Several weeks ago, the Baskeball board pointed out how bad the D-I hoops teams in Texas were doing this year. Got me to thinking about the slow starts many of the D-I baseball teams in the state were seeing. Here's what everyone is doing heading into the weekend:

BAYLOR, 7-6...has a good win over UCLA, seems to be playing better after opening season by getting swept at UC-Irvine

DALLAS BAPTIST, 5-8...no good wins, swept by both Creighton and A&M-Corpus, also lost to Texas Southern

HOUSTON, 10-3...bright spot with good record, some nice wins (A&M, Baylor) but no real marquee win

HOUSTON BAPTIST, 4-6-1...nothing of note

LAMAR, 11-2...nice record, but has 7 wins vs. Northern Kentucky and Columbia, Lamar Tech does have 3 wins over Washington, though

PRAIRIE VIEW A&M, 7-7...2 wins over D-II school, other wins over Grambling and Miss. Valley State

RICE, 7-6...2 great wins over Stanford, but also has losses to Dallas Baptist and Sam Houston, somehow got drilled by A&M

SAM HOUSTON STATE, 7-5...Nice wins over Texas and Rice, but marginal losses to Tulane, Missouri State, UL-Monroe and Arkansas State

STEPHEN F. AUSTIN, 4-7...only wins are over Grambling, Sacred Heart, Nebraska-Omaha and Louisiana Tech

TCU, 3-8...possibly the worst start of the lot, winless at home including a loss to Arkansas-Pine Bluff, swept by both Ole Miss and Fullerton

TEXAS, 7-5...swept at Stanford, somehow lost a game to Sacramento State at home, no signature win so far

TEXAS A&M, 9-5...nice, but not marquee, wins over Pepperdine and Rice, but managed to lose Pepperdine series, get shut out by Illinois-Chicago and were run-ruled by North Carolina

TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI, 8-5...7 of 8 wins are against Dallas Baptist, UT-Pan Am and Incarnate Word, swept by New Mexico, Oklahoma and Iowa in their own touney

TEXAS SOUTHERN, 8-7...2 wins over D-II school, had a no-hitter thrown against them by SE Louisiana

TEXAS STATE, 5-7...'Cats on a 3-game winning streak but have a *brutal* stretch ahead with a 5-game road trip to Oregon State and Oregon

TEXAS TECH, 8-6...typical cupcake non-conference schedule yields only a so-so record, including losses to Troy, UConn and LaSalle, but Tard did split a 2-game mid-week series at Arizona

UT-ARLINGTON, 8-4...early wins over Illinois and Oklahoma look good, losses to Northeastern and Houston Baptist look bad

UT-PAN AMERICAN, 2-7...all 7 losses are by 3 runs or greater and the Broncs travel to Wichita State this weekend

UT-SAN ANTONIO, 9-4...4 wins vs. Air Force along with wins over Nebraska-Omaha, UT-Pan Am, Penn State and SFA really inflate the overall record





But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. – Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)

If I'm doing my math right (probably not...) the State of Texas has 129 wins, 103 losses and 1 tie for a .558 winning percentage.

That's awful...




But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. – Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)

Has to be one of the worst starts for the state of Texas I can remember.

Ouch. Didn't TCU start the season ranked in the top 15 or somewhere up there?

The state of college baseball in the state of Texas.

it appears historically bad. Have all of the top high school players all of sudden started turning pro in the past 3 years?

the first thing missing...ace starting pitchers/top round draft picks. Right now Rice's Kubitza may be the only one. Typically A&M, Rice, t.u., TCU/BU would (combined) have 4 or 5 highly regarded pitchers. (Jungmann, Wacha, Stilson, Purke, et al)

and second...great hitters. Naquin may be the last great one for a while. Just a couple of years ago there was Rendon, Loy, Brodie, 2 or 3 players at TCU, and a couple more I've probably forgotten

perhaps one indication of the dropoff...

the 2010 t.u pitching staff had: Jungmann, Ruffin, Workman, and Cole Green

the 2010 A&M pitching staff had: Loux, Wacha, Stripling, and Stilson

3 years later...neither team is anywhere close to that level of pitching talent (and the 2010 guys pitched against the previous generation of bats)



[This message has been edited by W (edited 3/7/2013 4:05p).]

We'll have to revisit this after Texas and Baylor start beating up on WVU, the Kansas teams and the easier mid-week opponents. I'll be interested to see how Texas State does in the WAC this season. Travel could be brutal.

