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2013 CUSA Baseball-- Just 2 Days 'til Opening Day!
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waltgreenberg Online
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Post: #1
2013 CUSA Baseball-- Just 2 Days 'til Opening Day!
Now that the football season is finally over, time to turn our attention (well, at least for some of us) to C-USA's best sport. Heading into the 2013 season, I supsect Rice and USM will be co-favorites to win the conference, with the Owls getting the nod due to historical precendent (and another elite pitching staff), while the Eagles appear to be absolutely loaded-- both offensively and on the mound. UCF should be solid and a post-season lock, but they lose the vast majority of their offense from their stellar 2011-2012 squad. Can ECU regain the Top 35 form of their 2008 - '10 seasons? Can Tulane and UH finally return to Top 50 caliber form after several seasons in the wastelands?

On the surface, Rice appears to have lost a ton of talent-- two starting pitchers (Reckling, Benak), 60% of their bullpen (Chargois, Duffey, Wall) and four of their top position players (Rathjen, Fuda, Manuel, Chargois). However, the cubbard is far from empty, as the Coach Graham continues to do an excellent job of restocking. The pitching staff still features a couple likely first couple round draft picks in Austin Kubitza (3-year Friday starter) and John Simms (likely to start year as closer, but has been weekend starter in past), another couple guys with weekend starter experience (John Stephens, Chase McDowell), a couple guys who had excellent Freshman campaigns in the bullpen who will play more prominent roles in 2013 (Zech Lemond, Rutter), three experienced bullpen arms returning from 2012 injuries (Spurlin, McNair, Fant), and our usual compliment of Freshman arms (including Kevin McCanna, who will likely be our Sunday or mid-week starter). Rice returns the majority of it's infield, led by preseason all-american 2B Christian Stringer, along with 3B Hoelscher, SS Stainback and C Perrott. In the outfield, Sr Ratterree will be returning in RF, hoping to regain his offensive form after a dismall 2012 season. He'll be joined by true Fr speedster and switch hitter, Leon Byrd in CF, and either Cook (who was a starter in 2011), Aquino, true Freshman Beau Rathjen (Jeremy's brother) or one of a couple JUCO transfers in LF.

As always, Rice's strength will be in the depth of it's pitching staff; however, it will be the offense that will determine how far the Owls go this year. It will likely improve upon last season (not saying much), but the question is, how much improvement? Certainly, if Lance Berkman decides to retire and returns as an Assistant Coach (while finishing his degree), it should help the offense considerably.

Rice opens at home against Stanford, then travels to Hawaii for a four-game set, before returning to Houston for the Minute Maid tournament against likely #1 UNC, A&M and Baylor. Love the tough OOC slate.
(This post was last modified: 02-13-2013 07:31 AM by waltgreenberg.)
01-03-2013 11:30 AM
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DrBox Offline
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Post: #2
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
Tulane wasn't bad last year. Our RPI was around 60, due to an ooc schedule that had 10 teams below 250. Had those teams been c. 150, we'd have won most of them anyway and made the tourney easily. Avoiding bad teams is always the key to the RPI. Schedule numbing never works, but Tulane never figures that out.
They expect to have a real good pitching staff next year.
01-03-2013 11:42 AM
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waltgreenberg Online
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Post: #3
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
(01-03-2013 11:42 AM)DrBox Wrote:  Tulane wasn't bad last year. Our RPI was around 60, due to an ooc schedule that had 10 teams below 250. Had those teams been c. 150, we'd have won most of them anyway and made the tourney easily. Avoiding bad teams is always the key to the RPI. Schedule numbing never works, but Tulane never figures that out.
They expect to have a real good pitching staff next year.

