There will be difficult series, there always are in baseball. I am interested to see how the bats react against better pitching. But through one weekend it seems as if a lot of the guys who played last year and struggled a bit have taken jumps forward.
*****Official IOWA at Swig & Swine Baseball Classic Games Thread (Feb 18, 19, 20)*****
- Thread starter Franisdaman
- Start date
At risk of nitpicking, I’d venture to guess that both Air Force and Ball State are better than Pepperdine and Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. Even if Wichita State (pre-season 4th place pick in American) is better than Air Force or Ball State, I don’t think that they are markedly better. Rough start for Shockers getting swept by La. Tech.
For sure could be the case. So early in the season it's hard to know. Air Force is 2-2. Could be a very fun baseball season.
I was thinking the same thing and this isn’t the Wichita State from a few years ago. That baseball program has fallen significantly over the years.
I think Air Force has a good chance of finishing with a winning record, which helps the resume.
I'll look forward to @KyleHuesmann 's preview of the upcoming games but, upon initial glance, it appears that Texas A&M C-C has a starting pitcher, Thomas Hayden, who is projected to be the top pitcher in the conference. Curiously, he only threw 2 innings in their opener on Friday against UT Arlington. They have two games against University of Texas (Tuesday and Wednesday). My guess is that they wanted to get him a couple of innings of work but to be available to throw against Texas on Tuesday. He'd have three days of rest before they play Iowa. I'll be curious to see how they use him. Could be a nice early season challenge for the Hawkeye bats if they have him take the mound.
Hoping to get pitching matchups by Thursday. All three opponents play midweek games, so I’ll wait to release my preview until after those are complete.
Yep. I ran game threads for all three games in there because there was a lot of interest in it.
I also do full coverage on twitter.
Hey @KyleHuesmann . . . University of Texas' baseball Game Notes (https://texassports.com/documents/2022/2/21/2022_2_22_AMCC.pdf) list Thomas Hayden as the probable starter tonight for Texas A&M C-C. If he ends up in the 80+ pitch count, it would be awfully short rest for him to throw again on Saturday night.
I’d be surprised if they threw him more than a couple innings.
They could also throw him vs Wichita State on Friday.
I get that Texas is a big game for them, but I've never understood teams that do this.
Do what? Play a big team mid-week and then a weekend series? I could be misunderstanding you.
My guess is Corpus Christi had to take the mid-week game against Texas if they wanted to play them at all. I would imagine they will go all in with their best pitcher against Texas, but what do I know. Not much.
Teams that throw a weekend starter for a midweek game is what I meant. I get it's a big game, but I don't get why teams do that.
Awfully early in the season to be pushing envelope with star pitcher. If he pitches Saturday against Iowa, I’d be stunned if he throws more than 50-60 pitches.
From the D1Baseball Top 25 Chat
Guest: Thoughts on who is the favorite in the Big Ten? Nebraska had a rough weekend, but Iowa and Maryland looked very good.
Aaron Fitt: I’m not burying Nebraska, but give me the Terps! As Kendall said earlier, Iowa also sounds very intriguing. It’s gonna be a battle royal as always in that league.
MCC: Anyone look at the 3 game Iowa cumulative pitching stats?
Kendall Rogers: MCC — I did. Iowa definitely caught my attention over the weekend. Adam Mazur kind of led the way, while I got very good reviews on Brody Brecht, who apparently was up to 98-99 mph with his fastball over the weekend. Iowa looks like one of the top two or three teams in the Big Ten right now for sure.
Guest: Thoughts on who is the favorite in the Big Ten? Nebraska had a rough weekend, but Iowa and Maryland looked very good.
Aaron Fitt: I’m not burying Nebraska, but give me the Terps! As Kendall said earlier, Iowa also sounds very intriguing. It’s gonna be a battle royal as always in that league.
MCC: Anyone look at the 3 game Iowa cumulative pitching stats?
Kendall Rogers: MCC — I did. Iowa definitely caught my attention over the weekend. Adam Mazur kind of led the way, while I got very good reviews on Brody Brecht, who apparently was up to 98-99 mph with his fastball over the weekend. Iowa looks like one of the top two or three teams in the Big Ten right now for sure.
