Do you know anything about college baseball? I'm convinced you don't. Do you understand the importance of COACHING at the college level? How typical of horn fans: "You didn't beat us, we just sucked." "You don't have great coaches who know how to develop talent, you just got LUCKY." Yeah, I guess we got lucky last year when we made it to the CWS with a COMPLETELY different starting rotation. I guess we got lucky by churning out Matt Andersen (top pick in MLB draft in 97), Lance Berkman (also not highly recruited), etc. I guess Wayne Graham got lucky with all those national championships he won with San Jac - including getting "lucky" by developing Roger Clemens into a serviceable pitcher who later went on to UT and some pretty decent success in MLB. I guess old Wayne also got lucky by taking a school with no previous baseball history to speak of to 4 college world series in a very short time frame.
This is ridiculous. Rice is not winning, because they "luckily" have late blooming talent (whatever that means, since these two pitchers are freaking sophmores). Rice is winning, because they have a talented team, period. That's equivalent to saying the Navy team was lucky to make it the sweet 16, because David Robinson was a late blooming 7'2 center. "Oh, you guys are just lucky to have Robinson...without him, you wouldn't have beat us." What does that mean?? just ridiculous. No one says teams are lucky unless that got lucky breaks on the field...except of course a UT fan like RIET who can't bare to find out that Townsend wanted to go to UT, but they didn't recruit him....to have him come back and beat you twice as a sophmore...handily....not "luckily." <b>the word is "handily"...not, "luckily"</b> RIET...you are a laughable UT sore loser. This is really sad to see...and I love it. You can't take a beating by Rice. That's all there is to it. Even if UT comes back and knocks Rice out, I'll still cherish this moment, because RIET so pitifully pouted to claim Rice is lucky. You made my day RIET.
So, you wouldn't say that the Rockets' are lucky to have Yao Ming or to have had Hakeem Olajuwon? Navy was lucky to have David Robinson. Are you arguing that they would've made the Sweet 16 without him? I don't think RIET meant anything bad by it, in fact, he's complimenting the two <B>"dominating"</B> pitchers and saying that Rice is lucky to have them. Without them, Rice may not be as good. I'm sure he'd just as easily say that UT is lucky to have Street and Omar.
ummm....getting Yao Ming was by definition "luck." What RIET said was the pitcher were late bloomer, despite being just sophmores. The better Rockets comparison is saying the Rockets are lucky that a second-rounder like Mobley blossomed into a talented player. pfft The word is "fortunate" to have a good recruited class, not "lucky." The word is fortunate to get a lot out of Mobley. What RIET said was Rice hitting sucks, but they can still win because they "luckily, have dominant pitching." They don't "luckily" have dominant pitching, they've had several 1st round draft picks in the past who were pitchers. They have a steady stream of them. Hell, I could say that Rice is unlucky that their best pitcher last year (Herce) has been injured all year. No one talks like that except for RIET looking for an excuse, because he's not willing to accept that Rice has had the talent to make noise at the CWS in the past, and they are finally not underachieving nor drawing the eventual CWS winner in the first round. "luckily, Rice has dominant pitching." what about, Rice is unlucky to not have a Cruz, Jr or a Berkman this year, or are unlucky that Sinisi batted 70 points below his average last year, and not hitting near .500 throughout the tourny like last year. "luckily they have dominant pitching." that's just an excuse. RIET is a laughabe sore loser looking for an excuse. poor poor RIET...it's so sad.
Oh please give it up. When you have undrafted HS pitchers there's definitely luck involved to have them evolve in to 1st round picks. These guys weren't offered $3 million signing bonuses out of high school. Coaching can make you better but you cant coach a 94 mph fastball. If you know anything about college baseball, the majority of really good prospects get drafted with big signing bonuses. These guys were under the radar screen and there was a reason for that. They weren't 1st round picks like Mark Prior. Rice is lucky to have these 2 players develop as they have. And this has nothing to do with being a sore loser. Our pitching is terrible, Rice's pitching is awesome. However, to claim that Rice has good hitting is laughable. if youre so confident about this then make the wager.
