2018 Texas Baseball Thread

[X-Wing @Aliciousness 103]

What website do you all usually look at when following college baseball recruiting?

I'm looking at perfect game right now and apparently Texas's recruiting class for the upcoming season wasn't even in the top 100 for 2017?

Edited May 1, 2018 by X-Wing @Aliciousness

[Goo Punch 4,275]

Edit

Edited May 2, 2018 by Goo Punch

[texasstrong12 4,668]

13 hours ago, X-Wing @Aliciousness said:

What website do you all usually look at when following college baseball recruiting?

I'm looking at perfect game right now and apparently Texas's recruiting class for the upcoming season wasn't even in the top 100 for 2017?

Pretty sure Perfect Game's recruiting class rankings only include high school players. The Texas '17 class was really dependent on JUCOs because all the good HS prospects were already signed by the time Pierce was hired. This is the issue with transition classes and why the idea of firing coaches every 3 years is misguided. Transition classes in baseball are even worse than in football because most of the players are already committed/signed. 

Texas signed 7 HS recruits from '17 (O'Donnell, Elder, Fields, Gauntt, Inoff, Quintanilla, and Streitmann). All of those guys were late cycle additions outside of Fields from what I remember. Then we supplemented the HS class with 8 or 9 JUCO and a few transfers because it was really the only option with how late Pierce was hired. 

The moral of the story is 1) stop firing coaches or else we see the impact of transition classes and 2) don't take forever to hire a coach like the admin did with Pierce. 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2018 by texasstrong12

[texasstrong12 4,668]

Just from a recruiting perspective, Pierce doesn't even have that talented of a roster on campus. His first real class isn't until '18. 

'15 class ranking: 24th
'16 class ranking: 22nd
'17 class ranking: not even top 100

'18: currently 9th and won't get to campus until next year. This will no doubt be the least talented team Pierce ever has on campus. That's under the assumption Pierce recruits well which seems likely based on the '18 class. 

Edited May 2, 2018 by texasstrong12

[Machinator 32,099]

Speaking of '18 recruits, nice little article from Joe Cook about RHP Owen Meaney:

http://insidetexas.com/baseball-signee-owen-meaney-ready-to-pitch-under-the-lights-in-austin/

 

[txhorns 2,413]

Somewhere we have got to find some pitchers for next year.  What we have on campus for next year is pathetic.  I don't follow baseball recruiting all that much but hopefully pitching has been a priority. 

[Doc Holliday 199]

31 minutes ago, txhorns said:

Somewhere we have got to find some pitchers for next year.  What we have on campus for next year is pathetic.  I don't follow baseball recruiting all that much but hopefully pitching has been a priority. 

give me some pine tar and a new birth certificate and I will be happy to go throw a few

[B00M 6,465]

50 minutes ago, Doc Holliday said:

give me some pine tar and a new birth certificate and I will be happy to go throw a few

When Nico relieves you, and allows all the inherited runners to score, he'd look like a flamethrower 

Edited May 3, 2018 by B00M

[Doc Holliday 199]

6 minutes ago, B00M said:

When Nico relieves you, and allows all the inherited runners to score, he'd look like a flamethrower 

only after I've exhausted myself through 50 pitches and no outs.  I'm like Greg Maddux and all about placement.  Now if only I could get it over the plate.

[TwiceHorn 31,537]

2 hours ago, Machinator said:

Speaking of '18 recruits, nice little article from Joe Cook about RHP Owen Meaney:

http://insidetexas.com/baseball-signee-owen-meaney-ready-to-pitch-under-the-lights-in-austin/

 

Someone's parents had a literary sense of humor. Or that is an incredible coincidence. 

[Machinator 32,099]

David Pierce media availability - 5/2/18: http://insidetexas.com/david-pierce-quotes-5218/

David Pierce spoke yesterday about the pitching, how the team is preparing for Texas Tech, postseason pitching, and the new indoor facility that work will begin on very soon.

