Texas Baseball: 46-8, Home Run Record

The article on texassports said that our 24 wins are the best in Big 12 history, including the 30 game schedule years.

And I have to eat crow – a few weeks ago, about halfway through the winning streak, I scoffed when you suggested we hadn’t peaked yet, that we could get even better in all three phases. Well, we did. This team can play ball.

Thanks for the correction! Much appreciated.
 
Hey, I’m not even sure I believed it when I proposed the idea, but we are getting better. The number of ways we’ve won games is startling – we’re a little like the basketball team that can beat you in halfcourt or running. Your choice.

2010 Big 12 Season Park Factors (100 is neutral, higher is more offense-friendly; Big 12 games only) -

Overall Run Scoring
Baylor – 111
Kansas – 108
Kansas State – 96
Missouri – 101
Nebraska – 93
Oklahoma – 117
Oklahoma State – 93
Texas – 89
Texas A&M – 101
Texas Tech – 98

Home Runs
Baylor – 132
Kansas – 95
Kansas State – 102
Missouri – 85
Nebraska – 106
Oklahoma – 108
Oklahoma State – 86
Texas – 73
Texas A&M – 101
Texas Tech – 108

Or with free throws/small ball. And zen koans.

“They’re also on a 28-1 tear”

Pffft, big deal, the Aggies have won like 8 of 9. Clearly they’re peaking at the right time while we peaked too early. Or something. Advantage: Aggies.

If you’re not prepared to take on that burden, the target on your chest, you have no place at Texas. So get the fuck out. Aside from the fact that I felt like running through a wall at the talk’s conclusion, I recall thinking that I’m not sure there’s a coach on campus who better gets what it means to coach here – or at least understood it on the first day on the job.

I really like that passage and loved that Augie Doc.

Does anyone know why Loy did not play Saturday or Sunday? In those two game Etier played SS and Weymouth played 2B. I was curious whether Loy was hurt, or whether Augie was trying to subtly find a replacement for Etier without removing him from the lineup. Augie knows what he is going to get from Loy, so by removing Loy instead of Etier he gets to evaluate two players for those two games (Eiter and Weymouth).

I’m also curious as to what Augie does with pitching in the Big 12 Tournament. His approach in the past has been to align his rotation to how it will be for regionals (which means keeping Jungmann on Friday, Green on Saturday, and Workman on Sunday). If you assume that Augie will shift Jungmann to Thursday, and only play Workman if we are in the Championship game on Sunday, then that leaves the question of who will be the “fourth” starter on Wednesday. Does he go with the mid-week starter of Stafford, or let Milner handle a start (removing him as a reliever for the rest of the tournament)?

TexasWright,

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/longhorns/entries/2010/05/23/ut_shortstop_ha.html?cxntfid=blogs_bevo_beat

“Consequently, the final conference standings look a bit like Alydar taking on rented mules:”

In that case do the standings look like Affirmed taking on three-toed sloths?

TW, it’ll be Milner. I’d bet your life on it. He could throw five innings Wednesday and come back and pitch Friday or Saturday, easily.

And yeah, Loy is hurt. That would be pretty fucking strange behavior, to remove Loy from two conference games in order to try to find a replacement for Eitier. But the good news is that he rocked defensively at SS, and Weymouth is an upgrade offensively over both of them.

That Augie speech reminded me a little of Herb Brooks’ during the 1st intermission of the ‘80 gold medal match against Finland: "If you lose this game, you’ll take it to your fuckin’ graves. [Walks away, then turns back to team] Your fuckin’ graves."

Congratulations to the Missouri Tigers! For getting swept at home by Texas, you win a prize!

Another game against Texas.

None of the other Big 12 teams are good enough to hold an ace pitcher out in tournament play (to have him face the Horns). A&M and Tech both really need wins for positioning in the Field of 64. Holding out a starter in hopes of riding them to a win against the Horns is risky at best. Of course, that means they’ll probably do it.

Huck-
I’d take your ballpark number indicators with a grain of salt. Appears like you’ve got a statistical error spread of around ±6-7% due to vagaries of this season’s Big 12 play. I’d average in several other seasons if you can normalize them for a more valid comparison.

Absolutely agreed.

I’m working on improving how I handle park effects in my calculations but it’s kicking my ass. Once I get a handle on it I could run multi-year calculations; my intent is to run them for the country as a whole and then adjust them for the Big 12 teams in their mini-environment. Boyd Nation publishes his own park factors but I want to see how mine work out and compare. Having them within my own calculations will be beneficial long-term.

A win over a top national seeded team like Texas and a shot at the Tourney title is too much for anyone in A&M ,tech, or MU ’s position to pass up. Expect Loux Saturday and I hope the gamble pays off with a winner takes all match for a chance in the title game.

A&M and Tech both need to least have a 2-1 record in OKC. Starting Loux on Saturday is not the most efficient approach for the Ag’s. I understand that winning the tournament is an accomplishment. How realistic is it though?

Conversely, being 2-0 on Saturday and securing a #2 seed in a Regional seems rational.

Matt, you are correct. Our starting rotation was announced and Loux goes against MU now. Childress is managing expectations versus dreams I guess and taking the logical pathway through the tourney getting ready for NCAA play,

Well, I think I got the park factors figured out. I was doing the calculations in the wrong order, so to speak.

But the results make the differences even more pronounced. I’m going to test with the nation as a whole later, but the Big 12 results (2010 conference games only – so understand that it’s an excessively small sample size as exuLt pointed out above):

Baylor – 105
Kansas – 117
Kansas State – 96
Missouri – 108
Nebraska – 81
Oklahoma – 149
Oklahoma State – 71
Texas – 73
Texas A&M – 123
Texas Tech – 108

Big 12 Park factors after using all home/away games from the entire season (meaning I have park factors for every team but these are only the Big 12 teams’ results):

Baylor – 114
Kansas – 106
Kansas St. – 83
Missouri – 99
Nebraska – 113
Oklahoma – 120
Oklahoma St. – 81
Texas – 78
Texas A&M – 138
Texas Tech – 111

Just figure out how to win the goddamn PowerBall so we can all retire.

Looks like the Big 12 ballparks are starting to settle out into either hitter or fielder friendly parks, but Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas A&M are still wild rides, statistically.

I’m going to try to run previous seasons. My only concern is that I don’t have much information on park changes and new parks. I know LSU moved to a new park in 2009, so they would only use last year and this year for their adjusted factor.

Let’s hope they get this out of their system by the time regionals start…Not a great way to begin the Big 12 Tourney..Bettis really pitched well today…

In other news, congrats to Sam Lecure and I hope he has a great debut tomorrow night..

How are you, I would to tell you that I have found this blog to be super helpful to me. I also have a simple request for you, would it be alright if I were to send some of my own great articles for other members to look at. Please get back to me, thanks John