well check out the big brain on brad

this is going to make no sense as a page topper, dang it

[Edited on June 4, 2013 at 8:37 PM. Reason : stupid me]

6/4/2013 8:35:08 PM

BRAD MONKEY. THAT FUNKY MONKEY.

6/4/2013 8:38:25 PM

While I was at State I was in a long distance relationship with a girl at Rice.

Us beating the crap out of them should make me feel better about how that ended, right?

6/4/2013 9:09:35 PM

Posting her nudes and calling her a whore would do the same thing.

And you could do that...now.

6/4/2013 9:15:43 PM

nc state shit - calling for rain friday, rodon pitches 3 innings then a rain delay where he doesnt come back. deja vu from last year.

6/4/2013 9:19:44 PM

^I'm pretty sure he is the Saturday pitcher.

6/4/2013 9:26:31 PM

I'll be here waiting for bdmazur to do the right thing.

6/4/2013 9:35:59 PM

Well I stand corrected and feel better about our chances of only mildly screwing up.

6/4/2013 9:37:06 PM

Quote :

"JT3bucky All American 19600 Posts user info edit post Rodon to pitch Friday 6/4/2013 3:13:12 PM "

??

6/4/2013 9:47:04 PM

I'm sure it's elsewhere too, but dude from N&O tweeted it earlier:

Quote :

"Cory Smith ?@RCorySmith 7h Elliott Avent said that N.C. State will start Carlos Rodon in the Friday opener against #Rice in Raleigh super regional."

6/4/2013 10:00:23 PM

I saw a tweet with a quote from Avent earlier today that said Rodon would probably start Friday, but nothing was set in stone. I like him going in Game 1 though, gives us 2 chances to get 1 win with our bullpen saved up if we can take the game on Friday with Rodon on the hill - although the weather could change that.

6/4/2013 10:11:32 PM

Yeah I hope we don't see a repeat of last years weather bullshit

6/4/2013 10:14:07 PM

last i heard on the radio it basically went like this, "avent is not holding anything back or playing games, rodon will start friday."

its the right decision i just hope the weather doesnt screw it up

6/4/2013 10:30:44 PM

or rodon could have nightmares of app st and pitch like shit. lets not pretend anything about our athletics department is a garuntee especially when it counts the most

6/5/2013 12:28:23 AM

Friday June 7 CHANCE OF RAIN:100%
- I suspect the game to be entirely PPD

6/5/2013 7:44:05 AM

I don't like the idea of Rodon going on Friday. We are going to have to get one win from another pitcher regardless so in my mind it makes more sense to throw him on Saturday for the following reasons:

1. What the hell happens if we lose on Friday? Team will be completely deflated and likely lose game 2.

2. If we lose Friday and have Rodon going on Saturday, team would still be confident, could win games 2 and 3.

3. Weather issues potentially fucking up his start

4. Imagine if we won on Friday with another starter and had Rodon going on Saturday?

Obviously winning game 1 of a 3 game series is big, but I just don't like the idea of essentially going all in with Rodon on Friday knowing we have to get a win somewhere else anyway.

6/5/2013 7:46:13 AM

^exactly my thoughts.

Plus an extra day of rest which can't hurt after throwing back to back complete games.

6/5/2013 8:13:58 AM

I am in favor of using the same line-up as last weekend. I like Rodon being the difference-maker and pitching on Saturday. If we win game 1 he closes the series and we're off to Omaha, we lose game 1 and he could swing momentum back in our favor and buy us a 3rd game.

I don't really see any advantage in throwing him in Game 1(esp. if it's likely to be a double-header on Sat) because the odds of having him for Game 3 are low either way.

6/5/2013 8:43:16 AM

Not starting Rodon on Friday would be pretty stupid.

It would almost be like depending on your #3 to win and advance. Do you really want to do that?

Rodon vs anyone on their team is advantage us.
Ogburn vs their #1 instead of their #2 gives them a greater chance of winning.

