KillerFrogs writers JD and Brett discuss the Horned Frogs series loss to Kansas, what went wrong, and what went right. The duo then discusses the upcoming mid-week game against highly ranked Dallas Baptist.
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00:00 All right. Hello. Welcome to the Killer Frogs. Welcome. This is the seventh episode. We're
00:07 at two episodes a week. And today you can see it looks a little different on the screen.
00:11 Brett, it's just Fred and I today. Carson might jump in. He's enjoying his spring break.
00:15 Brett, how are you today? I'm great. I'm ready to talk some TCU baseball, especially
00:20 a game this big. I love this one. I don't want to hear the boo birds out there that
00:24 say it's not a conference game. It doesn't matter. This game matters. Ready to talk about
00:28 it? Yeah, we got a pretty packed slate today. We're going to break down each game over the
00:32 weekend and then talk about, depending on what you look at for your rankings, the top
00:36 15, top 20 matchup for this Tuesday against DBU. Let's go ahead and kick it off with some
00:42 scores around the Big 12 this weekend. We had Houston swept Baylor. That's kind of a
00:49 no brainer right there. Oklahoma swept UCF. Kansas took two of three from TCU. K-State
00:55 took two or three from Cincinnati. Texas took two from Texas Tech and West Virginia
00:59 to from BYU. Brett, what does any one of those surprise you? And if so, why? Yeah, well,
01:06 first of all, individually, Texas putting up 22 runs on Texas Tech in Lubbock, mind
01:10 you, was probably the most surprising individual result for me on a Friday night there.
01:14 Of course, Tech was able to battle back, you know, steal the game on Saturday, ultimately
01:19 lost that series 97 on Sunday. But if we're talking about series, you could probably lean
01:25 into Oklahoma sweeping UCF because UCF was playing so well. But I think my most surprising
01:29 one actually is Kansas State needing extra innings on Sunday to avoid losing a series
01:35 at home to Cincinnati. Mind you, the Cincinnati team is not very good or at least not off
01:40 to a very good start here in their Big 12 tenure. And I had a lot of I had high hopes
01:43 for the Wildcats. I think nationally a lot of people did because, you know, they debuted
01:48 in the top 25 at D1 Baseball, but team so far not living up to that. Yeah, you know
01:53 that the Kansas State they threw the no hitter on Friday. The team can buy no hitter. And
01:58 then they did. I know at the beginning of the season, Carson and I were pretty high
02:02 on the Cincinnati team. And I say high in terms of where everyone else has them in the
02:06 Big 12 standings that I think they can make a little bit of noise. They got the new team.
02:10 They got a pretty solid offense that whenever they're all playing well can make some noise.
02:15 You know, I think probably the one that shocked me the most was probably Oklahoma sweeping
02:20 UCF, just because UCF coming off a big midweek win against Florida. They looked good to start
02:25 the season and Oklahoma has kind of been up and down to start the year. They quietly been
02:31 solid but up and down overall. And I think Oklahoma sweeping UCF kind of sat a little
02:36 bit down in terms of what the new bloods are going to be doing, which we'll speak more
02:40 on this Thursday. But Oklahoma does have a big series coming into town this weekend.
02:45 Let's go ahead and break down the overall. Let's just talk in broad terms for the weekend.
02:53 TCU lost two out of three games to Kansas in Kansas on the weekend. They lost the first
02:59 one eight or three one lost the second one eight to four and then won the third game
03:03 13 to four. Let's just get your overall thoughts on the weekend as a whole.
03:08 Well, let's get right into, I mean, the, the, the, the real answer to your question, last
03:12 question nationally is Kansas over TCU. That is the answer is the most surprising result.
03:17 I didn't want to say that since we were going to dive so much into it. And to be honest,
03:21 I was a little bit less surprised. You know, I was kind of concerned about Kansas. If you
03:26 read my preview about it, I was chatting about it. Kansas is, it seemed that I think is a
03:31 lot better than a lot of people realize they're starting rotation.
03:34 You know, each pitcher can go seven plus, which in college, if you have one guy that
03:38 can go seven pluses starter, you're already doing better than everybody else. It's not
03:42 very common, but they have all three of their guys can go seven, eight innings. They're
03:45 all really strong. Honestly, I think Kansas is going to fight for a spot in the tournament
03:49 this year. Just throw it out there. So pretty season I outlined, I thought that they would
03:55 surprise when a few more games, the biggest reason is because they play six of the bottom
03:59 seven, big 12 teams in that preseason poll.
04:02 The only exception that they don't play is themselves, Kansas, who was in that bottom
04:06 seven. However, I think they're a lot better than that. I'm just going to say by year's
04:09 end, this could be a 35 plus one team. It's not, I don't think it's going to look as bad
04:13 in, in, in may or June. Yeah, no, I completely agree. I, you know, we talked about in our
04:18 preview and we had Nate on, on this show was I wanted to highlight one. The only position
04:24 play I really wanted to highlight was Jake English. We had a fantastic weekend.
04:27 Carson wanted to highlight the first baseman, Shio Shio Naga. And he said that if he gets
04:34 hot, they're a dangerous team. And he got hot at the right time and made defensive gems.
