HI NOTES: Things to read while layering up for game time

GAME DAY

As of this time (3:45 PM), the game is still scheduled to be played.

"Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today!"

♦ MU baseball out to discover offense in home opener (Columbia Tribune)

"It's something that needs to be fixed … now," MU Coach Tim Jamieson said. "We know that they're capable, so we're trying to fix it. Conner, Blake, Eric Garcia — the middle of our lineup — are all hitting under .200. Those guys don't hit, we're not going to score runs. I think when they do start hitting, it's going to make it easier for the other guys to hit as well."

Mach said the Tigers will be more aggressive this weekend against the Cardinals pitchers, especially jumping on strikes early in the count.

♦ Ball State hopes for more relaxed pitching in weekend series (BSU Daily News)

After Nestor Bautista's first start of the season, a disastrous outing that saw the left-hander give up seven runs in 1 1/3 innings at USC-Upstate, coach Alex Marconi and pitching coach Jeremy Plexico sat down for a talk with him.

Marconi and Plexico thought Bautista was putting too much pressure on himself. Though Bautista made four starts last season as a freshman, the start at USC-Upstate was his first as a member of Ball State's weekend rotation.

"He needed to know that he didn't have to go out and throw nine scoreless innings," Marconi said. "Which he almost did. But he needed to know that's not what we were expecting out of him."

Bautista visibly relaxed after the meaning. Last Saturday, in his first start since the sit down with Marconi and Plexico, Bautista retired the first 16 batters he faced and threw seven shutout innings in a no-decision at UAB.
. . .
"They're hitting slightly better than we are right now," Marconi said. "It just comes down to execution. Even if it's a good arm on the mound, you take good at bats, you get in good counts and you make it hurt – if you get the 1-0 fastball and you hit it in the gap, which is what you're supposed to do, regardless of who's on the mound – if you do that, then you can push some runs across the board."
. . .
"Missouri, I'm sure they're going to have a few more fans there than they had at UAB for their home opener," Marconi said. "But it's not going to be great weather. So it may just be a couple of Midwestern teams playing in a 50 degree game with 100 people in the stands."

COLLEGE BASEBALL

♦ He doesn't mention Mizzou (he obviously despises us), but Eric Sorenson has farted out yet another hilarious blog post worthy of wasting a few minutes reading: Boldly going forward and answering readers' questions (College Baseball Today)

Yes, I get Emails. All the time. Most of ‘em are complimentary, though admittedly a lot of them are to correct something I got wrong. And yes, I even get Emails that are angry birds… to which I usually give the bird back to them.

♦ And for another entertaining read, check out How fast should college players run out homers?, a message thread at Rivals.com, which, in spite of Yahoo's complete lack of support, is still the most interesting national college baseball message board on the interwebs.

The blogger has obviously never jacked-one out and had adrenalin coursing through his veins at mach IX. Sometimes you fly around the bases, sometimes you trot, sometimes you trot and wave and run backwards and soak it all in (only did that one time) ... just depends on the game situation and how you are feeling that day.

MU IN THE MINORS

♦ Gibson tries to be a patient with patience (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

"Going over there and running the stadium and seeing them throw bullpens and seeing them work out and then knowing they are [a few] days away from [games] getting started," Gibson lamented, "it's getting a little bit harder because I know I'm not going to be able to do everything."

While Twins players are counting down the days to Saturday's start of spring training games, Gibson is counting down to June 7, when he can throw in the bullpen for the first time since he had surgery.

The righthander is restricted to tosses from 50 feet away right now. He's been cleared to lift weights and go through full workouts.

CONFERENCE HOKEY-POKEY

♦ A&M wastes no time moving on from the Big 12 (Yahoo.com)

Texas A&M sure didn't waste much time reminiscing about all the memories it's had during its 18 years in the Big 12.

Once Texas A&M agreed to a $12.41 million buyout to get out of the Big 12 and officially join the SEC, the Aggies slowly started erasing the Big 12 from memory by removing signage with the Big 12 logo - and tweeting the words, "out with the old" to go along with the above picture.
. . .
Can't blame Texas A&M for their excitement. Even Missouri started putting up SEC-themed billboards before the buyout was completed. And it can't be long until the SEC signage starts going up on all of the game fields. Might make Big 12 baseball games interesting.