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2024 Texas Baseball


Hookem2147

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Spoiler

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Baseball head coach David Pierce has announced the reorganization of his staff with Steve Rodriguez, Philip Miller and Caleb Longley serving as full time assistant coaches, while Troy Tulowitzki returns to the staff as Director of Player Development.

Additionally, Chris Gordon will continue in his role as Coordinator of Hitting and Pitching Development and Carli Todd will transition to Director of Operations.

"This reorganization of our staff creates a good balance in all phases of the game," Pierce said. "With Philip returning to an on-field coaching position, joining Rod and Caleb, we have an outstanding group in place to handle the offense, defense and recruiting. I'm excited to return to managing the pitching staff, a role I held for several years. Chris Gordonwill also continue to be a great asset to our program with his experience running a pitching staff as well as his ability to provide our staff with valuable information and analytics. Lastly, bringing Tulo back to the program in a development role will be outstanding for the growth of both our players and our program."

Pierce takes over the primary pitching coach responsibilities for the 2024 season, a role he is very familiar with. In addition to serving as pitching coach at Rice from 2006-11, Pierce managed his pitching staffs as head coach at Sam Houston and Tulane and in his first two seasons at Texas.

Tulowitzki re-joins the Texas Baseball program after serving as an assistant coach from 2020-22. The 13-year Major League Baseball veteran and five-time All-Star was in a consulting role last season with the program. With Tulowitzki on the coaching staff, the Longhorns made back-to-back College World Series appearances and had the program's first Golden Spikes Award winner Ivan Melendez.

Miller returns to the on-field coaching staff after one season in the role of Special Assistant to the Head Coach. Prior to the 2023 season, Miller served as an assistant coach at Texas for six seasons and has served on Pierce's staffs for 12 seasons at three universities. Miller will recruit and work with the infielders and hitters, while also coordinating the offensive gameplan.

Rodriguez joined the Longhorns' coaching staff prior to the 2023 season after 19 seasons as a Division I head coach between Pepperdine and Baylor, compiling 598 career wins and 11 NCAA postseason appearances. In his role, he will continue to recruit and work with the catchers, while also coaching the short game and base running. Last season, Texas finished 19th nationally with a .979 fielding percentage and infielders Peyton Powell and Jared Thomas had breakout seasons.

Longley enters his third season with the program in 2024 and will coach outfielders and hitters, while also adding the role of recruiting coordinator. He joined the program as Coordinator of Hitting and Pitching Development in 2022 and transitioned into an assistant coach position for the 2023 season. Last season, working with the outfielders and hitters he helped guide Dylan Campbell and Porter Brown to First Team All-Big 12 recognition while Eric Kennedy hit a career-high 17 home runs.

Gordon enters his second season as Coordinator, Hitting and Pitching Development after spending six seasons on the baseball staff at Duke. Gordon managed all analytics for the program and worked closely with the pitching staff that finished 10th nationally in earned run average and saw Lucas Gordon and Lebarron Johnson Jr. receive All-America recognition.

Todd transitions to Director of Operations after serving in an interim role during the 2023 season. Going into her ninth season with the program in 2024, Todd was Director of Player Development from 2019-23 after spending her first three seasons as Assistant Media Relations Director.

 

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1 hour ago, Rickylovesweed said:

Out of Galvan and Flores, I would be really shocked if at least 1 of those guys doesn't end up being a very good player. 

Both were big-time prospects and Tulo/Pierce will develop them. 

 

Tulo will be a massive benefit for Flores.

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We’ll see the impact Tulo has. He will be helpful but not sure to what extent. There are restrictions in place on what he can do since it is an off-field role and not a volunteer/paid assistant. He technically isn’t allowed to do any on field instruction, throw BP, get in the cages with guys, etc. 

Essentially think of Gary Patterson’s role with the football team and what he could/couldn’t do. I’m sure he will be spending a lot of time scouting, developing gameplans with the other coaches and communicating to them what adjustments certain guys might need to make.

Edited by Hookem2147
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Can any of y'all confirm whether Morehouse went to Dawson HS in Dawson, TX or Dawson HS in Pearland, TX?  I always thought he went to Dawson in Pearland. However, if he went to Dawson HS in Dawson, TX, I completely understand why his dad is such a buffoon.  I used to duck hunt near there and it was like deliverance.  Just gassing up the boat you would run into people who the Supreme Court says cant be executed for capital crimes. 

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3 hours ago, Cousin Strawberry said:

Can any of y'all confirm whether Morehouse went to Dawson HS in Dawson, TX or Dawson HS in Pearland, TX?  I always thought he went to Dawson in Pearland. However, if he went to Dawson HS in Dawson, TX, I completely understand why his dad is such a buffoon.  I used to duck hunt near there and it was like deliverance.  Just gassing up the boat you would run into people who the Supreme Court says cant be executed for capital crimes. 

Dawson, Texas. From nearby Hubbard, attended Dawson High. 

