Saturday June 6th, 2004
2:46amRice Regionals Day 1 Recap
WOW!
That's pretty much all I've been saying for the last 5 hours. Texas Southern pulled off the most improbable victory in the entire 64 team tournament.
I picked Pat up from his dad's house at 4:30ish and we were on our way to the ballpark when we heard on the radio that TSU had taken a 4-3 lead after a 3-R HR off of Phillip Humber.
Then, while we were still on I-45 S, we heard there was a rain/lightning delay. We had time to get to the ballpark, park, get in, sit for at least 50 minutes before play resumed.
We were in for a treat.
First of all, Rice brought in Josh Baker to replace Humber after the delay. There were 2 outs in the top of the 8th inning with a runner on 1B for TSU. Baker got the hitter to hit a ground ball to the 3b man who forced the runner out at 2b. Inning over. Score is still TSU 4 v. Rice 3.
TSU had to replace their "ace" (who had a team low 4.45 ERA) with their next best starter (who had a second best on the team ERA of 4.67). Rice started off the bottom of the 8th with their #5 hitter, Josh Rodriguez, who hit a bloop single into RF (that could have, in my opinion, been caught by the 2nd baseman if he laid out).
Next up is Matt Ueckert, who put down a perfect sac bunt and was thrown out on a pretty good barehanded throw by the charging TSU third baseman. One out with a runner on 2B.
Then, DH Adam Hale hit a F9 and the runner tagged up and advanced to third base (now 2 outs). Matt Moake comes up to the plate and hits a long foul fly ball into RF. The RFer, Cory Alexander, was on his horse and closing in on the fence along the foul line. He hit the fence just as the ball was coming down and he flipped over the fence so his feet were dangling in the air inside the field of play. He then stood up and showed the umpire the ball. It was the most amazing, and clutch, catch I can remember seeing in the OF. It saved the game for TSU.
TSU stared the top of the 9th off with a monster double off the LF wall but couldn't get the runner to third base when the next batter popped up a bunt (this would prove to be costly). The 3rd batter hit a deep ground ball to SS and was thrown out at 1B, advancing the runner to 3B. He would have scored had the bunt been executed properly. The next batter grounded out to 3B to end the inning.
In the bottom of the 9th inning, Rice PH with Adam Morris, who grounded out to the second baseman (who made a pretty nice play). Catalyst, Chris Kolkhorst now came up to the plate.....but the game was paused for another lightning delay.....which was at least an hour and a half long. We weren't sure how long it actually was because at 8:30 (remember, the A&M game was scheduled for 7pm) we left to get something to eat (goodness gracious the 59 Diner has awesome milkshakes).
When we came back, turns out we missed Rice loading the bases with 2 outs only to ground out to end the game.
Rice is now in the loser bracket and has to win at least the next 3 games (possibly 4) to advance to Super Regionals.
I was able to tell some of the TSU players good game as we were standing in line to get back into the stadium. Wow, I can't believe how much life and hope they put into me.
The A&M game started sometime around 10:30ish and we jumped out to an early lead and ran Lamar's starter, Kyle Stutes (a Collegiate Baseball 2nd team All-American), after 2 1/3 innings (3 R all earned). Lamar brought in their next best starter, William Delage, and he gave up 3 more runs (all unearned due to an error).
Jason Meyer was on the hill for us and he didn't look very good until about the middle of the 3rd inning when he finally seemed to find his groove. He was lights out in the 4th inning, just before we put that 3 spot up on Delange.
Unfortunately, the game is currently postponed until 10am due to that darn lightning which returned just before the top of the 5th inning. Here's the box score as of the rain delay.
From what I've heard (rumors only) we're going to run Dan Donaldson out there in the morning to try and hold of Lamar. Keep in mind that Lamar's W% v. RHP is .806 while their W% v. LHP is only .632....
If we can hold on, then we will face TSU in the afternoon. If that is the case, I just can not see us throwing Zach Jackson until Championship Sunday, which would leave me to think that either Kyle Marlatt or Robert Ray would go against TSU. Of course if we do end up in the loser bracket facing Wade Townsend and Rice, I would throw ZachJack then.
I know that TSU just proved the world wrong by beating one of the best pitchers in the entire nation, but if you want to win the tournament then I think you have to take advantage of facing a still very weak TSU and save your best available starter for Sunday.
Before I get jumped about this, you have to keep in mind that before Friday night the best teams (and the results) TSU faced looked like this:
v. Baylor (lost 10-3) v. A&M-CC five times (lost 8-6, 7-6, 13-5, 1-0, & 6-0) v. U. Louisiana-Lafayette (lost 13-0) v. Sam Houston (lost 16-2).If they are able to beat Rice and Texas A&M on back-to-back games, then frankly they deserve to win this regional.But before we get ahead of ourselves, WE STILL HAVE TO HOLD OFF LAMAR FOR 5 MORE INNINGS.
Let's just pray for no more rain.
Here is the updated Regional schedule that takes into consideration the rain suspended game in the morning....
Saturday: 10:00am ...cont G2: Texas A&M 6 v. Lamar 0; Top of the 5th inning 12:30am G3: Rice v. G2 Loser 4:00pm (approx) G4: TSU v. G2 Winner 7:30pm (approx) G5: G3 Winner v. G4 Loser Sunday: 1:00pm G6: G4 Winner v. G5 Winner 4:00pm G7: G6 Loser v. G6 Winner (IF NECESSARY)For those of you interested in the scores from all 15 of the other regionals, check out this website. It has all the most recent scores for every game being played. Today's big match-up will be Stanford v. Jered Weaver of Long Beach State....
Here is a quick link center for everything I've put together over the last couple of days to help you out finding it all (since it's been a TON of stuff):
Rice Regionals Preview A Salute to the General: Cory Patton Vladimir Guerrero Finally Gets Some Respect Cubs Starters v. Astros Starters Troy. WHOOP! (NEWLY included....A Photo)Lastly, I wanted to thank those of you who I saw out at the yard who printed off the Regional Preview and took it with you. Actually seeing people appreciate what I try to do here at TAMABINPO makes it all totally worth while. I hope that you enjoy it because I enjoy looking it all up and trying to present it the best way I can.Let's Continue to B.T.H.O. Lamar! WHOOP!
Friday June 5th, 2004
11:51amWHOOP! For Troy
I think this is awesome! Read on and check it out....
This isn't baseball related at all, but it's pretty sweet regardless and I figured you all would get a laugh out of it....
Apparently A&M's architecture department helped out with some of the production on the movie, and pulled off slipping an image of the Varsity Horns Sawed Off on a sails of one of the ships.
To check it out follow these instructions:
Go to the link for the official website of the movie, click on Teaser Trailer, and watch for Brad Pitt to point his knife in the air. The screen fades to an aerial shot of a ship and pans out to show other ships. If you hit 'pause' at 32 sec. you will notice the ship in the middle left of the screen at the top has a very distinct picture of the longhorn with the horns cut off.
WHOOP!
My boy, Steven Prince, came through for me and freezed framed it for me. Enjoy.....
