Here's an idea, which probably won't take well.

Our schedule will be:

Day Date Team [My Pitching choice]
Tue 3/16 @Lamar [Marlatt]
Wed 3/17 SHSU [Zach J]
Fri 3/19 Baylor [J Mo]
Sat 3/20 @Baylor [Ray]
Sun 3/21 @Baylor [Donaldson]
Tue 3/23 Rice [Zach J]
Fri 3/26 Tech [J Mo]
Sat 3/27 Tech [Ray]
Sun 3/28 Tech [Zach J]

Throw Zach Jack against SHSU, then use J Mo, Ray, Donaldson against Baylor, and have ZJ back for Rice in the Midweek. Then on the weekend, go Ray, J Mo, ZJ against Tech, and then we're back to normal.

We'd be taking a gamble dropping a level for Baylor, but it'd give us the best chance to kill Rice, which would be a big win for the team. Changing up the rotation would keep Jackson's arm from being abused - 5 days between SHSU and Rice, 4 days between Rice and his Tech start.

i dont like it...I know Rice is important, but conference games are more important...Im pretty confident we could throw a freshman against SHSU and still win also, i wouldnt pitch him against them at all...

If Marlett has a good outing tomorrow let him throw against Rice...

"All right, brain, I dont like you and you dont like me, so lets just do this and ill get back to killing you with beer." - Homer J. Simpson

no no and no...let marlatt go against rice and have rampy and meyer ready to go 2 innings a peice if needed...

do you really care about beating rice more than winning conference games? We always throw our Tuesday guy against them once conference play starts.

sodium, so have we and so will we. too bad we will most likely see one of their big 3 just like last year...of course that didnt phase the horns, we'll see what happens for us

If there is a way we make it through the weekend without needing meyer to throw more than an inning or 2 then i could see giving him the start vs rice

any thoughts on that?

well, no doubt MJ is in a tough spot here.

Bottomline though: the key to the Ags getting one of the top 8 national seeds and avoid being paired with Rice in a super regional at Reckling Park is to finish 1st in the Big 12. Rice's easy weekend schedule the rest of the way is going to make it hard to get ahead of them in the pecking order.

And that means throwing Zach, JMo, and Ray vs. Baylor. The Bears are down this year and a maroon sweep is not out of the question.

Just looking at how the first month of the college baseball season has gone, it's not a stretch at all to see A&M, Rice, and Texas all hosting 1st round regionals; and then the NCAA pairing two of the teams up for the super.

If Marlatt can have a good outing vs. UH tomorrow, that will solve the starting pitcher issue vs. Rice.

[This message has been edited by W (edited 3/8/2004 9:42p).]

Throw Jackson against SHSU? Uhh, No.

That has shades of Jeff Grangers K record....

OK, ZJ against SHSU is just stupid, you're right, but the idea is to throw him against Rice, without resting him for too long. It just sucks that Rice can bring a top guy against us, and we have to save 1-3 and make them look good against us.

An unconsidered side effect of my proposal would be watching the absolute PAIN Zach would inflict on SHSU.

I like A&M, I really do, but this is just silly. Contrary to what has been posted here ad nauseum (and debunked each time), Rice did not throw 1-3 against A&M last year, nor did Rice save a pitcher for the Aggies last year. Townsend entered the season as the #5 starter. Herce went down with injury. Townsend became #4. Do you remember what Townsend did against A&M at Minute Maid last year? Walked every batter he faced. Got pulled. He was in no way a top 3 pitcher when the rotation was set. That said, he worked his way into the weekend rotation *at the end of the year*. For Rice to re-jigger its pitching rotation in the middle of the season is ludicrous. Furthermore, Josh Baker, the guy who I'm presuming you all are calling Rice's #4 last year, was UNDEFEATED. The bottom line is that Rice had 4 good pitchers and a dominant closer last year. They didn't alter their rotation or take advantage of a weak conference to gain the upper hand against any Big 12 opponent. Please put this silliness to bed.

[This message has been edited by Trader_Jorge (edited 3/8/2004 10:28p).]

When you play in the freakin' WAC, your #1 guy should probably start Tuesdays, not Fridays. At Rice, he probably does.

wow...that is profound.

THANK GOD you're not the coach of this team.

Was this a joke thread? I mean, it almost sounds like you're serious because you have your own version of logic behind it. But surely you cant be serious. Tell me youre just trying to stir up texags by thinking of the worst possible idea in accordance with the pitching staff and then post it solely for entertainments sake. If thats the case then well done, but if not....stick with football .

Why don't you guys just pitch a freshman and count on destroying Rice's pitching. We did it twice already. A&M is better than Rice this year.

Well, I got people talking. Maybe the particular instance is poorly suited - I certainly agree that Big 12 wins are of the utmost priority, but what I was more interested in was sparking some sort of discussion.

It seems people are too rigidly locked into the mindset that Pitcher X is a Friday guy, Y is a Saturday guy, Q is a Tuesday guy. Granted, for practical purposes, this almost always makes sense, but suppose the scales were tilted more. Suppose we were facing an absolute cupcake on the weekend, and facing the #1 team in the nation on Tuesday, knowing that they'd bring one of their best on us (perhaps due to a similarly easy weekend schedule). In this case, it seems obvious that putting your "Tuesday man" in this game is NOT putting your players in position to win, which is what a coaches' job is.

Sometimes it might make sense. In this case, perhaps not. Maybe beating Rice isn't that important, or better yet, we can try and get them with Donaldson on the mound. In any event, the raw idea interested me more than the particulars, and while I expected my suggestion to be rebuked, I didn't expect an ad hominem. Please let me know when my opinion is valued.

