Talk about mixed emotions…for those who don't know, I live in Santa Barbara and have a hard time rooting against the Gauchos. The one team that trumps them, however, is the Beavers. If this game were in SB, that my friends would be the definition of "hog heaven."

Anyway, back to reality. The pitching matchups for Saturday and Sunday have not yet been determined. Figure Josh Osich will get one of the starts. I'm unsure who gets the other. Maybe Booser if he is truly back and healthy. Right now this is what it looks like:

I feel like I've seen (*cough*…heard) enough Beaver baseball to make some judgments and criticisms.

• Brian Stamps strikes out way too much. He truly is a modern day, real life "Willie Mays Hayes". Yes, he is fast. But, he is a flawed player. He will struggle mightily in conference play.
• Susac is a liability behind the plate. 4 passed balls is 4 too many. It's a very high number for this early in the year.
• Outside of Sam G, the starting pitching staff is unpredictable. We have "great arms", but right now they are throwers rather than pitchers, and I can foresee them getting themselves into trouble once the real season begins.
• Ryan Gorton has decent numbers, but I feel like something goes wrong every time he's in the game. He reminds me of Tyler Waldron last season. Tony Bryant looks to be the one right-handed reliever we can trust.
• If Boyd is now the closer, we're sorely lacking a lefty specialist. Casey can get away with this now, but again, once we start facing good teams…
• Wetzler and Osich have combined for 10 starts, but only 2 have been quality starts. Granted, Osich was on a pitch count, but he appears to be an inefficient pitcher who gets himself into trouble. Meaning, even when he isn't on a pitch count, I envision heavy bullpen usage the games he starts.
• The offense is weak ("Duh, Angry"). I still have to say it. Scoring 4 runs versus a second year DI school (Seattle) is putrid no matter how you frame it. A .371 team slugging percentage is the main culprit, and negates a very respectable .382 team OBP.

I'm not sure how much baseball coverage I will do once conference play starts. This is the first year I've put effort into covering baseball, and honestly not many fans seem to care about the sport, so I wonder if I am wasting time. My severance pay ends in a week, and as it is I spend much of my day looking for jobs, so researching teams like Seattle University gets a bit tedious, especially if nobody cares about the sport. I am not asking you to care or respond to posts; I am just saying why I might cut back on doing write ups for baseball.

On a similar note, things have been awfully quiet of late. Even football coverage at the Oregonian and the pay sites is slow. I guess it's the calm before the storm (i.e. spring practice)? I'm not sure, but for whatever reason apathy is king right now.

Finally, Oregon State has cracked the top 25, coming in at #23 in the Baseball America Poll. Now the hard part: staying there when the competition heats up April 1st. Winning the next five games versus Seattle and Santa Barbara won't do much for the Beaver's ranking, but it will buoy their confidence for Pac-10 play.

As of right now, the Pitchers are undetermined.

It will be interesting to see where Pat Casey goes with this. The permutations are practically endless, but considering Santa Barbara is the better squad he might try to get away with Cam Booser today and James Nygren tomorrow, then go with his standard rotation over the weekend. Seattle has a couple starters with good numbers (Seafth Howe, 3-0 2.12 ERA, Brandon Kizer 3-1, 3.13 ERA) and you'd figure they'd throw both these guys at Oregon State, but Seattle played a make up doubleheader on the 20th in which both these guys pitched. Looking at the rest of the staff, there's not much there. They have a guy named Max Wieldon who has a good ERA (2.89) but an 0-2 record and only 9 strikeouts in 28 innings. The Beavers handle finesse pitchers well.

On offense, Seattle has a .250 team batting average and .355 slugging percentage. Their long masher is Doug Kincaid (.333, 2HR, 9RBI, .615SLG). Stay away from him, and the Beaver's staff should find success.

Expectations should be for a two game sweep.

The Beavers travel to take on Long Beach State for three games this weekend. The game times and starting pitchers are listed below.

Long Beach State leads the all-time series 8-2, including winning 2 of 3 in Corvallis last year. The Beavers never play well versus California ball clubs. We already saw what Fresno did to them earlier this year. The Dirtbags are tough. They're 7-2 in one run games and 2-0 in walk-off games. Their record is only 9-7, but they boast one of the strongest strengths of schedule (#3) in the country. Somehow Oregon State is #15 in that department. This can only be explained by other schools (see Oklahoma) playing even weaker OOC schedules.

Meanwhile, the Beavers have won ten in a row, albeit against weak competition, but it was enough to snag the #23 spot in the Collegiate Baseball poll.

Below is the projected lineup for Long Beach State.

Position-Player AVG HR RBI NOTES
C-Mike Marjama .250 0 3 Started every game in 2011
1B-Jeff Yamaguchi .275 0 3 Hit game-winning RBI in 12th vs. Oregon
2B-Matt Duffy .219 0 11 Leads team with 11 RBI
3B-Michael Hill .333 0 4 First full weekend back at Cal Classic
SS-Kirk Singer .176 0 1 Doubled as part of two hits against Cal
LF-Jeff McNeil .147 0 3 Tripled last week at AT&T Park
CF-Brennan Metzger .296 0 2 Five doubles leads team
RF-Matt Hibbert .290 0 3 .280 third on the team
DH-Ino Patron .294 0 1 Second in average and slugging

Notice the lack of power. Offensively, they are very similar to the Beavs.

These games will be a good test for Oregon State. LBS can pitch the ball, and they are gritty. They are similar to Fresno State but without the powerful offense. I see each contest being close. My instincts tell me the Dirtbags are grittier than the Beavs; therefore, Oregon State will lose a heart breaker and split the other two contests. A 1-2 weekend is what I'm projecting. 2-1 is possible, especially since the Beavers aren't facing any southpaws. A sweep and we can start to feel very good about this squad.

Radio: KKAD

Stream: Check Colorado, I hear they stock them with brook trout. *Cough*