2024 Season updates

[Chop]

UT preview starts at 44:04.

More mostly obvious stuff.

Tough team to figure out this year.

Can Witt get back to his old self?

LBJ is the "massive key" to this team. LBJ was a top 5 pitcher nationally by the end of last year. (I agree--and it's good to see that "neutral" commentators are taking notice of just how good LBJ has become. I'd even rather have LBJ on my college team this year than Chase Burns.)

Jalen Flores will make a big jump forward at the plate. (he's already good in the field)

Porter Brown, he's good.

David Pierce is an underrated coach.

 

[Chop]

This guy (Fontenot) played very well in Fall Ball, has the Coach's confidence, and may turn into one of our top pitchers in the pen.

 

[Chop]

Luke Storm is on the roster now.

6'5"
240 lbs

 

[Chop]

Outside of conference play, the schedule is a mix of the weak and the strong. Sure there is LSU, Vandy, Texas State and aTm. That being said, I'm glad we're not doing anything crazy like a 3 opponent pre-season tour of the State of South Carolina.

There's enough meat in this conference to get our RPI way up if we take care of business.

TCU - top 10 team
OSU - top 20 team
Tech - top 20 team
KSU - top 25 team
WV - pretty good team
OU - pretty good team
KU - not chopped liver
Baylor - sucks
UH - not what they used to be on the diamond
BYU - ?
UCF - ?
and WTF is with Cincinnati? If you can't even field a baseball team, stick with Conference USA or whatever...
The same could be said about Iowa State.

 

[Chop]

Are there still political considerations making us play the satellite UT schools?

It's the 21st Century for crying out loud.

 

[mchammer]

Are there still political considerations making us play the satellite UT schools?

It's the 21st Century for crying out loud.

No, I think it is easier to schedule being in the UT system. Agreed contracts, etc.

 

[aUTfan]

I haven’t watched it yet but your comment from their video of “tough team to figure out” is correct but we get 7 position players back. The tough part is just how well this team can pitch.

And I guess you could question the offense since it hasn’t performed yet, but again, we only lost two batters from last year. Campbell and Kennedy are definitely two guys that will be difficult to replace. I feel confident in Cummings coming close to replacing one, I take confidence in hearing Pierce say that Flores has taken a step offensively, that in and of itself would be an upgrade at SS. And I believe that several of the incoming personnel will fill the gap between Storm, Gasparino, Schuessler, and many others creating way more depth offensively than we’ve ever had.

If Flores, Duplantier, Belyeu, and Galvan make even conservative strides we should be much deeper.

 

[LonghornCatholic]

 

[aUTfan]

LHCatholic - I saw that online.

LSU - I don't know how strong LSU is this year, I question whether or not they will make Omaha, their pitching should be fairly strong, i question the offense and defense. One thing LSU can usually do though is pitch and hit.

East Carolina - Plausible, in ncaa baseball seems like there is always a dark horse that makes Omaha, why not ECU? college baseball looks pretty even this year in the top 10-15 range, look out for Coastal Carolina or UC Santa Barbra.

The rest of the list is more plausible to me. I would throw in TCU, Vanderbilt and Florida as possibilities but this field from the top 15 look very even, it appears as if it's anyones title this year. Whoever gets hot at the end of the season is going to cause some serious damage.........Who's it going to be?

 

[RANDY Wylie]

UT preview starts at 44:04.

More mostly obvious stuff.

Tough team to figure out this year.

Can Witt get back to his old self?

LBJ is the "massive key" to this team. LBJ was a top 5 pitcher nationally by the end of last year. (I agree--and it's good to see that "neutral" commentators are taking notice of just how good LBJ has become. I'd even rather have LBJ on my college team this year than Chase Burns.)

Jalen Flores will make a big jump forward at the plate. (he's already good in the field)

Porter Brown, he's good.

David Pierce is an underrated coach.

This guy (Fontenot) played very well in Fall Ball, has the Coach's confidence, and may turn into one of our top pitchers in the pen.[/QUOT

This guy (Fontenot) played very well in Fall Ball, has the Coach's confidence, and may turn into one of our top pitchers in the pen.

q

Question what happened with Fresh. Hayden Morris is name was on fall roster now it’s gone? Curious did he transfer?