04:38 And I, you know, I talked about their starting rotation, Reese Dutton who shoved on Friday
04:42 night had their highest rotation ERA of a 2.4 and Dominique Vogel with a 1.8 and Patrick
04:47 Stites with a 0.61. They're a rotation that is not to be messed with. If you get into
04:52 their bullpen, Hey, you have a fighting chance, but you got to get into that bullpen. And
04:56 I think what we, what TCU didn't do well this weekend that we'd normally seen them do is
05:02 they battle, they battle hard in counts, they go deep in accounts and this, but like this
05:06 weekend we saw a lot of first pitch swing and trying to jump on the ball early, which,
05:10 you know, it's one of those gambles that, Hey, he's going to fill up the zone. He's
05:13 going to throw strikes. Let's, let's get after him early. And it just didn't work out. You
05:18 know, I think it was just, it was, it was a week in a baseball. Let's say that everything
05:22 that couldn't go their way, couldn't go their way. You saw it Sunday. I believe. Yeah, it
05:28 was Sunday. The first inning when they got that double play overturned, that was a bang,
05:31 bang play and led to four runs in the end, you know, that stuff like that's going to
05:35 happen in a weekend series. And, but I do agree with your sentiment that Kansas, Kansas
05:40 looked like a legit team this weekend. They didn't, they, I want to give credit to them
05:45 when it sounds like I'm not trying to, they deserve the wins they got and looked like
05:49 a great team.
05:52 Let's just go into the game. One TCU lost three to one Peyton totally had what was his
05:58 best start of the season until we gave up that two run home run. And even with giving
06:01 that up was still his best start of the season. He looked fantastic. The TCU offense only
06:06 got four hits. They had the bases loaded in the first inning. And that was about all they
06:10 mustered for the entire rest of the game. Free Stutton was phenomenal in the game going
06:15 seven and strong and had, I believe 13 strikeouts in the game. And he was just fantastic. Yeah.
06:22 Just game one thoughts, Brett, what you got for that one?
06:25 Well, the loss was coming eventually. You know, you can see that you could just tell
06:30 you don't, you don't go undefeated last year's LSU team. One of the best teams in recent
06:35 college baseball history to not go undefeated, right? They lost 17 games in the regular season.
06:39 So TCU is going to lose games. People, it is what it is. You're going to have a picture
06:42 that comes out, you know, hat tip to the Kansas starter. He be, he was dealing. And when you
06:47 get on a role like that, it's hard, no matter how good of a pitcher you are, it's error
06:51 hitter. You are, it's hard to overcome that kind of stuff.
06:53 And you know, I think right now a lot of the discourse on social media was, you know, a
06:58 lot of comments we got on Facebook was at this loss is embarrassing. I don't really
07:01 see it that way, to be honest. I kind of see the Jayhawks on the diamond similarly to the
07:06 ones on the football field right now that they are just, you know, they have the logo
07:10 bias of while this team's no good, but that's not true. They're feisty. They have a lot
07:13 of big strengths, including that starting rotation. Like we're talking about. I'm going
07:17 to be honest, every team in the big 12 should be wary of them, especially if they have to
07:19 go into Lawrence, that's trap spot for Texas.
07:22 That's the trap spot for tech. That's the trap spot for Oklahoma state. Whoever you
07:25 want to say that's a trap spot for anybody in this conference. Yeah, no. And you know,
07:29 to add to that, that was TCU's first real road test of the season. You can say they
07:34 had the road test in globe life, which is less than 25 miles away. I don't want to count
07:38 that as a road test. That's their first road road test that Friday night. It was, I believe,
07:43 35 degrees with 18 mile an hour winds. It was a brutal weather to play in much like
07:47 the beginning of the season where you saw against Florida Gulf coast.
07:50 You know, it's a tough environment to play in and you know, all things considered, you
07:54 know, like you said, it's the people see the logo and they assume it's bad, but we just
07:59 talked about and highlighted that Kansas could be making a solidified spot in the tournament
08:04 come the end of the season based off the schedule they have. They're a threat to be reckoned
08:08 with. Do have a question for you though, Brett, off that first game. So Peyton totally was
08:13 kind of tender with his right leg in that fifth inning, wherever he gave up his two
08:18 run home run, trainers came out, Kurt came out, they said he was going to go in that
08:23 two pitches later. He gave up the two run home run to break the game open to two one.
08:27 Would you have, should Peyton totally have came out in that situation or are you rolling
08:30 with them with how he was dealing at the time?
08:33 Well, it's 2020 hindsight of course, cause he came out and gave that home run. And of
08:36 course that's why we're talking about it, bring it up. But in my opinion, no question.
08:40 I think he should have come out. College is competitive, but it's also still a developmental
08:45 league. That's what it is. Look, this isn't the pros. You don't keep your guys in through
08:48 injury. I know Stanford's coach took a lot of heat. I think it was either last year or
08:54 two years ago when he kept one of his guys out there for 126 pitches, just because you're
08:58 doing really well.
08:59 You don't do that in college guys. You take your hurt guys out, let you need him for the
09:02 season. To be honest though, he's been hit or miss anyway. And I'm kind of wondering
09:07 if that's been something nagging maybe that he's been dealing with, you know, both offensively
09:11 and on the mound. It's just been like, he's been really good, but his average is low.
09:15 He has a lot of power, right? He's not playing every single day. I don't think he should
09:18 be pitching and hitting in the same games anyway. He didn't, you know, didn't on Friday,
09:22 but he has this season. But if it's something that he's nagging that he's dealing with,
09:26 you need to take him off the map. You need him healthy. You can't have him deal with
09:28 this all season and you know, giving up home runs because he's dealing with an injury to
09:33 the plant leg.
