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2024 Texas Baseball


Hookem2147

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1 hour ago, Balcones said:

Can we get back to the long-time assistant coach who just up and quit the team in mid season? No one has the inside scoop on what happened?

Some type of personal health reasons is the only thing I've heard. Not many people talking about it.

His absence ain't going to do much on the field because Longley/Tulo/Rodriguez were already the primary guys working with the hitters with Pierce/Gordon handling the pitching.

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3 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

Some type of personal health reasons is the only thing I've heard. Not many people talking about it.

His absence ain't going to do much on the field because Longley/Tulo/Rodriguez were already the primary guys working with the hitters with Pierce/Gordon handling the pitching.

Yeah even if he and Pierce were at odds, you don't just walk away from a job like that unless there is some outside issue. He couldn't even get another job until the offseason.

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23 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Yeah dude, I was being sarcastic.  Would RsBI be better?  We could do this all day.  

I think back almost monthly to a great exchange between Harry Carry and Steve Stone growing up in Chicago watching WGN Cubs after school.  Relating to stats.  

"Hey Stoney, you're more of a stats man than me.  Up to bat is Gary Matthews, the Sarge.  Says here he's got 12 hits in his last 6 at-bats.  That's wild."

-Well Harry, he's technically got 12 hits.  But in his last 6 games.  Still impressive though.

"Like I said Stoney, you're better at math."  

Us olds read it in Harry's voice, for sure.

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2 hours ago, jeevsie said:

Us olds read it in Harry's voice, for sure.

csb/ As a kid at Wrigley or watching at home on WGN, I used to wonder why Harry would 'disappear' for the middle 3 innings of each game and usually Dwayne Staats or somebody else would come on with Stoney.  I figured it was because Harry was old.  But he was just in his late 60's which isn't that old for a baseball broadcaster.  One game, my dad says I'm old enough to go get my own hot dog and soda by myself.  So I'm walking up the ramp and in the mezz level during the bottom of the 6th, this door to this little windowless room opens.  And it's Harry coming out, and there's about 6-8 empty Budweiser beer cups at this little table with a folding chair and TV.  That was his green room.  That's what he did during those innings.  

In 2008, can't remember our opponent in Regionals at Disch-Falk (to tie it back to Texas baseball).  I'm sitting under a tree with a guy who used to post on HF & Shaggy.  And I'm telling him about growing up listening to Harry and how it's been 10 years since he died.  And out of the corner of my eye, one of my favorite Cubs and Longhorns is walking towards us.  Keith Moreland (I think he was doing 1300 at the time, maybe LHN color, dunno).  Anyway, turns out my buddy used to date his daughter in college or after college (he was married to another woman at the time).  But Keith walks up and says, "You guys talking about Harry?"  And he knew my friend obviously from when he was banging his daughter.  But I tell him I musta seen him play at Wrigley 50 times as a kid.  I was actually headed back to Chicago a few weeks later for a guy I grew up with there and Keith gives me his info and says he'll hook us up with tickets.  And he tells me a great story about some fundraiser in the mid 80's he did with Harry.  And then they go out afterwards with Bob Dernier and got cut-off at a bar on the North Side, which is not easy to do in Chicago.  He had a couple of other doozies about Harry that I can't remember, but Keith was so genuinely happy to reminisce about Harry.  Usually players find the broadcasters annoying or just somebody to deal with to get on to the next thing, but all the Cubs players I ever met loved Harry.  I bet many Longhorn players feel the same way about Moreland and Craig Way.  A few times a year, I pull up that Budweiser video "For You, Harry" when the Cubs finally won the Series a few years back.  Gives me the chills the way Craig Way called the winning moments in Omaha for us over the years.  There are some guys who love the team.  There are some guys who love the game.  And then there are the select few that love both and actually know what they're talking about and you can hear it in their voice.  May we hear that again one day soon in Craig's in a little place called Omaha.  

