Stanford is off to a 1-3 start, losing today to Cal. So that series might not help our RPI as much as one would hope.

(02-16-2015 04:39 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(02-16-2015 04:28 PM)ColOwl Wrote:  I can't remember Rice ever having such a large number of pitchers on the staff who could throw in the 92-95 mph range and who all appeared in one weekend series. Arguably Duplantier appears to be the fastest and he didn't even pitch. But IIRC correctly, Stephens, McCanna, Ditman, Otto, and even J Willie all touched or surpassed 92. Thought JP said Orewiler was throwing some good heat too, but don't recall if Salinas, Solecitto, McCarthy and Amador were up to those speeds. Pretty sure Fox has never been a fireballer though.

Yup, Orewiler was at 92 - 93 the first 3 innings before gradually declining as he worked the latter innings. Amador was at 91 - 92 if I recall correctly. Salinas heater was at 90 - 93, but stayed there most of the game, and I'm pretty sure he hit 93 or even 94 at least once or twice. Solecitto is a finesse lefty, topping out at 87 - 88 (similar to Fox), but he works the inside/outside corners of the plate. Think a Tom Glavine type pitcher. McCarthy also tops out in the upper 80s. But again, IMO, velocity is grossly over-emphasized by the pundits and the scouts. In college ball, movement, location and having a quality off-speed pitch are far more important to one's success. If all you have is a mid-90s heater, you are going to get hit hard by college hitters.
From what I've heard, Josh Pettitte is a right-handed version of his father (or Blake Fox)-- not electric stuff and without a 90+ heater, but possesses a quality changeup and knows how to mix up his pitches. Duplantier's heater was sitting at 95 this Summer, but his out pitch is his filthy slider...and T.Teykl needs to throw at 93 consistently, as I've heard anything slower and this fastball loses it's movement and becomes very hittable...and unlike our other guys, he does not have a quality or reliable off-speed pitch in his arsenal.

My seats are in the row with all the scouts and their radar guns. Those were about the numbers they were getting on the guys who pitched yesterday. This was definitely target-rich environment for them.

(02-16-2015 07:26 PM)owl95 Wrote:  Well the Optimistic™ side of me says that without the errors committed by Rice, this could have been easily been a 4-0 sweep of UT, which would have been incredible. We did not perform to the top of our potential, but that potential appears to be quite high this year.

Agree. I felt we should have had 4 wins this week. I would have been satisfied with three. A little disappointed with two.

It seemed our errors were at bad times - with men on base and running. Theirs seemed to be more minor - dropped pop-ups. Of course, as Walt notes, not all errors or exceptional plays show up in the statistics.

I think the worries over our RPI are legit, but I also think that barring a rash of injuries, our team is strong enough to win its way to and through Omaha on the road. I was pleasantly surprised by our hitting, other than the bunts, and our stealing.

I'm not sure why the consternation over RPI is occurring right now. Last year we went 1-2 against UT, 0-3 against UH, 1-1 against TCU (I think) and 0-1 against A&M and still hosted a regional.. Also, our conference shouldn't be worse this year. In particular, FIU, UTSA, and FAU had strong opening weekends.

(02-16-2015 09:59 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  I'm not sure why the consternation over RPI is occurring right now. Last year we went 1-2 against UT, 0-3 against UH, 1-1 against TCU (I think) and 0-1 against A&M and still hosted a regional.. Also, our conference shouldn't be worse this year. In particular, FIU, UTSA, and FAU had strong opening weekends.

Yeah, I think our conference as a whole will be a little worse than last year, when it was actually quite good; no other Top 35 team, but only one team ranked outside the Top 105, which means CUSA games were not hurting our RPI. This year we may have a couple more highly ranked teams, but it appears we'll have several well below 125 in RPI.

BTW, we were 2-0 vs. TCU last year.