Well, after all the buildup the ACC tournament turned out - for UVA, at any rate - like most other weekend series. Go somewhere, win more than you lose, go home, and no special accolades attached, which is code for we didn't win it.
That said, I don't call it entirely unsuccessful. UVA got dusted by the Hokies on Wednesday - bad - and dusted Georgia Tech the next day - good. Losing the first game meant we needed three things in order to happen in order to see the Hoos in the championship game, and #'s 1 and 3 got taken care of just fine while #2 (GT needed to beat VT, and didn't) never materialized. Some short takeaways from the weekend:
-- When FSU dropped their second game of the tourney, it assured us of one important thing: UVA has more ACC championships this year than anyone else. No ties: we have five to everyone else's less-than-five.
-- It's kind of been a while since Nick Howard started a game, and lately when Brandon Waddell has a good game it's usually on the order of "nice job getting out of all those jams." I'm pleased to watch Waddell battle; you can tell he's got some of that no-fear mentality that our coaches want to see out of their starters, and when you've got that, developing your stuff is the easy part. But right now, Scott Silverstein is the starter I trust the most on the hill.
-- Which in turn sets up nicely for the upcoming regional. The #1 seed has the luxury of the option to hold back their ace for the second game,** and the way it goes this year, we don't even have to mess with the rotation to achieve that.
** Which I maintain is the most important game regardless of seed, but typically, the 1 seed is guaranteed to have the tougher contest in the second game, while the same can't be said for the 2/3 seeds.
-- Kevin McMullan has always been the Shamel Bratton of third-base coaches. Don't do that don't do that why did you do that YESSSSSSS
-- Florida State - the #2 seed and Atlantic Division champion - went 0-3 on the week. If you like you may call that an indictment of the silly division system that awards pointless division championships and serves no purpose whatsoever. Although I would temper that by pointing out that FSU would've been the #3 seed in a correct divisionless system and would've still had GT and VT on their plate.
-- Seeing Whit Mayberry go long enough to be eligible for a win is nice. That pretty much officially gives us four starters for the NCAAs, and a fifth (Kyle Crockett) who can turn in some very long relief outings and destroy left-handed hitting besides. (And has a fan in Mike Martin, who sounded slightly awestruck in saying Crockett has a "beautiful, beautiful arm." There's no Danny Hultzen or even a Tyler Wilson or Branden Kline on this staff, but what it lacks in ace-quality pitching it makes up for in depth. Long after opponents have gotten into the part of their bullpen that makes their fans sweat, we're still trotting out quality arms.
-- A school of thought said that if we knew the FSU game would be meaningless as it relates to the ACC tournament (which it was since VT had already clinched their trip to Sunday's championship game) we should empty the bench and play all the dudes who don't otherwise play. In retrospect, I'm glad we didn't, as it gave our players one last taste of extra-innings drama - and another lesson in how to win - before the NCAAs began.
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And now for future baseball stuff instead of past baseball stuff:
-- UVA's tournament draw is pretty decent. Nobody stands out as particularly scary in our own regional of UNC-Wilmington, Elon, and Army. Army does have a solid pitching staff and will probably toss Chris Rowley again, the same guy UVA faced in last season's regional and managed to hit fairly well. But no power-conference two-seeds and no sneaky mid-majors, like, say....
-- ....South Alabama, who is in our paired regional as a two-seed against host Mississippi State. The Bulldogs actually got two such sneaky mid-majors, with Mercer tossed in there as well. Mississippi State has a top-ten RPI but in terms of record was fifth in the SEC, behind Vandy, LSU, Arkansas, and South Carolina. So we could've done worse in the draw. Much worse. UVA, by the way, is the national 6 seed.
-- I'll tell you who else could've done worse: Miami. The tournament committee practically fellated the Hurricanes. Miami's RPI is 19th, which might help explain it, but sheesh: this was a team with a losing ACC record. They did beat Clemson, VT, and GT in weekend series, but also lost series to Duke, BC(!), and Wake (three of the four non-entrants to the ACC tournament) as well as Florida, who is a regional 3 seed. Which is probably what Miami should be. Instead they're a 2 seed with a nationally unseeded regional host. Wut? Well, they have one of the nation's toughest 3 seeds in Oklahoma State, so it's not all craziness. I guess either the committee likes their RPI + series wins, or else it's a measure of respect for the ACC.
-- This is the bracket that will be used next year and in the future at ACC baseball tournaments. It's a 10-team double-elimination. Having been morbidly fascinated by how they will pull that off, I find that the final product doesn't disappoint in all its convolusion. Stare at it til your head hurts, then come back here for the explanation, such as it is, if you need it. Let's see if I can interpret that:
* The teams will be divided into two pools of five: 1-4-6-7-9 and 2-3-5-8-10.
* The top two seeds will get a bye. (Presumably, they will still be, stupidly, the division winners.)
* The first set of games, on Tuesday, will be 4-9, 6-7, 3-10, and 5-8. The losers of those games head to the loser's bracket to play Wednesday. In each pool, the best-seeded winner gets a bye til Thursday, and the worst-seeded winner plays the 1 or 2 seed on Wednesday, the winner of which advances to Thursday.
* The winner of this Thursday winner's bracket game advances to Saturday. The loser heads to the loser's bracket, which concludes sorting itself out on Friday and sends a team to Saturday.
* By Saturday, we only have four teams left, two from each pool, which will play a single-elimination tourney to decide a champion on Sunday.
Got all that? On one hand, I guess it's nice that they've found a way to reward better-seeded teams. (I'm avoiding using the term "higher-seeded" because that bracket uses that term to mean worse.) On the other hand, that has potential to grind up pitching staffs something fierce, and plus nobody will be able to understand it. Is the ACC baseball tournament such a cash cow that it's so vital to have 10 teams there? (No. It isn't.) Better alternatives include:
* The same thing we're doing now.
* Not having a tourney at all, playing one extra week of regular season ball, and handing the banner to the team with the best record.
* This.
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Further stuff in brief:
-- Fresh off losing one Richardson, the football team picks up a future one in the form of OL Will Richardson. Despite the limited space in the 2014 class, I think we'll probably try to get one more OL, but with Richardson and Steven Moss, the class is a paragon of quality-not-quantity on the OL. Richardson has ratings ranging from high three stars to sitting inside the ESPN 150. (Though admittedly, had he chosen Florida State instead, he had a much better likelihood of staying there.)
-- Paul Jesperson has settled on Northern Iowa as his landing spot. Much closer to his home of Wisconsin than his other option, USC. Much luck to him.
-- UVA's first two football games - BYU and Oregon - will both be 3:30 games, the former on ESPNUVA and the latter on ESPN2 or ABC depending on your location. Win. A strong showing in those games - which is probably to say, beat BYU and don't get embarrassed by Oregon - should set us up for decently-televised games through mid-October. And since that's the softer part of the schedule, moving through it with aplomb might just give us some well-timed games (i.e. not at noon on Raycom) the rest of the year.
Showing posts with label hultzen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hultzen. Show all posts
Monday, May 27, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
weekend review
Who says February sucks? Well, I do. I hate February. One of its few redeeming qualities is that it's the shortest month, so we get out of the misery quicker and into what is supposed to be spring. But another redeeming quality is that it's the beginning of the spring sports season and so we get to witness a lot of wins. Especially if the hoops team is playing well.
Which it so happens they are. At some point as the Hoos were busy pulling away from Georgia Tech I thought to myself, "man, this would be a blowout if we'd ever hit a damn three pointer." Not long afterwards, Taylor Barnette dropped in two three-pointers easy as you please and it was a blowout.
I've been beating the drum that UVA's suddenly dynamic offense is not dependent on the three-pointer, and there couldn't have been a better example than this Georgia Tech game. UVA's game plan took GT's shot-blocking maestro Daniel Miller totally out of the shot-blocking business - in fact, Tech only had one blocked shot all day. Akil Mitchell was astoundingly wide open underneath the rim; sometimes so much so that Jontel Evans realized it before Mitchell did. And GT lived in deathly fear of leaving three-point shooters open, allowing Evans a lot of clear and easy lanes to the rim, which he took well full advantage of.
Toss in a few bad-idea defensive switches that left Joe Harris guarded in the post by GT's rail-thin backcourt (their guards are all awfully skinny and Harris's time in the weight room has borne fruit) and UVA just had its way inside the three-point line. That the Hoos could effect such a blowout while shooting a measly .316 from three (and getting the first 0-fer from Harris in that regard since the Mississippi Valley State game) is one of the biggest reasons to be excited about this team's chances in their remaining games. And really, they were already up 14 when Barnette popped those two three-buckets, and two more came even after that point. (Mike Tobey's was the best. It's not the first he's shot this year, so we knew he could do it, but basketball is the kind of messed-up game where your center comes back from mono and is maddeningly short on all his shots so of course his longest one is nothing but net.) We've always said "man when Tony Bennett's teams learn to play offense, watch the hell out" and it's starting to come true.
If you want to start giggling like a schoolgirl during a UVA basketball game this year, wait til they have a 20-point-and-widening lead on an ACC team and then say to yourself "and next year we get Malcolm Brogdon and Anthony Gill."
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I didn't get to watch the lacrosse game, so I only have two observations: holding Stony Brook to two second-half goals is impressive work by the defense (not that Stony Brook is a great offensive team, but they ain't VMI either) and second, end-of-quarter goals are going to kill us one day if that trend doesn't stop. Both Drexel and Stony Brook scored two goals with ten seconds or less left in a quarter.
Other than that, I got nothin'. Which leaves baseball, where every starting pitcher is apparently trying to one-up the other. Scott Silverstein rebounded nicely from last Saturday's performance to turn in over six shutout innings, and Whit Mayberry finished his game and his shutout by giving up one hit and four strikeouts in two and two-thirds.
They couldn't touch Brandon Waddell, though. Holy piss. Or Holy Toledo, I guess, since that's the official overused har-har-get-it phrase you're supposed to use when the Rockets come to town. Waddell struck out 15 batters in six innings. That is to say, only three hitters got themselves out some other way. Needless to say, Toledo did not score on him either. It is mentioned that Danny Hultzen was the last UVA pitcher to strike out 15 hitters, and I would love to go to the box score and look to see if that was done in only six innings also, but the website redesigned stripped it of most of its functionality and broke all the links. So I will check the ECU website, and learn that Hultzen did his work in seven innings. But Waddell walked a batter and Hultzen didn't. So.
Anyway, when you're comparing your freshman pitcher with two games under his belt to Danny Hultzen, you might have something special on your hands. Then again, only one UVA pitcher allowed any runs at all to Toledo, and that was (sigh) Nathan Kirby, who's going to have to get this straightened out. Actually, the folks at the game are suggesting being straightened out, as in a total lack of movement on his pitches, is why he's being knocked around. Fortunately, our other pitchers don't seem to be giving up any runs, so there's time to work on this.
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The results of this week's season sim are below:
They are starting to reflect reality now; for example the only two teams in real life with a chance at the ACC's #1 seed are Miami and Duke - and Miami can't fall below #2 - and so the sim is duly aware of this. I've been telling you that UVA is in the driver's seat for third seed, and the sim backs me up, giving us almost a 70% chance at winning it. What surprised me most is how apparently locked in Maryland is to the 6th seed, with very little hope of moving up and not much more chance than that of moving down. FSU, Clemson, and Wake are locked in a major struggle for the 7th seed, which earns you the likely right to play Georgia Tech.
Finally, the release of the ACC schedule (do you suppose part of the reason the confernce is supposedly in trouble is because they can't get their shit together in this regard til almost March?) and the announcement of the 2015-17 home-and-home with Boise State made me realize I haven't touched the future schedules page for quite some time. So I updated that as best as I could without having any kind of a new schedule model in hand.
Which it so happens they are. At some point as the Hoos were busy pulling away from Georgia Tech I thought to myself, "man, this would be a blowout if we'd ever hit a damn three pointer." Not long afterwards, Taylor Barnette dropped in two three-pointers easy as you please and it was a blowout.
I've been beating the drum that UVA's suddenly dynamic offense is not dependent on the three-pointer, and there couldn't have been a better example than this Georgia Tech game. UVA's game plan took GT's shot-blocking maestro Daniel Miller totally out of the shot-blocking business - in fact, Tech only had one blocked shot all day. Akil Mitchell was astoundingly wide open underneath the rim; sometimes so much so that Jontel Evans realized it before Mitchell did. And GT lived in deathly fear of leaving three-point shooters open, allowing Evans a lot of clear and easy lanes to the rim, which he took well full advantage of.
Toss in a few bad-idea defensive switches that left Joe Harris guarded in the post by GT's rail-thin backcourt (their guards are all awfully skinny and Harris's time in the weight room has borne fruit) and UVA just had its way inside the three-point line. That the Hoos could effect such a blowout while shooting a measly .316 from three (and getting the first 0-fer from Harris in that regard since the Mississippi Valley State game) is one of the biggest reasons to be excited about this team's chances in their remaining games. And really, they were already up 14 when Barnette popped those two three-buckets, and two more came even after that point. (Mike Tobey's was the best. It's not the first he's shot this year, so we knew he could do it, but basketball is the kind of messed-up game where your center comes back from mono and is maddeningly short on all his shots so of course his longest one is nothing but net.) We've always said "man when Tony Bennett's teams learn to play offense, watch the hell out" and it's starting to come true.
If you want to start giggling like a schoolgirl during a UVA basketball game this year, wait til they have a 20-point-and-widening lead on an ACC team and then say to yourself "and next year we get Malcolm Brogdon and Anthony Gill."
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I didn't get to watch the lacrosse game, so I only have two observations: holding Stony Brook to two second-half goals is impressive work by the defense (not that Stony Brook is a great offensive team, but they ain't VMI either) and second, end-of-quarter goals are going to kill us one day if that trend doesn't stop. Both Drexel and Stony Brook scored two goals with ten seconds or less left in a quarter.
Other than that, I got nothin'. Which leaves baseball, where every starting pitcher is apparently trying to one-up the other. Scott Silverstein rebounded nicely from last Saturday's performance to turn in over six shutout innings, and Whit Mayberry finished his game and his shutout by giving up one hit and four strikeouts in two and two-thirds.
