Mizzou Baseball Quotes & Notes

Draft Update

■ Florida Marlins draft review (MinorLeagueBall.com)

Aaron Senne, 1B, University of Missouri: Rebounded after a poor junior year to revive his prospect status, showed greatly improved power this year and has some pure hitting skills. Throws well and can play outfield if you don't mind below average range. Nice value selection.

MU in the Minors

■ Crow adapting in minors (CJOnline.com)

"The important thing is to develop 17 inches of the plate and do a lot more than throw to the corner or throwing to make guys swing and miss," Carter said.

"If you watch him pitch it's a real powerful delivery and a really fast tempo. There's a lot of things that can go wrong when you work so fast and you try to generate so much. You just lock in to massage his mind a little bit and trust that over 17 inches that he has really good stuff."

Crow listens. Intently.

"What a great kid. His personality is just outstanding," Carter said.

But the pitching coach also senses that his young right-hander can be too hard on himself, especially if Crow doesn't get outs after falling behind on hitters.

Conference Hokey-Pokey

■ College baseball, Pac-16 style (Lubbock Online)

Now, here comes the intriguing part. Name the one coach in the current Big 12 who knows how to coach against Pac-10 schools -- that's right, Dan Spencer. His time as an assistant at Oregon State and his knowledge of Pac-10 parks suddenly becomes very valuable. Bigger ballparks, different styles of play.

"Coaching will be different in certain places like UCLA at night," Spencer told me recently. "It will be different in Corvallis (Ore.). There will be more small ball and things like that to score runs because you're less likely to hit the two-run home run, so that would change. There might be days in Lubbock you don't want to give up an out for 90 feet early in the game because it's more important to score 2-3 runs at a time, but in Corvallis you might go ahead and bunt and try for one run early in the game more than you would in Lubbock."

■ Kirk Bohls' 9 things and one crazy prediction (statesman.com)

4. Still to be resolved is the conflict between Texas' pending acceptance of the Pac-10 Conference and the resolution by the Austin City Council last month to boycott the state of Arizona and refrain from any commerce or business with that state because of its controversial, new immigration law. Of course, the University of Texas is pretty much a nation unto itself.