The Tigers enter play tomorrow night at 24-25 and one game behind us in the SEC standings at 7-17. It's been a disappointing year for a Missouri squad that brought back several pieces from a team that should have made a regional last year. Missouri just can't seem to get on track this season.... They've lost an inordinate number of close games. The pattern a number of weekends as been close loss (or close win) or Friday and/ or Saturday, then blowout on Sunday. The last three years we've played Missouri, they have had a handful of front line guys, but also some major holes. I went to business school with a Missouri alum and he told me last June that their fan base was unhappy with Tim Jamison and a growing segment supported making a change. I told him I thought that would be foolish... The fact that Missouri can compete in this league, the fact that they got to 15 wins last year, with what they had offensively is a testament to Jamison... at least as far as I could tell.
Missouri opened the league slate by getting swept at Gainesville Florida. Missouri was only outscored by 7 runs on the weekend. They played Vanderbilt tooth and nail the first two games the next weekend, before being blown out in the series finale, on Easter Sunday. Like our 2013 team, they began league play 0-7 when they lost to Arkansas to start the next series, though the Tigers bounced back and won the next 2. Missouri appeared to be building some steam when they took a series from Auburn the next weekend. LSU then went to Columbia, and similar to the Vanderbilt series, Missouri fought LSU right down to the wire the first two games, and was blasted in the finale. So, Missouri stood at 4-11 at the halfway point. Then they moved to 4-14 after being swept in the other Columbia. Missouri rebounded with a surprising home sweep of Tennessee to move to 7-14. Then Missouri went to Starkville and got swept, though they played the Bizzaro Bulldogs very close the last two games. That last series may have been the knockout blow for Mizzou.... I'm very interested to see how or if they rebound this weekend. It seems like each time they've started to build some momentum, they wind up taking a step back. They seem similar to our 2007 team in that respect, in that they just quite get over that hump.
Missouri has flipped things around this weekend. Tanner Houck will go on Friday night. The big sophomore righty from Collinsville Illinois should be a high first round back in 13 months. From the same seat at Foley Field last year I saw AJ Puk, Alex Lange, Alex Faedo, and Logan Shore. I thought that Houck better stuff than any of them. As irritating as the second half of that double header was last year against Missouri, I still enjoyed watching Houck pitch, at least on some level. His fastball has a ton of late movement.... It really seems to run in when it gets on the plate. He works in the mid 90s there. I thought his slider top shelf. On the year, Houck is 4-5 with a 3.06 ERA. He's made 12 appearances, all starts, and has thrown 2 complete games. His 85 1/3 innings are second most in the conference. He has 85 strike outs and 22 walks. The opposition is hitting .206 against him. We've seen some front line guys this season, but I honestly think that Tanner Houck is the highest eventual draft pick of the group.
Saturday, we'll see a familiar face in Reggie McClain, the "super senior" righty from Duluth, who surprisingly returned to Columbia Missouri after winning the national championship against us in Athens last season. I kid obviously, but I was surprised to see Reggie return for a fifth year of college baseball. On the year, McClain has thrown 84 innings, which is second most in the conference. He has a 4-3 record and 4-18 ERA in 12 appearances, all starts. He's thrown 1 complete game. He has an eye popping 74/8 K/BB and is allowing a .289 average against. He throws a lot of change ups, a lot of off-speed stuff. You can see why he and Houck and effective pitching consecutively. Reggie will put the ball over the plate. He won't over power you like Houck can, but he can be just as effective. I wanted to say too that anyone who was around in 2012 will agree that the idea then of McClain doing this in college baseball was absurd. He really grew up a lot since then. David Sosebee too.... It didn't seem like baseball was a very serious thing for either guy. When it got taken away from them, each took advantage of that wake up call went on to a have an outstanding career. You see a lot of good players in college flush it away with bad decisions, bad grades, etc. Reggie (and David) could have gone that direction, but didn't. I didn't care for some of Reggie's showboating last year in Athens, but I have the utmost respect for his growth and maturity.
Sunday is TBA. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
Missouri's main guys from the bullpen are Cole Bartlett and Austin Tribby. Bartlett is a third year righty. Tribby is a big senior lefty. I'm sure Missouri's chances this weekend will go up exponentially if don't have to use either guy until Sunday.
Missouri has pitched us very well the last three years. Each time, they've had a guy go CG on us. I'm sure they're the only program that we've played for that has been the case. As a staff, they have 363 strikeouts on the year and only 129 walks.
Missouri is lead offensively by Zach Leavy, big left handed hitting senior from Auxvasse Missouri. We should see him at 1st base, hitting cleanup. He's hitting .342/.401/.615. He has the top slugging percentage in the SEC. He has 6 HRs and 48 RBIs. 31 of his 64 hits have gone for extra bases. He has 51 K's and 10 walks on the year.
I remember being impressed with Jake Ring a season ago. We'll see him in CF and hitting, most likely, out of the 2 hole. Ring is a left handed hitting junior from Ingleside Illinois. He's hitting .320/.429/.425 with 1 HR and 22 RBI. He's 22/27 in steals. His successful steals mark is, I believe, tops in the conference.
Ryan Howard will play SS and hit 3rd (I'm going to see a different Ryan Howard in a little less than two hours from now). The Missouri Howard is a junior from St. Charles MO. He's hitting .284/.374/.426 with 5 HRs and 25 RBIs. He's also a steal threat, relatively speaking, at 10-14 on the year. Howard is a right handed hitter.
Brett Bond is a good catcher, I thought, and a pretty good hitter. I was surprised to see his numbers down at .224/.391/.330. Bond is leading their team in HRs with 7. We'll probably see the sophomore catcher from St. Louis hitting 5th.