I never said the Green Wave were "bad" last year, but they certainly were not good by their own historical standard. Look in the mirror if you're going to blame your ridiculously easy OOC schedule for your RPI.
01-03-2013 11:49 AM
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HoustonCougarNation Offline
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Post: #4
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
Bring on the sounds of "Ping"
01-03-2013 11:59 AM
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PEO16 Offline
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Post: #5
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
Schedule numbing is always a bad idea.
Bring on baseball.
Always enjoy your posts, Walt.
(This post was last modified: 01-03-2013 12:06 PM by PEO16.)
01-03-2013 12:05 PM
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RonBurgundy Offline
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Post: #6
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
The start of baseball is the best time of the year. I'm looking forward to the Rice Owls coming to the Love Shack to play the Dawgs this spring.
01-03-2013 12:08 PM
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SgtGoldenEagle Offline
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Post: #7
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
It is great to turn to a sport USM is going to be good in that it has a reputation of doing well in. After the horror show that was football and being anything but what is typical of USM, it is nice to turn to something we expect to be good in and should be a force.
01-03-2013 12:16 PM
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nastybunch Offline
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Post: #8
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
Can't wait...I think we will finally find out how good our coaches really are.
(This post was last modified: 01-03-2013 01:04 PM by nastybunch.)
01-03-2013 01:04 PM
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herdfan2013 Offline
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Post: #9
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
I think we could have a pretty good baseball program. CUSA will still be solid in the future, so that's a sell to recruits. We made it to the conference championship series recently. Believe it or not, or area has a lot of talent, too. On top of that, we recruit the south Florida area pretty strong (go figure). I really think we're a home field away from being pretty good. I also think with a home field it would catch on in the area. Closest major league teams are Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh, so those are all a weekend trip. Closest minor league team is in Charleston, which is close, but still tough to take kids through the week from Huntington.
01-03-2013 01:16 PM
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shiftyeagle Offline
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Post: #10
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
We are excited for sure!
01-03-2013 01:45 PM
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49erAlumnus Offline
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Post: #11
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
Here in Charlotte we're ready to get this last season of A-10 ball out of the way so we can move to league that actually cares about baseball. We've got some question marks on the pitching staff but we're expecting to take of business in the league after a disappointing season last year. We're hosting the conference tournament on out way out the door. That should give us an advantage as we try to get back to the NCAAs.
01-03-2013 02:00 PM
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Eagle Eye Offline
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Post: #12
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
(01-03-2013 01:04 PM)nastybunch Wrote:  Can't wait...I think we will finally find out how good our coaches really are.

+1...chomping at the bit.
01-03-2013 02:18 PM
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SgtGoldenEagle Offline
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Post: #13
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
(01-03-2013 02:18 PM)Eagle Eye Wrote:  
(01-03-2013 01:04 PM)nastybunch Wrote:  Can't wait...I think we will finally find out how good our coaches really are.

+1...chomping at the bit.

I am just wishing I could see them play, but unless something happens that USM gets to Tempe Az. some way, that isn't going to happen. I dream of seeing USM vs. Arizona State in baseball which would be awesome.
01-03-2013 02:25 PM
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loki_the_bubba Offline
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Post: #14
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
(01-03-2013 11:30 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  ... the Minute Maid tournament against likely #1 UNC, A&M and Baylor...

Always a great event. I missed last year but hopefully I'll make at least on game this year.
01-03-2013 02:58 PM
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Whiteboard3 Offline
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Post: #15
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
(01-03-2013 02:00 PM)49erAlumnus Wrote:  Here in Charlotte we're ready to get this last season of A-10 ball out of the way so we can move to league that actually cares about baseball. We've got some question marks on the pitching staff but we're expecting to take of business in the league after a disappointing season last year. We're hosting the conference tournament on out way out the door. That should give us an advantage as we try to get back to the NCAAs.

And we have a very favorable schedule. Only series we have any excuse losing is Kent State. And I don't know how much they lost.
01-03-2013 03:37 PM
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Knightshift Offline
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Post: #16
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
(01-03-2013 11:30 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Now that the football season is finally over, time to turn our attention (well, at least for some of us) to C-USA's best sport. Heading into the 2013 season, I supsect Rice and USM will be co-favorites to win the conference, with the Owls getting the nod due to historical precendent (and another elite pitching staff), while the Eagles appear to be absolutely loaded-- both offensively and on the mound. UCF should be solid and a post-season lock, but they lose the vast majority of their offense from their stellar 2011-2012 squad. Can ECU regain the Top 35 form of their 2008 - '10 seasons? Can Tulane and UH finally return to Top 50 caliber form after several seasons in the wastelands?

