AZ Longhorn

The pitching depth is definitely something to monitor. It's obviously already cost us two SEC sweeps, almost the series this Saturday, and a 6-0 start. (And having to move Cozart to the weekend means we'll drop a couple more midweek games than we would have otherwise, but that impact on a path to the championship is relatively minimal). BUT even if the pitching depth doesn't become the best bullpen in the country, like some expected pre-season, I think there are real reasons to expect it to turn around: The main problem has been the free bases and the occasional hung spinner. Our guys have the stuff to get outs; the problem is command and control and the mental game. Max Weiner is the guy you want to have to work on that particular problem. For virtually each piece, I think today is the worst they will be this season. Obviously for the freshmen, they will continue to improve with practice and adjustments. (They are not being asked to start, so they will not hit the workload wall that freshmen starters sometimes do). Leffew is already good, and will only get more impactful. As he works back from injury, his command will continue to dial in, and he will get stretched out to give us more innings per weekend (which leaves us less exposed with other guys). And then we have a trio of guys who got pre-season All-American votes — Burns, Higgins, and Grubbs — but are clearly underperforming. And I just don't believe that at least one or two of them won't recover to the mean. In other words, it probably can't keep being this bad! It's not for nothing that the bullpen meltdowns happened while Winter has been on the shelf. Whatever sickness cost us two weekends, I hope he's ready to go for OU next week! As others have pointed out, the coaching staff is still trying to figure out how to maximize what they have. That takes time to find when the initial roles don't work out. All of this is a perfect storm for dropping two games early in conference play. It's jarring to realize that your expected #1 strength is your actual #1 weakness, but there's time to figure it out and many reasons for expecting us to.

Just catching up. What's wild and exhilarating as a Horns fan is we just won a road SEC series against a team that will end up Top 10 on the year... and we're not even playing well! Most of our hitters are in slumps or just treading water. We had our worst overall defensive weekend of the year. The bullpen and strike-throwing struggles are very real. And Dylan only went 4 innings. And with all that... we still won the series! The rest of the country must be shaking in their boots.

Purdue is better and our bigs situation will be tough (needing a lot from Codie again, and Matas staying out of foul trouble against physicality). We have very obvious flaws, BUT you don't have to squint too hard to understand how this team could make a tournament run! For a not-great team, we are made in a lab for messing you up: We've got guys with NBA potential (Matas and Dailyn), old college guards who have seen it all and are clutch shot-makers (Pope and Mark), a 3-point specialist who you can't help off of (Heide), and a senior dirty work glue-guy off the bench (Weaver). An old, experienced team with a great coach, peaking at the right time. Let's enjoy this and see what happens!

What's the reporting on Winter? Second week out, and all I've heard is a low visibility mention that last week may have been an illness?

Not many safeties making 230M on a single contract, though, much less over a full career. Vastly different earning potential by position.

Tinney loves Tuesdays!

Any word on Winter's availability? Also, I hope this ship hasn't sailed now that we're through non-con, but I was hoping to see some Jack McKernan innings this year. Schloss kept praising him pre-season and I expected that to translate into opportunity. I say let's empty the bottom of the pen and see what we've got! If the offense can't score 10+ against mid-major mid-week arms in mid-March, then that's a mid performance 😉 and so be it!

Thanks Jeff. Also want to shout out Presley Courville!! Since Jonah's would-be OF spot has to be filled, that has moved Larson/Duplantier out of the DH role into the field... meaning we need guys to step up at DH as a consequence. Livingston has showed recent signs of life at DH, but ideally Jim could platoon him so he doesn't face a full game of left on left. Courville has one hell of a sweet RH swing, and Jim seems to love him. Really unfortunate that he hurt his shoulder, but the fact that he did so while working on learning the outfield shows you the staff wants to find a way for him to contribute this season. He can likely be more offensive than fellow right-handers Ermis or Monsour. And he is supposed to be back soon! So when we're facing a lefty starter, he might be that RH side of the DH platoon (with Livingston as the LHer).

I don't think the issue is the idea itself. All else being equal, the LED floor is awesome. But he knew in advance its actual execution would meaningfully jeopardize player safety and competition quality (ability to trust jumps and cuts, etc) and he knowingly chose the cool idea over player safety and competition quality. That's a fireable offense, IMO.

Maybe something to be said too for the style of gameplay difference vs. the men's game? For my own tastes at least, in the current evolution of the sports, the women's game style is more enjoyable to watch. But I don't know if this is a widely held view.

Nah I meant that, since they're already #1 — and they won't pick up many losses in a relatively weak conference — they have a super clear path to staying #1 all season.

They have better wins. Classic dilemma (compare to football playoff debates about 3-loss Texas vs. teams with better records but worse SOS). Not that it matters too much, but that's my take on why they're unanimous No. 1. And with the Big 10 schedule, expect UCLA to be the No. 1 overall seed come tourney time.

So happy for Josh. It's hard to get opportunities on this team, given Temo crushing and A Rod not missing time (3B platoon possibility), Schloss committing to one guy at first (1B platoon possibility), and fellow lefties Larson and Jonah starting hotter (LH DH competition). But he's a guy who can raise our season-long ceiling, and I'm so happy he paid off Jim's investment this weekend and broke through!

*rich man's ... given what I assume he's getting paid.

Thanks so much @Hank South! Even just passing on that yall don’t know yet. I continue to be surprised/frustrated with the secrecy of the parties around everything Jonah related (What was injured? What is the plan starting tomorrow? Etc) Also I’m wondering what that limit is and what counts (baseball games you don’t play in? All the time “around” the games? Recovery work? Etc) so we can crunch the numbers lol