Home Baseball Will Goss Get’em? – UCLA baseball thread/General

Will Goss Get’em? – UCLA baseball thread/General

213

At the outset of the season two series appeared to be vital in defining how the Beavs would do: Stanford and UCLA. Both at Goss, both during the later part of the season.  As for Utah, well they didn’t raise any flags.
That was then, this is now and, while some say the Beavs are set for national seed with only 1 win in this series, there is always that nagging thought that the all powerful “committee” can do strange things.

Games are set for Thursday and Friday at 4 on PAC12 and Saturday at 2 on ESPNU

Here’s what Lundeberg said in comparing the two teams: Much like the Beavers, UCLA is a balanced club that leads the Pac-12 in fielding percentage (.981) while ranking second in earned run average (2.98) and fourth in batting average (.292). OSU is first in hitting (.324), third in ERA (3.54) and fourth in fielding (.978).

One of the biggest questions is a two parter: How long can Heimlich and Fehmel keep up their stellar pace; What is the Sunday (Saturday this week) arm gonna do?

Oh yeah, it won’t matter but leg humpers are gonna take at least one from tree in Seattle.

GO BEAVS!

PS: If you find your visits here worthwhile, consider buying angry a cup ‘o joe.  He may put a button here to help you do just that……..or, you could look at previous threads for instructions.

 

213 COMMENTS

  1. FIRST!

    I for one have this sinking feeling that no matter what happens this weekend the Beavs are going to get screwed out of a national seed. Especially taking into consideration how the selection committee has fucked west coast teams in the past plus right now the Pac-12 is a 3 bid league. Then the committee can say the Pac had no depth and therefore does not deserve more than one national seed. Currently with an RPI of 30 UCLA is not a regional host.

    The SEC and ACC will get at least 5 of the national seeds. Florida, Arkansas and Georgia from the SEC and take your pick between UNC, Florida St and Clemson to get two from the ACC. Stanford will be as well. That leaves two national seeds up for grabs. Stetson should certainly be in the conversation as will Texas Tech from the Big-12 even though they didn’t win their conference (Texass did).

    Unless the leg humpers sweep Stanford and the Beavs sweep UCLA to claim the conference title, I predict the Beavs are on the outside looking in as a national seed. They’ll be a regional host and get paired up with an SEC/ACC regional and sent packing for the supers. I certainly hope I am wrong on this.

    As for this weekend I predict the Beavs take 2 of 3 from UCLA. Postseason, Beavs will win their regional but lose in the supers. Lack of a quality 3rd starter and bullpen depth will doom them.

    If you’re looking for a site with updated RPI’s……..

    http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2018/rpi-live

    Go Beavs with balls and sticks.

    • It all comes down to Bryce this weekend. If he is good and goes deep, they win the series and will be a Nat Seed. If he is off the they lose the series. The third starting spot is a black hole and = a loss against a talented team like fUCLA.
      The real question is will the Luke situation give the committee a back channel excuse to f over the Beavs. The reality is this is bad pub for all and will they punish us for playing him?

      Just think, if he had signed with UW or WSU, nobody would have ever know about this and the system would have worked as intended.

      • Each team can schedule a max of 56 reg season games per year. Beavs had 56 on their schedule. One at Missouri st got cancelled so they’ll play 55.

        Sec can play more with their conf tourney but even they think it’s a waste of time.

    • The guys at D1Baseball were saying that even if we lost against UCLA we should still be a top 8 host. If we win I expect us to be somewhere around a 2 or 3 seed. Obviously a sweep would help our case for that 2 or 3 seed.

      If we get swept against UCLA we might not get a top 8 but even that would be surprising. But if we get swept against UCLA, frankly we wouldn’t deserve it.

  2. 100 days until football season.
    Being in CO, NE is not far, so I’m thinking about driving out to catch some CWS. Is it worth it? Any suggestions for lodging in terms of where and how early to book?

    • Angry, it’s worth going! My dad and I went last year to the two OSU victories. It’s a really nice ball park. As for lodging, you can usually find rooms to rent on craigslist, but if you want a hotel, I’d book now. Lots of places to eat in the area too. If beavs play a game week of June 18-22, I’ll be going to one of the games in that week. If money is no object, I suggest getting seats behind whichever dugout the beavs will be in(away first base line, home 3rd base line). Or you can get the general admission outfield tickets. The bullpen is easily viewable from the outfield.

