The Aggies make their first ever trip to Athens this season after we played them for the first time ever at their place to kick off the league slate last year. I didn't really think that Texas A&M was that much better than we were last year. We had a lot of opportunities on both Friday and Saturday that we didn't take advantage of and were then non-competitive on Sunday. Still, had a few things gone differently we could have gotten two games out there. Last year appeared to be something of a transitional year for A&M. I was expecting better results to this point from them this season, but they've gotten off to a relatively slow start. In a lot of ways, they appear to be a very similar team to what they were last year. A&M is coached by Rod Childress, who is from the Dave Van Horn coaching tree. You could see some similarities between A&M and Arkansas last season in that both teams very fundamentally solid, like to generate action on the bases, and pitch very, very well.
On the year, Texas A&M is 17-8 and 3-3 in the SEC. They opened league play by dropping a series at Auburn (who I'm watching on ESPNU right now in hopes of learning something about Mysterious Missouri) and rebounded by winning a series in College Station from Florida last weekend. The series win over Florida was very tight as the Aggies dropped the opener in extras, then came back to win a pair of one run decisions on Saturday and Sunday (the latter of which was also an extra innings win). Texas A&M is only 2-5 on the year away from College Station and took a sweep in the San Jaoquin valley at the hands of Fresno State earlier this season. They are fresh off an 8-1 home loss in the mid week to Sam Houston State.
On Friday night, or in game one, we'll see Daniel Mengden, a stocky junior righty out of Houston Texas. We saw Mengden on Saturday last season and I thought that he was A&M's best guy last year. This season, he's their innings leader at 41 2/3, making 6 appearances (all starts) and posting a 2-3 record. He has a respectable 3.24 ERA and a .228 average against. On the year, he has 46 K's against 12 BBs. Mengden will work in the low mid 90s with his fastball and I seem to recall that he has a pretty decent slider as well. He was good against us last year, going 8 innings with 8 strikeouts, no walks, and allowing 6 hits and a run. It's been a slower start for him this year in conference play as he has thrown 14 2/3 innings for a 4.30 ERA. He has 11 K's, 3 BB's and the SEC is hitting .311 against him. Expect that Aggies to ride Mengden as long as possible in the opener.
Saturday, we'll see Grayson Long, a tall right handed sophomore from Mont Belvieu Texas. I couldn't find much of a scouting report on Long and we didn't see him any last season. It appears that he spent 2013 as a midweek guy for the Aggies as he did make 10 starts a year ago. Long is off to a fantastic start on the year as he is 3-0 in 6 appearances, all starts, with a 1.13 ERA. In 39 2/3 innings he has a 26/12 K/BB and the opposition is hitting .217 against him. The numbers swell a bit in the league and through two starts in conference play and 13 2/3 innings, Long has an ERA of 2.63 and an average against of .308. He has the same 11/3 K/BB as Mengden in league play. We should be able to put a lot of baseballs in play in this guy and when you do that, good things can happen (of course, we also put a lot in play against Ross Mitchell of Miss State two weeks ago, so bad things can happen as well).
Sunday we'll see Taylor Stubblefield, which is a surprising common name according to Google. A&M's Stubblefield is a rare lefty on the A&M staff and the true freshman from Lufkin Texas stands 6'4 and weighs in at 210 lbs. This is definitely the biggest pitching staff that we've seen this season. I couldn't find much of a book on this guy, either. He was a 36th round pick of our Atlanta Braves this past June. On the year, Stubblefield has a 3-1 record in 10 appearances, 6 starts, and 2.04 ERA. He's thrown 35 1/3 innings and has a good 40/10 K/BB. The opposition is hitting him at .250. Stubblefield has two SEC appearances with 1 start. He's thrown 7 2/3 innings in conference and has a 4.70 ERA and .333 average against. He has struck out SEC hitters 5 times and walked 3. We should certainly be able to put the ball in play against him as well.
A&M has only used 7 pitchers in the SEC so far. AJ Minter is the only lefty. Their closer is Jason Jester who we saw on Friday and Saturday last year. Jester has pitched in 4 games in the league so far and picked up 1 save. His numbers aren't very good, though. In 4 1/3 innings he has a 4.15 ERA and .476 average against. We didn't hit him last year, though.
Offensively, A&M is lead by Cole Lankford, a junior left handed hitter from Houston. We'll see Lankford hitting 3rd and playing 1B. He hit us pretty good last season and is off to a strong start this year. In league play, Lankford is hitting .357/.379/.393. On the season as a whole, he's only struck out 3 times in 99 at bats. All 3 of those K's have come in league play, which is pretty remarkable in its own right.
Need to watch out for Mitchell Nau also. We'll see this squat junior from Spring Texas catching and he'll probably DH a game too. He'll hit in the middle, either 5th or 6th most likely (we saw him in the clean up hole last year). Nau is off to something of a slow start in the league, hitting .273/.304/.273. He's only K'd 2 times now in 22 SEC ABs.
Logan Nottebrok, a juco transfer from San Antonio leads A&M in home runs with 4 (he's the only Aggie with more than 1 HR). Nottebrok is hitting .250/.250/.333 in the conference and has only played in 3 games in the SEC. He may DH when Nau catches and will probably play 3B when Nau DH's.
On the season Texas A&M is 27/37 in stolen bases, but only 3/6 in the SEC. They've been tough to run against as well, allowing only 16/24 overall and only 2/6 in the SEC.