On the surface, Rice appears to have lost a ton of talent-- two starting pitchers (Reckling, Benak), 60% of their bullpen (Chargois, Duffey, Wall) and four of their top position players (Rathjen, Fuda, Manuel, Chargois). However, the cubbard is far from empty, as the Coach Graham continues to do an excellent job of restocking. The pitching staff still features a couple likely first couple round draft picks in Austin Kubitza (3-year Friday starter) and John Simms (likely to start year as closer, but has been weekend starter in past), another couple guys with weekend starter experience (John Stephens, Chase McDowell), a couple guys who had excellent Freshman campaigns in the bullpen who will play more prominent roles in 2013 (Zech Lemond, Rutter), three experienced bullpen arms returning from 2012 injuries (Spurlin, McNair, Fant), and our usual compliment of Freshman arms (including Kevin McCanna, who will likely be our Sunday or mid-week starter). Rice returns the majority of it's infield, led by preseason all-american 2B Christian Stringer, along with 3B Hoelscher, SS Stainback and C Perrott. In the outfield, Sr Ratterree will be returning in RF, hoping to regain his offensive form after a dismall 2012 season. He'll be joined by true Fr speedster and switch hitter, Leon Byrd in CF, and either Cook (who was a starter in 2011), Aquino, true Freshman Beau Rathjen (Jeremy's brother) or one of a couple JUCO transfers in LF.

As always, Rice's strength will be in the depth of it's pitching staff; however, it will be the offense that will determine how far the Owls go this year. It will likely improve upon last season (not saying much), but the question is, how much improvement? Certainly, if Lance Berkman decides to retire and returns as an Assistant Coach (while finishing his degree), it should help the offense considerably.

Rice opens at home against Stanford, then travels to Hawaii for a four-game set, before returning to Houston for the Minute Maid tournament against likely #1 UNC, A&M and Baylor. Love the tough OOC slate.

Bring the ping! Can't wait for baseball!

UCF has a lot of question marks heading into this season. We were hit VERY hard by the draft, so a lot of newcomers are going to have to show their stuff if we're going to be successful. We lost much of our power hitting, speed on the bases, and one of the best set-up/closer tandems in the country in Roman Madrid and Joe Rogers. There's plenty of talent there, but a lot of it is unproven. We do return almost all of the starting pitchers from a year ago, so there's plenty of experience there. And while we lost some speed and power hitting, Rooney said we will field an an entire lineup that can flat-out hit from 1-9. Rooney has pulled in some highly-ranked recruiting classes since he's been at UCF, so we'll see if we "rebuild" or "reload."

BTW, the Collegiate Baseball pre-season poll was released in December. They apparently don't think much of CUSA. Rice was the highest ranked at #20, with USM at #36, and ECU at #37. UCF was the first listed in "others receiving votes" so they obviously don't think we're even a top 40 team. I know we lost a lot, but damn, last year we were never OUT of the top 25 in some of the polls from start to finish. And I know, it's just a meaningless pre-season poll.

Collegiate Baseball Pre-Season Poll
01-03-2013 03:55 PM
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southernmiss4ever Offline
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Post: #17
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
I don't know about USM being "absolutely loaded".

We'll be better than last year.
01-03-2013 04:36 PM
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chrisattsu Offline
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Post: #18
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
February 15th can't come fast enough.

Texas State's basketball season is cringe worthy. We go into hibernation after football season and awake to baseball in February.
01-03-2013 04:39 PM
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So Miss Eagle Offline
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Post: #19
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
Can't wait for baseball either!

Although I must say the new bats have had a negative impact (no pun intended) on college baseball's enjoyability for me. I was talking to my brother-in-law the other day who pitched in the SEC years ago, and he couldn't get over how low ERA's are now. He thinks the old bats will never come back due to safety, but believes it is time to shorten the lengths of college baseball fields. I tend to agree with him. Have any of you had or heard of similar proposals? Just curious...
01-03-2013 04:44 PM
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BeagleUSM Offline
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Post: #20
RE: 2013 College Baseball-- Just 6 Weeks 'til Opening Day!
Can't wait!
01-03-2013 05:02 PM
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