Anybody attend the baseball banquet tonight? Any comments on the team?

(11-12-2017 11:43 PM)wheredidmypantsgo Wrote:  Anybody attend the baseball banquet tonight? Any comments on the team?

Nice evening. Wayne sounded quite upbeat (even moreso than usual at this time of year). We have a ton of pitchers-- appeared to be half our roster...and Coach seemed optimistic that the guys who missed most, if not all, of Fall Ball would be back strong in January-- including Salinas, Amador and Esquivel.

Trei Cruz was much bigger than I expected. He missed all but the first couple weeks of Fall Ball with a "minor" knee injury, but Ford told me that he could have played the past several weeks but was kept out as a precaution.

Andrew Dunlap missed Fall Ball because he wasn't enrolled in classes. However, he was recovering from Summer shoulder surgery, and was working in the real world. He'll be back in January, and will almost assuredly be our everyday DH. According to Ford, he's been taking some batting practice to keep the rust off.

Evan Kravetz lost a ton of weight, and appears in great shape.

Award winners were:
- Dayne Wunderlich won the Chris Kohlkurst award for best GPA (for second consecutive year). Gritman gave an extended speech in which he read through a 7-point "things to do to get back to Omaha" card which he handed out to each and every player. Motivational speaking 101.

- Dane Myers (unfortunately, not present) won the Jimmy Camerota award for the most popular player. Jimmy Baseball looked great, and reported that he and his wife welcome their first child several weeks ago.

- Dom DiCaprio won the Wayne Graham award for team MVP.

(11-12-2017 11:56 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(11-12-2017 11:43 PM)wheredidmypantsgo Wrote:  Anybody attend the baseball banquet tonight? Any comments on the team?

Nice evening. Wayne sounded quite upbeat (even moreso than usual at this time of year). We have a ton of pitchers-- appeared to be half our roster...and Coach seemed optimistic that the guys who missed most, if not all, of Fall Ball would be back strong in January-- including Salinas, Amador and Esquivel.

Trei Cruz was much bigger than I expected. He missed all but the first couple weeks of Fall Ball with a "minor" knee injury, but Ford told me that he could have played the past several weeks but was kept out as a precaution.

Andrew Dunlap missed Fall Ball because he wasn't enrolled in classes. However, he was recovering from Summer shoulder surgery, and was working in the real world. He'll be back in January, and will almost assuredly be our everyday DH. According to Ford, he's been taking some batting practice to keep the rust off.

Evan Kravetz lost a ton of weight, and appears in great shape.

Award winners were:
- Dayne Wunderlich won the Chris Kohlkurst award for best GPA (for second consecutive year). Gritman gave an extended speech in which he read through a 7-point "things to do to get back to Omaha" card which he handed out to each and every player. Motivational speaking 101.

- Dane Myers (unfortunately, not present) won the Jimmy Camerota award for the most popular player. Jimmy Baseball looked great, and reported that he and his wife welcome their first child several weeks ago.

- Dom DiCaprio won the Wayne Graham award for team MVP.

I thought the Wayne Graham award was for the oldest person on the team.....

I kept hearing the players talk about Garrett Gayle's pitching. I know he'd been pretty wild, but Coach Pope told me he's routinely hitting 98 on the gun and has found something and is now pounding the strike zone. At my table were two guys who have really built themselves up over the summer, Addison Moss and Brad Gneiting. Both are listed at 175, but Brad is now 195 and Addison is over 200. Look for both to have good years. We introduced 20 pitchers last night. That seems to be the key to the season. If some of those guys come through it could be a special season as the rest of the team seems solid with good backups. Proctor, Cruz and Comeaux (pronounced Como) will give us a stable infield. Chandler and Gneiting will handle two of the outfield spots with several others battling for the 3rd spot. I'm more excited about this bunch than any I've seen the last few years. Next year's recruits look real good too so baseball may be on its way back.

