Shriner's Classic - Observations

Overall, it was a disappointing weekend, though there were highlights.

Oklahoma - What a game and a great pitchers duel between the starters. I thought Bennett was phenomenal. Money was nails as well. He really stepped up in a few high leverage situations. We are going to be tough to beat on Friday nights with him going. Doughty comes through in the clutch followed by Thompson to cap it off. We had some costly fielding mistakes in this game - A theme that lasted all weekend. More to come on that. Obviously the highlight of the weekend. Oklahoma is an average team but when Bennett is on the mound, they can play with just about anyone. I thought LSU showed a lot of resilience in this game.

Texas - Tough game. Tristan Stevens threw a gem. He's a very good pitcher and I expect he'll limit the bats for a lot of teams this year. However, we should have scored more runs than we did in my opinion. There were multiple missed opportunities where we had RISP and just could not pull through. Floyd is not the answer on Saturdays or in the starting rotation at all for that matter. More on that below. I was very impressed with both Dutton and Vietmeier in this game. They both looked good and without the fielding mistakes, this game would have been a lot closer. Going to have to get timely hits to beat good teams. Didn't do it against UT.

Baylor - By far the most disappointing game of the weekend to me. Taylor gets the start which many people wanted to see. Got off to a bit of a rocky start and got himself out of a jam at one point. The stuff looked good as usual. Would have liked to see him get another inning or two. Fielding was atrocious. Hitting was sub par. This is a bad loss to put it plainly. Baylor is not a good team.


Player/Team Observations

Ty Floyd - Until he develops a secondary offering, I don't think he can be in your starting rotation. The book is out on him now. His fastball is a very good pitch. But talented hitters are going to wait for the one that you miss with and hammer it just like UT did. You can not go extended innings in the SEC with only one pitch. I think Taylor is probably the favorite to take his spot but maybe you see Fontenot get a shot at starting again. Either way, we need to start getting other guys starters reps to prepare for SEC play.

Fielding - Absolutely atrocious. It's hard to believe that they could be this bad in the field. These are not difficult plays that are being messed up. We can't even do the simple things. Kicking balls, throwing balls that should be eaten, etc. I have never seen a college team struggle to throw the ball to first base like this team. At this point, I am surprised when Morgan doesn't have to make a miraculous play to make the out at first. Through 12 games, we have 26 errors. It's led to 13 unearned runs. Quite honestly, this team's pitching has not been the problem (admittedly not perfect). It's the field playing behind them. You can not win regularly in the SEC with this kind of fielding. I'm not sure how to fix it.

Timely Hitting - Big struggle here this weekend. Couldn't take advantage of the few opportunities that we had against UT. Several missed opportunities in the Baylor game as well. This is not too concerning of an issue at this point to me. I think our bats figure this out.


Miscellaneous

- Jacob Berry has a tremendous bat. He obviously has to be in the lineup every night. However, he does not have a position. He is awkward in RF and at 3b. Seems like he may need to be DH. Can Jobert play OF?

- Thought Vietmeier was a bright spot this weekend. Good to see him having success. I hadn't figured him as an arm we could count on but seems like he'll definitely be able to play a role.

- We are going to see a lot of good Friday night starters in SEC play this year. It's concerning that we weren't able to generate any offense against the two studs we saw Friday and Saturday. Clearly, expectations must be tempered when facing those type of guys. But we only mustered 1 run against OU and UT starters. Going to have to take a step forward there.


This team has a lot of potential. It's still very early in the season and I think their best baseball is ahead of them. The bats are going to be there. Pitching is fine. Fielding needs to be this coaching staff's #1 priority for the next 2 weeks.