SB Nation User Blog: 40AS

Big Bird (And Others) Sign

40AS — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:58:06 -0000

Kenn Kasparek officially signed with the Seattle Mariners, ending any chance for a return to the 40 Acres. Kyle Walker and Casey Whitmer have also apparently signed, none of which should come as a surprise to Longhorn fans. It is only a matter of time before Kyle Russell and Jordan Danks are also signed.

MLB Draft Very Good To Longhorns

40AS — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:42:53 -0000

The MLB draft is over and it contained very good news for Texas baseball. Six Longhorns and five recruits were drafted by major league teams. They were:

Kyle Russell, 3rd Round, LA Dodgers
Jordan Danks, 7th Round, Chicago White Sox
Kyle Walker, 11th Round, Colorado Rockies
Kenn Kasparek, 12th Round, Seattle Mariners
Casey Whitmer, 30th Round, Washington Nationals
Riley Boening, 42nd Round, Minnesota Twins
Robbie Grossman, 6th Round, Pittsburgh Pirates
Taylor Jungmann, 24th Round, Anaheim Angels
Hunter Cervenka, 27th Round, Boston Red Sox
Brandon Loy, 32nd Round, Baltimore Orioles
Sam Stafford, 40th Round, Boston Red Sox

From this list, Russell is definitely gone, and Danks, Walker and Kasparek should be gone. Grossman has said he'll be a Longhorn and suggested Jungmann is coming along too. With Preston Clark avoiding the draft bug, Texas baseball should be stacked for a championship run in 2009.

MLB Draft Good To Horns...So Far

40AS — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:48:56 -0000

We're 74 picks into the MLB draft, and no Longhorns or (to our knowledge) Longhorn prospects have been picked. We'll try to update this thread once the first day is complete if any Horns have been picked, but considering the fact that we're expecting big things from next year's squad, a few good breaks for us fans on draft day wouldn't be a bad thing.

[Note by 40AS, 06/05/08 10:56 PM CDT ] Kyle Russell was drafted #93 by the Dodgers. We can't think of any way that Russell returns to campus, and his statement to the press pretty much confirms it. Russell said "I'm very thankful for the coaches, teammates and fans for the support they've given me. Without them, I wouldn't be where I'm at today. Coming to UT was one of the greatest experiences and it's something I'll always come back to. Hopefully I touched the hearts of a lot of people and I thank them for everything. I'm looking forward to what the future holds." No other Longhorn (to our knowledge) was drafted on day one, expect several to be drafted on day two.

Baseball Tournanent Day One Open Thread

40AS — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:34:22 -0000

The baseball version of the Big Dance begins today, and you can discuss all the action with your fellow BONers right here. NCAA Sports has your live scoreboard for every game. Texas and St. John's have their first pitch at 2 PM CDT. Other notable start times are Mizzou playing Ole Miss at 11 AM CDT, Dallas Baptist against Houston at 12:30 PM, Eastern Illinois against Nebraska at 1:05, National No. 1 Seed Miami against Bethune-Cookman at 3:00, OU against Vanderbilt at 4:00, Sam Houston against Rice at 6:00, UIC against A&M at 6:30, and Western Kentucky against Okie State at 7:00.

The NCAA Baseball Tournament is a lot of fun to follow, although it takes a bit more patience than following the basketball tournament. The double-elimination format takes out some of the excitement that a "win or go home" basketball tourney brings, but baseball does not lend itself to such a system. The team with the deepest pitching staff will not necessarily win the regional/super-regional/College World Series, but it definitely has the greatest margin for error. The more solid pitchers a team has, the more opportunities it has to overcome an early loss to give itself a chance to succeed in the long slog through the losers' bracket.

In Texas' case, as Peter noted yesterday Augie Garrido has decided to start Kenn Kasparek against St. John's and save staff ace Chance Ruffin for the likely matchup with Rice on Saturday. This plan makes a lot of sense for a team like Texas, whose Achilles heel may well be its starting pitching depth. Ruffin and Big Bird have been fantastic of late, but beyond that it's a bit of a crap shoot. That means that it is absolutely vital for Texas to win its first two games--it will equalize the pitching matchup with Rice by forcing the Owls to use an extra arm in the losers' bracket game, and will give the Longhorns a coveted margin of error in having to only win one of two games to take the regional title.