(11-13-2017 10:55 AM)bobreinhold1 Wrote:  I kept hearing the players talk about Garrett Gayle's pitching. I know he'd been pretty wild, but Coach Pope told me he's routinely hitting 98 on the gun and has found something and is now pounding the strike zone. At my table were two guys who have really built themselves up over the summer, Addison Moss and Brad Gneiting. Both are listed at 175, but Brad is now 195 and Addison is over 200. Look for both to have good years. We introduced 20 pitchers last night. That seems to be the key to the season. If some of those guys come through it could be a special season as the rest of the team seems solid with good backups. Proctor, Cruz and Comeaux (pronounced Como) will give us a stable infield. Chandler and Gneiting will handle two of the outfield spots with several others battling for the 3rd spot. I'm more excited about this bunch than any I've seen the last few years. Next year's recruits look real good too so baseball may be on its way back.

Avila will round out the infield, manning 1B this year and likely returning to catching duties next year, assuming Dom has a strong year and moves on. My guess is we'll see a platoon in LF amongst Sarchet, Brewer (who's had his best Fall ever), Staab and a couple of the Freshmen. As mentioned in an earlier post, I expect Dunlap to be our everyday DH.

Thanks to Roger Tower, here's the final, unofficial stats for Fall Ball, which came to a conclusion with yesterday's intrasquad...

http://www.shelbyestus.com/rice/CS2017Nov15.pdf

Clearly, the pitching dominated, posting an aggregate ERA of 2.80...and largely without three of our best returning arms (Salinas, Amador and Esquivel, the latter of whom saw action only in the final 2 weeks). Importantly, Kravetz, Parthasarathy and Gayle all ended Fall Ball with their best outings. Most encouraging was the dramatic reduction in number of free passes given up. Moss and Canterino were the standouts, but Jefferies and Silber also excelled and were consistently strong....and newcomers Acker, Bordwine and Lewis should greatly improve our bullpen.

On offense, the expected starters did well, albeit with little or no power-- DiCaprio, Proctor, Chandler, Gneiting, Aviles and Comeaux. Keep in mind that two of our expected starters and lineup cogs-- 2B Cruz and DH Dunlap-- missed most, if not all, of Fall Ball. It would appear the only open competition heading into Spring intrasquads will be in LF.

(11-13-2017 02:45 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(11-13-2017 10:55 AM)bobreinhold1 Wrote:  I kept hearing the players talk about Garrett Gayle's pitching. I know he'd been pretty wild, but Coach Pope told me he's routinely hitting 98 on the gun and has found something and is now pounding the strike zone. At my table were two guys who have really built themselves up over the summer, Addison Moss and Brad Gneiting. Both are listed at 175, but Brad is now 195 and Addison is over 200. Look for both to have good years. We introduced 20 pitchers last night. That seems to be the key to the season. If some of those guys come through it could be a special season as the rest of the team seems solid with good backups. Proctor, Cruz and Comeaux (pronounced Como) will give us a stable infield. Chandler and Gneiting will handle two of the outfield spots with several others battling for the 3rd spot. I'm more excited about this bunch than any I've seen the last few years. Next year's recruits look real good too so baseball may be on its way back.

Avila will round out the infield, manning 1B this year and likely returning to catching duties next year, assuming Dom has a strong year and moves on. My guess is we'll see a platoon in LF amongst Sarchet, Brewer (who's had his best Fall ever), Staab and a couple of the Freshmen. As mentioned in an earlier post, I expect Dunlap to be our everyday DH.

I went to the roster to look up some of the players. They list the kid from Florida as Aviles. Which is correct?

(11-16-2017 10:09 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(11-13-2017 02:45 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(11-13-2017 10:55 AM)bobreinhold1 Wrote:  I kept hearing the players talk about Garrett Gayle's pitching. I know he'd been pretty wild, but Coach Pope told me he's routinely hitting 98 on the gun and has found something and is now pounding the strike zone. At my table were two guys who have really built themselves up over the summer, Addison Moss and Brad Gneiting. Both are listed at 175, but Brad is now 195 and Addison is over 200. Look for both to have good years. We introduced 20 pitchers last night. That seems to be the key to the season. If some of those guys come through it could be a special season as the rest of the team seems solid with good backups. Proctor, Cruz and Comeaux (pronounced Como) will give us a stable infield. Chandler and Gneiting will handle two of the outfield spots with several others battling for the 3rd spot. I'm more excited about this bunch than any I've seen the last few years. Next year's recruits look real good too so baseball may be on its way back.