On the Texas State win: It was awesome. It didn’t look like we had a snowball’s chance. Just had some great at bats in front of David’s home run. I thought Hibbeler did a great job of being patient. We just didn’t get out of the zone. Then David got the big blow. Really exciting for our team

On if he’s going to buy a lottery ticket after nailing his pre-season prediction of 3 Hamilton HRs: I know my players.

On how the Tuesday win can be used as a springboard for this weekend: It’s great. You know as an offense you feel very comfortable there’s never a lead you can’t overcome. Baseball starts on the mound, and we’ve got to get so much better from our starting pitching all the way through because everything is fed off of our pitching and catching. If we’re not good there, the momentum disappears quickly. We’ve got to attack that.

On if a walk-off win masks some poor parts of Tuesday’s game: I think in the moment it definitely does. It allows you to get your thoughts together as opposed to making a list of how you’re going to chew everyone out. We have some guys that don’t give up on themselves. As long as they don’t give up on themselves and they’re preparing their bodies, the coaching staff is not going to give up on them either because we need them. We’re just probably going to have to start narrowing it down to about eight guys that are our most dependent guys right now.

On trying to take a series from a nationally elite team: You can take it from a couple of different angles. I think it’s a challenge. We know we’re going to play a very good team at their place. I think they’ve lost two games there all year. Oklahoma was really an inning away from taking two out of three in Lubbock. We took two out of three on the road against Oklahoma. Baylor’s playing really well right now and took two out of three from Tech at home. There’s a lot of parody in our league even though they’re probably the most elite team right now. It really is going to come down to being confident, being patient, continuing to do little things right, and giving ourselves an opportunity. I have no problem if we give up multiple home runs if they’re solos. I think they can really hit. I just want to see us attack the strike zone and make them earn it.

On if they can have success if the starters aren’t getting into the sixth or seventh: They’re getting there. They’re going to get there. It’s going to be tough. We’re going to have to have dependency on our starters to get the weekend going.

On if he mentions that to his starting rotation: The thing is most of the time they’re frustrated and they don’t want to come out of the game, and that’s a great sign. They want to get out of their own mess. They’re going to probably have some opportunity to do that now, plus we have a week off after this series. If we beat them up a little bit because of extending them, they’re going to get a little extra rest before we get into the Texas State game and the TCU series.

On if fourth starter will be by committee or if there’s a pitcher he has in mind: First of all, I’m not a skeptic about it at all, but I don’t think that we’re a shoo-in yet. I really think that we’re in a great position, but we still could not make a regional, make a regional and go on the road, or host a regional. That piece of it is still a question mark. We’ve got to do a lot of things right. If you’re asking who’s going to be a fourth starter right now, I have no idea. We’re still waiting on that. I would probably say it would be a short leash for whoever started.

On his familiarity with Dan Law Field: I just know about it. Honestly, I haven’t been there since I played in the mid-80s, and it was somewhat by choice.

On if he talks to his batters or his pitchers about the wind effect: We always talk to the pitchers about pitching the ball low in the zone. I think that’s one of the reasons why we didn’t pitch a guy like Parker Joe in West Virginia, because he’s a ground ball pitcher. In West Virginia, there’s real bouncy turf where you get some cheap hits. Parker Joe is going to be a guy, Andy McGuire, maybe you see a Jake McKenzie, some guys who sink the ball a little bit more to potentially keep the ball in the ballpark and keep the ball on the ground. As far as our hitters, I don’t want them to change their approach. I think when you hit right, you’re trying to hit line drives in the gap. When you mi**** that, that’s what gets out of the park. We want to just think line drive, back spin, gap-to-gap, and just continue that same approach.

On if he’s had a pitching staff full of first year arms before: I’ve never had to piece it the way we’re piecing it. It’s just what it is right now. We’ve got two 23 year-olds in the back end who haven’t pitched in two years. We have a young man from Italy that’s a JC kid, first year here. Then we have a lot of freshmen that are trying to fill a role. The lack of consistency from some of those guys. The one thing I refuse to go to and really we have yet to talk about is we have three to four guys that came in with injuries that are frontline possible guys that those are missing pieces right now. We’re not even talking about the draft. We’re talking about guys like Donny Diaz, Cole Quintanilla, Tristan Stevens when he’s healthy. We’re having to work and push everybody up a spot, and that’s been a challenge. It really has.