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5 hours ago, YGIFS said:

csb/ As a kid at Wrigley or watching at home on WGN, I used to wonder why Harry would 'disappear' for the middle 3 innings of each game and usually Dwayne Staats or somebody else would come on with Stoney.  I figured it was because Harry was old.  But he was just in his late 60's which isn't that old for a baseball broadcaster.  One game, my dad says I'm old enough to go get my own hot dog and soda by myself.  So I'm walking up the ramp and in the mezz level during the bottom of the 6th, this door to this little windowless room opens.  And it's Harry coming out, and there's about 6-8 empty Budweiser beer cups at this little table with a folding chair and TV.  That was his green room.  That's what he did during those innings.  

In 2008, can't remember our opponent in Regionals at Disch-Falk (to tie it back to Texas baseball).  I'm sitting under a tree with a guy who used to post on HF & Shaggy.  And I'm telling him about growing up listening to Harry and how it's been 10 years since he died.  And out of the corner of my eye, one of my favorite Cubs and Longhorns is walking towards us.  Keith Moreland (I think he was doing 1300 at the time, maybe LHN color, dunno).  Anyway, turns out my buddy used to date his daughter in college or after college (he was married to another woman at the time).  But Keith walks up and says, "You guys talking about Harry?"  And he knew my friend obviously from when he was banging his daughter.  But I tell him I musta seen him play at Wrigley 50 times as a kid.  I was actually headed back to Chicago a few weeks later for a guy I grew up with there and Keith gives me his info and says he'll hook us up with tickets.  And he tells me a great story about some fundraiser in the mid 80's he did with Harry.  And then they go out afterwards with Bob Dernier and got cut-off at a bar on the North Side, which is not easy to do in Chicago.  He had a couple of other doozies about Harry that I can't remember, but Keith was so genuinely happy to reminisce about Harry.  Usually players find the broadcasters annoying or just somebody to deal with to get on to the next thing, but all the Cubs players I ever met loved Harry.  I bet many Longhorn players feel the same way about Moreland and Craig Way.  A few times a year, I pull up that Budweiser video "For You, Harry" when the Cubs finally won the Series a few years back.  Gives me the chills the way Craig Way called the winning moments in Omaha for us over the years.  There are some guys who love the team.  There are some guys who love the game.  And then there are the select few that love both and actually know what they're talking about and you can hear it in their voice.  May we hear that again one day soon in Craig's in a little place called Omaha.  

When Harry died, Sports Illustrated had a full page illustration of a Cubs flag at half mast that I laminated and had hanging on my wall in high school.  Can't find it on the interwebs now.  But growing up with WGN broadcast nationally (I think?  We had it in Austin anyway) made a lot of Cubs fans out of young kids watching day games at Wrigley after school got out at 3.

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1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

When Harry died, Sports Illustrated had a full page illustration of a Cubs flag at half mast that I laminated and had hanging on my wall in high school.  Can't find it on the interwebs now.  But growing up with WGN broadcast nationally (I think?  We had it in Austin anyway) made a lot of Cubs fans out of young kids watching day games at Wrigley after school got out at 3.

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18 hours ago, YGIFS said:

csb/ As a kid at Wrigley or watching at home on WGN, I used to wonder why Harry would 'disappear' for the middle 3 innings of each game and usually Dwayne Staats or somebody else would come on with Stoney.  I figured it was because Harry was old.  But he was just in his late 60's which isn't that old for a baseball broadcaster.  One game, my dad says I'm old enough to go get my own hot dog and soda by myself.  So I'm walking up the ramp and in the mezz level during the bottom of the 6th, this door to this little windowless room opens.  And it's Harry coming out, and there's about 6-8 empty Budweiser beer cups at this little table with a folding chair and TV.  That was his green room.  That's what he did during those innings.  