1:16am
Cubs Starters v. Astros Starters Part III
You guys are lucky because you're getting a triple shot of me today (with three articles; make sure you scroll down far enough to see the Vladdy G and the Cory Patton articles). I suppose that happens when I only work when the Astros are in town and there isn't too much else to do around here (although I'm sure my old man could find something productive for me).
This afternoon marks the return of Mark Prior. Nationally, it's more anticipated than His major league debut (which, by the grace of God, I happened to be in Chicago for). Ironically, it will come against the same team that He faced during that debut back in 2002, the Pittsburgh Pirates. I'd gladly take the same stat line he had in that game.
Dec IP H R ER SO/BB HR GSc W 6.0 4 2 2 10/2 1 64 (HR was to Brian Giles)The game today is at 2:20 pm CST, so I'll be able to catch as much as possible before heading out to Reckling Park for the Aggie game.I felt like this is a good time to check out how the starting rotations of both the Astros and the Cubs were doing because I think this is a pretty significant milestone in the season. It's one of those dates that could very easily be referred back to come late September and early October as the turning point in the season.
Only time will tell the final results but here's where we are now....
Overall: G GS W L IP H ER HR BB SO K/9 P/GS WHIP ERA Cubs 52 52 21 17 324.0 308 133 37 102 287 7.97 96.4 1.27 3.69 Astros 52 52 24 13 303.0 270 125 37 110 269 7.99 94.9 1.25 3.71Wow, that's pretty even right across the board. I don't think that you can get much closer without cloning.Now let's look at the individual performances that make up those great numbers above....
Individual Performances Chicago Cubs NAME G GS W L IP H ER HR BB SO K/9 P/GS WHIP ERA C.Zambrano 10 10 5 2 67.1 54 18 4 20 63 8.42 105.1 1.10 2.41 G.Rusch 4 4 1 0 24.0 24 7 3 7 19 7.13 104.8 1.29 2.63 K.Wood 7 7 3 3 44.2 31 14 5 14 52 10.48 100.9 1.01 2.82 M.Clement 11 11 6 4 71.2 56 26 4 27 73 9.17 101.7 1.16 3.27 G.Maddux 11 11 4 4 69.1 77 34 15 15 47 6.10 86.5 1.33 4.41 S.Mitre 9 9 2 4 47.0 66 34 6 19 33 6.32 85.1 1.81 6.51 Totals 52 52 21 17 324.0 308 133 37 102 287 7.97 96.4 1.27 3.69 Houston Astros NAME G GS W L IP H ER HR BB SO K/9 P/GS WHIP ERA R.Clemens 11 11 8 0 71.1 51 18 5 28 81 10.22 107.5 1.11 2.27 A.Pettitte 7 7 4 1 37.1 28 14 1 17 40 9.64 88.1 1.21 3.38 R.Oswalt 11 11 3 4 75.2 73 29 5 18 61 7.26 103.1 1.20 3.45 W.Miller 10 10 5 5 59.2 51 26 10 27 53 7.99 101.8 1.31 3.92 T.Redding 9 9 3 3 46.2 51 24 9 16 28 5.40 87.3 1.44 4.63 B.Duckworth 3 3 1 0 12.0 13 10 7 1 6 4.50 58.0 1.17 7.50 J.Fernandez 1 1 0 0 0.1 3 4 0 3 0 0.00 25.0 18.00 108.00 Totals 52 52 24 13 303.0 270 125 37 110 269 7.99 94.9 1.25 3.71Both teams have had some very pleasant suprises and both teams have had some big disappointments, although I think the Cubs losing Wood for a few starts is more detrimental than the Astros losing Pettitte for a few starts because K-Wood was picking up the slack from Prior missing.I'm starting to worry a little bit about Maddux (15 HRs allowed in 11 starts), but I still think he'll right the ship. Last year he was sitting of a 5.54 ERA after 11 starts and things turned out pretty well in the end (3.96 ERA).
Glendon Rusch has stepped in HUGE when the Cubs needed him the most and regardless of what he does from here out, I am thankful for us having him.
Wade Miller hasn't performed as well as I thought he would (10 HRs allowed in 10 starts) but he's notorious for coming up big in the second half (over the last 3 years he has had a Pre-All Star game ERA of 4.47 and a Post-All Star game ERA of 2.64).
It's turning into quite a race but when it's all said and done one of these two teams will finish on top (the one with the least major injuries come August)....
NL Central as of 6/04/04 W L PCT GB Cincinnati 32 21 .604 - St.Louis 30 23 .566 2.0 Houston 29 23 .558 2.5 Chicago 27 25 .519 4.5 Milwaukee 26 25 .510 5.0 Pittsburgh 23 27 .460 7.5
Move Over Jevon Kearse
There is a new "Freak" in town....but he's not new....in fact, he's been around for almost a decade and we've known him since day one.
I'm talking about Vladimir Guerrero.....the guy that everyone has been calling the most under-rated player in the game since before Britney Spears asked us to hit her one more time.
Well, I say everyone but apparently Jim Rome didn't believe the rest of the world because he talked about Vladdy yesterday as if this was new news. Just because he didn't play in a big media market until this year (Montreal ------> Anaheim/LA) doesn't mean that he didn't exist.
How on earth did he hit that pitch?
Let's take a look at the wonderful world of Vlad:
Year Age G AB R H RBI HR XBH SO/BB SB/% BA OBP SLG 1996 20 9 27 2 5 1 1 1 3/0 0/0 .185 .185 .296 1997 21 90 325 44 98 40 11 35 39/19 3/43 .302 .350 .483 1998 22 159 623 108 202 109 38 82 95/42 11/55 .324 .371 .589 1999 23 160 610 102 193 131 42 84 62/55 14/67 .316 .378 .600 2000 24 154 571 101 197 123 44 83 74/58 9/47 .345 .410 .664 2001 25 159 599 107 184 108 34 83 88/60 37/70 .307 .377 .566 2002 26 161 614 106 206 111 39 78 70/84 40/67 .336 .417 .593 2003 27 112 394 71 130 79 25 48 53/63 9/64 .330 .426 .586Yeah, that's not bad....a .323 CAREER BA while he averaged 38 HRs/162 games.But since he's not making big media waves out in sunny California, Jim Rome acts as if he's just discovered the next Miracle Blade.
The thing that impresses me even more than his shoe-string HRs is how much he's improved his mastery of the strike zone.
If we take out the IBB's his career SO and BB numbers look like this (minus his 9 game 1996 season).
PA SO (BBt-IBB) SO/PA BB/PA 1997 354 39 19-2= 17 .110 .048 1998 677 95 42-13= 29 .140 .043 1999 674 62 55-14= 41 .092 .061 2000 641 74 58-23= 35 .115 .055 2001 671 88 60-24= 36 .131 .054 2002 709 70 84-32= 52 .098 .073 2003 467 53 63-22= 41 .113 .088His SO/PA ratio isn't really moving too much, but look at that BB/PA....it's almost doubled.Oh yeah, he's having a pretty decent year this year at the plate too, which has capped off national attention after he single handedly dominated Pedro and the Red Sox on Wednesday night:
AB R H RBI 4 2 4 9 2B, HR, HRAdding that into his season statistics....G AB R H RBI HR XBH SO/BB SB/% BA OBP SLG 51 207 47 74 49 14 30 25/14 2/100 .357 .402 .638If the season ended today, Vladdy is your AL MVP....by unanimous vote....and Jim Rome would feel like a hero for finding this "unknown" superstar....