On Bryce Elder could get a start: If we got into the postseason. Right now we’re kind of set with who we want to start on the weekends. They haven’t been tremendous, but they’ve been pretty solid. He has played that role. I would say, to the previous question, if we were in a situation right now it would probably be an Elder in a game four in the regional.

On letting Nolan Kingham see his brother’s major league debut: That’s one of those deals in baseball that’s kind of like Christmas morning, it’s Easter day. Those are special days. The coincidence of us being an hour and a half away from Pittsburgh. Nolan came into my office and said ‘Coach, it’s not public yet but Nick’s going to start on Sunday. Is there any opportunity I could do that?’ I knew his teammates would be behind him. I knew he was going to throw on Friday. His parents were there. I just thought it was so special, and then the way it turned out for Nick and the family was unbelievable. I’m glad Nolan and his family got to enjoy that. It was a special day for them and for Nick.

On how important the new indoor facility is and some specifics that will be added: The new indoor is something we started attacking when we first got here. First, I’d just like to thank all the donors that have contributed to that, especially a couple of the late ones in Roger (Clemens) and Dan Brown, some really major contributors. We have approximately 18,000 square feet behind our stadium seating in right field. Our interest is to come right out of the clubhouse where we’re out of the weather immediately. Convenience is the first thing. We’ll have our pitching lab with all of our gadgets, Rapsodo and TrackMan, and so we’ll have a pitching lab there. Off to that, we’ll have retractable netting. The retractable netting allows that to be a multipurpose space where we can go one big cage, two cages, we can divide it up for camps, then off of that we’re going to move into an open ended weight room. Take our weight room indoors and that’s going to become more of a life skills area, potentially a player’s lounge area. Then in the additional phases we’re hoping to have an auxiliary locker room, possibly an umpire locker room, restrooms there, and then above that we want to have our coach’s offices where you can actually see the field. Then on the other side of the hallway you can look through glass and see the indoor. It’s very convenient. It allows us to have eyes everywhere. It’s unbelievable for recruiting. Recruiting is always the essence of your program, but development. Right now, we have no space for development. Everything we have here at Disch-Falk is unbelievable, but we truly have no indoor. If it’s raining, if it’s lightning, if we’ve got 30 degree weather in January, or late spring, or even early fall, we have no conveniences there. It’s going to really contribute to our development as well.

On how much say he had and if he got ideas from other programs: You always do that. The architect was very good when we came in last fall. It’s still not finalized because it’s a sketch. It’s a rendering. From the rendering, now we’ve got to get into the nuts and bolts of the mechanical pieces, the blueprint itself. I feel like we had a lot of input, which I think is important because as a coach you know what’s important for you program. I’ve been involved in some facility upgrades or new facilities and had really, really tiny dugouts, or something that is very important to a team that gets overlooked. I think they were very receptive of our opinion and our thoughts on the project. Really, really excited about that. Chris (Del Conte) getting behind this and immediately making that something that is a priority for us and a priority for the department.

On when they’d like to break ground or other target dates: We’ve talked about summer, at least the demolition of it. I would like to start it where it goes from the demolition right into the structure. I’m hoping toward the end of summer, mid to end of summer. They’ve really done a great job of expediting this project it sounds like. I’m not that involved day to day right now, but what I’m hearing is there’s a great opportunity we’ll start hopefully mid-summer.

On the weekend series and how he wants his team to come into this weekend: First of all, I think we’re in a great position to make a regional. I think our league has been balanced like that all year. Take a Baylor team that came in here and we swept. They can pitch and they’re a very good team. They leave here and I think they’ve won 12 of 13 and 10 straight. Oklahoma State, we won two out of three at home, they take off, they sweep TCU at home. You just see a lot of positive parody as far as talent. I’ve always said the SEC, the ACC, the Big 12 are all player’s leagues. It’s our job to get out there and give them the information, prepare them, then you’ve got to let them play. It’s going to come down to our guys coming up with the clutch hit, making a pitch when the games on the line. I don’t see any blowouts from our ends, so I just think it’s going to be a pitch by pitch, inning by inning type of series for us

[BERT 4,381]

3 hours ago, txhorns said:

Somewhere we have got to find some pitchers for next year.  What we have on campus for next year is pathetic.  I don't follow baseball recruiting all that much but hopefully pitching has been a priority. 

