Hi, Mike, Walt, et al. The Elders, Ed B, and I are commuting from Ed’s place in Altadena down to the U C I campus for the games. First game, completely overmatched by their starting pitcher, no contest, not much else to say...(Remember when we used to beat on good teams like that?)

Second game, this one was ripe for the plucking from the very beginning, but we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The thing that struck us: our young kids, primarily young pitching, the things we worried about the most, are coming through in fine fashion for us. Blake Brogdon pitched his heart out, and pitched a whale of a game, a big plus. Young Cienfuegos showed some interesting stuff in his pitching repertoire, and will be an asset.

But, the big failure thus far this season lies in our veterans, primarily veteran offensive producers, and you know who they are… All you have to do is look through the box score of Friday’s and Saturday’s games. There’s no excuse for it. A little more of this, and those hotshots need to be benched, and some new kids, who want to play, need to have their chance. We’re not going to win the championships this year anyway. A number of these untested new recruits seem to be coming through just fine, they’re Players (vis a vis the Bo Brickles taxonomic ranking system).

But some of the guys we just knew we could depend upon, well, they’re being quite undependable. Extra BP? Wind sprints? That would’ve been the coaches’ response in our day.

PS visited some with Coach Bragga, and he was cordial and classy. We need to give him a chance to develop his own program at Rice. Bur some of these prima donas.....?

(02-23-2020 01:30 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  

(02-23-2020 12:40 AM)cr11owl Wrote:  Pathetic day for Rice sports. Gotta put JK on the hot seat by now right? Or is Leebron too worried about tweeting our pictures of his shampoo travel bottles.

Actually, our track and field teams did well. Plus, a shorthanded women's basketball team won.

Yes, we've had worse days, by far. I remember when track and field was the only thing that saved us, on more than one occasion. Thanks for keeping us posted.

(02-23-2020 03:30 AM)Ricefootballnet Wrote:  Hi, Mike, Walt, et al. The Elders, Ed B, and I are commuting from Ed’s place in Altadena down to the U C I campus for the games. First game, completely overmatched by their starting pitcher, no contest, not much else to say...(Remember when we used to beat on good teams like that?)
Second game, this one was ripe for the plucking from the very beginning, but we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The thing that struck us: our young kids, primarily young pitching, the things we worried about the most, are coming through in fine fashion for us. Blake Brogdon pitched his heart out, and pitched a whale of a game, a big plus. Young Cienfuegos showed some interesting stuff in his pitching repertoire, and will be an asset.
But, the big failure thus far this season lies in our veterans, primarily veteran offensive producers, and you know who they are… All you have to do is look through the box score of Friday’s and Saturday’s games. There’s no excuse for it. A little more of this, and those hotshots need to be benched, and some new kids, who want to play, need to have their chance. We’re not going to win the championships this year anyway. A number of these untested new recruits seem to be coming through just fine, they’re Players (vis a vis the Bo Brickles taxonomic ranking system).
But some of the guys we just knew we could depend upon, well, they’re being quite undependable. Extra BP? Wind sprints? That would’ve been the coaches’ response in our day.
PS visited some with Coach Bragga, and he was cordial and classy. We need to give him a chance to develop his own program at Rice. Bur some of these prima donas.....?

We just don't have the players we once did. We got used to beating even good teams because we had better players than they did. We don't anymore.

To get better, you get better players or you get the players you have to play better. Maybe there are some things you can do to get the ones you have to play better, but we just have to get better players. I think we're two good recruiting classes away from being competitive against good teams. The Rice Endowment should get the playing field back closer to level, majorly. Had it been in place ten years ago, I think the talent train would have continued to run. It wasn't, so it didn't.

Yes, Brogdon has been a very pleasant and unexpected surprise, as has been several of the Freshman arms (Cienfuego, Santos), but two of our 3 Juco transfer pitchers (DeLeon and Rickett) have been awful. The Mercer grad transfer (Kane) has now put together back-to-back quality outings.

The offense is just pathetic at this point, but no, the answer in not to play the bench. Do you honestly think guys like Antonio Cruz and Cox are going to do any better? Collins has been the most disappointing as he's shown absolutely no improvement in his plate discipline and offensive approach in his 3 years here. The top 6 players (Comeaux, Edwards, Cruz, Gneiting, Bulman and Hernandez) will come around as they're all proven college hitters, but no question they're in a funk right now. Way, way to passive up at the plate-- they're not looking to swing at obvious hitters counts (i.e., 2-0, 3-1), and are consistently taking first pitch fastballs right down broadway.

(02-23-2020 08:24 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Yes, Brogdon has been a very pleasant and unexpected surprise, as has been several of the Freshman arms (Cienfuego, Santos), but two of our 3 Juco transfer pitchers (DeLeon and Rickett) have been awful. The Mercer grad transfer (Kane) has now put together back-to-back quality outings.

The offense is just pathetic at this point, but no, the answer in not to play the bench. Do you honestly think guys like Antonio Cruz and Cox are going to do any better? Collins has been the most disappointing as he's shown absolutely no improvement in his plate discipline and offensive approach in his 3 years here. The top 6 players (Comeaux, Edwards, Cruz, Gneiting, Bulman and Hernandez) will come around as they're all proven college hitters, but no question they're in a funk right now. Way, way to passive up at the plate-- they're not looking to swing at obvious hitters counts (i.e., 2-0, 3-1), and are consistently taking first pitch fastballs right down broadway.