They couldn't touch Brandon Waddell, though. Holy piss. Or Holy Toledo, I guess, since that's the official overused har-har-get-it phrase you're supposed to use when the Rockets come to town. Waddell struck out 15 batters in six innings. That is to say, only three hitters got themselves out some other way. Needless to say, Toledo did not score on him either. It is mentioned that Danny Hultzen was the last UVA pitcher to strike out 15 hitters, and I would love to go to the box score and look to see if that was done in only six innings also, but the website redesigned stripped it of most of its functionality and broke all the links. So I will check the ECU website, and learn that Hultzen did his work in seven innings. But Waddell walked a batter and Hultzen didn't. So.
Anyway, when you're comparing your freshman pitcher with two games under his belt to Danny Hultzen, you might have something special on your hands. Then again, only one UVA pitcher allowed any runs at all to Toledo, and that was (sigh) Nathan Kirby, who's going to have to get this straightened out. Actually, the folks at the game are suggesting being straightened out, as in a total lack of movement on his pitches, is why he's being knocked around. Fortunately, our other pitchers don't seem to be giving up any runs, so there's time to work on this.
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The results of this week's season sim are below:
They are starting to reflect reality now; for example the only two teams in real life with a chance at the ACC's #1 seed are Miami and Duke - and Miami can't fall below #2 - and so the sim is duly aware of this. I've been telling you that UVA is in the driver's seat for third seed, and the sim backs me up, giving us almost a 70% chance at winning it. What surprised me most is how apparently locked in Maryland is to the 6th seed, with very little hope of moving up and not much more chance than that of moving down. FSU, Clemson, and Wake are locked in a major struggle for the 7th seed, which earns you the likely right to play Georgia Tech.
Finally, the release of the ACC schedule (do you suppose part of the reason the confernce is supposedly in trouble is because they can't get their shit together in this regard til almost March?) and the announcement of the 2015-17 home-and-home with Boise State made me realize I haven't touched the future schedules page for quite some time. So I updated that as best as I could without having any kind of a new schedule model in hand.
Monday, March 26, 2012
weekend review
Which do you want first, the good news or the bad news? Bad news it is, and that means lacrosse. UVA surrendered its #1 ranking this weekend by surrendering an overtime goal to Johns Hopkins. As was only fitting with the direction of that game, it happened with five seconds to go.
The final sequence of the game was laced with some of the finest examples of traded attempts to give away a game that I have ever seen. Hopkins, with a golden opportunity to win the game in regulation, was called for offsides and followed it up with a too-many-men penalty. UVA, for its part, decided to wait out the penalty in order to guarantee first possession of overtime (a strategy I disagreed with) and then watched as Rob Emery allowed a routine pass to sail over his stick, handing possession right back. Hopkins didn't actually want it, but another too-many-men penalty - this one on UVA - forced them to actually try and take a shot to win. And so it went until John Ranagan of Hopkins said to hell with it and potted the game-winner just to spare the crowd the agony of watching another overtime play out like that.
What will give the Hoos confidence should there be a tournament rematch is this: Hopkins hardly ever scored in settled situations. Rob Fortunato's brilliance in net may have had something to do with it. Hopkins scored 11 goals, and I count at least seven in "special" situations; three man-up goals, two directly off faceoffs, and at least two fast breaks that I can remember. Six-on-six, offense vs. defense, the UVA defense was outstanding.
The offense, yes and no. Some nice plays, but I think the story of the game ultimately is the UVA failure to capitalize on chances. 10 goals in 32 chances - that's a good number against the Hop defense but a bad one for the UVA offense, and you can't pile on mistakes and expect a team like Hopkins not to take advantage. The one that sticks out most prominently is a pass to someone all alone in front of the goal (Bocklet? Briggs? Can't remember exactly) from behind the net in semi-transition. The pass was in the dirt, and was scooped by Hopkins and instead of a two-goal lead, it was tied five seconds later.
At any rate, the #1 seed is now out of the picture, and fine whatever, We Don't Want That Bullseye Anyway and all that. The ACC season is upon us, with some opportunities to do some major damage. It is now Hit A Terp With A Stick Week, which is my way of saying it's time to play Maryland, and you know how it is here at Maryland: we don't lose to Virginia. So they have that going for them, especially in things like football and baseball and basketball and whatnot. Maryland will go in slightly shorthanded after this little altercation that forced us to miss the first five minutes of our game while the refs decided who exactly should be ejected. Maryland's #41 in that video - the guy who delivered the cross-check, and shortly thereafter several punches, to a Tar Heel's head - is second-line midfielder Kevin Cooper, who'll miss the UVA game by NCAA statute that requires a one-game suspension for players ejected for fighting. This isn't exactly Cornell minus Rob Pannell, but they did seem to think enough of Cooper to have him out there for the game's crucial furious-rally moments. I don't care enough to get involved in the debate between There's No Place For That In Lacrosse and He's A Classy Kid Who Got Caught Up In The Moment - I simply enjoy watching players from our next opponent, regardless of who it is, remove themselves from our game with them.
Ultimately, though, the impact of Cooper's suspension on the UVA game is likely to be so negligible as to be not worth analyzing. Unless for some reason the NCAA suspends both Carolina's and Maryland's entire team - except for the guys currently on the field - for leaving the bench. That'd be fun if it happened, which it won't.
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Fortunately, the baseball weekend went a lot better, with a sweep over now 3-6 Clemson. I fear I may have overrated the Tigers in my season preview; they have no hitting, and in my humble estimation the wrong pitchers are in the starting rotation. The bottom of the order is terrible, and the bottom starts at like #5. The one guy who should have been bashing - third baseman Richie Shaffer - went zero-for-three-games with four strikeouts.
The stories of each of the three games were, in order, Jared King, Branden Kline, and Jason Stolz's absolutely terrible bunt. (This is why Brian O'Connor's philosophy is you don't play if you can't bunt.) Said bunt was representative of UVA's fielding cutting down Clemson's chances and limiting them to one run in the innings they did score, when they could've had more. UVA turned, on Sunday, some unorthodox double plays, including 3-6-3, 1-6-3, and most notably, 1-6; the latter was Stolz's popped-up bunt to Austin Young, who then doubled off the baserunner at second that had no business not already diving the hell back to the bag when that bunt went upwards in the first place.
The starting pitching was outstanding all weekend, especially Saturday's starter, Kline. To start the game, Kline allowed a triple and a sac fly, and then nine innings of zeroes save for one scratch single. That's how you earn ACC Pitcher of the Week. (That article notes that UVA leads all teams with 23 Pitcher of the Week awards in the last nine years. If I were less lazy I would find out how many of them are Danny Hultzen. I bet the answer lies somewhere between "several" and "many.")
It's also how you earn the confidence of every observer, including the ones that matter and make the decisions. Artie Lewicki was also strong on Sunday, and if that kind of thing continues and Whit Mayberry comes back strong from his elbow issues, the Hoos will have four solid starters, a prerequisite for serious contention in postseason play. I don't think there'll ever be a group that holds a candle to what we had last year - for crying out loud the third-best guy was the one who threw the perfect game - but this group of four, if pitching up to their actual reachable potential, is the kind of group that launches you to postseason overachievement.
UVA has two games against Towson this week, and then a very tough weekend matchup looms against NC State. The Wolfpack always seem to have our number, and the games are on the road, and that's a tough team this year that took two of three from Georgia Tech, swept the halfway-decent Wake Forest, and threatens tonight to also take a series from North Carolina.
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The latest hilarious googletubes rumor is the idea of Seth Greenberg going to SMU - remember they will be in the Biggish Eastish next year as part of that conference's master plan to to dilute the everloving piss out of their basketball product - to replace the lately fired Matt Doherty. (As the guy who led North Carolina all the way to the NIT and took the SMU program from 11th place in a 12-team conference to 11th place in a 12-team conference, Doherty's skills will no doubt be in high demand. In, like, Estonia.) I don't put any stock in the idea really; unless there's a huge pay raise involved or Greenberg just loves Dallas, that job would be a huge step down. Even from VT. Still, the idea is sobering. The day Greenberg is no longer in charge in Blacksburg will be a sad one at the FOV offices. Greenberg's style is enjoyable if you're rooting against the Hokies; his teams are undisciplined and just this side of unwatchable most of the time, and he's always good for some quotes when the tournament committee once again deems VT the 39th-best at-large team in the country, out of 37 actual tourney entrants. That said, he's an excellent recruiter. Unless they're paying lottery jackpot money, I'm very skeptical of the Hokies' ability to find a coach, when the time comes, that can match Greenberg's success.
The final sequence of the game was laced with some of the finest examples of traded attempts to give away a game that I have ever seen. Hopkins, with a golden opportunity to win the game in regulation, was called for offsides and followed it up with a too-many-men penalty. UVA, for its part, decided to wait out the penalty in order to guarantee first possession of overtime (a strategy I disagreed with) and then watched as Rob Emery allowed a routine pass to sail over his stick, handing possession right back. Hopkins didn't actually want it, but another too-many-men penalty - this one on UVA - forced them to actually try and take a shot to win. And so it went until John Ranagan of Hopkins said to hell with it and potted the game-winner just to spare the crowd the agony of watching another overtime play out like that.
What will give the Hoos confidence should there be a tournament rematch is this: Hopkins hardly ever scored in settled situations. Rob Fortunato's brilliance in net may have had something to do with it. Hopkins scored 11 goals, and I count at least seven in "special" situations; three man-up goals, two directly off faceoffs, and at least two fast breaks that I can remember. Six-on-six, offense vs. defense, the UVA defense was outstanding.
The offense, yes and no. Some nice plays, but I think the story of the game ultimately is the UVA failure to capitalize on chances. 10 goals in 32 chances - that's a good number against the Hop defense but a bad one for the UVA offense, and you can't pile on mistakes and expect a team like Hopkins not to take advantage. The one that sticks out most prominently is a pass to someone all alone in front of the goal (Bocklet? Briggs? Can't remember exactly) from behind the net in semi-transition. The pass was in the dirt, and was scooped by Hopkins and instead of a two-goal lead, it was tied five seconds later.
At any rate, the #1 seed is now out of the picture, and fine whatever, We Don't Want That Bullseye Anyway and all that. The ACC season is upon us, with some opportunities to do some major damage. It is now Hit A Terp With A Stick Week, which is my way of saying it's time to play Maryland, and you know how it is here at Maryland: we don't lose to Virginia. So they have that going for them, especially in things like football and baseball and basketball and whatnot. Maryland will go in slightly shorthanded after this little altercation that forced us to miss the first five minutes of our game while the refs decided who exactly should be ejected. Maryland's #41 in that video - the guy who delivered the cross-check, and shortly thereafter several punches, to a Tar Heel's head - is second-line midfielder Kevin Cooper, who'll miss the UVA game by NCAA statute that requires a one-game suspension for players ejected for fighting. This isn't exactly Cornell minus Rob Pannell, but they did seem to think enough of Cooper to have him out there for the game's crucial furious-rally moments. I don't care enough to get involved in the debate between There's No Place For That In Lacrosse and He's A Classy Kid Who Got Caught Up In The Moment - I simply enjoy watching players from our next opponent, regardless of who it is, remove themselves from our game with them.
Ultimately, though, the impact of Cooper's suspension on the UVA game is likely to be so negligible as to be not worth analyzing. Unless for some reason the NCAA suspends both Carolina's and Maryland's entire team - except for the guys currently on the field - for leaving the bench. That'd be fun if it happened, which it won't.
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Fortunately, the baseball weekend went a lot better, with a sweep over now 3-6 Clemson. I fear I may have overrated the Tigers in my season preview; they have no hitting, and in my humble estimation the wrong pitchers are in the starting rotation. The bottom of the order is terrible, and the bottom starts at like #5. The one guy who should have been bashing - third baseman Richie Shaffer - went zero-for-three-games with four strikeouts.
The stories of each of the three games were, in order, Jared King, Branden Kline, and Jason Stolz's absolutely terrible bunt. (This is why Brian O'Connor's philosophy is you don't play if you can't bunt.) Said bunt was representative of UVA's fielding cutting down Clemson's chances and limiting them to one run in the innings they did score, when they could've had more. UVA turned, on Sunday, some unorthodox double plays, including 3-6-3, 1-6-3, and most notably, 1-6; the latter was Stolz's popped-up bunt to Austin Young, who then doubled off the baserunner at second that had no business not already diving the hell back to the bag when that bunt went upwards in the first place.
The starting pitching was outstanding all weekend, especially Saturday's starter, Kline. To start the game, Kline allowed a triple and a sac fly, and then nine innings of zeroes save for one scratch single. That's how you earn ACC Pitcher of the Week. (That article notes that UVA leads all teams with 23 Pitcher of the Week awards in the last nine years. If I were less lazy I would find out how many of them are Danny Hultzen. I bet the answer lies somewhere between "several" and "many.")
It's also how you earn the confidence of every observer, including the ones that matter and make the decisions. Artie Lewicki was also strong on Sunday, and if that kind of thing continues and Whit Mayberry comes back strong from his elbow issues, the Hoos will have four solid starters, a prerequisite for serious contention in postseason play. I don't think there'll ever be a group that holds a candle to what we had last year - for crying out loud the third-best guy was the one who threw the perfect game - but this group of four, if pitching up to their actual reachable potential, is the kind of group that launches you to postseason overachievement.
UVA has two games against Towson this week, and then a very tough weekend matchup looms against NC State. The Wolfpack always seem to have our number, and the games are on the road, and that's a tough team this year that took two of three from Georgia Tech, swept the halfway-decent Wake Forest, and threatens tonight to also take a series from North Carolina.
