KillerFrogs writers JD, Carson, Nate, and Brett discuss the upcoming Big 12 conference series against Texas and how confident they are in the Horned Frogs winning the series.
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00:00All right. Hello. Welcome into the killer frogs bullpen. This is our 18th episode. I'm
00:06joined as usual by Carson and Nate. And finally back on the podcast is Brett. Brett, it's
00:11been a while. We try to have you on for two weeks now, but you're finally here. How are
00:14you feeling, man?
00:15Yeah, I'm, I'm great. A lot more excited coming off of a series weekend victory. Something
00:21that also has been a long time coming. So yeah, excited to sit down here and talk some
00:26TCU baseball.
00:27Brett, was there any like kind of split personality disorder going on between cheering before
00:33between the two teams, especially in that game three ninth inning.
00:37I placed, I live in a legal betting state, just putting this out there, but I placed
00:42wagers on Texas tech and all three games that weekend. So the good news is TCU wins. I'm
00:48excited for the team. I obviously sit here, cover the team. I'm wearing TCU hat, love
00:53the baseball team, but I do have a little bit of a partial bias to Texas tech. Unfortunately,
00:58they were my first college baseball kind of team that I, that I followed and liked. You
01:02can see the, you know, my home's Jersey up here, but you know, I'm just happy. Both teams
01:06had fun.
01:07It's all that matters. All right, let's talk a quick Abilene Christian recap for TCU. They,
01:16the game happened. That's what happened. That's for sure. It was one game that was played
01:20of all time. Carson, you have some thoughts you wanted to talk about during the game or
01:26you were mentioning during the game. You want to go off on it a little bit?
01:29Yeah. First of all, I think it was, it was Monday night that I said, I want to see Brayden
01:36Sloan on the mound. I want to see him back and I want to see what he can do from that
01:40starting role. So never listened to me again. That's one. Second of all, Sloan needs to
01:49take a backseat. Okay. And I, I hate to say that because I think he has really, really
01:54good stuff and stuff that we've seen before. I mean the game against Arizona, like that
02:00is, that's the Broden Brayden Sloan that I thought we were going to see more of this
02:05year. I just, I'm not sure what to do with him right now. Cause you can't throw him on
02:10the weekend.
02:11Yeah. Nate, you, any, anything you felt that you've been internalizing that you want to
02:17say?
02:18Brayden Sloan is not a starter. Saw that last night. He is a weekday relief pitcher at most
02:28to me right now until he can prove otherwise. And I don't know if we'll be able to give
02:32him that chance this year because we got a tough slate ahead of us. So right now, like,
02:38like Carson said, he, I don't know where he fits, but he's kind of in that backseat position
02:42right now.
02:43Yeah. Brett, you're agreeing with their takes right now or, you know, how are you feeling?
02:47Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm really promising, very exciting. First start of the year against
02:52Arizona rung up what 13 batters or whatever it was. But yeah, I have to agree that you
02:57can't even start them on the week, weekday right now because you're what your final two,
03:01what do we got? Two weekday games ahead of us are Dallas Baptist top 25 Dallas Baptist
03:08and in conference Baylor. So, you know, you, you kind of have to take those a little bit
03:14more seriously. And Sloan does not have the hot hand right now, as we saw in a, in a disastrous
03:20first inning against Abilene Christian. But I, yeah, I, how can I sit here and say otherwise?
03:25Yeah, I think it's one of those where like, you're already feeling kind of some way about
03:30an offense. And when you give up seven runs before recording and out, like I put the game
03:35on his background noise after that, because I kind of didn't have much hope. I believe
03:40it was Brett, it was either Brett or Jamie said that TCU hasn't scored more than eight
03:46runs since it's 13 and over, which is wild to think about. I didn't know it was that
03:53bad. Yeah, no, it's, it's that bad. So going off of that, just after watching the Tuesday
03:59night performance against Abilene Christian, does that give you any worry going into the
04:03weekend and having to travel to Austin? Yes, because, I mean, Texas is an offensive geared
04:12team. And if they're swinging the bat like they have been, I don't know that TCU keeps
04:17up with them in any of these games. I mean, you can argue maybe with a good Peyton Tolley
04:24start where he gives up maybe two to four runs. You can argue that TCU has a shot, but
04:32I don't have a lot of confidence not in this weekend. Yeah. Nate, you, does it give you
04:37any worry? I'm not too worried. Like you said, it's a similar team to tech and TCU seemed
04:44to do okay managing them, even though they had, they had a lot of hits, they were, but
04:50we minimized them going deep, which was huge. And I think that's our key this week. If Tolley
04:56can give us a good start on the Friday, I'll have even more hope because we did just fine
05:02without totally getting the win on Friday. So I'm not too worried about it. I think we'll
05:06get this series win. Yeah. Brett, Texas coming off a slacking by UT RGV. I had to make sure
05:13I get that one, right? Both teams, you, you drop a huge midweek or not huge, but a midweek
05:20game where you're already kind of spiraling throughout the season. Is it calls for concern
05:23when you go into a weekend or do you think it's just, Hey, you know what? Big 12 conference
05:27time. I don't know how much effects it has on the weekend, but I can't talk anything
05:32up to just a midweek right now. You know, this is an 11 and five big 12 TCU. They're
05:35not set for the postseason. They're not even set up for success for the postseason. And
05:39you know, once again, the bass don't show up and you don't take out all seven of those
05:45first inning runs, just wipe them complete. They never happened. That happening doesn't
05:48happen. A win is better than a loss, hard stop. But how are you guys feeling with a
05:55three one win over Abilene Christian? Who's ranked 118th in D one sports is diamond sports
06:00rating or I don't know, man, I'm not feeling that great about a three one win over ACU.