Today, the Big XII; Tomorrow... is Memorial Day

40AS — Mon, 26 May 2008 04:18:01 -0000

By now all BONers are likely to have noticed that the Longhorns prevailed 15-7 over Kansas State on Sunday to claim the Big XII Tournament title for the first time since 2003. Many readers are also sure to have seen that, despite finishing the season very strong, Texas did not quite make the cut to host a regional next week. The NCAA press release about the host sites also makes note of the breakdown by conference: a very strong year in the ACC was rewarded with four regional sites (FSU, UNC, NC State, and probable National No. 1 Seed Miami), with the Big XII not far behind hosting three. Our congratulations to A&M, Okie State, and Nebraska for representing the conference--but it certainly makes us wonder what might have been if Texas had just managed to take two of three from the Cowboys in Austin, or at least salvaged one game to avoid the sweep. That said, we'd much rather the 'Horns be playing well as a 2-seed outside of Austin than be in the Aggies' position (i.e. playing poorly as a likely 1-seed at home).

Our postseason outlook for this team remains similar to our prognosis for most of the year: they're young, they're talented, they're well-coached, and we would not be surprised by either a sub-regional exit or a trip to Omaha. They may not play at UFCUDFF again this season, though it's possible if they manage to win their sub-regional and the 2-seed across the bracket does the same. While we would love to speculate about where the selection committee will send Texas and which sub-regional the Longhorns will be paired up with, it would be rather pointless. You can tune into ESPN at 11:30 AM CDT on Monday to see the eight national seeds and the rest of the tournament bracket revealed live. We'll have plenty of fun breaking down the Tournament once it's official.

For now, though, we have an opportunity to spend a few minutes reflecting on an impressive run to the conference championship. Over the course of the week Texas showed the kind of versatility necessary to succeed in the postseason. They won with great pitching performances, and they won without them. They won with consistently solid defense (knock on wood), great hitting with runners in scoring position, and a surprising amount of power up and down the lineup.

Chance Ruffin gave another fantastic performance in Texas' first game, but the Longhorns took a tough 3-2 loss to Missouri in extra innings. Resilience is key in tournament play, however, and Texas showed plenty of it. They bounced back to beat the Aggies on Thursday for the fourth time in a week and then beat Oklahoma on Saturday in dramatic, bottom-of-the-ninth fashion after squandering a 6-1 lead. Finally, in Sunday's title game Texas and K-State fit the conference championship game mold perfectly as each squad's pitching was depleted enough to allow a 22-run offensive explosion. The Longhorns provided a comfortable majority of those runs to take the championship.

Pitcher of the Tournament: Chance Ruffin. He is really, really good. His six-inning, two-run, three-hit performance against the Tigers was the 'Horns' best pitching job of the week despite Ruffin's no-decision and Texas' eventual loss in the game.

Hitter of the Tournament: This one is a bit tough because of Jordan Danks' fantastic clutch hitting, but we have to agree with the sportswriters and go with Tournament MVP Brandon Belt. He hit .588 on the week including two doubles and a homerun.

Kiddie Corpsman of the Tournament: Cameron Rupp has become the type of defensive leader behind the plate that a young team needs to keep it steady. He also hit .438 on the week and had a hit in all four games, including a 3-for-4 performance in the championship.

Next Up: ????

Big XII Championship Game Open Thread

40AS — Sun, 25 May 2008 18:10:48 -0000

Texas vs. K-State for the conference title is underway. A win would mean big momentum heading into the NCAA Tournament. Follow the game with fellow Longhorns right here.

Longhorns to Play for Big 12 Title

40AS — Sat, 24 May 2008 23:00:10 -0000

In an illustration of just how perverse conference tournaments can be, Texas has advanced to tomorrow's 1 PM Big 12 Championship Game thanks to wins over Missouri by the 'Horns' two biggest rivals, OU and A&M . After Texas' wild win in the bottom of the ninth over the Sooners in today's first game, the Aggies took care of the Tigers to send Augie's boys into a matchup against the winner of Pool 2 (OK State, Nebraska, K-State, and Baylor). There are possible scenarios wherein any of the four teams in Pool 2 could emerge, as they are all 1-1 heading into today's action.

In case you're keeping track at home, the Longhorns have now won five of their last six ballgames and have done it with timely hitting, clutch pitching, and sometimes timely hitting to overcome a lack of clutch pitching. Regardless of the outcome in the tournament championship, these guys are going to be a scary draw for whoever they're matched up against in the sub-regional next week. And as a fan, you want your team to be scary going into the Tournament.

[Note by 40AS, 05/24/08 7:47 PM CDT ] Oklahoma State has defeated Nebraska in today's third game. That eliminates Nebraska from contention and clears up the Pool 2 situation a bit. If Baylor defeats Kansas State, then OK State will advance to play Texas tomorrow. If K-State wins, then it's the Wildcats who will play Texas for the championship.

