(03-25-2018 02:30 PM)Ranger Wrote: (03-25-2018 01:21 PM)Almadenmike Wrote: (03-25-2018 01:15 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote: Well to JP's defense (and for the out of town folks), it's been a really strange winter/early spring in Houston where we haven't seen the sun too many days. Not like we've had a lot of rain either, it's just been cloudy and gray most days so there are days where you might actually need the lights on in the middle of the day. Although to the defense of those who think JP is nuts, it's actually not like that today and fairly sunny by Houston 2018 standards.
If that makes any sense.....
:-) He did say it was "a low sky" when Cruz was catching the T1 popup.
Cruz is hit in the left toe by a low-inside pitch in the dirt -- the video is pretty clear that it bounced off his toe ... but the home-plate ump says 'no' (even after conference with the other umps). Cruz is incredulous! He then bounces out 4-3.
"1st base umpire for your Rice Owls is Jordan Kopycinski ..." (I don't think JP is "nuts" ... just charmingly creative in an entertaining way.)
Trei Cruz has been ejected! Arrrgh.
(03-25-2018 02:28 PM)greyowl72 Wrote: Looking for some kind of spark from the Owls today. So far, haven’t seen any at all.
Pitching... Moss looking understandably shaky after some time off. Garcia struggling.
Offense.., pretty much non existent. No runs. No threat.
Unforced errors... Cruz out after an altercation with the ump.
Injuries..., Staab injured on the basepaths and out.
Pretty listless and depressing.
Need a complete reboot. We have enough data points to consider this a mediocre team.
At this point, it's in the players' hands. Do they have it in themselves to right this ship, as a team? I hope they realize they cannot do it individually; they all need to pull together, for the same goal.
The 2012 Owls football team was similarly listless and ineffectual (and injured), but a players-only meeting seemingly sparked a short-lived turnaround over a couple of seasons. But only once the team pulled together, playing for pride and for each other, doing what each player needed to do and not trying to do it all by himself.
I haven't seen a single pitch for this team this year, and I'm not likely to. So I leave it to others to assess whether this team is acting like a team or not. But it sure sounds like it's performing like less than its parts.
But I also hope that Rice leadership pays attention, because any turnaround is ultimately likely ephemeral. The trend is your friend, or something like that.
And to those noting the overall record, probably more important at this point is conference comparisons between last year and this year. And it may be pretty similar results, though FIU had a much better final RPI:
2017 (had to use Warren Nolan, as NCAA doesn't keep historical that I can easily find)
0-3 on the road at ultimately 2nd place ODU (final RPI 51)
1-2 at home vs. .500 FIU (final RPI 87)
2018
0-3 on the road at currently 1st place Louisiana Tech (current RPI 68)
1-2 at home vs. currently .500 WKU (current RPI 240)
This doesn't guarantee that last year's results can be replicated. But Rice is tied for last in conference and has a long way to go to dig out of this hole. And I think all are in agreement that the only way Rice makes the post-season this year is to virtually sweep the conference schedule (and probably most of the non-conference, too) the rest of the way (making an at-large berth maybe a possibility) or win the conference tournament. But losing 2 of 3 to a sub-200 RPI team did major damage to the team's RPI. (And don't look at
Nolan's predictive RPI - it's depressing.)