I dont want this series to go 3 games.

eta:

The only time you save your ace for the second game is when the other team has stud ace. We would be doing Rice a favor.

[Edited on June 5, 2013 at 9:36 AM. Reason : /]

6/5/2013 9:34:53 AM

Because of the weather forcast, you have to plan for Rodon to go Saturday.

100% chance of rain on Friday means delays are likely. Avent cant afford to have a repeat of last year when Rodon went 2 innings against Florida before a thundestrom and he was shut down because of the length of the delay.

6/5/2013 9:57:31 AM

My only concern is the weather on Friday. Hopefully it will PPD it rather than drag it out like last year.

If it is PPD, will they push all the games back a day, double header on Sunday, or double header on Saturday. I would guess one of the first 2.

6/5/2013 9:58:28 AM

I basically said the same stuff as rflong to a friend yesterday, along with the fact that his start usually gives the bullpen a rest, which would be nice in the middle of the series since they should be well rested by Friday anyway. The potential rain makes it make even more sense, in my opinion, for Rodon to go Saturday. I think I heard Rice's ace is likely to go Saturday as well.

6/5/2013 10:09:30 AM

Quote :

"he was shut down because of the length of the delay."

I'm not familiar with what you guys are talking about.

6/5/2013 10:54:29 AM

^ You can't have a guy throwing hard take a few hours off and start throwing hard again. Good chance it can fuck up your arm.

So Rodon was dealing on the Gators last year and we had a rain delay. Avent didn't want to risk fucking up Rodon's arm, so he didn't send him back out. We ended up losing.

6/5/2013 11:01:23 AM

Last year against Florida in the Super Regional Rodon pitched 3 innings and then there was a long rain delay so we had to go to the bullpen and lost.

^what he said

[Edited on June 5, 2013 at 11:02 AM. Reason : .]

6/5/2013 11:02:23 AM

Also added that Florida's coach DID send his ace back out.

What made it interesting was that announcers were kind of talking shit about Avent possibly sending Rodon back out...and he didn't...and they didn't say a fucking word. Then UF sends their ace back out...and they miraculously didn't mention it. Fucking hypocrites.

6/5/2013 11:07:52 AM

So I know it's sold out, but how do you get tickets to this? I saw they could release more if rice doesn't use theirs

6/5/2013 12:15:18 PM

Supposedly Rice is putting its tickets on sale at 2 p.m. if you think you can convince them you are a Rice alum in the area. Somebody posted on Packpride that they already did that yesterday before Rice put them back off sale to the general public, so I don't know if you'll be successful.

Other than that, secondary market. You may get lucky by showing up to the ballpark super early and finding that a few extras were released, but you'll probably just have to hang around the box office and/or near the corner on Sullivan to buy some from a ticketholder. If this weekend's games were any indication, there will be some folks trying to sell extras, but it'll likely be a seller's market.

6/5/2013 12:28:51 PM

Call the rice box office

6/5/2013 12:31:11 PM

Friday is not looking good with 100% chance of rain. and that's the only game i can make. unless things get delayed till Monday or late Sunday.

6/5/2013 3:30:24 PM

Quote :

"A limited number of tickets for this weekend’s Raleigh Super Regional are NOW available for purchase by the general public. We don’t expect these to last long, so click through the link below to get your seat at the Doak! http://ev10.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventInfo?ticketCode=GS%3AIBM%3ABBL13%3ASRB%3A&linkID=ncsu&shopperContext&pc&caller&appCode&groupCode=BPOST&cgc"

6/5/2013 7:37:02 PM

tropical storm andrea hits us Friday pretty much for sure. hurricane rodon hits rice on saturday

6/5/2013 10:18:13 PM

^

6/6/2013 8:41:06 AM

^^

6/6/2013 9:31:01 AM

So I sent a message last night to the athletics department through the Wolfpack Unlimited page. I essentially suggested that for the Super Regional we try to create our own version of Mississippi State's "Left Field Lounge" but in right and center field, in order to allow more people to see the game and enhance the atmosphere. The could charge people with trucks and small RVs an amount for access to the area. It would be a game long tailgate. Well this morning I got an email, and this is an excerpt from the response I received:

Quote :

"... we do have projects that will be in place next year, a new sound system and a batters eye in center field. We will look to add bleachers down the left field line if it makes sense from a budgetary standpoint..."

