I'm a little behind this week due to our daughter coming just a liiittttlllee early this week. (Mom and baby are doing great!) But wanted to post a few thoughts on KSU coming into town this weekend.
- The Red Raiders need a bounceback weekend. I take the GCU games with a grain of salt because that team has some really good non-con wins under their belt. Oregon State/Arizona/TTU X2. But I was also concerned with the lack of urgency and defensive flubs. There is losing games and then there is losing games looking what we looked like. Just uncharacteristic for a Tadlock ballclub.
- I'd be curious if there isn't some discussion to put Murrell more into the meat of the order soon. The only issue is you don't want to double up left handed hitters, and three of your best bats are lefties in Murrell-Jung-Washburn. Also wanted to give a shoutout to Sam Hunt and how he's slotted into CF so far. Jung-Coleman-Murrell-Wilson-Washburn need to get as many AB's as possible IMO.
- I was surprised at how well GCU saw the ball out of Hampton's hands. He has good velocity and a plus breaking ball, and they didn't miss much. Even some outs were very well struck baseballs. Would be curious if location or predictable pitch sequences had anything to do with that. And let's not even talk about how 3/9 guys on the field were playing in the dark. That was either the worst TV feed ever, or they need to add 3-4 more light fixures out there.
KSU WILDCATS
- KSU is another struggling baseball team right now. They are 16-15 and their only, and I mean only, good win was against Oklahoma State, which is also their only Big 12 win. They got hammered in Arlington. They are 4-10 away from home as well. TTU really needs to break the mold of coming out flat on Sunday's. I want a sweep here badly.
- Kansas State doesn't have a super star, but it is a more balanced lineup that what we saw from KU last weekend. They hit .295 as a team and have three guys Johnson-Johnson and Phillips (Could be a personal injury law firm) all hitting above .300. Phillips has 9 HR and KSU has 40 dingers as a team.
- KSU doesn't run a ton and one stat that jumps out is they ground into about one double play per game. That seems high to me. Could be that they get a ton of guys on base, or it could be that lower in the lineup they just don't have a ton of guys that hit enough. Inning enders.
- TTU now has 8/9 starters hitting above .300. The only exception is our true freshman catcher Hudson White, who is hitting .276, which I will take all day long. The only hole in our lineup, and it was in the spotlight in Arizona.... is that we strikeout way too much. It's feast or famine. I'm not sure you can change that 30 ish games into the year, but I would really like to see some more "productive AB's" when we get guys on base. Not just swinging for the fences.
- I'm also interested in how KSU approaches their weekend rotation against us. I think it's Corsentino-Hassal-McCollough but I have no idea which order they will pitch us in. Hassal is most likely Saturday but they may look at Sunday as they're best shot. I sure hope Texas Tech finds a way to support Molina Sunday. That can get in your head and for some reason it always seems like one guy can't get any help.
- Morris and Birdsell need to get TTU back on track this weekend. Against GCU it seemed like we had few, very few, clean innings. Walks, HBP, fielding mistakes.... GCU just always had guys on. Morris and Birdsell both attack hitters with plus fastballs and devastating offspeed pitches. Fast innings, and let Dan Law get loud on offense.
- Kansas State has a major flaw IMO. Their bullpen is atrocious. It looks like they've moved a starter out there to help eat up some weekend innings as well in Blake Adams. Fajardo and Rothermel are serviceable. But man if TTU can chase a starter early and make the Wildcats burn Adams... I think this series could get ugly. The bottom 9 pitchers on the ledger have combined for 66 innings and have given up 88 runs. That's an ERA above 12. I'm not saying their frontline guys aren't good, they're absolutely Big 12 pitchers, but if they have to start digging up names out of a hat from the bottom of that list...... woof.
- Tech needs to sweep. They need to show up three days in a row and play good baseball. Dan Law absolutely helps their chances.
Until they do it, I still have some bad losses on Sundays over the past few years bringing up memories. TTU will win the series 2-1, but a 3-0 weekend makes the losing skid look like it was months ago. 7-2 to start the Big 12 slate would be great.
