[Husker] Husker Baseball

Sat Mar 17 20:17:56 CDT 2012

Skylar, Thanks for the break down. I have watched all the games that have 
been available and it seems that Bolt sends guys when they would have been 
held in the past. This team is fun to watch.

Tony Lambert
-----Original Message----- 
From: Skylar Dodds
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2012 7:07 PM
To: 'Tony Lambert'
Cc: 'husker List'
Subject: RE: [Husker] Husker Baseball

You know, I was thinking about doing that recently....glad you brought it
up.  I wrote this before Saturday's games, so keep that in mind.

Overall:
=====================
It's tough to draw any major conclusions about this team just yet.
Honestly, if this were the B12, we would be saying "I like the way they're
playing, but let's see what happens when the competition gets tougher in
conference".   Being flat out realistic, the B1G is pretty bad.  There's
only 3 teams in this conference that are even moderately good.  Purdue is
the only team even being considered for rankings, they're ranked in roughly
half the polls (we might be an 'also getting votes' if we sweep this
weekend).   Though Purdue led off a 4 game series with Wichita State
Thursday with an impressive 8-3 win and then another yesterday 10-5.  If
they go 3-1 or sweep I think you'll see them firmly in the polls.

As you know, Gonzaga swept us at the beginning of the year and for a while
it looked like they were pretty solid winning their first 10 games, but
they've now lost 5 of their last 6 (3 x New Mexico and 2 x Arkansas...tough
to blame them for those two).

Since then, we're 13-3 with 2 losses to Cal (and 2 wins...Cal is a ranked
team and a CWS team last year) and a loss to West Virginia in the DQ Classic
in Minneapolis.

Attitude:
Darin has changed this team's mental makeup in a short amount of time.  I
mostly assumed that it was...let's call it 'fan speak' up to this point.
We've seen them beat some teams (not a great level of competition mind you)
and fans automatically start talking about swagger, etc.  Well, after I
watched them in person I can tell you it's real.  This team just acts
differently.  They greet each other at the top of the dugout stairs
differently.  They look different in the dugout.  They have a confidence
when they go to the plate.  They throw strikes and dare you to hit it (for
the most part).  I would also say this has a lot to do with Bolt too.  He
wasn't called, "Little Van Horn" for nothing.

Offense:
The "O" has probably been the most surprising thing so far.  I don't think
we have the speed yet that Darin wants for his "chaos on the base paths"
mentality (I think we're successful stealing around a 60% rate).  But the
hitters clearly have a better approach at the plate (I think especially with
a little more freedom to swing early in the count...something Anderson tends
to not let hitters do).  The great thing is the team has gotten those big
innings they lacked in previous years.  They've really tagged some decent
pitchers.  Highlighted by Chad Christensen...holy cow.  Chad seemed like a
guy destined to be a singles hitter the rest of his life.  Now he's driving
the ball all over the field.  He leads the team in HRs (5), RBIs (25...next
closest is 16), 4th in OBP (.460), 2nd in doubles (5) and sports a .413
average (3rd best).   By comparison in roughly 3x the ABs he hit 1 HR and 6
doubles last year.  Scheffert seems to be the same story pretty much.  Last
year he bat an abysmal .220 and this year he's hitting .360.  Kale Kiser is
an interesting story too....he's only batting .240 (3rd worst on the team),
but he's got the 2nd highest OBP (.472).  He leads the team with 17 walks
(more than double #2 at 8) and HBP with 5..  Man  just does whatever it
takes to get on 1st base.

Also, the newcomers have REALLY made an immediate impact.  True frosh Pat
Kelly is leading the team with a .444 avg and will be the everyday starter
at SS eventually (just needs to get a little more consistent
defensively...more on that later).  Richard Stock has been a beast at the
plate (.400 avg, 2nd in RBIs with 16, a homerun and 7 doubles).  He actually
plays catcher, but isn't NEAR the defensive catcher Burleson is so he's
played most games at 1st or DH.  Austin Darby and Rich Sanguinetti have been
solid at the plate (.340 and .299 respectively), but they've brought a lot
more of what Darin wants on the 'paths' with 4 steals each (out of 10 tries)
and Sanguinetti is tied for 2nd on the team in RBIs (gets a lot of hits when
we need them).  Sanguinetti has also really anchored down the CF position.
He's got great speed so he covers a lot of ground and has a great glove.

