Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Big series this week here in Fayetteville, Arkansas going to play OU at Baum Walker Stadium. Series begins tomorrow, Friday, 6 o'. Clock. First pitch. Arkansas ranked number 18 this week in the coaches poll. OU ranked number 21. We got Bubba Carpenter here in studio. We'll talk about it. I want to tell you that today's baseball podcast brought to you by H and R Tire and auto. They're a third generation family owned business serving northwest Arkansas since 1976. Just like great baseball programs, H and R is built on consistency, trust and doing things the right way. No shortcuts and no gimmicks at H and R attire and auto. Also brought to you by Eglin's Best. When it comes to your game day, you want the best in your lineup. That includes your eggs. Eglin's Best delivers more of the nutrition you need with six times more vitamin D and 25% less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. You can score now with Eglins best. Better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. Visit eglinsbest.com for more information. We're also brought to you by Southern Loft. They believe that your home should reflect your unique personality. That's why they offer a wide variety of stylish furniture pieces that are perfect for any taste. Whether you're looking for a new sofa for the living room, a sleek dining table for your kitchen, they've got just what you need. When you're looking for that piece of furniture that reflects you, visit Southern Loft at 3155 North College Avenue in Fayetteville. Or call 479-856-611. You got a game tonight, Bubba?
No youth league games, anything like that?
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Nope, no games.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: I am on the clock tonight. It's. So my son is eight. He plays coach pitch. And the coaches are gone. Both coaches are gone tonight. So I have to throw to the kids.
I'm a little nervous about it. You know, it's like, it's like. It's really not that far of a throw. But yeah, it's like you're responsible. I can't throw them sliders. We gotta get on base. Cause we give up about six runs in hitting. So we gotta, we gotta get hits.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: Okay, I gotta tell you a quick story. I don't wanna bore people with this. When my son was seven, our very first game was in the fall. We were playing out at Sports park in Farmington.
And I was the one that was gonna pitch to him. And I throw to kids all day, so, I mean, I throw BP all the time. I get out there on the mountain inside that little. And there's a little circle. You have to.
And I start to throw and those little 7 year olds look so tiny.
And my little booty puckered up and I was like, I was trying so hard. I'm sweating.
I was more nervous than I was in a major league ballpark on that
[00:02:31] Speaker A: little 7U field because you can't get on your knee.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: You can't.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: You gotta stand and throw it to them.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: And you're trying so hard to hit their bats.
And so the first couple innings I was horrible. I'm like bouncing it, like throwing it, almost hitting them. And then once I got on a roll, though I hate to. You're going to be, you're going to be scared to death tonight. But it was crazy. I told my wife, I said I was never that nervous on a baseball field playing than I was trying to throw to them. But then I got better at it and I learned to hit their barrels and we scored our limit every inning. But yeah, there for a while. I mean, that first game was horrible.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: So we have first inning jitters tonight.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Good luck. I wish I could come watch. I'd rag you from the stands.
Come out, you're gonna be striking them 7:30, first pitch, your neck's gonna bow up. You're gonna be like Hunter Deets out there on the mound carving them up.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: We had a game last night, it was really bad. We had eight kids. A bunch of them didn't show up. The other kid, they or the other team had like 11 or 12 of them. Yeah. So like they're, they're reinforced in the outfield. We're playing like somebody in left center and somebody in right center. And I'm shifting them every time based on if the kid's left handed or right handed. Just trying to shade them to, you know, to play.
There were three Little league home runs, I think in the first four at bats. It was rough. Yeah, it was a rough night for our boys.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: You need DVH to come out and help coach.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: We do maybe bring out a couple of players to play outfield for us too. That would be, that would help.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: No, it's crazy though how, how nervous you get. Like when you strike, when you strike a kid out, you feel bad about it. Like you strike a 7 year old out and you're like, my bad. I want to look it over to the parents and say, hey, I'm sorry, I'll get his, I'll hit his bat next time.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: I'll come in Tomorrow, let you know how many strikeouts I.
