I've always loved baseball stats since i was a kid in the 70s studying stats on the back of my baseball cards. Side note- 1978 is my favorite topps baseball card year. Opening a pack of baseball cards in 1978, not knowing what might be in there, was exciting stuff. Yes I'm old.
Baseball is a numbers game.
At first glance, the longhorn series is gonna be an uphill battle based on their #2 ranking and their pitching and hitting numbers.
A deeper dive says we have a shot to win the series.
Their pitching staff appears to be damn good, maybe the best in the country. They have three really good starters in volantis, riojas, and Harrison… all with a sub 3.00 era. They certainly throttled us last year in Austin…I was there for the Harrison beat down.
These longhorn pitching numbers, however, have been aided by facing 4 of the 5 worst offenses (sc, ole miss, auburn and ok) in the conference based on runs scored. Whether you're hitting singles, stealing bases, and bunting or mashing home runs, runs scored is the bottom line imo.
On the flip side, our shaky pitching is likely not as bad as it seems considering we have faced 3 of the top 7 offenses in the conference in ga, vandy, and surprisingly mo in runs scored.
Offensively, the longhorns have been good, not great, ranking #6 in total runs scored in the sec. They have done this vs a great staff in #1 era auburn, 2 middle of the road staffs in ole miss and ok and a bad staff in sc.
Their offense looks to stack up as just that, good not great.
Our offense, on the other hand, looks to be elite yet prolly somewhat inflated based on playing the two worst staffs in the conference in vandy and mo. Ok and ga are middle of the pack.
We are #2 in the conference in runs scored, scoring 1 less total run than ga, and we know how good they are.
If you consider total runs allowed as a pitching staff compared to the longhorns, we have given up 32 more runs on the year…not as big of a gap as I would have expected. That's right at 1 run per game more given up by us.
If you consider runs scored, we have scored 54 more runs on the year…about 2 more runs scored per game.
That nets out to a positive 22 runs for us on the year.
It appears to me the longhorns pitching staff is likely not quite as good as it appears on paper…same for our offense, based on opponents to date.
Their hitting looks to be what it's gonna be long term while our pitching is likely not as bad as it seems based on opponents faced to this point.
All of this points to a very competitive, important, hard fought series…maybe home field swings it in our advantage. Let's hope the old adage of good pitching vs good hitting doesn't hold.
Baseball is a numbers game.
At first glance, the longhorn series is gonna be an uphill battle based on their #2 ranking and their pitching and hitting numbers.
A deeper dive says we have a shot to win the series.
Their pitching staff appears to be damn good, maybe the best in the country. They have three really good starters in volantis, riojas, and Harrison… all with a sub 3.00 era. They certainly throttled us last year in Austin…I was there for the Harrison beat down.
These longhorn pitching numbers, however, have been aided by facing 4 of the 5 worst offenses (sc, ole miss, auburn and ok) in the conference based on runs scored. Whether you're hitting singles, stealing bases, and bunting or mashing home runs, runs scored is the bottom line imo.
On the flip side, our shaky pitching is likely not as bad as it seems considering we have faced 3 of the top 7 offenses in the conference in ga, vandy, and surprisingly mo in runs scored.
Offensively, the longhorns have been good, not great, ranking #6 in total runs scored in the sec. They have done this vs a great staff in #1 era auburn, 2 middle of the road staffs in ole miss and ok and a bad staff in sc.
Their offense looks to stack up as just that, good not great.
Our offense, on the other hand, looks to be elite yet prolly somewhat inflated based on playing the two worst staffs in the conference in vandy and mo. Ok and ga are middle of the pack.
We are #2 in the conference in runs scored, scoring 1 less total run than ga, and we know how good they are.
If you consider total runs allowed as a pitching staff compared to the longhorns, we have given up 32 more runs on the year…not as big of a gap as I would have expected. That's right at 1 run per game more given up by us.
If you consider runs scored, we have scored 54 more runs on the year…about 2 more runs scored per game.
That nets out to a positive 22 runs for us on the year.
It appears to me the longhorns pitching staff is likely not quite as good as it appears on paper…same for our offense, based on opponents to date.
Their hitting looks to be what it's gonna be long term while our pitching is likely not as bad as it seems based on opponents faced to this point.
All of this points to a very competitive, important, hard fought series…maybe home field swings it in our advantage. Let's hope the old adage of good pitching vs good hitting doesn't hold.
