WEEKLY THOUGHTS
Over the weekend the Red Raiders became the only team in the field to go 3-0 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic. Despite that feat, taking down Texas State 8-4, Sam Houston State 8-0, and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 4-3, the Red Raiders only received two all-tournament nods in Braxton Fulford and Patrick Monteverde. It was a weekend of strong starting pitching by Texas Tech, and outstanding three-inning relief performance by Hayde Key, and the emergence of Cal Conley onto the national stage via a massive grand slam and a weekend full of impressive defensive plays.
Tech came home to kick off a 12-game home stand and in what felt like a solid step forward, the Red Raiders won back-to-back one-run contests over a salty midweek opponent in Gonzaga. The Bulldogs brought strong starting pitching to the table and the Red Raiders found ways to answer with timely and thoughtful bases clearing extra-base-hits from Nate Rombach on Tuesday and Jace Jung on Wednesday.
Winning one-run games is a sign of limiting mistakes and gaining confidence as a ball club and Tech has now done that three times in a row. Tech earned 5 outs on the basebaths Tuesday night, including a 1-2-5-4-6 double play to end a frame and escape a jam.
The upcoming four-game homestand with Connecticut will be another test against a team with skins on the wall looking to take home the Big East crown in 2021.
Did you miss the weekend and midweek action? You can read the recaps of each game to catch up!
Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic
Recapping the Bobcats | Game 1
Recapping the Bearkats | Game 2
Recapping the Islanders | Game 3
Sweeping the Shriners | Dinger Derby
Gonzaga
Recapping the Zags | Game 1
Recapping the Zags | Game 2
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?
We count everything in baseball. – Billy Chapel
