Tuesday College Ball

[Mr. Poon]

Season record 8-9 for -0.4 units. One small play today:

Texas -115 (@ Rice) for 2 units - #1 Texas visits #7 Rice for a mid-week game in which both teams will start a freshman pitcher. Offensively, both teams have struggled so far this year and have been carried by their pitching staffs. Texas has a slight edge on offense even though they lack big power hitters and are just going to try to single and small ball you to death. Pitching wise Rice will have Matt Reckling make his first career start. Rice?s weekend starters are stellar but they are struggling to find a mid-week guy leading to Reckling?s chance today. In limited action this year (3 2/3 IP over three appearances), Reckling has a 12.27 ERA; a 2.45 WHIP; opponents have an average of .421 but he does have 5 K?s. Texas counters with Austin Dicharry who has pitched 10 1/3 innings over two starts and one relief appearance. Dicharry has a 1.74 ERA; 1.16 WHIP; opponents have hit .205 and he has 9 K?s. Though not much to go on for Reckling, there has to be considered a slight edge in the starters for Texas and Dicharry. I?ve seen Dicharry pitch twice this year and he has some pretty good stuff. Also important in my mind is the bullpen edge for Texas. Texas has several guys that are capable of stepping in and holding down opponents, whereas Rice?s bullpen is still a question mark for them. Always hard to go against a quality club like Rice, especially in their house, but there are enough things pointing towards Texas in this one, that the small favorite price makes it worth a small bet.

Thought there would be lines on the Oklahoma/TCU game as well as the Florida State/Florida contest, but I guess not. Had a lean on TCU when I looked at that game.

GL guys.

 

[Mr. Poon]

Ha! I now see those two games up. Going to take a pass on the FSU/Fla game. Have the slightest of leans towards FSU, but simply don't have a good feel for either club yet.

 

[Mr. Poon]

One more small play:

TCU +130 (vs. Oklahoma) for 2 units ? the #13 Sooners travel to #18 TCU for a match-up of two powerful offenses. On paper Oklahoma has a slight edge in most offensive categories. However, when considering TCU has the #2 SOS and Oklahoma has the #102, it negates that edge. Sooners send sophomore Michael Rocha to the mound as their starter. Rocha has a 3.74 ERA in 21 2/3 IP, over four appearances including three starts. Rocha in that time has 1.38 WHIP; 16 K?s and given up a .256 batting avg. TCU will start Sophomore Steven Maxwell. Maxwell has a 3.45 ERA in 15 2/3 IP also over four appearances and three starts. Maxwell?s #?s are a WHIP of 0.96; 14 K?s and a .222 batting avg. against. Maxwell is definitely the better starter going tonight. I?ve watched both clubs a couple of times and have been more impressed with TCU?s bullpen. OU has a couple hard throwers out of their pen, but they seem to rely on only a couple and those guys can be a bit erratic at times.

 

[ageecee]

im passing tonite too many basketball games on

 

[Mr. Poon]

bad day going 0-2 and droping 4.3 units. TCU game was brutal as they gave up 4 runs in the top of the 9th to lose 8-7. So much for my thought on them having a good pen.

Don't believe there will be any lines on other games until the weekend slate comes on Friday.

There were some really bad calls in that TCU game, but nothing can compare to one in the Texas/Rice game. In that game I witnessed the worst blown call in any baseball game I've seen. Rice has a runner on 2nd w/ no outs. A Rice batter sends a deep drive to the right/center gap. Texas' RF makes a diving grab at the warning track to come up with the ball, but it isn't clear if it is an out as the umps don't make a call one way or another. The runner was off on contact and is at home by the time the ball comes into the infield and Texas touches 2nd base. No call, so it appears they rule its a hit and a run score. After a quick conference by the umps, they call the batter out but also allow the run to score. They rule it a 2 base sacrifice fly. The runner was no where near tagging and despite Texas' plea, they let it stand. Rice won by more than that 1 run, but it is still the worst call I've ever seen and even the Rice commentators were in disbelief that their team got away from that.