As usual, Collegiate Baseball is first out of the gate, and they rank the Owls #20...

http://baseballnews.com/2016-collegiate-baseball-polls/

Quote:The pre-season poll factors in voting by NCAA Division I coaches across the nation, how a team finished last season, returning position player starters and pitchers, potential draft picks along with the quality of its recruiting class that came to school last fall.

...#5 A&M, 6 ULaLa, #15 TCU, #18 UH, #19 Tulane, #24 Arkansas, #31 Dallas Baptist, #39 Texas Tech, #40 UT

I'd like to see preseason top 25 rankings by a few of our resident Parliament baseball experts. I think we'd probably match up well with some of the national publications, for sure.

Bonus points for anyone who posts 'em up before the majority of national pubs publish.

Wow, D1baseball doesn't even include us in their preseason Top 25...

http://www.d1baseball.com/rankings/2016-...on-top-25/

...#4 A&M, #19 TCU, #22 UH, #23 UT, #25 Arkansas

I'm stills cratching my head on UT anywhere sniffing the Top 25 with what they have returning.

More motivation. Talk about flying under the radar.

(12-21-2015 10:00 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  As usual, Collegiate Baseball is first out of the gate, and they rank the Owls #20...

http://baseballnews.com/2016-collegiate-baseball-polls/

Quote:The pre-season poll factors in voting by NCAA Division I coaches across the nation, how a team finished last season, returning position player starters and pitchers, potential draft picks along with the quality of its recruiting class that came to school last fall.

...#5 A&M, 6 ULaLa, #15 TCU, #18 UH, #19 Tulane, #24 Arkansas, #31 Dallas Baptist, #39 Texas Tech, #40 UT

Impressed with Pierce at Tulane (and before), hope we are prepping a fund to get him back after the OG is done.

Here's Rice-related comments from D1Baseball's Top 25 online chat earlier today...

Quote:Comment From Russell
How far is Rice outside your top 25?

Kendall Rogers:
Owls are right there in the mix. Fox, Duplantier, Otto is a very very solid rotation. My approval of those guys is pretty well documented on this site. With that said, I do have some serious question marks about the offense. There’s plenty of athleticism there with Charlie Warren, Ryan Chandler and Tristan Gray, among others, but I want to see some of these bats really step up this spring. I have question marks about the offense.

Quote:Comment From Dirk Diggler
Where do you see Rice this year?

Kendall Rogers:
Dirk,
I actually think the Owls have some big-time potential despite the offense being a major area of concern for me. The reports I got on the Owls this past fall were not overly positive, but I am not going to take that as the gospel. I do really like the staff with Duplantier, Fox and Otto, along with very quality bullpen depth. But again, I want to see some hitters step up.

He didn't get glowing reports because: (1) The OG held back our frontline pitching until the last several weeks of intrasquads, and (2) we were missing Chandler, Gray and Salinas. Our starting rotation of Duplantier, Fox, Salinas and Otto is far better than simply "very solid". If Dane Myers performs in the closer role as The OG expects, and Josh Pettitte stays healthy, the pitching alone should be sufficient to keep us in the Top 25. I agree the offense will require us to do a much better job of manufacturing runs than we've shown in the recent past, but we do have 3 or 4 .300+ caliber hitters in Chandler, Warren, Teykl and Kopycinski. As I've said before, we need Grayson Lewis to hit the way he did the final month of last season (with a very high OBP), and we need both Tristan Gray and Dane Myers to provide some pop.

Quote:Comment From Russ
How many regionals / super regionals do you see coming from Texas?

Kendall Rogers:
I’m going to say Houston, Texas A&M and potentially TCU hosts …. once super regional at A&M.

Rice won't have to labor long into the season to prove it's underrated. The blockbuster lineup at the MM Classic presents a golden opportunity.

(01-12-2016 05:25 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  Rice won't have to labor long into the season to prove it's underrated. The blockbuster lineup at the MM Classic presents a golden opportunity.

Absolutely, and in front of most of the college baseball pundits, who will be in attendance.

Fall ball (specifically the Lamar scrimmage) provided no indication that our offense was improving. That game was mostly a continuation of the recent past: making other team's mediocre pitchers look like aces.

As for UT being ranked: Last year D1 ranked them #10 in the preseason....and they ended up somewhere near 100. It's the old UT/Augie bump.

Perfect Game just released their preseason Top 25, with Rice just barely missing the cut (we're one of two teams also "receiving consideration")...

https://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/Vie...icle=12025

...#3 A&M, #10 ULaLa, #16 UH, #18 TCU, #25 Tx Tech

While I think Tech is a bit of a stretch (and then some), I'm more aligned with the PG poll than the D1 poll. TCU lost almost all it's pitching save for Mitchell Travers, and it was pitching and pitching alone that propelled them the past two seasons. They do have back-to-back elite recruiting classes, but you can never count on what you get from true Freshmen, as many struggle during most of their first year of D1 action.

