College Baseball 2023

[Assembly Hall]

My Hoosiers stand 6-6. Bellarmine coming in today for a 4 game series.

[Kingspoint]

Louisville may not have a basketball team, but they more than make up for it with a great baseball team.

[Assembly Hall]

Louisville may not have a basketball team, but they more than make up for it with a great baseball team.

I don't think so Tim.

[Sea Ray]

Is this how they play ball on the west coast?









spoiler: 10 runs, 1 inning, 1 hit

[Kingspoint]

Is this how they play ball on the west coast?









spoiler: 10 runs, 1 inning, 1 hit

Love the announcer.

Pacific University is in Forest Grove, Oregon, where many of "The Librarian episodes" are filmed when they wanted to use some urban settings. (I've been to nearly every location they've filmed any scene of that show, about a 50 by 50 square mile area from Salem to Portland north and south and Forest Grove to Troutdale east to west.) Don't know what was going on there, but that is definitely not normal. Fundamentals are heavily stressed around here, with Oregon State usually being the best in the nation at them and most of their players coming from local areas around here. (In 2022 in MLB, for example, the 2nd and 3rd best contact-rates from hitters are two ex-Oregon State infielders.) San Diego, btw, has a good team. Tony Gwynn set a good foundation for that school when he was there as a Coach.

What a meltdown. Pretty cool about Brett Butler coming in and speaking to the REDS' organization about bunting. It does look like Friedl is purposely trying to use it more as part of his hitting during Spring Training. He's one who is good at making adjustments and that means to throw a Pitcher a different look than what he's been seeing. Friedl always gets better when he gets to see a Pitcher a couple of different times during a season. Looking forward to his plate appearances this year after having had quite a few opportunities last year to perhaps see the entire National League one-time through. Of course, now with the new schedules, there will be more pitchers to have to see for the first time ever this season for many players.

The Oregon State Beavers hit an early season slump. They began Pac-12 play with a very unusual home series loss, to Washington State, losing two of three. That was never supposed to happen. Then they lose at home again....to Nevada, badly, 5-1. They beat Nevada 12-1 the next day. Those were both mid-week games where regulars don't play, but still. Not supposed to lose to Nevada. They they get swept at top-ranked Stanford in Palo Alto. The first two games weren't even close. So, that's six losses in seven games, knocking them out of the top-25 before they lost to Nevada and Stanford. It's going to be a while before they enter the Top-25 again. No excuses. Washington State outplayed them and Stanford handed them their lunches. They got a mid-week win today, beating the University of Portland for the 32nd time in 35 games and 16th straight in Corvallis. But, (here's that bad Defense) they needed five Portland errors to come from behind to get the win. This isn't a bad University of Portland team, though, as Texas A&M, ranked Top-5 at the time, barely avoided being swept three games at College Station with a 5-4 Sunday win.

The weather always plays a part for teams from the NW as they just don't get outdoor practice in like teams below the 39th parallel. When we aren't getting rained on every day, it's just too damn cold. February at Pacific, Oregon State and University of Portland was five degrees lower than normal. That's January weather, mid-winter weather. We had a lot of snow, six different days and one day we had a foot of snow. In March, we never saw 50 degrees until the 10th. From Thursday to Monday we aren't supposed to see 50 degrees in these three Cities. It's cold and wet, so the Defense will take some time to mature, as will all the teams, though Portland threw that shocker at Texas A&M. There's going to be some fundamental errors until the teams here in the Willamette Valley can get some weather improvement. The Tulip Festival has been pushed back as the blooms are weeks late. We are just now getting crocuses and tulips, when we should have had crocuses six to seven weeks ago (Groundhog Day) and dafodils three to four weeks ago, which we are just getting now.

Oregon State usually has a slow start, but they always get better. Same is true of any baseball team North of the 39th Parallel anywhere in the U.S.