A Salute to the General
Cory Patton
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 210 lbs
Hometown: Owasso, OK
High school: Owasso
College: Seward County CC/Texas A&MFor those of you who've been frequent readers of the site, you're pretty well aware of the fact that I really like Cory Patton. The guy can flat out play ball, and he's been a whole lot of fun to watch play over the last two years here at A&M.
Cory came to A&M from Seward County Community College after being named the Juco Player of the in 2001 (his sophomore year). He stepped right into the Aggie lineup (the 3-hole) and just flat out hit. He led the team right into the playoffs for the first time in 4 years while leading the squad in hits, HRs, RBIs, total bases, & SLG%.
I got really worried after last year because the Padres surprised everyone and drafted Cory in the 6th round (161 overall). Thankfully he didn't sign. He would have received a bonus somewhere in the neighborhood of $170,000 (I got that figure by looking at some of the players around him). Of the 160 players drafted ahead of him only 7 didn't sign.
So we got Cory back for his senior year and WOW, he hasn't disappointed!
He leads the team in HRs by more than double the next hitter, he leads in RBIs, total bases, SLG%, OBP, & outfield assists.....all while lowering his SO total and increasing his BB total.
I don't know where Cory will be taken in the draft next week, but I can't imagine him going lower than where he went last year. Here's BaseballAmerica.com's analysis on Cory:
I don't know Cory's times in the 40m, but he sure motors out there in the outfield....and I'd like to see what a plus-plus arm looks like because if it's better than his I'd be surprised. Ok, so he doesn't throw like Ichiro!, but I've been to approximately 100 collegiate games in my life and 100s of MLB games and I've never seen throws so on-the-money every single time.Others To Watch
- OFs Cory Patton and Hunter Pence aren't going to win any beauty contests, but they swing two of the meanest bats in Texas. Patton, who has a 5-foot-10, 210-pound frame that one scout compared to Matt Stairs', was the National Junior College Athletic Association's player of the year in 2002, when he hit .463 and led national juco players with 31 homes and 119 RBIs at Seward County (Kan.) CC. He led Texas A&M with 13 homers and 58 RBIs last year, which got him drafted in the sixth round by the Padres. But Patton was getting married and had no desire to sign last summer. He is having a similar season this year, hitting .341-11-64 with good plate discipline (32 walks, 20 strikeouts), and could get drafted in the same area. He runs and moves OK for his size and has a plus arm in right field. He went 8-1 on the mound in 2002, with his fastball clocked at 88-89 mph.
Overall Stats at Texas A&M
G/GS AB R H RBI 2b 3b HR TB SO/BB OBP SLG BA OPS GPA 2003 64-64 257 53 85 58 15 1 13 141 25/28 .401 .549 .331 .950 .318 2004 54-54 208 46 71 64 16 3 11 126 20/32 .435 .606 .341 1.041 .347 Total 118 465 99 156 122 31 4 24 267 45/60 .419 .572 .337 .991 .332Non-Texas A&M
Seward County Community College (Kansas):
Freshman year (2001): - .337 BA, 10 HRs, 49 RBI -All-Conference -Conference Freshman of the Year Sophomore year(2002): AB H HR RBI BA 238 108 31 120 .463 -8-1 Record, 70.0 IP on the mound -First team All-Conference -All-Region -All-American -National Junior College Player of the Year -NJCAA Male Athlete of the Year2002 Summer
During the summer of 2002, I found out that Cory played with Team USA during USA-China Friendship Series (June 13th, 2002). Here are all the stats I could dig up on that:Pitching: 2 G, 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2K/0BB, 0-0 Record, 0.00 ERA Hitting: 4 RBI, 2 HR2003 Summer
During the summer of 2003 (after his first year at A&M), Cory went back up to Kansas and played summer ball with the Liberal BeeJays who were coached by his former Seward County CC head coach.
Texas A&M
I've got this split up a ton of different ways. I'll start with the more interesting stuff and work down towards his game-by-game line stats....Hitting Ratios
So you can get an idea of what he does on a game-by-game basis....AB/G R/G H/G RBI/G RBI/H AB/HR BB/SO BA OBP SLG 2003 4.02 0.83 1.33 0.91 0.68 19.77 1.12 .331 .401 .549 2004 3.85 0.85 1.31 1.19 0.90 18.91 1.60 .341 .435 .606 Tot 3.94 0.84 1.32 1.03 0.78 19.38 1.33 .337 .419 .572Season's Split into 1/3rds
I dropped this in here to show how hot he's been during this final stretch of the season this year and decided to see if it was similar to last year....it was, but he's even better this year....
2003 Season Split into Thirds: AB R H RBI SO/BB XBH HR BA G1-21 84 15 29 20 7/7 9 4 .345 G22-42 85 19 25 13 11/12 7 2 .294 G43-64 88 20 31 25 8/10 13 7 .352 2003 Note: G43-64 has 1 more game included 2004 Season Split into Thirds: AB R H RBI SO/BB XBH HR BA G1-18 68 14 22 23 3/9 8 1 .324 G19-36 63 12 17 13 8/14 6 1 .270 G37-54 77 19 32 28 9/9 15 9 .416 2004 Note: Team has played 58 games (Cory DNP in 4 G)Vs. Ranked Teams
This gives a little bit better idea of how Cory hit against better pitching because almost by default, better teams have better pitching....Vs. Top 25 Teams: AB R H RBI SO/BB XBH HR BA 2003 99 19 29 25 17/12 9 8 .293 2004 45 12 27 21 8/5 9 6 .600 Tot 144 31 56 46 25/17 18 14 .389 Vs. Top 10 Teams: AB R H RBI SO/BB XBH HR BA 2003 40 5 11 9 7/7 4 3 .275 2004 19 6 8 13 3/3 5 4 .421 Tot 59 11 19 22 10/10 9 7 .322Career vs. texas
You've got to love that he owned them.....
AB R H RBI SO/BB 5/16/03 texas (5) 1 1 1 2 0/2 HR 5/17/03 @texas (5) 3 0 0 0 0/1 5/18/03 @texas (5) 4 1 2 2 0/0 HR 5/22/03 texas (9) 3 0 1 1 1/1 5/24/03a texas (9) 3 2 2 2 0/1 HR, HBP 5/24/03b texas (9) 4 0 0 1 0/0 5/21/04 @texas (2) 3 1 1 0 0/1 5/22/04 texas (2) 4 2 3 7 0/1 HR, HR 5/23/04 texas (2) 2 1 1 1 1/1 2B, HBP 5/27/04 texas (1) 5 1 1 1 0/0 HR Totals 32 9 12 17 2/8 .375 BACareer vs. Rice
I thought that this might come in handy for this weekend....AB R H RBI SO/BB 2/14/03 Rice (2) 5 1 2 0 2/0 4/08/03 @Rice (1 4 0 0 0 2/0 3/23/04 Rice (6) 5 1 2 4 2/0 2B Totals 14 2 4 5 6/0 .286 BAGame-by-Game Line Stats
Here is every game that Cory has played wearing a Fightin' Texas Aggie uniform....
