(02-26-2016 11:00 PM)RiceFootball2K5 Wrote:  Not sure why Fox is in the lineup either. A) we need him pitching at the top of his game if we are going anywhere this year and B) he's a career .231 hitter including tonight with no speed and no power (and who also can't bunt...but that is not uncommon in our lineup.)
And I say that as a huge fan of his pitching. I just don't see it at the plate or in the field.

I find this baffling too.

Small sample size, but this may be a long season. I was pretty optimistic going into this year but we just don't look very good. Hope I'm wrong.

Multi-season trend.

(02-26-2016 11:36 PM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  Multi-season trend.

Yea... None of this is new. We haven't been very good for the last few years. Decent pitching but 0 offense and lately extremely suspect defense.

(02-26-2016 11:14 PM)RiceFootball2K5 Wrote:  The breaking ball their closer throws to right handed hitters is absolutely filthy.

He's widely considered the #1 closer in college baseball. According to kendall's tweets, he was throwing 93 - 96 on his heater, with that curve coming in at 83. His high leg kick and hesitation adds additional deception to his already filthy stuff.

Yes, tonight was disappointing the way we lost, but...there were certainly positives. Big Jon pitched very well against a quality offensive team. He obviously hit the wall after 6 innings, which should be no surprise given he didn't throw more than 4 innings during Spring intrasquads and threw just 4.2 inning last Saturday. Unfortunately, neither Otto or Solecitto were available for tonight's game. He could have brought Esquivel in to start the 7th, but once Jon walked the leadoff guy and then hit the next batter, I think The OG felt uneasy bringing in a true Freshman with just one appearance in that situation....so he stuck with Dup.

Defense was outstanding tonight, and that has to add to the team confidence. It certainly will help Ford psyche after making all 4 plays to him tonight.

Offense is still a work in progress, and we're taking far too many strikes, but we had a bunch of hard hit outs tonight, not to mention Dane Myers laser in the 2nd inning that hooked just foul.

We need Blake to step of BIG time tomorrow, and throw strikes.

I don't buy into not bringing in true freshmen in tight situations. If they are good enough to pitch we should see if they respond in any situation early in the season. How many chances did Wade get in big games before finally finding the key? Besides they could have started the inning.

We played well enough to win the game last night....the difference was the 7 th inning error. Which was leaving Duplantier on the mound for more than 1 batter.

Leaving a pitcher in for too long (by sheer pitch count, given the circumstances and on an individual game basis, based on his performance, then) is not a new complaint here.

When EVERYBODY can see that a pitcher needs to come out, is it simply against baseball tradition and machismo for a pitcher to tell the coach himself?
So frustrating to see this same problem year after year after year, and nobody apparently willing or able to speak up about it.

(02-27-2016 09:33 AM)greyowl72 Wrote:  We played well enough to win the game last night....the difference was the 7 th inning error. Which was leaving Duplantier on the mound for more than 1 batter.

Maybe, but we probably would've lost 3-2. Our offense is poor in general, and looked totally helpless against that closer. I don't think we could've scored again.

Not arguing that Duplantier shouldn't have come out, by the way. Everyone in the stadium except the people in our dugout could see he was done.

(02-27-2016 01:46 PM)interwebowl Wrote:  I guess I think you guys are being a bit over the top. Shocking!

1. Dup had not lost any velocity, although he had lost control. It reminded me of when he started up in the Fall. That pitch count is not a killer by any means. He needs to figure out how to stretch his count to that point and I am sure that is what the coaches and Dup were thinking. You don't go from 20 pitches to 110 a week without building up. He has been working on this all Spring. It will be great if he gives us a reliable 7-8 innings on Fridays going forward.

2. As to the hitting, we had quite a few against what could have been the two best pitchers we will face all year.

I was pleased with the boys. I thought they competed hard and hung around. After last weekend, we had every reason to believe we would lose every game at MM by double digits.

Finally, I think if you you take a step back you can see that the Owls are going to get better each week. I am not sure the pigs will improve at the rate we will because we have more new faces finding their way.

Big props on the defense!

I basically agree. Dup was still zinging them in the 7th. The trouble was that he was zinging them all over the place. Unlike what he was doing early on.
Agree, again, on the hitting. We made some contact last night. But we need improvement. It's early in the season.
I hope the defense continues to improve. I was hoping the same thing last year.

I just feel like we had a chance to beat Arkansas last night, if we'd played our best game. And made better decisions.
This team has potential as the season progresses.