waltgreenberg
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Joined: Feb 2006
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I Root For: Rice Owls
Location: Chicago
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RE: Rice v Sam Houston 2/20/24
(02-22-2024 06:41 PM)Owl Is In Chains Wrote: (02-20-2024 11:01 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote: (02-20-2024 10:11 PM)greyowl72 Wrote: Hixson strikes out the side.
Owls win. 7-3.
Pretty good Owl pitching compared to this weekend. Not the walk and HBPS seen against ND. Gave up one extra base hit.
Not too happy with the errors, but in the end, they didn’t kill us.
Just enough timely hitting in the late innings to close this one out.
Very proud tonite.
And I think we have identified some areas for improvement.
Agreed. Very good and much needed win. As I've noted in the past, I really liked Urbanczyk last year and thought he would be our Sunday starter. However, he must have been nursing an injury since he only pitch one inning in the final intrasquad game. Will likely take him another 2 - 3 weeks before he can go 85+ pitches, but I love his strike throwing. Jose needs to stop going to Shonan, Hamilton, Vincent and Perkins, who have had very few quality outings in their Rice careers. Give the new kids a shot. Hickson should be our closer or our Sunday or mid-week starter. He has good poise out there and, arguably, the best curveball on the staff...and he throws strikes! Looks like we have 4 legitimate pitchers in Smith, McCracken, Urbanczyk and Hickson. We need at least 2 - 3 others to step up and show some consistency.
On offense, Becker is so much improved as a hitter than he's been the past two season. Previously he was hopeless against southpaw pitching and off-speed pitches. This year he's put together quality AB after quality AB. He's walking and he's making solid contact. Kuddos to him and the coaching staff. Reidel has picked up where he left off the final month of the last year; only this year he's not a strictly pull hitter. And Garza is Garza. It was great to see Royo finally have a couple solid ABs (line out and line single). Hopefully, this gets him going.
Now for the negative-- Jose has got to get off this bunting kick, particularly with our best hitters (Reidel, Garza, Cummings) and especially given proper techniques are not being taught or not being executed. Sacrifice bunting is NOT the same as bunting for a hit. You need to totally commit by squaring all the way around, holding the bat level and letting the ball hit the bat (as opposed semi-squaring around, holding the bat at a sharp angle and pecking down at the ball). It why it's called a "sacrifice". Having Manny attempt to bunt after Becker had a leadoff double was beyond a headscratcher. Stop calling for the bunt if you don't teach the fundamentals and practice it. Our opponents are 7-7 on sac bunt attempts this year, while we are 1-10 (with several of those failed attempts ending in a swinging strikeout or HBP or Reidel's 2-strike HR tonight). That's pathetic at this level. Laying down a sac bunt is not all that difficult if you execute the proper techniques. A 75% success ratio is the bare minimum you should expect. Again, if we don't teach proper fundamentals and drill them into the players through practice then stop calling for it.
So many comments on this.
Let's start with bunting. I believe that you only saw two scrimmages this year and no practices. Just because there was a lack of success does not mean that it is not taught or practiced. Also, everyone does not use the same technique. As someone who was trusted in suicide situations, I did not square totally, as typically pitchers like to come inside, and just because you don't square around does not mean that you hold the bat at a sharp angle and poke down on the ball. Also, these kids sometime choose to bunt on their own for a hit, so just because you see a bunt does not mean a sacrifice was called for. I have also heard coaches say that the kids on D1 rosters were mostly middle of line-up guys in high school who were never asked to bunt. But yes, that does not mean that you can't get asked now and learn to do it.
I don't know what Ben-Shoshan did to you. I know he did not pitch well on Saturday, but you say he has had few quality outings in his career at Rice. Maybe you should check his stats from last year. His ERA was 3.20. His batting average against was 0.226, and a WHIP of 1.22, which was the lowest on the team. Sounds pretty good to me and like someone we need some innings from.
Regarding the comment about not using pitchers that you believe did not do very well last year (comments in this post and also after Sunday's game), last year is gone. These kids should be getting better. Look at the kid at Stanford who may have had a couple of at bats in two years with the team but gets to start his third year and became an All-American. Also, relievers do not pitch a lot of innings in a college season. A couple of bad outings can affect the season stats in a big way. Also, sometimes you need to leave guys in when they are struggling to see how they deal with adversity and make them uncomfortable so they get better in future games. It is a new season and these kids deserve the same chances as newcomers based upon what they have shown in practice. By the way, in Sunday's game, 3 of the 6 pitchers made their first appearance ever for Rice.
In my view, Mayo showed something on Sunday. He obviously had control issues, walking 5 and hitting one in 2 innings. However, NO ONE SCORED. I think that shows some mental toughness, as it would have been easy to say "poor me" and give up.
Ben-Shoshan's ERA last year was deceptive as he blew a ton of games allowing inherited runners to score. He was awful on both Friday and Sunday last weekend.
As for bunting, why are you making excuses for our years-long futility in execution? Do tell how and why every other team bunt successfully against us well over 75% of the time, while we continue to be inept at it? As for many of our guys being middle of the order hitters in high school, that's true of almost every D1 team, yet somehow, some way they learn to bunt at the college level while our guys don't. And please don't try to tell me that Garza was attempting to bunt on his own with a guy on 2B and no outs, or that Reidel was attempting to bunt twice with runners on 1B and 2B and no outs? Guys like McDonald and Cummings try bunting for hits on their own, but there is no way anyone on the team is attempting a sac bunt unless it is specifically being called for by Jose. I'm assuming you've watched the games-- not only this year, but in years past. Are you going to tell me with a straight face that our sac bunting technique is fundamentally sound?
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