Hello Gents, TTU escaped what felt like the inevitable yesterday against UNM. Every time we play there it feels like we're on the moon. Kash hit a ball 488 feet on the 4th pitch of the game. Large
Let's take a look at this weekend as we welcome the whorns to town for the final time as conference foes.
- UT started the season 7-1 but has dropped their last 4 games against #3 LSU, Texas State, #9 Vanderbilit, and #7 Aggy. It's 4 straight losses but three of those are against top 10 baseball teams. The SEC is loaded this year.
- I did go thru their 3 game series against Cal Poly.... No matter who you play, holding a baseball team scoreless for 27 innings is impressive. Cal Poly is 5-7 and they hit .235 as a team... Not sure how much to glean from that series.
- As always, it looks like the longhorns will lean heavily on their starting rotation this season. Lebarron Johnson, Cody Howard, and Charlie Hurley have combined to throw 42 innings in 8 starts so far. They have 34 K's, allowed 16 earned runs, and have a combined record of 4-1. Tanner Witt also has 2 starts but only has 7 total innings pitched.
- UT has a team ERA of 3.80, I'm just not sure how deep they can go if the Red Raiders can manage to touch up a starter or two this weekend. The bullpen looks to have 5 guys they lean on thus far with O'hara/Whitehead/Hamilton/Fontenot/and Duplantier who have combined for 19 innings of 2 run baseball on 18 appearances. Seems like if you can chase Lebarron Johnson and have these guys burned on Friday, things look good for TTU.
- The rest of the bullpen is.... something, but 8 dependable arms is nothing to sneeze at. Outside of those guys, you're looking at a team ERA of 5.56 with 30 ER in 49 innings pitched. Could Cole Sedvig match Patrick Mahomes for the highest ERA in college baseball history? We will see. 0.0 IP and 1 ER. Still a hilarious stat to watch Pat walk 4 straight guys and then never play again haha.
- From a lineup standpoint, the whorns are also serviceable. They hit .312 as a team but when you remove the combined scores of 50-7 against Houston Christian/Cal Poly/ and St. Johns.... It's not sunshine and rainbows. Without those games, UT has scored 37 total runs in 7 games. Not horrid, but not necessarily the same pop you've seen from the burnt orange.
- I really like the trio of Thomas/Powell/ and Flores. Those three guys have driven in 50 of the 87 runs for UT. Flores leads the team with 5HR and Thomas looks to be a prototypical leadoff guy. Gets on base at .569 and is 6/6 in SB.
- UT does have 2 guys with 12 starts hitting .196 AND .167. Brown and O'dowd. The top of their lineup can match up, I just really like the depth that TTU throws out there 1 thru 9 each day. Especially considering the UT lineup averages about 10 strikeouts per 9 innings.
- Nothing of note on them defensively. 14 errors which is right around just about everyone collegiately outside of reallly good teams and realllly poor teams.
- The Red Raiders come into this weekend with some pretty gaudy offensive numbers, but just like I pointed out with the longhorns, those are a little inflated with some just mauling of lower tier pitching. TTU hits .364 as a team and has a 1.119 team OPS.... that is absurd. I love this lineup, but I don't think those numbers are sustainable.
- The emergence of Damian Bravo to lock down that LF spot is fun to watch. 42 total bases in 12 games..... 12 doubles and 23 RBI. Keep it going, young man.
- Don't look now, but Dylan Maxcey has played really well with, arguably the best hitter in the big 12, being sick in Bazzell for 4 games. 6/16 with 2 walks and 1 strikeout. More than serviceable to extend this lineup while Bazzell is under the weather. (I don't know the extent of the sickness but some posters have hinted at Mono. I just can't confirm)
- TTU is 15-15 in stolen bases... me likey! A little more aggressive on the bases so far this year compared to the last couple. I think team speed is a big factor. Pompey/Harrelson/Green all have great wheels. It's just picking your spots to push the envelope a bit.
- I'm not sure how Coach Tadlock can keep the AB's spread out as we start conference play. You essentially have 14 guys with an OPS above 1.000 and there simply aren't enough starts to go around. Stripling/Maxcey/Rivers/Sanders/Woodcox are all making a play to be every day guys, there just isn't enough room.
- I can't figure out if I love or hate the Kash at leadoff move. He leads the team in HR but also strikeouts.... Hopefully this is just to get him going because that bat in the meat of this order is lethal.
TTU DEPTH
C - Bazzell/Maxcey/Rivers
1B - Kash/Stripling
2B - Sanders/Tracer
SS - Pompey/Sanders
3B - McGee/Bazzell?
LF - Bravo/Woodcox
CF - Harrelson/Burns
RF - Green or Washburn
DH - Freaking pick somebody lol
The depth is unreal. Not sure why we can't match that type of recruiting with our pitching staff for some reason.
- I hate saying it, but does it feel like you have to win every time Kyle Robinson is on the bump? Petty and Fast got lit up yesterday by a good, but not great, hitting UNM team.
- Robinson/Heuer/Washburn feels like it will solidify itself moving forward with Petty and some combo getting midweek starts or eating up bullpen days.
- Bullpen is gonna remain a strength, I believe. Free/Parish/Hutyra/Sanders/Kaase/Erdman/Parker/Coe/Fast etc etc. Surely we can push the right buttons on most days to get these guys in good situations and match ups.
The Red Raiders are flat out lethal offensively, I just hope the pitching can right the ship a bit. I think TTU wins this series, but if your bats go quiet, it's gonna be tough to out duel teams in the Big 12.
