Inside Voice: Three Days

Three days until the glorious beginning of the 2013 College Baseball season. If you've been reading my articles, by now you know 1) how excited I am to watch some baseball 2) how much I love watching TCU Baseball and 3) how badly I've been waiting for the season so I actually have something substantive to write about.

Well now that we're only a couple days away from the start of the season, I figured I'd do my own preview of the season and this year's team. I'm also going to do a preview for the teams we'll be facing in the upcoming week i.e. what kind of program they have, what the TCU team thinks about them, if we hate them, etc...

Before we get in to the preview let's talk a little bit about the mindset of the guys...

Some people have been asking me if the guys are relaxed, tense, anxious, bored. Does a rocking horse have a wooden dick? The answer is yes to all of that.

At this point, the guys have experienced all of fall practice, morning workouts, the Omaha Challenge, gone away for Christmas break (where everyone except for the upper classmen who are looking to go pro has sat on their ass and played with themself), and then come back to do it all again for 6 weeks. One word for baseball until the season starts is exhausting. You're constantly working with no reward. It's like when your cat (it's not mine, I'm just cat sitting for a friend) finally gets tired of chasing the stupid but amazing red laser pointer. No matter how much you love the game, you can get burned out.

As February rolls around, you can start to feel the change. The pitchers are beginning to crank it up and get ready for the season to start and to go multiple innings. Especially the weekend guys. Finnegan, Morrison and Crichton should be ready to go 7 innings at this point. For most of the guys it'll take a week or two to get into game shape and feel comfortable. But for the most part everyone is ready to go now.

Now for my season preview...

Let me preface this by saying I am omniscient like you all previously thought. I'll even admit that my friend FungoFrog has more intimate knowledge than I do of this team. But in today's world I guess I'm a so called expert, whatever the hell that means. So here we go...

I think this team can win 40 games during the regular season. FYI that's pretty damn impressive. The 2010 CWS team won 54 the entire season and I believe 44 during the regular season. Someone check me on that one. Either way if they win 40 games during the regular season this team will 1) win the Big12 and 2) host a regional. I think they could be a Super Regional team with a shot at Omaha again.

I think the Big12 is going to have a down year as compared to previous years. Essentially the Big12 replaced a top 10 program in Texas A&M with another top 10 program in TCU. In addition to that swap the conference lost Mizzou, a decent or average team, for West Virginia. And according to everything I've seen, they are supposedly dog shit (My prediction is that Mazey will be the Schloss to their program if he wants to stay that long in Morgantown. But who the hell is crazy enough for that?). My point is that for the conference it is an overall negative change. On the positive side of it, the Frogs are already preseason #1. My guess as of right now is that OU will win the Big12.

I know what you're saying. I'm a traitor. Well, here's my logic. I think the Sooners and Frogs are the 2 best teams this year. TCU ends the season with a home series against Texas. OU finishes up with K-State. Advantage OU. Literally, that's my only logic. I think it comes down to that final weekend for the regular season championship (which essentially doesn't mean dick).

Now you're probably saying, "This asshole just said we'd win 40 games and host a regional?" Well put down your .40 oz of Old E, you are correct. I think the Frogs win either the regular season championship or the tournament.

Now for my prediction for how the rest of the Big12 team's regular season will play out:

1ish) OU
2ish) TCU
3) Texas
4) BayLOL
5)OSU
6) Texas Tech (WTF right?!?!?)
7)K-State
8)Kansas
9)West Virginia

Honestly, after OSU it's a crap shoot. Tech is on the upswing though. They could actually have a decent team and be a surprise. Baylol could be the opposite. Possible drop. Anything else I would say would be complete bullshit. It was already starting to leak out a bit.

PUSHING FORWARD...

This weekend we play the Colonel Reb and the Ole Miss Rebels. Let me preface this by saying I love Ole Miss and everything they stand for. Hot. Dumb. And love to party. Count me as a fan in general.

Now their baseball team is a different story. I think I hate them because of the competition they've given us the past couple of years. Not sure if y'all remember but last year they had a mouthy douchebag who wasn't that good but sure thought he was. I think he played 2nd base? Anyone care to check that for me? Either way, I respect them. They are a group of grinders who love to compete. Gotta respect that.

I see this Ole Miss team as a 3 seed or possibly a 2 seed. If we expect to host a regional and play in a Super, we have to win this series. This team could end the season in the top 25 and would really boost our resume. I think we win 2 of 3 and take the series.

Playing in Oxford is a bitch. The entire SEC environment is amazing. Those crazy rednecks don't give two shits what sport it is, when there is an event in town they throw on their favorite overalls and start pouring the Jim Beam. One of the things I wish Schloss would do is to open the outfield fence by the parking lot in order for students to sit. Straight out of the SEC playbook. You can throw all the drunk students (who you old balls can bitch about only showing up for the big games, but who bring all the energy) in the outfield away from the blue hairs. Let them booze their face off and harass the left fielder.

Also how can you hate fans this passionate...

...Let's bring that to the outfield in Lupton.

That's all I have for this week. Check your inboxes tomorrow for those who've emailed me with questions.

As always, hit me up in the comments section or send me an email at 2balls1cupfrogFOW@gmail.com . Let's start the year right with a series victory and BEAT THE HELL OUTTA THE REBELS.

Go Frogs.