Thursday, February 15, 2007
Husker Baseball begins tomorrow
With the season starting tomorrow morning i thought it was probably time to talk a little Husker baseball and give some predictions.
This team will go only as far as our pitching and defense can take us. I don't have as high of expectations for this team as i have the past few years. I am just not sure we have the sticks to combat big xii pitching. If people like Andrew Brown, Andy Gerch, and maybe one of the newcomers can provide some power I could be wrong. I expect Wherle, Opitz and Sullivan (when he gets completely healthy) to all be good avg hitters. Bryce Nimmo is a guy that has to step up this year and will be the key to the offense. In the first half of the season last year he was a very good leadoff guy...but went into one of the worst 2 mo. slumps i have ever seen out of a husker during conference and post season play. Defensively we are great up the middle with Wherle, Opiz, and Nimmo in cf, that is always a great thing to have. The biggest defensive question mark is replacing Jeff Christy at catcher. Christy was possibly the best defensive catcher in Husker history, that is a major hole to fill and i think we will struggle behind the plate this year.
This pitching unit makes me all tingly inside...we have great experience returning, not to mention a group that will bring a ton of velocity. Throwing Watson every friday night gives you a great chance to win every series you are involved in. I know that Dorn is throwing game 2 this weekend but i hope that he will be our Sunday starter in the end, he seems to fit that gritty, get-away day type of guy. He's got a ton of starts under his belt and even though he doesn't have the greatest stuff in the world would be probably the best sunday starter in the nation. I have my doubts as to whether Charlie Shirek can duplicate his performance of last year. I see that Anderson has decided to give Matt Foust the 4th start this weekend which shocks me (i believe he plunked more hitters than he had innings pitched last year, no joke). One other pitcher that i think has a chance to crack the rotation this year and to look out for is the JUCO transfer Drew Bowman, this kid is supposed to be nasty.
For as good as the starting pitching should be, the pen should be equally as good. I think Bird has the chance to become as good as Jensen was the last couple of years and Zach Herr was awesome last year and I hope he can duplicate it this year. I will love our chances anytime our starters can get into the 7th inn. and pass the ball to these two. Other names to watch for this year include Steve Edlefson (yes the same Edelfson that started a lot of games at 3B last year), freshman Mike Nihsen, and Luke Wertz.
Here is my guess at tomorrow's starting lineup
CF Nimmo
2B Opitz
SS Wherle
1B Brown
RF Gerch
LF Belafonte/Sullivan (not sure he will be ready this first weekend)
DH Weber
C Lanning
3B Mort (i would look for the 2 newbies Corriston/Tezak to both get a start at the hot corner as well this weekend)
As for my fearless preseason prediction i will go with a regular season record of 38-18 (16-11 in big xii play). I'll than say that we get a home regional but are not a national seed.
As always, I have plenty of tickets, let me know if any of you want to claim a certain game or two. It's a great excuse for me not to take the wife if one of you wants to go with me.
This team will go only as far as our pitching and defense can take us. I don't have as high of expectations for this team as i have the past few years. I am just not sure we have the sticks to combat big xii pitching. If people like Andrew Brown, Andy Gerch, and maybe one of the newcomers can provide some power I could be wrong. I expect Wherle, Opitz and Sullivan (when he gets completely healthy) to all be good avg hitters. Bryce Nimmo is a guy that has to step up this year and will be the key to the offense. In the first half of the season last year he was a very good leadoff guy...but went into one of the worst 2 mo. slumps i have ever seen out of a husker during conference and post season play. Defensively we are great up the middle with Wherle, Opiz, and Nimmo in cf, that is always a great thing to have. The biggest defensive question mark is replacing Jeff Christy at catcher. Christy was possibly the best defensive catcher in Husker history, that is a major hole to fill and i think we will struggle behind the plate this year.
This pitching unit makes me all tingly inside...we have great experience returning, not to mention a group that will bring a ton of velocity. Throwing Watson every friday night gives you a great chance to win every series you are involved in. I know that Dorn is throwing game 2 this weekend but i hope that he will be our Sunday starter in the end, he seems to fit that gritty, get-away day type of guy. He's got a ton of starts under his belt and even though he doesn't have the greatest stuff in the world would be probably the best sunday starter in the nation. I have my doubts as to whether Charlie Shirek can duplicate his performance of last year. I see that Anderson has decided to give Matt Foust the 4th start this weekend which shocks me (i believe he plunked more hitters than he had innings pitched last year, no joke). One other pitcher that i think has a chance to crack the rotation this year and to look out for is the JUCO transfer Drew Bowman, this kid is supposed to be nasty.
For as good as the starting pitching should be, the pen should be equally as good. I think Bird has the chance to become as good as Jensen was the last couple of years and Zach Herr was awesome last year and I hope he can duplicate it this year. I will love our chances anytime our starters can get into the 7th inn. and pass the ball to these two. Other names to watch for this year include Steve Edlefson (yes the same Edelfson that started a lot of games at 3B last year), freshman Mike Nihsen, and Luke Wertz.
