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2023 Texas Baseball


Fletch

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Nothing new except the ticket usage:
 
Due to forecasted inclement weather in the Austin area, the schedule for the Texas vs Kansas State baseball series has been adjusted. The new dates are:
  • Friday, April 7th
  • Saturday, April 8th
  • Sunday, April 9th
GAME TIMES HAVE NOT BEEN FINALIZED AND WILL BE DETERMINED BASED ON THE WEATHER FORECAST. PLEASE CHECK TEXASSPORTS.COM AND TEXAS BASEBALL SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS FOR THE MOST UP TO DATE INFORMATION.
 
Tickets for Friday’s and Saturday’s game will still be honored as originally scheduled, including any tickets for Bark in the Park. Tickets for the game originally scheduled for Thursday, April 6th will now be honored on Sunday, April 9th.
 
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15 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

This is going to be an interesting stretch. 8 games in a 9 day stretch. Not sure how Pierce will handle pitching. 

Anyone else not a fan of the 2 midweek games during the middle of conference play?

I might be off, but how'd you come up with eight in nine days? They have two days off (W/Th) between Tx State and Baylor. However, I'm definitely not a fan of five in five and then eight in 10.

I can see why they thought this would be the best time to do it (if that was indeed the thought process) with the KSU series supposed to start a day earlier, but it sure seems risky in the middle of conference action. At least Baylor is hot garbage. We'll see, though. I would hate fatigue to be a reason Texas drops winnable games against the RPI 89 (TxSt) or 219 (Baylor) teams. Oh well, play ball!

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3 minutes ago, MuellerHorn said:

I might be off, but how'd you come up with eight in nine days? They have two days off (W/Th) between Tx State and Baylor. However, I'm definitely not a fan of five in five and then eight in 10.

I can see why they thought this would be the best time to do it (if that was indeed the thought process) with the KSU series supposed to start a day earlier, but it sure seems risky in the middle of conference action. At least Baylor is hot garbage. We'll see, though. I would hate fatigue to be a reason Texas drops winnable games against the RPI 89 (TxSt) or 219 (Baylor) teams. Oh well, play ball!

You’re right. I was thinking the Baylor series started on Thursday for some reason. 

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5 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

You’re right. I was thinking the Baylor series started on Thursday for some reason. 

 

3 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

The 2nd Texas State game will be a total coin flip because no telling who we throw in that game. Probably guys that have hardly pitched this season. 

All good. As you mentioned, I'm really curious to see how Pierce allocates starting pitching. I'm assuming it'll be Whitehead on Monday and then a BP game on Tuesday? Does Hurley get a start if he doesn't pitch Sunday? Without Shaw (do we know this for sure yet), the staff is even smaller.

Edited by MuellerHorn
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5 minutes ago, MuellerHorn said:

 

All good. As you mentioned, I'm really curious to see how Pierce allocates starting pitching. I'm assuming it'll be Whitehead on Monday and then a BP game on Tuesday? Does Hurley get a start if he doesn't pitch Sunday? Without Shaw (do we know this for sure yet), the staff is even smaller.

Tx State played Th/Th/Fri, so that's not ideal either. They'll be rested.

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13 minutes ago, MuellerHorn said:

I might be off, but how'd you come up with eight in nine days? They have two days off (W/Th) between Tx State and Baylor. However, I'm definitely not a fan of five in five and then eight in 10.

I can see why they thought this would be the best time to do it (if that was indeed the thought process) with the KSU series supposed to start a day earlier, but it sure seems risky in the middle of conference action. At least Baylor is hot garbage. We'll see, though. I would hate fatigue to be a reason Texas drops winnable games against the RPI 89 (TxSt) or 219 (Baylor) teams. Oh well, play ball!

I believe Pierce discussed this last year in terms of scheduling. You have to get 56 games on the schedule which means either a few double midweeks or several 4-game non conference series. It seems that Pierce prefers the former. We had our double midweeks super early in the season last year which stressed the pitching because Witt went down at the same time.

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11 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

He will be forced to give guys a chance who he never uses.  Like Grubbs.  
 

Did we ever find out about Shaw?   Was he even in the pen?

Is it too much to hope for back-to-back shutouts from Minchey and O'Banan?

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1 hour ago, Fletch said:

Well shit. Win tomorrow and we’re gonna need to sweep baylor and Kansas if we want to win the conference. Actually let’s just sweep everyone from here on out

TCU took their series against OSU, so that helps.