06:07That's a team that previously you put up 15 runs on. Come on. So I don't know that has
06:11much effect going into the weekend, but I'm certainly not feeling good about it. And I'm
06:15not just saying, ah, it's a fluky midweek. TC is not in a position to throw things away
06:19to fluky midweeks. They're not Arkansas. You can throw away a fluky midweek loss. Heck,
06:23you can even throw up the UTRGV loss for Texas as a fluky midweek. You can't do that when
06:29you're in the position that TC is in. I mean, it's kind of it's kind of that same scenario
06:34with a team like Florida where they've lost, I think, four out of their last five midweek
06:38games. But they take care of business on the weekend. And that's what that's what D1 baseball
06:43and all of those other. Recruiting or I'm sorry, not recruiting those those ranking.
06:51You know, those rankings like focus on. Yeah, I mean. Calls for concern. Yeah, I think it
06:58is. But like, like Brett said, and that's what I was going to harp on is you take away
07:03a bad start for Brayden Sloan. We haven't really seen pitch in a few weeks, like competitively,
07:09at least it's you know, it's a win and a win that TCU desperately needs. Let's go ahead
07:14and hop into the Texas preview. Texas is not the Texas that you're used to and neither
07:21is TCU. So this is kind of a weird place for both teams to be. Texas is 22 and 16, nine
07:26and six in the Big 12 right now. But the promise that they had going into the season,
07:31much like TCU, they kind of struggled, right? Like, they're not the same that they were.
07:37We did say they do draw a lot of similarities to tech and Brett as our resident tech expert
07:42going to tell us what you kind of see between the two teams and how TCU can attack them
07:46the same way that they attack tech. Yeah, I I'm I'm going to push back a little bit
07:52on that. Texas tech offensively was this super juggernaut team, except for when they
07:58play Big 12 competition. I mean, their bats are atrocious in Big 12 competition. You saw
08:03that this weekend series. That is not the power hitting team that we expected to come
08:09in here. I think Texas is a lot better offensively inconsistent, but still a lot better. Look,
08:14they're owing to against top 25 RPI competition. I think they dropped like Vanderbilt and A&M.
08:20I think it was or LSU maybe at the time earlier in the year, but they're six and four against
08:25those in twenty six to fifty, which is where TCU falls in Texas. Surprisingly, RPI doesn't
08:30like him this year. The rank seventy fifth DSR, though, which I like it. It's the new
08:34RPI plus came in. It ranks in fifty fifth. So it's a little bit more bullish there. Texas
08:40tech actually ranks twenty spots higher in both of those. I don't know if that's truly
08:44deserve it or if it's just a product of beating up on the Texas Southerns of the world. TCU
08:49for reference is ranked thirty six and RPI thirty first and DSR again, pretty bullish
08:53on the Frogs for where they're at, for at least where it sounds like where we're at
08:56with this team. Yeah, Texas Bass are really inconsistent. They did not crack five runs
09:01against BYU, but they hung thirty three runs in three games against Kansas State. So it
09:05just kind of depends which team you're getting week to week. Like you said, J.D., this is
09:09not the Texas of years past where they were hosting regionals and making runs to Omaha.
09:14I don't believe that that is in the cards for them, but they do have really good power
09:18players. You're talking about Jalen Flores, his 14 home runs. I believe that leads the
09:22big twelve. At least it did over the weekend. Max Ballou, who's twelve home runs, Jared
09:27Thomas, eleven home runs. But they don't really have that like Ivan Melendez star, right?
09:31You don't have the Jack Caglione in their lineup to where you're like, oh, don't put
09:35this thing in the strike zone because he'll send it five hundred and sixteen feet like
09:38Cags did last night. If you guys watch that highlight, at least my goodness gracious took
09:44the stitches on the ball via Texas, I do believe is a lot more dangerous of an offensive
09:49team than Texas Tech is because they're not scoring twenty eight runs against the three
09:54hundredth ranked team in the country and then two runs against TCU.
