Kenn Kasparek named national pitcher of the week. Throwing a no hitter doesn’t hurt.
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Big Texas right hander Kenn Kasparek tossed nine hitless innings today against the Texas State. Kasparek struck out nine as the Longhorns beat the Bobcats 11 - 0.
Kasparek’s no-no is the 20th is Texas history, the last one was throw by Adrian Alaniz over the Oklahoma Sooners in April 2005. I saw Beau Hale’s no hitter over Sam Houston State in person on February 11, 2000. It was a special experience being there in person, so hopefully there was a full house at Disch-Falk Field to see Kasparek’s performance today.
Image courtesy of joanna.org.
Augie Garrido and Texas baseball team are facing dark days. Struggling badly on the field and major controversy in the dugout.
Longhorns lose to Oklahoma State on error in 11th. Lineup shakeup doesn’t help as baseball team’s struggles continue.
Longhorns participate in Leadership Luncheon. Vince Young, Mike Griffin, Kyle Russell, & others discuss the importance of effective organizations & leadership skills.
Longhorn baseball team defeats Kansas 8-6 in Big 12 Conference opener. Cameron Rupp hit two home runs.
Texas coaching legend and baseball stadium namesake Billy Disch is one of three Longhorns elected to be a part of the 2008 National College Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Class. Joining Disch will be former Longhorns pitchers Burt Hooton and Greg Swindell, bringing the total number of Horns in the Hall of Fame to six.
Disch coached the Longhorns for 29 years from 1911-1939, winning 22 Southwest Conference titles while compiling a record of 513 wins and only 180 losses. He was one of the first people inducted into the ABCA Hall of Fame in 1966.
Hooton pitched for the Horns from 1969 to 1971 and finished his career with an incredible 35-3 overall record. His career ERA of 1.14 is still a school record, one that will likely never be matched in the metal bat era. Hooton was drafted by the Cubs in 1971 and made his major league debut that season without ever throwing a pitch in the minors.
While he didn’t have the MLB career his college teammate Roger Clemens did, Greg Swindell’s career at Texas from 1984 to 1986 was one of the best in college baseball history. At Texas, he compiled a 43-8 record with an ERA of only 1.92 and put up the two best single-season strikeout totals in school history. Swindell is one of only six players in history to be a three-time First Team All-American by Baseball America. His successful 17-year Major League career ended in 2002.
The three Longhorns will be joined in the 2008 class by Jackie Robinson, Dick Howser, and Ben McDonald, among others. The inductees will be honored on July 4 as part of the College Baseball Foundation’s annual celebration of both the past and present of college baseball in Lubbock.
Read profiles of the three inductees from TexasSports.com after the jump.
Travis Tucker does whatever it takes for baseball team to win. He’s already been hit by pitches 6 times in 11 games.
The Texas Longhorns had a rough weekend at the Houston College Classic at Minute Maid Park but finished it off Sunday with an 8-7 win over the hometown Houston Cougars.
The Horns went into the seventh inning with a 6-1 lead thanks mainly to a three-run Cameron Rupp single in the first and a two-run homer in the fifth by first baseman Brandon Belt. Texas starter Cole Green pitched six strong innings before fading quickly in the seventh and giving up four runs before being pulled. The Cougars added two more runs in the top of the ninth to send the game into extra innings.
In the bottom of the tenth, freshman Connor Rowe played the role of hero by singling in the game-winning run in his first college at bat. Rowe knocked the 2-0 pitch into centerfield to easily score David Hernandez from third base and give the Longhorns the much needed win.
Check out video highlights from the Houston Chronicle below:
Related Links
Baseball drops ugly one to Rice in Houston College Classic. Two poorly played games in a row means two losses in a row for the Horns.
I’m not sure whether or not Roger Clemens is telling the truth, but I’m also not sure I buy that Brian McNamee knows anything either. Clemens sure seems confident that McNamee has no proof, and he’s pissed about it as well:
Clemens has filed a defamation lawsuit in Harris County. Clemens claims McNamee originally made his allegations to federal authorities after being threatened with criminal prosecution if he didn’t implicate Clemens.
He better be 100% positive McNamee doesn’t have sort of evidence, and that there’s no way anyone else can come forward with proof he took HGH or steroids. If he had just issued a denial and then let the whole thing go the only thing really at stake was his Hall of Fame entry. The strong denial and lawsuit are certainly risky maneuvers, Roger is putting it all out of the table in an attempt to prove his innocence. Even if Clemens can discredit McNamee or disprove these current allegations, unfortunately a can of worms has been opened that there may be no way to close.
Deron Gustafson passes away from liver disease at age of 46. Former player, former coach, and legendary coach’s son was a Longhorn for 16 years.
