Friday, June 12, 2009

Friday, June 12

Well It's the end of the week and once again I feel like I'm letting my fans down by not getting on this more often and spreading the love out to my fans.

The Hot List:

1. CWS Preview

1. Really at this time of the year my focus shifts to strictly the best tournament that comes to Omaha every summer....the CWS.

Tomorrow we start the fun as Arkansas and Cal State Fullerton start us off with a nice matchup. Many people thought that they couldnt win against FSU last week. In what seemed like a marathon rain delayed game they gritted out a nice W and put FSU on it's heels from the beginning of their series. It's hard to think that Dave Van Horn will get his first CWS win against the Titans. They are lead by Daniel Renken (11-2, 2.36 ERA) and Tyler Pill (11-3, 3.95 ERA) and closer Nick Rameriz. Look its just simple in this game: if Renken comes out smoking like he did in the Super's it'll be a long long day for the Razorbacks. Look they didn't pitch that well against FSU just got timely hits and HR's to win the game. If they come out swinging they could make this a game, but the pick goes to the Titans.

In the second game we see a more want to watch matchup in Virginia and LSU. Runs could be at a premium in this game as both staff's bring very good starting pitching into this game. The x-factor has to be LSU's bat's. They were silenced for 4 innings from Rice's ace last weekend but woke up and slugged him out of the game. If they can do the same to Viriginia's ace Heltzer, they should walk away with a nice W. This may be the year they make it to the finals. I like LSU in this game, they have a great team and are making another storied appearance in Omaha. Virginia is coming to Omaha for the first time and they used SB's and timely hits to beat Ole Miss last weekend. Look for LSU to hit a homer to win in the 7th or 8th inning.

Tomorrow we'll preview Texas/Southern Miss and North Carolina/ASU.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

June 4, 2009

Another great day to blog so we shouldn't wait.

The Hot List:
1. Super Regional Top 3 Previews


Let DO THIS!!!!

1. So I have decided to take the top 3 best match-ups of the Super Regionals and break them down for you guys today. I'll be giving you guys my 8 picks for the CWS today as well.

#1...The best series is the Rice/LSU series. It pins two very successful programs that have been to Omaha quite a bit in the last 10 years. LSU is lead by two outstanding pitchers in Louis Coleman and Anthony Ranaudo. Both have combined to win 21 games this season. The tigers are also led by a very solid closer in Matty Otto who has a 2.22 ERA with 15 saves this season.
Rice also bring 3 quality arms to the series with Ryan Berry, Mike Ojala, and Taylor Wall. They don't have a solid closer like LSU does but respond with a solid offense led by Anthony Rendon batting .384 with 19 HR's on the season.
OUTLOOK: It's hard to see Rice win this series having to travel to LSU this weekend. Pitching will be key in this series and could possibly be a coin flip if all 3 starters for both teams are on their game. I expect LSU to win in 2 games. They have the offense, pitching, and closer that you need to be a strong contender at the CWS. Dont be surprised if Rice give them a run for their money and wins in 3 games. Go Tigers.

#2 The next best series is Clemson at Arizonia State. Its a different Clemson team then in year's past when we have seen. They bring one quality starter to the table with Casey Harmon and will most likely rely on outhitting the Sun Devils in Tempe. They bring Ben Paulsen batting .369 with 13 HR's to the table.
ASU has argurably one of the best pitchers in the country with Mike Leake (15-1, 1.23 ERA). They also fire back with Josh Spence (8-1, 2.37 ERA), and Mitchell Lambson (8-3 2.81 ERA).
OUTLOOK: What does this all mean??? I'll be hard pressed to see Clemson score many runs in this series as they struggled to out duel OSU's 2 high caliber starters. It's simple this season, ASU isn't running into a 4 seed team on a tear to Omaha with hopes of winning it all (i.e. Fresno State), so all they have to do is be the team they have all season and they'll win easily in 2 games. This is probably one of the most dangerous teams in the CWS if they get in. Clemson's fight and spunk may push this to 3 games should one of ASU starters falter but they'll just be too strong to be beaten this year at home.

