Texas @ OU Series Thread

[The_Great_Hornsby 3,236]

50 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

That's the good news.  Bad news is May weather in Florida is very unpredictable.  We'll be playing a triple-header that Sunday and coming home by ship.  

Sounds like we might get our first sweep of the year! We don't win Friday games.

[YGIFS 19,449]

7 minutes ago, The_Great_Hornsby said:

Sounds like we might get our first sweep of the year! We don't win Friday games.

'Friday Baseball in Orlando' sounds like the saddest drinking song in country music.  

[Hookem2147 21,188]

I was looking at stats this morning, and I'm surprised to see that Jared Thomas is one of our worst hitters in conference play average-wise (.274). Only two who are lower and have consistent AB's are Kennedy (.273) and Brown (.211). 

If Thomas goes on a heater like he did to end last season we could be even more potent offensively. 

[B00M 6,413]

I can’t believe the sons of bitches did it

at least we still have meaningful games upcoming, most of us didn’t expect that a couple weeks ago 

[Balcones 318]

2 hours ago, TrashMaster G said:

What we have "been doing" is losing mid-week games and going 2-1 on the weekend. I don't think .500 baseball is going to get us to a #2.

 

8-4 on Tuesdays. Hopefully 9-4 tomorrow.

[TrashMaster G 17,536]

3 minutes ago, Balcones said:

8-4 on Tuesdays. Hopefully 9-4 tomorrow.

3-3 in our last six midweek games. 

[Balcones 318]

14 minutes ago, TrashMaster G said:

3-3 in our last six midweek games. 

Got it. Wasn’t aware of your timeline.

[TrashMaster G 17,536]

3 minutes ago, Balcones said:

Got it. Wasn’t aware of your timeline.

No worries.  Was just more making a comment on recent struggles in midweek games.

This team is just so hard to figure out.

[Balcones 318]

3 minutes ago, TrashMaster G said:

No worries.  Was just more making a comment on recent struggles in midweek games.

This team is just so hard to figure out.

Yep, I understand.  Everyone wants to talk about us winning a few extra Tuesday games. We all know Pierce likes to tweak things and experiment on Tuesday's. I’m fine with that. It’s paid off in previous seasons.

i think we really have shot ourselves more on the weekends. Fridays obviously. And no excuse to not win BYU/Washington and win at least 1 at Minute Maid. To me, those are the games that have defined the season. Not the Tuesdays.

[ztejas 43,411]

3 minutes ago, Balcones said:

Yep, I understand.  Everyone wants to talk about us winning a few extra Tuesday games. We all know Pierce likes to tweak things and experiment on Tuesday's. I’m fine with that. It’s paid off in previous seasons.

i think we really have shot ourselves more on the weekends. Fridays obviously. And no excuse to not win BYU/Washington and win at least 1 at Minute Maid. To me, those are the games that have defined the season. Not the Tuesdays.

No one should be fine with being down to UTRGV 16-1 or whatever it was. That's unacceptable - it doesn't matter how many shitty B12 teams you beat 2-1. 

[Balcones 318]

6 minutes ago, ztejas said:

No one should be fine with being down to UTRGV 16-1 or whatever it was. That's unacceptable - it doesn't matter how many shitty B12 teams you beat 2-1. 

I’m glad this board was around in 2002 and 2005 when we lost to SWT in mid-week games. They were the equivalent of UTRGV back in those days.

[ztejas 43,411]

On 4/29/2024 at 11:20 AM, Balcones said:

I’m glad this board was around in 2002 and 2005 when we lost to SWT in mid-week games. They were the equivalent of UTRGV back in those days.

Let me get this straight. You're comparing this season's team to the 2002 team that went 57-15, and yes, did drop a midweek to TxSt 2-0, and the 2005 team that started the season 16-0, did not drop any non-con games except @#14 ranked Arizona, and finished the season 56-16.

Those are the teams you're referring to?

(The '05 team did lose to TxSt 2-1 - I missed it on first review. Doesn't change the point)

Edited April 30 by ztejas

[Had Enough 2,075]

I think the point is that good teams lose games they shouldn’t occasionally.  Now, the good teams lose those less often.  And the great teams rarely lose them.  Youre likely to forget those losses when you’re sitting at the CWS.  And no I’m not saying we’re going to the CWS.