2003 Season (Junior Year)
- Second Team All-Big XII
Date Opponent AB R H RBI SO/BB BA 2/11 A&M-CC 4 1 1 1 1/0 .250 HR/SH 2/14 Rice (2) 5 1 2 0 2/0 .333 2/15 LaLafayette 6 0 2 1 1/0 .333 2/16 Houston (11)5 1 1 0 1/0 .300 2/18 @SamHouston 5 1 2 2 0/0 .320 2B 2/22a Creighton 3 2 2 4 0/0 .357 2B/HR 2/22b Utah 3 0 0 0 0/0 .323 2/23a Creighton 4 1 2 3 0/0 .343 HR 2/23b UCLA 4 0 0 0 0/0 .308 2/24a Utah 3 0 1 1 0/0 .310 2/24b UCLA 4 0 2 2 0/0 .326 2/28 @Arizona 4 0 0 0 1/0 .300 3/01 @Arizona 3 1 1 0 0/2 .302 3/02 @Arizona 4 0 2 0 0/0 .316 3/04 UT-SA 4 1 1 0 0/0 .311 3B 3/05 SWT 4 0 1 0 0/1 .308 2B 3/07 UT-Pan Am 3 1 1 2 0/1 .309 HR 3/08 UT-Pan Am 4 2 4 1 0/0 .347 HBP 3/09 UT-Pan Am 5 1 2 1 1/0 .351 3/11 Centenary 3 1 0 0 0/2 .338 3/12 Centenary 4 1 2 2 0/1 .345 2B 3/14 Nebraska(12)4 0 2 0 0/0 .352 3/15 Nebraska(12)3 1 0 0 3/1 .341 3/16 Nebraska(12)4 2 2 0 0/0 .347 3/18 @UT-SA 4 1 2 3 0/0 .354 2B/HR 3/21 @txtech(23) 5 0 1 0 0/0 .346 3/22 @txtech(23) 5 1 2 2 1/0 .349 3/23 @txtech(23) 4 1 1 0 1/0 .345 3/26 Lamar 4 1 1 0 0/1 .342 3/28 @Baylor (6) 4 0 0 0 1/1 .331 3/29 Baylor (6) 4 0 2 0 0/0 .336 2B 3/30 Baylor (6) 5 0 1 1 1/1 .331 4/01 SamHouston 4 2 0 0 0/1 .321 4/04 @Oklahoma 2 0 1 0 0/2 .324 4/05 @Oklahoma 4 1 2 0 0/0 .329 2B/HBP 4/06 @Oklahoma 5 2 2 2 0/0 .331 SF 4/08 @Rice (1) 4 0 0 0 2/0 .322 4/11 @K-State 5 0 0 0 0/0 .312 4/12 @K-State 6 1 2 0 1/0 .313 4/13 @K-State 3 2 1 1 0/1 .313 SF 4/15 UT-A 3 2 1 0 0/2 .313 2B 4/18 OkState(21) 3 2 2 4 1/2 .320 HR 4/19 OkState(21) 4 1 2 1 1/1 .324 SH 4/20 OkState(21) 3 0 0 0 0/1 .318 4/22 SamHouston 5 2 4 1 0/0 .331 4/25 @Missou(19) 4 2 2 4 0/0 .335 HR/HR 4/26 @Missou(19) 5 0 0 0 1/0 .326 4/27 @Missou(19) 5 2 2 5 1/0 .328 HR/HR 5/06 SWT 4 1 1 1 1/0 .327 2B/SF 5/09 Kansas 4 0 3 1 0/1 .335 5/10 Kansas 5 2 2 1 0/0 .337 2B 5/11 Kansas 5 1 2 1 1/0 .338 2B 5/13 Houston 5 1 2 1 0/0 .339 2B 5/16 texas (5) 1 1 1 2 0/2 .342 HR 5/17 @texas (5) 3 0 0 0 0/1 .338 5/18 @texas (5) 4 1 2 2 0/0 .341 HR 5/21 Oklahoma 5 2 2 0 0/0 .342 2B/2B 5/22 texas (9) 3 0 1 1 1/1 .342 5/24a texas (9) 3 2 2 2 0/1 .346 HR/HBP 5/24b texas (9) 4 0 0 1 0/0 .340 5/30 OralRoberts 4 0 1 1 1/0 .339 5/31 Alabama(23) 5 1 1 0 0/0 .336 6/01a Houston 3 0 0 0 0/2 .332 6/01b Houston 4 1 1 0 1/0 .331 SH2004 Season (Senior Year)
- 1st Team All-Big XII
Date Opponent AB R H RBI SO/BB BA 2/14 A&M-CC 5 2 3 2 0/0 .600 2B/2B/2B 2/15a A&M-CC 4 0 1 0 0/1 .444 2/15b A&M-CC 3 1 1 0 0/2 .417 SB/CS 2/17 @SamHousto 5 2 3 5 0/0 .471 2B/HR/HBP 2/20 S.Alabama 4 3 3 3 0/1 .524 2B 2/21 S.Alabama 5 0 2 2 0/0 .500 SB 2/22 S.Alabama 3 0 0 1 0/0 .448 SF 2/27a Arkansas 2 0 0 1 0/1 .419 SF 2/27b N.Mexico 4 0 0 0 1/0 .371 2/28a N.Mexico 4 1 1 2 0/0 .359 2B/HBP/HBP 2/28b Arkansas 4 0 0 1 0/0 .326 2/29a Arkansas 5 1 1 1 0/0 .313 2/29b N.Mexico DNP 3/05 @UCLA 5 0 3 2 0/0 .340 2B 3/06 @UCLA 5 0 0 0 1/0 .310 3/07 @UCLA 4 1 1 0 0/1 .306 SB 3/09 @Houston 3 2 0 1 1/2 .292 3/12 SantaClara 3 1 3 2 0/1 .324 SF 3/13 SantaClara 3 1 2 0 1/1 .338 3/14 SantaClara 4 0 1 3 0/1 .333 2B 3/16 @Lamar 4 1 0 0 1/1 .316 3/17 SamHouston 3 3 1 2 1/2 .317 3/19 Baylor 4 1 1 3 0/1 .314 HR 3/20 @Baylor 2 0 0 0 0/2 .307 3/21 @Baylor 5 1 1 0 1/0 .301 3B 3/23 Rice (6) 5 1 2 4 2/0 .306 2B 3/26 txtech 3 0 2 0 1/1 .317 3/27 txtech 4 1 1 0 0/0 .314 2B 3/28 txtech 3 0 0 0 0/2 .306 3/30 TexasState 6 1 3 1 0/0 .316 2B 3/31 UT-SA 2 1 0 0 0/1 .310 4/02 @Ok State 4 0 0 0 0/0 .300 4/03 @Ok State 4 0 2 0 0/0 .306 4/04 @Ok State 3 0 0 0 0/1 .299 HBP 4/06 SamHouston DNP 4/09 @Kansas 4 1 1 0 1/1 .298 4/10 @Kansas 4 0 0 0 0/0 .289 4/11 @Kansas DNP 4/13 Houston DNP 4/16 Oklah(18) 5 2 2 2 1/0 .293 HR 4/17 Oklah(18) 4 1 2 1 1/1 .299 3B 4/18 Oklah(18) 5 1 2 4 1/0 .302 HR 4/20 @UT-A 4 1 2 2 1/0 .307 HR 4/23 Missouri 3 1 1 1 0/0 .308 HR 4/24 Missouri 4 1 1 1 0/0 .306 HR 4/27 TexasState 2 0 0 0 0/2 .302 4/30 @Neb (19) 2 1 1 0 1/1 .305 5/01 @Neb (19) 5 1 4 0 0/0 .320 5/02 @Neb (19) 5 0 3 1 1/0 .328 2B 5/12 UT-SA 4 1 2 2 0/0 .331 2B/3B 5/14 K. State 4 0 1 0 0/0 .330 5/15 K. State 4 1 2 2 0/1 .333 5/16 K. State 4 3 3 3 1/1 .342 HR/2B 5/21 @texas (2) 3 1 1 0 0/1 .341 5/22 texas (2) 4 2 3 7 0/1 .350 HR/HR 5/23 texas (2) 2 1 1 1 1/1 .352 2B/HBP 5/26 Ok State 4 0 0 0 1/0 .345 5/27 texas (1) 5 1 1 1 0/0 .341 HRThe one thing that I'm thankful for is that we've got AT LEAST one more weekend with #15 trotting out to RF.
