I'm still troubled over baseball postseason

by ryanlionrah on Jun 10, 2008 1:24 AM CDT Comment 6 comments

I think we can all agree that baseball receives nowhere near the coverage that football and basketball do. One only needs to look at the television coverage of each sport for evidence of this. But I don't think this excuses what I consider to be a massive overlooking of a serious error.

I feel that as much as Augie was an integral part of the previous two national championships with his gambles paying off immensely, he is just as much a part of this year's early exit with his lack of throwing the dice. I am referring of course to Chance Ruffin playing six innings.

When interviewed after the game about this decision, Augie's defense was that he remembered a game during the regular season where an early lead evaporated and was scared that this would happen again. The Longhorns allowed 13+ runs four times this year: twice allowing 13 runs, once 14 runs and the last being the infamous Missouri game. Are ya'll ok with a coach that is scared to play ball? Because I personally find myself in the camp of "It's not even f***ing close to acceptable to say you were scared." Where's Mike Gundy on this one? I believe that if we played a 10 game series with Sam Houston State and a 12 run lead in every game, we would win 10.

I called for Chance to be pulled in the gameday thread among others, and I recall Kirk Bohls writing a blog about this very subject the next day. Let's play a fool's game called what if and say that Augie pulled Chance during the second and the Longhorns go on to win a close game of 13-3. Chance had only pitched something like 15-20 pitches at that point and so we'll say he's ready to pitch the next day. This leaves us with Chance or Wood to start against St. Johns, and assuming wins, whoever didn't pitch in the previous game for the first against Rice and Kasparek for the second Rice game. How can anyone disagree that this looks infinitely more manageable than the shitshow of pitching we showed up with against Rice? Rice nearly scored the number of runs in one game these other three starters allowed in three games. But of course this never happened because Augie felt it was necessary to keep our best starter in for 6 innings in 12-0 game against the worst team in the regional. That's great coaching right there.

PS. Henry Melton, Benjamin Wells, and I'm 95% sure Derrick Johnson showed up to a house I was at a few days ago. A few volleyball players there as well. :DDD

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You were not alone, rlr

I was sitting near the dugout and a few vocal fans were suggesting that Augie pull him. The tone was initially light-hearted enough but became rather tense as he kept him in for more innings. It remained a topic of discussion in our general area throughout the game and into the next. I won’t speculate myself, but your argument has merit.

We were sitting near Tant Shepherd’s parents (his mom was a track star at Texas during my time there). Being so geographically removed from UT baseball most of the year, it was nice to hear their perspective and insight on all the kids’ histories together, from little league to summer league to present day. It’s a tight-knit group. John Danks Sr. (also a fellow alum) was surrounded by Jordan’s women (plural) between games. Maybe they were just worshiping his James Streetesque DNA. heh heh

A different outcome would have been nice, but it was still enjoyable to be around so many Burnt Orange People.

by horndude on Jun 10, 2008 8:13 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

What's changed from our previous seasons...

the pitching coach. Skip Johnson vs. Frank Anderson (and to a lesser extent Holliday).

Maybe it’s the age old adage, throw the assistant under the bus instead of the coach, but that seems to be the case here. It’s been since JB Cox that we’ve been able to have a legitimate closer. Street and Cox were the mainframes of our Omaha trips (even the ones we lost).

But then again there’s the fielding percentage, which Skip really doesnt affect…. so who knows whats been wrong the past three seasons.

by the other Andrew on Jun 10, 2008 8:17 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

My take

I think some coaches reach a certain level of experience where they can say “I’ve seen crazier things” to anyone who questions one of their decisions. Frankly, that’s bull. Augie always talks about overcoming fear and acting in the face of it as this jedi secret to baseball success, and yet he specifically said he was scared to pull Ruffin. Something was seriously wrong with this team all year. Some say Skip Johnson, some say Augie farted away all of his practice time with the new schedule, some say we just weren’t any damn good, but I don’t know.

As far as not pulling Ruffin, most of the coaches (in any sport) that I’ve known have the attitude that “games aren’t over til they’re over”, and you shouldn’t look ahead when you’ve got a game to play. In the rugby sevens tournament I was in this weekend, we followed that logic and burned up our best seven guys before the final game and we ended up losing our division championship badly to a team we had murdered earlier in the day. I think you’ve got to look at the situation and say “Boening pitches against Sam, if we lose, we lose, but if I burn up Ruffin today we have no Chance against Rice”. Now, the stakes aren’t very high in my sevens tournament that we’re just in for the experience, which is why it was fine that we didn’t win, but the stakes are much higher in an NCAA regional. I think Augie should have seen that losing to Sam wasn’t that much worse than losing to Rice. Either way we’re going home.

by Horn Brain on Jun 10, 2008 8:45 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Lost Opportunity

Honestly, the Horns were given a great draw for the post-season. I think largely based on passed CWS performance/appearances, and they pissed it away. Truth be told I’m not all that shocked it ended the way it did this season. For some reason I just had a weird vibe all year. As unfortunate as it sounds, I’m pleased with being Big 12 tourney champs this year. Since part of the original post was comparing coverage of the sports, I’ll say this….Maybe Augie, Rick, and Mack are setting up the Horns athletic department for an 09 trifecta (but why waste 08????)!!!! haha

by UT Fanatic on Jun 10, 2008 9:40 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I just know

that if Mack had pulled a similar “flop”, his ass would be getting roasted similar to post-A&M. I felt it was unfortunate that more attention was not given to postseason screwups (the only kind that really matter in baseball). I realize that it’s Augie’s style to play safe small ball, but it takes a little more to win the CWS (like pitching :P). We all know he has it in him from past performances, I just hope he’s ready to show it again next year. Hopefully moving on from Kiddie Corps season will give him the confidence necessary to do so.

by ryanlionrah on Jun 10, 2008 12:34 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree, rlr

The college baseball tournament is a different beast from major league baseball. You know that the first team you play is going to be much weaker than the 1 or 2 seed. In my opinion, if you have a weak pitching staff like we did this year, you have to save your best pitcher for the most important game. If you can’t beat a weak team with one of your weaker pitchers, how are you supposed to beat the best team with that same pitcher?

by GhostofBigRoy on Jun 11, 2008 5:54 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs