 seasons ago. Thomas is rated #60 as an MLB draft prospect. His season and a 2nd round grade are historically top shelf at Texas. Flores is top 120 and maybe the top offensive performance at SS in Texas history. We’re not that far off.

It’s typically at CWS time that I begin to look to at other teams rosters and their production. The standard thought seems to be elevate other rosters and downplay ours. You’ll have people downplay the competition in an effort to justify it too but really the schedules balance out. CWS caliber rosters generally have a weak hitter or two. I’m not sure anyone has 3 reliable starters. Even in this year’s CWS game 2, we had a .200 hitter with a key homer against a dude that pitched 11 innings all season and his ERA damn near equaled his innings pitched. Why are either in the game if those rosters are so stacked? People overvalued Lamkin cause he handled Florida, who again outside of Jac had an approximate .250 average. He’s got 26 career starts with a mid 5 ERA. What Texas generally lacks is that top 15 draft pick talent. But we kinda always have lacked that. The Melendez/Madden duo was close. I’m not sure either them are sure-fire MLBers. We need that big arm but even that’s not a guarantee. I’m not talking a guy that brings it 99. I’m talking the total package that says he’s a top 15 pick. Course Arkansas and Wake hot exactly nowhere with their guys.

You know I’d keep em all right? From a talent perspective I saw nothing that says run a dude off. The new staff will prioritize skills and construction to suit their preferences so yeah turnover will happen. The Weiner took Cortez from a mid 7 ERA, 2 + WHIP, a K/BB of less than 1 guy to what we saw this year. He also took Stewart from a near 7 ERA and 2 WHIP to valued CWS bullpen guy. Those were multi year guys so it’s not like we’re talking true frosh numbers. I’ve previously highlighted Kent versus Kennedy. There’s also some lucky shit. Imagine if Prager, coming off an injury season, misses this year. And that Witt, coming off an injury, has a big year. I don’t trash Pierce like others, but I think you need to view our returning guys in the context of better plate discipline and a well qualified pitching coach. You bet your ass I’d be happy keeping these guys: Borba, Kennedy, Galvan, Belyeu, J. Duplantier, Gasparino, Schuessler. Then you have guys that you don’t know much about that you can’t say cut them loose: Farmer, Cummings, Service, Sanders. On the pitching side, I’d for sure be fine with Ace, Grubbs, Tumis, O’Hara, Lummus, Shaw and Harrison. Not sure on Hamilton and Servig. Based on profiles, I’d take Santos and Mercer too. With a roster of 35-40 guys, some of them will be role players that includes dudes that never play or play limited roles in blowouts. You are talking about 20 guys or so that produce the lions share of the work. Obviously, I can’t see work ethic, attitude, player goals, etc. There is plenty of talent and production to choose from here. Assess what you have with incoming freshmen.

There’s no talent here. Let ‘em all go.

Kent had 1 HR (against Prairie View) in 83 ABs as a frosh. Only 4 this past year in 24 fewer ABs than Kennedy who also had 4. PG had one as the #500 recruit, one as the 188th recruit. I’m guessing the #500 guy was not short of opportunities or instruction. Just so I’m clear, you are ok giving up on a dude after 1 year? A year in which most believe we had coaching shortcomings. Even with the improvement that Flores showed year over year.

I’ve seen his kid and heard him speak a couple of times. He comes off very country. Yeah, A&M seems to fit.

Can’t say I watched much Aggie baseball but statistically Kent had a higher average, slugging percentage and more RBIs. Kent had more errors (neglible), grounded into more double plays, scored fewer runs, had a lot less stolen bases and was 27 points lower in OBP. Throw in the stolen bases and Chestnuts OPS is pretty similar to Kent’s. XBHs and ABs are close. Total runs produced was 54-51 in favor of Chestnut. Assuming Kent finished fairly strong and Chestnut did not then regular season Chestnut over Kent was reasonable. -signed Chestnuts dad and Schloss.

What’s the rationale in differing thoughts on Flores and Thomas?

What are you saying? I assume since we’re talking roster you are saying he flipped the roster in year 1. He had some transfers, used some freshmen, but there were a number of holdovers. I’m not sure their turnover was so different than many other teams these days.

Nobody said that. But pretty sure about anybody would roster a Big 12 player of the year.

We’ve got plenty to start. Get about 3 freshmen contributors then 3-5 transfers and you can be in the mix. About 10-11 position players and 7-8 pitchers. If people want an example, look to Kentuckys roster. Did very well in the SEC, run to the CWS. It’s not a loaded roster.

Hope you got the right one.

Where you been hiding?

That’s a legit consideration. I’d much prefer to compete for titles with Tenn over the Aggies. At home recruiting advantage. Vitello may be special.

Vitello is the better choice but Schloss inflicts more pain.

Context huh? Being in the Big 12 the last handful of years meant maybe 1 top 8 seed from the conference per year. Theres no benefit of the doubt to the conference. Plus we schedule too difficult in the non-conference. I looked the other day at our first 17 non-conference games. We played 7 games against tourney teams. The Aggies played 1 - us. When we played them we had Tech the next weekend. They had Tx Southern-Rhode Island. The SEC and to a lesser extent have a purposeful schedule. They’ve been working it 20 years. Starting next year we get the benefit of the doubt too. And oddly enough, they just flashed the graphic saying the #1 seed last won in 1999. Guess there’s been lots of overachievers. Not sure many of those beat the powerful Evansville in the super and their finals opponent lost one of their best hitters and best pitchers in the super.

What led to this being the case anyway? One would think there shouldn’t be much anywhere at the collegiate level.

What was the basis for the fight? I guess Hurley got the last laugh in that ULaLa game. Ouch.

It’s about time you realized this. Welcome to the club.

Ideally it would be mid game during a coach’s interview.

Well what about one Troy Tulowitzki?

Or maybe a distracted Tennessee. CDC needs to have a teams call with them and tell them it’s not Tony V.

Per his bio, that’s J Stewart’s cousin too.

Can’t be true. We are a traditional power.

Well except for that choice to use a frosh that has pitched less 10 innings all season with a 2 plus WHIP and now above 9 ERA.