I'm going to
[00:04:11] Speaker B: send someone out there to video.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: I hope. I hope it's less than. I hope it's less than. I hope it's less than 1, to be honest with you. All right, so Arkansas and OU this weekend, you know, ou, they are a team that. And we had Kendall Rogers on the show yesterday, and he was talking about how you look at an Oklahoma Lions score and It'll be like 110-210-1111. And I was thinking about that old phrase, it's like death by a thousand paper cuts and, you know, like, they'll get a baserunner. They might bunt him over, they might steal, they might, you know, sack, bunt to third, ground out to third, whatever, you know, sac fly. And then all of a sudden, and it doesn't seem like a whole lot, but it accumulates really fast, and before you know it, you might be down three to one after the third inning.
It feels like this is a weekend for Arkansas where number one, holding baserunners is going to be really key for them. And then number two, like, this is a key every weekend and every game. But keeping that leadoff man off base, that feels like that's going to be like, extra important with a team like. Oh, you who can run the way they can.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. But I think our staff does a good job of holding runners, and I think we got the best catcher in the nation. So I think. I think Helferk behind the plate. I want to say it was. Might have been Tom Murphy's article.
He talked about creating chaos. Yeah, that's what.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Oh, you says. I mean, I think they call it like chaos offense or chaotic offense or something like that.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: And I want to say that it was Tom's article that said that we have the fewest deals attempts against us than any team in the conference. Now. I might. I think that's what it said anyway.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: Of course, Arkansas hasn't played the two teams like they're going to play the two teams the next two weeks.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: Oh, you and Kentucky who steal the most. And so that might bring that number
[00:05:58] Speaker B: up a little bit, but I feel like Helic's a great equalizer. Plus the fact that our pitchers do a pretty good job of holding runners on. I know Tate McGuire had a. Where he was slow to the plate. They stole a couple times and got him out of the game. But I think for the most part, our guys do a pretty good job. I think Hobbs does a pretty good job of Getting them, getting the ball to the plate, giving Helford a chance. You know, one thing you don't see a lot in, in college, you don't see a lot of guys slide stepping like you used to see a lot more slide steps and you just don't see that much anymore.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: You have seen that a little bit with Dietzo this year. Like I've seen that a couple, three times with him in the last few weeks.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: I know watching back in the day, watching Andy Pettit pitch, he would mix in slide steps all the time. He had a really good pick off move.
And I was actually talking to Trey Holloway, a former Razorback pitcher, about it a couple of nights ago at the facility. We're working with a lefty trying to get his move because moves terrible and he was talking about the approach of Andy Pett and how he did it. But, but Andy used to, he used to slide step a lot. He and his. One of his best pitches was a slide step change up, you know. But I don't know, it's. It's crazy. I guess the analytics say that you lose a little bit on your fastball, maybe you lose location. So therefore it's probably not good. For whatever reason you don't see a lot of guys slide stepping.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: For people who aren't aware of what a slide step is, explain that to them versus a regular delivery from a pitcher.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Well, when a pitcher comes set, normal delivery, he lifts his leg up and he goes home to a plate. On a slide step, you come set, you hold the ball and then you don't lift your leg up, you just slide straight towards home plate. So there's no leg lift the ball to the plate. Let's say if you're a, you know, if you're a 135 guy when you lift your leg up, if you slide step, you're going to be a 1:1 and no one's going to steal on you. It's hard to steal when it dudes a one one to the plate. So you just don't see it a lot. Like I said, I'm sure there's a reason why I need to ask. I'd like to ask Matt Hobbs about it. There's got to be a reason why and I'm sure it comes down to maybe stress on the arm, possibly because the body's moving faster, the arm can't catch up or possibly location loss of Velo, I don't know. There's got to be a reason though.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: I can see where location would be, would be problematic with it just because it's outside of your normal routine.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it could be. But I know, like, you know, when I coach, like even showcase ball, like I use slide step as another pitch because if you've got a fastball, then you've got a slide step fastball that's actually two pitches because it's two different timing. Especially if you got a dude that's got a leg kick, got a lot of movement, you can slide step fastball and don't buy him.
So if you've got three pitches, you actually have six when you add the slide step to it. So you saw timing.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: 11 is quick to the plate. 13 is fairly decent 1 threes average.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: When you start getting up. 13 5, 1 4. Like if you're 14 to the plate, we're going to steal on you.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: If you're one four five, I know Ole Miss had a, had one guy that was 135 to 145 since we got on base, we stole.