09:34 Yeah, no. And I think this is also, I said it's 2020 when I asked that question, but
09:40 I do know that Carson also has a class with them. I said that he's been having that leg
09:45 rep for about two weeks now that just started and it's the same leg that kind of was bothering
09:51 him. So I wonder if, you know, that's partially part of the reason I ask is if it is something
09:55 that has been nagging him, you know, and especially in cold weather like that, I think, you know,
09:59 like you said, totally should have came out.
10:02 You have a, you had a deep bull bullpen that kind of got their confidence back after the
10:06 midweek when last week that, you know what, let's go ahead and turn it over. You don't,
10:09 you didn't use Ben Hampton in the Tuesday game. You have a long relief option. You got
10:13 Louie Rodriguez right there. You have Zach Boyer rested. You know, I think there were
10:17 options that they could have went to and you know, hindsight is 2020. You were expecting
10:21 your office that has been skyrocketing every single game this season.
10:24 They kind of score more than one run, but you know, like Kirk even said in that third
10:29 inning where they talked to him before the game is good. Pitcher is going to be the good
10:32 offense any single day of the week. And we saw that happen on Friday night.
10:37 And to be fair, totally sat for the rest of the weekend. So they did the right thing and
10:40 said, okay, if you're, you know, if it's really hurting you, bothering you, we'll pull you.
10:43 We'll see you for the rest of the weekend. So they did do the right thing in that regard.
10:46 I don't know how much, you know, an extra inning and a half of work would have done,
10:50 but yeah. Yeah. You know, speaking of the rest of the
10:52 weekend, they TCU tried a new lineup Saturday where I assume they thought totally would
10:57 normally be in that DH spot. And it said we had Jack there. TCU lost the second game,
11:02 eight, eight to four. Cole clicker was on the Mount.
11:05 TCU offense loaded the bases twice in the game. Didn't come around with any more runs
11:09 than they needed to. And you know, let's just second game. You kind of need that bounce
11:15 back when TC gets the first loss. You're kind of hoping that you bounce back, get that win
11:19 and they fall eight to four. And now you're in panic mode. Let me get your thoughts on
11:23 that second game. Yeah, I think Saturday outlined the two biggest
11:27 issues, the two biggest concerns that I have with this team. First, I want to talk about
11:31 Cole clucker. He just hasn't found his rhythm yet. I was actually visiting with our editor,
11:36 our leader, Barry Lewis out in Chicago this weekend. And I kind of brought up how I, you
11:41 know, clucker had his big breakout last year, obviously.
11:44 And he quickly became the ACE of this team, the face of the pitching rotation. And he
11:47 came to this season with a lot of expectations. And so far it's kind of following the route
11:53 of Austin Crobb from 2022. Right? Same thing. You had this big breakout year, a lot of expectations
11:58 coming in now, cropped out with injuries. Not, you know, clucker doesn't have the same
12:02 injuries or at least not that I know of, but he just never found his rhythm. And that's
12:06 a concern for me that TC doesn't have their ACE in there, which there's some other guys
12:09 showing their face here, which is great. I'm worried that it's going to go the same way.
12:13 If he doesn't find that rhythm and start clicking soon. Now, the other issue I have is you mentioned
12:18 that they left the base loaded twice. Batting with runners and scoring position has been
12:22 my number one concern with the team so far early in the year. We sought against USC.
12:26 We saw, I mean, like if you can't bat with runners and scoring position, you are going
12:31 to lose earlier than you should in the tournament. Yeah, absolutely. And I kind of want to talk
12:37 about clicker a little bit as we saw him perform very well last weekend at the Kubota classic
12:42 against Arizona state. And he talked about how he had a cutter that he's been developing.
12:46 And I think what we saw a lot of Saturday is that he's nibbling that corner. And when
12:51 he's not getting those calls, he has to attack the zone and clicker doesn't have a great
12:55 enough fastball and great enough off speed that pairs together that he can attack a batter.
13:00 He's a, he's a pitch to contact kind of guy by nibbling on the corners. And when he's
13:04 not getting the calls, he kind of struggles. I think ultimately clicker will turn it around.
13:10 Last season, we kind of saw the resurgence more happen in the second half. And I think,
13:14 you know, it's also a combination of teams starting to get a scouting report on what
13:17 he's going to be throwing you. And it also still being fourth week of the season. I do
13:23 think he's going to turn it around, but yeah, to highlight more about what we talked about
13:26 with TC load in the basis is it seemed like every at bat was going for broke this weekend.
13:31 It was, you know, everything was just go big or go home. And we didn't see that. Hey, station
13:37 to station TCU baseball that we're so used to seeing this season.
13:43 Let's talk about the third game. TCU comes back, avoids the sweep. They went 13 to four.
13:48 They explode for eight runs in the top of the ninth. But before that TCU is down four
13:55 to three bases loaded, no outs in the fifth inning. And they walk away with no runs again.
14:00 Is this is the second game in the road that they've and third opportunity on the weekend
14:05 bases loaded and they can walk away with no runs. This is a cause not a cause for panic,
14:10 but is it a major concern or is it it'll write the ship eventually?
14:15 Oh, no, it's it's a it's a concern. And I'm not saying that they can't fix it and won't
14:19 fix it. But it is a genuine concern. You know, the scoreboard here, you say they win 13 to
14:24 four. That's not really how it went. Right. It was five to four. And then they scored
14:27 eight. You know, they knocked off all those, you know, runs in the top of the ninth there.