Batters eye could be cool.

[Edited on June 6, 2013 at 9:48 AM. Reason : ]

6/6/2013 9:48:15 AM

Maybe I'm confused since it's out of context, but what would be so cool about a batter's eye, other than the fact that it might make the stadium look more complete?

6/6/2013 10:14:20 AM

http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/super-regional-preview-rice-at-north-carolina-state/

Quote :

"Scouting Report From A Coach (on Rice): “I think offensively they’re underrated. People keep talking the last couple years about how Rice is not very offensive, but they led our league in hitting. What turned the corner for them was when Ratterree got going—they kind of muddled before that. I think Aquino’s been a pleasant surprise for them, I don’t think they realized they had something like him. He had a monster summer and carried it over to this year. And Ratterree’s come alive, down the stretch he’s been the man. Hoelscher’s a good college player. Byrd’s a freshman, one day he’s really good, one day you don’t know he’s on the field. Stainback’s a heady player at short, he’ll hurt you. And Stringer’s a good player. “Their pitching staff, with Kubitza, it’s whatever day you catch him. He’ll go out one day and look like a first-rounder, and another day, he’ll have a little trouble finding the zone. When his stuff is on, he’s lights out—you can’t hit him. When he starts flipping that slider in there, you can know it’s coming and you can’t hit it. He can sink it like crazy. Basically he’s got one pitch that goes right, one pitch that goes left, and nothing goes straight. And it’s pretty firm at times. He’s usually 88-90, 91, but he’s a guy that could run it up there to 93-94 at times. I don’t think he’s had that kind of fastball this year. His thing is that slider has so much depth to it. You can tell your hitters, don’t chase, don’t chase, don’t chase, and they still chase. At Oregon it was the same deal this weekend. “Simms, to me, he’s not quite as firm or sharp as Kubitza, but still really good. He’s solid as a rock. He hasn’t really pitched to contact a whole lot, you’ve got to make him elevate his pitches. They’re all that way—they don’t elevate the ball. They stay down, down, down in the zone, then if you start taking a little bit, they’ll spit one over the plate, and then they’ll go back down again. And Stephens is as good as those two guys are. It’s fastball-slider, occasional change. But it’s fastball, slider, slider, slider, fastball. Stephens threw awesome the other night, but to me Kubitza’s the best one. When he’s rolling, he’s rolling. If you catch him on the wrong night, you’re just not hitting him. “The whole deal with Rice is breaking ball, breaking ball, breaking ball. The only way you’ll beat them is to not chase it. If you watch them play, you’ll notice they don’t really pound the strike zone. One thing (Graham)’s always done is had great receivers back there. Perrott, you can throw that thing anything in the dirt, and the pitchers know he’s going to catch it. That could bite them with (freshman catcher Hunter) Kopycinski back there. Kubitza bounced one late in the game against Oregon and it went off his chest protector and bounced 20 feet. With Perrott that doesn’t happen. Perrott’s hard to run on, and Kopycinski’s arm is as good or better. They slide-step well and hold runners. They have a great pitching plan; every guy pitches the same. “And you’ve got Lemond at the back end, it’s the same thing: hard fastball that is in and out, and a great breaking ball. He comes right at you with it. Lemond hides the ball well, so it’s hard to pick up the ball with him. When he goes in a game, it’s tough to scratch anything across against him. The only lefty they have is Blake Fox. He’s a freshman, throws the changeup in there pretty good, competes well. He’s got more of a breaking ball than a slider. (Kevin) McCanna’s going to be one of their guys down the road who’ll be a dude, he’s pretty good from the right side and knows how to pitch. “Against their offense, the guys in front of Aquino and Ratterree are who you’ve got to watch for. If you mess around and let those guys get on base, that’s where they’ll hurt you. They’re hitting Ratterree kind of down in the lineup a little bit. Byrd, he can hurt you a little bit with his speed, he likes to run, extend singles into doubles. Stainback is a steady Eddie player. Stringer’s just a great college player. Just a bunch of solid college players, nothing out of any of them will wow you. Any one of those guys can hurt you at any time. Aquino’s a big kid. He’s grown a lot since he was in high school, put on a lot of weight, definitely stronger. He wasn’t a high-profile kid out of high school, but he’s just come into his own. “Keenan Cook, he’s pretty good. You’d think they would bump up those other guys, maybe hit Ratterree third. But you look up and he’s in the middle of the order having a good year. No plus tools, nothing that jumps off the page at you—a product of coach Graham’s magic. (Graham)’s got the mojo, I’m telling you. They’re just solid. In the past they’ve had those guys in the lineup where it was like, ‘Oh gosh, this guy’s up, that guy’s up.’ Ratterree and Aquino can be that way a little bit, but they’re just steady. And then—boom, boom, boom, they’ve got a couple runs on the board. “Defensively, they’re solid. Hoelscher plays a great third base, Stainback and Stringer are great infielders. It’s a typical Rice team in that they play a clean game. There’s not a lot of balls put in play hard against them because their sliders are so good, but they’re solid behind them. Byrd plays a pretty good center fielder, he’s a converted infielder, a shortstop they moved to the outfield. (Connor) Teykl was a relatively high-profile kid out of Texas, that lean, athletic guy—he’ll be a good player for them down the road. He can pick it, play infield, a little bat speed, not real physical right now. “There are some teams where the name on the front of the uniform makes you play better, teams that have been there every year. I really think Graham is the best that’s ever been in our business. What has he won, 19 championships in a row? And hasn’t played in bad leagues all the time. Super regionals 10 times? He’s something else, man. He’s got it figured out.”"