[Boston Red]

Tony Gwynn (RIP) was coach at the Mountain West's San Diego State and not the WCC's San Diego.

[Kingspoint]

Tony Gwynn (RIP) was coach at the Mountain West's San Diego State and not the WCC's San Diego.

Thought it was the other. It's still University of San Diego that I'm referring to as far as being a good team this season.

[Kingspoint]

Pretty cool about Brett Butler coming in and speaking to the REDS' organization about bunting. It does look like Friedl is purposely trying to use it more as part of his hitting during Spring Training. He's one who is good at making adjustments and that means to throw a Pitcher a different look than what he's been seeing. Friedl always gets better when he gets to see a Pitcher a couple of different times during a season. Looking forward to his plate appearances this year after having had quite a few opportunities last year to perhaps see the entire National League one-time through. Of course, now with the new schedules, there will be more pitchers to have to see for the first time ever this season for many players.

And, on cue, we see Friedl lay down a perfect infield bunt past a Left-handed pitcher tonight against the Padres and our announcer saying, "somewhere Brett Butler is smiling". Then the trouble begins. Pitcher now has to throw from the stretch. Another runner gets on base. Friedl becomes a threat and leads a double-steal where both runners advance. Then a run scores. This is perfect baseball. I know this is the wrong thread, so I'm going to copy this over to another.

[Sea Ray]

And, on cue, we see Friedl lay down a perfect infield bunt past a Left-handed pitcher tonight against the Padres and our announcer saying, "somewhere Brett Butler is smiling". Then the trouble begins. Pitcher now has to throw from the stretch. Another runner gets on base. Friedl becomes a threat and leads a double-steal where both runners advance. Then a run scores. This is perfect baseball. I know this is the wrong thread, so I'm going to copy this over to another.

I just wish our Reds would get good at it. J India had a perfect opportunity to lay down a bunt last night and he failed. Execution is the problem

[Big Red Smokey]

So somehow Kentucky has won 16 in a row and is now 20-2 and 4-0 in SEC...

[Assembly Hall]

Go Hoosiers!

[Kingspoint]

Never expected to see TEN drop out of the Top-25. They'll get back in.

Oregon State fell out of the Top-25. They got back in with a series sweep against #24 USC (which dropped them out of the Top-25).

This is one of the worst seasons in a long time for the PAC-12, as only one team, Stanford, is in the Top-20, and that's somewhere around #12.

It's still very early in the season and Winter has been very long. Should be a cold weekend in the Midwest.

[Sea Ray]

Never expected to see TEN drop out of the Top-25. They'll get back in.

Oregon State fell out of the Top-25. They got back in with a series sweep against #24 USC (which dropped them out of the Top-25).

This is one of the worst seasons in a long time for the PAC-12, as only one team, Stanford, is in the Top-20, and that's somewhere around #12.

It's still very early in the season and Winter has been very long. Should be a cold weekend in the Midwest.

I don't know that Tenn will get back in. They're just not very good this year. It's a completely different team than last year. A top 25 team doesn't give up 12 runs to Tennessee Tech

BTW Tenn Tech is 11-24 this year and 2-7 in the Ohio Valley conference

[Boston Red]

East Carolina is coming to Wichita this weekend. I haven't been to a Shockers game in a few years (just too busy with kids' sports on the weekends generally), but I'm going to try and sneak out for the Saturday afternoon game this weekend. I will cheer for the Shockers, but I'll mostly be there to watch East Carolina.

[Kingspoint]

I don't know that Tenn will get back in. They're just not very good this year. It's a completely different team than last year. A top 25 team doesn't give up 12 runs to Tennessee Tech

BTW Tenn Tech is 11-24 this year and 2-7 in the Ohio Valley conference

They'll get back in because nearly every week they'll be playing a Top-25 team, and often a Top-15 team. One sweep and that garners a lot of votes and attention, considering how many players are still on the team from last season's historic effort. That experience will show itself as the season wears on.