Morris needs to shove tonight. And the offense needs to wake up and score runners when they're given the opportunity.
- The Red Raiders need a bounceback weekend. I take the GCU games with a grain of salt because that team has some really good non-con wins under their belt. Oregon State/Arizona/TTU X2. But I was also concerned with the lack of urgency and defensive flubs. There is losing games and then there is losing games looking what we looked like. Just uncharacteristic for a Tadlock ballclub.
- I'd be curious if there isn't some discussion to put Murrell more into the meat of the order soon. The only issue is you don't want to double up left handed hitters, and three of your best bats are lefties in Murrell-Jung-Washburn. Also wanted to give a shoutout to Sam Hunt and how he's slotted into CF so far. Jung-Coleman-Murrell-Wilson-Washburn need to get as many AB's as possible IMO.
- I was surprised at how well GCU saw the ball out of Hampton's hands. He has good velocity and a plus breaking ball, and they didn't miss much. Even some outs were very well struck baseballs. Would be curious if location or predictable pitch sequences had anything to do with that. And let's not even talk about how 3/9 guys on the field were playing in the dark. That was either the worst TV feed ever, or they need to add 3-4 more light fixures out there.
KSU WILDCATS
- KSU is another struggling baseball team right now. They are 16-15 and their only, and I mean only, good win was against Oklahoma State, which is also their only Big 12 win. They got hammered in Arlington. They are 4-10 away from home as well. TTU really needs to break the mold of coming out flat on Sunday's. I want a sweep here badly.
- Kansas State doesn't have a super star, but it is a more balanced lineup that what we saw from KU last weekend. They hit .295 as a team and have three guys Johnson-Johnson and Phillips (Could be a personal injury law firm) all hitting above .300. Phillips has 9 HR and KSU has 40 dingers as a team.
- KSU doesn't run a ton and one stat that jumps out is they ground into about one double play per game. That seems high to me. Could be that they get a ton of guys on base, or it could be that lower in the lineup they just don't have a ton of guys that hit enough. Inning enders.
- TTU now has 8/9 starters hitting above .300. The only exception is our true freshman catcher Hudson White, who is hitting .276, which I will take all day long. The only hole in our lineup, and it was in the spotlight in Arizona.... is that we strikeout way too much. It's feast or famine. I'm not sure you can change that 30 ish games into the year, but I would really like to see some more "productive AB's" when we get guys on base. Not just swinging for the fences.
- I'm also interested in how KSU approaches their weekend rotation against us. I think it's Corsentino-Hassal-McCollough but I have no idea which order they will pitch us in. Hassal is most likely Saturday but they may look at Sunday as they're best shot. I sure hope Texas Tech finds a way to support Molina Sunday. That can get in your head and for some reason it always seems like one guy can't get any help.
- Morris and Birdsell need to get TTU back on track this weekend. Against GCU it seemed like we had few, very few, clean innings. Walks, HBP, fielding mistakes.... GCU just always had guys on. Morris and Birdsell both attack hitters with plus fastballs and devastating offspeed pitches. Fast innings, and let Dan Law get loud on offense.
- Kansas State has a major flaw IMO. Their bullpen is atrocious. It looks like they've moved a starter out there to help eat up some weekend innings as well in Blake Adams. Fajardo and Rothermel are serviceable. But man if TTU can chase a starter early and make the Wildcats burn Adams... I think this series could get ugly. The bottom 9 pitchers on the ledger have combined for 66 innings and have given up 88 runs. That's an ERA above 12. I'm not saying their frontline guys aren't good, they're absolutely Big 12 pitchers, but if they have to start digging up names out of a hat from the bottom of that list...... woof.
- Tech needs to sweep. They need to show up three days in a row and play good baseball. Dan Law absolutely helps their chances.
Until they do it, I still have some bad losses on Sundays over the past few years bringing up memories. TTU will win the series 2-1, but a 3-0 weekend makes the losing skid look like it was months ago. 7-2 to start the Big 12 slate would be great.
Morris needs to shove tonight. And the offense needs to wake up and score runners when they're given the opportunity.
