I'm a long time UT baseball fan and remember many great hitters in the Coach Gus days -- with strong pitching and plenty of small ball strategy. Legitimate question: Why does Augie so frequently fields teams that are relatively weak with the bat? In other words, why can't we recruit and develop great pitchers, and players that are both powerful at bat and solid on defense? Some programs are known for power -- not UT. Is it overreliance on small ball such that we don't develop our players as good hitters? Do we avoid recruiting power for some reason? Please enlighten me.
Augie focuses on pitching and defense. He will put a better fielder in the lineup over a stronger bat (with obvious exceptions when the bat is so good). I have heard scholarships are heavily weighted toward pitching and that has an effect too, especially on recruiting. That said it looks like a couple of big hitters may actually make it to campus this fall so we will see how the 2012 team shapes up.
It's tougher to figure out high school hitters IMO. There's the story about Albert Pujols and how he was hitting something like .250 with a couple HRs in high school because everyone was scared to throw to him. I think one of the big differences is that you can see a HS pitcher's mechanics and speed. You don't really get that luxury by watching 5-10 ABs for a hitter. You get a sense of their speed and defense, and those are two things that Augie highly values. We have a couple of hitters that redshirted this year. Why... I can't say. Maybe with the scholarship limits for baseball, it made more sense to hold off on guys like Ryan Ford and Dex Kjerstad until we REALLY needed the offense next year, with a dearth of starting pitching.
Does anybody have the specifics on the number of scholarships given to pitchers vs. total each year? We do have a deep pitching rotation but it would have been nice to have just one big bat this year. Team only hit 17 HRs this year and the leader was Shepherd with 5. Las year Keyes, Rupp, and Lusson each had over 10 and combined for 29 HRs. The team overall hit 81 HRs. In 09 Rupp, Keyes, and Belt combined for 28. The team combined for 53 HRs. In 08 we had Rupp, Belt, and Russell and the team hit 60 HRs. 2011 - 17 2010 - 81 2009 - 53 2008 - 60 Quite a drop off in on year. I just don't think it is about Garido not going after hitters each year. I think we just didn't have any on the roster this go around.
I think the offense will improve tremendously next year. Weiss, Payton Walla, Felts, Etier and Walsh will all have another year of experience and a year with the new bats under their belts. If Loy stays it will be huge. But the addition of guys like Josh Bell, Alex Silver, and possibly that Swihart kid should also help alot. This is not to say that Texas will have a top 10 offense next year. But just that it will be much improved over this year.
I hope Bell follows through with his desire to play at UT, but the fact that Scott Boras is the family advisor scares the crap out of me. It would be nice to see him and Swihart on campus next year, but we'll be lucky if either show.
Home Runs are one thing. But this team went 3 up 3 down in 11 of 18 innings at Omaha. Too many times I saw us hacking at the first pitch, even with a brand new pitcher, then take a called 3rd strike. That has nothing to do with power or the new bats, but has everything to do with dicipline at the plate. I didn't notice too many drag bunt attempts yesterday when their pitcher settled in. We need guys who know how to find ways to get on base. HBP, walk, drag bunt, something. I don't have the stats, but I bet our OBP was not good compared to other years.
the base running errors were atrocious yesterday...even my 12 yr old said "how do you not freeze on that shot to right?"...(and he's a soccer player)
In the draft coverage on the MLB network they kept saying that Bell and Swihart were both had lots of signability issues. Bundy, the other first round pick who has committed to Texas, is all but gone since he was taken with the 4th pick. So I would say there is a very good chance Bell comes to Texas. Why would he send a letter to the MLB requesting not to be drafted if that wasn't his plan? Did he really do that just so he could fall from mid first round to a decent team to the Pirates in the second round? It doesn't make sense, even considering the Boras relationship. Swihart is probably less likely to end up at Texas though considering Boston will give him whatever amount of money he wants. But he did say that playing at Texas was a lifelong dream and his goal since he started playing baseball. So there is still a shot there. If Texas gets one of those three they will be in good shape. Two of the three and consider it a blessing.
11.7 scholarships is the limit. Depending on need, position and level of disparation a school might offer anything from books, to full tuition to any combination in between. There are a few kids at certain schools that might receive about 80% scholarship. I haven't heard of baseball players anywhere getting much more than that. Also, if can change from year to year but I have no idea if this is something Texas practices or not. You would at least think Texas could afford to give 1 large chunk of scholarship to a kid who can flat out hit regardless of defense because there is such a thing as a DH. Hopefully Texas did a good job of landing a couple of hitters that are really impressive that won't get drafted. I wonder if they have a name in mind to sign late if Bundy or any of the others sign this summer? If they are going to sign you want them to go ahead and do so leaving enough time to sign another player.
I would agree with that if a kid like Bell or Bundy was on the fence and that is what was needed to get the kid to school. Otherwise it is difficult to offer a kid you think will go to school and not seriously consider the pros to offer too much more because you are going to rely on somewhere around 20 guys to get most all of your playing time.
"Why would he send a letter to the MLB requesting not to be drafted if that wasn't his plan? " Ever heard of Todd Van Poppel?