TTU wins the series 2-1.
Let's take a look at this weekend as we welcome the whorns to town for the final time as conference foes.
- UT started the season 7-1 but has dropped their last 4 games against #3 LSU, Texas State, #9 Vanderbilit, and #7 Aggy. It's 4 straight losses but three of those are against top 10 baseball teams. The SEC is loaded this year.
- I did go thru their 3 game series against Cal Poly.... No matter who you play, holding a baseball team scoreless for 27 innings is impressive. Cal Poly is 5-7 and they hit .235 as a team... Not sure how much to glean from that series.
- As always, it looks like the longhorns will lean heavily on their starting rotation this season. Lebarron Johnson, Cody Howard, and Charlie Hurley have combined to throw 42 innings in 8 starts so far. They have 34 K's, allowed 16 earned runs, and have a combined record of 4-1. Tanner Witt also has 2 starts but only has 7 total innings pitched.
- UT has a team ERA of 3.80, I'm just not sure how deep they can go if the Red Raiders can manage to touch up a starter or two this weekend. The bullpen looks to have 5 guys they lean on thus far with O'hara/Whitehead/Hamilton/Fontenot/and Duplantier who have combined for 19 innings of 2 run baseball on 18 appearances. Seems like if you can chase Lebarron Johnson and have these guys burned on Friday, things look good for TTU.
- The rest of the bullpen is.... something, but 8 dependable arms is nothing to sneeze at. Outside of those guys, you're looking at a team ERA of 5.56 with 30 ER in 49 innings pitched. Could Cole Sedvig match Patrick Mahomes for the highest ERA in college baseball history? We will see. 0.0 IP and 1 ER. Still a hilarious stat to watch Pat walk 4 straight guys and then never play again haha.
- From a lineup standpoint, the whorns are also serviceable. They hit .312 as a team but when you remove the combined scores of 50-7 against Houston Christian/Cal Poly/ and St. Johns.... It's not sunshine and rainbows. Without those games, UT has scored 37 total runs in 7 games. Not horrid, but not necessarily the same pop you've seen from the burnt orange.
- I really like the trio of Thomas/Powell/ and Flores. Those three guys have driven in 50 of the 87 runs for UT. Flores leads the team with 5HR and Thomas looks to be a prototypical leadoff guy. Gets on base at .569 and is 6/6 in SB.
- UT does have 2 guys with 12 starts hitting .196 AND .167. Brown and O'dowd. The top of their lineup can match up, I just really like the depth that TTU throws out there 1 thru 9 each day. Especially considering the UT lineup averages about 10 strikeouts per 9 innings.
- Nothing of note on them defensively. 14 errors which is right around just about everyone collegiately outside of reallly good teams and realllly poor teams.
- The Red Raiders come into this weekend with some pretty gaudy offensive numbers, but just like I pointed out with the longhorns, those are a little inflated with some just mauling of lower tier pitching. TTU hits .364 as a team and has a 1.119 team OPS.... that is absurd. I love this lineup, but I don't think those numbers are sustainable.
- The emergence of Damian Bravo to lock down that LF spot is fun to watch. 42 total bases in 12 games..... 12 doubles and 23 RBI. Keep it going, young man.
- Don't look now, but Dylan Maxcey has played really well with, arguably the best hitter in the big 12, being sick in Bazzell for 4 games. 6/16 with 2 walks and 1 strikeout. More than serviceable to extend this lineup while Bazzell is under the weather. (I don't know the extent of the sickness but some posters have hinted at Mono. I just can't confirm)
- TTU is 15-15 in stolen bases... me likey! A little more aggressive on the bases so far this year compared to the last couple. I think team speed is a big factor. Pompey/Harrelson/Green all have great wheels. It's just picking your spots to push the envelope a bit.
- I'm not sure how Coach Tadlock can keep the AB's spread out as we start conference play. You essentially have 14 guys with an OPS above 1.000 and there simply aren't enough starts to go around. Stripling/Maxcey/Rivers/Sanders/Woodcox are all making a play to be every day guys, there just isn't enough room.
- I can't figure out if I love or hate the Kash at leadoff move. He leads the team in HR but also strikeouts.... Hopefully this is just to get him going because that bat in the meat of this order is lethal.
TTU DEPTH
C - Bazzell/Maxcey/Rivers
1B - Kash/Stripling
2B - Sanders/Tracer
SS - Pompey/Sanders
3B - McGee/Bazzell?
LF - Bravo/Woodcox
CF - Harrelson/Burns
RF - Green or Washburn
DH - Freaking pick somebody lol
The depth is unreal. Not sure why we can't match that type of recruiting with our pitching staff for some reason.
- I hate saying it, but does it feel like you have to win every time Kyle Robinson is on the bump? Petty and Fast got lit up yesterday by a good, but not great, hitting UNM team.
- Robinson/Heuer/Washburn feels like it will solidify itself moving forward with Petty and some combo getting midweek starts or eating up bullpen days.
- Bullpen is gonna remain a strength, I believe. Free/Parish/Hutyra/Sanders/Kaase/Erdman/Parker/Coe/Fast etc etc. Surely we can push the right buttons on most days to get these guys in good situations and match ups.
The Red Raiders are flat out lethal offensively, I just hope the pitching can right the ship a bit. I think TTU wins this series, but if your bats go quiet, it's gonna be tough to out duel teams in the Big 12.
TTU wins the series 2-1.