      • Great info, thanks. Is CL cheaper than AirBnB? I don’t do hotels; too much of a rip. If I do AirBnB is now the time to book that as well? It’s hard to know which dates to book because I don’t know what’s going to happen with the Beavs. You think June 18th-22nd are the dates they’d play? Do you guys live in NE?

        • Ya, I live and work in Omaha. I haven’t ever done a BnB before, so I don’t know how that works really; nor where a good BnB is located in Omaha. I should clarify, the bullpens are on the corners of the outfield and the concourse is open all the way around inside the stadium. So, you can walk around inside the entire ball park. the Bullpens are open and close enough to where you can yell down to the players in the bullpen if you want. Great way for kids to get autographs etc after or before the game.

          I have no idea when the beavs would be playing. It all depends upon the selection committee. I doubt it will be the opening game, but if you look at last years games, they will either play on June 16th, or June 17th; then if they win the first two games, they have 4 days rest; otherwise they will play every other day and have to play through the losers bracket. They win all the way through the losers bracket, they have to play a game the very next day.

          The way I see it, if we have to go through the losers bracket, we won’t stand a chance. We need to be perfect in order to have a chance to win the whole thing.

          https://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/baseball/d1/2017/cws

    • Agreed, it’s worth going to. I didn’t have much vacation so I was only able to see one OSU game and wish I was able to see the first two. Get to two if possible. I rented an AirBnB about 15 min from the stadium and was just fine. I booked a week prior to the games and had no issues finding a room. Granted I wasn’t downtown but hotels are way overpriced for the CWS. I actually stayed in Warren Buffet’s neighborhood.

  3. Posted this in the previous thread but reposting here since this thread is more current.

    Comment:
    While I do side with Bill, that pursuing him would ultimately be a waste of time, my reasons for thinking this are different. Oregon is already out of the picture, as they have their QB already in Millen.

    I’ve had two different people who have spoken with Johnson say that his interest is indeed genuine. On the surface, to me, it feels like another Bruce Judson like troll attempt. Maybe i’m not being fair though. He will likely visit OSU at least unofficially, and he knows our 3 headed QB coach already.

    Here are the reasons it doesn’t make sense for OSU though.
    1. Dual threat QB. Every other guy we have recruited at QB has been pro style. Do we abandon our offensive recruiting philosophy to go after a run first QB? And what happens when he goes elsewhere? Do we switch back to a more pro style offense again? I guess when you’re at rock bottom, it’s as good a time as any to think outaide the box.

    2. He has top schools like Nebraska, Miami, LSU, NC State, Penn State. Does Oregon State even belong in that sentence currently? Maybe, best case scenario, we’re competing with those teams for recruits several years down the road, but not in 2018 at the most important position on the field.

    3. Paul Piferi looks to be priority #1. With him visiting this weekend and making a decision a week later, we don’t need a distraction in QB recruiting which could drive Piferi away from us.
    Behind Piferi, our next desired guys would be Joey Yellen(pocket passer) and Weston Eget(pocket passer) By going after Johnson, we potentially scare off all 3 and are left back at square 1 of Johnson goes anywhere else.

    My 2 cents, I think Yellen is head and shoulders above them all and should be the priority. I really think he is the type of QB you should build a team around.

    Johnson is an excellent athlete and would be fun to watch for sure, but I dont like when a QB relies so much on their legs and their passing game is just so-so. What happens when an injury limits the running? The passing just isn’t there to make up for it.

    Piferi would still be a nice pickup for OSU should they land him, but I have him at #3. Smart, talented, nice kid, good size.

    Eget hasn’t been offered yet, but that will happen soon enough if Piferi verbals somewhere else. Eget is a dark horse/late bloomer who could end up being very good actually. His recruiting will take off as soon as he gets his first P5 offer and teams see him during his senior year.

    • The situation smells with Johnson. Very odd that he wouldn’t consider Oregon when his dad is there. And off by Oregon not to recruit him anymore. Can’t have too many good QBs.

      Pretty much all the top programs have multiple big time QB recruits.