Can't remember his name. Dang it. I wish I knew his name. But anyway, that's something that they know. And I'll tell you what, our, our staff does a great job of knowing who's quick to the plate, who's slow to the plate, because when they get a dude that's slow to the plate, they don't mess around. They go first pitch.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: They don't care if Rabe was it the Sunday starter because, you know, Ruiz got on base and he stole the first pitch.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: You know what? It might have been rape. Yeah.
But they know ahead of time who's. Who holds runners and who, who doesn't. And so they take advantage of it. And I like it. And I think Dave, Dave even referred in one of his postgame press conferences about, look, we, you know, we don't steal. It's not like seeing how many bases you can steal. It's when you steal that's important. And I think they do a good job of, first of all, you picking the right pitch. You want to try to pick, you know, ideally you want to pick a slider off speed pitch to steal on, you know, so we, we know if it's a, you know, if it's a 12 count, a lot of times we know what's coming. Or if a guy throws a slider, we know, okay, how many times does he double up on the slider? Is he gonna come back to another slider, you know, or is this going to be a fastball count? And then we. He goes fastball Then to the slider.
I mean, they're the, the analytics, the numbers that we have. I say we. They have on opposing pitchers is crazy. The. The. Just the specific.
Specific. I was trying to say specificity.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: Specific specificity.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: Thank you. Yeah, that's what I was trying to say.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: I got that out.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: So that's a. That's a hard word to say.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: Hey, work that in Baseball broadcast tomorrow night.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: What's that?
[00:10:43] Speaker A: Work that word. Yeah, work it into the baseball to
[00:10:46] Speaker B: practice that a little bit. Specificity. I got it. I got it down. But yeah, just what they know about the opposing pitcher. And I don't know. I. I'm so intrigued by. That's why I just freaking love baseball because it's a game within a game. When you step up to the plate, they know what we know, we know what they know. And so it's a. It's a battle back and forth, I think is awesome.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: I said it the other day. It's like, it's like a chess match.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it really is.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: I sent you that video last night of where Framber Valdez was having, you know, like the Red Sox were stealing his grip and they were motioning to the. To the batter, what his grip was.
It's, you know, and Eric Hosmer, who's got a great breakdown on social media about it, this is a guy who's been in the game a long time. He knows exactly what he's looking for right there. Those are subtle little things that if you've never played baseball or maybe you're just new to the sport, watching it, like, you're never going to pick up on that type of stuff.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: Right. But if you do, I mean, you, if you know baseball, it's fun to watch stuff like that because that's that little game within a game. Now it's different now that you don't give signs back when you used to give sign. I know one team that won a lot of World Series there in a certain time span because they were so good at relay and pitches.
You always knew what was coming and they were really good at it and they trusted each other. You got to trust the dude at second. I know back in the day, you know, Doug Clark, I don't want to throw him under the bus, but there are a lot of times Doug Clark thought he had the other team signs, but he would. He would miss. So he would tell us it's going to be a breaking ball and the dude would throw a fastball by you and you strike out or you're. You're you know, whatever. And so once you lose trust, like after it got to a point where I didn't want to know. Just don't tell me. Listen, I'll see it. Trust. I trust my eyes. But yeah, that was, that was a cool breakdown. But, you know, it's little thing, Matt, like lefties.
Every lefty tips his pickoff.
You just got to figure out what it is. You know, a lot of pitchers tip, you know, they're off speed, whatever they're doing. I don't know. There's. There's so many neat things about baseball when you really start to watch, you know, whether a guy's, you know, here or, or here, you know, or here for fastball, here for breaking ball. A lot of guys are more, their hands are more rolled like this for breaking ball. They're more here for fastball. And it might just be a half inch, but you, you see that, you learn to see that and you can pick stuff out. It's pretty cool.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: Talking about lefties, by the way, in their, in their pickoff moves, there was some talk at the Swatters Club earlier this week about our left handers getting away with balks.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Oh, Dahlia Elliot.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: Like, like on a higher level.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: I thought Hunter Elliott balked every time he went to the plate or every time he picked. I thought it. To me it looked like a Bach, but they don't call it really anymore. It's crazy.
And every time, as soon as he would do it, I'd look at the first, the first base umpire and he's looking right at him and he never.
I don't. From the booth, it looked like a bachelor. And everyone says there's a 45. Oh, it's 45 degrees. Well, there's really not a 45 degree rule. Everyone always says that.
I forget the official.
