Texas Baseball -- The Day After

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Texas swept Texas A&M this weekend, but Texas A&M backed into the Big XII regular season championship and the Lone Star Showdown. We'd mention how fans from both sides acknowledge that the latter is pretty meaningless, but that would be sour grapes, so we won't. Either way, Texas has gone from a possible bubble team a few weeks ago to a possible regional host with a good showing in Oklahoma City.

The schedule for the tournament has been released (get it here) and Texas has some good news. It avoids two of the three Big XII teams it lost series to (Nebraska and Okie State) until the championship game, and gets the other (Mizzou) first thing Wednesday.

Normally the Big XII Tourney means resting starters and preventing injuries, but it is far more meaningful this year, raising some interesting questions:

·     Who's the Wednesday starter (our money's on Workman)?

·     What's the rest of the starting rotation?

·     Who's the second reliever out of the pen?

·     How awesome is Chance Ruffin?

·     How important does Augie think the tourney is?

·     How hard will he push the starting rotation?

If these questions seem pitcher heavy, it's because that's where the majority of question marks with this team lie. For the first time in a while for this team, however, things are looking up.