Turn2

IMO, Christensen should never have been our SS (last year had no other option). Christensen is built like a greek god and should always have been on the corner somewhere. This should allow him (mentally) to focus on hitting. MERRY CHRISTMAS

IMO, changes will be more by position than by players. New faces that likely will have an impact will be, Stock, Sanguenitti, Kelly, Headley and Darby...don't thnk all will have a major impact, maybe 3 of 5. We lost two position players to draft or graduation; Asche and Tolentino. This means two new faces taking their place. Maybe one other new comer will beat out a returning player: Options: catcher- Burleson, Stucky and Stock- IMO, Burleson and Stock sharing time. both could play with one DHing. One could win majority of playing time behind plate. This will be decided by defense first and hitting second. 1B- Kalkowski, Kalkowski or Kalkowski- IMO, Kalkowski will be our everyday first baseman unless he struggles defensively. 2nd- Sanguenitti, or Peters- If Peters wins second then Sanguenitti goes to OF SS- Kelly or Headley- Nebraska will play with a first year player at SS for the 4th out of last 5 years 3rd- Farmer, Peters and Scheffert- Our DH may come from one of these 3 that doesn't win 3rd job. OF- Pritchard, Christensen, Kiser, Scheffert, Darby and Cooper...or Sanguenitti if he doesn't play second- OF may be the most unsettled and most competitive for playing time. Weekend rotation- Pierce, Keller, Huber, Neiderkline, Lemke, Hander, Spitsnogle or King- one of these pitchers may be moved to closer role. Whoever doesn't win weekend, midweek starter and closer role, will provide significant depth in bullpen. Closer- Bublitz, Vogt, or one of the above Bullpen- Hirsh, Bummer, Stoval, A. Christensen * A lot of depth and variety in the pitching staff. Based on what Silva has done in his previous coaching stops, I expect our pitching will be the best it has been since 2008.

How many series games (live and tape delayed) did the BTN show each week last year?

Pitching will be the key to the season. Have no idea what the rotation will be, but we have a options, which creates competition. Silva has had a very good track record at his previous schools. Pierce Keller Huber Spitsnogle Neiderklien Lemke King I believe our closer will come from the group above that doesn't make the weekend starting rotation. Spitsnogle is the one that baffles me a bit. I know he was pretty good at Doane, but when I heard he was going to be a starter (yes I heard it spoken that definitively from an immediate family member), I just don't know. I'll trust Silva with his history, but color me a bit skeptical. Spitsnogle was third team collegiate summer ball all american. Had great summer numbers and has a chance to be a contributor. Another kid I forgot about (was reminded of today) is Ryan Hander. He is a little different from our other RHP's in that he is upper 80's FB with a 12 to 6 curve vs. slider.

Pitching will be the key to the season. Have no idea what the rotation will be, but we have a options, which creates competition. Silva has had a very good track record at his previous schools. Pierce Keller Huber Spitsnogle Neiderklien Lemke King I believe our closer will come from the group above that doesn't make the weekend starting rotation.

Alright, tell me about Justin Black? Have you seen him play? So is this the route you are going to go? I bring him up as a potentially huge get for the program when you wanted to talk Husker baseball, which is not going to be talked on here for another 4 months and you want to get all butt hurt about?!? I have seen and agree with your thoughts/posts during the season, but what would you really expect. There won't be a lot of deep conversation about DE's crew at this point of the year. Hell there really isn't that much during the season, and it will probably be even less due to the fact that Anderson is gone, and half the people that came to baseball threads only did so to bitch about him. The baseball team is like the basketball team for the most part, when they start having some late season success the posters come out of the woodworks to the threads. I am sorry I offended you by "derailing" your thread maybe in March you can have someone to fill your baseball talk that meets your criteria for conversation. Amazing thing about the written word, it can be misinterpreted. I looked up Justin Black and found little to nothing that isn't already on the Nebraska website. Thought maybe you saw him play in Omaha last summer...I didn't, I don't live in Nebraska.

Alright, tell me about Justin Black? Have you seen him play?

You do realize that Justin Black is a senior in high school this year and won't be on the Nebraska roster this spring? Yes, but why not get excited about the kid. Yes, he has the draft ahead of him this summer, but lookiing at DE first recruiting class this is the headliner. Also the only HS senior. You want to see 'chaos on the bases' as a fan and this may be the model for that philosophy, right? That is why I am stoked about this kid. My thread is about 2012 not 2013. Understand your excitement for the kid, but maybe you could start a different thread about 2013 incoming players...just saying.

You do realize that Justin Black is a senior in high school this year and won't be on the Nebraska roster this spring?

Except for a bowl game, football is over. Except for the post season, Volleyball is almost over. I am not a big basketball fan, therefore wanted to start some baseball news. Last week Nebraska baseball ended there fall workouts with strength and conditioning test. Based on results, this team will be most athletic team in many years....since 2005. These test were done without Khiry, which he would only improve these numbers: 10 yard dash- 4 players beat the all time baseball record of 1.5 seconds Pro agility, aka 5-10-5- 1 player beat all time record of 3.85 and 3 players were sub 4.0 seconds 60 yard dash- 8 players were sub 6.7 seconds Assuming our hitting is as good or better, Coach Erstad has the players to create "chaos on the base paths". I can't wait for baseball season!