In 2008, can't remember our opponent in Regionals at Disch-Falk (to tie it back to Texas baseball).  I'm sitting under a tree with a guy who used to post on HF & Shaggy.  And I'm telling him about growing up listening to Harry and how it's been 10 years since he died.  And out of the corner of my eye, one of my favorite Cubs and Longhorns is walking towards us.  Keith Moreland (I think he was doing 1300 at the time, maybe LHN color, dunno).  Anyway, turns out my buddy used to date his daughter in college or after college (he was married to another woman at the time).  But Keith walks up and says, "You guys talking about Harry?"  And he knew my friend obviously from when he was banging his daughter.  But I tell him I musta seen him play at Wrigley 50 times as a kid.  I was actually headed back to Chicago a few weeks later for a guy I grew up with there and Keith gives me his info and says he'll hook us up with tickets.  And he tells me a great story about some fundraiser in the mid 80's he did with Harry.  And then they go out afterwards with Bob Dernier and got cut-off at a bar on the North Side, which is not easy to do in Chicago.  He had a couple of other doozies about Harry that I can't remember, but Keith was so genuinely happy to reminisce about Harry.  Usually players find the broadcasters annoying or just somebody to deal with to get on to the next thing, but all the Cubs players I ever met loved Harry.  I bet many Longhorn players feel the same way about Moreland and Craig Way.  A few times a year, I pull up that Budweiser video "For You, Harry" when the Cubs finally won the Series a few years back.  Gives me the chills the way Craig Way called the winning moments in Omaha for us over the years.  There are some guys who love the team.  There are some guys who love the game.  And then there are the select few that love both and actually know what they're talking about and you can hear it in their voice.  May we hear that again one day soon in Craig's in a little place called Omaha.  

 

I'm not surprised, given how many times I heard Harry slobber, "It'sht time for athnother Budth!" and even these nuggets about Harry as well.  Lulz.

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Jack Buck routinely had to carry Mike Shannon's drunk ass on Cardinals' broadcasts.  It was a thing for many broadcast teams.

Getting paid to watch baseball, drink beer, and talk about what you're seeing on the field (and off).  What a life.

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6 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Jack Buck routinely had to carry Mike Shannon's drunk ass on Cardinals' broadcasts.  It was a thing for many broadcast teams.

Getting paid to watch baseball, drink beer, and talk about what you're seeing on the field (and off).  What a life.

I was more of a Milo Hamilton man myself, but I will always be jealous of Carey's ability to wear those glasses in public.

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59 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

I wonder if we should try starting Boehm on Sundays with Hurley available for long relief. Similar to the how we used Hurley last year 

Just me, but I wouldn't mess with Boehm by trying to start him. He's pretty valuable now being able to come out of the bullpen for multiple innings a couple of times a week.

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8 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Just me, but I wouldn't mess with Boehm by trying to start him. He's pretty valuable now being able to come out of the bullpen for multiple innings a couple of times a week.

Very true and I think he’s our best closer option. I just don’t know what else we do for another starter. 

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Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

Very true and I think he’s our best closer option. I just don’t know what else we do for another starter. 

Keep stretching out Fontenot and maybe things click for Witt or Harrison at some point. 

Maybe our best option is not to try to find a 3rd starter to force through 4 or 5 innings and just have a bullpen game every Sunday. 

Edited by Hookem2147
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4 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Keep stretching out Fontenot and maybe the light clicks for Witt or Harrison at some point. 

Maybe our best option is not to try to find a 3rd starter to force through 4 or 5 innings and just have a bullpen game every Sunday. 

How about 1st and 2nd starters that can go 4 or 5?

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Just now, WBT said:

How about 1st and 2nd starters that can go 4 or 5?

I'm not worried about LBJ. He has a track record. Howard is meh but at least you know you are getting strikes. He's gone 4 (in relief of Witt), 5, 4.2 and 4.1 in his 5 appearances while only going over 70 pitches once. He'd be somewhat ideal in the Sunday spot when games can get wild but obviously, we don't have that luxury.

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26 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Keep stretching out Fontenot and maybe things click for Witt or Harrison at some point. 

Maybe our best option is not to try to find a 3rd starter to force through 4 or 5 innings and just have a bullpen game every Sunday. 

I like this strategy. However, I think it assumes we’ll have series go like the Tech series did where we don’t drain the BP on Friday or Saturday. The conference is down, we already played one of the best offensive teams, and Texas can score runs, so it probably works more often than not. However, it’s a concern of mine in the postseason. Granted, maybe Pierce will have the rotation sorted by then. 

