This could be an interesting discussion. I'll get it started.

Best: Offense in general. Lots of solidly ripped line drives to the gaps. Most team speed I've seen in a while and controlled aggression on the base paths. I really like seeing runners going after the extra base when it was available without running us out of innings on the base paths.
Note: I did not get to attend Friday night's game. Otherwise, I might have to go with Stilson on this one.

Worst: Adam Smith. I have been a Smith apologist for a long time. I don't know how much longer I can defend him. He just isn't getting it done at the plate. And Collazo looked pretty good in the limited action he saw. Right now, I don't think Smith's fielding / arm strength is sufficiently better than Collazo's to justify having the K machine that is Smith's bat in the line up. Once again, ask around, I have stuck up for Adam pretty much his entire career here.

What are your thoughts? This can also be in positives / negatives format.

I still like Smith myself. He did pretty good in the scrimmages that I saw. He also made a few stops at 3rd that saved a few runs. He started slow last year and then became one of the reliable batters the latter half of the season.


Good: freshmen contributing. I like seeing fish get play time and be productive at the plate and on the field. I saw a bit of that and hope to see more.

Bad: Still not a fan of the bats, but at least we have a bunch of speedy guys to help play small ball.

I don't like playing the LeMoyne's of college baseball. It's usually such a mismatch that it is tough to really learn about your team.

They are that bad this year.

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Naquin looks promising!

Good to see Hales pitch well.

Juengel is a hitting machine.

Well we have had a total of 106 at-bats (and Smith got 10 of them).

Out of 17 batters.....

8 have an average of .333 or higher
9 have an average of .222 or lower

It's just too early, especially since we got only 6 hits in the first game. I hope the freshmen keep getting their chances in series like this.

Apparently, their pitcher from the first game is a solid MLB prospect, beyond that, I didn't really see a lot of talent on the team. Given this was their first real outdoors experience in the past few months, I can see why they made SO MANY errors...

Good: Bratsen, I really liked what I saw this weekend, and Juengel had an awesome series...

Bad: A few holes in the lineup, but I think they will shore up as the season goes on, I've always liked Smith too, but this just wasn't a good series from him behind the plate...

I don't think Tuesday's game will tell us much, though hopefully we won't repeat last year's results in that first midweek game against SFA, A good series against a Gonzaga team, and I think we'll know a lot more...

any weekend you see more than one game with triple triples, you have to take the results with a grain of salt...

Triples that aren't hit to a deep corner are generally a result of an outfield on the wrong shift (coach's fault) or the outfielders mishandling the ball (happened quite a bit this weekend).

The triples I saw this weekend were a result of a double bouncing off of the wall back past the fielder so he had to run the ball down twice. With more playing time they'll learn to wait for the bounce. That is simply inexperience.

i really don't think we will be able to tell a lot from this team untill at least the 3rd week of the season.
lemoyne, prairie view and gonzaga are 3 very bad baseball teams.
I don't have a schedule in front of me so not sure who we play after that but we won't know a whole lot untill then.
I would love to see the ags schedule more quality series..not just a midweek game here and there against rice and TCU..but a 3 game weekend series against a quality oponent..not neccessary a top 15 team but a step up from lemoyne and gonzaga..FIU should be a step up.
Under childress we don't play a very good non con weekend series...I miss the Arizona series.
We played florida back in childress first 2 years, don't know if he scheduled that series of MJ did. Same thing with UCLA.
I'm still waiting on florida state, Miami, or Stanford to come to olsen field.

Sundays game House had one of the best diving stops by a 1B I've seen.
Only needs to finish it with a good throw.

Good to see the freshman Charlie Curl contribute at 2B in the field and at the plate. Pitching overall was excellent. I know LeMoyne isn't exactly TCU or tu but the pitching staff shut down a bad team like they are supposed to. Juengel was a monster and will be the best hitter for the Ags this season. Good to see Gonzo still contributing with the bat.


I thought Hales was a little wild. Hopefully he just had a bad day or something but for holding a team to 0 runs and pitching 7 innings (I think), his pitch count was pretty high. He also gave up some hard hit balls that were luckily right at our fielders. But if that is the only bad thing I can think of from a weekend series, you know we have a good team.

Have to agree with Mr. Bergstrom about the whole Smith situation. I think they should place Collazo at third base. Saw him play that position last year a couple times and he did what had to be done.

Smith just needs a catalyst to wake up his hitting. Each of the past two years he's started slow and hit his stride at the end to become one of our more dangerous power hitters. Last year it took that pinch hit walkoff against Mizzou to get him rolling. I think it's worth it now to keep him in and hope he has that spark soon to get him rolling before conference play starts.

House is going to be big for us this year...

It will be him and Juengel.

I'm surprised that more of us didn't mention Stilson. I guess that's the problem with dominating a weekend series, too many right answers!

Stilson's 6 IP: 9 strikouts, 9 groundouts, no fly outs. That's outstanding.

This is what is not outstanding:
College Baseball 2011 Week One Attendance Report
School Avg. Total #
1. LSU 10,640 31,921 3
2. Ole Miss 8,258 24,775 3
3. Arkansas 8,109 24,326 3
4. South Carolina 7,933 23,800 3
5. Texas 6,637 19,913 3
6. Mississippi State 5,887 17,661 3
7. Clemson 5,177 15,530 3
8. Florida State 5,169 15,508 3
9. TCU 4,964 14,892 3
10. Florida 4,668 14,003 3
11. Alabama 4,523 13,568 3
12. Texas A&M 4,319 12,957 3
13. Rice 4,061 12,182 3

#12 seems fitting.

out of the top 13 listed... which one has the fewest CWS appearances in the past decade?

[This message has been edited by TexasRebel (edited 2/22/2011 9:14p).]

TCU. Wasn't last year their first ever trip?

compared to our 0 from 2001-2010?

You will note my handle. It is intolerable to be behind TCU. They are them and we are us and justice must be served. My HIGH SCHOOL was here before THEY were and I REALLY wish we could just make them go back to Waco where they belong. God, I hate them!