Frank Anderson making excuses?

[tmh8286]

When asked about ORU's win over Arkansas last night, he said, "You know, when you're in leagues like we're in and Arkansas is in, those Tuesday games are really hard on you."

Boy, I guess playing CAL IN BERKLEY was a weekend off for our guys.  That was a REALLY clueless remark.

I guess he's still smarting from us running the table against them last year.  I think he needs to have a little more respect for a program that beat his FOUR TIMES, and knocked them out of the regionals, last season.

[Bogus Smith]

There is a little validity in what Frank is saying.  In the Big 12 and SEC, you're playing against some very high quality programs (i.e., Texas, Texas A&M, Florida, South Carolina, etc.) each and every weekend.  In the Mid-Con, you're playing a lot of northern tier schools that are lucky to be outside at this time of the year, much less playing a quality brand of baseball.

What Frank is not taking into consideration is how Rob is handling our ballclub.  Whether we're playing Valpo (no offense), Texas, Cal-Berkley, Baylor or whomever, Rob has a set pitching rotation during the weekend in order to get the pitching and hitting acclimated to Tournament conditions each week at the end of the season.  He is not pitching his stud pitcher on the mid-week game (no offense to Chance as he had a great outing).  Many mid-major mid-week games with the power conferences are "Super Bowls" for those teams and they will usually pitch their #1 pitcher against a power conference team.  In many cases, all teams have at least one pitcher that can beat another team on a given day. 

Frank should have noted the quality of program that ORU is and that it sounded like a great college baseball game with a fine pitching performance.  Had Frank done that though, he would have validated ORU as an area program that plays quality baseball and I'm sure that he's using our status as a low mid-major against us in his in-home visits.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens on the field...that's why we play the games.

[tmh8286]

He DID compliment Chance in his performance last night (although he didn't seem to know his name). 

I guess the thing is, maybe he doesn't realize that we're not playing in conference yet, and our non-conference schedule is exceedingly rigorous.  Arkansas is the third or fourth ranked team we've played so far this season.  Most of our weekend series that haven't been against ranked teams have been against quality competition. 

I think it was just a failure to recognise (probably because he's never seen) the strength of ORU's non-conference schedule. 

[Guest Blevins]

OSU's series against Kansas was no less strenous for them than our series at Cal was for us.

[Old Titan]

It's not just Anderson - consider this quote from Arkansas' Van Horn after the game Tuesday night, from the Arkansas newspaper:

"First off, their pitcher did a tremendous job," Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn said. "He threw more than 130 pitches on a Tuesday night. That's saying something. They really needed a win and they got one."

While complimenting "their pitcher" (what, they don't have rosters?), he has to insinuate that Chapman - and Coach Walton - risked possible injury by throwing so many pitches - "on a Tuesday night", which is BCS conference codespeak for midweek games during conference season that they would prefer us to view as glorified scrimmages, and lay down accordingly.

With his "they really needed a win and they got it" quote, Van Horn also is hinting that we threw the kitchen sink at them in some desperate attempt to win at any cost.

With all due respect to Chapman, it should be pointed out it's not like we threw our #1 starter at them - that was just the third start of the season for Chance.

Does it not occur to Van Scorn that the reason Chapman stayed in the game so long was simply because they couldn't hit him?!?

[tmh8286]

"First off, their pitcher did a tremendous job," Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn said. "He threw more than 130 pitches on a Tuesday night. That's saying something. They really needed a win and they got one."

Does it not occur to Van Scorn that the reason Chapman stayed in the game so long was simply because they couldn't hit him?!?

Two great quotes there, OT.  Both Anderson and Van Horn have got to be seething that this little program from ORU is beating them.  Any homework by either coach would expose the fallacies in their thinking.  They just draw public attention by those in the know to their lack of information. 

You're last line is a classic, though.  And it was obvious to anyone, even those who know nothing about baseball - WALTON LEFT CHAPMAN IN BECAUSE HE WAS STRIKING OUT THE HOGS, ONE AFTER ANOTHER.  One look at the box score reveals the story - two outs in the outfield, one out at third, one at second, five at first.  All the rest were pitching.  WHY TAKE CHAPMAN OUT?

One other thing - I read an article recently, I think it was in SI, about pitching in Japan.  Pitchers over there don't get pampered like pitchers here do.  In fact, pitching 149 pitches there would be a light workout.  And no ice afterwards . . .

[ORUTerry]

Just an observation.... baseball seems to have more egos than other sports. Or maybe it is just more apparent. Just look at area schools: Golloway, Anderson, Van Horn - and even Walton. They all seem to have an 'edge' - some more than others, but still there. Does baseball lend itself to being more ego driven than other sports?

[Bogus Smith]

I think guys who play baseball have more testostrone flowing through their system!!