Avila will round out the infield, manning 1B this year and likely returning to catching duties next year, assuming Dom has a strong year and moves on. My guess is we'll see a platoon in LF amongst Sarchet, Brewer (who's had his best Fall ever), Staab and a couple of the Freshmen. As mentioned in an earlier post, I expect Dunlap to be our everyday DH.

I went to the roster to look up some of the players. They list the kid from Florida as Aviles. Which is correct?

My mistakes-- it's Aviles. He's a catcher by trade, but to get him in the lineeup this year (while DiCaprio handles the majority of the catching chores) he has played 1B throughout intrasquads.

(11-16-2017 10:11 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(11-16-2017 10:09 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(11-13-2017 02:45 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(11-13-2017 10:55 AM)bobreinhold1 Wrote:  I kept hearing the players talk about Garrett Gayle's pitching. I know he'd been pretty wild, but Coach Pope told me he's routinely hitting 98 on the gun and has found something and is now pounding the strike zone. At my table were two guys who have really built themselves up over the summer, Addison Moss and Brad Gneiting. Both are listed at 175, but Brad is now 195 and Addison is over 200. Look for both to have good years. We introduced 20 pitchers last night. That seems to be the key to the season. If some of those guys come through it could be a special season as the rest of the team seems solid with good backups. Proctor, Cruz and Comeaux (pronounced Como) will give us a stable infield. Chandler and Gneiting will handle two of the outfield spots with several others battling for the 3rd spot. I'm more excited about this bunch than any I've seen the last few years. Next year's recruits look real good too so baseball may be on its way back.

Avila will round out the infield, manning 1B this year and likely returning to catching duties next year, assuming Dom has a strong year and moves on. My guess is we'll see a platoon in LF amongst Sarchet, Brewer (who's had his best Fall ever), Staab and a couple of the Freshmen. As mentioned in an earlier post, I expect Dunlap to be our everyday DH.

I went to the roster to look up some of the players. They list the kid from Florida as Aviles. Which is correct?

My mistakes-- it's Aviles. He's a catcher by trade, but to get him in the lineeup this year (while DiCaprio handles the majority of the catching chores) he has played 1B throughout intrasquads.

Thanks Walt. Your analysis this fall has me excited about next season.

Mike Rooney and Perfect Game finally got around to including Rice in it's College Fall Noteball. Premium content so I'll cut and paste the passage which provides no new insights...

Quote:Rice

The Owls earned their 23rd straight Regional appearance in 2017 and the college baseball world got a reminder as to why it’s never wise to give up on one of Wayne Graham’s teams. Rice was just 13-25 on April 16 but caught fire to win 18 of their last 22 games heading into the NCAA Tournament.

Paul Janish has joined the coaching staff and he brings big-time credentials: starting shortstop on the Owls’ 2003 National Championship team and a nine-year Major League career. Ironically, shortstop Ford Proctor is the only starter returning in the infield so that was a focus this fall.

Dominic DiCaprio, Proctor, Ryan Chandler and Brad Gneiting have looked great and should be the core of this lineup. This pitching staff has great upside and the group of Matt Canterino, Addison Moss, Evan Kravetz, Kendal Jefferies, Roel Garcia and Garrett Gayle all threw very well.

On the newcomer side, Braden Comeaux, Luis Aviles, Trei Cruz and Dane Acker all stood out. To say Cruz has outstanding pedigree would be the understatement of the century: his grandfather is Jose Cruz and his father is Jose Cruz, Jr. Those two combined for 25 years in the big leagues and Jose Jr. was a star at Rice prior to his pro career.

