Halfway Home

by mlcotcher on Apr 6, 2010 6:05 PM CDT in Texas Longhorns and Other Baseball

Spring football is over. March Madness is over. Even recruiting is mostly over. At this point, Longhorn fans typically turn their attention to Texas baseball.

For some, the season is in full swing and the lament for the Rosenblatt-era is already starting. For others it’s time to get emotionally invested in a new team while proving how little they know about football by trying to translate gridiron dogma to the baseball diamond.

The Horns are 21-7 overall and 7-2 in Big 12 play. The team is fresh off a sweep of the Sooners in Norman and is in 1^st place in the conference standings by 1.5 games.

This is an attempted mid-season report on the team. But with a weaker-than-normal Big 12, trying to glean useful information out of this club’s first 30 games is as useful as seeking out Kirstie Alley for weight loss advice.

Pitching

It’s embarrassing and that is about all you can say. The Texas pitching staff is limiting the opposition to a .220 batting average and boasts a ridiculous 2.59 ERA.

While both those numbers are "nice", better news is that the guys are striking out more than 8 batters/9 innings while walking less than 3 hitters/9 innings. Those numbers are on pace with 2009 team totals, and given the changes in roles, that is good news.

Brandon Workman ranks as one of the steadiest performers on the staff. Given his part on last year’s squad, Workman’s dominance has allowed the coaching staff to experiment, tinker and test drive to their heart’s content.

The player that is not yet meeting expectations is reliever Austin Dicharry. The sophomore has yet to find the consistency that Skip Johnson craves. Dicharry has looked brilliant in spots during the first half and will continue to receive opportunities to limit his mistakes.

Defense

All you need to know is that I would have a decent fielding percentage behind this pitching staff. It is impossible to overstate the luxury that the Horns have on defense. From the confidence that stems from knowing a pitcher will hit the proper spot to chuckling in their glove at the sight of opposing batters waving at an offering, these guys have it good. Real good.

But credit them for making plays when given the opportunity. I guess. If you want.

If you really want to nitpick, then focus on the battery and their ability to control the base paths. Considering the number of opposing baserunners the team faces….

While dissecting, I would like to see Cameron Rupp get more rest during the second half. He will be an integral piece of postseason success, so any game he has an opportunity to cheer from the dugout is a win.

Offense

"Good enough"…and that’s all that matters. A batting average (.271) and slugging percentage (.435) that rank poorly nationally still produce six runs per game. That’s an uninspiring number (~200^th among Division I teams), but this was never going to be a team that blasted long balls and scored double digit runs every game. If you want fan-friendly, then chat up a Disch Diamond.

I have been encouraged by the performances of some of the youngsters at the plate. The outfield has been the expected work-in-progress, which is also helping to build experience along the bench.

Fans can find fault with any single player in the batting order, but the strength of this lineup is it’s collective anonymity. There are already six players with double digit RBI’s.

Consider the paltry run totals of the first half and then the consternation this stat causes in the other dugout. There is no single player worth pitching around, but predicting which player to avoid is futile. This lineup is like a stealth ninja. In a very passive and non-deadly kind of way.

Outlook

The Big 12 is not going to adequately test this club. Not this year. Eight losses is normally enough to secure the regular season crown. Considering that Texas currently has two Big 12 losses with six conference series left to play, it is quite possible that the Horns might have the title sewn up before finishing the season at KSU & at Missouri. That is as much of a comment on the strength of the league as it is a compliment to Texas.

Realistically there is only one team good enough to derail this train and it’s the Longhorns. If this bunch buys into Augie Garrido’s zen, then they will surely collect a top national seed heading into the postseason. If the offense decides to lazily rely on the pitching staff and "staying in the moment" with a coed is more important than doing so at the Disch, then this team will tank. Not a Longhorn basketball freefall, but a frustratingly "poor" finish of something like 17-10.

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Comments

Thanks for the write up. I have only caught one game this year, but have read up on all the recaps I can catch. It sounds pretty similar to last year, which gives me some hope that the Augie Zen will somehow get 5’8" 170lb guys to start knocking balls over the fence again come post season time.

Poll question: You get to pick 3 people tied to the Longhorn program in any way to have dinner with…who do you pick?

McConaughey, Augie, and Ricky for me…I suppose you can guess why. Just imagine the post dinner conversation that is had over…ah hem, “dessert.”

by thestos on Apr 6, 2010 8:18 PM CDT reply actions

Matt,

When did you start contributing over here? Glad to see you resurface. Can’t say anything more without it being libelous.

by t1climb1 on Apr 6, 2010 8:39 PM CDT reply actions

I begged him. Great stuff, Matt. Thanks for hanging with us.

by Sailor Ripley on Apr 6, 2010 8:44 PM CDT reply actions

Welcome aboard, Matt. Good to see you posting again.

But you may need to explain what “staying in the moment” means to fellow Barker, The General.

