UT Baseball Status Report

[Coal Harbour]

I appreciate greatly the job Joeywa does in providing in game updates and full disclosure, I attended the UH-Baylor game Sunday, but rewatched the collapse of the Horns had yesterday late vs. Cal.  I just wanted to highlight a couple of things based on threads I've read given the discontent of the masses, mostly justified, but some exaggerated.  I'll begin with the glass "half full":

Texas (5-7)

POSITIVES

• If you take a snapshot of the starting pitching staff in the two (4) game series vs. Stanford (lost 2 of 3 to Vandy over the weekend, but all games close) and #12 Cal, the cumulative statistics for the starters in those 8 games are as follows:  47.2-41-14-13-15-42, 2.45 ERA, 1.17 WHIP
• The starting pitching staff consist of only (1) SR, Ty Culqreth, SO Kyle Johnston, SO Connor Mayes and FR Nolan Kingham.
• Based on the bullet point above, you have to give kudos to Skip Johnson as the future looks good on the hill, whether you think Skip is head coach material or not.
• Not a BIG XII team that wouldn't trade its top 4 starters for UT's, with the exception of TCU b/c of Luken Baker alone, who bats cleanup as well.
• Popular belief is the UT offense is inept, it's not good, but it has outscored its opponents through 12 games (103-102) and has a higher batting average as well (.247-.236) than its opponents as well.

NEGATIVES

• Augie makes north of 500k in base salary and with incentives and bonuses, can make north of 1 million; considering Schlossnagle TCU, Childress A&M, Tadlock TT, Hughes OU, Graham Rice & Whitting UH all make a base salary south of 400K and are producing at a level equal or exceeding UT, Augie is failing to meet expectations.
• Clemens; not sure what Travis Jones has to do (.450 BA) to garner more playing time (6 games played compared to Kody and Kacy, which have played in all 12 games); if his name was Travis Clemens, he would have played in all 12 games, me thinks.
• UT's 3-4-5 hitters, Patrick Mathis, Tres Barrera, Michael Cantu have produced 2 HR, 14 RBI's through 12 games.
• In comparison yesterday, University of Houston 3-4-5 hitters, Joe Davis, Justin Montemayor, Clay Casey combined for 5 HR, 9 RBI's in Sunday's game vs. Baylor alone and season totals are 8 HR, 36 RBI's.
• Thinking UT couldn't have those players from UH?  Joe Davis is from Austin Bowie and Montemayor is from Austin Anderson.
• Defense:  UT has committed 15 errors compared to its opponents of 12; when you play close games, simply can't afford that.

Just my perspective as those who want Augie fired will continue to bark and those who see promise, still have hope.  My two cents, I really think, based on pitching alone, that this team finishes in the top 3-4 of the conference and plays in the post season.  Hook em!

 

[tejasrulz]

You're using facts? You must be new to this interweb stuff eh?  

 

[dillohorn]

Top 3 or 4 really sucks.

 

[Bear19]

Top 3 or 4 really sucks.

Donkey dick

 

[MBHORNSFAN]

5-7 

 

[utisdabomb12]

It will be interesting how the season plays out. This team is incredibly young. 

3/4 of the starting pitchers are underclassmen. Johnston (SO), Mayes (SO), and Kingham (FR), Ton of the arms out of the pen are also very young. Shugart (FR), Wellmann (FR), and Ridgeway (FR). 

All of our starters in the field/DH are underclassmen except for Barrera, Clemens and Gurwitz. So 6/9 starters are underclassmen and sometimes 7/9 when Clemens is left out of the lineup. 

Damn, when I actually look at this I had no clue how young we were. 

 

[Danny Hale]

this team makes costly mistakes on defense with missed plays that do not always count as errors that have cost Texas runs.

on offense this team either scores a lot or struggles to score at all with bad hitting approach that leads to too many called 3rd strikes.                    Augie has done great things for Texas baseball but it is clear that next year Texas needs a new start.

 

[joeywa]

The civilized discussion about this subject is much appreciated. We are all going to have differing opinions on how things are going or how they should go, but there is no shouting down a dissenter. This is a reason I really like this site and its members.

I'll chime in later in the week.

 

[doc longhorn]

The defining play, IMO, on whether Augie needs to go.

With a man on 1st and 2nd, Augie has the best hitter on the team try to lay a bunt down.

That's all she wrote for me.

 

[Donald Boyles]

I like me some Joe Davis! Local kid from Bowie High School.. that's jumped onto the college scene!

 

[burnt_orange]

• UT's 3-4-5 hitters, Patrick Mathis, Tres Barrera, Michael Cantu are all better MLB Prospects than the Houston players mentioned. Nicholson and Johnson know what they are doing when it comes to recruiting. They didn't miss !!! 

Stats are facts but Baylor is down and any game played outside of the Disch the UT 3-4-5 hitters are capable of putting up the same numbers when facing sub par pitching. 
The Austin kids that are at Houston are not Texas material.... Montemayor hit below .200 last year in 62 games. Davis can hit that's fact but can he hit consistently Big 12 pitching which is 90 plus most of the time. Mathis and Barrera match up much better against top pitching.