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The latest hilarious googletubes rumor is the idea of Seth Greenberg going to SMU - remember they will be in the Biggish Eastish next year as part of that conference's master plan to to dilute the everloving piss out of their basketball product - to replace the lately fired Matt Doherty. (As the guy who led North Carolina all the way to the NIT and took the SMU program from 11th place in a 12-team conference to 11th place in a 12-team conference, Doherty's skills will no doubt be in high demand. In, like, Estonia.) I don't put any stock in the idea really; unless there's a huge pay raise involved or Greenberg just loves Dallas, that job would be a huge step down. Even from VT. Still, the idea is sobering. The day Greenberg is no longer in charge in Blacksburg will be a sad one at the FOV offices. Greenberg's style is enjoyable if you're rooting against the Hokies; his teams are undisciplined and just this side of unwatchable most of the time, and he's always good for some quotes when the tournament committee once again deems VT the 39th-best at-large team in the country, out of 37 actual tourney entrants. That said, he's an excellent recruiter. Unless they're paying lottery jackpot money, I'm very skeptical of the Hokies' ability to find a coach, when the time comes, that can match Greenberg's success.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
basketball preview part 1
It's weird approaching basketball season this year: I'm more excited for it than I have been in a while, and yet it's not a relief any more that it's here, because football is still doing work.
To commemorate the upcoming season, it's time for the preview as always. In the past this has taken the form of a best-case and worst-case scenario for each player. I'm still going to mini-capsule all the players, but I'm tweaking the formula just a little. Splitting it up into two, though, which is normal. Half the players today, half on Friday. Yes, special day on Friday. Normally I don't post anything Fridays during the football season unless something big comes up - this is because I do the game preview late on Thursday and I want that to be the top post on Saturday so it's right there - but it's basketball season and you should be hyped for this. So we get all special up in here.
#0 - Doug Browman
#30 - Thomas Rogers
What they bring: We're combining the walk-ons into one category here. Are either of them the next Will Sherrill? Probably not. Not that they can't play, but Sherrill's PT was the result of a rare combination: One, Sherrill was exceptionally smart. Like, 99th percentile smart. It made up for the fact that he was strong like flea. Two, Tony Bennett was installing a new system, players were getting hurt a little bit, and Sherrill was the quickest on the team to pick up on it. Bennett is a true-to-his-word kind of guy, and played the people who played like he wanted, and that was Will Sherrill, even if it meant leaving a lot of talent on the bench. Now that the talent has caught up to the execution, the walk-ons are back to racking up memberships in Club Trillion.
What we need: For them to run the starters ragged in practice so that games are easy.
#1 - Jontel Evans
What he brings: First off, a lot more hair. Plus, Bub's reputation as an excellent on-ball defender is not without reason. He had 40 steals last year; only three UVA players in the last decade - Sean Singletary, Travis Watson, and Chris Williams - have reached that number. So, the 2nd or 3rd best UVA hoopster of all time, and then back to the Gillen era. Evans's ability to run the offense as the point guard improved in fits and starts last year. His best was better than as a freshman, but he had his "moments" too. His off-ball defense cost him some minutes in favor of Sammy Zeglinski.
Evans will probably never be a scoring point guard, but in general the offense runs well with him at the point. His shot is decent, but not to be relied on.
What we need: If I could pick one thing to see Evans improve on, it'd be free-throw shooting. Sub-.600 just isn't good enough for a guard, and if Evans is a spotty free-throw shooter then he can't have the ball in his hands at the end of a game. He's the point guard, so that's not ideal. He must continue to steadily improve his command of the offense, and a little more confidence in his shot wouldn't hurt. His three-point shooting isn't going to scare anyone, but he can hit it enough to keep them honest. But he passed up a ton of open ones last season. Overall, Evans is plenty good enough to play the point in the ACC; the next step is doing it confidently and consistently.
#2 - Paul Jesperson
What he brings: Jesperson is a freshman who may redshirt; he's 6'6" and under 200 pounds (that is, scrawny.) If he doesn't redshirt, what he'll be expected to do is shoot. As of now, he's the kind of player you bring in off the bench and hope that he can loosen up the defense a little, maybe hit a few shots to swing some momentum. Probably not much else will be expected. Jesperson's size might create a mismatch if he's defended with a regular-sized guard, which he can shoot over top of. But Bennett is all about defense first, and Jesperson - as with most any freshman - is an unknown in that regard.
What we need: For him to pack on a couple pounds, for one. Let's start with hitting the shots he'll be brought in to hit, and see how it goes from there. Like I said - he may sit the year, he's got to add some muscle in order to be ready for the ACC grind.
#5 - Assane Sene
What he brings: A ton of height and some quality shot-blocking chops. There was hardly a facet of Sene's game that didn't improve last year, from his foul rate to his hands to his defensive positioning to his scoring touch. Instead of being a presence on defense and a liability on offense, Sene can now keep defenses honest. He's not the focus of the offense, but he no longer looks lost with the ball in his hands (or with it heading towards his hands.) Sene will block shots, about one and a half a game, and somewhat neutralize opposing centers and slashing guards. And he'll rebound without even having to think about it much, of course.
What we need: Such was the nature of Sene's metamorphosis last year that if he doesn't improve even a stitch on last season's numbers, I think we'd still take it. Just keep shooting over .500 and blocking shots and be someone that defenses have to account for a couple times, and it'll bring a much-needed dimension to our game. Some tremendously useful inside-out balance. It may be that with Mike Scott's reappearance, Sene's impact will be the same but his numbers suffer a bit, and that's OK too. I'll tell you what, though: give us exactly the same production as last year and I'll consider anything beyond that a pleasant bonus.
#12 - Joe Harris
What he brings: A hell of a lot more than we thought he did at this point last year. Before the season, my take was, "just shoot good and everything else is gravy." It turned out that Harris had a way-better-than-expected handle and a knack for finding the rim that you wouldn't have expected a skinnyish white freshman to have. Oh, plus he can shoot. He hit on 41.7% of three-bombs, which was the best mark for an ACC freshman since 1999-2000.
So now, he brings some expectations. Harris was easily the top freshman of last year, and will be counted on to bring a high-level scoring punch to the court. He was one of only five players to play all 31 games last year and he'll be in the starting lineup this year.
What we need: Other than Mike Scott, we basically are looking for Harris to become the team's top all-around player. Harris can rebound and score from a lot of different places. He'll be one of the most important players on the team, so no sophomore slumps, please. Harris is the top returning scorer besides Scott, and he'll be looked at to improve upon those numbers and generally take a big step toward becoming one of this team's stars.
#13 - Sammy Zeglinski
What he brings: A ton of experience; it feels like Sammy Z. has been around forever. Zeglinski will probably once again split the point guard minutes pretty evenly with Jontel Evans, and the two have been doing this for a while now so some consistency will be expected. Sammy is a little bit limited in what he can do - for example, he can only hit three pointers at the very tail end of the shot clock from horrible places on the court. (I'm exaggerating. A little. It's a little maddening that he can drop nothing but net and can't see it go in because he shot the ball in the process of falling behind the bench, and then goes 0 for the next 5.)
OK, he can be a little bit inconsistent there. But actually, consistency is something he does reasonably well. Even in three-point land. By now, you know what you're going to get. He's a veteran in running the offense, not especially athletic, but smart. Decent defense, and a surprisingly good rebounder. And he's cut down his turnover rate every year.
What we need: For there not to be a lot of difference between the offense as run by Sammy and the offense as run by Jontel. That's a little more on Evans's shoulders, actually, but as I said, the minutes are split, so it's up to both. They have to be excellent facilitators, and Zeglinski needs to keep on being a three-point threat and not go occasionally cold. Other than that, I don't think we can ask much more; truth is, Sammy's evolved into a solid, steady veteran.
#22 - Malcolm Brogdon
What he brings: Tony Bennett's reports from practice have been glowing, and Tony's a low-key guy not given to hyperbole. Brogdon sounds ready to step into the rotation right away, likely as a backup to Harris and/or KT Harrell, for starters. I think we'll see a guy like Harris, with basketball savvy, scoring chops, maybe less of a sharpshooter and more of a handler. Brogdon is being asked to develop his point-guard skills, and is said to be a solid defender as well.
What we need: If the starting lineup is as advertised, we probably don't "need" anything spectacular from Brogdon. Just some bench scoring, maybe come in and abuse somebody else's second string. That's for this year. Not that anything we get is a bonus, but that nobody's asking him to be the star. Yet. I believe the thought within the program, though, is that Brogdon is being groomed to play that starring role in the future. He's a versatile player, and with development could eventually be plugged in at the 1, 2, or 3. For this year, expect a solid but modest contribution, with a couple of games thrown in here and there that'll make you go starry-eyed. But as time passes, look for Brogdon to be a foundation player.
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OK, that's the first half. I cliffhangered you there, and you didn't even know it, because on Friday we pick this back up starting with my favorite player on this team. Half the reason I'm all excited for this season is because I'm giggling like a schoolgirl over the prospect of unleashing a motivated Mike Scott on the ACC. They're not gonna know what hit 'em.
I have one more thing before I go, which I stupidly forgot earlier. If you're a UVA baseball fan you'll like this report on Danny Hultzen from the Arizona Fall League. #2-pick Hultzen matched up against #1-pick Gerrit Cole in the Rising Stars Game and outpitched the shit out of him. Good times. Best line: "Hultzen is probably the fourth-best starter in the [Mariners] organization for 2012 after Felix Hernandez, Michael Pineda and Jason Vargas." That's the whole organization, not just the minors. Good stuff.
To commemorate the upcoming season, it's time for the preview as always. In the past this has taken the form of a best-case and worst-case scenario for each player. I'm still going to mini-capsule all the players, but I'm tweaking the formula just a little. Splitting it up into two, though, which is normal. Half the players today, half on Friday. Yes, special day on Friday. Normally I don't post anything Fridays during the football season unless something big comes up - this is because I do the game preview late on Thursday and I want that to be the top post on Saturday so it's right there - but it's basketball season and you should be hyped for this. So we get all special up in here.
#0 - Doug Browman
#30 - Thomas Rogers
What they bring: We're combining the walk-ons into one category here. Are either of them the next Will Sherrill? Probably not. Not that they can't play, but Sherrill's PT was the result of a rare combination: One, Sherrill was exceptionally smart. Like, 99th percentile smart. It made up for the fact that he was strong like flea. Two, Tony Bennett was installing a new system, players were getting hurt a little bit, and Sherrill was the quickest on the team to pick up on it. Bennett is a true-to-his-word kind of guy, and played the people who played like he wanted, and that was Will Sherrill, even if it meant leaving a lot of talent on the bench. Now that the talent has caught up to the execution, the walk-ons are back to racking up memberships in Club Trillion.
What we need: For them to run the starters ragged in practice so that games are easy.
#1 - Jontel Evans
What he brings: First off, a lot more hair. Plus, Bub's reputation as an excellent on-ball defender is not without reason. He had 40 steals last year; only three UVA players in the last decade - Sean Singletary, Travis Watson, and Chris Williams - have reached that number. So, the 2nd or 3rd best UVA hoopster of all time, and then back to the Gillen era. Evans's ability to run the offense as the point guard improved in fits and starts last year. His best was better than as a freshman, but he had his "moments" too. His off-ball defense cost him some minutes in favor of Sammy Zeglinski.
Evans will probably never be a scoring point guard, but in general the offense runs well with him at the point. His shot is decent, but not to be relied on.
What we need: If I could pick one thing to see Evans improve on, it'd be free-throw shooting. Sub-.600 just isn't good enough for a guard, and if Evans is a spotty free-throw shooter then he can't have the ball in his hands at the end of a game. He's the point guard, so that's not ideal. He must continue to steadily improve his command of the offense, and a little more confidence in his shot wouldn't hurt. His three-point shooting isn't going to scare anyone, but he can hit it enough to keep them honest. But he passed up a ton of open ones last season. Overall, Evans is plenty good enough to play the point in the ACC; the next step is doing it confidently and consistently.
#2 - Paul Jesperson
What he brings: Jesperson is a freshman who may redshirt; he's 6'6" and under 200 pounds (that is, scrawny.) If he doesn't redshirt, what he'll be expected to do is shoot. As of now, he's the kind of player you bring in off the bench and hope that he can loosen up the defense a little, maybe hit a few shots to swing some momentum. Probably not much else will be expected. Jesperson's size might create a mismatch if he's defended with a regular-sized guard, which he can shoot over top of. But Bennett is all about defense first, and Jesperson - as with most any freshman - is an unknown in that regard.
What we need: For him to pack on a couple pounds, for one. Let's start with hitting the shots he'll be brought in to hit, and see how it goes from there. Like I said - he may sit the year, he's got to add some muscle in order to be ready for the ACC grind.
#5 - Assane Sene
What he brings: A ton of height and some quality shot-blocking chops. There was hardly a facet of Sene's game that didn't improve last year, from his foul rate to his hands to his defensive positioning to his scoring touch. Instead of being a presence on defense and a liability on offense, Sene can now keep defenses honest. He's not the focus of the offense, but he no longer looks lost with the ball in his hands (or with it heading towards his hands.) Sene will block shots, about one and a half a game, and somewhat neutralize opposing centers and slashing guards. And he'll rebound without even having to think about it much, of course.
What we need: Such was the nature of Sene's metamorphosis last year that if he doesn't improve even a stitch on last season's numbers, I think we'd still take it. Just keep shooting over .500 and blocking shots and be someone that defenses have to account for a couple times, and it'll bring a much-needed dimension to our game. Some tremendously useful inside-out balance. It may be that with Mike Scott's reappearance, Sene's impact will be the same but his numbers suffer a bit, and that's OK too. I'll tell you what, though: give us exactly the same production as last year and I'll consider anything beyond that a pleasant bonus.
#12 - Joe Harris
What he brings: A hell of a lot more than we thought he did at this point last year. Before the season, my take was, "just shoot good and everything else is gravy." It turned out that Harris had a way-better-than-expected handle and a knack for finding the rim that you wouldn't have expected a skinnyish white freshman to have. Oh, plus he can shoot. He hit on 41.7% of three-bombs, which was the best mark for an ACC freshman since 1999-2000.
So now, he brings some expectations. Harris was easily the top freshman of last year, and will be counted on to bring a high-level scoring punch to the court. He was one of only five players to play all 31 games last year and he'll be in the starting lineup this year.
What we need: Other than Mike Scott, we basically are looking for Harris to become the team's top all-around player. Harris can rebound and score from a lot of different places. He'll be one of the most important players on the team, so no sophomore slumps, please. Harris is the top returning scorer besides Scott, and he'll be looked at to improve upon those numbers and generally take a big step toward becoming one of this team's stars.