If he plays his game like he has over the last month, then I foresee us getting another 3 games added to our schedule....
Thanks Cory! B.T.H.O. Rice, Lamar, and TSU this weekend.....and good luck with your future career!
Wednesday June 2nd, 2004
12:46amRice Regionals Preview
Here is pretty much everything you need to know about what the Ags have coming up this weekend during regionals.
If you want to print this out and take it with you to the ballpark, just click here and print that version so you don't get the tool bar from the left side of the screen and all the posts from earlier in the week.
I posted the schedule for the tournament yesterday, but just for the sake of completion here it is again:
Friday: G1: 3pm #1 Rice v. #4 TSU G2: 7pm #2 A&M v. #3 Lamar Saturday: G3: 11am G1 Loser v. G2 Loser (loser eliminated) G4: 3pm G1 Winner v. G2 Winner G5: 7pm G3 Winner v. G4 Loser (loser eliminated) Sunday: G6: 1pm G4 Winner v. G5 Winner G7: 45 min after G6 (if necessary for double elimination)And here are our potential opponents....Lamar Cardinals: 41-14 (18-8)
The Cardinals are a team that we should handle easily, but shouldn't be taken as lightly as I'd like to.We played Lamar way back on March 13th and won 12-3 with Jon Michael Cline on the hill for us (he went 5.0 of his 6.2 total season innings in that start). Since we only played Lamar once this year I'll let you read about it and see the stats via the Box Score and the Recap.
It should be noted that they can be thorns in the side of good teams. In 2003 Lamar beat Rice twice (once while they were ranked #3 and once while they were #1) and took a game against then #9 ranked texas during Regionals (went 1-2 against them on the weekend).
This year v. Top 10 teams they beat #7 ranked Arizona State, lost to us when we were #9, and lost 3-2 to #3 Rice.
They come into the Regionals with a 7-3 record during their last 10 games. They also won the season Southland Conference title & the Southland Conference Tournament.
Their W-L split between LHP and RHP is pretty severe. Against lefties they are 12-7 (.632) and against righties they're 29-7 (.806).
Their pitching is extremely good and as of 5/23/04 they were #9 in the nation with a team ERA of 3.10.
Here are their team stats:
Hitting (> 20 AB) Player AVG GP-GS AB R H HR RBI SLG% SO/BB OBP OPS GPA 9 Foster, J... .367 55-55 207 50 76 8 43 .546 19/44 .486 1.032 .355 2 Craigen, R.. .361 51-34 147 32 53 3 19 .503 20/9 .400 .903 .306 12 Allen, J... .309 54-51 194 28 60 6 38 .510 27/26 .396 .906 .306 31 Finan, R... .300 55-55 180 35 54 8 43 .489 27/52 .467 .956 .332 6 Cantu, A.... .291 53-53 199 36 58 3 29 .432 17/34 .405 .837 .290 16 Gray, J.... .284 52-52 211 48 60 4 25 .403 45/23 .370 .773 .267 33 Ambort, M.. .271 52-52 192 31 52 8 38 .458 27/14 .341 .799 .268 37 Winn, B.... .245 53-48 184 29 45 3 28 .375 32/26 .341 .716 .247 -------------- 3 Richards, C. .264 43-31 125 21 33 3 17 .376 26/9 .319 .695 .238 20 Emmons, J.. .257 34-18 70 13 18 2 11 .386 11/2 .293 .679 .228 26 Klusaw, N.. .244 17-11 45 3 11 0 8 .333 11/2 .300 .633 .218 13 Haney, J... .237 40-30 97 22 23 2 14 .351 28/10 .321 .672 .232 Pitching (> 20 IP) Player ERA W-L-S APP GS IP H R ER BB SO HR B/Avg 5 Gordon, D..... 1.72 7-2-0 17 10 62.2 39 16 12 34 54 2 .178 8 Delage, W..... 2.05 6-0-0 13 12 70.1 51 21 16 27 66 0 .201 11 Stutes, K..... 2.25 10-1-3 23 10 88.0 72 27 22 19 84 6 .220 -------------- 28 Buechner, C... 1.64 4-1-1 21 1 38.1 34 14 7 11 30 0 .234 30 Hunton, J..... 2.91 4-2-10 26 3 43.1 39 16 14 13 33 2 .247 22 Harris, J..... 3.08 3-1-2 18 5 52.2 44 23 18 22 47 2 .229 19 Cox, B........ 3.38 0-2-0 16 1 32.0 23 12 12 30 29 0 .204 18 Vander Weg, S. 3.46 5-4-1 22 3 54.2 51 29 21 25 52 3 .245 7 Rinando, T.... 5.06 2-1-0 11 6 26.2 33 16 15 6 15 1 .317Texas Southern University: 18-26 (15-13)
TSU is one of those teams that shouldn't be in the NCAA tournament but won their conference tournament (SWAC) so they received an automatic bid and took the spot of another more competitive team. It's good for their school, but it's completely unexciting for me unless they can somehow muster up the craziest and most improbable upsets possible (and it won't be exciting for me if that comes against us).Their season finished on May 8th, so they've been sitting idle for over 3 weeks.
They didn't play a ranked team all season but did play Baylor (lost 10-3), A&M-CC five times (lost 8-6, 7-6, 13-5, 1-0, & 6-0), U. Louisiana-Lafayette (lost 13-0), and Sam Houston (lost 16-2). Those were the schools on their schedule that are usually on A&M's schedule. I don't know when the last time A&M played TSU was, if it has ever happened at all. I do know that we haven't played them at least since 1997, when our seniors were still playing JV ball for their HS teams.