We'll have to revisit this after Texas and Baylor start beating up on WVU, the Kansas teams and the easier mid-week opponents. I'll be interested to see how Texas State does in the WAC this season. Travel could be brutal.

That is putrid. If you went back to the late 80s, you might find a time when only the Horns and Aggies were doing anything worthwhile, but they were a lot better than anyone in the state looks to be this year.

TCU must be on drugs....is casey pachall the batboy?

Revisiting this thread about a month later. We're now a week deep in April and everyone has a few conference series under their belts. Here is where everyone stands as of close of business on Sunday, April 7. As you'll see, there's nothing to get real excited about. Houston is doing well and Texas A&M and Rice are doing OK (not great...but OK.) Outside of that, there may not be another regional contender in the state...and A&M's claim to be a regional contender is shaky, at best.


BAYLOR, 15-16 overall, 4-4 in Big 12 play. About the same position they were in a month ago.

DALLAS BAPTIST, 17-15 overall, 5-4 in WAC play. Improved their position a little bit over the past month.

HOUSTON, 24-9 overall, 6-3 in CUSA play. Suffered a bad series loss to Marshall this weekend, though.

HOUSTON BAPTIST, 13-14 overall, 3-1 in the Great West Conference.

LAMAR, 24-9 overall, but only 5-4 in Southland Conference play.

PRAIRIE VIEW A&M, 15-13 overall, 6-6 in SWAC play.

RICE, 23-11, 6-3 in CUSA play. CUSA is down this year and Rice, so far, isn't taking full advantage of that.

SAM HOUSTON STATE, 19-12 overall, 7-2 in Southland play. A few good mid-week wins but some head-scratching losses.

STEPHEN F. AUSTIN, 15-16 overall, 6-3 in Southland play.

TCU, 14-18 overall, 3-6 in Big 12 play. Hasn't been a smooth transition to the new league for the Frogs.

TEXAS, 17-13 overall, 3-6 in Big 12 play. Horns will have a chance to fatten their record with 15 games remaining against KU, WVU, KSU, TCU, Prairie View and Texas Southern.

TEXAS A&M, 20-13 overall, 6-6 in SEC play. Some good wins, several tough losses. Doing well on Tuesdays, coughing up too much on the weekends.

TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI, 19-12 overall, 6-3 in Southland play. Lots of wins, however, over really, really bad teams.

TEXAS SOUTHERN, 14-15 overall, 6-6 in SWAC games.

TEXAS STATE, 12-19 overall, 5-4 in WAC games.

TEXAS TECH, 17-17 overall, 4-8 in Big 12 play. I'm having trouble figuring out who is playing well in Big 12 league games.

UT-ARLINGTON, 16-14 overall, 6-3 in WAC play.

UT-PAN AMERICAN, 11-15 overall, 2-1 in Great West Conference games. They actually have a game tonight that starts late due to weather.

UT-SAN ANTONIO, 18-13 overall, 4-4 in WAC play.




But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. – Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)

Disturbing to say the least. Thanks Luke, I guess.

Gig'em, Ole Army Class of '70

quite a shock to a see a state-wide dropoff of this magnitude. It's very possible that only the C-USA champ (UH or Rice) makes the field of 64 among the lone star teams in the Big 12, SEC, and C-USA. And of course the RPI is slightly biased against all the Texas teams because they tend to play a lot of home games in February and March

Baseball in Texas is going the same way as basketball went this past year, no teams in the NCAA tourney.

Doesn't put our state in the best light.

No doubt Texas baseball is WAY down but the stupid new RPI formula is also a killer.

Chag - if the season ended today, the Ags and UH would easily be in I think.

If A&M doesn't lose more than 1 Tues. game and goes .500 in the SEC, they are in imo.

The rpi will be high enough and they are going to be hard pressed to fill regionals at ou, lsu, and arkie without some Texas teams (though obviously we would go to ou out of those sites).

