Starting out strong

SunCoastSooner · Post by **SunCoastSooner** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:00 pm

Oklahoma took down Texass State the other night 7-6 and turned around to pound Texass Pan Am 16 -3.

23 runs and 31 hits in 2 games, not a bad start to the season.

SunCoastSooner · Post by **SunCoastSooner** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:47 pm

Followed by getting our asses kicked by Lamar on Sunday. :(

The sunshine pumpers are still singing Sandoval's praises but it seems to be the same song next verse with him. Most improved pitcher in the country over the fall my red injun ass.

Left Seater · Post by **Left Seater** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:15 pm

RICE won but we played a D II school so no idea how that really should be looked at. We will know more after the Astros classic.

Playing today against a team we should kill.

Killian · Post by **Killian** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:39 pm

SunCoast,

February 26th. :twisted:

SunCoastSooner · Post by **SunCoastSooner** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 10:10 pm

Killian wrote:SunCoast,

February 26th. :twisted:

Service Academies Classic... I know. :D

Should be good for some nice smack between the two of us around here.

Mikey · Post by **Mikey** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 10:28 pm

Stanford got off to a good start over the weekend with a 3 game sweep of # 5 ranked Cal State Fullerton.

On the other hand, Cal State Fullerton got off to a shitty start by getting swept in three games by previously unranked Stanford.

Killian · Post by **Killian** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:38 pm

ND should have a pretty solid team this year. Their pitching should be their strength and they have a few solid hitters on their team. The thing I'm most interested in seeing is how freshman Evan Sharpley does swinging the stick. Mainieri is pretty excited about his potential at the plate. If he does well, I wouldn't be surprised to see him give up football next year and concentrate on baseball full time, what with all the QB's coming in.

Getting consistant production from this lineup will be the big challenge.

SunCoastSooner · Post by **SunCoastSooner** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:56 pm

Killian wrote:ND should have a pretty solid team this year. Their pitching should be their strength and they have a few solid hitters on their team. The thing I'm most interested in seeing is how freshman Evan Sharpley does swinging the stick. Mainieri is pretty excited about his potential at the plate. If he does well, I wouldn't be surprised to see him give up football next year and concentrate on baseball full time, what with all the QB's coming in.

Getting consistant production from this lineup will be the big challenge.

Our bats are strong but our pitching staff is another matter.

Mikey · Post by **Mikey** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 3:12 pm

Stanford was not expected to contend this year, partly because they have such a young team. They were not ranked in the top 20 preseason for the first time since the Baseball Americal poll started in 1981. There are three freshmen in the starting lineup. Seven freshmen played in the sweep of CSF, including the three different winning pitchers, and one of those also got the save in the final game. If this is any indication of how good these young players are it could be an interesting season.

Killian · Post by **Killian** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 4:35 pm

SunCoastSooner wrote:
Killian wrote:ND should have a pretty solid team this year. Their pitching should be their strength and they have a few solid hitters on their team. The thing I'm most interested in seeing is how freshman Evan Sharpley does swinging the stick. Mainieri is pretty excited about his potential at the plate. If he does well, I wouldn't be surprised to see him give up football next year and concentrate on baseball full time, what with all the QB's coming in.

Getting consistant production from this lineup will be the big challenge.
Our bats are strong but our pitching staff is another matter.

Should be the perfect game. I would assume that you guys are going to get either Manship or Samardzija. My guess would be Manship.

SunCoastSooner · Post by **SunCoastSooner** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 5:36 pm

Killian wrote:
SunCoastSooner wrote:
Killian wrote:ND should have a pretty solid team this year. Their pitching should be their strength and they have a few solid hitters on their team. The thing I'm most interested in seeing is how freshman Evan Sharpley does swinging the stick. Mainieri is pretty excited about his potential at the plate. If he does well, I wouldn't be surprised to see him give up football next year and concentrate on baseball full time, what with all the QB's coming in.

Getting consistant production from this lineup will be the big challenge.
Our bats are strong but our pitching staff is another matter.
Should be the perfect game. I would assume that you guys are going to get either Manship or Samardzija. My guess would be Manship.

Samardzija from the football team?

Killian · Post by **Killian** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 6:04 pm

Yeah. He is ND's #2, but he's damn good. He was Big East Rookie of the Year two years ago and currently is a top 100 player according to Baseball America. Throws in the low 90's and has some pretty good off speed stuff. Before his breakout year in football, he was likely going to get drafted and try his hand at baseball. Now that he is considerd one of the top returning WR in football, those plans are on hold. ND has a pretty good history of football players playing baseball.

Cicero · Post by **Cicero** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:23 pm

"The SHark" throws gas and look pretty imposing on the mound at 6'5". I personally think his career could be baseball b/c of his size.

Killian - If he balls this year and gets drafted in say the Top 3 Rounds, do you think he will jump at the chance?

Killian · Post by **Killian** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:31 pm

I doubt it. Right now, he's looked at (best case senario) as a 4th-6th round pick. Mainieri thinks he could go higher, but right now his best bet lies with football. If he has anything close to the season he had last year, he will be a first round pick in football. Hard to turn down that kind of guaranteed money.

The thing with Samardzija is that he is a very good college pitcher, but he lacks that "out" pitch that great pitchers have. He throws hard, but with little movement. His breaking and off speed stuff is okay, but again, nothing that makes you sit back and go "wow".

If Samardzija dedicated 100% of his time to baseball, trained in the offseason with a pitching coach, etc., he could probably develop those type of pitches. The wild card is that he does truly love baseball. But I think he knows that his best shot at a huge pay day is football.

Left Seater · Post by **Left Seater** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 6:07 pm

Just in case you guys missed it, there is a new #1. :)

Mikey · Post by **Mikey** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 7:44 pm

Funny how 5 of the top 6 haven't played any games yet.

It's a little early, I guess.

SunCoastSooner · Post by **SunCoastSooner** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 6:09 pm

Left Seater wrote:Just in case you guys missed it, there is a new #1. :)

How'd that work out for ya this weekend? :D

Did Texass really toss their top guys out there cause they haven't been doing mcu of that early in the season this year?