Need to win tomorrow and win the series against TCU for sure. I'm not worried about OU, Baylor, or Kansas, but KU is coming on as of late. They've won seven-straight and have taken the first two against WVU. Granted, that could just mean that WVU is not actually that good, as many of us predicted given their awful SOS.

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57 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Yeah, if 6-3 becomes 16-8 then it's ours.  I don't see any sweeps being necessary, although one would sure help.  I wouldn't want to be a fan of the teams looking up at us right now, that's for sure.

Fuck that. I want 9-0 over ou, baylor and tcu. 
 

@Hookem2147 got a scouting report on Kansas and West Virginia for the lazy?

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8 minutes ago, Fletch said:

Fuck that. I want 9-0 over ou, baylor and tcu. 
 

@Hookem2147 got a scouting report on Kansas and West Virginia for the lazy?

West Virginia and Kansas State are really similar in my eyes. Both have a really tough lefty at the top of their rotation and love to run on offense. Have a lot of speed in the lineup.

No idea on Kansas. Honestly have barely watched them play. I am really high on their coach though. He was an assistant at DBU for a long time and was a great recruiter before going to LSU for a year. He’ll have Kansas in a much better place in a few years.

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13 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

West Virginia and Kansas State are really similar in my eyes. Both have a really tough lefty at the top of their rotation and love to run on offense. Have a lot of speed in the lineup.

No idea on Kansas. Honestly have barely watched them play. I am really high on their coach though. He was an assistant at DBU for a long time and was a great recruiter before going to LSU for a year. He’ll have Kansas in a much better place in a few years.

Yeah Kansas is always somewhat solid. At least more solid than you’d expect. 
 

Another lefty we gotta face eh? Awesome….

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How we rank compared to the rest of the Big 12:

Batting Average: 5th

OBP: 7th

Slugging %: 4th

Homers: 4th

Stolen Bases: 5th

Walks: 7th

 

ERA: 1st

Batting average against: 1st

Homers allowed: 1st

Extra base hits allowed: 1st

Strikeouts: 2nd

Walks allowed: 7th

Fielding %: 3rd

Opponents stolen base success rate: 9th

Double plays turned: 2nd

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14 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

How we rank compared to the rest of the Big 12:

Batting Average: 5th

OBP: 7th

Slugging %: 4th

Homers: 4th

Stolen Bases: 5th

Walks: 7th

 

ERA: 1st

Batting average against: 1st

Homers allowed: 1st

Extra base hits allowed: 1st

Strikeouts: 2nd

Walks allowed: 7th

Fielding %: 3rd

Opponents stolen base success rate: 9th

Double plays turned: 2nd

That seems about normal for Texas Baseball.

Granted, we've had some great defensive catchers lately, so "Opponents stolen base success rate" could definitely be better than 9th. "Walks allowed" probably isn't 7th, on average, either. Oh, and Fielding % is usually 1st.

Edited by MuellerHorn
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4 minutes ago, MuellerHorn said:

That seems about normal for Texas Baseball. Granted, we've had some great defensive catchers lately, so "Opponents stolen base success rate" could definitely be better than ninth. "Walks allowed" probably isn't seventh, on average, either.

Just looked back at walks allowed in 2022 and 2021 and we were 4th and 3rd, respectively. 

Some of the stolen bases are on Guillemette and Galvan for sure, but our pitchers also haven't given them a chance in a lot of situations. We have some dudes with long deliveries, and guys like LBJ and Hurley are so tall and lanky that it takes a while for them to get going and get the ball to the plate. They get run on a lot.

Edited by Hookem2147
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Some data tidbits from looking at the team stats.
-On a productivity basis we look like our 2021 team with worse pitching
-The separation on our hitters is crazy. 1-5 have wOBAs in the 400s then O’Dowd, Daly, and Thomas are probably putting up bottom 10 worst hitting seasons under Pierce.
-Daly’s stats continue to look worse, even than last year. Weirdly he has a very similar statline the last two years to EK in 2021
-Galvan has 9 hits and 4 are HRs. He basically lives TTO
-Were giving up half the HR rate we did last year, which is basically all our improvement in pitching (a lot). Not sure if luck or what. Last year’s rate was a very weird outlier
-A lot more free passes this year. Sthele the only one keeping the walks under control. Hasn’t 100% played out, but Sthele looks a lot better stat wise than LBJ. Maybe narrows in later innings

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3 minutes ago, Spaceman_Spiff said:

-Were giving up half the HR rate we did last year, which is basically all our improvement in pitching (a lot). Not sure if luck or what. Last year’s rate was a very weird outlier
-A lot more free passes this year. Sthele the only one keeping the walks under control. Hasn’t 100% played out, but Sthele looks a lot better stat wise than LBJ. Maybe narrows in later innings

Well, these aren't mutually exclusive. Hit the zone less you're going to give up less HRs. I also feel like there were a ton of shitty pitches that got left up and blasted last season. It's possible we're still throwing those pitches and getting away with it.