14:31 But like in a thing with that is in college and I'm probably not breaking any news here,
14:37 but in college, when things come unraveled, they really come unraveled.
14:42 Like it's not just in the pros. You give up a couple of runs, couple of hits, whatever.
14:46 You can always bounce back. But in college, these kids give up a couple of hits. Sometimes
14:49 it's the damn breaks and, you know, it's an avalanche of runs. I think Kansas played
14:55 outplayed TCU the entire series. Yeah. Stands out one happening. That's the only time I
14:59 thought TCU was playing like the better team that they should have been. Otherwise, I think
15:03 Kansas was the better team on the weekend. And again, with the even the bases loaded
15:07 with no outs referred to, I said before this, you know, this is a genuine concern.
15:12 And the starting pitching also concerns me a little bit. So far, I don't think we've
15:15 truly hit that stride. We've seen the highs. We've also seen the lows. And those are two
15:19 things that can be an absolute death sentence in the postseason. If they don't turn them
15:22 around and I mean, really, really turn them around. This team's going to win 45 games
15:26 the regular season, and then they're going to be out before they reach Omaha. Yeah. And
15:32 not not not saying that's what will happen, but I'm saying those two issues, should they
15:37 persist? That's something we could see in June. No. Yeah. And I completely agree that
15:42 we're the same sentiment in that tissue. It's not even that they're shooting themselves
15:47 in the foot. They just can't seem to get it together. When tissues offense is breaking,
15:53 breaking out, the pitching is struggling with the teeth when the tissue pitching is performing
15:57 great, the offense can't get going. You take away that top of the ninth and you know, you
16:03 score zero runs, TCU swept and we're having a completely different conversation. People
16:07 are seeing that 13 to four scoreboard on that Sunday and saying TCU for the suit. And they're
16:12 like, oh, there's a TCU team. There's a Kansas team. You expect? No, not really. The weekend
16:17 story is Kansas dominated Kansas pitching dominated. I do want to switch gears and talk
16:23 about the tissue pitching a little bit. Brayden Sloan got his first start of the year in the
16:26 weekend rotation. He went two point one innings, four hits, four earned runs, two walks, two
16:31 strikeouts. You know, all in all, I really don't think you pitch that bad. He was getting
16:38 squeezed a little bit at home plate by the umpire that I think made it seem a lot worse.
16:42 But then after that, you got Zachary for your two point two innings, no earned runs, been
16:46 able three innings, no earned runs. Kyle airs three earned runs. He got a little dicey with
16:52 three hits, but he had a eight run lead at the time. He was fine. Um, that TCU bullpen
16:57 showed up this weekend. And that's kind of the story I want to take away when it comes
17:01 to what we're talking about. TCU. Yeah, yeah. The bullpen has been great. And that's something
17:08 that we kind of knew coming in this season that they were going to have a deep rotation
17:11 and deep, you know, staff and they do. And that's great. And it was, it was really good
17:15 to see Cory come in, composed, you know, kind of line them up, knock them down. He's not
17:19 striking out a thousand people, but he gets the job done. He comes in for those, you know,
17:23 that two point two stretch and allows, you know, one hit no runs, any of that, uh, for,
17:28 for Sloan. I think he set the bar a little bit high for himself. Of course, you know,
17:33 his debut against Arizona, he brings up 13 batters. You know, he's not going to do that
17:38 every single weekend, which is fine. He comes out, he gives four, he gives up four in the
17:42 first inning. And you know, you kind of see that you're like, Oh boy, great. Here we go
17:47 again. Not going to be good, but he bounced his back, keeps the scoreless in the next
17:51 1.1 innings for whatever that's worth. They pull them out there. Uh, you know, he racked
17:54 up 55 pitches in those 2.1 innings. So not, not the greatest, but yeah, like you said,
17:59 it's fine. It, it, it, it did work out. He had a bad half inning able to bounce back.
18:04 Yeah. I think, uh, the, the one other thing with Braden Sloan is I think he's a, he's
18:08 a key piece. If you can put it together in a weekend rotation, we saw him last season
18:12 in Omaha, especially performed really well, but I think he's kind of, he could be, be
18:16 that missing piece in the rotation that we need. Um, and then also I do have a question
18:21 for you before we move on to the midweek series is, do you think there's any chance they test
18:27 Zach Weyer as a starter this season? If maybe Peyton totally gets hurt, you see an injury.
18:32 He's, he's got the arm to kind of go the deep innings. Um, he's been performing well, he's
18:36 five and Oh, this season. How about that? Yeah. That's it's not a bad, you know, it
18:42 teaches you wants to go to an opener route and have a guy come in for 2.1 innings. And
18:49 of course, you know, I don't think Sloan is the guy for that. I think he can give you
18:53 a lot more quality innings, but totally for 2.1 or, you know, somebody with a lot of real
18:58 strength in their arm to come out there for, uh, you know, a couple of innings and then
19:01 have a coyer come in and clean up and grab the hits or the wins there.
19:06 Pardon me. Um, I think at this point, anything, especially if the, if the starting rotation
19:10 is not that great, but your bullpen has been really great. Why not give him a chance? Why
19:13 not? And if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. You put them in on a, um, I mean,
19:17 TCU has a strong midweek, uh, slate this year. I would test them in a midweek real quick.
