The baseball season kicks off tomorrow at Olsen Field and expectations have returned to high levels after last season's incredible run to the Super Regionals.
In the four traditional polls and one new one that is picking up steam (Rivals.com) we are ranked as follows: Baseball America #21; NCBWA #20; USA Today/Coaches #21; Collegiate Baseball #22; Rivals.com #24. I typically give Baseball America's rankings the most credibility.
There has been a lot of turnover from last season and to be completely honest I don't know all that much about the new faces. We have lots of red-shirts, some transfers, and some true freshmen that are going to step onto Olsen Field for the first time and will contribute.
But really, that's not all too different from every other season.
Here's the Table of Contents....
Roster
Returning Lettermen Stats
Aggie Pitching
Schedule
PDF (Right click & Save). You know, so you can print it out and take it to the ballpark)Alphabetical: Numerical: Player Pos Cl-L B/T Wt/Ht # Player ============================================ ==================== 23. Aaron, Daman OF Sr-1 L/L 6.3/210 1. Carter, Dane 9. Alleman, David OF Fr-H S/R 5.11/185 2. McInnerney, Keith 44. Anders, Luke 1B/DH Jr-2 L/L 6.6/225 3. Stouffer, Blake 42. Brown, Darby 1B Sr-1 L/R 6.4/230 4. Greene, Brodie 18. Carey, Phil INF Jr-T L/R 6.0/185 6. Duran, Jose 1. Carter, Dane INF Sr-1 L/R 5.9/165 8. Heard, Michael 22. Chambless, Jordan RHP Jr-2 R/R 6.2/200 9. Alleman, David 12. Colligan, Kyle OF Jr-2 R/R 6.2/205 10. Gonzalez, Kevin 14. Cravey, Kevin RHP Fr-R R/R 6.1/185 11. Thebeau, Kyle 39. Daab, Aaron LHP Fr-H L/L 6.2/220 12. Colligan, Kyle 6. Duran, Jose INF Jr-T R/R 5.11/190 13. Ehlert, Clayton 13. Ehlert, Clayton RHP So-1 R/R 6.1/190 14. Cravey, Kevin 35. Feltner, Ben OF Sr-1 S/R 5.11/185 16. Minks, Shane 24. Fleece, Nick INF Fr-H R/R 6.2/200 17. Ruggiano, Brian 37. Gerald, Evan RHP Jr-2 R/R 6.3/210 18. Carey, Phil 10. Gonzalez, Kevin C Fr-R R/R 5.10/190 19. Nelson, Mitch 4. Greene, Brodie INF/OF So-1 R/R 6.1/190 20. Rampy, Blake 8. Heard, Michael OF/LHP So-1 L/L 5.10/180 21. Register, Joey 32. Kratz, Jordan LHP Jr-T L/L 6.3/180 22. Chambless, Jordan 50. Loux, Barret RHP Fr-H R/R 6.5/195 24. Fleece, Nick 45. Martin, Steven OF So-T R/R 6.6/225 25. Walker, Justin 2. McInnerney, Keith OF So-R L/R 6.2/185 27. Middleton, Carson 27. Middleton, Carson RHP So-T R/R 6.3/200 28. Rivers, Kirkland 34. Migl, Scott RHP So-1 R/R 6.4/190 30. Raley, Brooks 16. Minks, Shane RHP So-1 R/R 6.3/205 31. Robertson, Hank 19. Nelson, Mitch LHP Fr-R L/L 6.2/180 32. Kratz, Jordan 33. Nettune, Andrew C Fr-H R/R 6.0/195 33. Nettune, Andrew 30. Raley, Brooks LHP/OF Fr-H L/L 6.0/170 34. Migl, Scott 20. Rampy, Blake RHP Sr-3 R/R 6.2/185 35. Feltner, Ben 21. Register, Joey OF Jr-R R/R 5.11/210 37. Gerald, Evan 28. Rivers, K. LHP/OF Sr-1 L/L 6.1/195 38. Wilson, Alex 31. Robertson, Hank RHP Jr-T R/R 5.11/180 