Roger Clemens swears in interview he’s never used banned substances. Claims it was just lidocaine and B-12.
Trenton NJ paper headline: Clemens Took It in the Butt. Can’t believe a non-college paper would run with that. Funny though.
ESPN is reporting that a source has told them that Roger Clemens will be named in the MLB steroid investigation headed up by former US Senator George Mitchell. Former Yankees trainer Brian McNamee reportedly provided information to the investigation on Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and several other big name Yankees.
From ESPN…
A former New York Yankees strength trainer says information he provided to the George Mitchell investigation regarding supplying Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte with steroids is included in the Mitchell report scheduled to be released later today, a source close to the trainer told ESPN The Magazine’s Shaun Assael.
Brian McNamee, who worked for the Yankees and as a personal trainer for Clemens and Pettitte, also told investigators that on at least one occasion, Clemens was in possession of steroids from another supplier, the source said.
The source said McNamee told investigators he supplied Clemens with steroids while Clemens was with the Yankees, and prior to Clemens joining the team.
The rumors aren’t new but this is certainly disappointing news. We’ll have more reaction when all the details of the Mitchell report are released this afternoon.
Update: As had been rumored Clemens’ name was in fact in the report. The trainer McNamee claims that he personally injected Clemens, Pettitte, and former Aggie Chuck Knoblauch. Through his lawyer Clemens denied ever using steroids or human growth hormone, but Pettitte admitted to using HGH in 2002 to recover from an arm injury. (12/15/2007)
Roger Clemens pulled off Yankees’ postseason roster due to injured hamstring. May not matter since NYY might be knocked out tonight.
The Statesman is reporting that Bradley Suttle signed with the Yankees over the weekend. I went looking for specifics but couldn’t find anything official. This alt.sports.baseball.ny-yankees post says that Kevin Goldstein is reporting a $1M deal. I’ll post more if I see it.
The Statesman post also says that Kyle Russell and Preston Clark have both indicated that they’ll be back. They still have two days to sign, though. The deadline is August 15th.
UPDATE. As of 2pm (Eastern) on Aug. 15th, the Yankees are saying that they have not signed Bradley to a deal. FYI. (Link.)
UPDATE #2. According to the Baseball America Draft Blog, Bradley and the Yankees have come to terms. Bonus: $1.3M (a record for a 4th round draft pick). Good for him. And, good luck to him. I’ll miss watching him play at Disch-Falk.
[Cross-posted to my baseball page.]
James Russell signed with the Cubs (Statesman link) for a $350K bonus. And, the Cubs will pay for 5 semesters of college. My guess is that the $350K is at least $250K more than the slot bonus guidelines set forth by Major League Baseball.
I have not heard any definitive news on Kyle Russell or Bradley Suttle. But, Bradley was drafted by the Yankees and it’s very likely they will offer him a bonus close to what he was hoping for before the draft (that is: 1st round money). The situation is not as clear regarding Kyle Russell. The fact that the Cubs went so far over the guidelines makes me rather nervous about Kyle’s chances of sticking around, though. To this point, the highest reported signing bonus for a 4th rounder is $225K. That’s $125 below James Russell’s bonus (and he was drafted in the 14th) so…
Who knows? I guess it all depends on how much the Cardinals really want him, eh?
UPDATE. I just did a little bit more research on slot signing bonus guidelines and found out that the MLB does not want anyone in post 5th-round positions to get more than an estimated $123K. All of the lower rounds (6th through 50th) fall in the same group. I thought it kept going down as you got further along but it doesn’t. So, James Russell’s bonus was about $227K over slot.
Rangers promote Taylor Teagarden to Double-A Frisco. He was tearing up Class A pitching.
NCAA ejects reporter for liveblogging game. Sounds like yet another case of old people scared of the interwebs.
Adam Dunn to the Astros? Love to see him back home hitting homers (and striking out a ton) for Houston.
Augie Garrido appeared on KVET 1300 this morning and had plenty to say. Among the highlights:
- He agrees that Texas should be the best college baseball team in America and that, at times, this team was that this year. We did have a very good team that did a very good job. He’s not offering excuses. Accepting not getting to the CWS is very difficult. He was bitterly surprised at the role that fate played in the Regionals.
- The team GPA was 2.9 in the Fall and over 3.0 (the highest ever) in the Spring.
- He gave full credit to UCI for the series they had and noted that UCI hasn’t lost a championship game yet and he won’t be surprised to see them do well at the CWS because they are fundamentally extremely sound.