19:23 See how he does against the Texas state or against the UTA. I know it's not the strongest,
19:27 but, and then if, if he does well, then throw them in on a, on a Saturday against or not
19:31 Sarah's clicker spot, but you know, a Friday or a Sunday, if you need to move guys around
19:35 against a Cincinnati or something, just kind of work them in that way.
19:38 Um, I think right now they're, they're reshuffling the lineup every fricking night. I mean, it's,
19:44 who knows who's in relief, who knows who's starting in the lineup in, in what hole. So,
19:48 um, yeah, put them in there. Why not reshuffle them things around, you know, speaking of,
19:53 and I know I said we'd move on, but I do, this doesn't bring me to my next point. I
19:57 kind of want to touch on is we saw completely different lineups, all three games. Um, and
20:02 I've touched on it after the second week with Carson and I believe you were in here too,
20:06 is he's kind of giving different people, different starts and not kind of keeping a rhythm, especially
20:11 at like third base or first base, Brian Robinson and Jack this year and Brody green.
20:17 Is it kind of starting to become, Hey, you're not letting people get comfortable because
20:20 you're switching them in and out, or is it a, Hey, he's still trying to figure out what's
20:24 working. I'm okay with it just because it is working. I know it's tough to say coming
20:30 off a weekend loss where the offense wasn't really there, but otherwise it has, you see
20:35 guys like Sam Myers breakout and get, you know, get theirs. And, and, uh, you know,
20:40 Broderick green has started a few games, but having Ryder Robinson come in and also get
20:43 his, and I think he knocked his first home run this weekend. So I'm fine with that. If
20:47 you can, if you have 14 guys that can really play, play them, keep them fresh. Because
20:52 when you get into the Pope, first of all, long season, so when you get into the post
20:56 season and you're playing these back to back to back to back game tournament style, and
21:00 you have 14 guys that you can rotate through and keep your guys healthy and fresh.
21:04 I think that's a huge advantage. So I kind of like keeping them on their toes. And if
21:07 it, if it works that way, you know, great. If they go into next weekend and they keep
21:12 shuffling it up and the offense is not producing, and maybe we should probably tone it back.
21:17 Um, but I have no reason to not trust our loose. He hasn't given me a reason not trust
21:21 him yet. Yeah, no, I, I do like it. Um, I do kind of think that the rotation of third
21:28 base and kind of how some players are performing to start the season, um, specifically like
21:34 key players that we thought would be better, uh, so far to start the season and Anthony
21:38 Silva Carson Bowen, who are just struggling, you know, they're just in a little slump right
21:43 now.
21:44 It seems that Anthony Silva, he can't buy it. That man's getting robbed left, right
21:47 center on everything that touches that I feel for him. Um, I think, you know, it's nice
21:52 to see that he's not moving the guys that are slumping and letting them try to get hot.
21:55 Uh, but I do think it's something to just kind of monitor and look out for going forward,
22:00 but you know, enough of enough of the weekend series, it happened. DC is 14 and two now,
22:03 and they got a big, big midweek game tomorrow night in Dallas against Dallas Baptist top
22:10 15, top 20 team, definitely the best mid major program in the country right now.
22:15 And wow, you know, it's, it's, it's one of those that it's not really the most important
22:22 game on the schedule, but like, it's kind of your most important non-conference game
22:25 on the schedule. It always is every year. And they're a team that you have a potential
22:30 to see in a regional. And, you know, let me just get your thoughts on DBU versus TC as
22:34 a whole, just the two that play each other.
22:37 Yeah. Well, I wrote up, I, you know, we're recording this late Monday night. Um, I recorded
22:42 or wrote up my preview for this game earlier. And I use the term temperature check, because
22:46 I think this is a good barometer to see where TCU is coming back home. They're not playing
22:52 at Lofton. It's not exactly a huge road game, you know, it's 40 minutes down the road or,
22:57 or give or take, um, but it is still on the road.
22:59 And I I'm interested to see how they can return from their first losses of the year on the
23:04 road regroup. And now they have, like you said, top 15, top 20, depending on where you
23:09 look and match up, how do they respond? That's that's a high level stuff I want to see because
23:14 they can turn around and beat this team. Then. Yeah. You know what you dropped your game
23:19 in Laura or you dropped your series in Lawrence. You're going to drop games. You're going to
23:22 drop series on the year, but overall it's okay. Now if they come in and get their clocks
23:27 clean, then we need to start having conversations.
23:29 Um, of course there's worse places to be than 14 and three. Um, but yeah, I think this would
23:34 be a good barometer to see where this team's at, what the resiliency game to game looks
23:38 like. Not necessarily just during the games cause we know where that's at, but yeah, I
23:43 think we'll get a pretty good idea of how this, uh, TCU team can respond given losses,
23:47 which is important when you're, when you're starting to deal with pod play in May. Yeah.