PS - can't "stick with football". I gave those boards up for Lent. I don't think my life has suffered from the absence.

for some reason I remember facing Townsend on the Tuesday night game.....I could be wrong....

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I was correct:
http://www.aggieathletics.com/sports/games/boxscores/MBA_820_apr08.htm

and we faced Niemann in that MM Tourney game....he just got knocked around a bit and Townsend came in out of the 'pen to clean up for him
http://www.aggieathletics.com/sports/games/boxscores/MBA_785_feb14.htm

Trader_Jorge, you should do some quick research before talking about stuff that is "ad nauseum"

By the way, last year we threw Donaldson on the Tuesday night game v. Rice.....I imagine he'd get the start again this year unless Marlatt takes the Tuesday night spot in the rotation by then

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[This message has been edited by AgRyan04 (edited 3/9/2004 2:31a).]

AgRyan, you appear to be misquoting me if you believe you debunked what I said. Townsend faced 3 batters in the game at MM, he walked all of them. He got pulled. As I correctly stated. Townsend pitched against A&M on the Tuesday night game -- as I alluded to by referencing his position in the rotation. My statement stands. I was absolutely correct. In the boxscore that you posted, you validated what I posted. Then you claim you refuted it? Very strange method of debating you have there. By the way -- you used the phrase ad nauseum out of context.

bostonsip -- Which freshmen did UT pitch against Rice at Minute Maid -- oh that's right, you threw your three best pitchers while Rice countered with two freshmen and a guy coming off elbow surgery (Niemann). Augie was desperate to beat Rice after they sent him home early from Omaha all misty-eyed. You have a typical case of Rice envy. It's similar to that bad feeling you get when someone in Boston asks you where you went to school, and you say UT. Then they start singing Rocky Top. Poor longhorns.

[This message has been edited by Trader_Jorge (edited 3/9/2004 7:00a).]

trader,
the sip was referring to the midweek game in which the sips did throw a freshman...

I was more or less referring to "Rice did not throw 1-3 against A&M last year" and we faced Niemann who I thought was worthy of a #1-3 spot in the rotation

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texas did beat rice in the cws (on that insane play throw by Omar "the devil" Quintanilla from 3B to get Sinisi at home), but it was Notre Dame that sent them home....with the game winning rally in the 9th inning started by CFer Steve Stanley's triple

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Trader_jorge-
Here are the facts since you can't grasp them.

Game 1- We started Sam Lecure. Texas wins 6-3.

Game 2- We start Randy Boone, and Kyle McCullough gets the decision. Texas wins 8-7.


You guys used Nieman in both games, and we torched him. You also used Humber.



Texas 2, Rice 0

Conference play is most important to A&M being in a strong conference like the Big 12.

As Rice is a weak conference, the WAC, non-conference is most important to them. There is limited competition and risk in the WAC.

To the fan of the second best UT -- So Sam Lecure magically moved back in time and is a freshman again this season? Your logic continues to amaze...

I remember when our Friday night starter (Fossum) came on in relief in the ninth and got Bubba Crosby on strikes to end the game. Don't mess with the rotation, but pull out all the stops in the late innings if you have a chance to win the game.

trader, wasnt that the tournament game? i think so and that is a different deal all together. however, isnt sam tu's #3 starter? simmons and howell are the top 2 right? my point is they did in fact throw their #4 guy (a freshman boone i believe) in the midweek game when they played you guys

Trader-
Boone is a frosh.

Either way, we beat your All-American twice, with LeCure and Boone.

Owned.

This is all spin anyway.

Bottom line:

Texas has beaten Rice twice this year.

What comes out of a chinaman's butt?

rice

More generally, how do you think these two teams compare? It seems A&M has an advantage in hitting and fielding, particularly in that A&M's hitting is solid through most of the order - rather than having a few studs balanced by easy outs later on in the order, we don't have anybody in this lineup that makes me worry when they come to the plate.

Rice isn't a bad hitting team, but seems to produce fewer bases from their stats than do we. Also, they have driven in 90 runs in 220 total bases, to our 119 in 254. This could have something to do with A&M's greater emphasis in stealing bases.

A&M fields at .978 to Rice's .964, with Cliff Pennington our greatest "liability". I think most would agree that his .914 does not accurately reflect how good his defense is.

The problem for A&M is that Rice is a superior pitching team. Rice has a team ERA of 2.81 while A&M's is 3.34 and our BEST guy is at 2.54. If we're to believe we're gonna get Rice's #4 guy (Neimann?) than its a matchup of Neimann's 4.43 and Donaldson's 4.91. So I guess that's better than I expected when I started writing, but I'm not gonna turn around now!

I guess I've convinced myself that it'll be a hell of a ballgame on a Tuesday. Rice is stacked. Neimann is supposed to be the AA but has the 4th best ERA on the team?!

I guess I don't know anything. <- This is not sarcastic.

Actually Josh Forester took the loss in the first game, not Niemann. Nice try though. When Niemann's arm heals, we'll see who is winning. How soon you forget the failures of UT against a healthy Rice staff in 2003. When the second best UT left the field in Omaha, they were crying their eyes out. What a shame.

Here is a picture of JP Howell shedding tears.

http://www.collegesports.com/sports/m-basebl/stories/061803aah.html

the debate isnt about last year stupid owl...and this year tu has whipped you twice so you might want to wait until june to talk any more crap to them...

edit: I mean they whipped you 3 times in 3 different ballparks and a fish shut your bats down AGAIN...

[This message has been edited by byron06 (edited 3/10/2004 2:30p).]

Where O where is Trader Jorge?

We now have scoreboard over Rice in 3 different ballparks.

As for today, you guys pitched Humber, and we pitched a frosh again.

Your fans left early.


Owned.

All this time I thought I was the most annoying Rice grad posting on TexAgs.