Here is my guess at tomorrow's starting lineup
CF Nimmo
2B Opitz
SS Wherle
1B Brown
RF Gerch
LF Belafonte/Sullivan (not sure he will be ready this first weekend)
DH Weber
C Lanning
3B Mort (i would look for the 2 newbies Corriston/Tezak to both get a start at the hot corner as well this weekend)
As for my fearless preseason prediction i will go with a regular season record of 38-18 (16-11 in big xii play). I'll than say that we get a home regional but are not a national seed.
As always, I have plenty of tickets, let me know if any of you want to claim a certain game or two. It's a great excuse for me not to take the wife if one of you wants to go with me.
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It's below zero and let's talk some baseball! I agree almost entirely with your assessment of this season. I look at this team as having a lot of xfactors:
Let's look at a few:
1. Shirek--if he develops into a legit weekend starter that is HUGE for us.
2. Catcher--Can't think of much good to say here. This will be the only season in the history of college BB that I am all for coaches calling pithces.
3. Dorn--I think, after two years, it's safe to say that the book is still out on him. When he's locating he's dominant, otherwise he gets rocked. Love the Sunday role for him.
4. Offense out of 3B--We must be the only team in America projected to have their 3B be a 9th in the order platoon. Let's get some production.
5. Gerch and Nimmo--They must be consistent producers all year.
6. Bullpen-Should be great, and needs to be.
I like that this team isn't coming in with really high expectations, even though pitching and defense are strengths. I think that our record is slightly better than what EZT predicted, somewhere in the neighborhood of 42-14. I don't see us faltering late like we did last year as I firmly believe.
Prediction: 42-14, #7 National Seed, Super Regional Victory, win one at the CWS before an offensive slump sends us back down I-80.
Let's look at a few:
1. Shirek--if he develops into a legit weekend starter that is HUGE for us.
2. Catcher--Can't think of much good to say here. This will be the only season in the history of college BB that I am all for coaches calling pithces.
3. Dorn--I think, after two years, it's safe to say that the book is still out on him. When he's locating he's dominant, otherwise he gets rocked. Love the Sunday role for him.
4. Offense out of 3B--We must be the only team in America projected to have their 3B be a 9th in the order platoon. Let's get some production.
5. Gerch and Nimmo--They must be consistent producers all year.
6. Bullpen-Should be great, and needs to be.
I like that this team isn't coming in with really high expectations, even though pitching and defense are strengths. I think that our record is slightly better than what EZT predicted, somewhere in the neighborhood of 42-14. I don't see us faltering late like we did last year as I firmly believe.
Prediction: 42-14, #7 National Seed, Super Regional Victory, win one at the CWS before an offensive slump sends us back down I-80.
And EZT, I can't thank you enough for thinking that I wrote the anonymous posts yesterday that my brother wrote. I'm sure this infuriated Adam, who happens to be an award winning author. He is probably on his third short story in the last 24 hours.
This amuses me to no end.
This amuses me to no end.
I am glad that i can entertain you, but i do feel kinda bad that i came off so harsh. He does seem to be able to write extremely well though, maybe i should get him to write a short story on how tough it is to defend in the paint against somebody 6'11 275lbs.
While on the subject of basketball, i have a good basketball/valentine's day story for all my Heavy Soul fans. So last night after a couple bottles of wine with my beautiful bride at dinner i pretty much fell asleep right away (after watching duke snap the losing streak of course) At some point throughout the middle of the night I woke up and decided that i should wake Lindsey up for some middle of the night action...which i felt i deserved after treating her to a wonderful v-day. So after doing the deed she asks me what woke me up....not thinking clearly I explained to her that 2 new offensive sets had just come to mind that would work great against this weekends opponent who happens to switch all screens. In the middle of explaining these plays to her i realized my ciritical mistake and stopped explaining how we were going to get a guard matched up on our 6'5 post player. At some point I realized that wasn't the romantic, because i was thinking about how much I love you, blah blah crap that she was hoping for. She was pissed, I'm an idiot. God I love the game of basketball, but it may be a while before i get laid again.
Moral of the story: Sleep on the couch during basketball season so this kind of thing doesn't happen.
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While on the subject of basketball, i have a good basketball/valentine's day story for all my Heavy Soul fans. So last night after a couple bottles of wine with my beautiful bride at dinner i pretty much fell asleep right away (after watching duke snap the losing streak of course) At some point throughout the middle of the night I woke up and decided that i should wake Lindsey up for some middle of the night action...which i felt i deserved after treating her to a wonderful v-day. So after doing the deed she asks me what woke me up....not thinking clearly I explained to her that 2 new offensive sets had just come to mind that would work great against this weekends opponent who happens to switch all screens. In the middle of explaining these plays to her i realized my ciritical mistake and stopped explaining how we were going to get a guard matched up on our 6'5 post player. At some point I realized that wasn't the romantic, because i was thinking about how much I love you, blah blah crap that she was hoping for. She was pissed, I'm an idiot. God I love the game of basketball, but it may be a while before i get laid again.
Moral of the story: Sleep on the couch during basketball season so this kind of thing doesn't happen.
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