#13 - Sammy Zeglinski
What he brings: A ton of experience; it feels like Sammy Z. has been around forever. Zeglinski will probably once again split the point guard minutes pretty evenly with Jontel Evans, and the two have been doing this for a while now so some consistency will be expected. Sammy is a little bit limited in what he can do - for example, he can only hit three pointers at the very tail end of the shot clock from horrible places on the court. (I'm exaggerating. A little. It's a little maddening that he can drop nothing but net and can't see it go in because he shot the ball in the process of falling behind the bench, and then goes 0 for the next 5.)
OK, he can be a little bit inconsistent there. But actually, consistency is something he does reasonably well. Even in three-point land. By now, you know what you're going to get. He's a veteran in running the offense, not especially athletic, but smart. Decent defense, and a surprisingly good rebounder. And he's cut down his turnover rate every year.
What we need: For there not to be a lot of difference between the offense as run by Sammy and the offense as run by Jontel. That's a little more on Evans's shoulders, actually, but as I said, the minutes are split, so it's up to both. They have to be excellent facilitators, and Zeglinski needs to keep on being a three-point threat and not go occasionally cold. Other than that, I don't think we can ask much more; truth is, Sammy's evolved into a solid, steady veteran.
#22 - Malcolm Brogdon
What he brings: Tony Bennett's reports from practice have been glowing, and Tony's a low-key guy not given to hyperbole. Brogdon sounds ready to step into the rotation right away, likely as a backup to Harris and/or KT Harrell, for starters. I think we'll see a guy like Harris, with basketball savvy, scoring chops, maybe less of a sharpshooter and more of a handler. Brogdon is being asked to develop his point-guard skills, and is said to be a solid defender as well.
What we need: If the starting lineup is as advertised, we probably don't "need" anything spectacular from Brogdon. Just some bench scoring, maybe come in and abuse somebody else's second string. That's for this year. Not that anything we get is a bonus, but that nobody's asking him to be the star. Yet. I believe the thought within the program, though, is that Brogdon is being groomed to play that starring role in the future. He's a versatile player, and with development could eventually be plugged in at the 1, 2, or 3. For this year, expect a solid but modest contribution, with a couple of games thrown in here and there that'll make you go starry-eyed. But as time passes, look for Brogdon to be a foundation player.
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OK, that's the first half. I cliffhangered you there, and you didn't even know it, because on Friday we pick this back up starting with my favorite player on this team. Half the reason I'm all excited for this season is because I'm giggling like a schoolgirl over the prospect of unleashing a motivated Mike Scott on the ACC. They're not gonna know what hit 'em.
I have one more thing before I go, which I stupidly forgot earlier. If you're a UVA baseball fan you'll like this report on Danny Hultzen from the Arizona Fall League. #2-pick Hultzen matched up against #1-pick Gerrit Cole in the Rising Stars Game and outpitched the shit out of him. Good times. Best line: "Hultzen is probably the fourth-best starter in the [Mariners] organization for 2012 after Felix Hernandez, Michael Pineda and Jason Vargas." That's the whole organization, not just the minors. Good stuff.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
season preview: Miami
Miami Hurricanes
Schedule:
9/5: @ Maryland (Mon.)
9/10: BYE
9/17: Ohio State
9/24: Kansas State
10/1: Bethune-Cookman
10/8: @ Virginia Tech
10/15: @ North Carolina
10/22: Georgia Tech
10/27: Virginia (Thu.)
11/5: Duke
11/12: @ Florida State
11/19: @ South Florida
11/25: Boston College (Fri.)
Skip: Clemson, NC State, Wake Forest
Projected starters:
QB: Jacory Harris (Sr.)
RB: Lamar Miller (rSo.)
RB: Mike James (Jr.)
WR: Travis Benjamin (Sr.)
WR: Laron Byrd (Sr.)
TE: Blake Ayles (Sr.)
LT: Malcolm Bunche (rFr.)
LG: Harland Gunn (5Sr.)
C: Tyler Horn (5Sr.)
RG: Brandon Washington (Jr.)
RT: Jermaine Johnson (rSo.)
DE: Adewale Ojomo (Jr.)
DT: Micanor Regis (Sr.)
DT: Marcus Forston (Jr.)
DE: Olivier Vernon (Jr.)
OLB: Ramon Buchanan (Sr.)
ILB: Jordan Futch (Sr.)
OLB: Sean Spence (Sr.)
CB: Lee Chambers (5Sr.)
CB: Jojo Nicolas (Sr.)
SS: Ray-Ray Armstrong (Jr.)
FS: Vaughn Telemaque (Jr.)
K: Matt Goudis (Fr.)
P: Matt Goudis (Fr.)
(Italics indicate new starter.)
Coach: Al Golden (1st season)
Media prediction: 2nd, Coastal Division
All-ACC:
2010 1st team: WR Leonard Hankerson, G Brandon Washington, P Matt Bosher
2010 2nd team: RB Damien Berry, OT Orlando Franklin, DE Allen Bailey, LB Sean Spence, CB Brandon Harris, S Ray-Ray Armstrong
2010 HM: LB Colin McCarthy
2011 preseason: G Brandon Washington, C Tyler Horn, LB Sean Spence, S Ray-Ray Armstrong
(Italics indicate departed player.)
Another new ACC regime begins in Miami, where Randy Shannon worked hard at cleaning up the thuggy perception of the Hurricane football team but couldn't clean up the wins column enough to satisfy the brass. In steps Al Golden, literally only two steps removed from his position as UVA DC. Anyone who can take Temple to a bowl game can probably coach some damn football, so the world waits to see what he can do when dropped into Talent Central.
OFFENSE
Probably the only major issue holding the Canes back is the one under center. Jacory Harris never got free from the interception bug, and Stephen Morris - Harris's replacement after being concussed by John-Kevin Dolce - continued Harris's tendency to huck the ball into the waiting hands of defenders. All told, Miami passers threw 27 interceptions, an average of more than two per game. If a quarterback isn't showing improvement in the turnover department going into his senior year, it'll probably continue to be a thing, so Harris will be pushed heavily and perhaps replaced midseason by the sophomore Morris unless the interceptions stop.
Miami could be a relative juggernaut offensively if they can solve the interception problem. (And if they decide to put an 11th player on the field.) Even with Leonard Hankerson gone, Miami has a pair of dangerous receivers in Travis Benjamin and Laron Byrd. Though Byrd technically played second fiddle to Benjamin on the depth chart last year while Hankerson ate up all the rest of the catches, Benjamin and Byrd finished with roughly equal stats. Behind them, the competition is fierce to be the third receiver on the field. At tight end, the competition is even crazier; the best option might be Blake Ayles, who took advantage of the NCAA's get-out-of-jail-free card from USC and can play right away.
The running attack should be good, too, especially behind a heavily experienced offensive line. Four starters return there, including preseason all-conference guys Tyler Horn and Brandon Washington anchoring the middle; Harland Gunn is a good player in his own right and the player on the line with the most starts under his belt. That's a powerful interior line that can really blast open some holes for the running backs. The left tackle job would likely have belonged to Seantrel Henderson, but back surgery puts a kibosh on those plans, and redshirt freshman Malcolm Bunche will take over the job.
The abovementioned running backs are Lamar Miller and Mike James, both big guys that could both pull a 25-carry-per game load if needed. James especially is a bowling ball type at under six feet and 222 pounds. Miami had a very good running game last year and it'll probably be even better this time out.
DEFENSE
Thanks to the pass-rushing acumen of Allen Bailey and some outstanding cornerbacks, Miami's pass defense was stout, but the run defense didn't quite live up to its billing. With Micanor Regis and Marcus Forston coming back to start at DT and having an extra year of experience, the interior line should be a good start. On the ends, Olivier Vernon and Adewale Ojomo are good pass-rushers but not great run-stoppers. Both of the backup ends are seniors and should figure heavily into the rotation, giving Miami solid depth on the line. The line lacks big-name players but looks solid regardless.
The real star of the defense, with Bailey now gone, is outside linebacker Sean Spence, likely poised for a national breakout season. Spence had 17.5 TFL last year, of which only two were sacks, and was second on the team in pass breakups in 2010 as well. Teams wanting to avoid running to his side will deal with Ramon Buchanan instead, another talented player if not quite on Spence's level. This is where Miami will look to for playmaking against the run. The linebacking corps would be in serious competition for best in the conference if the middle weren't so up in the air. Neither Jordan Futch or James Gaines - the two main suspects for the starting job - started any games last year, and Gaines played in only six.
The cornerbacks are likewise a work in progress after Miami lost so many last year. Lee Chambers is a career special-teamer, and Jojo Nicolas moved over from safety to shore up the position. Miami could afford to because Ray Ray Armstrong - despite not technically being a starter last year - is clearly ready for the job, and Vaughn Telemaque is a reliable if not flashy player.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Both kicking jobs are open, and the inside track probably belongs to freshman Matt Goudis, but competition goes on. Travis Benjamin will return both kicks and punts.
OUTLOOK
As with last year, answering a few questions could see Miami in heavy contention for a division title and a trip to the championship game. But one of the toughest questions is: how will they cope with the schedule? They must deal with Ohio State in the OOC, and trips to Virginia Tech and Florida State loom large as well; then there's the fact that they have two games on short rest, and the cherry on top is that the "extra prep time" game after their Thursday nighter against UVA, is Duke. So even with a good defense and what should be an excellent run game, Miami's win-loss record might not improve greatly. But they should still be one of the ACC's toughest outs, and undoubtedly a bowl team.
Edit: I SURE PICKED A HELLUVA DAY FOR THIS ONE I MEAN JEEBUS
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Some newsy bits:
- Danny Hultzen signed with the Mariners last night at almost literally the last possible moment. That wasn't too surprising, although it did offer a sliver of hope that he might pull a shocker and skip the pros for one more year. Nevertheless he deserves every dime he makes, and hopefully will be in the majors soon. The bigger surprise is that recruited pitcher Christian Binford also signed (with the Royals) and won't be arriving in the fall. Disappointing; I thought Binford had the goods to challenge for the rotation as soon as 2013, and frankly would have far improved his draft stock from the 30th round, where he was taken. However, Derek Fisher did not sign, allowing UVA to keep its top (by a longshot) hitting prospect.
- Whether there's any legs to this story or not, who really knows? This is the internet, after all. "This story" involves a South Carolina baseball player "doing something very, very bad," which they won't specify but is rumored to involve one of their players faking his SAT score in order to get eligible. If not true - highly possible as this is the internet - then I guess I've been a naughty rumormongerer. If true, it would be a pretty awful thing for the Gamecocks, as their CWS titles would surely be erased. It's different from a chunk of the team getting impermissible benefits, from, say, a tattoo parlor, since most of the team had to know or suspect what was going on and nobody was blabbing. A faked SAT score, that's a highly unfortunate thunderbolt from the sky and wraps up a bunch of innocent players into someone's greed and selfishness. That's the part where I feel bad for South Carolina. The part where I get pissed off is, suppose that was someone who played a big role in beating UVA during this year's CWS? If A = B and then B = C, then fuck that guy, man.
- Fullback Ryan Cobb has left the football team mid-fall. Huh. With Max Milien and Terence Fells-Danzer still at fullback, it's not a big thing this year, but they're both seniors. Cobb would've had the starting job open for him in 2012. For now, tight end Zach Swanson has been working out at fullback, which, along with Milien playing the position, seems to indicate that the coaches want the fullback to be more of an H-back (combo fullback and tight end) that actively participates in the offense a la Jason Snelling instead of just a guy who runs in front of the tailback hitting the first guy he sees. Freshman linebacker D.J. Hill is another guy who gets a lot of mention as a possible future fullback.
- Mike London talked about wanting to thin down the reps at quarterback and give the lion's share to a couple players as the season approaches. That's been done now; the winners of the derby are, for now, Mike Rocco and David Watford. One man's interpretation: Rocco is nominally the starter and Watford is in the lead for the backup position, but if the coaches don't see enough out of him, he'll redshirt. One man's prediction: Rocco starts William & Mary, and Watford plays just enough this season to raise the hackles of the "redshirt everyone" crowd.
Schedule:
9/5: @ Maryland (Mon.)
9/10: BYE
9/17: Ohio State
9/24: Kansas State
10/1: Bethune-Cookman
10/8: @ Virginia Tech
10/15: @ North Carolina
10/22: Georgia Tech
10/27: Virginia (Thu.)
11/5: Duke
11/12: @ Florida State
11/19: @ South Florida
11/25: Boston College (Fri.)
Skip: Clemson, NC State, Wake Forest
Projected starters:
QB: Jacory Harris (Sr.)
RB: Lamar Miller (rSo.)
RB: Mike James (Jr.)
WR: Travis Benjamin (Sr.)
WR: Laron Byrd (Sr.)
TE: Blake Ayles (Sr.)
LT: Malcolm Bunche (rFr.)
LG: Harland Gunn (5Sr.)
C: Tyler Horn (5Sr.)
RG: Brandon Washington (Jr.)
RT: Jermaine Johnson (rSo.)
DE: Adewale Ojomo (Jr.)
DT: Micanor Regis (Sr.)
DT: Marcus Forston (Jr.)
DE: Olivier Vernon (Jr.)
OLB: Ramon Buchanan (Sr.)
ILB: Jordan Futch (Sr.)
OLB: Sean Spence (Sr.)
CB: Lee Chambers (5Sr.)
CB: Jojo Nicolas (Sr.)
SS: Ray-Ray Armstrong (Jr.)
FS: Vaughn Telemaque (Jr.)
K: Matt Goudis (Fr.)
P: Matt Goudis (Fr.)
(Italics indicate new starter.)
Coach: Al Golden (1st season)
Media prediction: 2nd, Coastal Division
All-ACC:
2010 1st team: WR Leonard Hankerson, G Brandon Washington, P Matt Bosher
2010 2nd team: RB Damien Berry, OT Orlando Franklin, DE Allen Bailey, LB Sean Spence, CB Brandon Harris, S Ray-Ray Armstrong
2010 HM: LB Colin McCarthy
2011 preseason: G Brandon Washington, C Tyler Horn, LB Sean Spence, S Ray-Ray Armstrong
(Italics indicate departed player.)