Here are TSU's team stats:
Hitting (> 20 AB) Player AVG GP-GS AB R H HR RBI XBH SO/BB Fugett, C..... .342 36-34 111 22 38 7 32 15 15/21 Deleon, M..... .338 43-42 148 37 50 4 35 21 13/18 Coachmen, H... .314 38-34 121 34 38 9 37 16 17/9 Stewart, J.... .314 36-32 121 32 38 2 26 7 16/13 Alexander, C.. .290 44-43 138 33 40 5 25 17 39/20 Nevels, A..... .289 40-40 135 37 39 6 25 13 29/18 -------------- Burns, D...... .242 34-31 91 18 22 1 10 10 28/16 Alverez, J.... .237 30-29 76 13 18 0 5 5 7/14 Garcia, M..... .233 40-36 103 23 24 6 22 13 28/18 Daniels, I.... .231 26-16 26 5 6 0 5 1 6/5 Martin, L..... .149 22-15 47 7 7 1 7 3 13/9 White, O...... .100 27-16 40 10 4 0 3 1 7/3 Stricklen, B.. .045 20-13 22 1 1 0 1 0 8/1 NOTE: TSU didn't list OBP or SLG on their team's website Pitching (> 10 IP) Player ERA W-L-S APP GS IP H R ER BB SO Daniels, I....... 4.45 5-4-0 16 8 56.2 42 33 28 31 64 Stricklen, B..... 4.67 2-2-0 9 7 44.1 46 30 23 24 39 ----------------- Bluin, D......... 4.76 2-0-0 7 0 11.1 12 7 6 5 8 Guerra, J........ 8.06 2-7-0 12 8 41.1 57 46 37 31 19 Johnson, C....... 9.00 2-1-0 11 4 24.0 32 28 24 25 22 Young, C......... 11.92 1-5-0 14 8 37.0 68 57 49 16 28 White, O......... 12.83 1-1-2 12 0 13.1 15 19 19 12 10 Capehart, D...... 13.50 0-0-0 9 3 19.1 31 33 29 12 15 Barrett, B....... 13.71 2-4-0 13 4 21.2 45 40 33 18 6 Gullory, W....... 14.06 1-1-0 9 2 16.0 30 33 25 18 12 NOTE: TSU didn't list HR or BAA on their team's websiteAfter looking at all of those stats, I'm even more bothered by the fact that they're in the tournament and Nebraska and Baylor and Houston are sitting at home. Their TEAM'S ERA is 8.49 for heaven's sake!! I was going to only list their pitchers with >20 IP (like I did for Lamar) but there would have only been 6 players on the list.Statistically, these guys are just flat out terrible. Their only hope for getting through Friday undefeated is if Rice makes their starter throw with the wrong hand.
#6 Rice Owls: 43-12 (24-6)
I'm going to talk about Rice in more depth because frankly, they're the team that is closest to our caliber.We played Rice earlier this year and I documented that game here at the site on two separate days and you can read about that game from them (#6 Rice Knocks Off #10 Aggies & A Bit Deeper Look at the Rice Game).
One thing that will be big for us is keeping the errors to a minimum. We had 4 errors in the game against Rice back in March and it killed us. Errors were also huge problems for us as we slumped during our last 5 or 6 games (actually we've had 10 errors in our last 4 games). Rice is similar to texas in that they play small ball very well. A couple months back I got to see Rice take on Miami (OH) when I was in Houston and they showed the small ball there. Here are my thoughts about that reprinted from my recap of that game:
Offensively the Owls didn't hammer the ball, but they were very good playing text book baseball, manufacturing runs.Their runs came like this:
1st Run: 1B, K, BB, 1B, 6-3, 6-3 2nd Run: 2B, F8 (runner tagged up & advanced), SacF7, K 3rd Run: HBP, sac bunt 2-3, 1B, bunt 1B, 1B, L3u DPThat is one thing that I wish the Aggies would be a bit more proactive with. We will bunt over runners every now and then, but we usually rely too much on the big hit. Rice scored 3 runs with only 1 extra base hit in the ball game. Just a difference in coaching styles I suppose.Looking at their W-L splits it's interesting to see that they aren't lights out in close ballgames.
Rice: A&M: W-L % W-L % 1-R games 6-5 .545 1-R games 10-7 .588 2-R games 5-4 .556 2-R games 4-3 .571 5+R games 25-2 .926 5+R games 20-5 .800If we can keep it close, then it appears that we will have a slight upper-hand. They don't have a set go-to closer....They have 8 different players with a save and their leader has 4 (and he's also their #4 starter, Josh Baker).We might just be catching Rice at the best possible time of the season. Over their last 6 games Rice is 3-3 and over their last 14 games they're 9-5.
Conversely, they are the defending National Champions, & they return with one of the top pitching staffs in the nation (as of 5/23/04 they were #2 in the nation with a 2.66 team ERA).
Unless you've been living along-side Bin Laden in some cave in the middle of no where, you've heard of Rice's 3-headed monster of a pitching staff....Jeff Niemann, Wade Townsend, and Phillip Humber. These guys will all be taken in the 1st 15 picks of the MLB Draft next week, and it wouldn't be out of the question for all 3 to be drafted before the #11 teams picks. I'll run down each of them individually (and alphabetically) since they've earned that right in my books.