23:51 You know, I, and DBU is one of those teams that I will always respect. Um, I love what
23:55 they do with their program. One of the most beautiful baseball fields also in the country,
23:59 very underrated sits on top of that hill. It's so nicely done. Has the white rocking
24:04 chairs right down the third baseline. I love, I love that stadium. Yep. Yeah. It's one of
24:08 the best stadiums. And DBU also has one of the most prolific power hitters in the country
24:12 right now. Grant J, uh, Batman has single handedly almost power them to three wins pretty
24:18 much exactly just with his clutch hitting. Uh, and DBU is a well constructed team. They're
24:23 kind of much similar to TCU in the way that their office is going to push. And when their
24:27 office does a push, their pitching has the ability to settle down and lock you into a
24:31 pitcher's door. And I do like this, uh, TCU plays them every year and it's always a greatly
24:36 contested game. And we did get right before we started reporting, Jamie Plunkett on Twitter
24:43 tweeted that the starter for tomorrow is Ben Hampton for TCU. So we will see Hampton back
24:49 on the mound. Do you think that there's any chance that Hampton kind of starts struggles
24:55 out the gate considering he hasn't pitched in two weeks? He didn't pitch last week. He
24:59 hasn't pitched in two weeks at all. Yeah. Do we know why was it just getting other guys
25:04 time? Was it injury? Anything come out? I didn't see anything about it cause he had
25:09 a decent first couple of starts. Yeah, we haven't seen anything. The only thing that
25:13 Sarlos talked about after the midweek game is that you wanted to get some of his bullpen
25:17 guys some better confidence going into the game and get some guys some starts. He said
25:21 he wanted to give us pitchers some rest, which is weird for a midweek game where you have
25:25 a midweek story. We never really did just anyways. Uh, yeah. What, what do you, what
25:31 do you think Hampton will be able to come out and do after two weeks of rest? Same thing
25:36 he was doing before cause I thought he was doing all right. Um, number one, don't throw
25:39 the ball over the plate to J don't do it. He's batting almost 400. He does have 16 strikeouts
25:44 on season. So he's a high, you know, when he swings, this man swinging for the fences,
25:49 he's nine home runs already on the season. That's not even his slugging is nine 31 on
25:54 the season. Yeah. Pretty ridiculous. One dot. Yeah. Don't throw the ball over the plate
25:59 to him. Um, but you know, that's not really what Hampton does. He's not trying to blow
26:02 it past you. So let's come out and do it. Do your thing. Be yourself. I know it's like
26:05 so generic and such a dumb thing to say, but it's just true. And I think he's an experienced
26:10 player. He's, he's been in the college range for a long time. He's an all conference, all
26:13 world, everything. He knows what he's doing. He's going to come in here. I, you know, give
26:17 him a loan away. Looks off speeds, change it up, get their eyes moving. Don't, don't
26:20 be throwing meatballs. Don't try to blow it past this team. Cause uh, they'll make you
26:24 pay.
26:25 Um, I w I do want to bring up a stat comparing the two teams that I think is kind of shocking
26:30 is TC is 21 of 28 on steals for the season. DBU is 28 for 31 on the season. They are a
26:38 threat on the basis and they will make you work for it. And I think it's a big thing
26:43 is we'd like to see Kurt kind of shuffle who's going to be catching. And I think, you know,
26:48 normally Curtis Burnham was catching that midweek game. And I think you got to keep
26:51 Carson Bowen back there. He's the better arm back there. And we'll lock down that, you
26:55 know, that base of still still in threat, which brings me to my next point is during
27:01 that midweek game.
27:02 We like to see, you know, Kirk already, you know, messes with the lineup a little bit,
27:05 starts different guys here and there. Do you think we're seeing a weekend type lineup tomorrow
27:09 when you're playing in a ranked midweek matchup or is going to do the same thing and kind
27:12 of give some guys some rest? Like Maxwell hasn't played a midweek game yet, or, you
27:17 know, what are you thinking?
27:19 I would keep your weekend guys in there just because this team's really good. It's a, it's
27:22 a win. You really got to have, and you want to keep those starters that just lost on the
27:26 road in rhythm. You want to get their confidence back up. I would absolutely play them really
27:30 quick though, to your note about defensive catchers. Grant Jay is one of the best defensive
27:36 catchers in the whole country. You don't steal on him. I think he's thrown out like eight
27:40 guys at second already. So when you're dealing with two teams that have very high success
27:43 rates in stealing and then shoot premier or even possibly three premier, if you're, if
27:48 you're rope and a burn into that to three premier defensive catchers, there's going
27:52 to be a lot of, this is gonna be a chess match.
27:54 I'm interested to see if both teams try to get running and test that defensive prowess
27:59 because you do have an advantage as a base runner, or if they're going to be both more
28:03 conservative saying, ah, we know what arm is behind that plate. We may not be able to
28:08 get there. We don't want unnecessary outs. I'm really interested to see that battle.
28:11 I'm glad you brought it up. Yeah, this is, this is definitely a chess match between the
28:15 two teams, especially with their steel rates. And you know, TCU is not one to shy away from
28:19 a good catcher. They will, they will make you earn it. But like you said, Grant Jay
28:23 is one of the best. I don't know if that's where you kind of draw the line, but Hey,
28:27 we will test any catcher except that man. We will not test him. I don't, I don't have
28:32 it exactly in front of me and I apologize. I should have written this down. I'm pretty
28:35 sure he was thrown out something like eight of 12 base dealers. Like, yeah, good luck
28:39 opponents are eight to 14 against Grant J. Eight for 14. There you go. Good luck. Yeah.
28:45 Yeah. You are, you are not going to see much base still and going on. Um, you know, I do
28:51 think that the interesting thing between the two teams is a lot of people like to say that
28:55 it's, it's not an important game because it's a midweek game, but as far as where DVU ranks,
29:04 if TCU, you know, wins, if TCU gets the doors blown off of them, how much can you react
29:10 to this game by saying, Hey, it's a midweek game or you know what, we got to react to
29:16 it the same way we would a weekend series. What's your, you know, you talked about the
29:19 temperature earlier, taking in the internal temperature. How much are you able to react
29:22 from this game? Considering it is a midweek game.