- When asked about his exit interviews with the team, he said the three comments he got most about what impacted the team going into the Regional were: (1) The players really felt the impact of losing Preston Clark behind the plate before the Regional tourney…more than Coach Garrido would’ve imagined. Brett Lewis is very capable and the players had confidence in his ability. But, Preston’s leadership and interactions with the team all year provided more of the glue that held the team’s spirit together than Coach Garrido had imagined. (2) Losing Nick Peoples was also huge. (3) He was surprised to hear that the players were disappointed that they didn’t play at Disch-Falk and that they felt they would’ve won if they’d been playing at home. He thought that since they’d played 11 games at Dell Diamond early in the year, it wouldn’t have as much of an affect as it seemed to have. He thought they were past all that so that was surprising to him.
- Regarding the draft, he thinks there’s a decent possibility that Kyle Russell will be back (he wants 1st round money but was drafted in the 4th), no clear idea about Bradley Suttle (also wanting 1st round money and drafted in the 4th; but the drafting team was the Yankees and you never know what they’ll do), and a good chance that both James Russell and Preston Clark will return.
- Asked about Coach Johnson’s contribution in his first year and as they look forward: he thinks Coach Johnson is absolutely the right man at the right time for this job. He knows Texas baseball at every level inside and out.
- He thinks we’ll have a real good team next year but added that he hesitates and stutters a little bit making that statement because he was so surprised to lose the Regional.
- Regarding the construction at Disch-Falk: they’re not on schedule but they’re not behind, either. He explained that the team doesn’t need to be back out on the field until September and they should be able to do that. Prior to the first game on February 22nd, everything’s supposed to be completely finished. So, they’re behind schedule due to the recent rains but the delay won’t cause problems because things will still be completed before the team and fans actually need access.
- He made a comment about ESPN being the only entity that has the power to force the changes that would bring a higher level of consistency and quality to college baseball. The implication, clearly, was that the best way to influence the NCAA was with money and ESPN holds the purse strings.
For more detail, please check out the report I filed on my site.
As Brian already noted in the “Quick Hits” section, Adrian Alaniz has come to terms with the Washington Nationals. Adrian will be signing a contract on Friday when he reports for his Minor League assignment and will not be back for his senior year.
The Statesman also reported that seniors Nick Peoples and Chance Wheeless had signed with their respective drafting teams (the Cardinals and Diamondbacks).
I heard Coach Garrido on the radio this morning say that undrafted seniors Brett Lewis and Chais Fuller have also been offered contracts by Major League teams; he did not say which teams, however.
Adrian Alaniz won’t be back for his senior season, he will sign with Washington Nationals this week and be in single A ball soon.
A couple of quick notes. Texas signee Brandon Workman (rhp, Bowie HS) was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2007 MLB Amateur Draft. Kyle Russell and Bradley Suttle were drafted in the 4th round. They only got through the first 5 rounds of the draft yesterday; more Horns will be drafted today.
Major League Baseball has changed their “draft and follow” rule. In the past, a team could draft a player and then take up to 51 weeks to sign him…and no other team could come knockin’ on the door during those 51 weeks. So, they could draft a player, encourage him to play another year of college ball, watch his progress, and then decide. All the while safe in the knowledge that if they wanted to sign the player, they had a year to do so. The new rule states that the teams only have until August 15th to sign a player, except for college seniors. I think the change will mean more draftees from the later rounds will go ahead and sign. But, maybe not. Some people think the rule change will mean that teams will draft fewer players. The draft goes 50 rounds. In the past, 4 or 5 teams would drop out as the draft got into the later rounds. But, most would draft all the way through to the end since teams had so long to evaluate talent. The new rule may mean they won’t bother drafting some players they would’ve drafted in the past.
If I’m able, I’ll update this post as the draft progresses today.
Update (2 pm). Randy Boone was drafted in the 7th by Toronto; Adrian Alaniz in the 8th by Washington; signee Taylor Grote (cf, The Woodlands) in the 8th by the Yankees; and signee Runey Davis (cf, Georgetown) in the 11th by Pittsburgh.
Update (5 pm). James Russell was drafted in the 14th by the Cubs; Joseph Krebs in the 14th by Cincinnati; Chance Wheeless in the 17th by Arizona; Nick Peoples (as a second baseman, apparently) in the 19th by St. Louis; and signee Kevin Keyes (rf, Connally HS) in the 26th by the Rangers.
Update (6 pm). Preston Clark was drafted in the 33rd by the Cubs; Kenn Kasparek (who was recovering from Tommy John surgery and did not play this year) in the 34th by Washington; signee Garrett Clyde (rhp, San Jacinto College) in the 43rd by the Cubs; signee Cameron Rupp (c, Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano) in the 43rd by Pittsburgh; and Clay Van Hook in the 45th by Seattle.
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