#3 This is one of the most interesting match-ups as Virginia is a hot team with loads of momentum winning the toughest regional last weekend at Cal Irvine. They are lead by 2 great pitchers in Danny Hultzen and Andrew Carraway. This team also bring a team 3.19 ERA to the field. Offensively they aren't the flashiest team, but have been getting timely hits and small balling teams to get great W's. This team won the ACC tournament to earn the automatic bid into the regionals...they're hot...look out.
Ole Miss once again is back in the same situation it's been in the last few years, hosting a super regional, and maybe thinking they'll get a chance to make it to Omaha. The last few super's for Ole Miss have been disappointing...letting teams like Miami make the CWS instead of them. This year's team isnt very flashy on the mound but has gotten some good starts from Drew Pomeranz, Philip Irwin, and Brett Bukvich. Ole Miss bring a team 4.14 ERA into the series. Offensively they have been a better hitting team batting .315 as a team and slugging out 54 HR's.
OUTLOOK: This is the hardest matchup to pick in my eyes because both teams are fairly balanced. The edge and the pick goes to Virginia because of their hot postseason play and the fact that I think this team could make a splash at the CWS next week. It'll be another disappointing super regional for Ole Miss but when they get some more solid pitching, it'll be easier to pick them to win.

Other Picks: Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, Fullerton, Southern Miss, Virginia, ASU, LSU

Tomorrow will ask the Question: How much is too much to pay for a Head Football Coach?
Tune in then....

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

June 2, 2009

Well its a new month but the info is just too hot today....We'll do this a few more times this week as the summer months have allowed me some time to blog when we have juicy things to talk about.

The Hot List:
1. Super Regional Preview
2. Memphis Scandal Continues
3. Colorado Coaching Problems

Lets not delay.....

1. Ok so I wasn't too bad on my picks for the regional winners. Texas, Arizona State, North Carolina, Fullerton, LSU, Louisville, FSU, Ole Miss, and Rice were all my correct selections. It was nice to see other schools get in such as Virginia, Arkansas, Southern Miss, TCU, East Carolina, Clemson, and Florida. Matchups are as follows:
TCU @ Texas
Southern Miss @ Florida
Clemson @ Arizona State
East Carolina @ North Carolina
Louisville @ CS Fullerton
Arkansas @ Florida State
Virignia @ Mississippi
Rice @ LSU

Some very good matchups and some powder puff games so you can pretty much put North Carolina in. Their matchup with East Carolina just isn't fair. They have a far better team with probably the player of the year on their team. The other matchups are pretty good but I still think that if the real Texas team shows up in their regional then they'll easily advance but looking at how it's been 4 years since they made it to Omaha, I'm not counting TCU out of pulling a huge upset. All games are on ESPN and ESPN2 this year. Should be fun to watch....Picks On Thursday and we'll preview the top 3 matchups tomorrow (ASU/Clemson, Virginia/Ole Miss, Rice/LSU)

2. The scandal at Memphis continues as reports today have surfaced from the school stating that they didn't find any evidence of cheating by Derrick Rose on his SAT score. The NCAA infraction committee is suppose to review these findings and make with a ruling in 6 to 8 weeks. I think that Memphis didn't totally know the situation from Derrick Rose. The more I read about this story the more I begin to think that the problem came from high school and that really Rose was at fault not the university. Although if it does come out that he knowingly did something to alter his test score and the University allowed him to be a student at the school without properly checking the validity of his scores, they would still be at fault. It just shows that you never can be to certain if the test scores of a certain top rated athlete are actually legit. I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of stories start popping up all over the country at other top universities. Better shore your lose ends up USC, Florida, Texas, Kansas, and North Carolina....before something like this arises and ruins your rep as a program.

3. Dan Hawkins announced today that he will be coaching wide receivers next season. CU has had a variety of problems related to injuries and people leaving the program. CU now looks at having no legit deep threat talent on the field as TE Ryan Wallace and WR Josh Smith have left the program for undisclosed reasons. Hawkins feels he has to put his knowledge into his WR's as he has lofty expectations to uphold after he called CU going 10-2 next season. Honestly things are in disaray at CU right now. They rely too much on their running game and in 3 seasons have yet to develop a decent QB to run their offense. Things have really changed since Shawn left...Love that he's here and staying at Nebraska...I'd be hard press to see them win 6 games next season with all the questions they still have to answer before the fall. Either way football is just around the corner...can't freaking wait.

Phil Steele picks Nebraska and Texas as winners of the Big 12 North and South in 2009. With Nebraska going to the Holiday bowl to play Cal. We'll see if he's right...more on this tomorrow.