Another new ACC regime begins in Miami, where Randy Shannon worked hard at cleaning up the thuggy perception of the Hurricane football team but couldn't clean up the wins column enough to satisfy the brass. In steps Al Golden, literally only two steps removed from his position as UVA DC. Anyone who can take Temple to a bowl game can probably coach some damn football, so the world waits to see what he can do when dropped into Talent Central.
OFFENSE
Probably the only major issue holding the Canes back is the one under center. Jacory Harris never got free from the interception bug, and Stephen Morris - Harris's replacement after being concussed by John-Kevin Dolce - continued Harris's tendency to huck the ball into the waiting hands of defenders. All told, Miami passers threw 27 interceptions, an average of more than two per game. If a quarterback isn't showing improvement in the turnover department going into his senior year, it'll probably continue to be a thing, so Harris will be pushed heavily and perhaps replaced midseason by the sophomore Morris unless the interceptions stop.
Miami could be a relative juggernaut offensively if they can solve the interception problem. (And if they decide to put an 11th player on the field.) Even with Leonard Hankerson gone, Miami has a pair of dangerous receivers in Travis Benjamin and Laron Byrd. Though Byrd technically played second fiddle to Benjamin on the depth chart last year while Hankerson ate up all the rest of the catches, Benjamin and Byrd finished with roughly equal stats. Behind them, the competition is fierce to be the third receiver on the field. At tight end, the competition is even crazier; the best option might be Blake Ayles, who took advantage of the NCAA's get-out-of-jail-free card from USC and can play right away.
The running attack should be good, too, especially behind a heavily experienced offensive line. Four starters return there, including preseason all-conference guys Tyler Horn and Brandon Washington anchoring the middle; Harland Gunn is a good player in his own right and the player on the line with the most starts under his belt. That's a powerful interior line that can really blast open some holes for the running backs. The left tackle job would likely have belonged to Seantrel Henderson, but back surgery puts a kibosh on those plans, and redshirt freshman Malcolm Bunche will take over the job.
The abovementioned running backs are Lamar Miller and Mike James, both big guys that could both pull a 25-carry-per game load if needed. James especially is a bowling ball type at under six feet and 222 pounds. Miami had a very good running game last year and it'll probably be even better this time out.
DEFENSE
Thanks to the pass-rushing acumen of Allen Bailey and some outstanding cornerbacks, Miami's pass defense was stout, but the run defense didn't quite live up to its billing. With Micanor Regis and Marcus Forston coming back to start at DT and having an extra year of experience, the interior line should be a good start. On the ends, Olivier Vernon and Adewale Ojomo are good pass-rushers but not great run-stoppers. Both of the backup ends are seniors and should figure heavily into the rotation, giving Miami solid depth on the line. The line lacks big-name players but looks solid regardless.
The real star of the defense, with Bailey now gone, is outside linebacker Sean Spence, likely poised for a national breakout season. Spence had 17.5 TFL last year, of which only two were sacks, and was second on the team in pass breakups in 2010 as well. Teams wanting to avoid running to his side will deal with Ramon Buchanan instead, another talented player if not quite on Spence's level. This is where Miami will look to for playmaking against the run. The linebacking corps would be in serious competition for best in the conference if the middle weren't so up in the air. Neither Jordan Futch or James Gaines - the two main suspects for the starting job - started any games last year, and Gaines played in only six.
The cornerbacks are likewise a work in progress after Miami lost so many last year. Lee Chambers is a career special-teamer, and Jojo Nicolas moved over from safety to shore up the position. Miami could afford to because Ray Ray Armstrong - despite not technically being a starter last year - is clearly ready for the job, and Vaughn Telemaque is a reliable if not flashy player.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Both kicking jobs are open, and the inside track probably belongs to freshman Matt Goudis, but competition goes on. Travis Benjamin will return both kicks and punts.
OUTLOOK
As with last year, answering a few questions could see Miami in heavy contention for a division title and a trip to the championship game. But one of the toughest questions is: how will they cope with the schedule? They must deal with Ohio State in the OOC, and trips to Virginia Tech and Florida State loom large as well; then there's the fact that they have two games on short rest, and the cherry on top is that the "extra prep time" game after their Thursday nighter against UVA, is Duke. So even with a good defense and what should be an excellent run game, Miami's win-loss record might not improve greatly. But they should still be one of the ACC's toughest outs, and undoubtedly a bowl team.
Edit: I SURE PICKED A HELLUVA DAY FOR THIS ONE I MEAN JEEBUS
******************************************************
Some newsy bits:
- Danny Hultzen signed with the Mariners last night at almost literally the last possible moment. That wasn't too surprising, although it did offer a sliver of hope that he might pull a shocker and skip the pros for one more year. Nevertheless he deserves every dime he makes, and hopefully will be in the majors soon. The bigger surprise is that recruited pitcher Christian Binford also signed (with the Royals) and won't be arriving in the fall. Disappointing; I thought Binford had the goods to challenge for the rotation as soon as 2013, and frankly would have far improved his draft stock from the 30th round, where he was taken. However, Derek Fisher did not sign, allowing UVA to keep its top (by a longshot) hitting prospect.
- Whether there's any legs to this story or not, who really knows? This is the internet, after all. "This story" involves a South Carolina baseball player "doing something very, very bad," which they won't specify but is rumored to involve one of their players faking his SAT score in order to get eligible. If not true - highly possible as this is the internet - then I guess I've been a naughty rumormongerer. If true, it would be a pretty awful thing for the Gamecocks, as their CWS titles would surely be erased. It's different from a chunk of the team getting impermissible benefits, from, say, a tattoo parlor, since most of the team had to know or suspect what was going on and nobody was blabbing. A faked SAT score, that's a highly unfortunate thunderbolt from the sky and wraps up a bunch of innocent players into someone's greed and selfishness. That's the part where I feel bad for South Carolina. The part where I get pissed off is, suppose that was someone who played a big role in beating UVA during this year's CWS? If A = B and then B = C, then fuck that guy, man.
- Fullback Ryan Cobb has left the football team mid-fall. Huh. With Max Milien and Terence Fells-Danzer still at fullback, it's not a big thing this year, but they're both seniors. Cobb would've had the starting job open for him in 2012. For now, tight end Zach Swanson has been working out at fullback, which, along with Milien playing the position, seems to indicate that the coaches want the fullback to be more of an H-back (combo fullback and tight end) that actively participates in the offense a la Jason Snelling instead of just a guy who runs in front of the tailback hitting the first guy he sees. Freshman linebacker D.J. Hill is another guy who gets a lot of mention as a possible future fullback.
- Mike London talked about wanting to thin down the reps at quarterback and give the lion's share to a couple players as the season approaches. That's been done now; the winners of the derby are, for now, Mike Rocco and David Watford. One man's interpretation: Rocco is nominally the starter and Watford is in the lead for the backup position, but if the coaches don't see enough out of him, he'll redshirt. One man's prediction: Rocco starts William & Mary, and Watford plays just enough this season to raise the hackles of the "redshirt everyone" crowd.
Friday, July 15, 2011
pre-weekend review
Time for a little housekeeping.....
- The baseball recruiting class is down by one player and then up by one. Nolan Clark, the juco catcher with the bat (as opposed to the one with the glove, which would be Chace Mitchell) signed a contract with the Phillies, which terminates his college eligibility. However, I did miss another juco player when I rolled through the baseball commits: Joel Effertz, a pitcher from the same Wisconsin juco that sent us Cody Winiarski.
Not having Clark means that Mitchell is probably the front-runner for catching duties but will (at least at first) split them with Ryan Levine and/or maybe incoming freshman Nate Irving. Levine and Mitchell are the top two choices, though. It also means that my musings on Clark taking over third base are moot. So that will probably be Stephen Bruno.
Effertz posted a 3.03 ERA with 79 Ks and a 7-4 record at MATC this spring. (For useless comparison's sake, Winiarski had an ERA of 2.39 the year before he came to UVA.) He'll be an incoming sophomore. Having another arm to throw at the weekend starter problem is a fantastic thing. Candidates now include Branden Kline, Kyle Crockett (the two that probably have the biggest lead on the field) as well as Effertz, Scott Silverstein, and Whit Mayberry. Somebody out of that group might well also be the closer, or, for that job, O'Connor may turn to Artie Lewicki.
- Georgia Tech got in some trouble the other day. GT fans are pretty pissed about the whole thing, but if you ask me they got off easy. At first glance, vacating the 2009 ACC championship over a couple of shirts seems harsh. But the NCAA had a long list of nasty words to say about GT's apparent hindrance of the investigation. So a couple hundred dollars' worth of apparel became a major violation that the NCAA takes very seriously.
The thing is, this gives them repeat-violator status: "If Tech commits another major infraction before Nov. 17, 2010, it will be subject to added penalties as a repeat violator." And for supposedly being a huge hindrance to an investigation and being a repeat violator, GT football gets....four more years of probation. It's pretty clear the NCAA thinks vacating games is a serious penalty just shy of chopping off a leg or two.
For anyone hoping to see any of the various programs currently under the NCAA microscope (Auburn, OSU, Oregon, UNC) hammered with the hammer of thunder and justice, this is a disappointing development. Vacating games is nobody's idea of a deterrent. Let me state that a little more clearly: Nobody gives a fuck. Administrators and the NCAA act like the condemned on death row when they have to take down a banner, but they know it's a facade and we know they know. Vacating games is, like, the absolute minimum that can possibly happen. As a penalty for hindering and obstructing an investigation, GT got probation. And since they did this while under the shadow of previous violations, becoming a repeat violator, I think we all know what probation is good for. (I suggest wiping your ass with it.)
Bottom line: If you're hoping UNC is going to be slammed by the NCAA, your hopes just got a lot dimmer. They were ever so angry at GT and gave them probation. We're a few short steps away from being able to say that Mark Emmert's call for toughness is an empty shitpile. We'll see how they deal with UNC. If they can't be nuked to the Stone Age for allowing a coach to run an agency's branch office out of the football facilities - or if the NCAA thinks vacating games is the same thing - then we can officially call Emmert an empty, lying sack.
- The basketball penalties on GT are a little more along the lines of fitting the crime. Those combined with Brian Oliver's transfer to Seton Hall (I read Rutgers at first but apparently, Seton Hall it is) are going to conspire to give GT a long climb back to basketball respectability. GT will be an eminently beatable team this season without Oliver or Iman Shumpert (off to the draft) but even so, one less three-point shooter in the league is a good thing for UVA.
- Danny Hultzen continues to add things to his trophy pile: John Olerud Award for best two-way player in the country, and all-state baseball and academic teams as voted on by the SIDs of Virginia. How he lost out on best baseball player in the state is beyond me being as he was a Golden Spikes finalist and the kid from JMU (Jake Lowery) is not. One can be the best player in the nation but not the state; that is an interesting dynamic.
- Anthony Cooper will make his selection on Wednesday. Or at least, make it public. This is hopefully UVA's race to lose.
- Lastly, I spent yesterday smoothing out the video-production process, and I've got the Cornell game from the lax quarterfinals uploaded too. So check that out on the videos page. Things are a little streamlined now when it comes to making videos, and the quality is better too. I hated all those little lines on the screen that were caused by converting to a different format. Now I can use the format that comes from the special box. I still want my Tivo back, and believe me by football season I'm getting it, but at least I can catch up a little now.
- Administratively, expect full posting and/or video production next week; after that, on Saturday, I go on my summer vacation. That means hiatus the following week. Two or three posting days will be missed, to return to regular programming on Wednesday or Thursday. On the other side of vacation, we'll start to shift to full-time football coverage. Don't you love how the offseason only lasts like a month or so?
- The baseball recruiting class is down by one player and then up by one. Nolan Clark, the juco catcher with the bat (as opposed to the one with the glove, which would be Chace Mitchell) signed a contract with the Phillies, which terminates his college eligibility. However, I did miss another juco player when I rolled through the baseball commits: Joel Effertz, a pitcher from the same Wisconsin juco that sent us Cody Winiarski.
Not having Clark means that Mitchell is probably the front-runner for catching duties but will (at least at first) split them with Ryan Levine and/or maybe incoming freshman Nate Irving. Levine and Mitchell are the top two choices, though. It also means that my musings on Clark taking over third base are moot. So that will probably be Stephen Bruno.
Effertz posted a 3.03 ERA with 79 Ks and a 7-4 record at MATC this spring. (For useless comparison's sake, Winiarski had an ERA of 2.39 the year before he came to UVA.) He'll be an incoming sophomore. Having another arm to throw at the weekend starter problem is a fantastic thing. Candidates now include Branden Kline, Kyle Crockett (the two that probably have the biggest lead on the field) as well as Effertz, Scott Silverstein, and Whit Mayberry. Somebody out of that group might well also be the closer, or, for that job, O'Connor may turn to Artie Lewicki.
- Georgia Tech got in some trouble the other day. GT fans are pretty pissed about the whole thing, but if you ask me they got off easy. At first glance, vacating the 2009 ACC championship over a couple of shirts seems harsh. But the NCAA had a long list of nasty words to say about GT's apparent hindrance of the investigation. So a couple hundred dollars' worth of apparel became a major violation that the NCAA takes very seriously.
The thing is, this gives them repeat-violator status: "If Tech commits another major infraction before Nov. 17, 2010, it will be subject to added penalties as a repeat violator." And for supposedly being a huge hindrance to an investigation and being a repeat violator, GT football gets....four more years of probation. It's pretty clear the NCAA thinks vacating games is a serious penalty just shy of chopping off a leg or two.
For anyone hoping to see any of the various programs currently under the NCAA microscope (Auburn, OSU, Oregon, UNC) hammered with the hammer of thunder and justice, this is a disappointing development. Vacating games is nobody's idea of a deterrent. Let me state that a little more clearly: Nobody gives a fuck. Administrators and the NCAA act like the condemned on death row when they have to take down a banner, but they know it's a facade and we know they know. Vacating games is, like, the absolute minimum that can possibly happen. As a penalty for hindering and obstructing an investigation, GT got probation. And since they did this while under the shadow of previous violations, becoming a repeat violator, I think we all know what probation is good for. (I suggest wiping your ass with it.)
