Be perfect for me – son would love the camp. Thanks for posting!!!
Will our pitching staff be improved?
Doubtful.
Same as always it appears….some good arms but not much depth.
Several newcomers, some look good on paper but you just never know.
I think the strength of this team will be the bats.
I would be very surprised if the bats are better than the pitching staff.
It would take a couple of the freshman to be really good and the vets to have as good or better seasons than last for sure.
I didn’t mean to imply we would be sluggers by any means but the pitching just looks really thin.
I definitely see where you are coming from in regards to the pitching. The vets are going to have to step it up. I just feel like there is more promise on them versus the hitters. Stepping up in the Big 12 is going to be very difficult!
Any idea how we did against Blinn?
From various social media I think UH shelled them.
Blinn & AM tonight w no score keeper.
Ags were up 4-2 in 4th from an AM forum post.
New wallpaper
I didn’t think they were allowed to charge money for exhibitions?
Houston played 14 innings against A&M. I thought we had a lot of people on the fall team, but A&M has about 60 that traveled to Houston. I believe the final score was 13-6 A&M, but I don’t know if that is exactly right because they did not keep score on the scoreboard. It is so hard to tell from a scrimmage who is really good and who isn’t. I would say it was no where close as bad as the horrible Texas loss last year in the fall where we were totally dominated. From what I was able to conjure up, A&M did not play all of their best players. Houston also had a few pitchers out, as well as Murray, who broke his ankle earlier in the fall. With that said, each team started a new pitcher every inning, except for one on each squad, Josh Stewart, for A&M, threw 2. He was the pitcher who started against Houston last year. He is going to be a stud. Each of their pitchers touched at least 95, and they did not bring all of their best pitchers. The hitting did not look great by either team but obviously A&M did somewhat better when you look at the score. They only let Laviolete, whom many consider the best player in the country, bat three times. He walked once, and also destroyed two balls in getting a double and a single. I thought Houston’s hitting was erratic but we did get a HR from a FR, Ace Reese and one from Arkansas transfer, Harold Coll. Again, it is hard to say how each team would have hit if the pitchers had stayed out there longer. I would say our pitching was ok. Jaxon Jelkin, a JC transfer, started and looked good. He was the pitcher that threw 2 for Houston. A couple of the returning pitchers did well in Drezek and O’Donnell. There were also a number of FR pitchers who showed some good velocity led by Richie Roman, who is from Corpus Christi. Overall, This was a normal fall scrimmage where not many answers were given. It was obvious, though, that Houston has some work to do in order to be able to beat A&M. However, A&M should be a team that is favored to go to Omaha and Houston competed with them. Hopefully, they can build on that for the season.
Feel free to ask me anything as this was just s broad summary.
Appreciate the recap.
Any other Freshmen do anything of substance?
Thank you for the recap
Reading that Justin Murray broke an ankle is more than a little worrisome, given he was lights out as a closer last year. Not to mention, he hit for average, for power, stole bases and repeatedly delivered clutch RBI’s.
Any word on a timetable, if any, for his return?
Tristan Russell played a couple of innings. He played well at 3rd and had a hit. I wouldn’t be surprised if they move some people around to get him on the field. There were two other pitchers who saw some action. I believe it was Diego Luzardo and Alex Solis. Both showed some velo but gave up some hits. It is hard to say where they will fit in.
I don’t think Murray’s injury is that severe. He was out of his boot so I am sure he will be good to go at the beginning of the next semester.
As far as the Blinn scrimmage, I was told that is was pretty meh as Houston won the game but they should have. I don’t think anyone really stood out. I couldn’t even get anyone to tell me one person that stood out either way.
That’s who I was most curious about was Russell….I figured he may start this year.
It’s interesting that A&M brought about sixty players and even left some in CS or just didn’t play them. My old boss’s kid claims to have played baseball for UT and made a Big 12 academic list. A team only has 35 spots with eight (?) pure walk-ons. he didn’t get a spot but was offered bullpen catcher. Dad has a picture of him rounding the bases in his uniform. That’s the fate of 25 of those sixty but at least they got to travel, put on the uniform and maybe play in an exhibition.
Thanks for the recap!
I don’t know what the rules were back when the kid “played” at Texas but a bullpen catcher is not a part of the team. He probably played in a scrimmage while he was originally a part of the fall team. They then asked him to be the bullpen catcher because he wasn’t near good enough to play. It is a stupid rule because all of the team gets to know the BPC and he travels with them as well. It is just a way for them to get an extra player that doesn’t count against the 40 that can be on the team. I have never heard the rule that you can only have 8 walk one. If that was true, then UH would never have a full roster.