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Obum Gwacham…Tight End?

By
angry
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29

This damn brain, it never turns off. A blessing and curse, I tell you.

As soon as I heard Joe Halahumi will be sidelined for a while, I had the wild idea of converting Obum Gwacham into a hybrid TE. I asked Cliff Kirkpatrick to present that idea to the coaches and get a response, but I haven't heard back.

Is it that far fetched? Antonio Gates was 6'5 240 when he decided to quit basketball and play football at Kent State. Gwacham is 6'5 225 right now. Say he adds 15lbs over the summer…hmm.

Intriguing.

With Gwacham's height and athleticism he'd be a nightmare for linebackers and safeties. And with four top WRs signed in the latest class, there will be a log jam at that position. Meanwhile, Tyler Perry (Central Coast, represent!) is the only legitimate, healthy TE left on the roster.

What do you think?

Plausible, creative idea, or too much Cosmo Kramer impracticality?

Oregon State vs Portland & Injury Update

By
angry
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67

Don't forget tomorrow at 3pm the Beavers will take on Portland.

Based on this past weekend's usage, I expect Scott Schultz to get the start, though there's no official word yet.

Some football injury news as Fred Thompson will be getting surgery today on his shoulder. He will likely be forced to redshirt and miss the entire year. This is obviously a big blow since everyone expected Thompson to crack to two deep, if not start.

Feel free to discuss anything you want here as it's a slow early week.

Baseball: WSU @ OSU (Game 3)

By
angry
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49

What's there to be angry about?

This team is pacifying even the harshest critics. Hell, I might as well shut down this site.

Beavs will try for their third straight sweep today, and now hold a 3 game advantage in the loss column. Last night's attendance of 2,843, the highest of the year, supports what media outlets have been printing–that interest in this team is growing rapidly.

I think there are two interesting aspects of today's game:

1. When will the Beavers get national respect? The Beav's strength of schedule is 38. Virginia and Vanderbilt have an SOS of 68 and 54, respectively. Neither can claim sweeping 3 straight conference series, and two of those against ranked opponents. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers poll might be the biggest joke. They have the Beavs at #15, and Oklahoma (yes, Oklahoma!!) at #11. The Sooners are 8-7 in the Big12, and have a 64 SOS. That is horrible. Top 25 is questionable, #11 is a flat out punchline. But, ACC, SEC, and Big12 schools are being inflated due to time zone bias and conference RPI (Pac-10 is 4th, despite having six teams ranked). Baseball America and USA today are the two most accurate polls right now. Boyd's World's ISR is very accurate as well.

2. Team chemistry has grown to the point where fans (and players) expect a victory every day. Last night I never felt as if that game was over. Would I have felt that way against a great pitching staff like UCLA? I don't know…I'm very curious to see how the Beav-os stack up against that trio of elite, shut down pitchers.

The polls are out of our control. Point #2 is more important. The Beavers have been slacking in the early innings this series. It's almost as if there is a mindset of, "if we have to, we'll figure a way to pull it out at the end." That kind of confidence is great and all, but a better attitude would be, "let's put teams away early, and if we have to pull it out at the end we can." Subtle difference, but an important one.

Osich is always a story. Last game he pitched well and threw over 100 pitches, so his arm is no longer an excuse. His fastball has a reputation for being elite (you hear the term "power pitcher" thrown around with Josh), but the reality is he's in the low 90s, sometimes topping 94 or so. In that range, control/location trump velocity. I want to see fewer walks from the guy. I want to see development as a pitcher rather than thrower. The guy needs to accept his talent level and work within that. These macho/power arms take a while to figure that out. Another thing with Osich is he should be mixing up pitches more. These numbers are not precise, but my estimates put him at about 80% fastballs, 15% curveball, and 5% changeup. His fastball looks like a four-seem variety (i.e. straight). I'm hoping the guy had an enlightening, educational experience at Stanford, and today we see some artful pitching.

Feature Added

By
angry
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12

You now have the option to receive email notification when someone replies to your comment.

These features will be most useful in larger threads where comments can become easily overlooked or forgotten.

To subscribe to your comments, check the box that reads, " It is located under the submit button after you hit the reply button. 

I suggest registering for the site if you haven't already since some features aren't available to anonymous commenters. It literally takes a minute, and you won't have to deal with any quirks. Make sure to use a real email address, obviously, or you will not receive email notifications.

If there are any issues or bugs let me know.

Baseball: WSU @ OSU (Game 2)

By
angry
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97

With 90+ comments in the Game 1 posting, a new writeup beckoned. 

It was great to see some new commenters in yesterday's post. It shows the baseball team is finally garnering interest. From what I hear they're the talk of Corvallis right now, even more so than football. I don't doubt that. For spring football to be interesting there would need to be legit position battles or a young, dynamic player in the mix. The Beavs have neither.

On paper today's matchup, Sam Gaviglio (6-1, 1.34) vs Chad Arnold (0-3, 7.65), clearly favors Oregon State.

Keep an eye on Sam's battery mate, Parker Berberet, who suffered a hamstring cramp in yesterday's game. He's the one player they can't lose.

What else…Oh…Cliff Kirkpatrick described Nygren's outing as "lights out"

RHP James Nygren (6-1) was lights out in his start. He defeated WSU ace Adam Conley. Nygren struck out eight in eight innings.

I felt obligated to quibble with his accolades.

Cliff, come on…Nygren was “lights out”?

WSU hit at least a dozen missiles right at Beavers. Nygren was serviceable and got very lucky. Stamps saved him in the first with the rare 8-5 double play as well.

Agree or disagree?

Nygren is now 6-1, but I do not feel he's a dominant pitcher or a legit #2. What I do like is that he goes after guys and pitches to contact. Unfortunately that contact is usually solid. Conversely, it's also usually hit right at a Beaver. If I were Nygren, I'd be playing the lottery or looking for a stone quarry in my backyard.

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