Bottom line: If you're hoping UNC is going to be slammed by the NCAA, your hopes just got a lot dimmer. They were ever so angry at GT and gave them probation. We're a few short steps away from being able to say that Mark Emmert's call for toughness is an empty shitpile. We'll see how they deal with UNC. If they can't be nuked to the Stone Age for allowing a coach to run an agency's branch office out of the football facilities - or if the NCAA thinks vacating games is the same thing - then we can officially call Emmert an empty, lying sack.
- The basketball penalties on GT are a little more along the lines of fitting the crime. Those combined with Brian Oliver's transfer to Seton Hall (I read Rutgers at first but apparently, Seton Hall it is) are going to conspire to give GT a long climb back to basketball respectability. GT will be an eminently beatable team this season without Oliver or Iman Shumpert (off to the draft) but even so, one less three-point shooter in the league is a good thing for UVA.
- Danny Hultzen continues to add things to his trophy pile: John Olerud Award for best two-way player in the country, and all-state baseball and academic teams as voted on by the SIDs of Virginia. How he lost out on best baseball player in the state is beyond me being as he was a Golden Spikes finalist and the kid from JMU (Jake Lowery) is not. One can be the best player in the nation but not the state; that is an interesting dynamic.
- Anthony Cooper will make his selection on Wednesday. Or at least, make it public. This is hopefully UVA's race to lose.
- Lastly, I spent yesterday smoothing out the video-production process, and I've got the Cornell game from the lax quarterfinals uploaded too. So check that out on the videos page. Things are a little streamlined now when it comes to making videos, and the quality is better too. I hated all those little lines on the screen that were caused by converting to a different format. Now I can use the format that comes from the special box. I still want my Tivo back, and believe me by football season I'm getting it, but at least I can catch up a little now.
- Administratively, expect full posting and/or video production next week; after that, on Saturday, I go on my summer vacation. That means hiatus the following week. Two or three posting days will be missed, to return to regular programming on Wednesday or Thursday. On the other side of vacation, we'll start to shift to full-time football coverage. Don't you love how the offseason only lasts like a month or so?
Monday, July 4, 2011
2010-2011 Cavalier of the Year: Danny Hultzen
Which lasted a week. Perhaps propelled by a performance in which he struck out eight of ten hitters he faced in between barfing his gall bladder out, Danny Hultzen leaped ahead of Steele Stanwick to claim the title as 2011 Cavalier of the Year. Hultzen is a repeat winner, having earned the inaugural award in 2009. Goalkeeper Diego Restrepo was sandwiched in between in 2010.
Myself, I didn't even vote, and I still don't know who I'd have voted for between Hultzen and Stanwick. Either makes a most deserving winner. On the one hand, I thought Stanwick had the better year; on the other hand, the like of Hultzen may not be seen again around here for many, many years. The people have spoken, and it is Danny Hultzen, and by a landslide too. Congratulations all around, and thanks to all the voters.
These are the final results:
Danny Hultzen: 79
Steele Stanwick: 35
Mu Farrakhan: 16
Robby Andrews, Keith Payne: 6
Matt McLean: 3
Brian Ownby, Michael Shabaz: 2
Paige Selenski: 1
Liz Downs, Sinead Farrelly, and Lauren Perdue: 0
Now, run along and have an awesome 4th of July. And don't blow your fingers off. We'll be back tomorrow to add more orange lines to the recruiting board.
Monday, June 27, 2011
the quest that stood on the edge of a knife
I guess I've waited procrastinated long enough; it's best to wait a little while after an awful loss to compose oneself before one puts words out in public that one might regret, or at least that's what I tell myself as an excuse not to write anything all weekend. (That, and it's now officially the offseason, which means weekends pretty much entirely off, anyway.)
But if the players themselves can go meet the fans less than 24 hours after maybe the most crushing loss in program history, I can probably nut up and write a column. I guess it's our turn to be on the wrong end of very well-intentioned words that are ultimately of small comfort. In a year or so, when baseball is back in the spotlight (largely with a very new lineup) we'll still have, on the permanent record for 2011, the most wins in program history**, the highest CWS finish in program history, and another CWS banner on the outfield wall, not to mention the ACC championship. That'll erase the sting of how we exited. (Mostly. Except when something like this happens again, because this managed to remind one of Arkansas and the 2009 CWS with stunning clarity.)
From a much larger perspective, which is a much better way to view Friday night's game, I remind you again of the record-setting season, as well as this: that record-setting season came on the heels of having to replace the majority of the batting lineup and a big chunk of the useful pitching staff. It's the nature of baseball and draft-eligible juniors; turnover is ever-turning. Next year we'll see even more of it. A lot of it. It would have me extremely apprehensive about the future, but for the successes of this year.
**More years of Brian O'Connor's tenure at UVA have been spent breaking the seasonal wins record than have been spent not breaking it. At 56 wins it's wicked doubtful that trend can continue but there's still a little bit of room.
******************************************************
Bullet points:
- Filed under "things that sucked about Friday's game," and possibly right on top, was the lost chance to see Danny Hultzen at his magnificent best. The damnable cruel fates and their whimsical illnesses that strike when you least need them. Here's a guy who's a top-five athlete in Virginia history, proving it: he struck out eight of the ten batters he faced. A 24-strikeout pace! The potential was there for the greatest pitching performance in CWS history. South Carolina fans will say and have said many things about the Friday game, but on the top of the list ought to be "please heathen gods accept this sacrifice of ten virgins in exchange for your benevolence in striking down the most feared warrior of the enemy." There's no way South Carolina wins that game if Danny Hultzen's innards aren't infested with viruses sent by Beelzebub himself.
- Another awful thing about being on the wrong end of a game that swung on the edge of a razor: the natural instinct to second-guess. I shouldn't, but I can't help myself. Personal top two: given the lack of success at the plate, I'd have given some real thought to a suicide squeeze, and is Reed Gragnani's glove in center really so bad that you'd rather have Shane Halley's bat? I was taken aback to see Gragnani replaced after pinch-hitting. It came back to bite us in the worst way when Halley bounced weakly into a bases-loaded double play.
- Besides Hultzen, the second-most deprived player of the day was John Barr, whose heroics are now lost to the annals of time. Barr went 3-for-6 and hit the ball on the screws in his final at-bat. His only failure was a violation of Willie Keeler's maxim ("hit 'em where they ain't"); had his line drive been directed a couple of feet in any other direction he'd have been the hero of the hour with a 4-for-6, 2-RBI performance in a likely win. And no, I don't fault Colin Harrington for getting doubled off, Barr's liner was hit too hard and he had little to no chance to get back to the bag.
- More silver lining from Friday: Tyler Wilson earning the Senior CLASS Award. I tend to balk at awards where the first name in it is the name of a moneymaking company, but this is one where you make an exception. In this case it means you have the privilege of rooting for some very outstanding people, so congratulations are in order from all corners.
- A three-part series is coming up in the near future wherein I will offer up a look at next year's lineup possibilities and quickly profile the incoming freshmen. That starts Wednesday, so stay tuned.
But if the players themselves can go meet the fans less than 24 hours after maybe the most crushing loss in program history, I can probably nut up and write a column. I guess it's our turn to be on the wrong end of very well-intentioned words that are ultimately of small comfort. In a year or so, when baseball is back in the spotlight (largely with a very new lineup) we'll still have, on the permanent record for 2011, the most wins in program history**, the highest CWS finish in program history, and another CWS banner on the outfield wall, not to mention the ACC championship. That'll erase the sting of how we exited. (Mostly. Except when something like this happens again, because this managed to remind one of Arkansas and the 2009 CWS with stunning clarity.)
From a much larger perspective, which is a much better way to view Friday night's game, I remind you again of the record-setting season, as well as this: that record-setting season came on the heels of having to replace the majority of the batting lineup and a big chunk of the useful pitching staff. It's the nature of baseball and draft-eligible juniors; turnover is ever-turning. Next year we'll see even more of it. A lot of it. It would have me extremely apprehensive about the future, but for the successes of this year.
**More years of Brian O'Connor's tenure at UVA have been spent breaking the seasonal wins record than have been spent not breaking it. At 56 wins it's wicked doubtful that trend can continue but there's still a little bit of room.
******************************************************
Bullet points:
- Filed under "things that sucked about Friday's game," and possibly right on top, was the lost chance to see Danny Hultzen at his magnificent best. The damnable cruel fates and their whimsical illnesses that strike when you least need them. Here's a guy who's a top-five athlete in Virginia history, proving it: he struck out eight of the ten batters he faced. A 24-strikeout pace! The potential was there for the greatest pitching performance in CWS history. South Carolina fans will say and have said many things about the Friday game, but on the top of the list ought to be "please heathen gods accept this sacrifice of ten virgins in exchange for your benevolence in striking down the most feared warrior of the enemy." There's no way South Carolina wins that game if Danny Hultzen's innards aren't infested with viruses sent by Beelzebub himself.
- Another awful thing about being on the wrong end of a game that swung on the edge of a razor: the natural instinct to second-guess. I shouldn't, but I can't help myself. Personal top two: given the lack of success at the plate, I'd have given some real thought to a suicide squeeze, and is Reed Gragnani's glove in center really so bad that you'd rather have Shane Halley's bat? I was taken aback to see Gragnani replaced after pinch-hitting. It came back to bite us in the worst way when Halley bounced weakly into a bases-loaded double play.
- Besides Hultzen, the second-most deprived player of the day was John Barr, whose heroics are now lost to the annals of time. Barr went 3-for-6 and hit the ball on the screws in his final at-bat. His only failure was a violation of Willie Keeler's maxim ("hit 'em where they ain't"); had his line drive been directed a couple of feet in any other direction he'd have been the hero of the hour with a 4-for-6, 2-RBI performance in a likely win. And no, I don't fault Colin Harrington for getting doubled off, Barr's liner was hit too hard and he had little to no chance to get back to the bag.
- More silver lining from Friday: Tyler Wilson earning the Senior CLASS Award. I tend to balk at awards where the first name in it is the name of a moneymaking company, but this is one where you make an exception. In this case it means you have the privilege of rooting for some very outstanding people, so congratulations are in order from all corners.
- A three-part series is coming up in the near future wherein I will offer up a look at next year's lineup possibilities and quickly profile the incoming freshmen. That starts Wednesday, so stay tuned.
Friday, June 24, 2011
game preview: South Carolina
TV: ESPN
History against the Gamecocks: 27-36
Last matchup: USC 7, UVA 1; 6/21/11; Omaha, NE (College World Series)
Last game: UVA 8, Cal 1 (6/23); USC 7, UVA 1 (6/21)
Blogs of the enemy: Garnet and Black Attack, Leftover Hot Dog
South Carolina possible lineup:
C: Robert Beary (.290-3-35)
1B: Christian Walker (.358-10-62)
2B: Scott Wingo (.345-4-28)
3B: Adrian Morales (.288-3-40)
SS: Peter Mooney (.276-3-36)
LF: Jake Williams (.274-2-38)
CF: Jackie Bradley, Jr., (.264-6-27)
RF: Evan Marzilli (.297-3-31)
DH: Brady Thomas (.313-4-40)
Pitching probables:
LHP Danny Hultzen (12-3, 1.41, 157 K's) vs. LHP Michael Roth (13-3, 0.97, 103 K's)
South Carolina's bullpen:
RHP John Taylor (7-1, 1.17, 63 K's)
LHP Steven Neff (3-1, 2.45, 29 K's)
RHP Jose Mata (3-0, 1.76, 16 K's)
LHP Tyler Webb (3-1, 3.21, 28 K's)
RHP Matt Price (6-3, 2.12, 68 K's, 18 sv)
Last night's game was, well, it was kinda like Tuesday's game in reverse. Like South Carolina on Tuesday, UVA did enough to win on their own but used mistakes by the opposition to make the score uglier. No matter how "loose" Cal was as claimed by the ESPN commentators (all....week....long) they didn't play like it on the field. The Golden Bears helped the Hoos' cause tremendously by throwing 55-foot curveballs, heaving force-out balls into right field, hitting three batters (ok, two different ones, with Chris Taylor being victimized twice), and misplaying a number of batted balls, the sun probably being a factor in this last set of mistakes. UVA ruthlessly took advantage of Cal's miscues. Some led directly to UVA runs (center fielder Matthews's three-base error on Kenny Swab's single that turned it into an unofficial inside-the-park home run; wild pitches) and others took runs off the board for Cal (leadoff hitter Anthony Booker sliding past second base after initially stealing successfully; the next batter doubled.) A season to remember for Cal fans, but not that game.
Tyler Wilson pitched magnificently, of course. He kept the Cal batters off balance for 7 2/3 innings, inducing a ton of harmless infield (and many foul) popups. Cody Winiarski finished off the GBs with little trouble. UVA will need that kind of performance again today from Danny Hultzen.
All UVA fans, regardless of interest in baseball, should really be tuning in tonight, for what will possibly (but hopefully not) be Danny Hultzen's last appearance in a Virginia uniform. There shouldn't be any doubt Hultzen is the most dominant pitcher in UVA history; I don't think I'll get much argument when I say he's simply the best baseball player in UVA history too. Truthfully, Hultzen has established himself as one of the best athletes in UVA history, period; right up there with Ralph Sampson and Ed Moses.
And this is a fitting stage for an athlete of his caliber. Omaha, the College World Series, in an elimination game against the defending national champs and their ace pitcher, Michael Roth. The odds are stacked against him. Hultzen will need better run support from his teammates than they gave Will Roberts on Tuesday, but if there's any pitcher in the land that can win a 1-0 game, you know who it is. If the Hoos lose this game, it by no means tarnishes Hultzen's legacy, but winning this one would be a hell of a way to shine it up a little. But this is the guy you want on the mound. Period.