Are pitchers like QB's? Can't get better the older they get? 

[txhorns 2,413]

4 minutes ago, BERT said:

Are pitchers like QB's? Can't get better the older they get? 

Which one of our young pitchers do you see being a top starter in 2 years?

[BERT 4,381]

29 minutes ago, txhorns said:

Which one of our young pitchers do you see being a top starter in 2 years?

Don't know but who thought Shugart would be starting this year??

[txhorns 2,413]

8 minutes ago, BERT said:

Don't know but who thought Shugart would be starting this year??

Shugart sucks so him starting is nothing to celebrate.  In fact it is just another bullet point on the list of reasons why we desperately need to upgrade our staff.  None of O'Donnell, Elder, Fields, or Whelan will became top starters barring a miracle.  They may be nstarters eventually out of necessity.  We can't win the conference if any of them are ever considered our top starter

[BERT 4,381]

3 minutes ago, txhorns said:

Shugart sucks so him starting is nothing to celebrate.  In fact it is just another bullet point on the list of reasons why we desperately need to upgrade our staff.  None of O'Donnell, Elder, Fields, or Whelan will became top starters barring a miracle.  They may be nstarters eventually out of necessity.  We can't win the conference if any of them are ever considered our top starter

Well i can't argue that. We need some Alanizs and Jungmanns to get on campus again. 

[txhorns 2,413]

2 minutes ago, BERT said:

Well i can't argue that. We need some Alanizs and Jungmanns to get on campus again. 

Oh I agree in a bad way.  Look I'm not saying the guys I mentioned are bad players.  They just aren't the type of pitchers who can lead this team to a conference title or Omaha.  

[texasstrong12 4,668]

38 minutes ago, txhorns said:

Shugart sucks so him starting is nothing to celebrate.  In fact it is just another bullet point on the list of reasons why we desperately need to upgrade our staff.  None of O'Donnell, Elder, Fields, or Whelan will became top starters barring a miracle.  They may be nstarters eventually out of necessity.  We can't win the conference if any of them are ever considered our top starter

It's way too early to reach these conclusions on freshman pitchers. Fields and Elder have good stuff. It wouldn't be shocking at all if either Fields or Elder become good starters down the line. 

[torre 1,286]

10 hours ago, Machinator said:

Speaking of '18 recruits, nice little article from Joe Cook about RHP Owen Meaney:

http://insidetexas.com/baseball-signee-owen-meaney-ready-to-pitch-under-the-lights-in-austin/

 

 

10 hours ago, Machinator said:

Speaking of '18 recruits, nice little article from Joe Cook about RHP Owen Meaney:

http://insidetexas.com/baseball-signee-owen-meaney-ready-to-pitch-under-the-lights-in-austin/

 

Attended high school playoff game tonight between Westlake and SA Churchill (Churchill 6-5, game 1).    Two scouts were sitting in front of me and I inquired about Meaney.   They stated he would best be served at this time by going to Texas.   My concern was due to his size and stats he seems like a MLB prospect.     However, scouts are like talking to politicians,  sometime tell you what you want to hear. 

Hudson Head (OF/LHP),  Texas commit 2019/Churchill,  looked really good in CF.    2/3 hits,  excellent arm, beautiful mechanics at the plate.   

[zlavydra 2,123]

17 hours ago, texasstrong12 said:

It's way too early to reach these conclusions on freshman pitchers. Fields and Elder have good stuff. It wouldn't be shocking at all if either Fields or Elder become good starters down the line. 