29:26 Well it is one game versus three. Um, I would not wave it off to saying it's just a midweek
29:30 game. Uh, I don't think you should really do that for any of them. Um, I think the only
29:34 time you can chalk it up to being midweek is if you have two really important series
29:38 in conference back to back in that midweek, it's kind of a trap game on the road. You
29:41 know, something like that. You can say, Oh, it was midweek, whatever, not, not this. Uh,
29:45 but keep in mind college baseball season is so long. You lose one game. You can't overreact.
29:52 And I love seeing this at the beginning of the season.
29:54 When do you want baseball college baseball and they show all the other outlets released
29:58 their top 25 and they don't have a lot of movement at the top after a few weeks. And
30:01 there's, you know, if a team even gets sweat, they they'll move them a couple of spots and
30:05 then you get, you know, the reply guys in there, I can't believe how did you not move
30:09 them? And I like that. Let's tone it back a little bit, be a little conservative with
30:12 the moving on the ranking. So I'm not going to overreact if they go, even if they get
30:16 mashed, I mean, God forbid like a 15 to five game or what I look out, I'm not going to
30:22 overreact to that because it is just one game and the season is very long.
30:25 We're playing over 50 games. Like let's slow down, take the stock. So if you want to take
30:30 the one 50th or whatever, have you there and, and move your needle that much, that's fine.
30:35 Now, I think there's a lot of good that can come away from this. I think we can take a
30:39 lot of things away from it, but I'm not overreacting on the season as a whole win or lose.
30:43 Yeah, no. And I think that pretty much, you pretty much hit the nail on my head. Exactly.
30:49 What I wanted to say about it is I don't think you can really overreact, but I do think,
30:54 you know, Kurt Carlos is big on making games feel like that regional feeling, and this
30:58 is going to be one of them. You're going to have your weekend series with tech coming
31:01 to town and Oklahoma state going to town where it's going to feel like an overall weekend
31:04 series for super regional. But this is a regional vibe. This is a, you know, you see them every
31:10 year in the regional. There's a chance that if one of those teams is hosting and you're
31:13 not, you're going to be at their field. I think this is kind of a big, let's gauge on
31:20 how the team plays when the, when the stakes are high, we see them come back from wins.
31:24 They love the pressure. It seems how much are they going to love the pressure on the
31:27 road facing another top 20 team? Anything else you want to touch on for DBU?
31:32 Yeah. Yeah, actually let, let me run down this team a little bit. Cause I feel like
31:36 I've talked to a lot about high level stuff. I just, let's get a little bit more granular
31:41 here. First of all, their bullpen is ridiculous. It's good every year. That's what they base
31:46 their team around. But this year I believe is better than recent years. I would, I would
31:52 go as far as to call an elite national bullpen. TCU, they're just three and seven against
31:58 DBU since the start of 2018. That does include that regional loss in 2021 that eventually
32:03 led to TCU being eliminated from their own regional in 2022 DBU swept TCU. Now the frogs,
32:11 they win both last year, which is great, but it did take extra in Dallas to get the first
32:15 win. Nick Wilson is the name I want to kind of throw out there. I, I haven't seen a pitcher
32:21 announced for DBU yet. These coaches love to play chicken. Sometimes it will be upwards
32:27 of an hour or two beforehand. You said that the Hampton will be getting the nod there.
32:31 Maybe that'll encourage DBU to drop their starter. Nick Wilson was the Tuesday starter
32:35 twice, but he's since removed to a closing more kind of relief role here. And then the
32:41 kids that they started last week only went at 2.1 innings before he was pulled and they
32:44 went straight to the bullpen. So this isn't a team that you want to go after their starter
32:48 and expect, Hey, like Kansas, like, you know, Hey, we really want to drag that bullpen out
32:52 because it doesn't get any easier from there. But there is a name that I want to point out
32:56 who will absolutely be familiar to TCU fans, River ridings. He is now a Patriot. He transferred
33:02 DBU this off season and he's gotten in every single Tuesday so far against his former team.
33:06 I would absolutely expect to see him in some regard. And he's been playing pretty well
33:10 this year. But regardless, it's going to be a team effort from this DBU pitching staff.
33:15 Obviously they're a strong batting team as well. But I still see this kind of being a
33:19 five to three type of, you know, less than 10 total runs type of game here on Tuesday.
