Rice just blew it...

Boy they did blow it. Two metal bat ground balls for singles, a very routine grounder for an E-6, then misplaying the final fly ball off the fence allowing all three runs to score easily. The lefty-lefty matchups did not work out for them in that inning.
 
Crazy stuff going on this year in Omaha. Seems like the only game that was over before the very end was the Fresno State domination a couple of days ago.
 
I don't know why Graham didn't take him out. He obviously was losing control of the game. That error should have ended it with a double play. What a way to lose.

Man, I could feel that thing coming on with the way the announcers were talking about the 3 run home run against Rice 6 years ago.
 
you cant hit batters with an 0-2 count with the top of the lineup coming up. St. Clair has not been good in Omaha.
 
well aint that just sad
frown.gif
 
That grounder to short should have been just what they were looking for. Errors finally bite them in the butt.
 
I think he stayed in because that single up the middle wasn't hit that hard, and they might have finished it off with the DP.

I don't throw around the c-word lightly, but they were up 5-0 in the seventh. No excuse.
 
There are no substantive claims that WG has overused anyone since Kenny Baugh 8 years ago. And at the least he's never resorted to, say, using his one dependable reliever five days in a row... or bringing back his freshman ace 20 hours after a start to throw in both ends of a double header.
 
sua sponte, you said

"I had rather Rice stay in....LSU being good in anything hurts UT more than anything...."

I would rather have seen Rice win since they're from Texas and we have a closer association with them, but I don't see the connection of a good LSU to UT being hurt other than it's not us being good. If you're talking about recruiting, LSU only has 3 Texans on their roster with only Micah Gibbs (Pflugerville/Leander) not being from East Texas. They had none last year. I just hope we can develop some consistency and a killer instinct and be there ourselves next year.
 
Interesting, I wonder what WG is doing behind the scenes to these kids.. perhaps some sort of social experimentation a la Trading Places where he creates first rounders out of unheralded prepsters only to destroy them later.

Most of these players on the list left Rice healthy.. teams don't make million dollar investments on first rounders without checking out their arms, and Baugh, Niemann, Humber, Townsend all obviously passed. It wasn't until these guys started pitching in the minors that their arms had issues. I mean hell, Townsend took a year off from competitive pitching due to negotiation issues with the Orioles, then got hurt when the Rays got their hands on him. Part of this is that these organizations overwork these guys-- as in the case of Baugh, who was inexplicably asked to throw 70 IP in the summer after his overly heavy workload at Rice, and part is that the coaches in these organizations insist on altering mechanics to suit their preconceptions on how a pitcher should throw.

Including Pendleton on the list is useful. The guy never threw more than 35 IP at Rice because of his value in RF and because of a knee injury. He's perhaps best indicative that injuries do happen in this game, given the violence of the overhand pitch. There isn't always someone to blame.

Savery and St. Clair were never overworked by Graham. They are two of several examples of pitchers getting injured after pitching for Team USA. I cringe every time a pitcher from this state is invited to their tryouts.

As a Rice fan I don't really mind the controversy over Graham and pitchers-- it certainly hasn't hurt recruiting any, as you'd expect when the issue always involves the list of 18 year olds he's turned into rich young men, but I do find it odd because there's no recent data to validate this reputation, and it glosses over the more egregious excesses perpetrated by Murphy with Leake, Garrido with Krebs/Ruffin, and perhaps Childress with Nicholson.
 
Humber pitched in relief on the same weekend he started one time. This occurred in the 2004 Regionals and the Mets were in attendance. He suffered the loss on Friday afternoon and the Owls played four more games over the next two days to stay alive in the double elimination tournament. Humber came in the fifth game and threw 2.1 innings. Here are his stats for his three year period at Rice.

2002 - College World Series Contender
Philip Humber - 110ip, 11-1, 2.77

2003 - National Champions
Philip Humber - 128ip, 11-3, 3.30

2004 - forced to play five games in regional out of loser's bracket
Philip Humber - 115ip, 13-4, 2.27

He was the number three pick that Monday (June 7 '04) in the draft. He came to terms with the Mets January 11 of 2005, passed a full physical and signed for $4.7 million.

Since 1997, Rice has had nine pitchers drafted in the first round. Of the nine, six were undrafted out of high school. They became prospects while at Rice. The highest drafted pitcher out of high school was Joe Savery in the 15th round (signed for $1.4million three years later). Humber was a 29th rounder and Kenny Baugh was a 42nd selection and signed with Rice a month before school started (signed for $1.8million after his senior year).

Each pro team was given the medical records from Rice. All passed physicals and all received significant bonuses. Tennessee's R.A.Dickey was drafted in the first round in 1996 by the Texas Rangers. When it was discovered he did not have an UCL the offer of $810,000 dropped to $75,000. If you don't pass the physical, you don't get the money.

Pitchers suffer injuries regardless of program affiliation as evidenced here:
Baylor
Mark McCormick – shoulder surgery fall ’06, signed in ’05
Zane Carlson – arm surgery after sophomore season – signed in ’04, had tommy john in fall of ‘04
Steven White – suffered arm trouble throughout college career – extended spring training in '07 due reported shoulder problems and other ailments.
UH
Brad Lincoln – tommy john ‘07
Brad Sullivan – shoulder surgery – supposedly retired ‘08
Ryan Wagner – shoulder surgery
Jesse Crain – surgery due torn rotator cuff and labrum ‘07

Pitchers signed out of high school also suffer injuries despite strict pitch counts.

First Rounders:
Ryan Anderson – drafted 1997 Seattle– three shoulder surgeries beginning ’01, ’02 and 2003
Matt Wheatland – drafted 2000 Detroit– three shoulder surgeries – ’01 repaired tears in labrum and labrum and rotator cuff, reattached biceps tendon, ’02 repaired labrum, ’03 clean up in shoulder area, removing scar tissue and scraping bone area
Clint Everts – drafted 2002 – tommy john in ‘04

Would appear opposing fans are more interested in denigrating coaches than actually discussing the changing concepts of pitching.

Question:

How long is a coach held responsible for the success of a player that is no longer under his direction?
 
I was in no way denigrating Graham. I think that he is an excellent coach and have no problem saying so. All I was doing was simply pointing out that what AtEase posted was definitely incorrect.

Unfortunately traveler, you are correct that many fans seem to enjoy denigrating the opposing coaches. However, coaches like WG and AG would not be where they are now without being near the top of thier profession.
 
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