New Mexico State @ #14 Oregon (Ducks sweep series 4-0)

[oregontrack]

some stray thoughts:

we're 7-1.

we're 7-1 but we really haven't played anyone. hawaii took 3 of 5 from hofstra over the weekend, but who knows what that means, if anything. and new mexico state is 0-8.

after two appearances each, i have to say (once irvin's stamina is up) an irvin/peterson/harber weekend rotation looks pretty appealing. karraker has done nothing to earn a demotion, the aforementioned three just seem to have crazy effective stuff. give karraker the tuesday job and make him first in line if anything goes wrong injury-wise, have paddon join the long relief crowd, and graham/nogosek split the primary set-up work for cleavinger. i think the roles of the pitching staff are certainly taking shape. and as i mentioned before, if cleavinger continues to struggle i don't think there should be any hesitation to pull him. nothing about his stuff this year nor last inspires a whole ton of confidence.

of noticeable improvement: karaviotis. his range is better, he's gobbling up just about everything that comes his way, and he's leading the team through two weeks in OBP. he's showing great patience at the plate and has hit the ball pretty hard.

we're going to have a bit of a problem when heineman is healthy, because grebeck, catalano, and craig-st. louis are all deserving of playing time. heck, so is goldfarb. it's a good problem to have, compared to other seasons, but how horton crunches the playing time going forward will be interesting. lots of pinch hitting options in the latter innings, to say the least.

we host portland on tuesday (the pilots are 2-7), then trip to uc santa-barbara, who has looked VERY good. d1baseball.com has them at #23 after sweeping byu and taking two of three from kentucky. the gauchos friday/saturday guys have combined to allow 4 runs so far, 3 of those coming in one game against kentucky. they've been lights out.

[UOducksTK1]

some stray thoughts:

we're 7-1.

we're 7-1 but we really haven't played anyone. hawaii took 3 of 5 from hofstra over the weekend, but who knows what that means, if anything. and new mexico state is 0-8.

after two appearances each, i have to say (once irvin's stamina is up) an irvin/peterson/harber weekend rotation looks pretty appealing. karraker has done nothing to earn a demotion, the aforementioned three just seem to have crazy effective stuff. give karraker the tuesday job and make him first in line if anything goes wrong injury-wise, have paddon join the long relief crowd, and graham/nogosek split the primary set-up work for cleavinger. i think the roles of the pitching staff are certainly taking shape. and as i mentioned before, if cleavinger continues to struggle i don't think there should be any hesitation to pull him. nothing about his stuff this year nor last inspires a whole ton of confidence.

of noticeable improvement: karaviotis. his range is better, he's gobbling up just about everything that comes his way, and he's leading the team through two weeks in OBP. he's showing great patience at the plate and has hit the ball pretty hard.

we're going to have a bit of a problem when heineman is healthy, because grebeck, catalano, and craig-st. louis are all deserving of playing time. heck, so is goldfarb. it's a good problem to have, compared to other seasons, but how horton crunches the playing time going forward will be interesting. lots of pinch hitting options in the latter innings, to say the least.

we host portland on tuesday (the pilots are 2-7), then trip to uc santa-barbara, who has looked VERY good. d1baseball.com has them at #23 after sweeping byu and taking two of three from kentucky. the gauchos friday/saturday guys have combined to allow 4 runs so far, 3 of those coming in one game against kentucky. they've been lights out.

The UC Santa Barbara will give us a good idea of how good Oregon is.