Offensively, Rice isn't a powerhouse, but as I mentioned earlier, they can manufacture runs like nobody's business.Phillip Humber: Jr, RHP, 6'4", 210 lbs
ERA K/9 BB/9 H/9 HR/9 GB/9 FB/9 AGs PAP 1.80 12.09 2.83 6.09 0.43 9.0 5.0 68.8 96257 Last 5 starts (4/23, 5/07, 5/14, 5/18, 5/21, 5/28): IP H R ER SO/BB AGs K/9 BB/9 H/9 ERA 34.2 27 11 10 46/16 62 11.94 4.15 7.00 2.60 GB/9 = ground balls/9 innings FB/9 = fly balls/9 inningsJeff Niemann: Jr, RHP, 6'9", 260 lbs
ERA K/9 BB/9 H/9 HR/9 GB/9 FB/9 AGs PAP 3.34 10.67 3.34 7.07 0.51 8.4 5.8 61.1 15513 Last 5 starts (3/26, 4/02, 4/13, 5/23, 5/29): IP H R ER SO/BB AGs K/9 BB/9 H/9 ERA 27.0 21 11 10 37/10 59 12.33 3.33 7.00 3.33You might be wondering why Niemann's starts are so spread out. Well, on April 13th (v. texas) Jeff left the game after 2.0 IP with a groin injury and he didn't see action again until May 15th (in relief against Nevada). Here are his stats since returning from that injury:Starts: Totals: Date IP H R ER SO/BB G IP H R ER SO/BB ERA 5/23 4.2 10 7 7 6/3 4 14.1 20 10 10 20/8 6.28 5/29 6.0 7 2 2 7/3As you can see, he's still not anywhere near back up to top form....Here are his splits from Pre-GroinInjury and Post-GroinInjury:
G IP H R ER SO/BB ERA Pre 11 55.2 35 18 16 63/18 2.59 Post 4 14.1 20 10 10 20/8 6.28Wade Townsend: Jr, RHP, 6'4", 225 lbs
ERA K/9 BB/9 H/9 HR/9 GB/9 FB/9 AGs PAP 1.68 11.26 3.43 5.19 0.40 6.5 7.3 69.8 89386 Last 5 starts (4/24, 5/09, 5/15, 5/22, 5/29): IP H R ER SO/BB AGs K/9 BB/9 H/9 ERA 36.0 25 9 9 47/10 68 11.75 2.50 6.25 2.25The Big 3 Compared (with the "little" #4 added in)
ERA K/9 BB/9 H/9 HR/9 AGs PAP Humber 1.80 12.09 2.83 6.09 0.43 68.8 96257 Niemann 3.34 10.67 3.34 7.07 0.51 61.1 15513 Townsend 1.68 11.26 3.43 5.19 0.40 69.8 89386 J.Baker 2.69 8.17 3.36 8.55 0.29 ? ?As you can tell, Baker isn't a pushover by any means. His K/9 isn't as high as the rest of the bunch but he walks less batters and gas given up the fewest long balls of the bunch. Let's just say that if he was on our staff this year we'd be the ones hosting the Regionals with at worst a #7 national ranking.The Entire Staff (> 10 IP)
Player ERA W-L-S APP GS IP H R ER BB SO HR B/Avg 30 Townsend, W... 1.68 11-0-2 17 14 112.2 65 26 21 43 141 5 .171 21 Humber, P..... 1.80 13-2-1 18 14 105.0 71 26 21 33 141 5 .190 20 Baker, J...... 2.69 9-5-4 22 11 93.2 89 32 28 35 85 3 .251 33 Niemann, J.... 3.34 5-3-2 15 10 70.0 55 28 26 26 83 4 .219 ----------------- Degerman, E...... 2.77 1-1-2 14 0 26.0 21 11 8 16 39 2 .216 Pennington, G.... 3.38 0-0-1 11 0 16.0 15 8 6 6 15 2 .234 Ueckert, M....... 4.10 2-0-0 10 5 26.1 20 13 12 10 21 1 .215 Forester, J...... 4.35 0-1-0 9 0 10.1 5 5 5 13 12 0 .152 Hale, A.......... 4.61 1-3-1 11 0 13.2 11 8 7 6 13 3 .216 Matheny, C....... 5.56 0-0-2 10 0 11.1 14 7 7 3 6 4 .298Rice '03 v. Rice '04 G BA R HR XBH OBP SLG SB/% SF SH 2003 70 .313 505 51 198 .398 .440 72/88 36 29 2004 55 .310 394 52 188 .400 .472 28/76 22 38 R/G HR/G XBH/G 2003 7.21 0.73 2.83 2004 7.16 0.95 3.42I thought that their offense was more potent last year than this year, but looking at that pretty much disproves that.Here are the individual hitting stats for 2004:
Hitting (> 20 AB) Player AVG GP-GS AB R H HR RBI SLG% SO/BB OBP OPS GPA 7 Kolkhorst, C... .367 55-55 215 57 79 0 27 .465 20/36 .489 .954 .336 11 Janish, P...... .358 52-52 215 49 77 9 58 .577 20/30 .443 1.020 .344 26 Rodgers, A..... .340 54-52 197 36 67 7 58 .563 20/23 .414 .977 .327 10 Pendleton A.... .326 50-48 184 41 60 11 38 .592 46/25 .423 1.015 .338 12 Rodriguez, J... .313 52-46 166 35 52 2 31 .452 33/17 .383 .835 .285 22 Ueckert, M..... .299 47-38 147 25 44 2 28 .388 23/14 .362 .750 .260 9 Davis, A....... .288 49-48 184 38 53 7 23 .462 21/37 .407 .869 .299 28 Morris, A...... .278 49-45 162 34 45 5 26 .451 40/21 .374 .825 .281 15 Moake, M....... .276 31-21 76 17 21 1 15 .368 14/7 .356 .724 .252 19 Reagan, T...... .274 34-20 84 10 23 1 11 .357 19/8 .344 .701 .244 16 Reichenbach, C. .245 34-25 94 17 23 1 11 .309 28/16 .355 .664 .237 27 Hale, A........ .240 44-29 121 19 29 6 22 .455 26/11 .301 .756 .249 ------------------ 30 Townsend, W.... .346 9-6 26 6 9 0 1 .462 6/1 .370 .832 .282 8 Gunderson, K... .261 15-9 23 7 6 0 2 .304 6/6 .400 .704 .256I'll see yall at the park....BTHO Rice Regionals! WHOOP!
Tuesday June 1st, 2004
2:08pmReckling Park, Here We Come!
After yesterday's much anticipated announcement of our destination we're headed to Houston at the Rice Regional. Yesterday I implied that this was the Regional I didn't want us to get, but that was because I was planning a road trip in my head. I suppose I'm going to save a lot of money by not having to fill up the Tahoe 4-5 times with $2/gallon gas.
Joining us this weekend will be Lamar University (from Beaumont; they will be the #3 seed) and Texas Southern University (from Houston; they are the #4 seed).
I'm in the midst of putting together a HUGE Regional Preview, which is actually coming along a bit more quickly than I had anticipated. I imagine I'll have it up here tomorrow, and then on Friday I'm going to put together a big Cory Patton post (because he's my boy and the draft is coming up on us quickly).
Here is the Regional format:
Friday: G1: 3pm #1 Rice v. #4 TSU G2: 7pm #2 A&M v. #3 Lamar Saturday: G3: 11am G1 Loser v. G2 Loser (loser eliminated) G4: 3pm G1 Winner v. G2 Winner G5: 7pm G3 Winner v. G4 Loser (loser eliminated) Sunday: G6: 1pm G4 Winner v. G5 Winner G7: if necessary for double eliminationI've got my tickets and I'm all ready to go....Yall look for me with my clipboard/scorecard wearing my maroon A&M baseball jersey on Friday (because it'll be night time), and one of my many grey A&M baseball t-shirts on Saturday....Sunday's attire is yet to be determined, but I'm leaning towards my 12th Man Rewards jersey....we'll see.