    • Don’t overthink it. He’s 40 minutes down the road, so the opportunity cost is very low. He has a lot of connections to the Beavers staff. The Beavers have shit for recruits, it’s not like they are turning down other recruits to find space for him. Regardless how well he fits the system, he is a good athlete, which the Beavers have very few of.

      If he happened to commit, give him a shot at QB. If he doesn’t pan out, offer him to switch positions. If he turns it down and transfers, oh well, next man up. Which in all likelihood is a slow 2 star player that the Beavers out-recruited UC Davis for – same as if they never recruited Johnson.

  4. Fwiw, per Lundberg on twitter about 30 minutes ago”

    The RPI is absolutely wild below Florida, Stanford and Arkansas right now. Oregon State has suddenly jumped to fourth after Georgia’s extra-innings loss to Ole Miss. At this point, I think OSU is a national seed no matter what. #GoBeavs

    • Still need two wins to guarantee a top 5 national seed. Not a whole lot of difference between the #4 and #10 rank in rpi.

      Stetson will not be a national seed for sure.

      • “Stetson will not be a national seed for sure.”

        You sure about that? I’m not saying they will but they will certainly be highly considered with that resume…….

        Current RPI of 6, non conference SOS of 32, Overall SOS of 56, 15-5 record against RPI top 100 teams and only one bad loss.

        Some of those numbers are better than the Beavs. That’s a talented and dangerous team that any opponent should fear in a regional or SR. Food for thought.

      • 7-0 final. Stanford’s RPI did not drop with the loss but the leg humpers jumped 6 spots to 65th. They’ll need to do better than that if they want to sneak into a regional. Which I would imagine is the motivation for them this weekend and they’ll probably need to sweep Stanford to have a shot. Their performance and record in non conference games was abysmal.

  5. Mark Buchanan sighting………….according to the box score, Buchanan is the 3b ump in Eugene tonight. No word on whether or not he threw a fit or tossed anyone from the game.

    You think the NCAA has it in for OSU? Assigning him to the regional at Goss isn’t beyond belief for that crowd!

  6. Arkansas is a fucking fraud. That lofty record and RPI of theirs is due to going 30-3 at home. 6-13 on the road? Certainly a formula for getting to Omaha but a real good way to go 2 and BBQ once you get there. I predict they won’t even get there.

  7. LH pitched a day early this week due to the Thursday-Saturday conference schedule. The good news is he’ll get an extra day of rest before opening the regional next weekend.

    • Unless they sit him game one against what should be the weakest opponent in the regional. Might not be a bad strategy to go with Chamberlain then trust your bats and middle/long relief. Use BF and LF to close the thing out.

  8. Must be nice to have the joke of an RPI inflate your mediocre conference record………………..

    The “mighty” SEC will get at least 11 of their 14 teams in as they have RPI’s in the top 40. Missouri is on the bubble with an RPI of 46. The ACC will get at least 6 in and Georgia Tech is on the bubble as well. Overall that’s roughly 1/4 of the tournament field. Ridiculous.

    Something needs to change to unstack the deck. I’m not saying those two conferences suck. But simple math tells me that when you invite 1/4 of the field from two conferences you’re leaving out a few other teams that are just as deserving of being in the field. Stacking the deck against everyone else isn’t the way to determine a national champion.

    Does anyone else remember the Beavs getting left out with an RPI of 43 in 2016? If an SEC or ACC team had that RPI, they’d probably be in.

    To start, I propose if you don’t finish at least .500 your conference you don’t get in. Unless you win your conference tournament. I’m talking to you Texas A&M, Kentucky, Missouri and Georgia Tech (the last two are bubble teams). I also propose the Pac institute a conference tournament. If the SEC and ACC can inflate their RPI’s at the end of the season by playing each other, why doesn’t the Pac-12 do the same?

    Any other ideas? or am I out to lunch here?

  9. Last thought for the night……………

    All of the assistant coaches at USD have resigned. Granted they were decimated by injuries this year but they looked awful in their two games against the Beavs to close out their season. Makes me wonder if there isn’t something going on within that program. Seems kind of strange to have ALL of your assistants resign within a short window.

  10. A couple quotes from Luke after last nights game show both his focus and his “no I in team” approach:

    When asked if he remembered what happened the last time he pitched against UCLA at Goss Stadium, Heimlich paused for a second and then said “I threw on Sunday, and I went complete game, shutout. Only eight strikeouts.”

