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2018 Texas Baseball Thread


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14 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

I do not think that a search is going poorly just because you get turned down a lot. It depends on the goals of the search. If you really are going after only the very best coaches well you can expect to be turned down. They are at places they where they are loved and winning. A high risk/high reward search is going to get turned down several times unless you just get lucky like Texas did in 1996.

It also helps that Texas is one of the main, if not the most persistent, Blue Blood programs out there.   

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True but I was still shocked, very pleasantly shocked, that Garrido actually agreed to come here. His CSF teams beat the hell out of us the last few years of Coach Gus. It was sort of like if Texas Football had hired away Bo Schembechler in 1976.

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20 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

I do not think that a search is going poorly just because you get turned down a lot. It depends on the goals of the search. If you really are going after only the very best coaches well you can expect to be turned down. They are at places they where they are loved and winning. A high risk/high reward search is going to get turned down several times unless you just get lucky like Texas did in 1996.

Our search turned out to be a blessing in disguise, so far at least.  There were definitely names thought to be above Pierce's that I didn't really want at the time, and now a year later, definitely would not want over Pierce. 

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3 hours ago, UT Lawnghorn said:

Our search turned out to be a blessing in disguise, so far at least.  There were definitely names thought to be above Pierce's that I didn't really want at the time, and now a year later, definitely would not want over Pierce. 

Agreed. Funny thing is that when we hired Pierce, I didn’t think he “looked the part”. Don’t know what that means exactly, but at this point I wouldn’t prefer anyone else in our dugout. 

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True but I was still shocked, very pleasantly shocked, that Garrido actually agreed to come here. His CSF teams beat the hell out of us the last few years of Coach Gus. It was sort of like if Texas Football had hired away Bo Schembechler in 1976.

Or nick saban a few years back
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Agreed. Funny thing is that when we hired Pierce, I didn’t think he “looked the part”. Don’t know what that means exactly, but at this point I wouldn’t prefer anyone else in our dugout. 

He’s definitely done what is required this year and it looks really freaking bright for next too.
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Congratulations to Parker.    "Cali Kid" does well.   Met Parker couple of years ago.   He has the personality of an attorney (meant as compliment).    :)

 

University of Texas rower Shannon Barry and baseball player Parker Joe Robinson have been named recipients of the 2017-18 Dr. Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarships, the Big 12 Conference office announced Thursday.

 

Criteria for these awards include a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, participation in at least two years of intercollegiate athletics at the scholar-athlete's respective institution and completion of athletics' eligibility. The scholar-athletes also must graduate from their respective member institutions within 15 months of their selection as postgraduate scholarship recipients and are expected to enroll in graduate/professional schools within two years of graduation. Three faculty representatives, one senior woman administrator and one director of athletics form the selection panel for the awards

Robinson plans to attend Marymount University for graduate school and pursue a law degree starting in Fall 2018. He earned his bachelor's degree in Sport Management with a Business Foundations Certificate in May.

https://texassports.com/news/2018/6/7/baseball-barry-robinson-earn-big-12-dr-prentice-gautt-postgraduate-scholarships.aspx

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On 6/6/2018 at 5:27 PM, texasstrong12 said:

Not sure but:

A&M is just ahead of us at #8. They will lose 3 in Rodriguez, Naylor and Englert. 

Louisville at #7 will likely lose 2 in Schnell and Kelenic. Maybe 3 in Wright. 

Miss State at #6 had 6 or 7 signees drafted. Not sure how many are expected to sign though. 

Tennessee is at #5 and they're only ranked high because they have 25 signees. It looks like most of their top prospects were drafted too. 

Recruiting rankings are complete bullshit in almost all sports but even more so in baseball.

Just let me see what 25 show up on the field next season and that is all anyone should worry about.

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20 minutes ago, spystud13 said:

This is pretty good. 

 

 

I was told by a friend that Patrick Marsh,  bullpen catcher '13 grad, also a PE major with honors,  received a 100K bonus for signing with the same company.   Oil was much higher in '13,  don't know if Jake will be as fortunate.   

Just  searched for Patrick on twitter.    He is still an avid Texas Baseball fan.

https://twitter.com/pmarsh42?lang=en

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Not Texas, but FSU's Mike Martin is getting a farewell season in Tallahassee next year.

I hope some team isn't going to be screwed out of a regional/super host to give MM a better chance to get to Omaha one last time.

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Will be interesting to see how fans respond, kind of a wasted tenure with no titles and all those appearances. I know we would be pissed, I mean we had one title with Mack Brown and were mad as hell he didn’t win more.