 

[Chop]

Question what happened with Fresh. Hayden Morris is name was on fall roster now it’s gone? Curious did he transfer?

Woah! That's breaking news. It would be sorry to lose him. I don't know what happened...?

Hayden Morris was getting a lot of good press, his film looks good, and he throws hard (up to the mid 90s).

 

[Chop]

Question what happened with Fresh. Hayden Morris is name was on fall roster now it’s gone? Curious did he transfer?

Another website is stating that Hayden Morris was one of the guys that got cut to make the roster limit.

This is a bit of a surprise (to me anyway). I could think of a few backup infielders (and outfielders) that I would have sent packing long before Hayden Morris. It kind of sucks, but almost every major program has to do this.

Of course, now that we've cut Hayden Morris, watch him make All-American next year at Texas Tech or someplace...

 

[Chop]

Regarding the Freshmen pitchers:

After watching Fall Ball, I'm the highest on Tumis -- dude puts some wild sauce on his pitches--freakish movement on the ball! Now somebody send a pizza to his dorm room--he's too skinny.

The Coaches appear to be the highest on Hamilton. He gets a lot of strikeouts.

I think Selvig will get A LOT of innings this year in middle relief. He keeps it in the strike zone, with enough velocity and movement to not get hit too hard. He looks very reliable. He's like having another Ace Whitehead with a few more mph to his velocity.

Zaharias -- has only played organized baseball for a few years, but seems to have a lot of talent. Has a reputation as a hard worker. Per online article, dude ran sets of 100 yard windsprints in his free time in high school.

 

[Chop]

Shaw is completely back. He's projected as the closer.

Mercer's loss to injury is a big one--he might have been the top closer in the conference.

Don't worry much though, Shaw will get the job done.

 

[Chop]

D1 Baseball projections for our starting pitchers.

Friday - LBJ
Saturday - Witt
Sunday - Hurley
Mid-Week - Howard

(Shaw will be the closer)

 

[aUTfan]

Hhmmm… i was projecting Shaw as a starter last year but he came in to stop rally’s and did so effectively. I didn’t see this development coming. In spite of him coming in and stopping rally’s effectively I thought one of the freshman or transfers would fill this role well and Shaw would continue to come out of the pen to be a stopper. Guess we will see how this works out.

 

[Chop]

Hhmmm… i was projecting Shaw as a starter last year but he came in to stop rally’s and did so effectively. I didn’t see this development coming. In spite of him coming in and stopping rally’s effectively I thought one of the freshman or transfers would fill this role well and Shaw would continue to come out of the pen to end rally’s. Guess we will see how this works out.

Yeah, I also like Shaw as the "stopper."

For closer, we've got a number of options. Could be Shaw, could be Boehm, could even be Tole or Fontenot.

The bullpen looks something like this:

We'll see these guys a lot: Tole, Shaw, Fontenot, Lummus, Whitehead, DuPlantier

We'll see these guys some: Selvig, Tumis, Harrison, Boehm, Grubbs (any one, or more, of these young guys could bump up to the "We'll see them a lot" category)

We'll see these guys on occasion: Zaharias, Bertsch, Santos (we'll see Santos a lot more if he's fully healed up).

Tole may be our best reliever based on overall past proven production. Shaw and Lummus are not far behind. If you were to base it on Fall Ball only--IMHO our best relievers would be Fontenot and Tumis.

 

[Chop]

One thing that Boehm brings to the mound, that we're lacking in comparison to our teams in the recent (and distant) past, is throwing some serious heat.

Aside from LBJ, we don't have a lot of big-time heat throwers this year. Boehm's fastball sits comfortably in the mid 90s and can hit 98-99 mph. Guys like that don't grow on trees.

 

[Chop]

Another website is stating that Hayden Morris was one of the guys that got cut to make the roster limit.

This is a bit of a surprise (to me anyway). I could think of a few backup infielders (and outfielders) that I would have sent packing long before Hayden Morris. It kind of sucks, but almost every major program has to do this.