    He also recalled Fehmel’s outing and the Travis Eckert/Max Engelbrekt combined shutout to near perfection.

    http://www.gazettetimes.com/sports/beavers-sports/baseball/osu-baseball-heimlich-eisert-combine-to-shut-out-ucla/article_e3c566ae-5311-5efa-ab51-56575bae7765.html

  11. The committee doesn’t care about the last weekend per the snub two years ago — at least that’s the impression they gave. What a joke!!!!

  12. Want more proof that RPI is stupid?

    UCLA gets beat twice and their RPI just went up.

    In what world does losing something move you up the rankings.

  13. I wonder what a theoretical team (St. Mary’s school for the blind and deaf) that played at Florida 40 times in a season would be in the RPI.

      • How the fuck is Street still umpiring at this level if there was any serious review of his performance last year by his supervisors? I don’t know how the umpire selection works for the CWS, but I would hope to God he’s not selected no matter if the Beavs make it that far or not!

  14. Fuskies are up 3-1 after the first inning! Stanford’s starter looks rattled early and doesn’t have command other than his fastball. There are 2 scouts sitting next to each other 10-15 rows up behind home plate with radar guns. Ya, I think that has his nerves going a bit.

  15. Didn’t listen to post game but I think Jake M starts tomorrow. I think we saw a preview of change in roles today with Abel as the closer and Jake our #3 starter….i like the idea but I dont know how many innings Jake can throw but tomorrow is as good as anytime to find out. That’s my,prediction……

    • Could be. I thought before the season that Jake would be the Sunday guy and Gambrell would take over the closer role. Grant looks the part.

  16. Goss Got ’em!
    Just home from the game, a couple oddball takes:

    -UCLA freshman arm was solid, won’t be fun facing him for two more years.

    -didn’t listen to broadcast or post game, curious to hear opinions on the ball called foul in the 7th(?), from seats behind the Beavs dugout it looked clearly fair to me. Amazed that John Savage didn’t just go ahead and get himself ejected after the length of his argument, especially that late in the game. Seemed to me the Beavs caught a break.

    -home plate ump seemed to call a good game, was giving the pitchers nearly everything in the bottom of the zone…..and below. A few quesiionable calls late, but pretty well called overall.

    • On tv the first bounce was clearly fair, on the line, and then struck the umpire in foul territory. There was not a great view of it though.

        • Looked like the outcome if that at bat ended up being the same regardless. If called fair, it still hit the ump and would have been runners in 1 and 2. The batter walked a couple of pitches later, so no harm to UCLA despite the bad call. Unfortunate for them though, that it hit the ump, because that had the potential to be an RBI double.

          • Think it was fair, but outcome probably would have been 2nd and 3rd. That would have been a double. On air, they were saying Bruin coach doesn’t really want to get tossed, as he would miss today’s game also. Great 2+ inning interview with Tinkle in the booth-announcers enjoyed it.

  17. So can someone tell me what will happen if we beat UCLA today and the Huskies beat Stanford.

    The final conference records will be Stanford 21-9, Oregon State 21-8-1, Washington 22-9…

    I keep seeing people say if OSU wins and Stanford loses, we win the pac… but with those records doesn’t UW have a 1/2 game on us, or is my understanding wrong? They’ve got 1 more win, but also 1 loss? Is that a tie? Does baseball do tie breakers? Are there conference co-champs?

    Thanks, and please forgive my ignorance.

    • You gave Huskies an extra W. They’d only have 21 with a W today. So we’d have tiebreakers all around if we win today and Huskies win.

      Wonder if Meggs would screw us un that scenario and give Stanford the title today, knowing it won’t affect his team post season seeding anyway?

      • Oh, oops misread the standings. Thanks. So a three way tie, and we own the series wins vs ‘Furd and the Pups, we take it?

        I think beating UCLA is going to be tough… Beavs day 3 starter has been non-existent for weeks.

        • I misread the standings and though UW was going to have 22 wins if they won. I was confused when people were saying we would win the pac. Haha.

  18. Maybe I’m just being a downer here but I’m worried about the bats they have not looked all that good in this series. Only score two in in 1st game sure they scored 4 in the 2nd game but 3 of those were just off one hit. These are just my doubts before postseason play I guess.

