Air Force - Tues 4/19 at 6:30pm; Wed 4/20 at 4:00 pm

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Chop

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We play Air Force - Tues 4/19 at 6:30pm and Wed 4/20 at 4:00 pm

AF is 15-19 for the year and 5-10 in conference play. Iowa spanked them. Oklahoma swept a 2 game series with them. Navy took 2 out of 3. But they beat Kansas State! Don't look for ridiculous haircuts on their pitchers or undisciplined play. By the way, does anyone else find it a tad funny that Air Force's mascot is a Blue Falcon? :rolleyes1:

Here's a very cursory review: No. 10 Baseball preview: Air Force - University of Texas Athletics

Tuesday (tonight). Expected pitcher:

DYLAN ROGERS
6'3" 190lbs
4.22 ERA
1.37 WHIP
:arrow-up::arrow-up::arrow-up::arrow-up::arrow-up::arrow-up:
(some real respectable numbers for a mid-week starter; better than Eckhardt's current ERA)
6 Strikeouts
4 Walks
Only 10.2 innings of pitching this year

Rogers attended McKinney North High School in Texas. Minnesota and Nevada both hit him pretty hard, but his numbers are quite respectable. Throws fastball in the mid-to-upper 80s. Likes to live low in the zone and paint the corners. Has a good cutter. Strike thrower, but can be hit.

Dylan Rogers is a 2021 RHP/1B with a 6-2 170 lb. frame from McKinney, TX who attends McKinney North HS. Lean and athletic build with lots of physical projection. High leg lift delivery with plenty of lower half coil and rotation, gets down the mound very well with an extended arm out front, works downhill to the bottom of the zone consistently. Fastball topped out at 84 mph with occasional run and sink, throws his fastball to the lower corners of the zone, will cut his fastball at times with good effect. Slurve type breaking ball with some sweeping depth. Can spin the ball but will need to further develop separation between his breaking balls. Developing change up. Efficient strike thrower with an idea on the mound and projectable raw stuff.

Dylan Rogers - Baseball - Air Force Academy Athletics
Dylan Rogers Class of 2021 - Player Profile | Perfect Game USA
Prep Baseball Report - Player: Dylan Rogers

4571286903-Rogers.JPG

With High School haircut

Rogers_Dylan.jpg

With AF haircut
 
So I took the family to Disney World for Easter and missed most of the K-State debacle. As bad as the weekend was, the Horns got some help in the Big XII and still are in position to finish in the top two if not still win it, but they cant lose another series and probably need two sweeps and two series wins (10-2 over last 12) to have a chance at winning the conference. They also really need to finish top two in conference to get a national seed so 9-3 or better is a must. Also must get the rest of these mid week games starting tonight.

Preview and game notes from Texassports:

No. 10 Baseball preview: Air Force - University of Texas Athletics

2022 4 19 AF (PDF) - University of Texas Athletics
 
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I may try to watch some of the game tonight on TV. I haven't seen a USAFA baseball game since I graduated (1968). None of our athletic teams were big winners back then.
 
What a pitiful display. Right now, this team would be lucky to win one game in the Big12 tourney. From #1 to losing a series to KSU and down 8-0 to AF in two innings...
 
OMG people... I trust this mid-week game for a few hours to you zealots.... finally able to check in:

14-2 AF!! :puke:
 
What a game. My takeaways:

1. We need a 4th starter to emerge before the Regionals. It doesn’t look like Eckhardt is the guy. Who will it be? Morehouse? Cobb? Nobody—just a committee of guys going 2 innings?
2. Other than a few rather good innings by LBJ, the pitching tonight has been pretty awful. Maybe Cobb can finish this up without more damage.
3. DuPlantier and Blair have been given many opportunities. If we want to develop some more promising youngsters before post-season, I’d suggest we focus on LBJ and Stewart.
4. Good to have Ivan back. He’s actually having a good night.
 
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A 15-19 service academy has held us to 4 hits through 8 innings. Almost every inning they get the first couple of guys on. And we seem to always start out with an out. A bunch of really good players aren't playing very well as a team right now.
 
Oh yeah, who the heck are we gonna pitch tomorrow?

Sthele? Southard? Some of these guys who only went an inning tonight?
 
This felt like a College of Charleston game moment…

Gotta give credit where it’s due though, that 6’6” Catcher who dings home runs is a BAMF.
 
As ugly a loss as Texas has had in a long time. I just cant get a feel for this team, elite talent up and down the line up but maddeningly inconsistent and the pitching which was suppossed to be the strength of this team has just gone missing. It truly feels like everything about the team is unstable.

This team is too talented to keep finding itself in ruts and while a lost weekend or two happen to every team in a long season, this team seems to have lost its way. There is still everything to play for and tomorrow is always a literal and proverbial 'nother day but for today I cant help feeling like I wish I had stayed in Orlando safely away from the real world and the real questions about this team that just keeps failing to show up.