Not to jump in the middle of yall's little dick measuring contest or anything, but that's just flat out weak. **** like that & the rose-colored UT can do no wrong all horns walk on water crap posted at hornfans makes me sick to be a horn. Have a little class. I went to UT. I happen to be rooting for Rice this year, and was glad to see 'em win yesterday. They're a class bunch of guys & I have a ton of respect for the school & the program.
Prior was not a first round pick out of high school. Yankees drafted him in the 4th or 5th but couldn't sign him.
There is something called coaching that goes a long way in improving guys like Townsend and Niemann. I bet you didn't even know who those two kids were last year. Now they are All-Americans. Also, Graham makes it a point to not go after the top-tier recruits who are 99% sure of going to the MLB. The only recruit who was top 50 or so in his class that Rice has recruited is Adam Hale. Rice got lucky that Hale didn't get drafted this year. I am wondering how much of Rice baseball you really know.
HIGH SCHOOL: A 1998 All-American and All-State selection during his senior year at University of San Diego High, Prior went 10-5 with a 0.93 ERA as a pitcher and .410 with 15 home runs at the plate...was also named the San Diego County Player of the Year by the San Diego Union-Tribune...holds school single-season records for strikeouts (110), ERA (0.93), home runs (15) and RBI (58), all set as a senior. PERSONAL: Prior pitched for the 1999 USA National Team, going 4-1 with a 2.52 ERA, and made the 1999 Baseball America Summer All-American second team... was a first-round sandwich pick (43rd overall) of the New York Yankees in the 1998 professional draft...lists his most thrilling moment as “putting on a USA uniform and playing in front of 10,000 fans on the Fourth of July”...his father, Jerry, played football at Vanderbilt; his sister, Millie, played tennis at San Diego; and his brother, Jerry, played tennis at Villanova...majoring in business and has a 3.18 GPA...enjoys playing golf and basketball in his spare time...favorite baseball players are Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens...birthdate is Sept. 7, 1980.
I wanted them to win until the upside-down Horns thing yesterday. I can't root for anyone that does that.
Of course coaching plays a big part of the success of the undrafted high school pitchers, but it's not like Graham could've done that with any player. He was lucky to get two undrafted pitchers that he was able to use his excellent coaching skills on. I don't see the criticism in that comment.
didn't see that. i'll have to give townsend (he's the one that did it right?) **** for that the next time I run into him. RIET - i stand corrected.
Coaching can help said pitcher with a 94 MPH avoid walks (Townsend's problem) as well as adding a deadly breaking ball such as the knuckle-curve that Niemann and Townsend both added and mastered this year. Without coaching, Towsend probably has an ERA around 5.00. There's a difference between being a thrower, and being a pitcher. Both kids were throwers in high school. I also doubt that Niemann flew under the radar. He went to a pretty good baseball HS in Houston Lamar.
How much baseball do you know period. So what youre saying is these guys were not considered first round talent, or even tenth round talent but somehow became first round prospects all due to Wayne Graham's coaching. If this is true, why hasn't Rice gotten past the 1st round with all this "great coaching". Stop talking out of your butt. There's a difference between being a high draft choice and choosing to go to college than taking a chance on a marginal prospect or project and having him turn into a 1st round pick. You don't think that's luck then I guess every major league scout is just a big dufus who knows nothing.
For those interested in the wager, here is a little nugget of information: Rice scored eleven *earned* runs last night against UT-Austin pitching. The only unearned run was when Simmons threw the ball into the right field bullpen. HORNS DOWN
But you could easily say that Rice was lucky to be able to develop both of those pitchers. There is absolutely nothing wrong in saying that and it doesn't take jack squat away from the amazing job that Graham has done over the years.
They went undrafted for a reason... Again, Graham makes it a point to recruit the lesser-known "2nd-tier" HS kids who he knows will make it to school. Name me the last Rice recruit who was a 1st round pick out of high school. It's easy for UT fans to say something like that, because Augie has no qualms about signing the top studs who are MLB risks, like Kazmir. Most top-tier programs like Arizona State, UT, FSU, Miami, etc don't mind recruiting kids who they are pretty sure won't show up to school. But Rice has a totally different philosophy.
They were earned, but I honestly think it'd have been much different had our pitchers not gotten behind on nearly every batter. Not taking away anything from Rice though, they kicked our asses last night, and probably put themselves in the finals with the win last night.
