SB Nation User Blog: trripleplay

MU Baseball Recruits

trripleplay — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:38:31 -0000

Today is the last day of the Early Signing Period for National Letters of Intent. I've managed to pull together a list of Mizzou Baseball recruits - looks like a great recruiting class.

Garrison McLagan, LHP, Columbia, MO (will graduate at the end of this semester and join the Tigers in January, 2009)

Cody King, RHP/SS; Kirksville, MO

Dane Opel, OF; Edwardsville, IL

Brannon Champagne, OF/C; St. Charles West, MO

Ryan Crowley, LHP/1B; Morton, IL

Kale Gaden, C/OF; Stillwater, OK

Eric Anderson, RHP/IF; Highlands Ranch, CO (Mountain Vista HS)

Eric Garcia, SS; Pflugerville, TX (Hendrickson HS)

Andy Heifner, 3B/RHP; St. Charles West HS, MO

Blake Brown, OF/P; Bloomington, IL (Normal West HS)

Details at the NEW LOCATION of SimmonsField.com: http://simmonsfield.blogspot.com/ (The link here at RockMNation is OUT OF DATE!!!!)

(Ed. Note: Not anymore.)

Great crowd for MU Baseball Home Opener

trripleplay — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 13:06:56 -0000

To fans at many other college baseball powerhouses (Texas, Mississippi, and the like), today's home opener crowd would be very disappointing: only 696 in attendance.
But take a look at the average attendance figures for the past few seasons:

645 (not counting post-season)

696 fans showed up on an extremely cold Saturday afternoon in early March, the temperature at game time around 32-33 degrees and a high during the game of 35 (and we all know that it's consistently 5-10 degrees colder inside Taylor Stadium than anywhere else in Columbia).
That's more than the average attendance last season.

In the post-game interview on KTGR, Coach Tim Jamieson said he was pleased with the turnout.
"I'm not sure I would have come out to see us play today, " he said.
Ryan Lollis, the player of the game, echoed his coach's surprise and plesure at the size of the crowd. He said this early in the season, in this kind of weather, he'sc ome to expect a few parents and not much of anyone else else in the stands.

As a fan who has been to nearly every home game in the past 15 years, I would rank my pleasure and excitement at today's turnout as only the 2nd most exciting crowd I've ever seen at Simmons Field.
The best crowd experience ever, of course, was at last year's Regional, when over 3,000 showed up every night.

The crowd today was a good mix of parents/friends of the team, students and fans from the Columbia area.

Looks like this Tiger Baseball team is finally getting some attention. If this team can pull this kind of crowd on a day like today, this could be the year Columbia and the campus really discovers what many of us have known for years - Simmons Field is a great place to be!

Also, I'm uploading several good photos from opening day on SimmonsField.com, all taken by Larry "SuperFan" Wyatt: http://groups.msn.com/SimmonsField/2...

Baseball America blogs from San Diego tourney

trripleplay — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:34:17 -0000

Aaron Fitt, Head College Baseball writer for Baseball America is blogging live from the San Diego tournament this weekend. He also has a lot to say about the tournament and about Missouri in his Weekend Preview.

A quote:

"Their offense was a little short for a top 10 team I thought, but it's a very good team and they have a plan at the plate. A big part of that plan is getting hit by a pitch—they will take it," said a coach from one of the other four schools that played Missouri. "They just stand in there and take it—even some of the pitches were strikes, at least I thought so, and their guys were right on top of the plate and took it. That's a big part of how they scored their runs."
Of course, the Tigers have also drawn 24 walks, helping them compile a team on-base percentage of .458. That has helped them score 39 runs through four games despite hitting only one home run.
"People will look at our numbers and say we didn't swing it really well, but we still scored 10 runs a game getting hit all those times," Jamieson said. "We really preach it. Most of our guys stand pretty close to the plate, and we don't want our guys to get out of the way. It's demoralizing with two strikes for a pitcher to hit a guy. A lot of guys would have ducked out of the way, but ours don't move."

Taylor Stadium expansion plans unveiled

trripleplay — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 13:33:04 -0000

The annual First Pitch Celebration was held this past Saturday night at the local Holiday Inn Executive Center. It was a great time of seeing former players, meeting new players, and reaquainting myself with players' families and fans.

The most exciting news offered by Tim Jamieson in his comments to the crowd was the announcement of a proposed stadium expansion/upgrade. Prompted by the SRO crowds at last June's Regional, this proposed facilities upgrade would add more permanent seating, better office areas, and improved amenities for the ballplayers - a definite need for recruiting purposes. No specific time table was put on the project, which has yet to be officially approved. But rumors among the crowd were that some changes had recently been made to the basic plans, and that construction could potentially begin as soon as next off-season.

Architects' renderings and drawings were on display at the event - I resisted the temptation to walk off with a copy or two (if some turned up missing, I didn't do it). But here is a summary of the plans, according to the copious notes and scribbles I took:

· New permanent seating area along the first base line, extending from the current seating area at 1st base down to the beginning of the current visitors' bullpen. This would include both lower and upper level seating, expanding the current permanent-seating capacity by perhaps a third to a half (specific numbers were not included on the plans)

· New home team locker rooms (4140 square feet): to be located on the 1st base side, behind the new home team dugout; under the new permanent seating area. This clubhouse will be larger than the current one behind the 3rd base dugout (which will now become the visitors' dugout and lockers), with larger areas for lockers, a lounge, etc.