The Rest of the Field
Here's how everything shook down after the announcement yesterday (the winners of the Regionals lined up horizontally will meet in the Super Regionals next weekend):
Austin, Tx vs. Charlottesville, Va 1. texas* v. 1. Virginia* v. 4. Youngstown State 4. Princeton 3. TCU v. 3. George Mason v. 2. Oral Roberts 2. Vanderbilt Tallahassee, Fla vs. Fayetteville, Ark 1. Florida St* v. 1. Arkansas* v. 4. Bethune-Cookman 4. Le Moyne 3. Central Florida v. 3. Missouri v. 2. Oklahoma State 2. Wichita State Palo Alto, Ca vs. South Bend, Ind 1. Stanford* v. 1. Notre Dame* v. 4. Nevada-Las Vegas 4. Kent State 3. St. John's (NY) v. 3. Arizona v. 2. Long Beach State 2. UC Irvine Athens, GA vs. Atlanta, GA 1. Georgia* v. 1. Georgia Tech* v. 4. Middle Tennessee 4. Jacksonville State 3. Birmingham-Southern v. 3. Mississippi State v. 2. Clemson 2. texas tech Columbia, SC vs. Kinston, NC 1. South Carolina* v. 1. East Carolina* v. 4. The Citadel 4. Stony Brook 3. Costal Carolina v. 3. UNC Wilmington v. 2. North Carolina 2. Tennessee Houston, Tx vs. Baton Rouge, La 1. Rice* v. 1. LSU* v. 4. TSU 4. Army 3. Lamar v. 3. College of Charleston v. 2. Texas A&M 2. Southern Mississippi Oklahoma City, OK vs. Coral Gables, Fla 1. Florida v. 1. Miami (Fla)* v. 4. Central Conn. St. 4. St. Bonaventure 3. UCLA v. 3. Florida Atlantic v. 2. Oklahoma* 2. North Carolina St *host school Big XII SchoolThe Big XII was represented very well with the most Regional berths ever given to us (6). Outside of our Regional and the LSU regional (because that's who our winner will play) I'm most interested in Palo Alto. I can't wait for Stanford's mighty bats (and comparatively weak pitching) to take on Long Beach State's combo of Jered Weaver and Cesar Ramos.It's post-season baby! This is the most exciting month stretch of the year for me with the Regionals, the MLB Draft (next Monday), Super Regionals, and my favorite, the College World Series (which is broadcast on ESPN)! WHOOP!
Monday May 31st, 2004
1:18amDestination Unknown
Yesterday afternoon the NCAA announced the hosts for the NCAA Regionals. After the Aggies' lack-luster finish to the season (lost 4 of our last 5) we didn't get our name called.
That only means one thing....
ROAD TRIP!
Well, it's actually not quite that easy to yell that because of the 3 schools that we are most likely to go visit this weekend are Rice (in Houston), LSU (Baton Rouge), Arkansas (Fayetteville). Here are the possible problems/advantages:
I suppose we'll have to wait until 11am CST for the announcement to be made. If you need me at 11:01 I'll either be on the phone with Arkansas or LSU's ticket office or I'll be in my truck driving down to Rice to get tickets.
- Rice-Reckling Park:
It's tough to road trip when you live in the host city....Reckling holds 3,500 fans which will be even more difficult to get into considering that University of Houston and possibly Texas Southern (another Houston-based school) have a shot at playing in this regional as well....
- LSU-Alex Box Stadium:
This is where I most want to go, but LSU is one of the very few teams that actually draws better than A&M does (has led the nation in attendance every year since 1996) so I'm afraid tickets will be difficult to come by....but I'd LOVE to experience the atmosphere down there. "The Box" has a seating capacity of 7,760.....they didn't have a single game this year with less than 7,000 fans in the seats
- Arkansas-Baum Stadium:
This might be our best shot for a realistic road trip. Their website says that the stadium can accommodate as many as 9,000 fans which is huge for a college baseball stadium. Just glancing at their attendance it seems as if they drew between 7,000 & 8,500 for all the games against LSU and Auburn and ran around 5,000 for most of their SEC games. It also says that Baum Stadium has been ranked as the #1 facility in the nation (1998, Baseball America) and was ranked #2 in 2003 (Baseball America). That's cool...
Minor League Rehab
Last week I gave you the run down on Mark Prior's minor league rehab up through that point. Well, I have more on Mark plus a couple other guys....
Mark Prior
Date IP H R ER SO/BB HR 5/30 5.1 3 2 2 10/1 2 Box ScoreAJ Burnett
Date IP H R ER SO/BB HR 5/28 3.1 7 4 4 6/2 1 Box ScoreNomar Garciaparra
Date AB R H RBI SO/BB 3/30 3 0 0 0 1/0 Box ScoreElsewhere on the DL
Josh Beckett has suffered from a reoccurance of his finger blister which set him on the DL a few times over the last few years.Sammy Sosa is still on the DL, as is Kerry Wood. Jason Giambi is also on the DL.
I name those players because of the following....Mark Prior was my #1 pick for my fantasy team, Nomar was my #2 pick, Sammy was my #3 pick and I also own Giambi and Burnett (who I picked up late last week as a shot in the dark).
Sunday May 30th, 2004
12:16amRandom Baseball Tidbits: Where Did All the College Pitching Go?
Aggie fans shouldn't feel too bad about the poor outings by Zack Jackson and Jason Meyer over the last week because they weren't the only star pitchers to get touched up over their last couple starts. The rank in front of their name is how Baseball America has them ranked for the purposes of the upcoming draft [The number doesn't correspond with BA's numbers because I edited it ever so slightly and eliminated position players and HS pitchers....That means the rank is basically BA's rank for collegiate pitchers]....
#1 Jered Weaver - #14 Long Beach State
Date Dec IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP ERA 5/27 L 6.1 8 7 7 11/4 24 29 127 1.68#2 Jeff Niemann - #5 Rice
Date Dec IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP ERA 5/23 L 4.2 10 7 7 6/3 23 27 89 3.38#3 Philip Humber - #5 Rice
Date Dec IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP ERA 5/21 6.0 9 4 4 11/3 27 30 111 1.93#4 Justin Verlander - Old Dominion
Date Dec IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP ERA 5/26 L 7.0 8 6 6 6/2 27 33 112* 3.49#5 Wade Townsend - #5 Rice
Date Dec IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP ERA 5/22 nd 7.0 8 4 4 9/5 24 30 123 2.00#7 Thomas Diamond - New Orleans
Date Dec IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP ERA 5/26 L 7.2 4 4 2 7/5 26 34 127* n/a#8 David Purcey - #17 Oklahoma
Date Dec IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP ERA 5/26 L 4.1 6 6 6 5/5 18 26 103 3.28#9 Zack Jackson - #23 Texas A&M
Date Dec IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP ERA 5/22 5.2 12 10 6 2/2 29 34 102 3.02 5/27 6.0 8 6 4 4/4 26 32 95 3.40#11 Justin Hoyman - #21 Florida
Date Dec IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP ERA 5/21 nd 7.1 11 4 4 3/4 34 38 111 2.76 5/26 nd 7.1 9 4 3 3/2 29 33 108 2.82#23 J.P. Howell - #1 texas
Date Dec IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP ERA 5/21 W 6.0 5 3 3 6/2 26 29 112 1.94 5/27 W 5.0 6 5 2 4/2 22 24 97 2.01I'm not sure why Howell is ranked so low....he's been one of the top pitchers in the NCAA this seasonOn a separate note....
Wow, did anyone notice that 8 of the 9 #3 LSU's players who have >100 ABs are hitting over .300? They're hitting .334 as a team on the season.
Ok, maybe you knew that....but did you know that the #2 Stanford's lowest ERA by anyone who has started a game is 3.91? Their team ERA is 4.19.
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