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“It needs to be fixed. I know how to fix it.”

Posted by HenryJames on June 3rd, 2008 under Baseball

Those were Augie Garrido’s words after the Texas baseball team was eliminated from the regional by the Rice Owls on Sunday. It was the 3rd straight year that Texas had failed to advance past the first round of the NCAA playoffs.

height=That is unacceptable at Texas, and Garrido knows it. Now he has to do something about it.

Although they did play much better at the end of the season and in the Big 12 Tournament, this team never looked like a contender. Everything was too inconsistent. Hitting. Pitching. Defense. They could neither do the big things nor the little things well. Before this season, I had never seen a Garrido team that couldn’t bunt. Aside from pretty much any American League team, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any baseball team bunt this poorly.

The NCAA decided to start the baseball season about two weeks later than normal hoping to level the playing field for the northern schools. Not a single northern team made it out of a regional this year so the rule obviously helped. But it changed the way teams practiced this year, and Garrido himself says he didn’t do a good job of managing practice time. Back to basics.

The biggest thing this team needs is new blood. When a freshman pitcher has to provide leadership, there’s something wrong. Some players can put up good numbers during the season but do nothing when it counts. This cuts across all sports. Texas needs guys who thrive on pressure. Clutchiness is next to Godliness.

Garrido says there won’t be any coaching changes. That’s his call. Skip Johnson was able to put together a decent starting staff the last month or so of the season, but he never built a consistent bullpen. You can blame it on not having the right players, but you have to be able to play the hand your dealt. There won’t be any excuses allowed next year. His first priority should be finding a closer.

The MLB draft is later this week so you can say goodbye to guys like Jordan Danks and Kyle Russell. It will also give us a pretty good idea about which high schoolers will be showing up in August.

In the last fifty years, Texas has gone more than 3 years in a row without reaching the College World Series only three times. Yes, I’m assigning arbitrary statistical meaning to next year. I blog, therefore I can.

Being the tanned, green tea-flavored Kool-Aid drinker that I am, I expect next year to be different.

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6 Responses

  1. dedfischer said:

    June 3rd, 2008 at 3:16 pm

    The Frank Anderson curse strikes again.

  2. hoju said:

    June 3rd, 2008 at 5:34 pm

    This was the third year in a row our season ended in a regional, but I have to ask what’s worse? Losing at home when you’re a national top-8 seed (’06 & ‘07), or losing on the road TO a national top-8 seed (’08)?

  3. Nordberg said:

    June 4th, 2008 at 7:43 am

    Does it matter? Texas shouldn’t be a 2 seed to begin with.

  4. Viper said:

    June 4th, 2008 at 7:47 am

    You can see the difference in what we had with Frank and what we have now. Our pitchers fall apart mentally and no longer work at a quicker pace to keep hitters off balance. Lack of focus with the pitchers starts at the top. Skip better put up next year or Adios! Thats a great stat about the Northern teams, what a joke.
    Hoju-This year was the worst. However they all feel like a hit in the junk.

  5. The Greg Davis said:

    June 4th, 2008 at 8:06 am

    Maybe I should help out Augie with the offense?

  6. srr50 said:

    June 4th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

    “Clutchiness is next to Godliness.”

    The motto of every Austin Hi! graduate.

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