I came away very pleasantly surprised after the weekend. I'll list some things off the top of my head ... have a meeting in a few minutes ... - Kevin Keyes. Damn can he hit. Fast as **** too. Drew 2 balks from VCU pitchers. - Torres and Hernandez are solid infielders. Torres is also a devil on the basepaths. - We have more power than any team since the 2002 season. I expect Russell, Clark, Moldenhomer, Rupp, Keyes to leave the yard with consistency. Keep in mind the shallower pitching we'll be facing with more frequent games. - Kasparek and Boenning made my day yesterday. IMO, their health was the main ingredient when deciding just how good this team can be. KK was hitting 90+ yesterday. - Danks can run down 95% of anything hit to center. This is huge. - We seem to have a good chemistry built up already. I sat 1st row above the UT on deck circle yesterday ... these guys enjoy playing together and kicking the opponents ***. - Our crowd deserves a round of applause for their showing this weekend. I was blown away. I know players mentioned it in the papers too. Hopefully it wasn't just the new stadium and weather. Let's pack that place. Can't wait for Houston this weekend. Texas v Rice Saturday will be a show.
I think the ace will be Kasparek. Remember, he's 14-2 as a starter, and has post season and CWS experience. In a perfect world I'd like to see : Kasparek Boenning Wood
Our young pitchers were phenomenal. Garrido mentioned that he thinks the freshman pitchers this year (Cole Green, Brandon Workman, Stayton Thomas, Chance Ruffin and others) could be the best group of young pitchers he's had at Texas. That is quite a statement, considering all the freshman studs we've had. I think Chance Ruffin has the stuff to be that shut down closer we've been looking for since JB Cox left. And no offense to anyone else, but Kevin Keyes needs to be the third starter in the outfield everyday. He's just so fast and seems to have such amazing power and speed, I think he's got to be in the lineup. I'm also thrilled that we have a legitimate back up catcher in Cameron Rupp that can come in and help spell Clark's knees every once and a while and not have too much of a drop off.
Agreed on your point about Rupp. This has hurt us in the past with Teagarden, and last year with Preston.
BH - totally agree with your comments. We're going to be very, very good this season with our deep pitching. I'd like to see a couple starters rise up to the "Omaha shutdown level" where they can go toe to toe with the aces from the best schools in the country (VA's Thompson, Ole Miss' Lance Lynn, Crow from Mizzou, Rice's Berry/CSC), which is what will be needed in a super regional/Omaha level of play. We know the sticks will be there - amazing talent there. Agreed on Saturday night at MMP - UT vs Rice will be awesome. I'd love to see KK vs Cole St. Clair. I have degrees from both Rice and UT so I'll really have fun with that game
If this team has as much fun together as the 2002 team had and they stay as focused as the 2002 team did,we could have another CWS team. Hook'em