  19. Circumstances require that I follow the game via radio today. Game not going well is bad enough but Parker’s ceaseless monotone, much of which is irrelevant (at least to me) isn’t helping.

    • We can absolutely win a regional and super regional losing every third game. Just have to be perfect on the others! *sigh*

  20. It’s shameful for the Huskies that their stands are so empty as it looks like they might sneak in and steal the PAC 12 championship

  21. The bad decision for this game was throwing Burns out there in the 1st inning. He was terrible and killed any momentum we had.

    We’ve gotten some runners on base but never get a timely hit.

    • ^^^^^^^^^^^^ PRICELESS!!!^^^^^^^^^^

      Do yourself a favor if you haven’t already, check out this guys twitter. Complete with videos of him heckling GS !!

  22. At PK Park today. I can report the “Horton” themed fast food has been removed from the concession stamd menu.

    • Also let’s not forget that an Athletic Director decision led to the Beavs needing to leave early and resulting in a tie at WSU. Thus ultimately an Athletic Director decision cost the P12 championship

  23. Anyone think maybe the third day batting woes have to do with the team knowing they have to pile on runs to overcome the crappy pitching, leading to extra pressure, impatient at-bats and bad hits?

  24. It sucks to come so close to winning the PAC. As most of us realized at the time, it was lost in Salt Lake City. The really hard part to swallow is they won all the series against the other contenders and still finished second.

    Hate to drag out the S word, but Nick M is in one. He does not look to be the same guy I saw in Surprise. He looked like he was hitting off a tee in AZ, with line drive rockets to all fields. Wrist, draft,
    or who knows what, but he has been a non factor recently. I’m having flashbacks to Conforto and Davis all of a sudden not being able to hit right as the postseason starts.

    • I think it has to be his wrist. His swing has leveled off, as opposed to the down-chop he has when he makes good contact.

  25. All that build up and we don’t even end up winning anything in baseball this year. Makes turning a blind eye to the Luke controversy all season not worth it in my opinion.

    This team seems like it’s imploding right now and won’t be surprised at an early exit in the regional or super regional round.

    • The post-season hasn’t started yet? What are you on? Nobody turned a blind eye, they believe him that he didn’t do it. Just took 2 of 3 from a very tough Bruin team. Took 2 of 3 from conference champs, one of those being 10-0. Imploding?? I hope you don’t trade your own stocks

    • “Makes turning a blind eye to the Luke controversy all season not worth it in my opinion.”

      No one turned a blind eye, unless you’re talking about Greg Street behind the plate.

  26. Be nice to see 4 or 5 PAC teams make the tourney, but again we are seeing undeserving teams with losing records like Hartford and Columbia win their respective tournaments and get the Auto-bid….. what a fucking joke of a system. Arizona (RPI 46), Washington (63), and Cal (74) will be right on the bubble.

    • The committee is busy running computer scenarios to maximize the # of SEC teams that can get put in the field and host. They will then shuffle it so non SEC teams can meet in the Supers and knock each other off to guarantee half of the field in Omaha is from the SEC. They will then have the “proof” that it is the best conference so it can over seed them again the next year.

      BTW, did y’all notice that every SEC team matched up against another conf. in the softball supers lost yesterday?

      • It’s just amazing how biased the whole system is. It wouldn’t bother me so much if the PAC president was out there vouching/petitioning, but it’s almost like they accept. And I t’s not just about the SEC. What really amazes me is the amount of bids the ACC gets year in, year out (avg of 8). Is the ACC really twice the conference that the PAC is? I think the PAC has more championships in the last 5 years than the ACC has in the past 50 years.
        I know I’m preaching to the choir….

    • 4 Pac teams made it, but all 4 on the same side of the bracket…no chance of having an all Pac National Championship game, but there is a chance for another all SEC championship part 2!

  27. Corvallis regional has LSU, San Diego State, and Northwestern State LA

    Northwestern State has a 37-22 record with a 106 RPI

  28. First things first, but if Beavs get to super regional it looks like they could face UCLA or Gophers.
    Rodent Regional?