09:58They're a little bit more consistent in that department. Yeah, we you know, we came into
10:02the season expecting Texas to be a lot better. Same with TCU. I'm going to keep saying that
10:06because it's true. But one player that Carson was very high on going into the season had
10:12him as his big twelve pitcher of the year. LeBaron Johnson, Jr. And is one in three on
10:18the season with a five point five seven era. But don't don't don't get me wrong. He's what's
10:23probably still a perfect game against TCU right now. But I digress. Carson, their pitching
10:28staff, though, it's crumpled. You know. Do you are you afraid that their pitching staff
10:33will perform well against TCU's offense, or do you think that it's just this is the chance
10:38to get the baton? I think it's just a matter of which TCU team shows up. Are we going to
10:42get the TCU team that tries to hit a home run every at bat, or are we going to get the
10:46TCU team that tries to suffocate you over nine innings? I mean, if you get the ladder,
10:52I think TCU has a good shot this weekend. But from what I saw last night from our hitters,
10:57I I don't know. I could see a no hitter getting thrown against us just because I know that
11:03while this Texas team doesn't have the same talent from the past few years, they still
11:08have the coaching to. Take a series purely based on coaching. Yeah, Nate. Historically,
11:16DC's been pretty good playing in Austin against Texas, and it's since it is a Texas team that's,
11:22you know, willing to start the season. How like what do you feel is more important for
11:28the team this season is to quiet the offensive bats like they did against Tech or to actually
11:32produce some runs at least five runs a game. Let me just see something.
11:35I think getting our bats hot if we want to make a push at this season. If we want to make any
11:41postseason play, I think getting our bats hot is more important. I think it starts here. If we can
11:48outscore Texas, that'd be a great start. And I think it all starts with being healthy. And
11:54I don't know if we're going to get that healthy Logan Maxwell or he's going to not even play.
11:58You don't know. And so I think it all depends. But I would like our pitching to continue to
12:04wave people like they did last weekend. I think that was a really impressive outing for them
12:08all three days. And I think we need to continue. But I think our bats need to get hot first.
12:14Yeah, there is a name I do want to bring up on Texas lineup. Porter Brown, second year at Texas,
12:22currently has seven home runs on the season, which would lead to
12:25TCU, by the way. I just want to one. That was what I wanted to throw out there. Porter Brown
12:30would definitely be leading TCU in the home run category. Would it be bottom of the pack and
12:36batting average? But he'd be close with the 220. But Porter Brown also has a disdain for TCU. So
12:43I expect him to have a big weekend this weekend. And I really expect that. Anything you guys want
12:49to talk about individually with any of the Texas plays before we go into some questions?
12:53Yes. I feel like if there's any like X factor in the lineup, it's Max Ballou. And that's cool to
12:58me because he graduated from Alito two years behind me. And so I think it was I want to say
13:06it was 2021 where I went up to the field just like in between college seasons just to like
13:11throw a bullpen or something like that. And I saw him hitting. I saw him like roll over twice or
13:18something like that. I was like, OK, he's just, you know, he's kind of your average hitter. He
13:27gets a fastball inside. He takes it over the right field wall, probably by about 50 feet.
13:32And then I was like, OK, that's why he's committed to Texas Tech. That's why he was drafted.
13:39Yeah, you got to you just kind of got to circle him on the lineup card this weekend, I think.
13:43I mean, he's betting four twenty six in conference. That is I mean, that's insane.
13:49Yeah. Brett, anything you want to add? Yeah, I want to talk a little bit more about the
13:55pitching specifically. You know, you brought up LeBaron Johnson, Jr. And yeah, he's struggling
13:59with control right now. You know, he walks and walked. Four guys had two wild pitches in his
14:03last outing. And it's still there. It's still there. Yeah. And that's the problem. So so I
14:08think that the issue with TCU is batting. And I don't know if this is a coaching thing or just a
14:13lineup wide lack of confidence. They're watching too many good pitches go by,
14:17like swing the bat on the first pitch. I don't know if it's a if it is a game plan thing when
14:22you're talking about Kansas and they have very high end starters and then a lot of nothing behind
14:28that. Sure. Run up those pitches. You want to tire them out, take them off. Texas isn't like that.
14:33They have a good bullpen. You're talking about Gage Bane, Max Grubbs. Like they have guys there
14:37that can come in and still give you quality and he's behind that. So I think you have to come out
14:41and attack the stuff. And if you sit back in, you know, LeBaron Johnson, Jr. knows this.
14:46He's watched film on TCU. If you're going to sit back and let him throw strikes,
14:49dude's going to come out and throw strikes. He's going to deal because he still has it.
14:52The talent is still there. He's just he's a little off with his with his stuff right now.
14:57He's just missing. This is a weekend that could get him back into gear.