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We're about to see what Pierce can do with top 10 type classes. This is probably the least talented roster Pierce will have at Texas. 

'14 recruiting class (16th)

'15 (23rd)

'16 (24th)

'17 (not top 100)

...............................................................................................................................................

'18 (9th but will rise after they readjust based on the draft)

'19 (9th)

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Helluva last couple months gentlemen.  Sorry it had to end this way.  But if somebody wants to start playing the roster game (particularly a new, clean thread after the early July signing deadline), I think there's a lot to look forward to.  Only pissy part is how we started popping up/striking out like it was the Miles Davis of cool the last few games.  

I think we're in for a very tough league next year, with us at the top of the heap.  

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3 minutes ago, Revolution512 said:

We basically need an entire new pitching staff, there’s a ton to figure out.

I don't know that we're losing as many arms as people think.  Two key injuries are back next year that we didn't see much of this year.  All but 1 recruits are likely reporting to the mound at this point as well.  

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16 minutes ago, Revolution512 said:

We basically need an entire new pitching staff, there’s a ton to figure out.

Meh. Henley and Bocchi are likely returning. There's certainly some question marks in the starting rotation. 

I think our bullpen will be much better next year. Quality FR arms coming in, likely improvement from Fields/Elder, plus getting Diaz back. That doesn't include Ridgeway who hopefully gets out of his funk. Maybe Sawyer returns too? 

The bullpen was pieced together all year but the fact it didn't collapse had a lot more to do with coaching than the arms. We will have better arms coming out of the pen next year. 

 

 

 

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16 minutes ago, Lobo said:

I don't know that we're losing as many arms as people think.  Two key injuries are back next year that we didn't see much of this year.  All but 1 recruits are likely reporting to the mound at this point as well.  

We're losing a lot less this year in terms of pitching than we did last year. 

Last year we lost 3/4 starters (Cooper, Johnston, Kennedy) and then several bullpen arms too (Mayes, Schimpf, Malmin). 

 

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Henley needs to put it together. He’s got 4 pitches and great stuff but he hasn’t learned to pitch yet. We should have some better arm talent but not a lot of proven guys at this level.

Sawyer is interesting. He could easily get drafted higher with a good season but I could understand his concern with returning.

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19 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

We're losing a lot less this year in terms of pitching than we did last year. 

Last year we lost 3/4 starters (Cooper, Johnston, Kennedy) and then several bullpen arms too (Mayes, Schimpf, Malmin). 

 

Sort of. We'll probably lose Kingham, Shugart, Sawyer, PJR, and McGuire.   We definitely lost more talent last year, but we also have less talent to replace what we lost this year (barring some freshmen phenoms), so I think the impact on the team will be similar.  Next year will probably be a healthy step back, especially losing Kody's production, with 2020 being the year we rebound when a lot of the elite arms we bring in this recruiting class have some seasoning.

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Great season. Obviously this team had a load of weaknesses but it was the first time I really had fun watching Texas Baseball in awhile. They had this amazing ability to look great and get us all excited and then collapse for a few games and it happened one more time. But now I think I have seen enough to believe that Coach Pierce could be the guy to get us back to consistent excellence. He got a ton out of this club and was able to push the buttons to overcome their shortcomings. Almost everybody on the roster got better from last year or as the year went on.

Last year we overachieved in the Regional and nearly won it and this year we did break through, taking down some pretty good teams in A&M, Indiana, and Tennessee Tech. We won the conference title, I mean yes the Big 12 was down but still that was an achievement. Here is hoping they build on this year like they built on what they did last year.

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14 minutes ago, UT Lawnghorn said:

Sort of. We'll probably lose Kingham, Shugart, Sawyer, PJR, and McGuire.   We definitely lost more talent last year, but we also have less talent to replace what we lost this year (barring some freshmen phenoms), so I think the impact on the team will be similar.  Next year will probably be a healthy step back, especially losing Kody's production, with 2020 being the year we rebound when a lot of the elite arms we bring in this recruiting class have some seasoning.

We might not make Omaha again dependent on the draw but I think the team will be better next year. 

We return almost everyone in the lineup with elite arms coming in. 

Sawyer, PJR and McGuire weren't even guys the staff thought would throw many innings this year. You're overvaluing the losses in arms like you did with bats last year. Replacing guys like Sawyer, PJR and McGuire is not difficult. That's not to discredit what they did this year, but those aren't significant losses by any means. I do hope Sawyer comes back simply because he's a lefty which we lack on the roster. 