· New concession area (700 square feet): located on the first base side of the concourse in the area now occupied by the unfinished concession/storage area.

· New coaching building (6824 square foot at ground level; 2919 sq ft upper level): to be located just beyond the right field foul pole. Ground floor would include new baseball offices, a trophy room, three indoor batting and pitching practice areas and a coaches' observation room, looking out onto the practice area; 2nd floor includes an open observation deck and a few short rows of outfield bleacher seating. The plans also show "Future restrooms/concessions" area attached to this building,

· New home bullpen to be located just beyond the right-center field wall

· New wooden deck just beyond the left field wall, stretching from the left field (what would become the visitors') bullpen, all the way to center field. Looks to be similar to the current wooden deck next to the third baseline Pavilion.

· New Ticket Pavilion at the site of the current main ticket entrance

I was impressed and excited by the possibilities. The RF foul-pole rooftop seating and the left-center field "party deck" would contribute a new atmosphere to the ballpark.

MU Baseball Fall World Series

trripleplay — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:01:05 -0000

Intrasquad Black & Gold series, best of 5. This is a great opportunity to see new players, see what positions the coaches are taking a look at players.

· Oct. 18, 6 p.m.: Fall World Series, Game 1
* Oct. 19, 6 p.m.: Fall World Series, Game 2
* Oct. 21, Noon: Fall World Series, Game 3
* Oct. 22, 6 p.m.: Fall World Series, Game 4 (if necessary)
* Oct. 23, 6 p.m.: Fall World Series, Game 5 (if necessary)

And no, they usually don't play out the series if one team gets 3 wins early.

Complete MU Baseball Schedule

trripleplay — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:02:20 -0000

Through well placed and shadowy sources I've obtained a copy of the unofficial but complete 2008 Mizzou Baseball schedule. The schedule in its entirety can be seen at SimmonsField.com.

The schedule looks like an exciting one, and a step up from the past few years in terms of schedule strength. Read on for analysis of this year's "intended strength of schedule".

The schedule looks like an exciting one, and a step up from the past few years in terms of schedule strength.
The chart that follows lists the teams on MU's 2008 schedule in order of their final RPI ranking (according to Boyd'sWorld.com). Also on the chart is the number of games schedule against each opponent. By multiplying each team's RPI by the number games, then totalling and averaging the results, we get the average End-of-2007 RPI for the 2008 Mizzou schedule.
Obviously most of those teams will not repeat their exact RPIs in 2008 - some will vary greatly. But the goal of this exercise to to see the "intended schedule strength" - in other words, when the MU coaching staff compiled this schedule, what level of competition did they anticipate they were getting, based on 2007 results.
The strength of schedule shows a steady increase in schedule strength over the past few years.
With an average RPI of .537 for 2008, this is an increase from .534 in 2007, .532 in 2006, and .528 in 2005 and 2004. A .537 RPI would be equivalent to that of Washington State or South Alabama in 2007.

Opponents by conference

Big XII
11 teams
28 games
Baylor (3)
Kansas (4)
Kansas State (3)
Nebraska (3)
Oklahoma (3)
Oklahoma State (3)
Texas (3)
Texas A&M (3)
Texas Tech (3)

Missouri Valley
4 teams
8 games
Creighton
Indiana State (4)
Missouri State (2)
Southern Illinois

Big 102 teams
3 games
Michigan State
Minnesota (2)

Ohio Valley
2 teams
2 games
Eastern Illinois
Southeastern Missouri St

Mid-American
1 team
3 games
Toledo (3)

Independent
1 team
2 games
South Dakota State (2)

Mid-Continent
1 team
2 games
Western Illinois (2)

Big East
1 team
1 game
Connecticutt

Big West
1 team
1 game
Cal Poly

CUSA
1 team
1 game
Central Florida

PAC 10
1 team
1 game
California

West Coast
1 team
1 game
San Diego

Mizzou Baseball Black & Gold Game

trripleplay — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:11:22 -0000

If you're looking for something to do on Friday evening while waiting for whatever MU sporting event might happen to be taking place on Saturday night, stop by Taylor Stadium for the annual Black & Gold Scout's Day Game.

This is an intrasquad game that's held every fall. The NCAA rules allow a baseball program to hold a "Scout's Day" game for the scouts to come and see the players. If it's like it has been in the past, each pitcher on the roster will see 1 inning of work, regadless of how well he does, and each position player will play for a while in the game. It's a good opportunity to get a first look at this year's squad, including Aaron Crow, who Baseball America named this week as the #2 college junior prospect for the 2008 Draft.

MU Baseball will also have their Mizzou Fall World Series, a best-of-5 intrasquad series, which begins October 18th. Detailed scheduled at MUtigers.com and SimmonsField.com.