05-15-2023, 11:05 AM
Weekend Roundup
Sunday's game was ... something. But I guess so was Tuesday's.
On the week, Stanford scored 20 runs twice and 9 runs twice. One wouldn't think the loss would be in one of the 20 run games.
On Sunday, Stanford seemed more interested in testing out the back half of the bullpen than necessarily winning. The loss itself is fairly meaningless - the struggles on the mound meaningful.
This team now has the fifth most home runs in Stanford team history at 92. Currently hitting 1.92 HRs per game. Last year Stanford set the team record with 118 HRs at a pace of 1.82 HRs per game. Since HRs generally rise as the season goes on, this team would seem to be on pace for a new record but that will depend upon how many games they end up playing. Last year Stanford played 65 games including 14 in the postseason (4 Pac 12 tournament, 10 NCAA). Stanford will also play 51 regular season games this year, but 14 is a lot in a postseason.
Can't quite see why Arizona is down as far as tied for 9th with Cal. They have a great offense (statistically #1 in the Pac in most categories) and their pitchers have live arms. While their pitching ranks just behind Stanford in ERA on the season, in conference only games they are last.
Somehow, amongst the carnage, I did see a couple of hopeful signs in the pitching on Sunday.
O'Haran pitched pretty well despite walking 3 in 2.2 innings. He could play a role in the post season.
Uber was back in the lineup recovering from injury. He wasn't great but getting him back could be important.
On Saturday, Dixon was really good.
Stanford's more or less reliable pitchers are: Matthews, Dixon, Dowd, Pancer, Bruno.
Everyone else is a crapshoot.
Just when I thought Sapien nailed down the DH spot, he went 0-8 vs UA.
Cobb 2023 vs Crampton 2022 is an interesting comparison.
Cobb is better offensively, Crampton was better defensively.
Cobb 2023: 0.337 AVG; 0.503 SLG; 0.625 RBI/gm; 6 HR || 0.919 FLD; 14 errors (48 games - "leads" Pac 12)
Crampton 22: 0.316 AVG; 0.392 SLG; 0.615 RBI/gm; 1 HR || 0.980 FLD; 5 errors (65 games)
While I think the analytics guys' mantra was "defense doesn't matter", maybe it does for a shortstop.
In the NCAA tournament, Stanford should get a favorable first game - at home. I'd probably advocate starting one of Scott, Dugan, O'Haran for that first game holding back Matthews and Dixon for the better teams. However, if you go with Matthews in game 1 and get him out soon enough you could probably bring him back if you have to play until Day 4 like last year.
Sunday's game was ... something. But I guess so was Tuesday's.
On the week, Stanford scored 20 runs twice and 9 runs twice. One wouldn't think the loss would be in one of the 20 run games.
On Sunday, Stanford seemed more interested in testing out the back half of the bullpen than necessarily winning. The loss itself is fairly meaningless - the struggles on the mound meaningful.
This team now has the fifth most home runs in Stanford team history at 92. Currently hitting 1.92 HRs per game. Last year Stanford set the team record with 118 HRs at a pace of 1.82 HRs per game. Since HRs generally rise as the season goes on, this team would seem to be on pace for a new record but that will depend upon how many games they end up playing. Last year Stanford played 65 games including 14 in the postseason (4 Pac 12 tournament, 10 NCAA). Stanford will also play 51 regular season games this year, but 14 is a lot in a postseason.
Can't quite see why Arizona is down as far as tied for 9th with Cal. They have a great offense (statistically #1 in the Pac in most categories) and their pitchers have live arms. While their pitching ranks just behind Stanford in ERA on the season, in conference only games they are last.
Somehow, amongst the carnage, I did see a couple of hopeful signs in the pitching on Sunday.
O'Haran pitched pretty well despite walking 3 in 2.2 innings. He could play a role in the post season.
Uber was back in the lineup recovering from injury. He wasn't great but getting him back could be important.
On Saturday, Dixon was really good.
Stanford's more or less reliable pitchers are: Matthews, Dixon, Dowd, Pancer, Bruno.
Everyone else is a crapshoot.
Just when I thought Sapien nailed down the DH spot, he went 0-8 vs UA.
Cobb 2023 vs Crampton 2022 is an interesting comparison.
Cobb is better offensively, Crampton was better defensively.
Cobb 2023: 0.337 AVG; 0.503 SLG; 0.625 RBI/gm; 6 HR || 0.919 FLD; 14 errors (48 games - "leads" Pac 12)
Crampton 22: 0.316 AVG; 0.392 SLG; 0.615 RBI/gm; 1 HR || 0.980 FLD; 5 errors (65 games)
While I think the analytics guys' mantra was "defense doesn't matter", maybe it does for a shortstop.
In the NCAA tournament, Stanford should get a favorable first game - at home. I'd probably advocate starting one of Scott, Dugan, O'Haran for that first game holding back Matthews and Dixon for the better teams. However, if you go with Matthews in game 1 and get him out soon enough you could probably bring him back if you have to play until Day 4 like last year.