15:02And I don't know, man, I think you have to come out and attack him first. And I know it's not
15:06what he's he's been doing this year, but I think you have to. And Bame is just he's shut down
15:13closing when he comes in. Game's pretty much over. Thirty four strikeouts, five walks and twenty nine
15:18point two this year. Don't let him get out there. So Texas is shuffling around their their lineup a
15:24little bit, their rotation a little bit, but they still have good quality arms. It goes beyond just
15:29LeBaron Johnson, Jr. and the way that they're approaching the play right now and the way
15:32they're hitting. They're going to make this lineup look like an all-star lineup if you let it.
15:39Johnson, Jr., also, you got to kind of remember, this guy sits like ninety six to ninety nine with
15:44his fastball. He does not say yes. You does not do well with Velo. We just don't anything. Me and
15:52J.D. have talked about this 20 times this season. Anything over ninety two miles an hour. TCU can
15:57barely touch. And that I I don't think that's just a skill issue. I think that's a coaching
16:03and that's a mechanics thing. I firmly believe that. Oh, I think it's I think it's hesitancy
16:09when you sit there and you let the first couple go by and you get and you get a look at,
16:12holy smokes, that's what ninety six looks like going by. You're going to catch up to it on the
16:16second one, especially if you're thinking pitch to pitch. And that's why. Yeah, I agree with you.
16:20I do think it's coaching thing because it's top to bottom in the lineup. It's not just three guys.
16:24It's everybody. Yeah, I like I hate to I hate to pick on Anthony Silva again. But last year
16:29he was a guy that hunted first pitch so many times and he was so effective this year. I think
16:36I've seen him take the first two strikes in a row, probably. Ten times that I can remember,
16:42and that's just the ones that I can remember from the past few weeks. Yeah,
16:46Nate, do you think it's a coaching issue thing or a player thing? Because I do want to say
16:49before you go, Nate, is Peyton Chatagnier. I can't tell you how many times he swung at
16:54a first pitch fastball and popped it up with bases loaded. So I mean, I think it's a little
17:01bit of both. I can't say it's a full on coaching thing because you saw the team that we had last
17:06year and I think they're using the same mentality because Peyton Chatagnier has done this his whole
17:12career. He gets down in the count and it's just something he does. And I think I think Anthony
17:20Silva is hitting that slump of his early career. And I think he's trying to be a hero instead of
17:28doing what he did last year. He doesn't he's trying to be the Braden Taylor of last year
17:32and that's just not working for him right now. So he needs to sit back and just do what he did
17:36last year. And I mean, I don't know if Sarlouse is doing a good job. I don't know if T.J. Bruce
17:42is doing a good job amping him up for that. But I can't say it's their fault when they produced
17:47great hitters in the past. Is it fair to call it a slump if it's been last month and a half,
17:53six weeks slumps eventually end. So, yeah, I mean, it's a big weekend, man. All right. Let's
18:03give you some questions. Brett starting rotation for TCU this weekend. Did we see the same thing
18:09as last weekend? Do we maybe see something different on that Sunday start or, you know,
18:13what's what's going on in that brain of yours? I don't see why you wouldn't throw out the same
18:17same rotation that you have. I mean, you know what you haven't totally. I know he has not been,
18:22you know, complete game 15 strikeout, shutout, totally, you know. Right. Exactly. Yeah. He's
18:27getting tired. He still leads the still leads the league in strikeouts with 85.
18:32So I think you're good there. You keep there. You let if he gives up a few,
18:36whatever, he gave up seven earned runs in his last two outings combined, but he's still fanning
18:39a lot of guys thinking 11 strikeouts last time out. And I really like Mason Bixby in that Sunday
18:45starter spot. And look, if you're concerned with his innings, which in the MLB right now,
18:51there's a big concern around guys that are throwing heat and blowing their arms out.
18:54So I get why you would be then use them as an opener and bring in Ben Hampton or Cole
18:58Klecker or somebody in after two innings. Right. Let Bixby come out, set the tone,
19:04throw his hundred mile an hour fastball right down the middle fan. If you guys let them get
19:08in the rhythm and then bring your struggling veterans, that should be much better. And they
19:12are like Hampton and Klecker bring them in afterwards. Once the rhythm and tone has been set,
19:17I'm good with that. A lot of teams utilize that opener role, especially here in college baseball,
19:22it's becoming more and more popular. You bring these, you know, heat throwers out for a couple
19:26of innings. Um, I liked the way it did, did that. Uh, obviously you're not going to take
19:29Luis Rodriguez out. I wouldn't take Peyton totally out. I would keep things just how
19:33they had last weekend because right now, what was this? Their first series win outside of what?
19:39Houston. Yeah. In, in the entire big 12 slate, let's run it back out there. What have you got?