33:25 Yeah. So DBU has announced their starter for tomorrow night. It is Connor Baines. Connor
33:30 Baines. Yeah. He's got nine innings pitched on the year five ERA. There are some pictures
33:38 I do want to highlight for DBU is once Connor McKay, 9.2 and he pitched zero ERA on the
33:44 year. Opponents are hitting a 194 against him. And then you also have Tyler Schott who's
33:51 got two innings pitch. No, he's literally two innings pitch, four strikeouts and a phone
33:55 of batting average of zero. You know, there are guys in the bullpen like you talked about
34:00 are stellar. And I think it's, you know, we already mentioned that it's going to be a
34:05 chess match and I think it's going to be a chess match even more with, you know, who's
34:09 we're going to see in the lineup. If you're going to see Brody Green, maybe get a start
34:13 in the midweek. Or are you going to see Ryder Robinson for that switch hitting effect or
34:16 you know what's going to happen? And I think if you want to see pure baseball at its best,
34:22 this is the game to watch. This is the game to be at. And you're going to see everything
34:25 that both coaches are going to throw. They're not. Neither one of them is going to throw
34:29 in a bullpen guy that they know might struggle in this game. And I think that's the beauty
34:34 of what we're going to see this week. Yeah. OK. Let's we're going to do MVP guesses for
34:41 the midweek threat. Two episodes a week. Carson's not here to go over our weekend MVP
34:47 guesses. Like I said, we had Nate on. Let's I'll go over the total scores so far on the
34:52 season. Carson is in the lead with two and a half points. I'm at two points and the guests
34:56 are at half a point, which is courtesy of you. You and Carson both did share a point
35:04 last weekend for the Pudging side. Carson had Cole Plekker as his MVP. I have been able
35:09 and Nate had Hunter Hodges. That one seems like it's pretty easy and cut and been able
35:15 will get the MVP. So we'll get a point for that. So I'll be at three total. And then
35:19 for the hitting side of things, which is where it gets a little bit closer, is Carson had
35:24 Peyton Chatagnier. I had Anthony Silva and Nate had Rydie Robinson. That one will definitely
35:31 go to Nate because I think Peyton Chatagnier had a rough weekend and so much. I don't know
35:36 what's going on with him, but he can't buy a hit. It's he's he's barreling everything
35:39 up. He looks good and he's just getting thrown out. So let's go ahead and take our guesses
35:45 for tomorrow. I'll let you start things off with your pitching and VP guess. Yeah, this
35:50 well, Ben Hampton, I know that he's starting. I'm sorry. I have to go with the chalk there.
35:57 He was he was pretty good in his first couple two weeks off. Get him in there. Let's see
36:01 it. Yeah. And on the other side of things, I I'm expecting a little bit of a chess match.
36:07 So I think my MVP pick is going to be Mason Bixby. I think we're going to see him in get
36:13 some below up. The freshman was hitting ninety eight and I think he's going to kind of play
36:17 a big role. We're going to get a get a temperature check like you'd like to set about where the
36:22 freshman is in pressure situations. And I think he's going to play a big role for the
36:26 hitting MVP. Who do you got for it? Who do you got for tomorrow? Yeah, this one's tough.
36:31 The lineups have just been all over the place. Totally probably sits again while I nurse
36:35 that injury. They have chat the night off last week. I don't know. Probably not just
36:40 because he did struggle. And again, this is a big time game. I think I'm going to go with
36:44 Curtis Byrne. Look, he went to attend batting this weekend. I mean, everybody did poorly
36:49 chat what one of eleven Brunson was one of nine. So like you said, to attend this past
36:54 weekend, I want to see how they turn around the plate. It burn is in a lineup, which I
36:57 think it will be. But let's just put that if on there because because I wasn't 100 percent
37:01 sure when I did my notes. I'd like to come up big with a couple of bats here. Yeah. And
37:06 I'm also going to take the other catcher on the team and Carson Bowen. I am very hard
37:10 on Carson Bowen. Carson knows that I have so much grace for that man on what he does
37:15 with his team. And he's struggling mightily to start the season. He's got a two sixty
37:19 seven batting average, only a four hundred sluggy percentage, which is worse for qualified
37:23 hitters on the team and batting average and slugging percentage. And I think eventually
37:28 he's going to turn it around. And I think tomorrow's as good a time as any. I think
37:32 he's. The team starts with only, you know, when everyone gets a go on, but it seems like
37:38 the role fire starters on the team are you a person and one of them got to get going
37:42 and they're both not we saw this weekend. The offense kind of struggles a little bit.
37:47 But hey, look, I do I do really quick want to talk about Bowen, because you said that
37:52 he is last on the team in the lineup of qualified sluggers. And right now, Peyton Tully's last
37:58 in in batting. If you're telling me that our worst performing current hitters right now
38:05 are Peyton Tully and Carson Bowen could be worse places. So I want they're out there.
38:09 Yeah, no, I say we're sitting in the way to talk down on them. But it is interesting to
38:15 think that, you know, we talked about is last year, Carson Bowen seemed to be using a lot
38:20 of the field whenever he was sitting in the season. It seems that a lot of a lot more
38:24 of his stuff has become a bullseye. And we don't know if a lot of that's the issues.
38:28 You know, we're not in the clubhouse. We don't know what's going on. But Carson Bowen are
38:31 at the ship. He obviously will. He's one of the biggest components of this team and how
38:35 far they go. And I know he has it in them. So it'll be interesting to see. Brett, you
38:41 got anything else you want to add for today? No, I think that was pretty thorough. I'll
38:45 always happy to be on here. Happy to talk about this huge game. I'll be watching intently.
38:50 Very excited for this one. Yeah, Brett, tell everyone where they can find you. Yes, of
38:54 course. You can find me on Twitter. The artist formerly known as X at Road to CFB. I'm also
38:59 writing game previews, weekend series previews up at Killer Frogs dot com, as well as our
39:05 big twelve roundups, which I've really enjoyed doing. So you can find my articles there.
39:09 Yeah, it's a pleasure having you got having you on, Brett. And we'll be back Thursday
39:14 night for the midweek recap and the weekend series preview. Thank you, guys. Thanks, JD.