6/6/2013 10:18:05 AM

And here is NC State's

Quote :

"Scouting Report From A Coach (on NC State): “Obviously Carlos Rodon’s really special. And he didn’t have a great night against us, but even when he gives up runs, he strikes out tons of guys. That breaking ball is as good as I’ve seen in Division I baseball. So good that at times Brett Austin has a hard time catching it, just because it’s so electric, it’s hard to catch. He’s so good that he almost loses focus at times during a game. His stuff is so dominant, it comes so easy to him—he was better in the late innings than he was in the first, second and third innings. For me it was a process of, ‘The game’s tighter, I’m going to bear down now.’ Almost like he was going through the motions early mentally because his stuff’s so good, he doesn’t have to be that fine. He pitched against Carolina in the ACC tourney and was lights-out from pitch one, I think because it was a big stage, he was amped up and in the moment, and I think he will be in a super regional setting. He was obviously very, very good against William & Mary this past weekend. I think in a super regional setting, with everything that’ll be on the line, I think that young man will be dialed in from pitch No. 1. “Their bullpen is really, really good, and in my opinion, that’s the glue for them to have the year they’ve had. Offensively, the right team can match them up a little bit, they’re a righthanded-dominant lineup. If you get a very good righthanded pitcher that’s a sinker/slider kind of guy, he can make it hard on their lineup, because they don’t have a lot of left- and righthanded balance throughout. So I think you can pitch multiple guys in that lineup the same way and have success with the slider. They compete, and they have good team speed; obviously Turner at the top of the lineup, every time he puts the ball on the ground he puts pressure on you. “But the thing that makes them tough is they can match you up time after time in the bullpen. You get their starters out early, you’re feeling good about it, but in a lot of ways their bullpen guys are better than their starters, except for Rodon. They’re willing to go to those guys quickly, and they can match you up. Sasser matches up lefthanded, and multiple guys can match up righthanded. Sasser seemed like he was really going to give our lefthanders fits. It’s nothing special, a low-80s fastball and a big sweeping slider, but it’s hard for lefties. He’s a big, long-armed guy, so when he gets that arm angle right, it looks like that thing is being released behind lefties’ bodies. “I thought there were a lot of similarities between (righties Josh) Easley and (Chris) Overman, similar type of guy in terms of their stuff and how they went at hitters. The one thing their righthanders do out of the bullpen is they hammer you with sliders, they really pitch you backwards. So I would say those guys were probably 75 percent breaking ball, their righthanders out of the pen. They just stayed down and away, tried to get you to expand your zone. They’re 89-91, not the 92-95 kind of overpowering fastball, but they’ve all got good sliders, and they really pitch off that slider. (Ryan) Wilkins I’d put in that same category with Easley and Overman. My sense is they don’t have a lot of confidence in (Anthony) Tzamtzis to pitch in a tight ballgame—there’s nothing wrong with the guy’s stuff, it’s 90-92 with a good breaking ball—but I think they have a ton of confidence in Wilkins, Easley, Overman and Sasser to go in and pitch in a close ballgame. I think they feel like those are their go-to guys in a crunch-time scenario. “Ogburn doesn’t have electric stuff. It’s weird because you look at his ERA, his opponents’ batting average, and you say, he’s tough. He comes out, his stuff is solid, but it’s not electric. Ogburn’s got some sink, he’ll move the fastball to both sides of the plate, he’ll be 89-90, and he’ll get some groundball contact because of the sink. The offspeed stuff’s pretty average. It’s clear that they’ve got a much quicker hook with him. First sign of trouble, guys are