Losing to UTRGV in that manner was terrible and no one is pleased but losing to BYU was worse in the bigger picture.  Maybe UW too.  TAMUCC was a bad loss, but they won a series from Lamar.

There is more depth of talent than ever so with that you’ll run into teams that can beat you if they’re on.

 

 

[Hookem2147 21,188]

4 minutes ago, Had Enough said:

I think the point is that good teams lose games they shouldn’t occasionally.  Now, the good teams lose those less often.  And the great teams rarely lose them.  Youre likely to forget those losses when you’re sitting at the CWS.  And no I’m not saying we’re going to the CWS.

Losing to UTRGV in that manner was terrible and no one is pleased but losing to BYU was worse in the bigger picture.  Maybe UW too.  TAMUCC was a bad loss, but they won a series from Lamar.

There is more depth of talent than ever so with that you’ll run into teams that can beat you if they’re on.

 

 

Tuesday slip-ups can be absorbed if you bully the Q4 teams at home on the weekend when you get 3 shots at them. 4 of our 8 Q4 losses are to Washington and BYU. We win those two series, not even sweeps, just 2 of 3, and things look pretty different right now.

Edited April 29 by Hookem2147

[ztejas 43,411]

5 minutes ago, Had Enough said:

I think the point is that good teams lose games they shouldn’t occasionally.  Now, the good teams lose those less often.  And the great teams rarely lose them.

Yeah - no shit. My point is that this isn't a good Texas team and we shouldn't be comparing them to two of the best teams in program history. 

[Had Enough 2,075]

1 hour ago, Balcones said:

Yep, I understand.  Everyone wants to talk about us winning a few extra Tuesday games. We all know Pierce likes to tweak things and experiment on Tuesday's. I’m fine with that. It’s paid off in previous seasons.

i think we really have shot ourselves more on the weekends. Fridays obviously. And no excuse to not win BYU/Washington and win at least 1 at Minute Maid. To me, those are the games that have defined the season. Not the Tuesdays.

In my view, he doesn’t tweak the lineup enough in the midweek games.  Those 3 recent losses consisted largely of our primary lineup and didn’t produce.

The season is made on the weekends.

1 minute ago, ztejas said:

Yeah - no shit. My point is that this isn't a good Texas team and we shouldn't be comparing them to two of the best teams in program history. 

Then quit being so damn dramatic acting as though anyone is happy being down 16-1 to UTRGV.  No one is.

Every week there are posters shitting down their legs about midweek games.  Not even realizing Tech loses to UNM 17-3.  Or FSU giving up 13 and losing to Mercer.

The truth is there are really no applicable historical comparisons yet that’s what happens here.  With the main reason being DP is not up to Texas standards - cause history.  Miami just lost 17-1 and is not good.  Stanford was in the 200s in RPI.  Louisville gave up 17 to Kentucky in a midweek game last week.  There are multiple solid teams that get run ruled each week.  It’s a different baseball world in so many ways.

I’d be surprised if any Texas baseball fan likes a mediocre team.  The goal is the CWS.  Every year but the landscape of making it 50% of the time is not realistic.  Because that’s incredible and built over time in a less competitive world.

[ztejas 43,411]

29 minutes ago, Had Enough said:

Then quit being so damn dramatic acting as though anyone is happy being down 16-1 to UTRGV.  No one is.

Every week there are posters shitting down their legs about midweek games.  Not even realizing Tech loses to UNM 17-3.  Or FSU giving up 13 and losing to Mercer.

The truth is there are really no applicable historical comparisons yet that’s what happens here.  With the main reason being DP is not up to Texas standards - cause history.  Miami just lost 17-1 and is not good.  Stanford was in the 200s in RPI.  Louisville gave up 17 to Kentucky in a midweek game last week.  There are multiple solid teams that get run ruled each week.  It’s a different baseball world in so many ways.

I’d be surprised if any Texas baseball fan likes a mediocre team.  The goal is the CWS.  Every year but the landscape of making it 50% of the time is not realistic.  Because that’s incredible and built over time in a less competitive world.