Saturday morning, park by lake northwest of park and walk over...not that bad and save 25.00 bucks.

this doesn't hurt at all...see typ3kal post.

Gonzaga Utah, A&M Chorpus Christy, UNLV West Virginia, New Mexico State, Minnesota Kansas Stat UN Kearney Cal Bears South Dakota State La Tech Northern Colorado Illinos Northwestern Purdue Iowa Indiana Ohio State Minnesota Michigan Bakersfield Creighton Witchita State

Have been told that Nebraska off season conditioning will focus more on leaning up and making players quicker/faster. some players are even being told to not lift any more than trainer tells them to...they don't want those players to bulk up to much.

To nobody's surprise, Bubba signed with the Royals 5 minutes before deadline. Signing bonus was 7.5 million over 3 years. Now that he is no longer a college football and baseball player these are my thoughts. As a football player and quarterback first, he would never have reached his full potential as a baseball player and maybe never as a football player. Baseball and football players do most of their developing in the off season, i.e, summer college baseball or 7 on 7, fall ball, spring practice. Bubba would never have those opportunities and would have been an above average player in both sports but well below his potential. JMO

Jake Thompson switched his commitment because that is what he does, not because Anderson is gone. Hell on the bases" doesn't prevent Erstad from recruiting big arms or big bats. Thompson is a two way player (with + power and a big arm) who will be drafted out of high school as a pitcher most likely. Personally, I am not a fan of the two way player. That doesn't mean I wouldn't take a Bubba Starling or a Danny Hultzen on my team. However, baseball doesn't like those players either because eventually baseball will choose one position for them!

No doubt Coach Erstad will recruit to his style of play. However, I would think he would implement now. "Chaos on the bases" is more of a mindset, i.e. look to take the extra base whenever possible. Put pressure on the defense to make plays, or put pressure on defense to make mistakes...however you want to look at it. IMO, we are plenty athletic to begin this style of play. We may not have a 30 stolen base player on team, but that doesn't mean we can't be aggressive. Coach Erstad is a product of Mike Scioscia and his philosophies/strategies. Another player that is a product of the same system is Vlad Guerrero. As a ranger fan, last year watching Vlad run I thought to myself, how slow is this guy. However, he had several big base running plays and it is because of, mindset- be aggressive; focus- look for opportunity; risk- does the reward out way the risk, i.e what is the situation; opportunity- is the defense sleeping. Two of Nebraska's best base runners last year were our catchers; Tolentino and Burleson. Both are below average speed but were not liabilities on the base paths.

http://www.bluesbaseball.com/stats/HTML/2011/HTML/teamcume.htm?SPSID=101&SPID=33&DB_OEM_ID=100 Huber on same summer team as Christensen. Player era w-l app-gs cg sho sv ip h r er bb so 2b 3b hr ab b/avg wp hbp bk sfa sha Travis Huber 2.75 3-0 8-7 0 0/1 0 39.1 25 13 12 11 44 4 0 2 141 .177 4 2 0 1 1 tried to make this decipherable, but didn't work. Key stats: ERA- 2.75 IP- 39.1 K/bb- 44/11 BAA- .177 WHIP- < 1

I expect 1 to 2 new faces in our line-up, but this is due to turn over and not replacement. I fully expect Farmer to remain at first. However a move to 3 rd is not out of question. We could have a new face in outfield, especially if Kash moves back to infield. Only one proven catcher (Burleson). I would expect a Stucky to take over as no. 2. Haven't heard grest things about incoming catching recruit. Pitching has a chance to be very good. We have some minor injuries that need to heal but we have a lot of depth and ability...Travis Huber is blowing up in Caly summer league.

From my perspective, I think position changes will depend on certain baseball truisms and high school players transition to BBCOR bats: Strong up the middle (SS, 2nd, C, CF)- any new players not only need to adjust to the speed of the game and play very good D but can they hit. In my opinion, catcher and SS are defense first and hit second. CF has become a 50/50 balance between defense and offense and 2nd is tipping toward offense first. However, you can't have a defensive liability at any of these positions. Corner's (LF, RF, 3rd, 1b)- Offense first; in an ideal world, these players would be best hitters with the best power numbers. That being said, you aren't going to trade defense for offense at any one of these positions (not talking about playing a stiff at any one of these positions, that is what DH is for). At these positions you play offense early and defense late. Issue with newcomers (high school only), is transition to BBCOR bats. Our freshman last year had 2 extra base hits last year and they had same amount of time using BBCOR as upper classmen (fall then spring). Most college coaches will tell you the biggest improvement for a college player is from their freshman year and sophomore year. My initial blush is that their will be fewer changes than some may think.

IMO, I think Erstad will be a great hire. He will change the culture of this team. They will be more aggressive on the field. Coaches will be young and hungry and will be empowered to do their job. Look for pitching coach to come from the West Coast.

3:30 PM...DE a presser at 330 today? Presser at 3:30= DE

3:30 PM...DE