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2022 Texas Baseball


Balcones

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TCU and Texas Tech lost incredible amounts of pitching to the draft.  TCU lost 5, 4 who are for sure going to sign.  Tech lost 5 pitchers, they're all signing.  Tech also lost 4 position players to the draft, 3 of whom are signing.  By contrast, we lost 3 pitchers---with Kubichek still being a signing question mark---crazy to think as good as he is, he still might only be our 4th best starter next year.  We are losing Zubia and Cam at the corners and Antico in Center.  \

That hurts, but if Melendez comes back, 1 of our recruits works out at DH or a grad transfer...our lineup should be just as good top-to-bottom as this year, certainly in the top half of the league.  Defense should the best in the league.  And pitching should be best in the league, again also based a little on how much our competition lost to the draft/graduation.  

Oklahoma State is a darkhorse to contend for the league next season.  They are coming back largely in tact (2 players likely signing) and they got a good recruiting class.  I think they jump Tech and are now the third best team in the league.  

I know Omaha is the goal, but there is very little reason we shouldn't take a second straight Big XII title next season.  I think TCU is great next year but finishes 2-3 games behind us.  

Edited by Lobo
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I completely concur, I was just thinking back to some folks not terribly worried during that Tech-TCU-WVU stretch to close the season about us winning the Big XII.  But we did well enough at 5-4 to bring home that hardware and I was damn proud of the team for doing that. 

We've never been a program in baseball or basketball that relied on some underdog run in those conference tournaments to make the larger post-season bracket (it's happened a couple of times but very rarely).  We are a schedule big dogs in the non-conference and win your regular season and get seeded appropriately in the respective NCAA tournaments kind of programs.  So the conference tournaments in those two sports are rightfully overlooked by Texas fans (not saying the coaches aren't competitive in them).  Many other programs rely on them heavily.  Having said that, I think the regular season of baseball is much more important than the regular season of basketball.  In baseball, that regular season Big XII tourney means a lot and looks nice up there with our 70+ other ones.  In college basketball, only thing we'd notice about a Longhorn regular season title is it would mean Kansas didn't win it...that's really the only big deal IMO.  I liked that we won a few during Barnes but nothing about that hardware stands out in my mind.  But I remember the conference clinchers at Disch Falk very clearly.  Speaking of all that, it'd be nice to win a Big XII championship in football again.  Second most powerful program in the conference and we've won jackshit in a long time.  We could win every single Big XII Championship for now until the end of the decade and we'd still trail Oklahoma by multiple titles.  

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Well at least he didn't drag it out.  Congrats to Kolby.  Mets went fairly pitcher heavy this draft, 12 of first 18 picks were pitchers. Interestingly, all 20 of their picks were college guys.  Anyway, the competition to get to High-A next year is gonna be stiff for Kolby.  Fortunately for him, Mets farm system is shitty, it's top heavy, and he can develop a fourth pitch and move up rapidly with his 3-pitch suite to date.  

Only one left to sweat is Melendez.  Marlins farm system is deep and talented, top-to-bottom.  He needs to find a place in the field which may effect signing bonus offers.  Probably a good chance he signs and spends this summer and next season at the spring training complex working out at 1b or 3b.  I'm blissfully thinking he comes back though.  

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4 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Well at least he didn't drag it out.  Congrats to Kolby.  Mets went fairly pitcher heavy this draft, 12 of first 18 picks were pitchers. Interestingly, all 20 of their picks were college guys.  Anyway, the competition to get to High-A next year is gonna be stiff for Kolby.  Fortunately for him, Mets farm system is shitty, it's top heavy, and he can develop a fourth pitch and move up rapidly with his 3-pitch suite to date.  

Only one left to sweat is Melendez.  Marlins farm system is deep and talented, top-to-bottom.  He needs to find a place in the field which may effect signing bonus offers.  Probably a good chance he signs and spends this summer and next season at the spring training complex working out at 1b or 3b.  I'm blissfully thinking he comes back though.  

Congrats to Kolby.

Maybe I'm just selfish, but I believe that Ivan could really help himself by coming back.  That assumes that he could earn a spot in the field and play it well.  Also consistently controlling the strike zone like he did in Omaha after that game 1 single off Landon Sims.

Wish him well either way.

 

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6 hours ago, Lobo said:

I know Omaha is the goal, but there is very little reason we shouldn't take a second straight Big XII title next season.

Zero reason to not win the B12. Outside of like 5 freak injuries. Expectations are a bitch but they exist for a reason.

As for Kolby - I'm honestly not sure how much he would have pitched this coming season. 

I think Ivan comes back with NIL being what it is. If he hits 15+ homers he'll cash in pretty well I think. 

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8 hours ago, ztejas said:

Zero reason to not win the B12. Outside of like 5 freak injuries. Expectations are a bitch but they exist for a reason.

As for Kolby - I'm honestly not sure how much he would have pitched this coming season. 

I think Ivan comes back with NIL being what it is. If he hits 15+ homers he'll cash in pretty well I think. 

I do wonder how much a good baseball player can make at Texas via NIL.  A $100k MLB bonus doesn’t go very far when you factor in you won’t be getting paid anything meaningful until you reach the majors which takes 2-3 years.  Surely a guy like Melendez can cobble together $50k in endorsements which combined with the free education room and board gets awful close.  I would think moving forward unless a guy is guaranteed to go in the top 5-6 rounds and secure a $300k+ bonus it’s almost a no brainer to come back.  That doesn’t necessarily apply to this year because the NIL stuff is just getting rolled out, but future years should be more predictable.