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14 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

We’ll see the impact Tulo has. He will be helpful but not sure to what extent. There are restrictions in place on what he can do since it is an off-field role and not a volunteer/paid assistant. He technically isn’t allowed to do any on field instruction, throw BP, get in the cages with guys, etc. 

Essentially think of Gary Patterson’s role with the football team and what he could/couldn’t do. I’m sure he will be spending a lot of time scouting, developing gameplans with the other coaches and communicating to them what adjustments certain guys might need to make.

You mean during games or practice? Pretty sure Patterson was "coaching" at practice. 

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8 minutes ago, BERT said:

You mean during games or practice? Pretty sure Patterson was "coaching" at practice. 

Both. I'm sure teams there is gray area and teams bend the rules but he technically isn't allowed to coach players in practices or games. He is allowed to meet with recruits on campus but can't recruit off campus. It is a "coach the coaches" type role.

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5 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Both. I'm sure teams there is gray area and teams bend the rules but he technically isn't allowed to coach players in practices or games. He is allowed to meet with recruits on campus but can't recruit off campus. It is a "coach the coaches" type role.

Teams have been pretty much ignoring that rule for years with little to no repercussions. 

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6 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Both. I'm sure teams there is gray area and teams bend the rules but he technically isn't allowed to coach players in practices or games. He is allowed to meet with recruits on campus but can't recruit off campus. It is a "coach the coaches" type role.

Gotcha 

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6 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Both. I'm sure teams there is gray area and teams bend the rules but he technically isn't allowed to coach players in practices or games. He is allowed to meet with recruits on campus but can't recruit off campus. It is a "coach the coaches" type role.

Do you know if there is an NCAA rule on how many coaches can be in the dugout ?   

A cursory google search provided no info.

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1 minute ago, bEastTexas said:

Teams have been pretty much ignoring that rule for years with little to no repercussions. 

Oh I'm sure. I'm not gonna pretend Tulo is just going to sit behind a desk all day. I just think some people believe they will see the camera pan to him in the dugout making in-game swing adjustments with guys and telling them what to do and that is not going to be the case.

His biggest impact will likely be felt from a gameplanning perspective and collaborating with the other coaches on how to handle the development of certain hitters. 

1 minute ago, torre said:

Do you know if there is an NCAA rule on how many coaches can be in the dugout ?   

A cursory google search provided no info.

Not sure. NCAA has probably never had to worry about that considering how most baseball programs are staffed.

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Wow, buncha teams I fucking hate on that bill.  but that's cool they're making use of that nice stadium to have some big-time programs compete.  if I lived up that way, that'd be a great way to get my college hardball fix to sustain me.  Our tourney in Houston's gonna be fantastic.  

Anybody know what else we got going on for non-conf marquee games?  Certainly get making a trip to California, and while I appreciate Coach's connections to Louisiana schools, I'm a little bored with Tulane, UNO, or Xavier every other fucking year.  Make it a 2-game midweek, sure.  But 3-4 games over a weekend series is beyond its time.  

As stated earlier, with the new UT academic calendar shift by 2 weeks...we will 2 weekends between finals and conf. tourney instead of the usual 1.  So could make for interesting non-conf. options in May as we saw with San Jose State this past season.  

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Has the Big 12 said if they are increasing to 27 or 30 games with the new teams coming in? That will probably drive some of the scheduling decisions. We are already confirmed for Minute Maid the first weekend of March against LSU, Texas State and Vandy. 

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Man, not trying to blow smoke up anyone’s ass but I just listened to the interview and it’s been a while since I’ve heard Pierce sound that confident. Mentioned multiple times how he’s adapted and will continue to adapt. Felt good to hear him say he’s all-in on NIL and doing what he needs to do to help raise the money.

Seemed to be dialed in to the players during the draft process and talked about how he was on the phone with agents/advisors of guys to try to work stuff out. He made it sound like they were pretty damn close to getting Campbell back.

I liked what I heard. He was obviously extremely giddy about the starting pitching situation and how that looks with Witt, LBJ and Hurley back.

Edited by Hookem2147
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I would still prefer to get a starting pitcher and baseline catcher in the portal.  I don’t think that it is necessary to have a good season but do think it would push us to the top of the conference and make us a very good candidate to get to Omaha.

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5 minutes ago, txhorns said:

I would still prefer to get a starting pitcher. 

There are no premium starting pitchers in the portal. 

There were really only 3. Holman (LSU), Molina (Arkansas), and Burns (WF). I think there's a ton of risk with Burns too who really struggled this past season in the SEC. There is already such a small pool of quality starters in college baseball that it's even a smaller pool in the portal. 

Allocating NIL to a starter now is just a waste of resources because we probably have better talent on campus. 

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15 minutes ago, txhorns said:

I would still prefer to get a starting pitcher and baseline catcher in the portal.