There's a tough uphill road to climb, but step 1 of 3 is out of the way. If the Hoos lose tonight, they'll still have achieved the best finish in school history. If they win, then it's on to a winner-take-all on Saturday. Cross your fingers.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
game preview: California
TV: ESPN2
History against the Bears: 1-0
Last matchup: UVA 4, Cal 1; 6/19/11; Omaha, NE - College World Series
Last game: South Carolina 7, UVA 1 (6/21); Cal 7, Texas A&M 3 (6/21)
Blogs of the enemy: California Golden Blogs
Cal's possible lineup:
C: Chadd Krist (.297-2-43)
1B: Devon Rodriguez (.283-5-35)
2B: Tony Renda (.333-3-43)
SS: Marcus Semien (.279-5-35)
3B: Mitch Delfino (.265-4-21)
LF: Austin Booker (.310-1-24)
CF: Darrel Matthews (.274-0-18)
RF: Chad Bunting (.274-7-25)
DH: Vince Bruno (.301-0-13)
Pitching probables:
RHP Tyler Wilson (9-0, 2.33, 119 K's) vs. RHP Dixon Anderson (4-3, 3.90, 41 K's)
Cal's bullpen:
RHP Kevin Miller (6-4, 2.78, 86 Ks)
LHP Kyle Porter (6-0, 1.89, 57 Ks)
RHP Logan Scott (1-2, 3.09, 30 Ks)
RHP Matt Flemer (4-2, 1.86, 41 Ks, 6 sv)
Well, we meet again. South Carolina used a sizable streak of luck to beat the Hoos 7-1 yesterday, placing UVA in the loser's bracket against Cal, again, which beat Texas A&M in the early game. The other Carolina was the beneficiary of some of the screwiest base hits I've ever seen - one ball bouncing off home plate and over Keith Werman's head into right field, another hit off the tip - not the end of the barrel, but the tip - of the bat. Both drove in a run each.
But it's not like they needed the lucky bullshit to actually win the game. UVA did it to itself - Steven Proscia's first-inning error was costly to the tune of three runs, and the bats finally petered out after running on fumes in the past couple games. And South Carolina's line drives to the gap finished the job. They fielded well - even made Sportscenter with a web gem - and minus the bunts, out Virginia-ed Virginia.
If the Hoos are to earn a rematch against South Carolina, they'll have to do it against Cal's third starter, huge right-hander Dixon Anderson. Anderson hasn't pitched since Cal eliminated Rice in the regionals two weeks ago - he wasn't needed in the supers as the GBs dispatched Dallas Baptist in two games. Anderson is 6'6", and while his 23 walks aren't an alarming number at all, his 41 strikeouts - below 2 every 3 innings - are well below average. He was drafted in the ninth round this year, which is down from last year (he's a redshirt junior) where he was drafted in the sixth. Scouting reports from last year indicate a fastball that tops out at 94 and below-average command. Can't say how he's progressed this year but I would guess he hasn't improved those weaknesses much, as he's slipping in the draft.
Tyler Wilson should be able to go for the Hoos, having thrown under 40 pitches on Sunday in his last outing. The UVA bullpen should be fully stocked; I don't know if we can say the same about the Cal bullpen, with closer Matt Flemer having thrown 54 pitches yesterday against A&M. Strictly using the one-hour-per-pitch rule of recovery, Flemer won't be ready, but this is the CWS, man, so I ultimately don't think Cal will hold him back.
UVA is in a hole, no doubt about it. The difference between winning and losing on Tuesday is having to win just one of two, vice having to win three in a row. But optimism should reign supreme on Thursday. This is how the three games this weekend break down:
1) as little disrespect as possible to Cal (I can't say this and honestly claim none at all), but if UVA sends Tyler Wilson to the mound and he can't outpitch Dixon Anderson (whose high draft status is based more on projectability than results) and UVA can't beat regional-3-seed Cal, then we had no chance anyway.
2) after that, Danny Hultzen will take the mound. Probably against South Carolina's Michael Roth, but still - Danny Hultzen, man.
3) anything goes.
So. One step at a time. The Hoos gotta buckle down, see the ball better out of the hand of the pitcher, and get one job done at a time. It's been done before - ask Sakerlina.
Monday, June 20, 2011
game preview: South Carolina
TV: ESPN
History against the Gamecocks: 27-35
Last matchup: USC 8, UVA 2; 6/3/2006; NCAA Tournament, Charlottesville regional
Last game: UVA 4, Cal 1 (6/19); USC 5, Texas A&M 4 (6/19)
Blogs of the enemy: Garnet and Black Attack, Leftover Hot Dog
South Carolina possible lineup:
C: Robert Beary (.296-3-35)
1B: Christian Walker (.357-10-60)
2B: Scott Wingo (.350-4-28)
3B: Adrian Morales (.281-3-39)
SS: Peter Mooney (.276-3-35)
LF: Jake Williams (.273-2-38)
CF: Jackie Bradley, Jr., (.259-6-26)
RF: Evan Marzilli (.299-3-30)
DH: Brady Thomas (.305-4-39)
Pitching probables: RHP Will Roberts (11-1, 1.58, 91 K's) vs. RHP Colby Holmes (7-3, 3.78, 70 K's)
South Carolina's bullpen:
RHP John Taylor (6-1, 1.25, 63 K's)
LHP Steven Neff (3-1, 2.45, 29 K's)
RHP Jose Mata (3-0, 1.76, 16 K's)
LHP Tyler Webb (3-1, 3.21, 28 K's)
RHP Matt Price (6-3, 2.13, 68 K's, 18 sv)
UVA took care of Cal the same way they dispatched UC-Irvine: threatening most of the time and then finally stringing the hits together in the later innings. Danny Hultzen threw 6 1/3 innings with his Sunday-best slider but lousy fastball command, and didn't allow a run; he left with no possibility of a decision because the score was 0-0 at the time. It took - of all people - Keith Werman to get things going, setting the table with a single to lead off the seventh and driving home a run in the eighth with another base hit. Jared King followed up three absolutely awful at bats with an eighth-inning triple just over the right fielder's glove and scored on Werman's slap single to left.
The (slightly) bad news: the 0-0 game required Brian O'Connor to stretch Hultzen's arm as long as possible instead of holding back a little, and when he went to the pen it was for Tyler Wilson, who threw 2 1/3 innings in relief before giving way to Branden Kline for the final out. That means Will Roberts will take the hill on Tuesday instead of Wilson. Hultzen, of course, is right out.
In terms of starting pitching, Roberts should have the advantage. (Cue Gamecock fans: he didn't pitch against ess-eee-cee competition though.) He'll go against right-hander Colby Holmes. He's likely to pitch deeper into the game than Holmes is; South Carolina sometimes has a quick hook with Holmes. They yanked him in the fifth inning of their super-regional game against UConn despite only being down 2-1 at the time. He also got totally bombed out of the Ole Miss game. Holmes has a tendency to give up the gopherball; of the 26 home runs allowed by the South Carolina pitching staff, 12 are Holmes's responsibility. Holmes is one of those pitchers who throws three or four pitches but doesn't have consistent command of most of them yet. There's nothing that our hitters like better than a 91-mph fastball that isn't accompanied by a slider or change that gets over the plate. (That was Irvine ace Matt Summers's problem.) Holmes could have the breaking stuff working and have a fair amount of success; if not, he'll be pulled in the third inning and leave behind some tired outfielders and probably a sizable deficit.
However, the gopherball isn't a UVA specialty, and the CWS stadium is a big one, so don't expect anything to go flying out of the park. It's been playing very homer-unfriendly so far. And if UVA hitters can't jump on Holmes quickly, South Carolina may well be able to neutralize the UVA advantage on the hill by going to their bullpen early. The only unavailable pitcher after their game against A&M is the starter, Michael Roth, who wasn't pulled until the eighth inning. South Carolina will have a full bullpen; UVA will as well, but with Wilson's availability in question, doesn't have a long-relief horse like the Gamecocks' John Taylor. And closer Matt Price is lights-out and a 6th-round pick.
Roberts will have his hands full with the South Carolina lineup, of course. Christian Walker was a super-late round pick out of high school two years ago by the Dodgers, but being picked 1477th overall doesn't inspire one to try the professional track, and South Carolina is much the better for it. Walker has hit 10 home runs this year, driven in 60 runs, and bats .357. Scott Wingo, the walkoff hero of the A&M game, also bats .350+. He's an 11th-round pick this year. But the highest draft pick isn't Price, or Walker (who's only a sophomore), or Wingo - it's 9th hitter Jackie Bradley, picked 40th overall by the Red Sox. Bradley's had a disappointing season, batting only .259, which is why he's in the 9th slot, but his presence there just reinforces the notion that Roberts won't be able to relax just because he got to the bottom of the order. Bradley still packs a little pop in his bat and obviously, the major leagues think he's got a pile of talent.
I'd remind you that South Carolina is the defending national champion, but ESPN will probably take care of that for most of the game's duration, so I won't. One thing that is interesting is that this is the first time in quite a while that they've won their first CWS game. And of course, this being only UVA's second trip, it's the first time ever for UVA in the winner's bracket, too. Both teams have been to Omaha before, but still it's the Omaha debut for both pitchers; neither pitched in their respective teams' previous appearances here. I don't know if Gamecock fans are worried about Colby Holmes's mentality, but with a perfect game under Will Roberts's belt, I'm not worried about his handling of pressure.
What worries me is this: In seven previous games in this tournament so far, we've faced a three-seed five times, a four-seed once, and a two-seed once, and that two-seed had burned up its pitching staff and wasn't a very good two-seed anyway. This'll be UVA's first tournament test against a regional host, and a national seed at that. I won't call it luck, I call it the benefit of being the national #1 seed - your part of the bracket is likelier to flame out than the rest of it. But it's time to play with the big boys now. Can we get this done against an honest, legitimate title contender, the first such opponent in this tournament run? UVA will get no respect from Ess-Eee-Cee fans or most pundits - I mean, actual they-could-actually-win-this-tournament respect - until we beat one of their own, someone who's been all the way to the top before. UVA opened some eyes in 2009 by eliminating Irvine and Ole Miss, but there's a next step to be taken now, and Tuesday is our chance.
Friday, June 17, 2011
game preview: California
TV: ESPN
History against the Bears: 0-0
Last matchup: Never
Last game: UVA 3, UCI 2 (6/13); Cal 6, DBU 2 (6/12)
Last weekend: UVA 2-1 over UC-Irvine; Cal 2-0 over Dallas Baptist
National rankings: this is Omaha, brutha, forget that stuff, just play ball
Blogs of the enemy: California Golden Blogs
Cal's possible lineup:
C: Chadd Krist (.304-2-43)
1B: Devon Rodriguez (.288-5-34)
2B: Tony Renda (.335-3-42)
SS: Marcus Semien (.277-5-35)
3B: Mitch Delfino (.260-4-20)
LF: Austin Booker (.319-1-24)
CF: Darrel Matthews (.275-0-18)
RF: Chad Bunting (.276-7-23)
DH: Vince Bruno (.301-0-13)
Pitching probables: LHP Danny Hultzen (12-3, 1.49, 151 Ks) vs. RHP Erik Johnson (7-4, 2.91, 100 Ks)
Cal's bullpen:
RHP Kevin Miller (6-4, 2.59, 86 Ks)
LHP Kyle Porter (5-0, 1.59, 53 Ks)
RHP Logan Scott (1-1, 2.89, 29 Ks)
RHP Matt Flemer (4-2, 2.08, 36 Ks, 5 sv)
It's Omaha Time.
Let me just get you ready right now for the storylines that'll be beaten over your head during the game on Sunday:
- Cal was ready to drop baseball last fall, but a bunch of donors stepped in and saved the program, and now they're in the College World Series.
- Virginia nearly did the same ten years ago, and now they're in the College World Series as the #1 seed.
- How crazy is it that these two teams are meeting?
Now that we've done ESPN's job for them and gotten that out of the way, let's talk Cal baseball.
The week's big question was whether Cal's lefty starter Justin Jones would be ready to go on Sunday. Answer: he won't. That probably means right-hander Erik Johnson, who might be a better pitcher anyway. Johnson is a big, legit pro prospect, drafted with the 80th overall pick by the White Sox. He can throw four pitches well, but two consistently (a low-90s fastball and a good slider) and has control issues. Johnson's issued 54 walks this year (more than one every two innings) which is more than twice the number of walks issued by any UVA pitcher.
UVA should be throwing CyberDanny Hultzen, of course.** The #2 pick in the draft. Cal will get some confidence out of having already beaten the #1 pick in the draft - they beat UCLA and Gerrit Cole last month, but it should be noted, the Cal batters scored just once off of Cole and UCLA never scored at all, their hitting being thoroughly miserable. And they were dominated by Trevor Bauer the next day. So, have no fear. As ever, the only thing that can really slow down Danny Hultzen is Danny Hultzen, and even then he pitched six shutout innings against Irvine with his worst stuff of the season.
The Cal lineup is nothing to write home about. I think Irvine's was probably better. Cal didn't attract much attention from MLB drafters, although partly that's because their best hitter, Tony Renda, is a sophomore. Renda leads the team in batting average and total bases and is just shy of the RBI lead, too. Not much home run power, though. Cal can spread some of that around the lineup, but no one hitter is a huge danger. Chad Bunting leads the team with seven, and White Sox draftee Marcus Semien (sixth round) has five, as does Devon Rodriguez. UVA isn't a home run-hitting team, and still we have John Hicks with eight.
Unlike the other baseball previews this season, this is a one-game shot. So it comes down to this: Will Danny Hultzen be effective? If so, we win. Cal neither strikes out nor walks very much. They like to get the ball into play. The Rob Deer Fan Club does not approve. This is A Good Thing; UVA's fielding percentage is fifth-best in the country, and Danny has a good shot at cruising through some of these innings with fewer than 10 pitches. One the flip side, Johnson's propensity to walk hitters (if indeed we face Erik Johnson) should be helpful; a big strength of the UVA lineup is making you waste good pitches and then driving your mistakes into the gaps. Look for UVA to go into full-on get-on-base-however-you-can mode. I'm hopeful of getting this CWS kicked off on the right foot.
