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Thursday, September 11, 2008

2008 Fall Practice

I know everyone out there is starting to become impatient and want to know what exactly is going on, who the incoming Freshman are, any surprises as to who is or is not in camp. I can assure you Todd and I feel the same way.

I have been told practices are open to the public, unfortunately I have not received any other information from the Department of Athletics regarding the baseball program. I have sent a few e-mails out, but nothing yet. Hopefully they are working on putting something together.

In the meantime, instead of posting information for you, how about you, the readers, post. What are your thoughts going into the Autumn? Players you would like to see step up? Expectations? Buckeyes you feel might surprise us?

Not to turn this into a message board, but you guys deserve a chance to speak out and be heard, as well as toss around informative opinions. I'll keep poking and prodding to get some info on the team, and might sneak over to a practice myself.

13 comments:

Abrazzi said...

I have heard that there is more intensity at practice this year. If anybody attends practice let us know. Last years team just seemed to go through the motions. I hope that is different this year. It drove me nuts!

OSU could make a run at the Big Ten title. Michigan will be strong, but not as strong as the last 3 years.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I have been to a couple of the fall practices and in my opinion the player seem to be working hard and showing a lot of spirit, especially in the inter-team scrimmages. They seem to be having fun, if you can do that while working your tail off.
I am new to this, but I would like to say something about the recruiting and the many references about “not getting the best players in the State of Ohio” and “not leaving the central Ohio area”. Don’t really know that much about the history of the coaching staff, but I believe you must keep in mind that baseball is a lot different than OSU football and their 60/80 scholarships (not sure). The baseball program has only 11.7 scholarships to be divided between 35 players of which 27 must have at least 25% (athletic and/ academic). If my math is close that leaves 5 scholarships to divide up over the entire team and players’ academics become very important. Eight young men could end up with nothing.. So there has to be, I will say a lot of “I want to be a buckeye” involved in the choice to choose OSU. Full rides are rare, if they will even exist in the future unless something changes. What I am trying to say is that it is hard to sign every player in Ohio that you may consider to be the blue-chipper best, without much to give him but OSU! I know that is what recruiting is sometimes about and does not speak to the young man who is not even contacted, but in this day paying the bills is what it is all about. I won’t even get into what the message implies about the current recruits and their abilities and I think they will surprise some of you.
By their look and attitude this team has the potential to surprise a lot of people. IMO.

Guillermo said...

ev727.....just to clarify.....roster limit this year is 35.....of those 35, only 30 can be counters (receive schollys) and they must be a minimum of 25%. Next year the number of counters is reduced to 27 with the same 25% min. scholly. So this year there will be 5 players not receiving $$ and next year there will be 8. And I agree with you in regards to how this can limit the players that OSU would recruit, at least during these couple of years of transition.

I have heard that there is a very good esprit de corp this first week of camp and it is a change from the past couple of years. Lots of enthusiasm and support for each other which hasn't necessarily been present. I hope they keep building on that because it would be nice to see a fired up "team" this year as opposed to what we saw last year.

There are six "new guys" in camp. The four freshman that we already know about, another freshman from Wisconsin I believe (infielder) and a JC transfer (outfielder....California?).

Anonymous said...

2009 Schedule....

Big Ten / Big East Challenge:

Day 1 - Friday, February 20
Ohio State vs. Notre Dame
Penn State vs. St. John's
Illinois vs. Iowa
Michigan State vs. Connecticut
Michigan vs. South Florida
Northwestern vs. Georgetown
Minnesota vs. Seton Hall
Indiana vs. West Virginia
Purdue vs. Cincinnati

Day 2 - Saturday, February 21
Michigan vs. Cincinnati
Purdue vs. South Florida
Penn State vs. Northwestern
Ohio State vs. Connecticut
Indiana vs. Georgetown
Illinois vs. Notre Dame
Minnesota vs. West Virginia
Michigan State vs. Seton Hall
Iowa vs. St. John's

Day 3 - Sunday, February 22
Michigan vs. St. John's
Ohio State vs. Cincinnati
Minnesota vs. Michigan State
Northwestern vs. Connecticut
Indiana vs. South Florida
Iowa vs. Georgetown
Purdue vs. Notre Dame
Penn State vs. Seton Hall
Illinois vs. West Virginia

Anonymous said...

2009 Schedule....

Big Ten / Big East Challenge:

Day 1 - Friday, February 20
Ohio State vs. Notre Dame
Penn State vs. St. John's
Illinois vs. Iowa
Michigan State vs. Connecticut
Michigan vs. South Florida
Northwestern vs. Georgetown
Minnesota vs. Seton Hall
Indiana vs. West Virginia
Purdue vs. Cincinnati

Day 2 - Saturday, February 21
Michigan vs. Cincinnati
Purdue vs. South Florida
Penn State vs. Northwestern
Ohio State vs. Connecticut
Indiana vs. Georgetown
Illinois vs. Notre Dame
Minnesota vs. West Virginia
Michigan State vs. Seton Hall
Iowa vs. St. John's

Day 3 - Sunday, February 22
Michigan vs. St. John's
Ohio State vs. Cincinnati
Minnesota vs. Michigan State
Northwestern vs. Connecticut
Indiana vs. South Florida
Iowa vs. Georgetown
Purdue vs. Notre Dame
Penn State vs. Seton Hall
Illinois vs. West Virginia

4 of the last 6 said...

guillermo -- who are the 4 we "know about"?
buckeydell -- where are these games to be played?

4 of the last 6 said...

Bucks host Iowa in final week ... hopefully we can use this to get in / lock up 1st place

05/14/09 at Ohio State Columbus, 05/15/09 at Ohio State Columbus,
05/16/09 at Ohio State Columbus,

Most of you probably already heard that Meade is gone. Not to 'sour grapes' this, and I'm not saying that he was not an asset to the Bucks, but the lose of a no glove / no speed DH type with lots of Ks is something that the Bucks should be able to overcome. My concern is starting pitching. Several Bucks had decent ERAs in the sumer leagues; but keep in mind that they are throwing vs. many kids who are still acclimating to the wood bat.

Guillermo said...

4/6 ...

OF Joey Ciamacco (Hilliard Davidson)

SS Ryan Cypret (Olentangy Liberty)

1B Zack Nowland (Deleware Hayes)

RHP/OF Ross Oltorik (Cinti Moeller)

(Oltorik is also playing football and is not at fall baseball)

Anonymous said...

The inaugural BIG EAST/Big Ten Baseball Challenge, hosted by the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Sports Commission, will feature 27 games February 20-22, 2009, at various spring training venues in the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area

4 of the last 6 said...

guillermo / buckeyedell ... Thanks for the info

Has anyone heard anything re: the annual S and G series?

Guillermo said...

Scarlet & Gray will be the week of 10/13.

highheat88 said...

Starting pitching has a chance to be our strength.

This summer Wimmers had a 1.70 ERA with 72 k's in 53.0 innings.

Rucinski had a 1.13 ERA with 59 k's in 55.2 innings.

Aluminum or wood a strikeout is a strikeout.

Both were selected as top 20 Valley League prospects by PG Crosschecker.

Armstrong, Edgin, and Best all had good summers plus Hale is back.

With only 3 conference games per week we should need less starting pitching. Who knows what Todd will do for the mid week games.

Defense and scoring runs are a concern, especially with Hurly and Engle coming back from injuries.