Pierce made a point to mention Schuessler when talking about catcher. Missed last season with injury but is playing this summer and hitting .288 in 59 AB's out in California.

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The more I've thought about this, I think Texas took the right approach with catcher. 

It looks to me like they swung big with Cannon Peebles but he's the only sure-fire stud in the portal. Schuessler, Galvan, Sanders ('23) were all big time prospects. 1 of these guys has to be good. 

All 3 were top 250 HS prospects (according to Perfect Game). We've stacked talent there....it's just unproven talent. 

 

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12 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

With Holman headed to LSU I have a tough time believing Montgomery is going anywhere other than Mississippi State. They are desperate.

Maybe but I think there's a lot of instability there. Lemonis is on the hot seat if they don't win this season. 

A lot of Miss State fans think Cannizaro's roster was a big part of his early success there. Speaking of Cannizaro, sure seems like he has a lot of issues. Such a shame because the dude can coach. 

https://www.nola.com/sports/high_schools/holy-cross-releases-baseball-coach-andy-cannizaro-just-before-playoffs/article_1f30cdd0-c595-11ec-a1bd-9b1704e18169.html

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2 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

Maybe but I think there's a lot of instability there. Lemonis is on the hot seat if they don't win this season. 

A lot of Miss State fans think Cannizaro's roster was a big part of his early success there. Speaking of Cannizaro, sure seems like he has a lot of issues. Such a shame because the dude can coach. 

https://www.nola.com/sports/high_schools/holy-cross-releases-baseball-coach-andy-cannizaro-just-before-playoffs/article_1f30cdd0-c595-11ec-a1bd-9b1704e18169.html

Brayden will only be at whatever school he goes to for one year anyway.

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53 minutes ago, chase25 said:

Brayden will only be at whatever school he goes to for one year anyway.

Yeah, but I don't think anybody wants to willingly join a team that has instability and with a coach on the hot seat. That's why I never viewed Miss State as a threat for Holman. I knew he was going to an SEC school with stability.

Being close to home and $ might have enough pull for Montgomery though. 

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13 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

Man, not trying to blow smoke up anyone’s ass but I just listened to the interview and it’s been a while since I’ve heard Pierce sound that confident. Mentioned multiple times how he’s adapted and will continue to adapt. Felt good to hear him say he’s all-in on NIL and doing what he needs to do to help raise the money.

Seemed to be dialed in to the players during the draft process and talked about how he was on the phone with agents/advisors of guys to try to work stuff out. He made it sound like they were pretty damn close to getting Campbell back.

I liked what I heard. He was obviously extremely giddy about the starting pitching situation and how that looks with Witt, LBJ and Hurley back.

Perhaps some course correction coming from powers that be with Pierce considering what CTJ has hinted at?

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14 minutes ago, MuellerHorn said:

Any idea why?

Numbers. They are going to have to cut a handful of kids after the fall so they are doing some a favor now by letting them go so they don’t waste a semester here.

Edited by Hookem2147
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2 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

Numbers. They are going to have to cut a handful of kids after the fall so they are doing some a favor now by letting them go so they don’t waste a semester here.

My bad, I should have been more specific. I certainly understand there will be a numbers crunch with unexpected upperclassmen back and such fortuitous draft results with high school recruits. 
 

I should have asked if Miranda was simply one of the bottom guys relative to the rest of the recruiting class, or if he saw a lack of opportunity in his future with the pitching additions via the portal, juco, and what Texas got back from the draft. Sounds like it’s the former. 

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12 minutes ago, MuellerHorn said:

My bad, I should have been more specific. I certainly understand there will be a numbers crunch with unexpected upperclassmen back and such fortuitous draft results with high school recruits. 
 

I should have asked if Miranda was simply one of the bottom guys relative to the rest of the recruiting class, or if he saw a lack of opportunity in his future with the pitching additions via the portal, juco, and what Texas got back from the draft. Sounds like it’s the former. 

Gotcha. I’m actually not sure which it was. Could have been a little of both. Miranda was probably middle of pack in terms of freshman arms we had coming in. It’s possible though that other arms were walk ons or taking less scholarship money, which always plays a role when you are navigating the 11.7 scholarships.

Edited by Hookem2147
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On 7/29/2023 at 12:16 AM, Hookem2147 said:

Gotcha. I’m actually not sure which it was. Could have been a little of both. Miranda was probably middle of pack in terms of freshman arms we had coming in. It’s possible though that other arms were walk ons or taking less scholarship money, which always plays a role when you are navigating the 11.7 scholarships.

Hope he finds the rights landing spot

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7 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

Flores up to .270 out in California. Has hits in 6 of his last 7 games.

.270/.323/.427 in 89 AB's. 6 doubles, 2 homers, 14 RBI's, 6 walks, 22 strikeouts.

This is why it's tough to balance the portal with young talent. 

Odds are at least one of Flores or Galvan will be good (if not both). You can't just run off every talented young player because they haven't produced in limited opportunities. 

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