Aggy is 38-6.

[Had Enough 2,075]

21 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Tuesday slip-ups can be absorbed if you bully the Q4 teams at home on the weekend when you get 3 shots at them. 4 of our 8 Q4 losses are to Washington and BYU. We win those two series, not even sweeps, just 2 of 3, and things look pretty different right now.

No doubt.  There’s not a discussion about whether we’re a great team.  It’s about varying degrees of mediocrity.  In reading the boards, it’s difficult for me to determine sincerity versus, let’s call it, passion.

Every season is largely built on a best 2 of 3 series.  You can view the CWS as such too.  You can’t go 0-fer in the midweek games but the season is made on the weekends.

As we finish out this season, I cannot see a top 3 finish in a top 3 conference getting left out no matter the RPI.  Of course if we finish there, our RPI likely improves.

I would assume Hurley is our #4 starter now, but there’s more value in him as weekend long relief yet we haven’t developed him as such.  So we’ll get the “Hurley sucks” and “he should never pitch again” when these guys are yanked around rather than allowing them to settle into a role.  They will fail.  And likely more than once or twice.  It’s happening all over the country.

[Valmy77 13,225]

34 minutes ago, Had Enough said:

I’d be surprised if any Texas baseball fan likes a mediocre team.  The goal is the CWS.  Every year but the landscape of making it 50% of the time is not realistic.  Because that’s incredible and built over time in a less competitive world.

Nonsense excuse. The world was just as competitive, if anything it was harder back when there were fewer teams in the tournament and more teams overall.

[Had Enough 2,075]

3 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Aggy is 38-6.

There are top 5 teams every year.  Always have been; always will.

There still will be 8 CWS teams.

I don’t know the answer to this, but are there any coaches with a 50% CWS participation rate?  I’m not saying it cannot be done.  I’m not saying you can’t have it as a goal.  But you best be prepared to have qualifiers for when it doesn’t happen.

 

[ClubWhatever 12,120]

I watched a fair amount of SEC baseball this weekend.  Every one of the contending teams has multiple guys who throw mid 90s and above.   We have one.  Velocity isn't everything, but teams that go far in the tournament tend to have it.  That's the biggest shortcoming of our team from what I saw.

[Had Enough 2,075]

6 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

Nonsense excuse. The world was just as competitive, if anything it was harder back when there were fewer teams in the tournament and more teams overall.

Bullshit.

Just look at the state of Texas.  A&M, Tech, TCU have all had better runs in the past 10 or so years than they’ve ever had.  DBU, Texas State, SHSU probably the same.

More guys hitting 95/100 MPH than will be stocked on top 10 teams.  Hitters that have seen hundreds if not thousands more pitches than the generation before.  More kids that can hit it 400 feet and more consistently.

 

 

 

[hobbes2702 13,028]

30 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Aggy is 38-6.

Who gives a fuck? 

[Had Enough 2,075]

9 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

I watched a fair amount of SEC baseball this weekend.  Every one of the contending teams has multiple guys who throw mid 90s and above.   We have one.  Velocity isn't everything, but teams that go far in the tournament tend to have it.  That's the biggest shortcoming of our team from what I saw.

OU had back-to-back guys that could do that.  One transferred from BFE.  We’ve had guys that could do that but left.  I’d bet even the crappy SEC teams have multiple guys that can hit 95.

That is a big question for us.  Where are the big arms?  
 

A lot of those guys are not pitchers.  But if they’re on for that one game, they can give you hell.

[Balcones 318]

2 hours ago, ztejas said:

Let me get this straight. You're comparing this season's team to the 2002 team that went 57-15, and yes, did drop a midweek to TxSt 2-0, and the 2005 team that started the season 16-0, did not drop any non-con games except @#14 ranked Arizona, and finished the season 56-16.

Those are the teams you're referring to?

Both the 2002 and 2005 teams lost to SWT. Doesn’t matter the records. According to you, no one should accept losing to teams like that.

[Balcones 318]

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

Yeah - no shit. My point is that this isn't a good Texas team and we shouldn't be comparing them to two of the best teams in program history. 

Ok. But that is not what you wrote. 

[Valmy77 13,225]

43 minutes ago, Had Enough said:

Bullshit.