19:46No, no, Brett. I do have a question about that because you are talking about an opener,
19:50bringing out another potential veteran. Does that change at all? Considering you do have a top 25
19:55matchup with DBU on that following Tuesday? No. When the series. Okay. That's what I wanted to
20:01do. Nate, we can rotate rotation, changing, staying the same. No, I'm staying the same. Uh,
20:09I think it worked really well. And I think Bixby's bound to get a little bit tired is the
20:15fast as fast as he throws. And I really thought Ben Hampton did an excellent job. He changed up his
20:22pitching mentality instead of throwing fastballs early in the count. I'm going to kill you with
20:26my off speed. You can't you're off on it after you saw a big speed throwing and we're just going
20:32to keep getting at you that way. And I think, um, I think he could have gone longer. Ben Hampton
20:37could have gone longer if need be. Um, but I think Zach Collier did an excellent job for those
20:44couple of innings. Um, and if he can continue to do that, maybe we'll see him those three
20:50pitchers on that and then click or finish it out. And that's what I would like to see.
20:55Carson, I think that was the closest we've gone to an apology so far. Nate, that was an amazing
21:01take. That was awesome. Good job. I'm proud of you, man. Uh, Carson, same weekend rotation.
21:07Yeah. You got to keep it the same. There's no reason to switch things up, especially coming
21:12off of, you know, beating a good hitting team with that rotation. Um, I would love to see Bixby go
21:20like three to four innings. That'd be really fun. Yeah. I mean, he went 3.1 last weekend.
21:27Uh, he, he walked to two guys and got into a little bit of trouble and some counts deep that,
21:32you know, I think if he can avoid that this weekend against a Texas team that likes to swing
21:36the bat, then maybe, you know, you're looking at maybe a five inning start. I don't, I don't see
21:40anything more before you switch it up. You don't let them go a third time through the lineup.
21:45Definitely. Um, but I, I mean, I like to see clicker come in. Let me see a multi ending
21:50outing from him after the closing job. Uh, I do, I do want to see clicker in unless you save him
21:56for Tuesday potentially, but I mean, that's a, like Brett said, you got to win this weekend.
22:02Um, all right. I, so the way I worded this question, the next question is who needs this
22:08series win for a better outlook on the season? TCU or Texas. I forgot to put TCU or Texas fans
22:14because Texas fans are not happy right now as they never are, but who needs a series win more
22:23Brett TCU. No doubt that in my mind, there's, there's no, no shred of that. Texas needs this
22:32more in TCU because Texas is two games back of first place, right? TCU is on the verge of not
22:37making the big 12 championship at all. You may not make the field. So you have to win the suit.
22:45You have to, if Texas gets swept in either West Virginia or Oklahoma, whoever sweeps their series
22:50this weekend, there's still only five back. There's still plenty within the pack here.
22:55Uh, you know, with, with some weird stuff that's going on in the big 12, but at TCU,
22:59if you get swept now, you're eight and a half back potentially right where you were. If you
23:04lose a series, you basically just undid what you did against text tech, throw that out.
23:07It doesn't even matter at this point. So to me, it's TCU. Um, you know, at 22 and 13 are,
23:15are we probably sounding off the alarms a little bit more than the average 22 and 13 team would be
23:20doing. Yeah, of course. But I'm not looking at 22 and 13. I'm looking at seven and 11. That's
23:24to me, that's the record that matters. And, uh, boy, it would be embarrassing debut in the top
23:29five nationally and not make your conference tournament field. Yeah. Brett, if a, if TCU
23:35drops a series, what is your, what's your confidence percentage out that TCU can end
23:40up making the field? Well, so high. Cause you're dealing with Houston that it get,
23:44that can't win a game in the league yet. BYU is no good. Um, I think there's a little bit
23:49of fraudulence, a little bit to UCF, even though they climbed up in the top 25 recently,
23:53Baylor sitting at eight and seven. So like, there's teams that can fall off and all these
23:57teams teaser, you know, TCU plays some of these teams coming up so they can gain that traction.
24:01So, so very high. I don't think that they'll miss the tournament, but you know, I also didn't think
24:06that they get swept at Cincinnati. So yeah. Uh, Carson, how big of a C is this the biggest
24:12series of the season so far? We said that last week and we said it before, but does it, is it
24:19just every week? It's the biggest series of the season. I mean, yeah, you're, I mean, you're,
24:24you're pretty much playing for a playoff berth every series. It seems like, uh, with the big 12
24:29tournament, obviously just because I feel like TCU with how they've played in that tournament,
24:35if you can get into the tournament, you give yourself a shot at least to contend for a decent
24:41seed and in the round of 64. Um, so, okay. A bigger weekend for TCU or Texas fans.