Of course, now that we've cut Hayden Morris, watch him make All-American next year at Texas Tech or someplace...

Sweeney is also no longer on the roster...

I guess Nik Sanders, with his versatility, beat him out. So Sanders may be our starting 1B. Or Storm... Sanders can also play catcher if needed there.

 

[aUTfan]

Dang, sweeney was the son of a major leaguer whom I thought would push for playing time. Didn’t want to see him go.

 

[aUTfan]

We have hit a quarter century of the Super Regional Era. Ranked programs based on postseason success over the last 25 years.

didn’t want to create a new thread for this. Figured it was applicable to 2024 as this is where we are considered right now. I forgot Oregon st has won three freaking titles. Ugh.

 

[Phil Elliott]

As usual, we lead all teams in CWS appearances in that time frame. We *should* have more titles given how many times we go to Omaha, but I would say #3 is about right.

 

[mchammer]

As usual, we lead all teams in CWS appearances in that time frame. We *should* have more titles given how many times we go to Omaha, but I would say #3 is about right.

Trouble is that our best 3 teams recently lost to LSU, Miss St and Vanderbilt, who are all on that list. Bad timing.

 

[aUTfan]

Yeah, I can't complain too much over it, if we win another title though before Oregon St. does, solid number 2. Going to be hard to pass LSU, they have won two since our last one.

Update: right after posting above I remembered seeing Oregon St. in the rankings this year, no. 7 to be exact.

 

[Chop]

Yeah, I also like Shaw as the "stopper."

For closer, we've got a number of options. Could be Shaw, could be Boehm, could even be Tole or Fontenot.

The bullpen looks something like this:

We'll see these guys a lot: Tole, Shaw, Fontenot, Lummus, Whitehead, DuPlantier

We'll see these guys some: Selvig, Tumis, Harrison, Boehm, Grubbs (any one, or more, of these young guys could bump up to the "We'll see them a lot" category)

We'll see these guys on occasion: Zaharias, Bertsch, Santos (we'll see Santos a lot more if he's fully healed up).

Tole may be our best reliever based on overall past proven production. Shaw and Lummus are not far behind. If you were to base it on Fall Ball only--IMHO our best relievers would be Fontenot and Tumis.

Luke Harrison is now back and throwing well in practice. He was a solid reliable middle reliever until his injury that kept him out last year.

 

[Chop]

Pierce mentioned the following relievers positively: Ace Whitehead (he's so "versatile"), Boehm, Fontenot, Shaw ("Big Red is getting it going"), Luke Harrison (throwing well in practice), Lummus.

Pierce said he wants to ease in the true Freshmen pitchers at times when the game is not on the line, then get them on the mound more and more from there. He likes the quality of this incoming group of Freshmen pitchers.

 

[Chop]

Gasparino, Borba, Farmer - some of the best Freshmen in the country according to Pierce.

(My ovservation)-- It seems that Farmer (incoming true Freshman walk-on OF) just dropped into our lap out of no where. Great to have him.

 

[mchammer]

Pierce mentioned the following relievers positively: Ace Whitehead (he's so "versatile"), Boehm, Fontenot, Shaw ("Big Red is getting it going"), Luke Harrison (throwing well in practice), Lummus.

DuP?

 

[Chop]

DuP?

We all know he's awesome. It doesn't even need mentioning.

In the past he was mis-used. DuP is good for 1-2 innings of relief at a time. He also isn't throwing a fastball right down Broadway anymore.

 

[Chop]

For the first time in quite a while, we appear to have some decent quality depth in the bullpen.

And some of these Freshmen (Tumis, Selvig, Hamilton) could add to that quality depth if they throw like they did in Fall Ball. I've never coached a college baseball team to Omaha before, so I suppose I don't have the baseball eye to comprehend what I'm seeing as well as Coach. But, based on what I've seen and my amateur take, I like Tumis the best. Our coaching staff seems to be highest on Hamilton.

Then again, I suppose I can be easily impressed when a pitcher puts such crazy movement on his breaking pitches that you think you're watching a cartoon or something--and the batters look like they're standing up there swatting at flies...