Perfect Game didn't include us in their Top 25 last week, but they've got us at #27 in the #26 - 40 listing (with USC #28 vs. D1 at #12, CSF #32-- D1 had them at #21, and UT at #36-- D1 had them at #23)...

https://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/Vie...icle=12085

Quote:27. Rice

Head Coach: Wayne Graham
Conference: Conference USA
2015 Record: 37-22 (22-8 C-USA)
2015 Finish: Houston Regional

The Owls have been remarkably consistent under Wayne Graham, advancing to a Regional in 21 straight seasons. Yet Rice has not been to Omaha since 2008 when the program had been to the CWS in three straight seasons. The 2016 unit has significant question marks but plenty of upside to be part of the final eight teams in Omaha. Lefthander Blake Fox is back for senior year after a down 2015 and righthander Jon Duplantier missed all of last season will a shoulder impingement. If Fox and Duplantier return to their elite form of 2014, then Rice will have a one-two punch at the front of their rotation that will rival anyone. Righthander Glenn Otto is an intriguing Sunday candidate and he was dominant last year with a ridiculous 14.3 strikeouts per nine innings and .142 opponent’s batting average. Ford Stainback (50 runs scored) and John Clay Reeves (55 RBI) are big losses but Rice does return six starting position players. Charlie Warren, Hunter Kopycinski, Ryan Chandler and Connor Tekyl all hit .291 or better in 2015 and these four will need to lead the offense. Rice fielded an uncharacteristic .965 last season and the shortstop battle between Tristan Gray and Ford Proctor will be a key to solidfying that spot.

I give them kuddos for their very accurate assessment.

I just noticed that Evan Rutter is now pitching for Tulane.

(01-20-2016 11:01 AM)RiceFootball2K5 Wrote:  I just noticed that Evan Rutter is now pitching for Tulane.

As a grad student transfer? Didn't he graduate from Rice after choosing not to play his RS Senior season last year? Always had great stuff; his issue was always his ability to throw strikes.

(01-20-2016 11:04 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Always had great stuff; his issue was always his ability to throw strikes.

I am curious: isn't throwing strikes one of the essential ingredients of "stuff"? Or does "stuff"really mean "speed"?

(01-20-2016 01:00 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(01-20-2016 11:04 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Always had great stuff; his issue was always his ability to throw strikes.

I am curious: isn't throwing strikes one of the essential ingredients of "stuff"? Or does "stuff"really mean "speed"?

Throwing strikes has absolutely nothing to do with "stuff". Throwing strikes pertains to control and command of one's pitches; "stuff" refers to quality of off-speed and breaking balls, as well as velocity on fastball.

(01-20-2016 01:00 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(01-20-2016 11:04 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Always had great stuff; his issue was always his ability to throw strikes.

I am curious: isn't throwing strikes one of the essential ingredients of "stuff"? Or does "stuff"really mean "speed"?

George, I know it's not your favorite paper, but the NYT devoted an entire article to "stuff" a few months ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/sports...stuff.html

Quote:Smoltz himself took several attempts before settling on a definition.

“Stuff is something that will make a hitter very uncomfortable,” he said. Then he amended it with less-succinct explanations.

The word is both meaningful and meaningless. There are no synonyms. Like pornography, stuff is defined mostly by example. And only pitchers have stuff. Hitters do not have stuff.

Stuff is how the ball moves after the pitcher releases it, velocity and movement (not just how far it moves, but the apparent "sharpness" of the movement).

Command/control refer to the pitcher's ability to locate the ball and is independent of stuff.

Deception is the difficulty a hitter has in picking up the flight of the ball from the point of release and is independent of stuff and command/control.

All 3 affect a pitcher's ability to succeed, as do additional factors like pitch sequencing, time taken between pitchers, release point, etc.

Release point is an under-appreciated factor if the pitcher is tall or throws sidearm. Think of John Kruk's reaction to a Randy Johnson pitch over his head during an all-star game. Playing in the Alaska League one summer, I faced a 6'8" RHP that threw submarine. The ball looked like it was coming out of the shortstop. That had nothing to do with his stuff, command/control, but was related to his deception.

(01-20-2016 06:01 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Stuff is how the ball moves after the pitcher releases it, velocity and movement (not just how far it moves, but the apparent "sharpness" of the movement).

Command/control refer to the pitcher's ability to locate the ball and is independent of stuff.

(01-20-2016 05:03 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Throwing strikes has absolutely nothing to do with "stuff". Throwing strikes pertains to control and command of one's pitches; "stuff" refers to quality of off-speed and breaking balls, as well as velocity on fastball.

I really had no idea that the seemingly broad term "stuff" was known to be so precise. By consensus here it seems to refer only to the break and/or speed of the pitched ball, but definitely not to accuracy, deception, pitch selection, or other skills.

And all this time I thought that "having good stuff" meant no more and no less than "being a good pitcher." I stand corrected!

But I'm a bit disappointed, for while it makes sense that there would be a term for the isolated (and important) qualities of break and speed, it's too bad it's not a term more substantial or evocative than "stuff." In other cases I have lamented when interesting expressions are cheapened by applying them to drab contexts; here we have a rather interesting context saddled with a lame expression.

(01-20-2016 06:01 PM)mrbig Wrote:  (but the apparent "sharpness" of the movement).

The Japanese have a specific term for this: kire. It is an oft-mentioned quality, and quite distinct from their other terms for "stuff."

(Kire does ostensibly translate to "sharpness." But it is used a lot more in Japanese to refer to pitches, at least as far as I can tell.)

(01-20-2016 06:26 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  But I'm a bit disappointed, for while it makes sense that there would be a term for the isolated (and important) qualities of break and speed, it's too bad it's not a term more substantial or evocative than "stuff."

The article I linked to touches on that as well:

Yet the primary term used to explain the art of pitching, which often determines who wins and who loses, is an inelegant word of ill-defined mush.