The seasons just past halfway and I'd say that this team looks stronger than I expected we would be, especially with the Stafford/Walla injuries. I'm seeing guys stepping up every game and that makes me wanna yell real loud. Okie Jr., travels well. We need to be hanging from the rafters 3 straight games. Send me a PM if you need a ticket.
I hope your right. Ill save my enthuisiam for after our next three series. I hope were singing the same tune.
stronger than expected? interesting. we don't know for sure who our 3 weekend starters are, and our fielding, and base running stinks. At least the hitting has drastically improved with much better at-bats than early season.
Not EXACTLY correct, imo. I certainly agree that 18-12 isn't exactly over achieving. And it has put us in a precarious position for the playoffs. I would not concede jack **** to Baylor, who got their first three series at home (ok, the Mizzou sweep was impressive), and I would never concede jack **** to the chokers from Malfunction Junction. Our team is doing what Augie's teams usually do - improve as the season progresses. That comes in spurts, and I expect our fielding to improve and hitting to back up some now that we actually get to play some league games at home. By the middle of May I expect to be better than either of these teams, and our conference record to indicate such. We'll see. Finally, going to Fayettenam does not seem nearly as scary to me as it does to you. But then again, I think this team will be playing well by then, and I think we'll be mentally tough enough to go on the road and win. JMO. p.s. I do share your concern over the distribution of innings in the bullpen. We should be spreading that out more, particularly in the mid-week games. That is how you open possibilities for other contributors.
What am I conceding to Baylor or Aggy other than the fact they are going to host regionals? You don't think they will? Aggy is 26-7 in the top 5 in every poll and Baylor is 27-7 and top ten in most polls and on a 16 game winning streak. I said that the conference champion would most likely come from the round robin series between Baylor, Texas, and Aggy. It is advantage Baylor right now as they have played an extra series in conference play with two less losses. We could take the series from both Baylor and Aggy and they are still going to host regionals. The only question left is whether Texas or Rice or neither hosts a regional. As for Texas playing in a regional, I don't care whether it is on the road or at home. The fact that we use 7 pitchers 95% of the time is going to catch up with us sooner or later. One of those pitchers, Peters, pitches to only one or two batters usually to get lefty's out. The only way we can avoid that is to go through each round without a loss. It's a bit late in the season to start trying to develop pitchers. It's even harder when they never see the mound. I still wonder what happened to Josh Urban who looked like he could contribute this season and just disappeared? Did he get hurt?
NB, I'll bet you a beer right now that Aggy will not host a regional before Texas! I know it's Homerism, but Augie always finds a way. That said, Baylor is DEFINITELY the team to beat in conference play right now. We need some major Queso karma to bite them in the ***.
Son, that is entirely up to Texas to make a regional in addition to Aggy. The only way Aggy does not host a regional would be to play less than 500 ball the rest of the season. They also have yet to play the worst two teams in the conference in Kansas and Tech. Then they would have to crap out in the conference tournament too. On top of their record to date, I failed to mention that they also renevated their stadium prior to this season which the NCAA kind of likes. Unfortunately Augie only has control of the three games we play against Aggy and not the rest of their season.
Right after the Stanford series (as I was driving back to Seattle) I was having a hard time counting wins on the remaining schedule. Texas has totally turned it around from that low point in the season (decade maybe). I want Texas to host, but if they go on the road, I'd prefer Baton Rouge or somewhere out west to Reckling. After this season when aTm joins the SEC, it'll be send the Aggies here or us to CS every post season.
NB, I was not very clear about conceding to those two schools. They both clearly have the inside track to host, but I do think we still have a chance to host a regional - so I am not conceding yet. I think we can still win the conference title and also the tournament (which I usually don't care about). If we could win both of those, I think we could host. There's a lot of baseball to be played, and we will need to play well.
I want to state this as clearly as possible. What I said was that Baylor and Aggy will host regionals. There could still be third regional in Texas. That Rice is the competition for that third regional if there is a third regional in Texas That for Texas to host that third regional they would have to win the conference title or the conference tournament. I said all this in my first post on this thread. Then I said it didn't really matter where we played in a regional because our overuse of the same pitchers would catch up to us in a later post. You see I agreed with you we could still host a regional if we did what I and you both used for criteria. It seems the pitching overuse as admitted by Augie himself in the post game interview on LHN may have already taken effect and make it all a moot point. On top of everything else now due to eminent rainy weather, our overused pitchers face a double header tomorrow, what a joy that will be.
We haven't even come close to exceeding expectations as the season is not yet finished. Up to this point, we have failed. Getting swept by Stanford, losing to Tennessee and Arkansas in Houston, and not having a clue as to a pitching rotation/bullpen is not exceeding my expectations. You need to RAISE your expectations.