39. Daab, Aaron 17. Ruggiano, Brian C/INF Jr-1 R/R 6.0/180 40. Shofner, Caleb 40. Shofner, Caleb INF Fr-R R/R 5.11/180 41. Starling, Travis 41. Starling, Travis RHP So-1 R/R 5.10/180 42. Brown, Darby 3. Stouffer, Blake INF Sr-2 S/R 6.1/190 43. Aaron, Damon 11. Thebeau, Kyle RHP Jr-2 R/R 6.1/195 44. Anders, Luke 25. Walker, Justin C/OF Fr-R R/R 6.3/215 45. Martin, Steven 38. Wilson, Alex RHP Jr-T R/R 6.1/215 50. Loux, Barrett Returning Lettermen (19): D.Aaron, L.Anders, D.Brown, D.Carter, J.Chambless, K.Colligan, C.Ehlert, B.Feltner, E.Gerald, B.Greene, M.Heard, S.Migl, S.Minks, B.Rampy, K.Rivers, B.Ruggiano, T.Starling, B.Stouffer, K.Thebeau Transfers (7): P.Carey (Winthrop), J.Duran (N.Texas Central), J.Kratz (Paris JC), S.Martin (Seminole St College), C.Middleton (McLennan College), H.Robertson (N.Texas Central), A.Wilson (Winthrop) Redshirts (7): K.Cravey, K.Gonzalez, K.McInnerney, M.Nelson, J.Register, C.Shofner, J.Walker Freshmen (6): D.Alleman, A.Daab, N.Fleece, B.Loux, A.Nettune, B.Raley Players Lost (16): P.Dalton, B.Hicks, J.Meyer, J.Stinson, K.Nicholson, C.Stinson, G.Campfield, J.Hulett, J.Parker, Z.Lynch, M.Ueckert, S.Jackson, J.Fuqua, D.Newmann, K.Renfro, J.Whittenberg uniform # change
Returning Lettermen Stats
Returning Aggie Lettermen (ranked by ABs from 2007): Hitters: Player Year G-GS AB R H RBI HR XBH SO/BB SB/A BA OBP SLG ======================================================================== B.Stouffer 2007 67-67 256 58 102 85 12 40 56/42 22/31 .398 .487 .668 2006 56-51 174 37 45 15 3 10 37/31 17/24 .259 .389 .362 2005 5-1 6 0 1 0 0 0 2/0 0/1 .167 .167 .167 B.Feltner 2007 65-64 251 48 76 24 1 12 62/20 34/37 .303 .360 .367 L.Anders 2007 65-56 211 35 71 46 11 23 46/20 2/7 .336 .422 .555 K.Colligan 2007 64-63 218 42 62 37 10 22 41/25 17/22 .284 .370 .491 2006 33-31 120 17 35 23 3 12 28/5 4/4 .292 .325 .467 D.Brown 2007 39-31 118 19 38 27 1 6 18/7 2/4 .322 .390 .398 B.Ruggiano 2007 47-32 102 25 26 14 1 11 23/16 9/10 .255 .352 .392 B.Greene 2007 53-26 93 18 29 8 0 2 9/8 7/9 .312 .398 .333 D.Carter 2007 37-19 74 14 15 11 1 3 11/8 7/7 .203 .289 .270 D.Aaron 2007 42-9 44 7 9 5 0 3 12/6 1/4 .205 .327 .273 K.Rivers 2007 33-9 30 3 6 1 0 0 9/5 0/0 .200 .314 .200 2007 Big 12 Only: Player AB BA/OBP/SLG ============================= B.Stouffer 101 .337/.438/.525 B.Feltner 99 .293/.346/.404 K.Colligan 97 .227/.278/.443 L.Anders 88 .307/.390/.591 D.Brown 45 .311/.415/.400 B.Greene 41 .268/.333/.268 B.Ruggiano 26 .308/.455/.308 D.Carter 23 .217/.357/.217 D.Aaron 16 .125/.222/.125 K.Rivers 9 .222/.300/.222
We do bring back a couple big sticks. Blake Stouffer had one of the most impressive offensive campaigns in school history and was robbed of the Big 12 Player of the Year (which would have been Childress's 6th B12POY in the last 8 seasons) because, apparently, the voters can't see past the HR column of the stat sheet and gave it to Kyle Russell.