[Note by Horn Brain, 05/25/08 10:32 AM CDT ] Game will be televised live on FSN at 1pm today. Boening will be your starting pitcher (probably). I don't know who will relieve the kid, though, since Texas basically emptied the bullpen against OU. Thanks to phf for the used pitching chart. If the pattern continues, we may need about 15 pitchers to finish this game.

Pitchers	Innings	Pitches
vs. Mizzou
Chance Ruffin	6.0	107
Cole Green	3.1	59

TAMU
Austin Wood	5.1	94
Brandon Workman	1.2	35
Kyle Walker	1.0	30
Stayton Thomas	1.0	17

OU (sucks -ed.)
Kenn Kasparek	6.0	108
Cole Green	0.2	25
Brandon Workman	1.1	29
Brandon Belt	0.0	9
Stayton Thomas	0.2	12
Kyle Walker	0.0	4
Keith Shinaberry	0.1	13

Baseball Takes on Oklahoma

40AS — Sat, 24 May 2008 14:06:47 -0000

It's #5 Texas vs. #8 Oklahoma. A Texas win could make the difference between hosting and playing somewhere hostile in the first round. Kenn Kasparek takes the mound for the Horns.

[Note by Horn Brain, 05/24/08 9:12 AM CDT ] It's 9:12 in TEXAS....

[Note by Horn Brain, 05/24/08 1:09 PM CDT ] ... And OU still sucks! Texas wins 11-10 by coming back from a 10-8 deficit in the bottom of the ninth. David Hernandez is a god today. See comments for details.

Chance Ruffin = Awesome

40AS — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:19:52 -0000

In honor of being named Big XII Freshman of the Year, we present statistical proof of how awesome Chance Ruffin's freshman year has been (click on the story's title for the full story).

Year	Player		Age	ERA	W-L	GS	IP	H	H/9	R	ER	BB	SO	K:BB	AB	B/Avg
2002	Justin	Simmons	So.	2.52	16-1	20	128.1	106	7.44	41	36	39	80	2.05	471	0.225
2003	J.P.	Howell	So.	2.52	10-2	19	114.1	97	7.65	41	32	43	105	2.44	421	0.23
2004	J.P.	Howell	Jr.	2.13	15-2	20	135.1	90	5.99	45	32	53	166	3.13	478	0.188
2005	Kenn	Kasparek	Fr.	2.1	8-0	12	73	53	6.53	21	17	31	46	1.48	248	0.214
2006	Kyle	McCulloch	Jr.	3.61	8-5	18	109.2	113	9.31	59	44	32	82	2.57	421	0.268
2007	Adrian	Alaniz	Jr.	2.59	12-3	16	104.1	81	7	34	30	31	91	2.95	377	0.215
2008	Chance	Ruffin	Fr.	1.84	7-3	8	63.2	43	6.12	19	13	19	61	3.21	228	0.184

In addition to his season statistics, consider:

He has a 10-inning no-decision
He has arguably the most important start of the season, his Sunday start to salvage a game at Mizzou and set himself as a team leader
His numbers as a starter (below) are even better than his numbers on the season as a whole.

IP	H	H/9	R	ER	ERA	K	K/9
45.2	30	5.97	8	7	1.39	40	7.96

The only regret is that he didn't get enough starts for a true comparison to other Longhorn greats be made. Either way, Texas gets this guy for two more years, and winning in the postseason is much easier with a Friday starter like him.

Additionally, Jordan Danks and Ruffin made All-Big 12 Second Team, and Brandon Belt, Preston Clark, Cole Green, David Hernandez, Russell Moldenhauer, Cameron Rupp, Kyle Russell, and Michael Torres made Honorable Mention.

Texas Baseball -- The Day After

40AS — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:06:44 -0000

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Texas swept Texas A&M this weekend, but Texas A&M backed into the Big XII regular season championship and the Lone Star Showdown. We'd mention how fans from both sides acknowledge that the latter is pretty meaningless, but that would be sour grapes, so we won't. Either way, Texas has gone from a possible bubble team a few weeks ago to a possible regional host with a good showing in Oklahoma City.

The schedule for the tournament has been released (get it here) and Texas has some good news. It avoids two of the three Big XII teams it lost series to (Nebraska and Okie State) until the championship game, and gets the other (Mizzou) first thing Wednesday.

Normally the Big XII Tourney means resting starters and preventing injuries, but it is far more meaningful this year, raising some interesting questions:

· Who's the Wednesday starter (our money's on Workman)?

· What's the rest of the starting rotation?

· Who's the second reliever out of the pen?

· How awesome is Chance Ruffin?

· How important does Augie think the tourney is?

· How hard will he push the starting rotation?

If these questions seem pitcher heavy, it's because that's where the majority of question marks with this team lie. For the first time in a while for this team, however, things are looking up.