Darin shuffles the lineup a lot, but our most powerful hitting lineup looks
like this:

C: Burleson
1B: Stock
2B: Kelly
SS: Christensen
3B: Scheffert
LF: Pritchard
CF: Sanguinetti
RF: Kiser / Darby
DH: Kash (when healthy)

Defense:
Defensively this team has been really solid except for Pat Kelly (and a
little bit Kurt Farmer).  Kelly is actually really talented just needs to
develop some consistency.  His natural position is SS, but after getting
hurt early on Chad Christensen went back to short and hasn't left since so
Kelly has been splitting 2B with Bryan Peters.  Chad has an incredible glove
and a really accurate arm, but Kelly actually has a much stronger arm (which
is why I said he's the SS of the future).  As a true freshman, he's got
plenty of time to do it.

At catcher Burleson is the best we have and he has an OK bat.  He's hitting
.250, but he's the guy on the team (seems like there's one every year) who
hits a ton of line drives just always seems to be at someone.  Sam Stucky
isn't too bad defensively, but doesn't have the greatest bat and Richard
Stock I think is the guy they want back there long term, but he's not as
good defensively as Cory.

Pitching:
Early on, our starting pitching was a lot better than our bullpen, but that
has reversed itself.  Our starting pitching has been OK, but definitely not
great (maybe inconsistent is more accurate).  But lately, our relievers have
been NAILS.  The Gonzaga series our relief pitching was the reason we got
swept.  We really should have at least won 2 of those (lost 2 leads in the
9th) and we could have won a 3.  In that series, our relievers had a 9.00
ERA.  Now, that ERA is around 1.90.  The best of the bunch have been Aaron
Bummer, Ryan Hander, Dylan Vogt, and Brandon Pierce.  The four have combined
for a 1.12 ERA over 40 1/3 innings (just 5 earned runs).

For the starters, Tom Lemke has been the best (not really too surprising).
He's got a 3.06 ERA and just really has been the most consistent.  I have
said for a while I think Keller is the most talented.  He's got a great
fastball and some really solid offspead stuff.  The problem with him is that
he walks WAY too many people (and HBPs)  and then lets that get himself into
trouble.

Hirsch is very talented too, but had a really bad outing vs Cal last
weekend.  He leads the team in strikeouts with 20.  He bounced back pretty
well against La Tech on Thursday and he's young, so I think he'll do just
fine.  The midweek starters are Tyler Neiderklein (who I think is very solid
as a starter, but started the season with a disastrous relief appearance vs
Gonzaga) and Kyle Kubat,

While the bullpen seems like it's one of the strengths of this team, the
Achilles heel might be the lack of the true 'Friday' guy.  We just don't
have anyone that we know we can put on the mound and get us a series opening
win, IMO.  Hopefully we can find that soon.  Really it's probably good
enough for the B1G, but come regional/super time...I'm not as confident.

Recruiting:
This is probably been very promising so far.  You never know who's going to
get here by the time they sign, but it's a good start.

2013 class so far:
Ryan Boldt - OF - 6'1" - 185 - L/R - Red Wing, MN
Ryan looks the part of what Darin wants.  Boldt is a very athletic prospect
that is an aggressive hitter with raw power and a live bat. He also has very
good speed winning the Fastest Man Contest (6.50) at the Kernels Foundation
Championship this past fall. He is currently ranked #127 nationally and #3
in Minnesota.   Boldt bats left and throws right because when he was young
he broke something in his elbow and started throwing right handed and it
just stuck.

Derek Burkamper - RHP - 6'2" - 170 - R/R - Muscatine, IA
Derek is another guy who is just a WOW recruit.  He is the #2 ranked player
out of Iowa and the #69 pitcher in the country and #244 overall.  He's 6'2"
170lbs (room to grow) and already throws around 88-90.  He has a sharp break
on his curve ball and his changeup is solid enough to be a good #3 pitch
(comes in around 80-81).   He played in the "Midwest Top Showcase" game and
struck out 5 batters in 2 innings.

Beau Fandel - SS - 6'1" - 190 - R/R - Stacy, MN
Never got a lot about this guy, but PerfectGame calls him a "High Follow"
which means they will keep an eye on him and he may end up in their Top500
ranking (their main H.S. athlete ranking).   Maxpreps listed him as the #10
guy in Minnesota.

Brayden Young - RHP - 6'0" - 160 - R/R - Lincoln, NE
Good strike thrower with decent velocity.

Ben Miller - LHP - 6'3" - 210 - R/R - West Des Moines, IA
87-88 Fastball with a good changeup. Very short and compact arm action,
hides ball well, tight 3/4's release point. Gets on hitters quickly with
deception from release. Change is best off speed pitch, very good sink at
times, good feel for location. Rare slider, flashes spin but limited present
feel. Will need to develop a breaking ball but has two solid present
pitches.

-----Original Message-----
From: husker-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:husker-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of
Tony Lambert
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 7:17 PM
To: husker at tssi.com
Subject: [Husker] Husker Baseball

Skylar, could you give the list your thought on the baseball team as they
win today 9-2 over La. Tech to go 12-6.

Tony Lambert
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