Desperate Augie

[ShockCity]

Well as long as they're not a pro prospect it's A-Ok, right DVH? :roll:

[William]

Re: Etc.

And so the saga continues, as Texas gets by TCU to go to Omaha. Too bad.

Surprise, surprise -- Texas went first to Austin Wood when their freshman starter ran into late-inning problems, and surprise, surprise: Wood had nothing. No fastball, one hard hit ball after another. He couldn't finish the job, and if he had pitched all season the way he did tonight, he'd be deep in the pen right now instead of their prize closer.

Still, Augie's desperation lived on, as he then turned to his best starter, Chance Ruffin, who unnecessarily threw a complete game of almost 130 pitches in a 10-4 walk in the park just two nights earlier, to finish up in the ninth. How can anyone not wearing burnt orange fail to root against a guy like that? And for that matter, how can even UT fans who haven't drunk the orange Kool-aid -- or their AD DeLoss Dodds -- not wonder what's up with this stuff?

By the way, I believe Ruffin's dad is Bruce Ruffin, a Texas pitcher from the Gustafson era who went on to the majors. Gus was another pitcher abuser, possibly worse than Garrido, so Ruffin may have been indoctrinated accordingly -- but I can't help wondering if, assuming he's familiar with the recent analyses showing the dangers of high pitch counts and overuse -- he might be a little dubious himself about Augie's playing fast and loose with his son's future.

The free market should take care of this problem, Texas gets top-tier talent, top-tier talent can go pretty much anywhere they want to play ball, When word gets out that Texas abuses their pitchers and endangers their future the top players won't go there, Garrido has been at this for years, why do the best kids flock to him?

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

because obviously they and/or their parents dont care.

[WSUwatcher]

Texas

Unfortunately, Augie will always have his share of talented players who are willing to do this kind of thing, because UT sports has such a powerful hold on the imagination of so many people in Texas. Thousands of kids grow up wanting to play for the Horns, not because of Augie or his predecessor Gus, or Mack Brown or Rick Barnes, but simply because it's UT -- and in their minds UT is THE place to be. With all due respect to our pal Ricardo and the many ardent Aggies out there, UT athletics is the national sport of the Republic of Texas.

So the talent pool will never dry up. Other coaches can -- and frankly should, in my view -- use this in recruiting against Texas, assuming they can make it ring true by not doing it themselves. WSU, for example, could actually make that pitch. but as a rule the Shocks don't recruit Texas.

[William]

Ok, sounds like we got that all cleared up.

[WSUwatcher]

Hmmm...

Gee, has anyone noticed that Austin Wood, who had an excellent season in short relief, has yet to pitch a scoreless outing since Augie decided to have him do a totally unnecessary Harvey Haddix impression in the game against BC in a regional that Texas would have been hard pressed to lose no matter what?

Last night he blew the lead immediately, then was shaky enough after being given a lead of his own, including an extra gift run on the "wild pitch," that he couldn't finish. (And when Augie went to his -- also overused -- freshman Jungmann, he couldn't close the deal either.) Against ASU, Wood set himself up to be the loser by yielding a late run, only to be bailed out by his suddenly homer-crazy teammates. And against SoMiss, Wood in consecutive innings blew a save and then blew the vulture victory he was in position to pick up, again failing to finish.

Is it possible that even if Wood isn't actually injured, his 169 pitches did indeed take their toll in terms of his effectiveness, and that the Texas offense may finally fail to pick Augie up for his desperation and the bad relief work that was its result?

[CharlieHog]

What gets me is that you know Texas has great arms all through their staff. I don't get why he keeps going back to the same guys. I don't follow them throughout the season but has he not developed more than a few guys?