Edited by MuellerHorn
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On 3/11/2024 at 6:59 AM, WBT said:

So, 7 straight games where the starter fails to go 5 and the team allows 6+ runs.

thank god for incarnate word

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Hopefully Pierce and the pitchers were taking notice when UW's Cunningham was on the mound. He never got higher than 90 or so on the radar gun, but he can throw a breaking ball for a strike and was mostly around the zone.

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20 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

I'm not worried about LBJ. He has a track record. Howard is meh but at least you know you are getting strikes. He's gone 4 (in relief of Witt), 5, 4.2 and 4.1 in his 5 appearances while only going over 70 pitches once. He'd be somewhat ideal in the Sunday spot when games can get wild but obviously, we don't have that luxury.

LBJ is the last guy to be worried about in the context of the entire staff, but he’s certainly not throwing like the ace we thought we had. Some sizable regression from last year. 

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22 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

LOL at the people that thought this staff was good

They haven’t been good but I bet we still finish top 25 in era like we do every year. 
They are #43 right now and that’s with LBJ struggling. 
To me the biggest problem is the pitching is meh, and the defense is meh. Can’t have both.

I also still maintain our lineup is wrong. PP needs to be hitting 3rd. Whatever we need to do to make that happen we should. He needs more ABs with more guys on base.

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On 3/15/2024 at 12:37 PM, Horny Bull said:


Porter Brown at #3, just like we all expected.

His average arm and occasional dropped flies make him top 5 in the nation defensively? LF is clearly a hitters position 

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7 minutes ago, B00M said:

His average arm and occasional dropped flies make him top 5 in the nation defensively? LF is clearly a hitters position 

Well, he makes up for that by being pretty slow. 

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40 minutes ago, BarthHollamew said:

How did Kennedy look at Short yesterday?  If Powell stays at catcher, do we still have a serviceable infield?  

I didn't see much of the game, but he did make at least one nice play throwing out a guy at first.

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Flores had it coming out of both ends so pretty sure it was just a break glass emergency to put Kennedy at SS. He seems like a 2B all the way long term.

Powell can also play SS (and may have yesterday if he wasn't behind the plate to start).

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Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, MuellerHorn said:

PP looks like a difference maker defensively at catcher. I wouldn’t mind moving Flores to 3b and getting DK some run at SS during midweek contests. 

I wouldn't say he is a difference maker, but he's better than the low bar set by Schuessler defensively. Galvan should be ready to catch again hopefully in the next 1-2 weeks so the shuffling should settle down a bit.

I personally don't really see the point in taking Flores off of SS. You are just trading the bat of Borba for Kennedy at that point and there hasn't really been a big difference between the two. And outside of yesterday Flores has been fine defensively at SS. But perhaps you can experiment during some midweek games. At the next level Flores is likely going to be asked to slide back to 3B (hell, Trey Faltine didn't even stick at SS at the next level) so they could be doing him a favor.

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31 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

I wouldn't say he is a difference maker, but he's better than the low bar set by Schuessler defensively. Galvan should be ready to catch again hopefully in the next 1-2 weeks so the shuffling should settle down a bit.

I personally don't really see the point in taking Flores off of SS. You are just trading the bat of Borba for Kennedy at that point and there hasn't really been a big difference between the two. And outside of yesterday Flores has been fine defensively at SS. But perhaps you can experiment during some midweek games. At the next level Flores is likely going to be asked to slide back to 3B (hell, Trey Faltine didn't even stick at SS at the next level) so they could be doing him a favor.

Yeah, I meant a difference maker relative to Schuessler. I agree with everything you said. We won't want to tax PP physically, either. Need his bat too much.

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Looking at some stats relative to last year 

-Walks per 9 down from 4.34 last year to 3.97 this year

-Strikeouts per 9 down from 8.90 to 8.47 this year

-Hits allowed per 9 up from 8.25 last year to 8.94 this year

-WHIP is basically the same between both years (1.44 vs 1.40). Makes sense considering the drop in walks but small increase in hits allowed

-Slugging % up from .495 last year to .532 this year

-On pace for 98 homers vs 91 last year

-Offensive walks taken per game down from 4.71 last year to 4.31 this year

-Offensive strikeouts up from 7.84 last year to 9.10 this year 

 

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