Just look at the state of Texas.  A&M, Tech, TCU have all had better runs in the past 10 or so years than they’ve ever had.  DBU, Texas State, SHSU probably the same.

More guys hitting 95/100 MPH than will be stocked on top 10 teams.  Hitters that have seen hundreds if not thousands more pitches than the generation before.  More kids that can hit it 400 feet and more consistently.

If the goal is to be the best in Texas, sure. But if the goal is the CWS I disagree it was easier to get there in the past. California used to be loaded with elite teams that regularly ended our seasons. Oklahoma State was a dominant dynasty for decades. The Southeast was, as it is now, loaded with elite teams. Sure the State of Texas might not have had that many great programs in the 1970s or whatever but last I checked the CWS isn't just teams from Texas.

Edited April 29 by Valmy77

[jimmyjazz 45,877]

It's not very hard to look at this team and this conference and see that both are down.  That doesn't mean we can't be happy with a post-season bid and perhaps a run.  Let's not overstate the strength of this team relative to the rest of D1 baseball, though.

[ztejas 43,411]

42 minutes ago, Balcones said:

Ok. But that is not what you wrote. 

You're the one making excuses for a 27-18 Texas team by bringing up irrelevant results from 20 years ago. 

[David Dennison 18,837]

3 hours ago, ztejas said:

Aggy is 38-6.

They should win the CWS this year.

However . . . 

[TornACL 7,698]

5 hours ago, Balcones said:

Ok. But that is not what you wrote. 

You keep trying to make this argument, but the "unacceptable" nature of the UTRGV loss was walking or hitting 20 fucking batters and being down 13-1 or whatever the fuck it was. 

It only highlighted, again, that the pitching coach hasn't reached much of this staff, and/or hasn't adequately recruited arms.

[zlavydra 2,119]

49 minutes ago, TornACL said:

It only highlighted, again, that the pitching coach hasn't reached much of this staff, and/or hasn't adequately recruited arms.

Which is a shame, considering how this team hits (generally).

[Had Enough 2,075]

48 minutes ago, TornACL said:

You keep trying to make this argument, but the "unacceptable" nature of the UTRGV loss was walking or hitting 20 fucking batters and being down 13-1 or whatever the fuck it was. 

It only highlighted, again, that the pitching coach hasn't reached much of this staff, and/or hasn't adequately recruited arms.

So you’re saying that Lummus, Hurley and Duplantier are worthless pitchers that should never see the light of day or what?  Cause they’re the ones who let it get away.8 runs in 2 innings.

Just a week later two of those pitched 6 shutout innings.  Then the other went 3.2 innings giving up 1 versus a team that hits .320 in conference.

 

 

[TornACL 7,698]

1 hour ago, Had Enough said:

So you’re saying that Lummus, Hurley and Duplantier are worthless pitchers that should never see the light of day or what?  Cause they’re the ones who let it get away.8 runs in 2 innings.

Just a week later two of those pitched 6 shutout innings.  Then the other went 3.2 innings giving up 1 versus a team that hits .320 in conference.

 

 

I didn't say any of that. But thanks for the input, Mrs. Pierce.

Edited April 30 by TornACL

[Had Enough 2,075]

21 minutes ago, TornACL said:

I didn't say any of that. But thanks for the input, Mrs. Pierce.

Then rather than whimper about it explain the consequences of an unacceptable performance.  The walks and hit batters in that game is largely an anomaly.

Or explain how that highlights that the pitching coach hasn’t reached them when a week later they were pretty damn good.  And all 3 have had moments of very good success.  So maybe he has reached them.
 

I’ve spent several posts over the years questioning his usage of pitchers.  So don’t act like I give Pierce a pass.  But the simplistic minds on this board shit themselves because they can’t understand that teams score 10 or more runs all the time these days.  Games with both teams scoring 10+ is fairly common.
 