scurrying around in the bullpen. They don’t have a long leash with him at all. They have (righty) Logan Jernigan and Stone, and it looked like Jernigan threw the ball pretty well for them in the ACC tournament, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they went back to Jernigan in a starter’s role. Stone has obviously gotten better, I thought his stuff was good. The one thing I’ll say is when we got a couple guys on base, it was like he pressed. He may not be pitching with a ton of confidence, because you could tell he was a different guy with runners on than with nobody on base. His stuff was pretty darn good—upper 80s fastball, good slider, his delivery was aggressive. He’s a nice looking arm. “If they’ve got an Achilles’ heel, the right type of guy can really match up with their lineup, and you can run on them a little bit, you can run on Austin. If they were to run into a team like Louisville or Vanderbilt down the road who’s going to be really aggressive on the bases, their straight steal guys could exploit it a little bit. But they’re very good. I felt like their body of work was really deserving of a national seed. Their record against the top 50 is 19-7 or something (actually 20-10), so one thing you can say about them is that they’ve been good against good teams. They play loose, they don’t beat themselves. “They’re not as offensive as they were last year, but they’ve got some scrappy guys. Adametz will wear you out; he’s a guy who doesn’t have great numbers, doesn’t scare you when he gets in the box, but he just gets hits. They’ve got some competitive guys that will get in there and kind of battle. They don’t have a lot of power. They do put some pressure on you with the straight steal. One thing they do really well is they use the bunt very effectively. They’ll safety squeeze, they’ll bunt for a hit, they like to bunt for a hit in sac situations. And if you don’t field it cleanly, you’re looking at a big inning. Clyde and (Jake) Morgan and Armstrong, those guys don’t run like an Adametz or a Fincher, but Clyde is another guy that just gets in there and competes in the box. He played solid defensively for them at third base. Most of the bottom part of their lineup, they’re just kind of steady guys. They don’t really scare you, but they put the ball in play and compete. “Turner and Fincher can put a ton of pressure on you with their speed. Then they’ve got a true gap-to-gap, doubles-type hitter with Austin. The thing that really makes their lineup tick, you get a guy like Turner or Fincher on the bases, the straight steal becomes a factor you’ve got to deal with, suddenly you’re throwing a fastball or two more than you’d like to. And Austin runs well for a catcher, he can do some things on the bases as well. For them to tick, the formula is Turner or Fincher getting on. I think Senay provides Austin some protection; he’s probably got the most power in their lineup. He’s a guy that has come into his own as a senior. He’s a pull guy, he gets out and around it. If you’ve got a club that can match people up out of the bullpen, he’s a guy you’d like to match up with a lefthander. Teams that have the depth to match him up will try to get a lefthander in there. “They’re very athletic. I think the most athletic guy defensively on their team is Brett Williams—he’s as good as anybody in college baseball at going gap-to-gap to get the baseball. I’d put him up against anybody we’ve played all year or anybody in my memory at going gap-to-gap to get balls. I can vividly remember two balls in the gap that I didn’t think anybody would get close to, and he ran down both of them. They’re good defensively, but he’s the one part of their defense that’s great. Fincher is like having another center fielder out there—two super-athletic guys. Turner and Ratledge are good in the middle, Ratlege is a good little player too. Turner is a better offensive player than defensive player, but you look at both those guys, they’ve got very good range, very athletic, get to some balls others won’t get to. N.C. State definitely is an athletic team.”"

