SB Nation User Blog: Sweed4Heisman

Game 1 of Texas/Nebraska postponed

Sweed4Heisman — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:22:09 -0000

Game 1 of Texas/Nebraska postponed

They'll play two tomorrow. One at 2, and the second starts no later than 6.

A Look Inside the Texas Slump

Sweed4Heisman — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:47:43 -0000

40 AS and myself were riding high after the Longhorns jumped out to a 12-1 start. This start included series sweeps over Illinois-Chicago and Penn State, and a series win over Stanford in Palo Alto.

However, 40 AS often reminds me that a baseball season is a marathon, and not a sprint. After that fast start, the Horns have hit a lull by going just 2-5 in their last 7 contests. UT is also currently losers of four in a row, including a series sweep this past weekend in Lawrence, Kansas.

During this skid, the Texas pitching has not been the impenetrable wall it was over the season's first few weeks, but it hasn't been anything to scoff at either. Longhorn hurlers have allowed just over 4 runs per game during this losing streak, and have allowed no more than 6 in one game. Pitching of this quality should yield much better than a 2-5 record. That means it's time for the Texas bats to wake up. A closer look after the jump.

First, let's take a look at the basic offensive numbers over this stretch. The Horns have averaged just over 3 runs and 6 hits per game. In what appears to be an ultra-competitive Big 12, that kind of production will not get UT very far no matter how good their pitching is. Rice limited Texas to a measly 4 hits in the 6-3 loss, and Missouri ace Kyle Gibson pitched a complete game shutout. Obviously Rice's staff and Kyle Gibson are very good pitchers, but if the Horns want to get to Omaha, they'll have to figure out a way to beat pitchers of this quality.

Ok, so we know the numbers are bad, but who or what is to blame for them? I decided to first look at whether or not UT's leadoff batters were getting on base. In Augie Garrido's small ball style of play, leadoff baserunners are critical. They are especially important on a team such as this squad that lacks a Kyle Russell-like home run threat (at least to this point of the season; I would love for Kevin Keyes to become a consistent bopper). Out of 53 leadoff plate appearances during these 7 games, the leadoff batter has reached base 22 times (42%). That roughly equates to the leadoff man reaching base in 4 innings each game. That's not horrible, but it's far from great.

Next, you also must get that man into scoring position. The Horns moved the leadoff runner into scoring position 17 times out of 22 opportunities (77%). I'd like to see that number a little bit higher, but still not all that bad.

Obviously getting on base and getting moved up won't help you unless those same guys actually cross the plate. Of the 17 times when Texas got the leadoff man on base and moved him into scoring position, that leadoff runner scored 14 times (82%). Again, that's a pretty solid number by itself. However, that's only 14 innings out of 53 (26%) in which the Horns have manufactured runs. Manufacturing only 2 or 3 runs per game is asking an awful lot from your pitching staff, and thus the recent 2-5 slide.

So, if they're executing and are fundamentally sound once the leadoff runner gets on, why are they struggling so mightily to score runs? Even when the Horns do manufacture a run (walk, bunt, single for example), that's all that they're getting. They haven't been able to string numerous hits together and haven't gotten many extra base hits in these situations. In other words, they're not throwing many crooked numbers up on the scoreboard.Texas has only scored 2 or more runs in 4 innings during this slump, and never more than 3.

What did I learn from that exercise? Not much, really. It just reaffirmed my belief that everyone in the Texas lineup needs to pick up the slack. Travis Tucker, Michael Torres, and David Hernandez need to do a better job of getting on base. Brandon Belt, Tant Shepherd, Russell Moldenhauer, Kevin Keyes, Cameron Rupp, and Preston Clark need to start finding the gaps and putting the ball over the fence (gee, what great analysis. I should change my screen name to JohnMaddenOfTexasBaseball).

Hopefully, they're just homesick as 8 of the last 11 games have come on the road. The Horns begin a 5 game homestand tonight when Dallas Baptist comes to town, followed by a weekend series with Texas Tech, and a single game next Tuesday against Oral Roberts.

Fullerton pounds A&M, 15-5

Sweed4Heisman — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:05:04 -0000

Fullerton pounds A&M, 15-5

A big mid-week game early in the year, and the Aggies continue to struggle. Clayton Ehlert's start only lasted 4.2 innings and he yielded 10 hits and 4 ER. 6 different Fullerton hitters had at least three hits. The Titans are on a roll, with the win in College Station being their ninth in a row.

Praise the Lord (and Tom Hansen)

Sweed4Heisman — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:21:01 -0000

We were almost robbed as college football fans, but Pac 10 commissioner Tom Hansen made sure that that didn't happen. This weekend's Oregon-ASU game will be shown nationally on FSN and ESPN. Basically, if you're east of the Pacific time zone, the game will be on ESPN. If you live in Pac 10 country,click here to see where you can watch the game.

October 6th

Sweed4Heisman — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 01:33:16 -0000

You know, I should be downright ecstatic that I will attend my first ever Red River Shootout here in a few weeks. And I am...sort of. It is not the RRS itself that mixes my feelings however. It's the simple fact that it's on the same damn day as Florida-LSU. The RRS (according to the Big12Sports.com's TV grid) will kickoff at 2:30 and the Florida-LSU showdown is scheduled to kick at 7. If I'm lucky (by lucky I mean the driver of the Texas Exes bus does 100 the whole way back to Austin), I'll be able to catch part of the second half. The moral of the story, friends, is that it is sometimes hard to perform my duties as a diehard Longhorn fan and my duties as a diehard college football fan. Rest assured though, I am up to the task......... I think.

Oklahoma State

Sweed4Heisman — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 02:12:32 -0000

Right now, my preseason optimism about the Cowboys seems pretty far-fetched. They're losing 20-3 early in the 2nd quarter at Troy, and they simply don't look good at all. I don't know whether Reid is hurt or not, but Zac Robinson is in at quarterback. We were all suspicious of their defense (which has been accurate to this point), but I just thought that their offense would be awesome. They have lots of talent on that side of the ball, but it appears that it's just not clicking. They did struggle at Georgia, but I think most people expected that that would be a very difficult game. I'm not saying that the 'Horns can now walk into Stillwater and expect to win easily, there's still a lot of time before the game for the Pokes to improve. I still think that their offense can explode at any given time (i.e. vs. Nebraska last year) However, I'm far less worried at this point about the game than I was before the season started. As I write this, Robinson throws a TD to Pettigrew to make it 20-10. Time will tell us how tough the Pokes will be this year, and most importantly, how well-tuned they are come November 3rd.

Hilarious!!!

Sweed4Heisman — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 00:02:10 -0000

I was not a BON member when the Scott Ware threads were the hot topic, but damn am I glad that they've been immortalized. That is some of the funniest stuff I've ever heard. It would be cool to get something like that going again, although I don't think that it's something you can force. Scott Wares don't just grow on trees...