ExcitedOwl18
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RE: Rice vs. Virginia - Game thread
Overall, not a bad result for the weekend.
2-1 with a road win vs. a good UCF team.
Bats were a bit hot and cold but that’s often the case early in the season.
Starting pitching was good, relief meh.
Get a win Tuesday vs. TxSt and split 2-2 out west at Stanford and I’ll be happy.
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02-18-2018 12:59 PM |
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ricedtea
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RE: Rice vs. Virginia - Game thread
Ironically, this might be the game Graham is most pleased with from the weekend. Great pitching (save for the double given up by Amador) and clean defense. The bats just couldn't get it done
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02-18-2018 01:11 PM |
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Fort Bend Owl
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RE: Rice vs. Virginia - Game thread
(02-18-2018 12:59 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: Overall, not a bad result for the weekend.
2-1 with a road win vs. a good UCF team.
Bats were a bit hot and cold but that’s often the case early in the season.
Starting pitching was good, relief meh.
Get a win Tuesday vs. TxSt and split 2-2 out west at Stanford and I’ll be happy.
I'd say 1-3 at Stanford and it's not awful. A split might be hard but we'll see.
Getting Dunlap back should help the offense.
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02-18-2018 01:25 PM |
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RiceFootball2K5
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RE: Rice vs. Virginia - Game thread
(02-18-2018 01:25 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote: (02-18-2018 12:59 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: Overall, not a bad result for the weekend.
2-1 with a road win vs. a good UCF team.
Bats were a bit hot and cold but that’s often the case early in the season.
Starting pitching was good, relief meh.
Get a win Tuesday vs. TxSt and split 2-2 out west at Stanford and I’ll be happy.
I'd say 1-3 at Stanford and it's not awful. A split might be hard but we'll see.
Getting Dunlap back should help the offense.
I wonder if there is any way Dunlap could play left field? I like our DiCaprio/Collins combo at catcher and DH, but our freshman left fielder combination (Cox/Weyler) went hitless on the weekend. Obviously still early but it looks like that is our main position that we need to find a solution for.
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02-18-2018 01:37 PM |
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waltgreenberg
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RE: Rice vs. Virginia - Game thread
(02-18-2018 01:37 PM)RiceFootball2K5 Wrote: (02-18-2018 01:25 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote: (02-18-2018 12:59 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: Overall, not a bad result for the weekend.
2-1 with a road win vs. a good UCF team.
Bats were a bit hot and cold but that’s often the case early in the season.
Starting pitching was good, relief meh.
Get a win Tuesday vs. TxSt and split 2-2 out west at Stanford and I’ll be happy.
I'd say 1-3 at Stanford and it's not awful. A split might be hard but we'll see.
Getting Dunlap back should help the offense.
I wonder if there is any way Dunlap could play left field? I like our DiCaprio/Collins combo at catcher and DH, but our freshman left fielder combination (Cox/Weyler) went hitless on the weekend. Obviously still early but it looks like that is our main position that we need to find a solution for.
From what I'm hearing, it's not clear Dunlap will beat out Collins for DH.
Addison Moss was outstanding today, especially since his previous long outing this Spring was just 2 innings. He was throwing ground balls all day long. Only one line drive off him before those two 2-out, 0-2 count singles in the 7th. What both Moss and Canterino did against very talented offensive clubs in UCF and UVA is impressive and encouraging. If we can eventually (by the time conference play starts) get Ricky stretched out to 5+ innings, this could be our best weekend rotation in years.
As for our offense, let's not forget we faced elite caliber pitching all weekend (given we had the Samford ace). We struggled today, but I still liked our approach at the plate, and believe it's vastly improved over last season. I like Dominick Cox. He might have gone hitless in his two games, but he hit the ball hard 3 or 4 times, and I liked his approach at the plate. From the small sample size I saw, I'd take him over Weyler any day of the week.
As for the bullpen, I'm not sure what's going on out in the pen such that everyone that comes in cannot find the strikezone until they've faced their 3rd batter. That obviously needs to get ironed out. However, our starting pitching and infield defense has been outstanding.
(This post was last modified: 02-18-2018 02:40 PM by waltgreenberg.)
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02-18-2018 02:38 PM |
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waltgreenberg
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RE: Rice vs. Virginia - Game thread
(02-18-2018 11:37 AM)ricedtea Wrote: Gotta say, even if this game ends in a loss, it's a huge positive to see Addison Moss excelling against a top-25 team. Third weekend starter was a big question mark entering the season and he's really shown good stuff today
EDIT: And through six, he's only thrown about 75 pitches. He could go eight if he keeps this pace
??? You do recognize Addison didn't pitch this Spring until two weeks ago because of a sore arm, and hadn't gone more than 2 innings in his 3 intrasquad outings. I was pleasantly surprised-- shocked, really-- that Wayne left him in that long.
I've said since watching him in Fall Ball, he's our second best pitcher-- with the second best stuff-- behind Canterino. Salinas is a quality, experienced pitcher, but he doesn't have the electric stuff of either of the other two. I still think we keep Ricky in the middle to pitch on Saturdays, because he's much more of a finesse pitcher, with good location and an exceptional changeup; whereas both Matt and Addison are hard throwers, with low 90s heaters and sharp breaking stuff.
I just hope we can solidify the bullpen; otherwise The OG may have no choice but to move Moss into the CSC/Duffy/Lamond/Otto role in the back of the pen, and move Aker into the Sunday starter role (which I understand Wayne was considering up until the last moment).
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02-18-2018 02:48 PM |
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Owl 69/70/75
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RE: Rice vs. Virginia - Game thread
(02-18-2018 02:48 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote: (02-18-2018 11:37 AM)ricedtea Wrote: Gotta say, even if this game ends in a loss, it's a huge positive to see Addison Moss excelling against a top-25 team. Third weekend starter was a big question mark entering the season and he's really shown good stuff today
EDIT: And through six, he's only thrown about 75 pitches. He could go eight if he keeps this pace
??? You do recognize Addison didn't pitch this Spring until two weeks ago because of a sore arm, and hadn't gone more than 2 innings in his 3 intrasquad outings. I was pleasantly surprised-- shocked, really-- that Wayne left him in that long.
I've said since watching him in Fall Ball, he's our second best pitcher-- with the second best stuff-- behind Canterino. Salinas is a quality, experienced pitcher, but he doesn't have the electric stuff of either of the other two. I still think we keep Ricky in the middle to pitch on Saturdays, because he's much more of a finesse pitcher, with good location and an exceptional changeup; whereas both Matt and Addison are hard throwers, with low 90s heaters and sharp breaking stuff.
I just hope we can solidify the bullpen; otherwise The OG may have no choice but to move Moss into the CSC/Duffy/Lamond/Otto role in the back of the pen, and move Aker into the Sunday starter role (which I understand Wayne was considering up until the last moment).
I have always felt that the closer should probably be no worse than the third best pitcher on the staff. I don't know that Wayne agrees, but it seems that the teams that got to Omaha all had pretty good closers. And the closer on the National Champion team arguably had the best MLB career of any of that staff.
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02-18-2018 03:03 PM |
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ExcitedOwl18
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RE: Rice vs. Virginia - Game thread
Samford beats UCF.
Rice and UVA finish 2-1. Samford and UCF 1-2.
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02-18-2018 05:02 PM |
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uconnbaseball
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RE: Rice vs. Virginia - Game thread
Great win today. I love this pitching staff!
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02-18-2018 06:28 PM |
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