24:51Yeah. Cause Texas fans are on full meltdown that they need to fire the entire coaching staff and
24:55every single person that it's involved. I kind of want to choose Texas fans just from purely
25:01comedic standpoint, just because I think they'll, they'll kill themselves if they don't. Yeah. They
25:05don't win against TCU on their way out of the big 12. Yeah. Um, and I feel like it was kind of the
25:11same way for Oklahoma when they came here. Cause it seems like just the, the two guys leaving the
25:17conference just want to beat up on everybody before they, before they go. Yeah. You're playing
25:22for scoreboard rights at this point. Right. Yeah. Um, so if, if TCU loses the series, my confidence
25:32actually goes down quite a bit because I think you're, you're running out of time to kind of
25:39get started where it was at this point in the season last year that TCU kind of started to look
25:45like the team from the beginning of the season. So that, that gives me a little worry. Um,
25:51there are vulnerable vulnerable teams and I hate to do that to UCF, but yeah, they they've had a
25:58kind of a bad stretch. I was high on them, uh, when they were in the top 25, um, Kansas state
26:04is a weird team. Uh, they seem to just be complacent with getting one win a weekend,
26:11which I don't really know why I think they have the talent to, to make a push for the big 12 title.
26:17Yeah. This one, the big 12 is wide open. Nate most important series. How you feeling?
26:25I think it's definitely more, uh, the most important series for us yet. Um, I said that
26:33last week, but I'm going to probably continue to say it until we get to a position where we're safe.
26:39Um, and I think that's one in every single series from here on out. Um, but I think it's more
26:47important for TCU fans. I think it's more important for this TCU roster. Um, I mean,
26:53right now they're in a position where they could be an embarrassment to themselves, uh, being that
26:58high up in the national polls and then potentially missing the big 12. Uh, I mean, they got to turn
27:06it around somewhere. So I don't think this is a bigger moment for TCU as a whole. Yeah. I'm
27:10looking, I'm looking at the, um, just, you know, the, the TV rights to these games.
27:16I, the Sunday game is on Longhorn network and I'm hoping that's not exclusively.
27:23Uh, if you have ESPN, you should be able to have access to watching it.
27:27I've tried that before, but if it's on Longhorn network, you can't get to it.
27:31Ah, so mine is logged in through cable package. I think that's why I have access to it. Uh,
27:37that of my dad's a diehard Longhorn fan, unfortunately. Um, all right, Brett,
27:42we alluded to it earlier. What is your confidence level on a scale of one to 10,
27:48one being the lowest and being the highest that TCU wins this series? Not high.
27:53Well, like why, why would it be like a three or two? Like I'm, and I'm not sitting here saying
28:01TCU is going to lose. Like what, what basis do I have to be confident that TCU does win this series?
28:07Text tech looked like a juggernaut offense, but they stink in league as they proved again.
28:12Um, I actually think they scored more runs against Arkansas in their midweeks than they did
28:16against TCU, you know, outside of a Friday's game. But, you know, TCU won both the,
28:21both games this week and scoring four runs. That's not enough. It's not enough consistently.
28:25I know Texas is inconsistent. They score one run, they score 11 runs, but I don't want to go into
28:31my game. I don't want to go into major league game saying I'm going to score four runs all the time
28:35and hope that my pitching staff keeps the other team to less than that, because that's just not,
28:39it's not suitable. You know, Texas pitching staff has struggled lately. Like we talked about LeBaron
28:43Johns jr. Doesn't have his best stuff right now, but top to bottom is still better than
28:47text tech has to offer. So yeah, I have no reason to have confidence in, I need to be proven wrong.
28:55Yeah, I think that's pretty much nail on the head right there. Right.
29:00Would you guys say that part of that lack of confidence comes from like not seeing the TCU
29:06offense put up, you know, that crooked number of like 10 or 11 runs in a game in a while.
29:12Cause like, that's, that's kind of where I'm at. I haven't seen it in so long. So I don't
29:16remember what it looks like. I think the vote of confidence is more so because the team just
29:21doesn't look like they're in it. Right? Like when you watch their facial reactions, their
29:25general reactions to everything happening, like it doesn't look like the TCU team you saw in the
29:30first 13 games at all. Uh, Brett, you unmuted. You were going to say something. Go for it.
29:36No, it's all right. But we'll, we'll save it. We'll save our prediction. Yeah. Uh, Nate,
29:41what's your, what's your confidence level? You're supposed to be our highest number because you are
29:47the most optimistic on this show. I'm going to give it a 6.5. Okay. I mean, I'm in between, uh,
29:53giving it a seven. Um, and here's why, I mean, I have confidence, but I feel like we're going to
29:59come off too confident after tech. But if we don't, I feel like we're going to be in good
30:04shape because I don't think Texas pitching is going to be able to contain us enough.
30:11Even though our hitting's not great. I think our pitching, if they do what they need to do,
30:15we'll be fine. Yeah. Uh, he says, contain us. I don't think anyone's scared of TCU's
30:21offense right now. Carson, give me your vote of confidence. What you got? Sway me that I should
30:27be confident that TCU is going to win this. Oh, I'm supposed to, sorry. Is that too tough of a
30:33task for you? Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. I'll try. You know what? I'll try. I'll try. I'll try.