G/GS AB R H RBI SO/BB XBH HR SB/% OBP SLG BA ================================================================= B.Stouffer 67/67 256 58 102 85 56/42 40 12 22/71 .487 .668 .398Blake was incredible and put the icing on the cake when he hit for the cycle in our Sunday game during Regionals (over a 7 at-bat stretch he was 7-for-7 with 2 2bls, a triple, 2 HRs, 6 RBIs, & 4 runs). He was, obviously, a consensus All-American.
Rejoining Blake will be College Station native, Luke Anders. Luke has a great story. He was recruited by the previous staff and came in as a pitcher only. In Childress's first season he barely saw any playing time getting one at-bat and throwing in 3.2 innings. The last season Coach Childress (and Deggs) put Luke into the offensive mix and he exploded.
G/GS AB R H RBI SO/BB XBH HR SB/% OBP SLG BA ================================================================= L.Anders.. 65/65 211 35 71 46 46/20 23 11 2/29 .442 .555 .336First team All-Big 12. Not too shabby for a pitcher who never saw the mound.
The third returning big stick is CFer Kyle Colligan. Kyle was nicked up for most of the second half of the season but got healthy down the stretch. Over the final 11 games of the season (from the start of the Big 12 tournament through Super Regionals) Kyle hit .444/.524/.750 with 8 runs, 6 RBIs, a double, 2 HRs, and 3 triples.
I also think that Darby Brown is going to do big things for us at the plate. He had virtually no power last season but as long as he hits +.300 in Big 12 play it doesn't bother me one bit.
One thing that I do know is that our coaching staff has done an incredible job since stepping foot onto campus. In my 2006 season preview I did a before & after look at Matt Deggs's success progression at Arkansas, which were very impressive. Now that he has been here for two seasons we can do the same for his time in Aggieland.
Year G AB R H HR XBH SO/BB SB/% BA OBP SLG ================================================================ Before 2005 56 1881 277 516 29 125 300/188 80/76 .274 .347 .380 ----------------------------------------------------------------- After 2006 56 1835 247 462 24 119 330/188 88/72 .252 .332 .351 2007 67 2290 465 718 66 210 450/255 151/79 .314 .395 .472 No. of Players (50+ ABs) Hitting Higher Than.... .300 .320 .350 .370 .400 ======================================== Before 2005 3 2 1 0 0 ---------------------------------------- After 2006 1 0 0 0 0 2007 9 6 2 1 0That is incredible, especially since 3 of those 6 notches in the batting average chart from 2005 were as a result of Cliff Pennington.
Coach Childress was on with Louie Belina earlier this week and ran through our defensive starters. There are still a couple of position battles going on, as well as a couple of spots where we'll have guys platooning depending on the opposing pitcher.
C: B.Ruggiano/K.Gonzalez 1B: D.Brown/L.Anders 2B: B.Stouffer 3B: D.Carter SS: B.Greene/J.Duran LF: B.Feltner CF: K.Colligan RF: D.Aaron/N.Fleece/B.Raley DH: D.Brown/L.AndersSo there you have it.
ps. for reasons unknown to myself, I'm feeling good things out of Brodie Greene this season. We'll see if I'm prophetic or not.
Schedule
We have a very favorable schedule this season starting with a 20 game home-stand and a 39 game home schedule. It kind of scares me that our first road game will be in the second week of conference play (at oSu) but at the same time it should give all our new players time to get used to DI baseball before leaving the friendly confines of home.This season, the NCAA has instituted a uniform start date. No team could begin practice until February 1st to help the cold weather teams. I think it's stupid because it is still cold and nasty up north and all it does is stunt the southern teams from getting a head-start. Let me know how our hockey team is ranked and I'll tell you how much I care about northern teams getting as much baseball in as us.
As a result of this new change we now have a compressed schedule, meaning we have fewer days to complete the same 56 game schedule. This has forced us to schedule five weeks where we have two mid-week games in addition to our 3 game weekends. This is going to wreck havoc on pitching staffs and the teams with pitching depth are going to struggle the least (so when the northern teams complain tell'em they dug their own grave). This is also likely to lead to some more mid-week upsets.
