Big? series coming up this weekend

[cophbulls]

Somehow, Houston was a top 25 team last week, i guess 30 games in we can stop assuming previous years' teams are going to be this years' and just get on with the business of rating current teams based on their merit? IDK...anyhoo soap box aside,

Houston does have 2 **** good starting pitchers(Cumbie and Fletcher), of whom i would argue are at least as good as McClanahan if not better. Reason? Badass control. The two of them have 91.2 IP and only have 7 BB apiece. MC has 19 BBs in 40.2 IP. So that means they put the ball in play more often right? Less Ks but more hits yes? Well sort of, definately less Ks, 9.62 per 9IP vs 16.15 per 9ip for MC but not many more hits, 5.99 per 9IP vs 5.09 per 9IP. So combined with the low BBs this tells me theres a make 'em swing so they hit 'em at 'em mentality among the pitchers. Put the ball in a place in the zone where grounders and pop flies are common.  And this bears out in the ERA of 1.77 between the two compared with 1.55 for MC. 
 

Hitting is completely different. OPS is s hitting statistic where one sums the slugging % with the on base % (slugging % is basically average number of bases achieved per at bat)
Houston Team OPS (0.342 + 0.349) = .691
USF Team OPS (0.471 + 0.383) = .854

Thats a huge difference. not only does USF average almost 13% more bases per at bat we get on base more often. This disparity is going to make a difference at least in game 3. 

If we give them the win in gm1 (pitching prowess, sorry MC) and we win Gm 3 (hitting prowess) Gm 2 is the key to the series and should come down to how fast can we get to the bullpen. Of course this assumes Cumbie is Friday and Fletcher is Saturday, if they are flipped then Gm 1 is the key. Both 3 pitchers (Stuart USF, Randel UH) are not going to shut anyone down so hitting (see above) is going to win that game. 

[chapelbull]

It's a big series on the road with one of the 2 teams we are tied with for the top spot in the conference.  It's also our first conference road trip.   Houston has been a very solid program the past few years and they are a good team again this year which is why they were ranked.   Cumbie seems to be the Friday night starter so I'm guessing he will start again this week and their pitching staff has been very good.   We need to find a way to scratch out enough runs to take 2 of 3.

[NewEnglandBull]

Huge series! I am more concerned that we have not played much on the road yet. But I will say that this team is very resilient and shows a lot of character in dealing with set backs. They will need that maturity this week. 

[JoeB]

Cumbie is the real deal.  Saw him alot last year.  Shane needs to go deep which isn't his forte for us to have a chance in this game.  We have 2 Conference losses this season so far, both on Shane's starts.

[BrassBulls12]

Shane’s starts haven’t really panned out well overall. Some of it his fault, some of it not. His numbers make him hard to fault. 

[NewEnglandBull]

37 minutes ago, BrassBulls12 said:

Shane’s starts haven’t really panned out well overall. Some of it his fault, some of it not. His numbers make him hard to fault. 

Yeah those last two starts were not good. Maybe he will settle down more on the road. He is certainly due for a dominant outing. 

Edited April 5, 2018 by NewEnglandBull

[NewEnglandBull]

Does anyone know if Houston provides video of the games? Pretty sure they don’t go the FB route. 

[BrassBulls12]

I believe I saw on our site, that Sunday is supposed to be on FB. I'm not sure about Fri, and Sat. 

http://gousfbulls.com/schedule.aspx?path=baseball

Edited April 5, 2018 by BrassBulls12

[NewEnglandBull]

35 minutes ago, BrassBulls12 said:

I believe I saw on our site, that Sunday is supposed to be on FB. I'm not sure about Fri, and Sat. 

http://gousfbulls.com/schedule.aspx?path=baseball

Thanks! 

[BrassBulls12]

Keep up with the series in the USF Baseball Fan Club here:

Also, you can catch up on all AAC baseball news from this week.