I don’t question the use of Harrison in a tight game versus OU because you need to steal outs and Harrison has pitched well before.  Where I would question it is if he hadn’t pitched in two weeks as his feel for the strike zone is less likely to be good (he’s pitched 3 times in a month so I wouldn’t expect him to be sharp).  I question running out Lummus and Duplantier early in a mid week game because they’re not accustomed to it.  In the case of Duplantier, I like it less because he’s been called on a bit too much recently.  It may not be the reason he’s given up a bit more recently, but it’s certainly plausible.  I’m not sure what makes Hurley tick, but I see no indication it’s bringing him in mid-inning.

And ironically enough, the week prior we lost to Tx State when Selvig and Harrison came in early.  But the real story is that when a team is on their 5th game in a week, you need to score more than 7 on them.  We scored 3.  And oh by the way, Harrison hadn’t pitched in 15 days before taking the mound in that game.

i think it’s a poor choice to have himself as pitching coach.  I can’t speak to the fallout of other coaches.  I have no insight but it’s hard to fathom that’s a positive.  The biggest question of this staff is why did Witt not recover from his injury, why did two transfers lose their season to injury and are Harrison and Shaw largely ineffective because they have not fully recovered from their injuries?  That’s your damn staff right there.  Maybe it’s coincidental.  Maybe it’s the training regimen.  Meaningful contributions from 2 or 3 could have dramatically changed the season.

Defining roles and continuous engagement of players are two of Pierces biggest shortfalls.  That’s with his pitching staff and his lineup.

Just because there’s a small contingent that reflect some positivity and call out some bs doesn’t mean we’re satisfied with the season.  At the same time, the most important part of the season is in front of us.

[TexTone 3]

4 hours ago, TornACL said:

You keep trying to make this argument, but the "unacceptable" nature of the UTRGV loss was walking or hitting 20 fucking batters and being down 13-1 or whatever the fuck it was. 

It only highlighted, again, that the pitching coach hasn't reached much of this staff, and/or hasn't adequately recruited arms.

Torn ACL nailed it.  Bottom line....DP is not recruiting the right arms and not developing the arms that he has.  The best pitch in baseball is first pitch strike one, here it comes batter, hit it if you can.  75% of the staff must face 3 or 4 hitters (if they are in the game that long) before they even get ahead in the count.  A total meltdown in recruiting and development of pitching.  

[ztejas 43,411]

8 hours ago, Had Enough said:

The walks and hit batters in that game is largely an anomaly.

It isn't an anomaly we've all watched this team play shitty baseball all fucking season. They had FIVE errors Friday night. Guess that's an "anomaly", too.

It's like y'all are selectively focusing on the 2/3 of the time this season that the team plays passable baseball and not the 1/3 of the season where they look like a fucking hillbilly juco team. 

[Balcones 318]

3 hours ago, ztejas said:

It isn't an anomaly we've all watched this team play shitty baseball all fucking season. They had FIVE errors Friday night. Guess that's an "anomaly", too. 

You should look up the word anomaly.

I can’t remember another game this season where we had 5, 4 or even 3 errors.  

[Had Enough 2,075]

3 hours ago, ztejas said:

It isn't an anomaly we've all watched this team play shitty baseball all fucking season. They had FIVE errors Friday night. Guess that's an "anomaly", too.

It's like y'all are selectively focusing on the 2/3 of the time this season that the team plays passable baseball and not the 1/3 of the season where they look like a fucking hillbilly juco team. 

We are 67th (4th in the Big 12) of 295 teams in fielding percentage.  If we’ve had 5 errors in another game, I don’t remember it.

82nd (5th in Big 12) in terms of walks per 9.   Against UTRGV, we had 20 walks and XBH.  I don’t recall that in another game.  That’s horrendous.  We tried pitcher after pitcher, and it was similar results.  

So yes I’d call those anomalies.

Throw out those two games and we’re still a mediocre team.  Include them.  Still mediocre.  That likely won’t change.  But the hope is they get hot at the right time.

[BurntOrange&White 39,930]

"mediocre"

"hope"

 

lol

[ClubWhatever 12,120]

24 minutes ago, Balcones said:

You should look up the word anomaly.

I can’t remember another game this season where we had 5, 4 or even 3 errors.  

We had 3 in a game 1 loss against Tech and 4 in the finale win against UW.  Atrocious defense has reared itself on several occasions and not just these.  As has great defense.   Most of the time it's nothing special but good enough.  Inconsistency is the theme of this team.