The other thing that this compressed schedule means is that we start Big 12 play up less than a month into the season. We've got 20 non-conference games in a 26 day span. It's going to fly. As a fan, if you are busy for a week and can't keep up you're going to miss a huge chunk of the season.
One last thing that the compressed schedule does is it takes away from practice time during the season because now on Wednesday nights we're playing a game instead of having a full day of practice. Sure, game time is more important than practice but you can't get every one of the players into the game so someone is losing out.
I also continue to dislike the night game start time change to 6:30 that was made last season, because it makes it almost impossible for me to get to a game after work before the second inning.
Pitchers
As much as I loved hitting back when I played, I now follow pitching much more carefully. I've come to realize that in the college game, pitching and defense are a much more stable way to win than simply slugging. That is why I was so excited when Coach Childress took the job.OVERALL Big 12 IP ERA BAA IP ERA BAA ============== ============== K.Thebeau 79.0 4.67 .240 28.0 6.75 .252 S.Migl 74.0 3.77 .280 19.1 8.38 .341 K.Rivers 38.0 5.21 .291 11.1 7.94 .326 C.Ehlert 23.0 4.70 .261 8.2 5.19 .297 T.Starling 20.1 1.33 .237 4.0 0.00 .143 J.Chambless 9.2 1.86 .100 0.0 0.00 .000 M.Heard 4.0 6.75 .333 2.0 4.50 .375 S.Minks 3.2 9.82 .444 1.1 13.5 .714 E.Gerald 0.2 13.5 .000 0.0 0.00 .000For those of you who don't know, I've done a fairly detailed analysis of our pitching over the last 4 seasons. You can always read my Pitching Reports from over in the drop down menu on the sidebar (or you can just click here: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,).
Kyle Thebeau after throwing one of the greatest pitching performances in Olsen Field History (G5 of '07 Regional)LHP RHP =========== ============== 39 A.Daab 22 J.Chambless 8 M.Heard 14 K.Cravey 32 J.Kratz 13 C.Ehlert 19 M.Nelson 37 E.Gerald 30 B.Raley 50 B.Loux 28 K.Rivers 27 C.Middleton 34 S.Migl 16 S.Minks 20 B.Rampy 31 H.Robertson 36 M.Speake 41 T.Starling 11 K.Thebeau 38 A.WilsonWe lost some big arms, including our two front weekend starters (Nicholson & Newmann) and two of our most used arms out of the bullpen (Campfield & Renfro). Kyle Thebeau should land himself in the rotation behind Kirkland Rivers, who has to step up and be our Friday night guy. Clayton Ehlert, Scott Migl, and freshman Barret Loux ought to get the most looks for that final rotation spot but any of the three could replace Rivers or Thebeau as well.
Good news is that at some point we should get back Jordan Chambless who just stumbled through a bunch of bad luck last season. He had a stress fracture in his foot and when he finally got back on the mound he broke it. Then he stepped on a ball in the outfield and broke his ankle and then he had some arm problems. It was a rough 2007 for Jordan. His time on the mound, however, he was S.I.C.K. I don't believe that JC will be 100% for the first bit of the season but if we can get him back and have him healthy coming out in the 9th inning, we'll have one of the top arms in the country nailing down wins for us.
Until Chambless returns, Coach Childress has said that Travis Starling will be our closer. Starling was excellent for us last season (20.1 IP, 1.33 ERA, .237 BAA) and I expect big things from the sophomore this year.
Some late, unexpected news is that we inked transfer Alex Wilson, who is coming off of Tommy John surgery. Word on the street is that we could possibly see him take the mound this season. Rivals named Wilson one of the top transfers that any DI program was able to pick up.
I'm also excited to learn that Blake Rampy is healthy and will be back on the mound for us out of the pen. He was a freshman back in 2005 and was pretty outstanding but ran into some arm problems that limited his availability since then. I'm hoping that he can have a great senior season because he's stuck with it, through a coaching change and injury, and gets another shot.
Here is a look at what I've nicknamed "The Childress Numbers". Coach Childress focuses on three numbers from his pitching staff. A strikeout-to-walk ratio over 3, a hit-per-inning pitched ratio lower than 1, and he wants to lead the conference in walks per 9 innings.
