Mizzou baseball going for 18th straight tonight

[JMolina]

At least one sports program in Columbia isn't embarrassing the University. And a tip of the cap to the Mizzou Lady Tigers for making the NCAA women's tournament. Nice job.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/sport...369d098aa.html

http://www.mutigers.com/schedule.aspx?path=baseball

[Oz-iz-God]

At least one sports program in Columbia isn't embarrassing the University. And a tip of the cap to the Mizzou Lady Tigers for making the NCAA women's tournament. Nice job.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/sport...369d098aa.html

http://www.mutigers.com/schedule.aspx?path=baseball

I grabbed season tickets for them this year and paid the upgrade to hang out in the new 'left field lounge' area where you can buy beer and better food. $60 bucks/seat for 32ish games 5 rows back behind home plate, right over the home team on deck circle. It's a damn bargain (and the upgrade was done with tiger scholarship money I had to donate anyway to get my parking pass for football so it was essentially free).

They're a genuinely good team. Houck is everything you'd want from a Friday starter. Power, plus breaking stuff and premier command. Plassmyer, their Saturday starter, is the #2 behind him and a perfect complement. He's a precision lefty that's shows a different enough look to really mess with teams.

Sikkema out of the pen is an absolute monster. Absolutely nobody can touch the kid; 24 IP, 1 ER, 15 total baserunners, 41 strikeouts. He lets more inherited runners score than I'd like but he's a true freshman so just exactly how much more can you expect from him?

Glendinning has been my favorite player thus far; Australian transfer student with a real nice swing who seems to never take a bad AB. Right behind him is a local kid, Connor Brumfield who's just a line drive machine. Sharp, Harris and Bond are all providing a ton of power and dangerous AB's (Bond is particularly imposing, big, strong, switch-hitting catcher) and their backup C, Mompierre, is a lefty with a nice swing in his own right. Sharp's had some big time defensive plays at 1b and tends to come in on days that Sikkema and Bartlett aren't available out of the pen to pitch a few innings; he's been pretty good in the process so that's a nice boost from a guy that's also been a key everyday player. Kameron Misner is another true freshman who's showing serious thump but has some holes in his swing he needs to iron out.

Their middle infield is a little weak with Cornelius and Samples; neither guy is giving you the offense you'd like to see if their defense is going to be fringe/average. Honestly, you don't expect much offense from them but I've not been terribly impressed defensively either. They have some tough shoes to fill with Ryan Howard's departure to the Giants in the 5th round.

They also have a mountainous human being named Bryce Montes De Oca from Lawrence. 6'7" and at least 260+. He's not fat, he's just broad as hell. When he leads the rest of the bullpen guys down to stretch mid-games, it's almost comical to watch him tower over those guys. He gets starts usually on Tuesday/Wednesday against the lesser teams because his breaking stuff appears to over somewhere between unrefined and non-existent but he's still so difficult to stand in against because of his heat and his mound presence that he manages to get the job done.

It's a lot of fun to watch these guys. Definitely lower level stuff - even ground balls can be an adventure. But that's compared to the major leagues - they can hang in the top 1/2 of the SEC this year and make some noise in the post-season. Big series against Arkansas if the rain holds off this weekend - we'll probably tailgate at least 2 of those games.

[Oz-iz-God]

Looks like Montes De Oca is pitching tonight at 6:30 on SEC+ for those of you with the WatchESPN app. Kid's probably gonna be a major league reliever in fairly short order.

[Oz-iz-God]

Mizzou got their 20th straight last night.

It wasn't much to write home about, Montes De Oca couldn't locate his breaking stuff and eventually lost the handle on his fastball as well. So much stuff, so little control. I talked to the opposing shortstop's dad and he said they'd been struggling with their pitching all year. Unsurprisingly their starter was lifted in the 1st before he recorded an out. 9 pitchers later the game ended with Mizzou clinging to a 3 run lead after doing everything they good to give it away. I almost wonder if the pitching wasn't so bad that it threw their bats off - they lost the aggression and started looking for walks. 11 runs scored on something like 7 hits but they stopped coming up with the key hits after the 3rd.

Sterk showed up to the left field lounge area so I got to congratulate him on a solid hire. Otherwise just a cold, windy, sloppy day at the old ballyard. I just really wanted to see Montes De Oca in person.

[JMolina]

http://www.mutigers.com/news/2017/3/...?path=baseball

[JMolina]

What looked so promising at one time............

http://www.mutigers.com/news/2017/5/...?path=baseball

[JMolina]

Missouri State makes the college baseball playoffs but not Mizzou.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/20...s-at-44-years/

[Oz-iz-God]

They just couldn't finish games off mid-season. Seemed like every game was a 1 or 2 run loss where they just couldn't get the big hit they needed.

Really an incredibly disappointing end to a year that looked like it could've been special, especially when MDO stepped up and grabbed that 3rd spot and Bartlett started pitching well after Plassmeyer blew up. Houk never seemed the legitimate ace I'd expected from him and that hurt. They were also an IFer short all season; never really did solve the corners (they fixed the D at 3b but then Berler came back and they moved him over there instead of Samples and got neither). Cornelius finally showed a little promise but as a freshman he just spent too much of the season clearly not ready for prime time at SS. Game after game, superior shortstop play by the opponent stood out. He's young, he'll improve...but it was a painful learning curve.

Bond and Harris really hit the shit out of the ball - hate wasting their seasons. Glendinning just kept taking great ABs. Misner showed real plus power as a freshman in a tough conference. Brumfield had his MIP and never really recaptured his early season form but that may have been heightened competition as much as anything.

They only have one senior but I'm betting they lose a TON of draft eligible juniors this year. Harris should go because his stock will never be higher (though I'm not sure he's a professional ballplayer - I'll root hard for that guy; nicest kid you'll ever meet. Always came up to talk to my daughter and on Sundays she'd wander the field after the game until he came out). Bond saved his prospect status after a bad soph slump - best pure hitter on the team without question. Iffy receiving skills but not awful. I see no reason why he couldn't go in the teens or as high as the 5th/6th round range for a team looking to save some slot. Houck's a first rounder - he gone. Bartlett might've gotten himself drafted as well. MDO is just so damn big and throws so hard, he's getting drafted in the first 10 rounds so I expect he'll leave.

It's just a damn shame to have so little to show for some very good performances that were just staggered at unfortunate times.

[BatesvilleCard]

SEC baseball may be even more brutal than football.

[Oz-iz-God]

SEC baseball may be even more brutal than football.

And it's a down year for the conference.

That said...down year is cold comfort when I'm pretty sure LSU's 10th best hitter could hit .400 with 15 bombs. Any time I watched those guys I just sat there in awe. That's a ridiculously deep, ridiculously talented lineup.