30:38So I'm going to give it, I'm going to give it a six and I'm going to say this goes to,
30:45this goes to Sunday. TCU wins game one, Texas wins game two. I think Mason Bixby,
30:52I think he throws four scoreless innings and I think they win Sunday. Okay. I think that
30:59while Texas can handle the heat a little bit more of maybe Mason Bixby, I think that,
31:06you know, like we've mentioned this podcast, the switch up looked really,
31:10really good against Texas tech this past weekend. I think it does the same thing to Texas.
31:19I'm trying to, I'm trying to kind of vocalize why I think we'll, we'll win now. Um,
31:29I'll say, I'll, I'll save it. I need your in-depth knowledge. Uh, yeah,
31:33I think our confidence level is at a, about a 4.5 right now. Uh, and it's only that high
31:38because it's in Austin. I think if you're playing at TCU, it probably jobs by a point and a half to
31:43Brett's three. Uh, but you know, going to Austin last time you're going to Austin, like, like,
31:50again, it would be different if like one of the midweek games in the past two weeks,
31:55or one of the big 12 games, TCU put up 12 runs, like whether win or lose,
32:01if their offense showed up for a game, I would be like, yeah, I'm an eight or something,
32:07but I just, I can't put it that high right now. Yeah, no. Um, all right. Let's jump into
32:13predictions. Uh, Nate, let's let you go first this time. Give me your prediction for the weekend.
32:20Oh, we're going to go two in one. Um, I feel like we're going to win Friday's game seven to four.
32:29Uh, we're going to drop Saturday's game wins, uh, win Sunday. They're all going to be close,
32:37uh, matchups. And I think Sunday is going to be our closest one where we went four to three.
32:43I think the most outlandish part was you said TCU score seven runs Friday.
32:46Uh, Brett, your prediction on the weekend. Yeah. I think Texas takes two of the three games at
32:52least. Um, you know, I, this is what I was going to say in the, in the last thing, but
32:57in the collegiate baseball game, I'd always rather have offense and inconsistent or bad pitching
33:02because it always gives you a chance to win. I, in my opinion, the college baseball game is about
33:07outscoring your opponent. I know it sounds ridiculous. Every game is about outscoring
33:11your opponent, but in the majors, it's more about mitigating good hitters and winning low
33:17scoring games in college. You have to have an offense. And when you don't, you're out, man,
33:22you're out the pitching only really triumphs everything. When you get to
33:28the late rounds of the college world series, which TCU won't sniff this year. Um, so I always
33:34rather see that offense come through, but I do think Texas takes a majority of these games.
33:38If not all three, if TCU is going to win Nate, I actually liked the number you put out there.
33:44I think seven runs is, is what TCU will score. If they're going to win a game here. Um, I will
33:49stand by and say they will win a game. They'll they'll score seven in a game. Um, maybe take
33:53advantage of Saturday's pitching or something, uh, and get one on the board here, but I can't,
33:58I can't in good faith say that TC wins this series. Yeah. Carson, your prediction. You also
34:03look like Brett blew your mind when he said he want to outscore your opponent. So I just want
34:06to make sure you knew that part beforehand. Right? Yeah. Yeah. No, that's, that's news to me. That
34:12I don't know what that's like. Yeah. Uh, I'll, I'll stay on the optimism train.
34:18Um, I think TCU takes, uh, two, I think it's an ugly too. Like, I don't think it's, I don't
34:27think either team plays this series. Well, um, I think if, if TCU wins too, I think they're both
34:35tight. The one that Texas wins, I think it's like 11 to one. I think we get blown out of the water,
34:41at least one game, just because, you know, different from the TCU offense, you can't
34:46contain the Texas offense for three straight games. You can do that with TCU.
34:53Yeah. As we've seen, as we've seen, uh, yeah, I have been comically wrong about everything.
35:01So I'm going with the Texas sweep and I'm 50, 50 on it actually happening and 50, 50 on hoping
35:08that I've reversed jinx it. But I think a lot of it is, is just don't have confidence in the
35:14offense right now to be able to outscore Texas. I said the same thing about tech and then, but
35:20like Brett said, tech can hit against conference. Texas can hit against everyone, but Texas put up,
35:26I believe it was eight runs on Sunday against Houston to cut in the ninth inning to be able
35:33to come back and win that game. Eight runs. They were down by seven runs and they put up eight in
35:38the ninth inning. That's a, I mean, that can happen at any point. They put up 13 runs on
35:44Saturday to be Houston. They can put up all the runs and it doesn't matter how good your pitching
35:49staff is or who you are. Not just eight runs in the ninth, but 11 runs in the final three frames.
35:56Yeah. Yeah. It's the, the pitching staff needs to be immaculate. But like Kirk said,
36:04after the Friday night game against tech, your pitching can be as good as you want.
36:07But if your office doesn't show up, who cares about the pitching? You're not going to win one,
36:12nothing all three games, no matter how hard you try. You're not going to, you're not going to
36:16hold this Texas offense scoreless. And I just don't, I don't have confidence. The office will
36:22even score over four runs right now. Now I hope by all things, they proved me wrong this weekend.