These guys don't hit for a lot of power, they don't appear to be very deep on the mound, and it looks like that we should be able to put the ball in play against all of their starters. This will be a much different looking and feeling series than Miss State and LSU, I believe. But just as we're thinking that this looks like a winnable series and a chance to get things pointed in the right direction, so too does A&M. While they are .500 in conference, you have to think that the loser of this series is going to be looking an uphill climb the rest of the way. You can bet that A&M won't beat themselves this weekend, so it's imperative that we play clean baseball as well.
On the year, Texas A&M is 17-8 and 3-3 in the SEC. They opened league play by dropping a series at Auburn (who I'm watching on ESPNU right now in hopes of learning something about Mysterious Missouri) and rebounded by winning a series in College Station from Florida last weekend. The series win over Florida was very tight as the Aggies dropped the opener in extras, then came back to win a pair of one run decisions on Saturday and Sunday (the latter of which was also an extra innings win). Texas A&M is only 2-5 on the year away from College Station and took a sweep in the San Jaoquin valley at the hands of Fresno State earlier this season. They are fresh off an 8-1 home loss in the mid week to Sam Houston State.
On Friday night, or in game one, we'll see Daniel Mengden, a stocky junior righty out of Houston Texas. We saw Mengden on Saturday last season and I thought that he was A&M's best guy last year. This season, he's their innings leader at 41 2/3, making 6 appearances (all starts) and posting a 2-3 record. He has a respectable 3.24 ERA and a .228 average against. On the year, he has 46 K's against 12 BBs. Mengden will work in the low mid 90s with his fastball and I seem to recall that he has a pretty decent slider as well. He was good against us last year, going 8 innings with 8 strikeouts, no walks, and allowing 6 hits and a run. It's been a slower start for him this year in conference play as he has thrown 14 2/3 innings for a 4.30 ERA. He has 11 K's, 3 BB's and the SEC is hitting .311 against him. Expect that Aggies to ride Mengden as long as possible in the opener.
Saturday, we'll see Grayson Long, a tall right handed sophomore from Mont Belvieu Texas. I couldn't find much of a scouting report on Long and we didn't see him any last season. It appears that he spent 2013 as a midweek guy for the Aggies as he did make 10 starts a year ago. Long is off to a fantastic start on the year as he is 3-0 in 6 appearances, all starts, with a 1.13 ERA. In 39 2/3 innings he has a 26/12 K/BB and the opposition is hitting .217 against him. The numbers swell a bit in the league and through two starts in conference play and 13 2/3 innings, Long has an ERA of 2.63 and an average against of .308. He has the same 11/3 K/BB as Mengden in league play. We should be able to put a lot of baseballs in play in this guy and when you do that, good things can happen (of course, we also put a lot in play against Ross Mitchell of Miss State two weeks ago, so bad things can happen as well).
Sunday we'll see Taylor Stubblefield, which is a surprising common name according to Google. A&M's Stubblefield is a rare lefty on the A&M staff and the true freshman from Lufkin Texas stands 6'4 and weighs in at 210 lbs. This is definitely the biggest pitching staff that we've seen this season. I couldn't find much of a book on this guy, either. He was a 36th round pick of our Atlanta Braves this past June. On the year, Stubblefield has a 3-1 record in 10 appearances, 6 starts, and 2.04 ERA. He's thrown 35 1/3 innings and has a good 40/10 K/BB. The opposition is hitting him at .250. Stubblefield has two SEC appearances with 1 start. He's thrown 7 2/3 innings in conference and has a 4.70 ERA and .333 average against. He has struck out SEC hitters 5 times and walked 3. We should certainly be able to put the ball in play against him as well.
A&M has only used 7 pitchers in the SEC so far. AJ Minter is the only lefty. Their closer is Jason Jester who we saw on Friday and Saturday last year. Jester has pitched in 4 games in the league so far and picked up 1 save. His numbers aren't very good, though. In 4 1/3 innings he has a 4.15 ERA and .476 average against. We didn't hit him last year, though.
Offensively, A&M is lead by Cole Lankford, a junior left handed hitter from Houston. We'll see Lankford hitting 3rd and playing 1B. He hit us pretty good last season and is off to a strong start this year. In league play, Lankford is hitting .357/.379/.393. On the season as a whole, he's only struck out 3 times in 99 at bats. All 3 of those K's have come in league play, which is pretty remarkable in its own right.
Need to watch out for Mitchell Nau also. We'll see this squat junior from Spring Texas catching and he'll probably DH a game too. He'll hit in the middle, either 5th or 6th most likely (we saw him in the clean up hole last year). Nau is off to something of a slow start in the league, hitting .273/.304/.273. He's only K'd 2 times now in 22 SEC ABs.
Logan Nottebrok, a juco transfer from San Antonio leads A&M in home runs with 4 (he's the only Aggie with more than 1 HR). Nottebrok is hitting .250/.250/.333 in the conference and has only played in 3 games in the SEC. He may DH when Nau catches and will probably play 3B when Nau DH's.
On the season Texas A&M is 27/37 in stolen bases, but only 3/6 in the SEC. They've been tough to run against as well, allowing only 16/24 overall and only 2/6 in the SEC.
These guys don't hit for a lot of power, they don't appear to be very deep on the mound, and it looks like that we should be able to put the ball in play against all of their starters. This will be a much different looking and feeling series than Miss State and LSU, I believe. But just as we're thinking that this looks like a winnable series and a chance to get things pointed in the right direction, so too does A&M. While they are .500 in conference, you have to think that the loser of this series is going to be looking an uphill climb the rest of the way. You can bet that A&M won't beat themselves this weekend, so it's imperative that we play clean baseball as well.