Still waiting for Kendall's and D1Baseball's Fall recap on Rice, which almost always comes from an interview with The OG.

Are you sure Dunlap had surgery?

(11-30-2017 06:48 PM)Owl Is In Chains Wrote:  Are you sure Dunlap had surgery?

Yes. Not only did Andrew tell me so before we all left Baton Rouge in June, but Ford Proctor confirmed it during our dinner discussion at last month's baseball banquet. (He was at my table.)

(10-18-2017 11:10 AM)mrbig Wrote:  

(10-18-2017 10:34 AM)Neelys Ghost Wrote:  Didn't one of the TE's in football throw 92 in high school and strike out like 700,000 hitters?

Jackson Tyner has a perfect game profile and was a pitcher in high school. Not sure how good he was though.

edit: apparently was 12-1 as a senior (with some games left to play).

Just noticed that Jackson Tyner's twitter profile describes him as playing football and baseball at Rice. I have no idea if that is a new change or if it always said that, since I have never looked at his twitter profile before. He is not on the riceowls.com baseball roster.

(01-16-2018 11:29 AM)mrbig Wrote:  

(10-18-2017 11:10 AM)mrbig Wrote:  

(10-18-2017 10:34 AM)Neelys Ghost Wrote:  Didn't one of the TE's in football throw 92 in high school and strike out like 700,000 hitters?

Jackson Tyner has a perfect game profile and was a pitcher in high school. Not sure how good he was though.

edit: apparently was 12-1 as a senior (with some games left to play).

Just noticed that Jackson Tyner's twitter profile describes him as playing football and baseball at Rice. I have no idea if that is a new change or if it always said that, since I have never looked at his twitter profile before. He is not on the riceowls.com baseball roster.

Interesting... Anyone had a chance to go out and watch practice since everyone returned from the holidays?

This reminds me of something I have long thought. I really think Rice could help itself by staking out a position as a destination for two sport athletes, who would be allowed and even encouraged to play both. Football coaches hate this because they have this notion that they have to control you 24/7/365 in order to develop you properly. But I think we could steal a few 3, 4 or even the occasional 5-star who truly wants to play two sports. Jess did this a lot, and I think that was one reason for his success.

Is having a half dozen better athletes than we would have any hope of attracting otherwise worth more than losing a few weeks of practice? I think so, by a wide margin.

No idea if either side has any interest, but I recall (and just now confirmed my memory) that Jack Fox was an all-district catcher in high school.

Wonder if potential 2-sport guys like Tyner would be more hesitant to play baseball this spring with a new football coach.

(01-16-2018 04:32 PM)mrbig Wrote:  No idea if either side has any interest, but I recall (and just now confirmed my memory) that Jack Fox was an all-district catcher in high school.

Wonder if potential 2-sport guys like Tyner would be more hesitant to play baseball this spring with a new football coach.

I would rather see Fox relive his HS days as a QB by passing out punt formation now and then. Hope the new coach takes advantage of this.

(01-16-2018 03:21 PM)RiceOL83 Wrote:  

(01-16-2018 11:29 AM)mrbig Wrote:  

(10-18-2017 11:10 AM)mrbig Wrote:  

(10-18-2017 10:34 AM)Neelys Ghost Wrote:  Didn't one of the TE's in football throw 92 in high school and strike out like 700,000 hitters?

Jackson Tyner has a perfect game profile and was a pitcher in high school. Not sure how good he was though.

edit: apparently was 12-1 as a senior (with some games left to play).

Just noticed that Jackson Tyner's twitter profile describes him as playing football and baseball at Rice. I have no idea if that is a new change or if it always said that, since I have never looked at his twitter profile before. He is not on the riceowls.com baseball roster.

Interesting... Anyone had a chance to go out and watch practice since everyone returned from the holidays?

He still doesn't appear on the official roster.

One week 'til Spring intrasquads!

(01-19-2018 05:38 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  One week 'til Spring intrasquads!

The permit for the new roost looked like it was filed with the city.