No way around it. That was not fun to watch this weekend.
A common theme for the Red Raiders? 3 runs for some reason.
Up 3-0 on UK. Lose
Up 3-1 on UK. Lose
Up 3-0 vs Louisville. Lose
Seems like the offense goes into cruise mode after scoring early. Would love to see us stomp on Baylor this weekend instead of letting teams inch back into ballgames.
Let's sum it up like this. Don't walk people. (I will add that the Friday night home plate umpire should quit, I've never seen an umpire take a game into his own hands like that)
I don't even want to talk anymore about it. 2-3 on a weekend where you really could have made a statement. Pretty poor baseball was played without Michael Davis in the lineup.
Let's look forward to the start of conference play against the Baylor Bears.
- Baylor has scuffled out of the gate to start the season to the tune of an 8-6 record, including going 3-4 away from their home park.
Offense
- Baylor hits a measly .251 as a club. That's not good.
- Outside of Andy Thomas and Richard Cunningham, the bears don't claim a .300 hitter in their lineup.
- The pop comes from Wendzel and Langeliers, but their averages of .286 and .246, respectively, don't scare anybody.
- The bears are 8-11 as a team stealing bases this season. So don't look for a ton of moving runners this weekend.
- The Red Raiders, even though they scuffled in Kentucky the last 5 games, are led by the duo of Grant Little and Josh Jung.
- That being said, you're starting to see some chinks in the TTU armor throughout the lineup. You flat out have to get something out of Kurt Wilson to keep plugging him in the 2 hole. You also have to get some production behind Jung - Little - Warren. It think Michael Davis can provide that pop. But Koelzer, Beck, Masters, and company have been abysmal.
Still give the edge to the Red Raiders on this one. Seems like hitting is contagious for this group, and you have to think that the switch will come back on for Koelzer and Wilson. I would move Klein to the two hole and let Wilson start seeing more fastballs from further down in the lineup.
Pitching
- The Baylor staff is of to a good start this year, even though they haven't been backed by a very good lineup. They sport a team ERA of 2.78, which should lead to being better than 8-6. They're looking for anything out of the lineup to help the staff.
- All three starters have good stuff, I just don't think they have seen anything like the TTU offense. Tyler Thomas, Hayden Kettler, and Cody Bradford should square off against Davis Martin, John McMillon, and (Hopefully) Dylan Dusek as your weekend starters.
- The one thing I notice, is that they don't have a ton of pitching depth that they trust. Outside of their starters, only three pitchers have logged double digit innings. Hell, only 13 guys have pitched at all. Compare that to TTU throwing 11 guys in a two day midweek series. (TTU did not pitch Kilian, Davis Martin, Dylan Dusek, Erikson Lanning, or John McMillon)
The advantage once again goes to TTU.
There are definitely some concerns with this pitching staff after this road trip. The inability to throw strikes or avoid giving up free bases is alarming. But it is also the only time this season that you will play 5 games in 6 days. I think they were a little spent. Especially considering you don't have Steven Gingery throwing 7 innings a weekend.
Keys this weekend
- You have to get more out of Davis Martin on a Friday night. When your ace goes three innings and gets pulled, you're behind the 8 ball the rest of the weekend from an arms standpoint.
- Play smarter. UK took advantage of a Davis-less TTU infield a ton this weekend. We couldn't defend the bunt, we missed cutoff men, etc. Just a lot of mental mistakes that I think will get straightened out.
- Get more from the bottom of the order. The combination of Masters - Koelzer - Klein - Farhat - and whoever else is down there just have to produce. The meat grinder of Little - Jung - Warren are going to start getting a lot more walks if people don't respect who is hitting behind them.
- No empty at bats. Runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Get those guys up a base and put them in position to score in a big inning. We have had sever empty AB's where all that's needed is a ground out, only for someone to strikeout of pop up on the infield. I know that a ground out still isn't a hit, but that's a productive at bat that moves runners around.
TTU will sweep the bears this weekend to get off to a great Big 12 start. As most have noticed, the Big 12 did itself zero favors in the non-conference schedule as a league. I think TTU has earned a ton of national respect and will still gain a national seed, but they need to run through these bottom of the barrel conference opponents to leave no doubt.
Wreck em.
Baseball and Hoops this weekend. Pulling two TV's into the living room.
