Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

ducks win 10-2

Nice to see both the offense and defense do well, good way to start the season

rich, cool, and 4-0! (for those that remember buying that SI, can you believe it's been over 10 years? damn). nothing i say here is meant to project anything on the season at large (4 games is a very, very small sample size), but here are some thoughts on the sweep.

three very good starts from thorpe, krook, and gold. combined, they gave up 1 ER in 19 innings. not going to get any better than that.

reed was excellent in two appearances, picking up a save in game 1 and the win in extended duty in game 3.

the heart of our order -- our 3-4-5 hitters, baumgartner/tolman/garlick -- did not disappoint. they combined to hit .326 w/ 7 RBIs, and crossed home plate 13 times. all three of them had an OBP of .444. we all knew we weren't going to be able to replace ryon healy this season, but the group effort -- through one weekend -- was a push in the right direction.

aaron payne didn't hit particularly well (3/14), but as always, you have to take the whole package with him. he got plunked 3 more times and drew a walk, making his OBP .389. some guys just know how to get on base through any means necessary. if/when heineman starts hitting better, i think payne is an excellent candidate for the 2-hole because he's also our best bunter. when hortonball comes into play and heineman gets on base, we can almost automatically get him into scoring position w/ payne at the plate, with our big bats looming.

i know not thirty seconds ago you read that i wasn't going to make any season-long projections after four games, but i'd keep an eye on porter clayton. he was a huge recruit out of HS, bumped around the 'pen for a year in eugene, then went on a church mission. he's back, and he looked fantastic all weekend. i like jeff gold -- really, i do -- but i wouldn't at all be surprised to see clayton push his way into the rotation at some point this year. i know the coaches always evaluate the season once conference games begin, and if he's still throwing darts -- and depending what gold/spencer do -- it might be hard to keep him in the 'pen, where reed and cleavinger already have a chokehold on the 8th/9th innings. this kid can be a good pac-12 starter, and we may only have him for this year anyway. might as well use him.

we looked really, really good in late inning clutch situations the first three games. we plated the go-ahead runs in the 9th, 7th, and 10th innings in games 1-3, and of course rallied for two in the 9th to forced extras in game 3. we're going to play A LOT of close games this year. we always do. sometimes, teams have the 'it' factor, and find ways to win. some teams can't. thus far, we've seen some kids thrive in key situations. huzzah.

newcomer watch: matt krook looked electric. he let a ton of balls get away from him, but he was also working with a freshman catcher. i wonder if we'll see graham catch him next time. aj balta went 2/2 in pinch-hit opportunities, making a pretty splashy debut. he got the start in CF today, and went 0/3 (though he did have an RBI sac fly). austin grebeck got two starts, and went 2/8 w/ an RBI. jack kruger went 0/7 in two starts, mark karaviotis 0/2 in one start. jb bryant (a jc transfer) went 3/3 in three pinch-hit opportunities. trent paddon punched out two rainbows in game one, horton's first bullpen move of the season.

heineman started 0/14, which kind of sucked. but he did go 3/5 today, so hopefully we can chalk up his wicked start to... well, to something.

matt cooper and scott squire are pac-12 quality arms (games 1 & 3). hawaii may or may not do much in the mwc this year, but we saw some good pitching this weekend.

thomas time wrote:Nice to see both the offense and defense do well, good way to start the season

Yup good start.

Lost in the shuffle, Horton achieved his 900th victory this weekend.