Shugart is an average college pitcher. Henley and Kingham are better than average, but not the type of starters that we're used to rolling out there on the weekends.  The question is whether Pierce can recruit this type of pitcher going forward.  There's no reason that UT can't attract the pitching talent that's going to Stanford or Florida. We certainly have in the past.

I can see Fields/Elder/O'Donnell being "good" starters, but, to the point, not good enough to carry the team.  On the other hand, it blows my mind that we've managed to win a couple of Friday games in which we've given up 6 runs, meaning pitching remains weak across the conference.

[TornACL 7,722]

18 hours ago, texasstrong12 said:

It's way too early to reach these conclusions on freshman pitchers. Fields and Elder have good stuff. It wouldn't be shocking at all if either Fields or Elder become good starters down the line. 

You're right. It is definitely too early to draw conclusions. But it's what our fans do. It always makes me laugh, in every sport, that so many fans have the following mindset:

- A freshman who has a good season will only get exponentially better every year and will be the best player in America by his junior / senior year
- A freshman who has a poor/mediocre season is a waste of a scholarship and will never amount to anything

 

Edited May 4, 2018 by TornACL

[TrashMaster G 17,601]

Kendall Rogers was on the Horn last night talking with Kevin and he is very high on the pitchers we have coming in next year - including two guys who missed this year due to injury.  He thinks all of our recruits but one are likely to land on campus.  Names escape me, but Kendall usually at least has a good idea what he's talking about.

[Goo Punch 4,275]

23 minutes ago, TornACL said:

You're right. It is definitely too early to draw conclusions. But it's what our fans do. It always makes me laugh, in every sport, that so many fans have the following mindset:

- A freshman who has a good season will only get exponentially better every year and will be the best player in America by his junior / senior year
- A freshman who has a poor/mediocre season is a waste of a scholarship and will never amount to anything

 

Similar theme for recruiting. The moment a guy chooses Texas he’s awesome, he’s infallible, he’s going to be great at Texas; same guy doesn’t choose Texas he has character issues, he has flaws, he’s no guarantee to be anything special at the college level. 

Edited May 4, 2018 by Goo Punch

[texasstrong12 4,668]

7 hours ago, TrashMaster G said:

Kendall Rogers was on the Horn last night talking with Kevin and he is very high on the pitchers we have coming in next year - including two guys who missed this year due to injury.  He thinks all of our recruits but one are likely to land on campus.  Names escape me, but Kendall usually at least has a good idea what he's talking about.

The '18 class is loaded with arms. Elite arms too. Simeon Woods Richardson is probably the one arm Rogers thinks "isn't likely to land on campus". 

Like I said above, the '17 class was a transition class so Pierce had to make a lot of late cycle additions. To put in in perspective, it was like adding a bunch of low 3 star/2 star talent to just fill out the roster. Generally speaking, I think Pierce did a pretty good job of evaluation because a pitcher like Elder has much better stuff than just a late cycle type addition. 

The '18 class is a real recruiting class where Pierce can actually add a bunch of plus arms. The '17 recruiting class was a transition class where Pierce had to evaluate and find late cycle/lesser talent type arms. 

Also of note, Texas getting Donny Diaz back next year will be big. Would likely be our closer this year if not for his injury.  

Edited May 4, 2018 by texasstrong12

[Fletch 5,800]

Yeah Diaz getting hurt and Ridgeway having a terrible year has kind of killed our bullpen 

[66BUFF 2,565]

On ‎4‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 10:28 PM, troph said:

How he’s he not a mlb flight risk ? 

My son played with him and Cobb this Summer on Houston KC and all the scouts were watching Cobb.

Also, we played Burbank 3 times in district and I did not see any scouts at the games but, I did see scouts at Cobbs games at Katy HS

[66BUFF 2,565]

On ‎5‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 1:27 PM, TwiceHorn said:

Someone's parents had a literary sense of humor. Or that is an incredible coincidence. 

coincidence.  My son went to school with Owen from pre k thru 8th and I asked his Dad about that.