Missouri is only hitting .253 as a team. They're pretty good at the top of their order, but it falls off hard after that. I don't know what to think about this weekend. On paper, these guys are not a great matchup for us. But, we've played two outstanding games consecutively and I think that that we're starting to find some confidence... As I say, I'm interested to see what kind of mentality Missouri has this weekend. As badly as we need to win to get into the NCAAT, they still have a great shot at the SECT and they need these games badly this weekend, also.
Missouri opened the league slate by getting swept at Gainesville Florida. Missouri was only outscored by 7 runs on the weekend. They played Vanderbilt tooth and nail the first two games the next weekend, before being blown out in the series finale, on Easter Sunday. Like our 2013 team, they began league play 0-7 when they lost to Arkansas to start the next series, though the Tigers bounced back and won the next 2. Missouri appeared to be building some steam when they took a series from Auburn the next weekend. LSU then went to Columbia, and similar to the Vanderbilt series, Missouri fought LSU right down to the wire the first two games, and was blasted in the finale. So, Missouri stood at 4-11 at the halfway point. Then they moved to 4-14 after being swept in the other Columbia. Missouri rebounded with a surprising home sweep of Tennessee to move to 7-14. Then Missouri went to Starkville and got swept, though they played the Bizzaro Bulldogs very close the last two games. That last series may have been the knockout blow for Mizzou.... I'm very interested to see how or if they rebound this weekend. It seems like each time they've started to build some momentum, they wind up taking a step back. They seem similar to our 2007 team in that respect, in that they just quite get over that hump.
Missouri has flipped things around this weekend. Tanner Houck will go on Friday night. The big sophomore righty from Collinsville Illinois should be a high first round back in 13 months. From the same seat at Foley Field last year I saw AJ Puk, Alex Lange, Alex Faedo, and Logan Shore. I thought that Houck better stuff than any of them. As irritating as the second half of that double header was last year against Missouri, I still enjoyed watching Houck pitch, at least on some level. His fastball has a ton of late movement.... It really seems to run in when it gets on the plate. He works in the mid 90s there. I thought his slider top shelf. On the year, Houck is 4-5 with a 3.06 ERA. He's made 12 appearances, all starts, and has thrown 2 complete games. His 85 1/3 innings are second most in the conference. He has 85 strike outs and 22 walks. The opposition is hitting .206 against him. We've seen some front line guys this season, but I honestly think that Tanner Houck is the highest eventual draft pick of the group.
Saturday, we'll see a familiar face in Reggie McClain, the "super senior" righty from Duluth, who surprisingly returned to Columbia Missouri after winning the national championship against us in Athens last season. I kid obviously, but I was surprised to see Reggie return for a fifth year of college baseball. On the year, McClain has thrown 84 innings, which is second most in the conference. He has a 4-3 record and 4-18 ERA in 12 appearances, all starts. He's thrown 1 complete game. He has an eye popping 74/8 K/BB and is allowing a .289 average against. He throws a lot of change ups, a lot of off-speed stuff. You can see why he and Houck and effective pitching consecutively. Reggie will put the ball over the plate. He won't over power you like Houck can, but he can be just as effective. I wanted to say too that anyone who was around in 2012 will agree that the idea then of McClain doing this in college baseball was absurd. He really grew up a lot since then. David Sosebee too.... It didn't seem like baseball was a very serious thing for either guy. When it got taken away from them, each took advantage of that wake up call went on to a have an outstanding career. You see a lot of good players in college flush it away with bad decisions, bad grades, etc. Reggie (and David) could have gone that direction, but didn't. I didn't care for some of Reggie's showboating last year in Athens, but I have the utmost respect for his growth and maturity.
Sunday is TBA. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
Missouri's main guys from the bullpen are Cole Bartlett and Austin Tribby. Bartlett is a third year righty. Tribby is a big senior lefty. I'm sure Missouri's chances this weekend will go up exponentially if don't have to use either guy until Sunday.
Missouri has pitched us very well the last three years. Each time, they've had a guy go CG on us. I'm sure they're the only program that we've played for that has been the case. As a staff, they have 363 strikeouts on the year and only 129 walks.
Missouri is lead offensively by Zach Leavy, big left handed hitting senior from Auxvasse Missouri. We should see him at 1st base, hitting cleanup. He's hitting .342/.401/.615. He has the top slugging percentage in the SEC. He has 6 HRs and 48 RBIs. 31 of his 64 hits have gone for extra bases. He has 51 K's and 10 walks on the year.
I remember being impressed with Jake Ring a season ago. We'll see him in CF and hitting, most likely, out of the 2 hole. Ring is a left handed hitting junior from Ingleside Illinois. He's hitting .320/.429/.425 with 1 HR and 22 RBI. He's 22/27 in steals. His successful steals mark is, I believe, tops in the conference.
Ryan Howard will play SS and hit 3rd (I'm going to see a different Ryan Howard in a little less than two hours from now). The Missouri Howard is a junior from St. Charles MO. He's hitting .284/.374/.426 with 5 HRs and 25 RBIs. He's also a steal threat, relatively speaking, at 10-14 on the year. Howard is a right handed hitter.
Brett Bond is a good catcher, I thought, and a pretty good hitter. I was surprised to see his numbers down at .224/.391/.330. Bond is leading their team in HRs with 7. We'll probably see the sophomore catcher from St. Louis hitting 5th.
Missouri is only hitting .253 as a team. They're pretty good at the top of their order, but it falls off hard after that. I don't know what to think about this weekend. On paper, these guys are not a great matchup for us. But, we've played two outstanding games consecutively and I think that that we're starting to find some confidence... As I say, I'm interested to see what kind of mentality Missouri has this weekend. As badly as we need to win to get into the NCAAT, they still have a great shot at the SECT and they need these games badly this weekend, also.