Horns rolled TX A&M CC 16-3 today.

by Vasherized on Apr 6, 2010 9:50 PM CDT reply actions

good to see you hear matt.

by eljinca on Apr 6, 2010 9:56 PM CDT reply actions

Great stuff.

For others it’s time to get emotionally invested in a new team while proving how little they know about football by trying to translate gridiron dogma to the baseball diamond.

That made me laugh.

We just massacred poor A&M C-C. 17 hits will help the team batting average just a tad.

Moldy is now batting over .300 after spending a month exploring Mendoza line. I saw his number of walks and predicted good things, and I see no reason to stop. I know it’s a vast oversimplification, but I think he’s the key to our offense taking it to the next level (Rupp too – but I know he’ll raise his game). Omaha Moldy would be a boon. He’s got 20 BB paired with only 65 AB so far, so I’ll keep buying his futures.

I like that we’ve got six or seven hitters realistically capable of putting it over the fence.

Wahla has been a pleasant surprise. Do you see him keeping it up?

Pitching:

The Ruffin to closer experiment appears to have worked.

by Scipio Tex on Apr 6, 2010 10:45 PM CDT reply actions

Who is Matt Cotcher?

by dick on Apr 6, 2010 10:56 PM CDT reply actions

“The Ruffin to closer experiment appears to have worked.”

Besides after his first or second outing when he blew a save, was there a lot of worry about this? Dude had the mentality and stuff for sure. We are incredibly blessed to have been able to take his talents out of the rotation without skipping a beat.

by dick on Apr 6, 2010 11:13 PM CDT reply actions

It seems like the Big 12 is never that strong of a baseball conference. Even when we have multiple teams in reginoals (even hosting), they all choke. (I’m looking at you, OU and Okie State..). The trick is, conferences don’t win playoff tournaments. Look at how many SEC teams UT knocked off in the postseason in the run from ‘02 to ’05. In that time, I’m sure the SEC was “strongest” and the Big 12 was not as good.

by hoju on Apr 6, 2010 11:20 PM CDT reply actions

Thanks for the welcome.

Everything y’all have heard is true. Sailor really is the Mack Brown of the blogosphere. Hell of a closer.

by Matt Cotcher on Apr 7, 2010 8:47 AM CDT reply actions

Who is Matt Cotcher?

    * He’s a ten-foot tall beast man, who showers in vodka, and feeds his baby shrimp scampi.
    * He orchestrated the merger between UNICEF and Smith and Wesson.
    * We once had a bachelor party for Cotcher. He ate the entire cake, before we could tell him there was a stripper in it.
    * Cotcher once hosted the Grammy’s and gave every award to Cory Hardt.
    * He has a toenail on the end of his penis.
    * Cotcher’s family crest is a picture of a barracuda, eating Neil Armstrong.
    * Cotcher’s ranked eighteenth in the AP College Football Poll.
    * Did I ever tell you about the time Cotcher was in a production of The King and I? Well anyway, before the show, Cotcher chloroforms the entire cast, and slowly eats them in front of the audience for two hours. The production got pretty good reviews.
    * If you drop a phonograph needle on Cotcher ‘s nipple, it plays the Beach Boys Pet Sounds.
    * They use Cotcher ’s foreskin as a tarp when it rains at Yankee Stadium.
    * Cotcher still believes in Santa Claus, and he wants to put him in porno films.
    * He cornered the market on booze.
    * Matt Cotcher is a son of a bitch.
    * He’ll eat a homeless person if you dare him.
    * I once saw him scissor kick Angela Lansberry.
    * Ya know, he jumped off the Empire State Building this one time and he only sprained his ankle.
    * Cotcher would use his own thigh as an anvil.
    * Ya know, it was the sight of Cotcher ’s naked body that drove Brian Wilson insane.
    * He showers in grain alcohol.
    * He uses the Shroud of Turin as a gold towel.
    * He killed Wolfman Jack with a trident.
    * He drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls.
    * He makes every woman that sleeps with him refer to him as Darryl Royal.
    * He once had sex with a cigarette machine.

by t1climb1 on Apr 7, 2010 8:47 AM CDT reply actions

Excellent article!

by torre on Apr 7, 2010 10:15 AM CDT reply actions

Good stuff, Matt. Hope you’ll continue to contribute and write more.

as far as the offense goes, as you correctly note, they’re only hitting .271 which is poor nationally, but the trend recently is much better. Since the last game with Iowa the team has hit .305 and has raised the team average up from a low point of .231.

Last year, the team started slowly and was hitting .266 halfway thru and ended up at .288, so the same trend seems to be happening and of course last year we ended up in the final game. I’d sure settle for that again.

i thought last years staff was great. this years staff is better. Ruffin is ridiculous.

by Armadillo Slim on Apr 7, 2010 11:53 AM CDT reply actions