[66BUFF 2,565]

On ‎5‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 9:51 PM, torre said:

 

Attended high school playoff game tonight between Westlake and SA Churchill (Churchill 6-5, game 1).    Two scouts were sitting in front of me and I inquired about Meaney.   They stated he would best be served at this time by going to Texas.   My concern was due to his size and stats he seems like a MLB prospect.     However, scouts are like talking to politicians,  sometime tell you what you want to hear. 

Hudson Head (OF/LHP),  Texas commit 2019/Churchill,  looked really good in CF.    2/3 hits,  excellent arm, beautiful mechanics at the plate.   

My guess is that he will go pro if he is drafted in the first 7 or 8 rounds.

[66BUFF 2,565]

20 hours ago, texasstrong12 said:

The '18 class is loaded with arms. Elite arms too. Simeon Woods Richardson is probably the one arm Rogers thinks "isn't likely to land on campus". 

Like I said above, the '17 class was a transition class so Pierce had to make a lot of late cycle additions. To put in in perspective, it was like adding a bunch of low 3 star/2 star talent to just fill out the roster. Generally speaking, I think Pierce did a pretty good job of evaluation because a pitcher like Elder has much better stuff than just a late cycle type addition. 

The '18 class is a real recruiting class where Pierce can actually add a bunch of plus arms. The '17 recruiting class was a transition class where Pierce had to evaluate and find late cycle/lesser talent type arms. 

Also of note, Texas getting Donny Diaz back next year will be big. Would likely be our closer this year if not for his injury.  

Woods and Cobb are the 2 that will go high...Cobb topped out at 96 this spring.

[ClubWhatever 12,158]

Ridgeway has gone from. 1.92 ERA with 0.186 OBA last year to a 11.8 ERA with a 0.290 OBA this year.   Same coaches, same ball park.  WTF.  Did he get hurt?  Does anyone know how his velocity compares?  It reminds me of Mark Wholers.  Look almost untouchable and then all of a sudden one day they can’t get anybody out.  

[Austin Orange 98]

Aggy losing series helps our case, I suppose.

I can’t see the NCAA wanting more than 2-3 regionals in Texas. Tech is locked. Besides us, not really anyone else threatening outside of aggy. Maybe Baylor if they sweeper schedule out from here.

[texasstrong12 4,668]

aggy is going to end up a few games under .500 in the SEC. No chance they host. 

[Austin Orange 98]

10 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

aggy is going to end up a few games under .500 in the SEC. No chance they host. 

Most likely. That said, if they win out, they are above .500, top 10 SOS and top 16 RPI. They host.

[texasstrong12 4,668]

aggy has 7 games left in the SEC. They have to go 4-3 to finish .500 in the SEC and 5-2 to finish above .500. 

They still have #1 RPI Florida at home, 3 games on the road against #4 RPI Arkansas, and 3 games at home against scorching hot South Carolina who has won 3 SEC series in a row. 

If they go 5-2 to finish the year, I'll be shocked. I see 3-4 or 2-5 to finish, but I guess you never know in college sports. 

 

Edited May 6, 2018 by texasstrong12

[Austin Orange 98]

They certainly have a chance. SEC is all bunched up. They could easily be in top 4-5 in Conf and a winning record. That hosts.

[texasstrong12 4,668]

3 hours ago, Austin Orange said:

They certainly have a chance. SEC is all bunched up. They could easily be in top 4-5 in Conf and a winning record. That hosts.

Here's the SEC hosts in recent years: 

'17-Florida (21-9 in the SEC), Arkansas (18-11 in the SEC), LSU (21-9 in the SEC), Kentucky (19-11 in the SEC)

'16-LSU (19-11 in the SEC), A&M (20-10 in the SEC), South Carolina (20-9 in the SEC), Florida (19-10 in the SEC), Vanderbilt (18-12 in the SEC), Ole Miss (18-12 in the SEC), Miss State (21-9 in the SEC)

'15-LSU (21-8 in the SEC), A&M (18-10 in the SEC), Florida (19-11 in the SEC), Vanderbilt (20-10 in the SEC)

'14-LSU (17-11-1 in the SEC), South Carolina (18-10 in the SEC), Florida (21-9 in the SEC), Vanderbilt (17-13 in the SEC), Ole Miss (19-11 in the SEC). 