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5 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

We might not make Omaha again dependent on the draw but I think the team will be better next year. 

We return almost everyone in the lineup with elite arms coming in. 

Sawyer, PJR and McGuire weren't even guys the staff thought would throw many innings this year. You're overvaluing the losses in arms like you did with bats last year. Replacing guys like Sawyer, PJR and McGuire is not difficult. That's not to discredit what they did this year, but those aren't significant losses by any means. I do hope Sawyer comes back simply because he's a lefty which we lack on the roster. 

I don't remember overvaluing the loss of bats or even really commenting on it. ha But the main loss is Kingham and Shugart. I mean who do we have to replace that?  Bocci and Fields, or hoping for a freshman?  I think the progression with a lot of returning bats will mostly just go towards filling the void Kody leaves.  It seems to me like you're undervaluing the losses, but maybe Pierce will bring in some JUCOs or something.  Either way, it's probably too premature to give any meaningful projection, so I'll let it go at this point.

The second half of this season (excluding htis weekend. lulz) was one of the most enjoyable stretches of UT sports in a long freaking time. This team was a joy to follow, and I'm looking forward to next year.

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10 minutes ago, UT Lawnghorn said:

I don't remember overvaluing the loss of bats or even really commenting on it. ha But the main loss is Kingham and Shugart. I mean who do we have to replace that?  Bocci and Fields, or hoping for a freshman?  I think the progression with a lot of returning bats will mostly just go towards filling the void Kody leaves.  It seems to me like you're undervaluing the losses, but maybe Pierce will bring in some JUCOs or something.  Either way, it's probably too premature to give any meaningful projection, so I'll let it go at this point.

The second half of this season (excluding htis weekend. lulz) was one of the most enjoyable stretches of UT sports in a long freaking time. This team was a joy to follow, and I'm looking forward to next year.

1) We had this exact conversation last year about the bats. http://www.shaggytexas.com/board/showthread.php/179603-2018-Texas-Baseball/page2

UT Lawnghorn:

"Not sure about wins, but I expect this team to average about .5 runs per game next year."

TexasStrong12: 

"People are drastically overvaluing the losses in terms of bats. We were one of the worst hitting teams in the country for 3 years with this group of players. We aren't losing Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron here, we're losing average to below average college hitters (excluding Clemens). Outside of experience, this group of players are pretty easy to replace in terms of talent. 

Matter of fact, I bet we are a better hitting team next year. The additions of Hibbeler, Fields and Zubia are significant. Getting a fully healthy Clemens back and Baker back from injury will have an impact. Then I bet you see improvement from the FR (Hamilton, Todd and Reynolds). 

The biggest issue next year will be pitching. It's not easy to replace quality arms like Kennedy, Cooper and Johnston. Those guys actually had talent and produced on the college level. We have to replace pitching production. Not so much in terms of hitting."

2) Same thing applies to pitching next year. I love what PJR, Sawyer, and Mcguire contributed this year. But they were pretty much non-contributors until this year and are replaceable talents. If anything PJR, Sawyer, and McGuire types should give you hope for next year. Haig did a good job of piecing the bullpen together with guys very few even expected to pitch this year. 

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It doesn't seem like it based on how we finished but this was a substantially improved hitting team from previous years. 

2018:

Runs 47th, Slugging 50th, Batting Average 132nd

2017: 

Runs 139th, Slugging 178th, Batting Average 263rd

2016: 

Runs 153rd, Slugging 138th, Batting Average 169th

2015: 

Runs 193rd, Slugging 137th, Batting Average 227th

2014: 

Runs: 111th, Slugging 173rd, Batting Average 186th

2013: 

Runs: 276th, Slugging 212th, Batting Average 217th

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14 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

It doesn't seem like it based on how we finished but this was a substantially improved hitting team from previous years. 

2018:

Runs 47th, Slugging 50th, Batting Average 132nd

2017: 

Runs 139th, Slugging 178th, Batting Average 263rd

2016: 

Runs 153rd, Slugging 138th, Batting Average 169th

2015: 

Runs 193rd, Slugging 137th, Batting Average 227th

2014: 

Runs: 111th, Slugging 173rd, Batting Average 186th

2013: 

Runs: 276th, Slugging 212th, Batting Average 217th

Totally different offensive mindset in these numbers.  It’s like comparing Darrell Royals teams passing stats to that Mack Browns teams. 

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