Edited by Snake Diggity
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7 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:

I do wonder how much a good baseball player can make at Texas via NIL.  A $100k MLB bonus doesn’t go very far when you factor in you won’t be getting paid anything meaningful until you reach the majors which takes 2-3 years.  Surely a guy like Melendez can cobble together $50k in endorsements which combined with the free education room and board gets awful close.  I would think moving forward unless a guy is guaranteed to go in the top 5-6 rounds and secure a $300k+ bonus it’s almost a no brainer to come back.  That doesn’t necessarily apply to this year because the NIL stuff is just getting rolled out, but future years should be more predictable.

Does this mean I have to give Ivan a cut of my "Hispanic Titanic" t-shirt revenue? 

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20 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

Do we have big baseball boosters? I mean that is where I would put all my booster dollars if I was rich but I thought the big money in Texas only cares about football.

There’s money everywhere, so I’m sure there’s some ballers who care about Texas baseball.  But I keep waiting for an organization to pop up that organizes peons to sponsor athletes.  I am clueless about the rules, but what’s to keep a group like the Texas Exes from soliciting donations from members to sponsor athletes?

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3 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:

I like Gordon too, but I think Southard is better. 

I keep forgetting about Southhard. I like the idea of Gordon on Tuesday’s but how many more lefties do we have? It’d be nice to have 1 or 2 in the pen

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D1 baseball has a good transfer portal tracker.  I don't have a subscription.  But I'm guessing things will be heating up here next week as draft deadline as well as matriculation deadlines at new schools fast approach.  

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24 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:

I am gruntled. 

And the rest of the Big XII is now 'fettered' with challenges from Texas.

We've got ourselves an infield, folks.  Ardoin-Melendez-Daly-Messinger-Faltine.  Defense at the corners is a bit of a question mark, but it's as good as it gets with the 3 up the middle.  Outfield has the talent and depth, just need to sort it out.  Odd man out DHs.  5 guys competing for the 4 rotation spots.  Couple bullpen question marks is about all I can think of.  gonna need a couple guys to step up on the basepaths as well.  

Carr committing last weekend to top off a great run by Beard, 28 Longhorns heading to Tokyo to compete, Osterman's great 1-hitter in the olympics earlier/later today, P.J. Tucker gets an NBA ring, Ivan and Tristan coming back to the Disch.  

Pretty good week to be a Longhorn, particularly when you consider it's late-July and there ain't shit going on in terms of actual college sports.  

Oh, and also...less than two weeks to summer camp for Sarkisian and the team.  Which, strangely, is the least exciting prospect to me right now.  

Edited by Lobo
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32 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Oh, and also...less than two weeks to summer camp for Sarkisian and the team.  Which, strangely, is the least exciting prospect to me right now.  

Part of my dread for next football season comes from the fact that, looking at the schedule, we should be able to beat everybody on it besides OU...and the knowledge we probably are not going to do that. Which I find rather disheartening.

But hey just get to the Big 12 Title game please Sark.

But damn I cannot wait until baseball season. We are going to be awesome.

Edited by Valmy77
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Sark is gonna do great long-term here, I have zero doubt about that.  He is the opposite in so many ways of Mack 2.0 ('10-'14), Charlie, and Herman.  All their worst traits, Sark offsets.  While I'm excited about the stadium being fully bowled-in now, other than OSU, the schedule next year is shit (not our fault that Tech and KSU are mediocre, at best...shit, our second biggest game might be ULL).  But we're gonna see strides until 2022 at the soonest.  We're not gonna contend for the Big XII next year.  OKL and ISU are markedly better than us.  

The barrage though of volleyball, then basketball, then baseball.  2021-22 is going to be another filthy year on the 40 acres and we just had a fucking fantastic year.  Show me a loss in any other sport! !!!

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38 minutes ago, Lobo said:

And the rest of the Big XII is now 'fettered' with challenges from Texas.

We've got ourselves an infield, folks.  Ardoin-Melendez-Daly-Messinger-Faltine.  Defense at the corners is a bit of a question mark, but it's as good as it gets with the 3 up the middle.  Outfield has the talent and depth, just need to sort it out.  Odd man out DHs.  5 guys competing for the 4 rotation spots.  Couple bullpen question marks is about all I can think of.  gonna need a couple guys to step up on the basepaths as well.  

Carr committing last weekend to top off a great run by Beard, 28 Longhorns heading to Tokyo to compete, Osterman's great 1-hitter in the olympics earlier/later today, P.J. Tucker gets an NBA ring, Ivan and Tristan coming back to the Disch.  

Pretty good week to be a Longhorn, particularly when you consider it's late-July and there ain't shit going on in terms of actual college sports.  

Oh, and also...less than two weeks to summer camp for Sarkisian and the team.  Which, strangely, is the least exciting prospect to me right now.  

After 2010-2019's lost decade, sure feels like Texas is moving into a new decade with new leadership in Bellmont and competent, hungry head coaches who want championships. 

Versus going into the 2010s with a bunch of burnt out coaches just coasting for retirement checks and a checked out AD and university president which led into a bunch of incompetent coaches and incompetent AD. 

Edited by Js1
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