  29. LSU is on fire. Not sure why Beavs get paired with one respectable conference tournament champions, and another in LSU that almost won the SEC’s. Minnesota, Georgia, and North Carolina got better draws. Hell even Washington seems to have a better road. Whatever….will be interesting to see who the coaches pitch against Northwestern St. — seems like they would want to start the Sunday rotation first, then Saturday, then Friday.

  30. Not a bad draw at all. Pretty fair in my opinion.

    While LSU played well in the SEC tourney, they are a bad road team. Didn’t win a single road series all year. Some stats from the LSU website. Batting .285 and team ERA is 4.68. No standout starters or hitters. It’s a long travel time for them. Definitely will have to charter flights. Advantage of having no airport!!!

    SDSU is a decent team. A few wins over tournament bound teams.

    and a good supers draw. No real super scary team over there.

  31. Don’t need to get cute in pitching matchups. I could see flip flopping Fehmel and Heimlich but that’s all. Play the way that got you here.

    • Northwestern State looks pretty terrible. Maybe go Fehmel against them and then Heimlich against LSU? And just pray we win 1 of the next 2.

  32. I’m glad we’re getting an SEC team into Corvallis and it will be great to have another shot at LSU. I guess the more important question is the umpiring crew.

    • They are educated in Louisiana after all. Can you blame them that they can’t find a state on a map that’s literally twice as big as their own state?

    • He loves his country sooooo much, but 50 is a lot to remember.

      Can’t we just remember six or seven states by name and forget the maps?

      • I don’t think it even needs to go that far. We could get away with Texas, New York, California, down south, up north, out west, back east. That should do it.

  33. I wonder if any vengeful Beaver fans will pull the fire alarm at the LSU hotel as payback for the fire alarm incident at the CWS. (No, not advocating that. That’s illegal and bad mmkay?) But I’m wondering. Just wondering…

    • That would certainly be disappointing if someone did that… I would never advocate for that either… But if someone did do that vile terrible thing it would certainly even the score.

  34. If we win Friday and Saturday, but lose on Sunday, does Heimlich pitch Monday if he pitched Friday? I would rather have that scenario than needing to pitch Abel and/or Gambrell on Friday and Monday.

    If you pitch Bryce on Friday, then Heimlich Saturday, Abel/Gambrell Sunday, if needed Bryce on Monday. Then would you start Heimlich Friday for Super and Bryce Saturday? It would make sense to swap Bryce and Heimlich in the Regional so we have our normal rotation going into the Super Regional, no?

    • Whoever throws Friday or Saturday will not be available for a possible Monday game. Their bodies won’t be able to recover that quickly. Usually ends in disaster trying to pitch on two days rest. It worked once a long time ago. I’d think Britton would be the Monday guy if needed.

    • Pitch Able/Gambrell on Friday. If we intend to advance, they will have to pitch at some point. Why not vs Northwestern State? My other thought is if we get a big lead by first two innings, pull Luke/Bryce and save for Sunday?

      • No to Abel or Gambrell on Friday. Don’t change the formula that got you here. Chances of losing go up considerably not starting Heimlich or Fehmel. It’s not a guaranteed win!

  35. That is the logical way to compensate for the lack of a third starter. Save the two big guns for the more dangerous opponents.

  36. listening to Pat Casey’s comments I wouldn’t be surprised if Christian Chamberlain might be in the plans as a starter as well

  37. Here’s the ideal situation,

    Fri – Fehmel starts. Offense puts up a big number. Fehmel throws 5 low stress innings and guys like Chamberlain and Pearce close out the game.
    Sat – Heimlich starts. Goes the distance.
    Sun – Abel starts, offense gives him a lot of help. No need for Monday.

    • If the offense just puts up a big number then any pitcher will do.

      Regarding game 1: One thing to point out is that Northwestern State is only batting .271 and that wasn’t against a tough schedule. They only played 2 weekend series against teams with top 100 RPI: Little Rock and Southeast Louisiana. Abel or Chamberlain should be good to go against them.

        • Need to win 3 in order to advance. Anything short of advancing is unacceptable. So someone not Luke/Bryce has to get a W too. Casey can control if that chance should be vs NWLST or the better of LSU/SDSU. If he believes regular season day 3 guy has a best chance of getting his win on day 1, then that is fantastic. That strategy doesn’t work for the next 3 rounds, so use it now.

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