Measure up?

[centexorange]

With the regular season coming to a close, and looking forward to the upcoming run to Omaha i would like to read some opinons from those who have a bit more knowledge of the game about how this team measures up. Strengths versus weakness. And does this team look to have whats needed to make the long stretch through to a championship? Giving my opinon which having just been able to see a few games in person, I would say the only slight weakness i see is a lack of consistency at the plate, not being able to move runners at times. And the lack of the power hitters we have had in the past. Pitching seems set, strong and deep which of course can offset good hitting. And our defensive errors have dramatically improved over last year. Of course as i said my opinon is only based on a few games i was able to see in person, the rest over the airwaves. None the less im ready for my first trip to Omaha and hoping the horns will make a strong appearnce there. Thanks in advance..

 

[LonghornsWin]

This team is very exciting, but could win it all because of the great pitching and defense or could be bumped in the regional if the bats go silent.

In a word ... DOOMED!!!

 

[bassale47]

Pitching and defense are definitely the strengths, and lack of consistency at the plate is definitely the main weakness.

You cannot win in Omaha without a great pitching staff and great defense, and I think Texas qualifies on both fronts, so that is good news.

Hitting is another matter, but a less important one, IMO. I think Texas has good hitters, and that's half the battle. The other half is getting them to execute, and to me, that's mostly a mental thing. Most of these guys are young and don't have a ton of experience facing top notch pitching. Even guys like Kevin Keyes, Tant Shepherd, and Connor Rowe did not play a lot last year, and they are having to adjust to the caliber of pitching in the Big 12. It is not a surprise to me that sometimes those guys have been hot and sometimes not. But if they can get it together upstairs, I think they can match wits with the best pitchers in the country, just like Brandon Belt and MIchael Torres. And if anybody can get them to that point mentally, it's Augie.

But it's important that they don't focus too much on Omaha right now. We know and they know that they have ability to get there and to win, but that isn't the goal in front of us at this time. I couldn't care less about the Big 12 tournament, but this team needs to get the regional monkey off its back once and for all, and I hope that is where their minds are focused right now. If they can't win there, then the rest of this discussion is moot.

 

[GAS_Horn]

bassale47 is right on. In the regional, we WILL face a pitcher as good or better than Hales, and a 3 hit, no run performance by our offense at OUR house will doom us. Whatever our team ERA is (still under 3?), we MUST score 3 or 4 runs per game to win. Hopefully, it will come together for us.

 

[goosehorn]

Looking at our stats, a few things jumped out at me... First of all, I had no idea Austin Wood had 13 saves. Before the end of the season, he could have 5-8 more, and that is pretty incredible. It is nice to see one guy with all the saves as opposed to last year where they were scattered among several different players. This just creates fear in opposing teams when our shutdown guy comes in.

Also too, we only have 2 guys in our line-up who have played more than 30 games that are hitting over .300. This is crazy considering that Moldenhauer and Torres averaged .355 and .354 respectively last year. Can someone explain to me how this happens? Doesn't a year of experience usually help a player?

Is there a team in recent memory that has such a sub par batting average? Our 2006 team had a BA only a little bit better, but our team's ERA is blowing that team away.

Going on stats alone, which isn't that great of a barometer, this team should be good enough to get out of our regional just based on our projected seeding. If things are set up as they are according to SEBaseball.com, I would have no trouble being up against the winner of the Fayetteville regional.

I just think there are games where we win based on being a better team, fielding, hitting, and pitching, but some of our biggest wins are where other teams just fall apart (See aTm games 1 and 3, Baylor series - 7 errors in one game, OU) and we play smart enough to make em pay.

Also too, there are games that we lose where the other team is just better. The 2nd Rice game comes to mind, they beat us and we just didn't make the same plays they did. I'm thinking of that hot to centerfield... Our guy lets it bounce in front of him and their guy makes a great catch.

I just don't think we can beat an elite - very good team unless they make mistakes

 

[bassale47]

I don't agree that Texas won those 2 games against A&M because the Aggies fell apart. With the exception of the first inning of the Sunday game, I thought A&M played a heck of a series. Being able to win those kinds of series when you aren't playing your best (and Texas wasn't) is the mark of a championship caliber team. Look no further than the 2005 squad for evidence of that.

 

[ephorn4]

I think it is relevant to recognize that we depend on other teams not being able to execute on defense 100% of the time. Look at the K-State series where they played solid defense throughout vs. the Baylor series. Without some of Baylor's mistakes, the 1st game is much closer and the 2nd game is not a blow-out. Part of Augie's strategy is to put pressure on the other team's defense. If they make mistakes, it makes the strategy that much more effective

Ideally, we would get a team with a less than stellar fielding percentage, IMO. We excel once a team makes one or two mistakes and their confidence gets shaken.

As for our hitting, it seems we hit the fastball fine (even high-level power pitchers) - its the junk pitchers that have traditionally given us problems.

 

[bassale47]

Sure, Texas finds opportunity in other teams' miscues. Every team would do that if they could. But does Texas depend on it to win games? Absolutely not.

The hot and cold nature of our offense frustrates me as much as it does anyone else, but I'm not about to say that the only reason this team swept Baylor and OU and took 2 of 3 from A&M is that our opponents fell apart. That isn't fair to our players. There is more to the game than what happens in the offensive half of each inning.

Nobody executes on defense 100% of the time, and great teams know how to capitalize on the mistakes of their opponents. I don't understand why this is a bad thing.

 

[HornStar]

"Also too, we only have 2 guys in our line-up who have played more than 30 games that are hitting over .300. This is crazy considering that Moldenhauer and Torres averaged .355 and .354 respectively last year. Can someone explain to me how this happens? Doesn't a year of experience usually help a player? "

Does anyone have the home vs. away breakdown on batting averages, ERAs, batting averages against, etc.? The new artificial turf is apparently very slow, which may be skewing the stats.

 

[TomTerrific]

we don't have the hitting.

if we get a good draw, we may get to Omaha and fizzle out.

that's not bad, but I don't have the feeling that any part of this order scares anyone.

 

[Valmy77]

In reply to:

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[TomTerrific]

I agree....it could happen.

This just doesn't seem like an offense that can consitstenly hang with the best teams in the country.

A game here or there, sure...but not all of them.

I hope I am wrong and either way I consider this a hell of a season with the youngsters we have on the team.

Getting back to Omaha was my hopes for this team and I think that would be huge for this program moving forward.