Our RPI only dropped 5 spots - from 24 to 29 - after losing 2 of 3 home games to Auburn. By no means are we out of postseason play as of right now - but tough home series yet to come against MissSt and LSU, and a road one at Arkansas. We have a chance to either play ourselves back into a great spot, our play ourselves out of the postseason. Neither would shock me at this point.

this is going to be one of those years where the baseball board will need a "conference tournament" thread to track possible upset tournament winners (i.e. at-large bid stealers). I suspect it's going to come into play for A&M, t.u., and the 2nd place C-USA team (UH/Rice)

ttt

Any thoughts on why this is state-wide suckage disease is affecting TX college baseball? It seems rather abrupt.

the RPI's are not getting much better as of April 15th:

#34 A&M
#46 t.u.
#47 Sam
#60 UH
#62 Baylor
#71 Rice
#87 Lamar
#100 Tech
#123 UT-A
#127 TCU
#129 A&M-CC
#140 UTSA
#165 Texas St
#173 DBU

one possible theory on the problems at Rice and t.u....

prior to the new bats, both of those programs traditionally had a strong pitching advantage over their typical opponent. (Hypothetically) let's say a 2 runs per game better ERA. Rice or t.u. would have a 2.00 team ERA and their weaker opponent would have a 4.00 team ERA.

but now with the new bats the weaker teams have better pitching (or give up fewer runs) because the ball simply doesn't travel as far. So the weaker teams are able to close the gap in ERA.

Thus the 2 run per game ERA advantage Rice or t.u. used to enjoy is now only 1.5 or 1.25.

(obviously Rice and t.u. are able to lower their team ERA also because of the new bats, but they don't have as much room to lower it further -- the floor is probably a 1.50 team ERA -- this year's Arkansas team is close)

therefore teams that traditionally enjoyed a large advantage in pitching over their opponents have lost some of that advantage. And they need to make up for it in hitting. But neither program has done that in the past 2 or 3 years

If you told me at the beginning of the year that a road game at Sam would be big for our postseason hopes, I might have laughed at you.

quote:

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If you told me at the beginning of the year that winning the SEC tournament was the only way to fulfill our postseason hopes, I might have laughed at you.

---

FIFY...






But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. – Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)

Without meaning to antagonize anyone, is there a reason why virtually every college ball team in Texas is doing so relatively poorly this season?

I really think our reason is that we just don't have enough offensive players and, outside Magden and possibly Jester, we have no consistent pitching. But is that a development problem, poor recruiting, best recruits signed MLB contracts?

I'd appreciate any insights. I live out of state, but I enjoy all Aggie sports. This baseball season has been a nightmare so far, and it looks to end in a disaster.

Another month has passed...time to look at this again as we hit the home stretch. Rice has improved its lot as the season has progressed, but that's about it. Sam Houston has done somewhat better as well...but not much. The rest of the state, for the most part, stinks. Virtually everyone is floundering around the .500 mark.




BAYLOR, 25-23 overall, 11-9 in Big 12 play. RPI = 59

DALLAS BAPTIST, 25-23 overall, 11-10 in WAC play. RPI = 151

HOUSTON, 30-18 overall, 9-9 in CUSA play. RPI = 54

HOUSTON BAPTIST, 22-23 overall, 10-9 in the Great West Conference. RPI = 244

LAMAR, 33-15 overall, 12-9 in Southland Conference play. RPI = 95

PRAIRIE VIEW A&M, 23-22 overall, 12-10 in SWAC play. RPI = 279

RICE, 31-15, 11-7 in CUSA play. RPI = 37

SAM HOUSTON STATE, 31-17 overall, 15-6 in Southland play. RPI = 65

STEPHEN F. AUSTIN, 25-23 overall, 12-9 in Southland play. RPI = 145

TCU, 23-24 overall, 8-10 in Big 12 play. RPI = 120

TEXAS, 24-22 overall, 6-15 in Big 12 play. RPI = 62 NOTE: Horns are D.A.L. in the Big 12 and will need a TON of help just to make the Big 12 tourney. Ouch.

TEXAS A&M, 26-22 overall, 10-13 in SEC play. RPI = 60

TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI, 28-20 overall, 13-8 in Southland play. RPI = 111

TEXAS SOUTHERN, 20-25 overall, 12-12 in SWAC games. RPI = 238

TEXAS STATE, 23-24 overall, 13-8 in WAC games. RPI = 136

TEXAS TECH, 22-26 overall, 7-14 in Big 12 play. RPI = 86

UT-ARLINGTON, 25-23 overall, 13-8 in WAC play. RPI = 166

UT-PAN AMERICAN, 24-22 overall, 14-5 in Great West Conference games. RPI = 219

UT-SAN ANTONIO, 25-22 overall, 9-11 in WAC play. RPI = 147





But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. – Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)