**Some folks see the setup of the tournament, which is a repeat of the last two weeks (a double-elimination four-team "regional" and then a best-two-of-three series, and assume we should use the same pitching strategy. That is, save Hultzen for the all-important Game 2. This is incorrect. The CWS offers a day of rest, or two, between games, meaning if the best happens and we win two in a row, Hultzen can pitch Sunday and then pitch again on Friday. The rest time in Omaha allows you to shorten up your pen. Last time, Hultzen started both Game 1 and Game 3 (albeit after throwing just three innings in Game 1) because they were far enough apart, and Sunday starter Andrew Carraway found himself in long relief in both Games 2 and 3. It may well be possible to get through the "regional" round of the tourney alternating Hultzen and Tyler Wilson, with Will Roberts and Cody Winiarski throwing in relief. A guy like Will Roberts coming out of the pen? Nasty. On the pitching staff, UVA has the best horses in Omaha; it's time to ride. Shorten the pen, shorten the rest, and win with your best.
Friday, June 10, 2011
series preview: UC-Irvine
Saturday, 6/11, 1 PM
Sunday, 6/12, 1 PM
Monday, TBA (if necessary)
TV: Saturday/Sunday, ESPNUVA; Monday ESPN2
History vs. the Anteaters: 2-0
Last matchup: UVA 4, UC-Irvine 1; Irvine, CA; 5/31/09 (NCAA Tournament, Irvine Regional)
Last game: UVA 13, ECU 1 (6/5); UC-Irvine 4, UCLA 3 (6/5)
Last weekend: UVA won Charlottesville Regional, 3-0 record; UC-Irvine won Los Angeles Regional, 3-0 record
National rankings: are either old, don't matter any more, or both
Irvine lineup:
C: Ronnie Shaeffer (.271-1-30)
1B: Jordan Fox (.335-0-25)
2B: Tommy Reyes (.282-0-28)
SS: D.J. Crumlich (.293-1-27)
3B: Brian Hernandez (.351-0-31)
LF: Drew Hillman (.336-5-50)
CF: Christian Ramirez (.294-0-32)
RF: Sean Madigan (.288-1-35)
DH: Jordan Leyland (.294-4-42)
Pitching probables:
Saturday: LHP Danny Hultzen (11-3, 1.57, 148 Ks) vs. RHP Matt Summers (11-2, 1.72, 96 Ks)
Sunday: RHP Tyler Wilson (8-0, 2.34, 111 Ks) vs. LHP Matt Whitehouse (4-0, 2.14, 59 Ks)
Monday: RHP Will Roberts (11-1, 1.61, 90 Ks) vs. RHP Crosby Slaught (7-2, 3.97, 47 Ks)
Bullpen:
LHP Jimmy Litchfield (2-1, 2.97, 33 Ks)
RHP Philip Ferragamo (2-0, 2.05, 24 Ks)
RHP Nick Hoover (2-4, 3.48, 23 Ks)
LHP Andy Lines (5-2, 2.60, 26 Ks)
RHP Brian Hernandez (3-2, 3.29, 23 Ks, 12 Sv)
We meet again. UVA has only ever played UC-Irvine twice in the baseball history of the two schools, but they might've been the most important games in the baseball history of the former. Prior to those games, UVA had never advanced past the regional stage of the baseball tournament, and national sixth-seed Irvine stood in the way. Twice. UVA had played in and even hosted regionals up til then under the guidance of Brian O'Connor, but playing Irvine twice and beating them twice announced to the world that UVA was finally ready to play with the big boys. (And then showed it wasn't a fluke by beating Ole Miss in the ensuing super-regional.)
Along the way, UVA even made fans of the ESPN announcers, who'd prattled incessantly about "Irvine Baseball" as a style of play - nay, a calling, a way of life - and then when UVA beat them at that game, the announcers conceded that UVA could also play Irvine Baseball.
Admittedly, the two teams have a similar focus in mind when they take the field. (What irritated UVA fans - besides the incessant talking about only the opposition - was the notion that Irvine had some kind of patent on contact hitting and good defense.) Irvine has hit even fewer home runs this season than UVA has, so the outfield fans at Davenport won't be taking home many souvenirs this weekend.
Despite the lack of Gerrit Cole in the visitor's dugout, the Saturday pitching matchup is still intriguing, as the Eaters will throw Matt Summers, a fourth-round pick in this week's draft and the highest-chosen Irvine Anteater. Summers has got the numbers, the Big West pitcher of the year award, and a no-hitter to boot, thrown against Long Beach State the final regular season weekend. What he's missing is a breaking pitch. OK, not exactly, but Summers loves his fastball. A lot. He's always been a hard thrower, but he's a converted outfielder and just recently figured out how to change velocities and learned a breaking pitch, and his ERA went from the 8s to the 1s in one season.
The Irvine lineup is exactly what you'd expect from a team that plays - ummmm - Irvine Baseball. Only two home run threats: Drew Hillman and Jordan Leyland (no, not related to Tigers manager Jim) who've hit nine of Irvine's 13 homers. The lineup hardly even has a top or bottom. Most of these guys don't go slugging the ball all over the field (a .388 slugging average as a team) and none of the numbers anywhere jump off the page at you, but they're all solid contact hitters who know how to get on base. Can't relax anywhere in the lineup. Oh, and there's a deep bullpen. No more hoping for the opposition to burn up their pitching staff; not gonna happen this weekend. Strength against strength.
Style of play isn't the only thing that these two teams have in common: there's also the John Olerud Award, handed out to the best two-way player in the country. Specifically, the semifinalists for said award; both teams have one. Ours is Guess Who; they have perhaps an even more deserving candidate in Brian Hernandez, who bats .351 as the Irvine starting third baseman and has 12 saves as their closer.
So, two similar teams. Irvine came out of a tough regional, and two of the five polls even placed them a few notches ahead of UCLA in their final regular season ballots. There isn't an exploitable weak point on this team like there was on, say, St. John's. They're no interloper. That said, Irvine is essentially UVA-lite. They have a lineup of good contact hitters, yes, but we have a better one. More slugging and more .300 hitters. They have some pretty good starting pitching, but, uh, Danny Hultzen. They have a no-hitter this season. UVA has a perfect game. I'd give Irvine the edge in the pen based on depth, but on the other hand, we won't have to substitute our third baseman if we're up 3-2 in the ninth. And in the ever-popular intangibles department, the Eaters were just 15-11 on the road in the regular season, only played four games outside the state of California (and none east of Spokane or Las Vegas, whichever's further east), and lost all four of them - a sweep at the hands of Gonzaga and a loss to UNLV. This travel thing is definitely new. UVA should win this series; if not, we can add another UVA baseball history superlative: biggest disappointment ever.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
FOV Cavalier of the Year, 2011: #3/#4
From Old Virginia celebrates its birthday in a unique way: by recognizing one of Virginia's student-athletes as the Cavalier of the Year. What are the criteria for the award? You decide; that's the beauty. I nominate the 12 athletes that I think have been the most outstanding during the latest season of UVA athletics, and provide a short summary of their accomplishments. You choose the winner in a poll that goes up after all 12 have had their moment in the spotlight.
Over the next two weeks, two athletes at a time will be profiled, and you'll hear about what they've accomplished while representing Mr. Jefferson's University this year. The athletes are presented in a totally random order so as to hopefully not imply any endorsement one way or another. Athletes from all fields are considered; part of the point is to emphasize that UVA is about excellence across the entire department and doesn't shortchange its so-called non-revenue sports simply because they don't make headlines. The previous winners are Danny Hultzen (2009) and Diego Restrepo (2010); today's athlete's are Danny Hultzen and Matt McLean.
Danny Hultzen - Baseball - Starting pitcher
Team accomplishments:
- ACC champions
- #1 seed in NCAA tournament
- Super-regional host
- Advanced to College World Series (and hopefully more to come)
- Most wins in a season in school history
Personal accomplishments:
- Set career and single-season UVA strikeout records
- Drafted #2 overall in MLB draft by Seattle Mariners
- Golden Spikes finalist
- Dick Howser trophy semifinalist
- First three-time All-American in UVA baseball history
- First-team Academic All-American
- ACC Pitcher of the Year
- Baseball America Midseason POY
- Two-time Collegiate Baseball and one-time NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week
Lemme start by making one thing perfectly clear: Danny Hultzen is probably not yet done racking up awards. The Golden Spikes and Dick Howser awards are both given out as national player of the year awards by different organizations; neither has announced a winner yet. Hultzen is one of three finalists for the former and if he's not a finalist for the latter they should shut down the award. He will be. And he'll pick up any number of
There's nothing he doesn't do well. His pitching arm is what earned him the #2 overall pick in the draft, a fast-track-to-the-majors kind of honor that, depending on how sucky the Mariners are to finish the year, could actually see him in Seattle by September. He's that damn good. A 1.57 ERA, 148 strikeouts, and 17 walks. The numbers just speak for themselves.
But wait - he also hits! Pitchers are obviously not well known for their hitting prowess, except if that pitcher is Danny Hultzen, who bats .336. And if that weren't enough, check out that academic all-American thing, which is selected by CoSIDA, the sports information director's club. The selection dates back to 1952 and Hultzen is only the 17th Hoo to ever be selected - in any sport. With only 11 baseball players across the country, it's not an easy list to make, and nobody but Danny Hultzen is both an athletic and academic all-American. Simply astounding. Maybe the best baseball player in UVA history.
Matt McLean - Men's swimming - Distance freestyle
Team accomplishments:
- ACC champions
- 8th place finish at NCAA meet, best in school history
Personal accomplishments:
- 500-yard freestyle NCAA champion
- Five-event All-American
- 2-time ACC Swimmer of the Year
- WINA Award as UVA's top male athlete of 2010-2011
- 3-time ACC Swimmer of the Championships
- 500-yard freestyle and 1650-yard freestyle ACC champion
- Selected to represent the US at the World University Games
- 3-time ACC Performer of the Week
Matt McLean is probably not the best swimmer in UVA history, but that's not fair because Ed Moses was a damn Olympic gold medalist and unlikely to be topped. But McLean is a member of an exclusive club that until this year only included Moses and one other swimmer: NCAA champion from UVA. McLean absolutely dominated the 500-yard freestyle, winning by over 2 seconds, and finished fourth in both the 200 free and 1650 free.
Course, being out front is something he's pretty used to, winning two events in the ACC championships and anchoring two more first-place relays. You earn all-American and all-ACC honors by placing in the top eight and top three, respectively, and McLean stacked those up like candy on Halloween.
And remember, while you're deciding who gets your vote for the FOV COY, this is the guy that was honored by UVA itself as the best male athlete of the year. McLean wraps up his career this year as a senior, and Ed Moses might put his Olympic medals in McLean's way for greatest UVA swimmer of all time, but McLean makes an awfully, awfully compelling case for next-best.
Over the next two weeks, two athletes at a time will be profiled, and you'll hear about what they've accomplished while representing Mr. Jefferson's University this year. The athletes are presented in a totally random order so as to hopefully not imply any endorsement one way or another. Athletes from all fields are considered; part of the point is to emphasize that UVA is about excellence across the entire department and doesn't shortchange its so-called non-revenue sports simply because they don't make headlines. The previous winners are Danny Hultzen (2009) and Diego Restrepo (2010); today's athlete's are Danny Hultzen and Matt McLean.
Danny Hultzen - Baseball - Starting pitcher
- ACC champions
- #1 seed in NCAA tournament
- Super-regional host
- Advanced to College World Series (and hopefully more to come)
- Most wins in a season in school history
Personal accomplishments:
- Set career and single-season UVA strikeout records
- Drafted #2 overall in MLB draft by Seattle Mariners
- Golden Spikes finalist
- Dick Howser trophy semifinalist
- First three-time All-American in UVA baseball history
- First-team Academic All-American
- ACC Pitcher of the Year
- Baseball America Midseason POY
- Two-time Collegiate Baseball and one-time NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week
Lemme start by making one thing perfectly clear: Danny Hultzen is probably not yet done racking up awards. The Golden Spikes and Dick Howser awards are both given out as national player of the year awards by different organizations; neither has announced a winner yet. Hultzen is one of three finalists for the former and if he's not a finalist for the latter they should shut down the award. He will be. And he'll pick up any number of
There's nothing he doesn't do well. His pitching arm is what earned him the #2 overall pick in the draft, a fast-track-to-the-majors kind of honor that, depending on how sucky the Mariners are to finish the year, could actually see him in Seattle by September. He's that damn good. A 1.57 ERA, 148 strikeouts, and 17 walks. The numbers just speak for themselves.
But wait - he also hits! Pitchers are obviously not well known for their hitting prowess, except if that pitcher is Danny Hultzen, who bats .336. And if that weren't enough, check out that academic all-American thing, which is selected by CoSIDA, the sports information director's club. The selection dates back to 1952 and Hultzen is only the 17th Hoo to ever be selected - in any sport. With only 11 baseball players across the country, it's not an easy list to make, and nobody but Danny Hultzen is both an athletic and academic all-American. Simply astounding. Maybe the best baseball player in UVA history.
Matt McLean - Men's swimming - Distance freestyle
Team accomplishments:
- ACC champions
- 8th place finish at NCAA meet, best in school history
Personal accomplishments:
- 500-yard freestyle NCAA champion
- Five-event All-American
- 2-time ACC Swimmer of the Year
- WINA Award as UVA's top male athlete of 2010-2011
- 3-time ACC Swimmer of the Championships
- 500-yard freestyle and 1650-yard freestyle ACC champion
- Selected to represent the US at the World University Games
- 3-time ACC Performer of the Week
Matt McLean is probably not the best swimmer in UVA history, but that's not fair because Ed Moses was a damn Olympic gold medalist and unlikely to be topped. But McLean is a member of an exclusive club that until this year only included Moses and one other swimmer: NCAA champion from UVA. McLean absolutely dominated the 500-yard freestyle, winning by over 2 seconds, and finished fourth in both the 200 free and 1650 free.
Course, being out front is something he's pretty used to, winning two events in the ACC championships and anchoring two more first-place relays. You earn all-American and all-ACC honors by placing in the top eight and top three, respectively, and McLean stacked those up like candy on Halloween.
And remember, while you're deciding who gets your vote for the FOV COY, this is the guy that was honored by UVA itself as the best male athlete of the year. McLean wraps up his career this year as a senior, and Ed Moses might put his Olympic medals in McLean's way for greatest UVA swimmer of all time, but McLean makes an awfully, awfully compelling case for next-best.
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