The Red Raiders were not ready to play in Arlington, at least, not at the level of their competition. The errors, defensive mistakes, miscommunication, pitching woes, and situational hitting struggles abounded and they were due to multiple issues.
I’m not going to beat a dead horse bout COVID or SNOVID, but they are contributing factors. The unfortunate fact though, is most of the teams in the tournament have dealt with similar issues.
“The biggest thing is I didn’t feel like I did a very good job of preparing my guys. We weren’t playing at a high level all weekend – and that’s on me,” said Texas Tech Head Coach Tim Tadlock.
“It really felt like to me this weekend that you didn’t know what you were going to get coming off the 8-9 days being inside,” Tadlock said. “Other teams handled it better than we did.”
To follow on that, this team is going to get better. Coach Tadlock mentioned in his Thursday availability that he didn’t feel like this team had done anything to earn such a high ranking, and that’s true. The preseason rankings are based on last year’s team and expectations based on where the program sits right now.
To be honest, they now have even more to prove – but I believe they will.
We’ve seen teams year after year grow up over the course of the season. Guys learn and grow, they internalize coaching, they focus, and they begin to write their names in the lineup. This team will gel, rotation and bullpen arms will get stronger as they get deeper into a season that follows not playing summer baseball, and ultimately they’re going to be fine.
This weekend was not fun to watch or experience for Red Raider fans, but the first 0-3 start since 1994 isn’t going to turn into an abysmal season, it’s just the start of the next iteration of Tadlock and company building another exceptional team out of a group of exceptional ballplayers.
Just a reminder, 2019 started with a home opener loss to Oregon.
Miss the weekend action? You can read Randy Rosetta’s recaps of each game to catch up!
Recapping Arkansas
Recapping Ole Miss
Recapping Mississippi State
A few things about the rankings:
DO THEY ALL MATTER?
No, absolutely not, most of them are worthless and only exist because a baseball/statistics nerd decided to make them. Some are an attempt by various outlets to keep RPI live rather than updated weekly by the NCAA. Many are wholly subjective in the case of those from various news outlets or composites of many rankings affected by outliers. Some also update at odd times, like on Friday.
WHICH ONES ARE MOST IMPORTANT?
There are six rankings in college baseball that are recognized and respected: D1 Baseball, Baseball America, Perfect Game, Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, NCBWA, and the USA Today Coaches Poll. In my humble opinion D1 Baseball is the single most reliable source of information at the national level, but the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association rankings are probably the most balanced. Unfortunately, they release rankings on Tuesday afternoons so they are often overlooked.
DOES THAT MEAN I WON’T INCLUDE THEM?
Also, absolutely not. I’m going to include every ranking, RPI, composite, and strength of schedule I can find. It doesn’t matter how “legit” they are, I’m going to put them on the list. I like seeing them change and move fluidly over time. It’s also nice to see that even some of the top recognized lists are subject to knee-jerk reactions.
WHY INCLUDE IT IF IT DOESN’T MATTER?
Because we count everything in baseball.