6/6/2013 10:18:28 AM

Quote :

"Maybe I'm confused since it's out of context, but what would be so cool about a batter's eye, other than the fact that it might make the stadium look more complete?"

A batter's eye aids in the batter picking up the baseball. Right now our batter's eye is the trees in dead center. Players have complained about weird shadows during day games caused by the trees and an actual batter's eye would just make a uniform surface to see the ball.

6/6/2013 10:28:20 AM

Right, but I would assume that helps both teams equally. I interpreted Brass Monkey's comment as if the response was talking about something else that would be more special.

Glad to hear they throw a lot of sliders when our guys can't really hit them that well.

[Edited on June 6, 2013 at 10:35 AM. Reason : a]

6/6/2013 10:34:23 AM

It'll help both teams equally and make Doak a more complete ballpark. The cool aspect of a batter's eye is it could have the block S or maybe the strutting wolf logo. They just have to do it with a slightly different shade of green. Georgia's batter's eye had the G logo and Florida's uses the gator head logo. Most of them are just a green wall or tarp.

6/6/2013 10:42:01 AM

i miss smoking weed and watching baseball games outside my window of Lee Hall. what a great spring semester that was.

6/6/2013 10:49:49 AM

If tomorrow's game is a wash, schedule would be Sat-Sun-Mon.

6/6/2013 12:39:03 PM

Can anyone confirm if adults can get in on youth hill tickets? I assume not, but thought I'd see if anyone had first hand info.

6/6/2013 1:41:39 PM

As far as I know, the only difference on the ticket is the actual per game price. It would depend on how in depth the staff person looks at the ticket.

6/6/2013 1:45:31 PM

so will they try to force a game in since it is on ESPN or are we looking at a super late game tomorrow or just a wash and sat-mon?

6/6/2013 8:05:17 PM

If the game is playable on Friday afternoon/night, I think they'll try to get it in. It'll depend on how the field drains, which is pretty good, with the amount of rain we get. There should be some updated tomorrow at 11 am.

6/6/2013 8:23:45 PM

Quote :

"Can anyone confirm if adults can get in on youth hill tickets? I assume not, but thought I'd see if anyone had first hand info."

dunno about hill tickets specifically (mine were assigned seats), but me and a friend had no trouble using kids tickets to the binghampton game. we bought them from somebody off of packpride. only difference was the price on the ticket.

[Edited on June 6, 2013 at 9:24 PM. Reason : d]

6/6/2013 9:24:23 PM

I have to go pick someone up rom the airport at 9:07pm tomorrow.

Please to start game by 6. Or for her flight to be delayed due to rains.

6/7/2013 12:04:01 AM

From ESPN's super regional preview:

Quote :

"Rice isn't going to simply concede Game 1, of course, but it's as good a bet as any that the Wolfpack will be up 1-0."

Perfect setup for epic NC State Shit

6/7/2013 3:44:45 AM