36:26Right. Cause I don't want that, but like, I just, I don't believe it's going to happen. Um,
36:32yeah, I'm so negative this episode, but I, I, I have to be like, someone's got to say the hard
36:38things that no one wants to hear aloud. It's a crumbling program right now. That's a little
36:43too far, but, uh, all right. Big 12 weekend preview. We have some very good series this
36:50weekend around the big 12, uh, that plays some pretty major implications for the rest of the
36:55season. Uh, you got the baseman dwellers, Houston and Cincinnati, they're taking each other on,
37:02uh, central Michigan at UCF since Iowa state refuses to have a baseball program, uh, central
37:07Michigan, UCF, Oklahoma state at Kansas state, which, I mean, that could be a very big conference
37:14defining weekend, Kansas at Baylor, West Virginia at Texas tech. I can't wait to watch that one.
37:20TCU at Texas, of course, and Oklahoma at BYU, uh, person I'll kick it to you.
37:25What's one of those series excites you, or are you looking forward to the most?
37:32Come, come back to me. Hang on. Come back to me. Okay. Nate, let me, let me look at these.
37:40I'm going to go with, I'm going to go with Texas tech. Uh, that's going to be a,
37:46interesting matchup. It's going to be basically which offense shows up, um, and it, who can pitch
37:54better. And I'm going to go with West Virginia getting that series win this weekend. Yeah.
38:01Texas tech with those West Texas wins are a little bit different, right? Uh, Brett, any one of those?
38:08Yeah, that's one's tough. Um, obviously one of the biggest things is, you know,
38:13yeah, that's one's tough. Um, obviously one of the teams that had a TCU to beat each other up.
38:17Um, I think when it comes down to the most number of wins, I think I'm gonna go in Oklahoma state,
38:21Kansas state, uh, just because Oklahoma state is making a big run right now. I would like to see
38:25them knocked down. Um, I was also kind of looking for a series between two teams that TCU has
38:30already played or will not play so that they can beat each other up. And then TCU doesn't have to
38:34worry about beating them later on. Unfortunately, we do not have one of those series on the slate.
38:38So I will stick with the pokes and the wildcats, um, a winner Kansas state, like you said,
38:44is content to win in one game weekend, uh, and Oklahoma state's on a roll right now.
38:47So, uh, I'll take the folks there. Yeah. Carson, did you made up your mind yet? Yeah.
38:54For me, it's probably West Virginia and Texas tech purely just because West Virginia is kind
38:58of an interesting team right now. Um, they're still trying to like some of the teams in the
39:03big 12, figure out if they're good or not. Um, with JJ weather, hold back. You can't really
39:09count them out of anything, but in West Virginia versus tech, I'm taking tech because tech I think
39:15hits the ball a lot better at home. And so I've got them winning the series two to one.
39:21Yeah. Um, I am going with the Kansas and Baylor series just because Baylor has a play to do one.
39:30And I'd like to see what they do against the Kansas team that did very well against TCU.
39:36Uh, Baylor's also at eight and seven in the conference, right? And you still got four
39:39games left against them. Uh, we can series in a midweek and then Kansas at seven, eight is seven
39:44and eight. So I think it's just a big series overall, uh, for what potentially could unravel
39:50with the future standing. Uh, at this point, you just want to get in and pray that you stay in
39:55Cincinnati currently is probably going to be in that bottom with TCU, but has the massive tie
40:00breaker over them with the series sweep that could play major implications later on in the season.
40:06Um, all right. I think that'll do it. Anything else anyone want to share before we close this
40:12thing out? No, no. Okay. Brett, it's a pleasure to finally have you on with us, man. It took two
40:19weeks, but you're finally here. We appreciate you coming on. Yes. Thanks for having me guys.
40:24Always fun to sit here and chat with you guys, uh, through baseball season air, some dirty laundry,
40:29I suppose between me and JD here. Um, but, uh, yeah, no, I, you know, I, I hope I really would
40:35like to see TCU turn around, um, just get in tournament, get hot. We, we saw last year. So,
40:40um, yeah, here's for hoping to that, uh, for all your in-depth baseball talk though,
40:45this man is big on stats, everything. Where can they find you on social media?
40:48Yes, of course. You can follow me on Twitter or X or whatever we're calling it these days at road
40:54to CFB. Um, that's where I'm putting most of my stuff there. And of course the killer frogs,
40:57I'm doing a big 12 roundup series previews. And, um, I know this isn't a football podcast,
41:02but guys, football season is a little bit around the corner. That's where I really
41:05kick things into gear. So follow me there. Thanks for having me. Of course. Yeah.
41:08Uh, Carson, Nate, we will be back Monday night to break down whatever happens over this fantastic
41:15weekend of four 20. Uh, hopefully it means Austin's too high and they can't play well.
41:20It's all I'm going for. All right. It's going to happen. Yeah. All right.
41:23Uh, appreciate you guys listening and we will see you guys Monday.