A common theme for the Red Raiders? 3 runs for some reason.
Up 3-0 on UK. Lose
Up 3-1 on UK. Lose
Up 3-0 vs Louisville. Lose
Seems like the offense goes into cruise mode after scoring early. Would love to see us stomp on Baylor this weekend instead of letting teams inch back into ballgames.
Let's sum it up like this. Don't walk people. (I will add that the Friday night home plate umpire should quit, I've never seen an umpire take a game into his own hands like that)
I don't even want to talk anymore about it. 2-3 on a weekend where you really could have made a statement. Pretty poor baseball was played without Michael Davis in the lineup.
Let's look forward to the start of conference play against the Baylor Bears.
- Baylor has scuffled out of the gate to start the season to the tune of an 8-6 record, including going 3-4 away from their home park.
Offense
- Baylor hits a measly .251 as a club. That's not good.
- Outside of Andy Thomas and Richard Cunningham, the bears don't claim a .300 hitter in their lineup.
- The pop comes from Wendzel and Langeliers, but their averages of .286 and .246, respectively, don't scare anybody.
- The bears are 8-11 as a team stealing bases this season. So don't look for a ton of moving runners this weekend.
- The Red Raiders, even though they scuffled in Kentucky the last 5 games, are led by the duo of Grant Little and Josh Jung.
- That being said, you're starting to see some chinks in the TTU armor throughout the lineup. You flat out have to get something out of Kurt Wilson to keep plugging him in the 2 hole. You also have to get some production behind Jung - Little - Warren. It think Michael Davis can provide that pop. But Koelzer, Beck, Masters, and company have been abysmal.
Still give the edge to the Red Raiders on this one. Seems like hitting is contagious for this group, and you have to think that the switch will come back on for Koelzer and Wilson. I would move Klein to the two hole and let Wilson start seeing more fastballs from further down in the lineup.
Pitching
- The Baylor staff is of to a good start this year, even though they haven't been backed by a very good lineup. They sport a team ERA of 2.78, which should lead to being better than 8-6. They're looking for anything out of the lineup to help the staff.
- All three starters have good stuff, I just don't think they have seen anything like the TTU offense. Tyler Thomas, Hayden Kettler, and Cody Bradford should square off against Davis Martin, John McMillon, and (Hopefully) Dylan Dusek as your weekend starters.
- The one thing I notice, is that they don't have a ton of pitching depth that they trust. Outside of their starters, only three pitchers have logged double digit innings. Hell, only 13 guys have pitched at all. Compare that to TTU throwing 11 guys in a two day midweek series. (TTU did not pitch Kilian, Davis Martin, Dylan Dusek, Erikson Lanning, or John McMillon)
The advantage once again goes to TTU.
There are definitely some concerns with this pitching staff after this road trip. The inability to throw strikes or avoid giving up free bases is alarming. But it is also the only time this season that you will play 5 games in 6 days. I think they were a little spent. Especially considering you don't have Steven Gingery throwing 7 innings a weekend.
Keys this weekend
- You have to get more out of Davis Martin on a Friday night. When your ace goes three innings and gets pulled, you're behind the 8 ball the rest of the weekend from an arms standpoint.
- Play smarter. UK took advantage of a Davis-less TTU infield a ton this weekend. We couldn't defend the bunt, we missed cutoff men, etc. Just a lot of mental mistakes that I think will get straightened out.
- Get more from the bottom of the order. The combination of Masters - Koelzer - Klein - Farhat - and whoever else is down there just have to produce. The meat grinder of Little - Jung - Warren are going to start getting a lot more walks if people don't respect who is hitting behind them.
- No empty at bats. Runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Get those guys up a base and put them in position to score in a big inning. We have had sever empty AB's where all that's needed is a ground out, only for someone to strikeout of pop up on the infield. I know that a ground out still isn't a hit, but that's a productive at bat that moves runners around.
TTU will sweep the bears this weekend to get off to a great Big 12 start. As most have noticed, the Big 12 did itself zero favors in the non-conference schedule as a league. I think TTU has earned a ton of national respect and will still gain a national seed, but they need to run through these bottom of the barrel conference opponents to leave no doubt.
Wreck em.
Baseball and Hoops this weekend. Pulling two TV's into the living room.