'13-LSU (23-7 in the SEC), South Carolina (17-12 in the SEC), Vanderbilt (26-3 in the SEC), Miss State (16-14 in the SEC). 

Only 1 team in the last 5 years in the SEC has been a regional host when they aren't at least 4 games over .500 in the SEC. That was Mississippi State in '13 who finished 2 games over .500 in regular season SEC play, went 3-1 in the SEC tournament, and finished 10th in RPI before selection. 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2018 by texasstrong12

[texasstrong12 4,668]

Rogers in reference to hosting chances. 

[texasstrong12 4,668]

Up to #17 in the new Baseball America poll. 

[EZ$ 2,105]

Our pitching is brutal, our situational hitting is even worse and Jake McKenzie is our starting 1st Baseman....yet somehow we are talking about possibly hosting a regional. Crazy. 

[sidis 9,832]

2-4 against west virginia and kansas state is the most mindblowing shit on earth.

at least kansas state finally won a third conference game.  their first win against a team not named texas in 20 tries.

[Mudcat35 196]

I have no idea what to expect of this team on a daily basis.  Interesting ride, though.

[ClubWhatever 12,158]

20 minutes ago, Mudcat35 said:

I have no idea what to expect of this team on a daily basis.  Interesting ride, though.

You can expect the starting pitching to give up a run in the first.

[NorthLoop 14,248]

you can expect a bunch of bleeding vag on game threads regardless of the score

[Fletch 5,800]

3 hours ago, NorthLoop said:

you can expect a bunch of bleeding vag on game threads regardless of the score

 

Sunday was shocking. I wasn't able to watch the game. Checking the game thread once every 30 or whatever minutes you'd swear to god we were getting swept by someone like Lamar. Nope. Just took 2 of 3 from a top 10 team on the road

[troph 24,910]

 
Sunday was shocking. I wasn't able to watch the game. Checking the game thread once every 30 or whatever minutes you'd swear to god we were getting swept by someone like Lamar. Nope. Just took 2 of 3 from a top 10 team on the road

We’re back!!

[Austin Orange 98]

23 minutes ago, troph said:

 

We’re back!!

 

This is going to be a great week for Texas baseball. I don’t see a loss on the slate.

[Pato del Muerto 52,603]

23 hours ago, EZ$ said:

Our pitching is brutal, our situational hitting is even worse and Jake McKenzie is our starting 1st Baseman....yet somehow we are talking about possibly hosting a regional. Crazy. 

This is proof that pierce sucks and proof he is great. 

[TrashMaster G 17,601]

58 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

This is proof that pierce sucks and proof he is great. 

So, give him a contract extension then fire him?

[zlavydra 2,123]

2 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

This is proof that pierce sucks and proof he is great. 

And proof that it's wide open this year if someone else can just take care of Florida and Stanford.

[Cairn Horn88 8,283]

On 5/4/2018 at 5:43 PM, texasstrong12 said:

The '18 class is loaded with arms. Elite arms too. Simeon Woods Richardson is probably the one arm Rogers thinks "isn't likely to land on campus". 

Like I said above, the '17 class was a transition class so Pierce had to make a lot of late cycle additions. To put in in perspective, it was like adding a bunch of low 3 star/2 star talent to just fill out the roster. Generally speaking, I think Pierce did a pretty good job of evaluation because a pitcher like Elder has much better stuff than just a late cycle type addition. 

The '18 class is a real recruiting class where Pierce can actually add a bunch of plus arms. The '17 recruiting class was a transition class where Pierce had to evaluate and find late cycle/lesser talent type arms. 

Also of note, Texas getting Donny Diaz back next year will be big. Would likely be our closer this year if not for his injury.  

Pierce's '18 recruits have to be better than the '17 bunch.  Pierce has to be recruiting better players and needs the best pitching coach that he can find....period.  Texas offers everything Pierce needs.  He has to put it all together.  If he can't do it here...well....