Childress Numbers SO/BB H/IP BB/9 FB/9 GB/FB ============================================= J.Chambless.. 8.50 0.31 1.86 1.86 0.22 C.Ehlert..... 1.80 1.04 3.91 5.48 1.29 E.Gerald..... 1.00 0.00 13.5 13.5 -- M.Heard...... 2.00 1.25 2.25 2.25 2.00 S.Migl....... 1.83 1.11 2.19 3.41 1.18 S.Minks...... 1.00 2.18 2.45 4.91 7.00 K.Rivers..... 1.25 1.08 4.74 5.45 1.14 T.Starling... 2.14 0.89 3.10 4.43 1.41 K.Thebeau.... 2.56 0.94 4.10 5.58 1.37The other two columns are numbers that I like to see, in addition to Childress's numbers. The first is freebases-per-9 innings, which is the same as BB/9 but it includes HBP as well. I think HBP are just as bad as walks. The other number is GB/FB ratio, which Childess recruits and teaches towards but I'm not sure if he actually looks at the numbers at the end of the day. I feel like ground ball pitchers are more valuable because there are more good things that can happen when the ball is on the ground as opposed to it being in the air. Kyle Nicholson was a complete freak when it came to GB/FB with a ratio of 3.92, more than double anyone else on the squad's (except Shane Minks but he threw less than 4 innings on the season).
Something else I like to look at with collegiate players is their Home/Road splits. Typically, you see guys struggle on the road more than you do at home but almost eerily, two of our most important arms (Rivers and Thebeau) had the exact opposite happen last year. With 39 home games this year I hope for everyone's sake they can turn that around.
HOME ROAD IP SO/BB ERA BAA IP SO/BB ERA BAA ===================== ===================== J.Chambless.. 6.1 11/2 1.42 .105 3.1 6/0 2.70 .091 C.Ehlert..... 20.2 15/7 3.92 .238 2.1 3/3 11.57 .417 E.Gerald..... 0.2 1/1 13.50 .000 n/a M.Heard...... 3.0 2/1 3.00 .200 1.0 0/0 18.00 .600 S.Migl....... 56.0 27/11 2.25 .260 18.0 6/7 8.50 .340 S.Minks...... 3.0 1/2 6.00 .360 0.2 0/0 27.00 .750 K.Rivers..... 17.1 11/10 8.83 .330 20.2 14/10 2.18 .250 T.Starling... 10.0 8/2 1.80 .330 10.1 7/5 0.87 .120 K.Thebeau.... 48.1 56/23 5.77 .250 30.2 36/13 2.93 .220The final thing that I'll share with you is how our kids did when you break down their appearances into starts and relief. Some guys do better than others in different roles.
START RELIEF IP SO/BB ERA BAA IP SO/BB ERA BAA ===================== ==================== S.Migl....... 49.2 19/11 4.35 .307 24.1 14/7 2.59 .216 K.Thebeau.... 49.2 57/18 5.26 .283 29.1 35/18 3.68 .155 K.Rivers..... 12.2 5/9 7.11 .333 25.1 20/11 4.26 .270 C.Ehlert..... 16.0 12/5 3.95 .266 7.0 6/5 6.43 .250 T.Starling... n/a 20.1 15/7 1.33 .240 J.Chambless.. n/a 9.2 17/2 1.86 .100 M.Heard...... n/a 4.0 2/1 6.75 .333 S.Minks...... n/a 3.2 1/2 9.82 .440According to Scott over at Aggiebaseball.net our starting pitching for this weekend will be Kirkland Rivers Friday night, Kyle Thebeau in G1 on Saturday, Barret Loux in G2 on Saturday, and Scott Migl on Sunday. I think that the starting pitching will be fascinating to watch unfold. To be honest, if things go well and we get two of Thebeau, Migl, or Ehlert to step up I wouldn't be all that shocked if by the end of the season Kirkland Rivers was coming out of the pen for long relief.
Overview
I just can't wait to get out to Olsen. I'm not exactly sure how my weekend is going to turn out, as I'm taking the Mrs. to the basketball game and I'm not sure there are enough flowers in the state to get her to attend both baseball and basketball on one day. We'll see....I'm calling Oklahoma to check on how their roses look this time of year ;)
Gig'em Aggies!
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