My Impressions from Minute Maid ...

B

Barton Hills

1,000+ Posts
Here are my honest, yet somewhat intoxicated, impressions of our team over the weekend :

1 - From the word go our infielders were having troubles making throws in the IF, especially Tuck and Nandez. During pre-game vs Tenn we sat on the diagonal from 3rd to 1st, and were literally peppered by errant throws IN THE STANDS to the point we almost moved seats. Everything they threw was sailing. Odd is an understatement. Seemed to have if figured out by Sunday. As a Cubs fans, naturally I blame the Houston Astros.

2 - Cameron Rupp impressed the hell out of me. Solid behind the plate, was ripping everything in his AB's. I heard word that we should not expect to see Preston behind the plate with any regularity. Arm issues.

3 - Brandon Belt is an opposite field machine. Had 2 OF ground rule doubles Wed vs UTPA ... then mixed in a bomb off the LF fence Friday, and a left field 2 run jack last night.

4 - Cole Green may be our best pitcher. Relaxed, composed, nails.

5 - $7.25 for a beer. F that.

6 - Travis Tucker is the leader of this team.

7 - Tucker and Torres just find ways to get on base. HBP, walks, the whole 9.

8 - Kyle Russell was in a fog all weekend. Yesterday you could actually see a glaze over his face as he walked back to the dugout following his AB's. I think he's just in a state of disbelief. His bat just couldn't find the ball for much of the weekend. He took this frustration to the field where he made some bad plays, and dropped a pop fly last night.

9 - Kyle Walker. Jesus. I hope this kid gets his problems figured out. He can't locate the zone early in counts, he panics, and here comes a meatball down mainstreet.

10 - Stayton Thomas looked great. Emotional on the mound. I like.

11 - I think Augie got to Hernandez by pulling him Sat. He was giving 120% everytime he stepped on the field last night. Even ran to the dugout with purpose following 3rd outs.

12 - Left field will be interesting this year. Moldenhauer won't get much time at DH due to Preston moving into that slot, Kevin Keyes seems to have a bit of the Ontiveros swinging for the fence issues to work out, and IMO Kyle Lusson just isn't on their level to be competing for a starting role. Someone needs to step up and separate.

13 - You could just tell that Augie and Harmon were frustrated by our mistakes all weekend. 11 errors, then mix in 2 runners picked off vs UH, and Rupp getting hung out by a base running mistake. Tension, dude.

14 - "Orangeblood" bought me many shots/beers this weekend. Good times.

15 - That's all I can remember, and my sausage biscuit is getting cold.

16 - Bring on Stanford.

We will learn a lot from this weekend. Met a bunch of good folks, including some players families. I expect this team to regroup and play much cleaner baseball this weekend.

I've been to each of the first 8 games, in only a 10 day span, and I'm physically exhausted ... can't imagine how the team feels.
 
Hot Dog vendor to me : "Sit down, or I'm going to arrest you."

Me : "What ? You realize you're a hot dog vendor, right ? Can you get me a pretzel ?"

Her : "I ain't playing with you !!!!"

Oh snap ...
 
Outside of Kyle Walker you don't mention any pitching concerns. I'm curious that you don't seem more concerned given that they blew leads in all 3 games, gave up 16 earned runs (13 in the last two games), and the guy I thought would be our ace (Kasparek) got shelled.

I know the fielding was bad, but that doesn't excuse all the earned runs given up. I was really pleased by the pitching through the first 5 games, but this weekend has me concerned. Hopefully the Stanford series will alleviate those concerns.

I'm also curious, in another thread people talked about our keeping the artificial turf at DF as a home field advantage, which I can see. However, it seems that would then create a disadvantage when our fielders play away from home. Could that have been a factor this weekend with our poor fielding? It doesn't concern me so much now as during the postseason if/when we have to play away from DF.
 
#1 - We did not "blow leads" in all 3 games ... having a 1-0 advantage after the Top of the 1st and losing is not "blowing a lead".

#2 - I'm giving the pitching staff a break from this weekend. With defense like we displayed, they were probably terrified of even letting the opposition put the ball in play. Let's see how they respond vs Stanford.

#3 - That grass/turf issue is so tired. We've ALWAYS had turf, and playing on grass never bothered us before on the road or in Omaha. I'll just call it a bad weekend ... but blaming the carpet at the Disch for our mistakes is absurd. Most of the errors were throwing errors, so the grass was not a factor.
 
Pedro, just to touch on the turf issue, the turf is an advantage even when we go to grass. I've talked to several of the players over the years and the consensus seems to be that when playing on turf you HAVE to be on the ball or you're going to get knocked the F out on a hop. Add to that, they seem to agree that after playing on turf the game slows down for them on grass making it easier to make plays. Though it's funny, I can't thinik of a player who actually said they preferred the turf.

I never played past little league, so I can't profess any superior knowledge, but that is what I have heard from several Texas players.
 
Thanks for the insight. As always, it's really too early in the season to say which team is TEXAS, the one that played VCU/UTPanAm, and the one that played Tenn/Rice/and Houston, but I'll bet on the former.

We fans never seem to want to admit there's a learning curve for every team. Augie is a master at getting the team to learn from their mistakes.

hookem.gif


Bring on island aggy!!!
 
jesus. we play 1/2 our games on grass. it is not a foreign substance to us.

our opponents usually play less than 10 games/year on turf and do not practice on it.

advantage us.

oh, and singing rocky top over and over again after the rice lost was very weird and allsome.
 
Sorry. I didn't mean to get anyone riled up.

My pitching comment was just a request for additional info from people who actually saw the games as to whether this weekend showed any long term pitching concerns or if I should view it as an aberation.

The turf thing was just an honest question that I wanted other opinions on. I'm not an opponent or proponent of the turf so I wasn't trolling on this issue. I appreciate the comments of those who addressed this question.

The one thing I would differ on is....
In reply to:
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I can see the grass-turf thing making a difference on throws. Have you ever been around 3rd base at the Disch? You're actually looking up at home plate. It is the crest in the field that you have to adjust to as a player which doesn't exist at MMP as far as I'm aware.
 
I would echo most of that (I was there Friday and Saturday, not Sunday). The defense was horrible during the pregame warmups on Saturday, too. I don't know what the hell it was.

Rupp did look awesome. He has a cannon, also. He nailed a runner Friday night that had the bag stolen on the pitcher.

Russell's got a hole in his swing bigger than a porn star's...well, it's big. Tennessee threw him 6 straight breaking balls away and he swung through all six (and the first at bat was from a lefty pitcher, the second at bat from a righty pitcher).
 
This may be a little Aggy, but whatever. My favorite moment from the weekend happend before Friday's game. A beer man stops in the aisle right next to me for the national anthem, anthem ends, and he picks his bucket up ready to go sell more beer and is stopped in his tracks when everyone around him starts singing The Eyes. He has no idea what to do, so just stands there till it's over. When done says, "Man, that was pretty cool!". Yes, yes it was, beer man. The look of awe/amazement was clear on his face. Another convert.
 
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