How will we come around? What are other teams doing in the offseason that lets them put up 10 runs on a Friday when we get no hit till the 8th? Wayne let the game pass him by and left the cupboard empty it seems.

(02-23-2020 08:07 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(02-23-2020 03:30 AM)Ricefootballnet Wrote:  Hi, Mike, Walt, et al. The Elders, Ed B, and I are commuting from Ed’s place in Altadena down to the U C I campus for the games. First game, completely overmatched by their starting pitcher, no contest, not much else to say...(Remember when we used to beat on good teams like that?)
Second game, this one was ripe for the plucking from the very beginning, but we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The thing that struck us: our young kids, primarily young pitching, the things we worried about the most, are coming through in fine fashion for us. Blake Brogdon pitched his heart out, and pitched a whale of a game, a big plus. Young Cienfuegos showed some interesting stuff in his pitching repertoire, and will be an asset.
But, the big failure thus far this season lies in our veterans, primarily veteran offensive producers, and you know who they are… All you have to do is look through the box score of Friday’s and Saturday’s games. There’s no excuse for it. A little more of this, and those hotshots need to be benched, and some new kids, who want to play, need to have their chance. We’re not going to win the championships this year anyway. A number of these untested new recruits seem to be coming through just fine, they’re Players (vis a vis the Bo Brickles taxonomic ranking system).
But some of the guys we just knew we could depend upon, well, they’re being quite undependable. Extra BP? Wind sprints? That would’ve been the coaches’ response in our day.
PS visited some with Coach Bragga, and he was cordial and classy. We need to give him a chance to develop his own program at Rice. Bur some of these prima donas.....?

We just don't have the players we once did. We got used to beating even good teams because we had better players than they did. We don't anymore.

To get better, you get better players or you get the players you have to play better. Maybe there are some things you can do to get the ones you have to play better, but we just have to get better players. I think we're two good recruiting classes away from being competitive against good teams. The Rice Endowment should get the playing field back closer to level, majorly. Had it been in place ten years ago, I think the talent train would have continued to run. It wasn't, so it didn't.

We were giving boatloads of financial aid ten years ago, it just didn't have a name. The Rice Investment, while welcome, is really an incremental (and branding) change expanding the margins, not a brand-new policy that suddenly we can give more in financial aid to kids from modest-income families than they would get with a partial scholarship.

I hope the Rice Investment helps our coaches and makes the need-based financial aid tool they've long had at their disposal a better one, but it's not a magic bullet and its absence 10 years ago hardly explains (or absolves those in charge of) the decline of the program.

I also suspect that a lot of Division I-level recruits are from families who wouldn't qualify for Rice Investment aid anyway. Travel sports aren't cheap.

(02-23-2020 08:24 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Yes, Brogdon has been a very pleasant and unexpected surprise, as has been several of the Freshman arms (Cienfuego, Santos), but two of our 3 Juco transfer pitchers (DeLeon and Rickett) have been awful. The Mercer grad transfer (Kane) has now put together back-to-back quality outings.

The offense is just pathetic at this point, but no, the answer in not to play the bench. Do you honestly think guys like Antonio Cruz and Cox are going to do any better? Collins has been the most disappointing as he's shown absolutely no improvement in his plate discipline and offensive approach in his 3 years here. The top 6 players (Comeaux, Edwards, Cruz, Gneiting, Bulman and Hernandez) will come around as they're all proven college hitters, but no question they're in a funk right now. Way, way to passive up at the plate-- they're not looking to swing at obvious hitters counts (i.e., 2-0, 3-1), and are consistently taking first pitch fastballs right down broadway.

How exactly are these last 3 “proven college hitters?” Bulman comes from Division 2 (will give you returns on him look pretty good so far) and Hernandez from juco. I guess if you define “college” to mean every level of college baseball, then OK, but neither has ever hit D-1 pitching before. Gneiting has never hit .300, is very slow, and has zero power (3 career HRs in 4 years). Would hardly say he’s “proven” to be anything more than a very average C-USA level player at best.

Cruz and Comeaux and maybeeee Bulman or Edwards (in the right year with a weak incumbent at their position) are the only players on this team that I think would compete for playing time on any of our heyday teams (2002-13).

Sorry if that’s harsh but that’s how I see it. We’ve fallen a long, long way.

Query: How many guys on this team can be taken seriously as MLB prospects? How many were there in the good old days? I think that explains why we have fallen.

(02-23-2020 04:51 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Query: How many guys on this team can be taken seriously as MLB prospects? How many were there in the good old days? I think that explains why we have fallen.

Cruz and Garcia are the only ones with high round potential.

Here's our number of draft choices in the first 10 rounds, 2003-19:

2003: 5
2004: 6
2005: 2
2006: 4
2007: 5
2008: 4
2009: 2
2010: 1
2011: 2
2012: 2
2013: 2
2014: 2
2015: 2
2016: 2 (2 total all rounds)
2017: 2
2018: 1
2019::2

Now we are looking at maybe 2 this year.

2003-2008 we averaged 4.33 per year. 2009-2019 we averaged 1.8. That's a pretty significant falloff. Wayne held it together with bubblegum and bailing wire for a while, but in the end those numbers take a toll. We've got 2003-2008 expectations with 2020 talent, and that just doesn't work.

The decline pretty much coincided with the years when the LSUs and TCUs and Baylors of the world were using academic aid to offset the partial scholarship limitations. With the Rice Endowment, we should be able to compete again. We need two good recruiting years and we will be back.