No. 10 Baseball falls to Air Force Tuesday - University of Texas Athletics

Air Force thrashes No. 10 Texas, 14-2 - Burnt Orange Nation
 
It is way past time to sit Faltine. His defense is slipping and his offense is horrendous. Surely we have someone on the team that can pretty good offense and hit for average. Faltine is a reliable K. Just get him to 3 strikes on him, then one on the outside corner and its a K. He is costing us way more at the plate than he helps us on defense.
 
We have very good lineup, good defense, solid 3 starters. 4th starter and bullpen are a large problem. The biggest reason is they beat themselves. Last night 8 walks and 3 hit batters. That’s 11 free base runners. This is not a one off night. This has been a consistent problem all year.
 
You can look at all our losses and each one is different. Low runs, starters getting blowed up,
Lack of clutch hitting, bullpen dead…etc
We have the stats but their seems to be a lack of energy at the plate.
 
Besides ripping the team a new one, I heard that after every loss Augie would verbally replay the entire loss pitch by pitch stopping at every mistake to get an explanation from the player who made it. It was the highest level of accountability I've ever heard. No player wanted to go through that.

Maybe this program has gone the same route of entitled softness the football team has gone. Its the only reason I can think of when you are loaded with the best players you can get yet have the season be completely underwhelming.
 
tchill said:
It is way past time to sit Faltine. His defense is slipping and his offense is horrendous. Surely we have someone on the team that can pretty good offense and hit for average. Faltine is a reliable K. Just get him to 3 strikes on him, then one on the outside corner and its a K. He is costing us way more at the plate than he helps us on defense.
Click to expand...
He doesn't have a clue what a strike zone is.
mmsnake said:
We have very good lineup, good defense, solid 3 starters. 4th starter and bullpen are a large problem. The biggest reason is they beat themselves. Last night 8 walks and 3 hit batters. That’s 11 free base runners. This is not a one off night. This has been a consistent problem all year.
Click to expand...
If the game were even remotely close maybe you could say that, but Texas got embarrassed by a team that was 15-19 by 12 runs.:facepalm:

AF gave Texas some opportunities too, including dropping a routine fly most senior citizens woulda caught. Texas just didn't take advantage of any gifts.
 
Faltine needs to be sat for a while, maybe he just needs a rest, idk. Pathetic pitching aside, his continuous parade of strikeouts is really, really hurting this team. Not to mention some costly and uncharacteristic errors he's made in the field lately. I have no idea how he's hitting .276 at this point, feels far more like .176 and he's got to be close to leading the nation in K's.

Besides that, our abysmal hitting with RISP is killing us. That and our knack for hitting solo homers, ie. nobody on base when we hit them.

Hopefully we rebound over the final weeks and get it together before the regionials.
 
My take:

Faltine: he's in a deep slump, both at bat, and in the field. He needs to snap out of it, as he brings an amazing amount of power at the plate for a shortstop (10 homeruns), and his average used to be sitting well North of 0.300

Daly: great glove, but we need a better bat. Low 200s ain't gonna cut it. I hope he improves.

Daly and Campbell both need to improve their batting averages a lot, but Campbell has power and a sense of timing. He seems to hit a homerun or double at the critical juncture.

Pitching:

3 starters: very good. Some inconsistency, but easily the best group of 3 starters in the conference, and it's not even close.

4th starter: we don't have one; IMHO, Eckhardt isn't there yet this year
5th starter: we don't have one

Bullpen: Nixon and Harrison are doing well for the year. (Harrison had his one crummy outing yesterday). Johnson, Olivarez, Cobb, Sthele, and Morehouse are mostly ok, but all are prone to the occasional bad outing. After that, we've done poorly to very poorly. Some of these guys have really good stuff (Stewart, Southard), but control seems to be the common problem in our bullpen. Note, Hansen and Gordon can't throw nearly as hard as Southard, and their breaking stuff doesn't break nearly as much as Stewart's, but they are much more effective pitchers. They have good control and can paint the corners, throw smart, and shift speeds/velocity with ease keeping the batters off balance and guessing.
 
Apparently Texas only plays well after being embarrassed on the field. I think the problem is mental, which is mostly apparent with our pitchers.
 
The bats have been active. Kudos to Silas, Murph, Hodo, and others.

Coach must have kept Sthele in there for a long time after he was struggling just to make it interesting…

As you can see, Stewart’s got some nasty stuff, gotta watch that control though. 2 scoreless innings but he gives 2 runners and 1 out to Cobb.

Put them down Cobb!

9-6 us.

:bevo::bevo::bevo:
 
Pop out and ground out to Daly gets us out. Nice work by Cobb there. He was throwing big movement changeups that barely touched 70 mph (if even)and from his sidearm delivery. That’s got to look weird to batters who have been going against Stewart’s 95 mph fastball and killer slider.

SOMEBODY DIALED DOWN THE PITCHING MACHINE AT THE BATTING CAGES TO THE PONY COLT SETTING!!! Well, it worked…

:bevo::bevo::bevo:
 
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