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51 minutes ago, Spaceman_Spiff said:

Some data tidbits from looking at the team stats.
-On a productivity basis we look like our 2021 team with worse pitching
-The separation on our hitters is crazy. 1-5 have wOBAs in the 400s then O’Dowd, Daly, and Thomas are probably putting up bottom 10 worst hitting seasons under Pierce.
-Daly’s stats continue to look worse, even than last year. Weirdly he has a very similar statline the last two years to EK in 2021
-Galvan has 9 hits and 4 are HRs. He basically lives TTO
-Were giving up half the HR rate we did last year, which is basically all our improvement in pitching (a lot). Not sure if luck or what. Last year’s rate was a very weird outlier
-A lot more free passes this year. Sthele the only one keeping the walks under control. Hasn’t 100% played out, but Sthele looks a lot better stat wise than LBJ. Maybe narrows in later innings

I was thinking more in line with the 2018 team with better pitching when it comes to comparing to previous teams.

Walks are up about .5 per game compared to last year (3.53 vs 4.09). You want to be under 4 for sure. There isn’t a stat available for this from what I’ve seen but from the pitching side we are stranding a ton of runners this year. Could be a trend or could be something we are due for some negative regression on.

O’Dowd actually has a better average than 3 regular starters from the 2021 Omaha team, but his issue is that he never walks (Jared Thomas has a better OBP than him). He also doesn’t strike out a ton. He has a lot of weak contact.

Thomas is interesting. Not something to celebrate but he is above .230 for the first time…ever. Wouldn’t shock me at all if he ends the year around .240-250ish, which for a freshman who looked completely overmatched a month ago is a step in the right direction. His speed is also playing well (on track for 9-10 steals).

Edited by Hookem2147
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59 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Well, these aren't mutually exclusive. Hit the zone less you're going to give up less HRs. I also feel like there were a ton of shitty pitches that got left up and blasted last season. It's possible we're still throwing those pitches and getting away with it.

I can't quantify it, but I haven't noticed that we're getting away with a lot of bad pitches. At the same time, it seems that we're throwing many fewer terrible 2-strike pitches.  

And this guy is starting for the Bobcats tonight:

https://txst.com/sports/baseball/roster/peyton-zabel/10055

 

Edited by zlavydra
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16 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

There isn’t a stat available for this from what I’ve seen but from the pitching side we are stranding a ton of runners this year. Could be a trend or could be something we are due for some negative regression on.

I feel like we tend to get walks earlier in the inning and strikeouts later. It also seems like we've created a ton of routine ground balls with runners on base. Definitely playing with fire - and maybe that contact starts turning into hits. 

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I like the 2018 comparison. Deeper top of the lineup, but a much weaker 6-9 that balances to about even right now. If we could get Carlson in there or lift Thomas and O’Dowd a bit it’d be very exciting.

Better starters, and deeper pen overall, but missing that shutdown reliever duo we had in McGuire and PJR (man, who saw that coming). Witt and/or better play from 1 or 2 guys on the staff would really elevate this team to a potential contender.

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12 minutes ago, Spaceman_Spiff said:

I like the 2018 comparison. Deeper top of the lineup, but a much weaker 6-9 that balances to about even right now. If we could get Carlson in there or lift Thomas and O’Dowd a bit it’d be very exciting.

Better starters, and deeper pen overall, but missing that shutdown reliever duo we had in McGuire and PJR (man, who saw that coming). Witt and/or better play from 1 or 2 guys on the staff would really elevate this team to a potential contender.

Correct. That 2018 lineup really wasn’t that good and was also pretty weak at the bottom. We had Jake McKenzie, Petrinsky, Tate Shaw and Ryan Reynolds all hitting .256 or worse. McKenzie was basically Jared Thomas that year without the speed and Reynolds was very similar to Jack O’Dowd while getting hit by 18 pitches to inflate his OBP.

That 2018 team had no business sniffing Omaha. As you mentioned, the pitching in the pen was performing way over their head.

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22 minutes ago, zlavydra said:

Minchey gets the start in San Marcos tonight.

Minchey's dad was a MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) pitcher. 

It still amazing to me you can make a million bucks (or more) a year playing in the NPB hitting for just a .200 average.

NPB has the "beer girls" -- a definite plus!  Lulz.

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