You know how it's verbiage. Yeah. For what a balk is from a lefty, but. Or from a pitcher in general. But yeah, I thought he balked a lot.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: What about Walker Hooks? Because people were wanting a ball, called on him whenever he was picking the ninth inning.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: I thought he did too. I thought they both did.
Walker was, was probably worse. He's a bigger body. So it's. When you're a bigger body, it's hard to kind of hide what you're doing. I thought he, I thought he. I thought they both did.
So. And that's not even looking through my razorback goggles. That's just me as a baseball person looking out there saying, I think he's pushing the limit right there.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: The bulk is one of those where, you know, I've watched so many baseball games and it's like, I can't tell you what a bulk is. And maybe it's because it's just not officiated very well. But like, if somebody box, I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm sure they did. Or if they didn't. Okay, yeah, whatever. It's just, it's, it's so, I don't know, it's almost, it probably shouldn't be, but it really feels like it's down to interpretation.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it really is. And I think every umpire looks at it different. I'm, and I would, I would assume that probably DVH probably went to the umpire before the game and said, hey, you got to keep an eye on this guy.
You know, he, he, you know, he box, he's got a Bach move or, or someone did, you know, I, I don't know. It could have been Hudson Polk at first base. Say, hey, watch this guy. He boxed when he picked. I would. A lot of times if you plant a seed, I do it when we're facing a team that has a lefty, I'll go to the umpire for the game, say, hey, watch this guy, because he's got a balk move. And a lot of times you'll get the call.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: You know who won't balk? Me and Coach Pitts.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: You walk.
No pick offs because no one's going to get on base. You're going to carve them up.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: I guess I'm not trying to pick off my own team, am I? That's a little weird.
That's one thing you never think about.
We had Kendall on yesterday and he talked about he actually thinks Arkansas's got a chance to host still. Basically, I can't remember exactly what he said, but I think the gist of it was they're not totally out of the conversation, but they're going to need some help. And then obviously they got to win games. I mean, that's the thing I keep telling people too, when I keep getting asked about if Arkansas is going to host or not. It's like, when have we seen this team win?
I guess maybe consistently enough to make you think that they're going to win consistently enough down the stretch to be in the hosting conversation. Because what it really feels like, the talk that I hear is if we win enough, let's say we win out.
That's kind of the words that people use like, hey, if we win out, can we host? Well, what have they shown you to make you think they're going to win out? It's, you know, it's been very up and down and you've heard the coaches talk about this, too. Just how they just have got to play with more consistency. But all of that is to say Kendall Rogers thinks Arkansas still has a chance.
I think it's a. If they have a chance. I think it's a very slight chance because I go back to the RPI and it's just. It has not improved a whole lot. I don't think it improved at all by beating Ole Miss, which was kind of surprising to me.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Well, you know how happy I was to hear him say that, because you remember Monday, I was telling you I still thought I was glass half full.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: He has not been text all week because he was upset with me. It's not true.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: When I heard him say that, I was. I was thinking of you because you just totally shot me down on Monday.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: I did.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: I feel like. I just feel like if we can, we don't have to sweep. Let's win the series.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Let's.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Let's win this series, win next series.
Maybe a game or two in Hoover. Next thing you know, we've got 17, 18 wins.
I just think that puts us in a good spot.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: You know, Kendall and I were talking about this. The number of Quad one wins that Arkansas has, like, to me, if you, like, if you look at Arkansas, that's the number that really stands out to me is the fact that they played. What is it, 21.
Where's the number here?
They played 21 quad one games. So that's more quad one games than most teams have played. And there's only six teams that have won more quad one games than Arkansas. Florida's won 15.
A handful of other teams have won 13 and 12. So 11 quad one wins. That's the number that I think, you know, and that. That goes up if you beat ou. I think it goes up if they beat Kentucky because Kentucky's got a high enough RPI and it'll be a road game and then you got an opportunity to get some quad one wins in Hoover. So let's say they go two and one the next two weekends and they win a game or two in Hoover, that gives you, at that point, 16 to 17 quad one wins. That's a really strong resume, I feel like.
And all of this is. This is not me saying that I don't think Arkansas deserves to host a regional. What I've been saying is based on the RPI and I know how to big. The RPI has been leaned upon by the selection committee in the past few years. Like last year, nobody under a 19 RPI got to host a regional. And so that's the deal. I just don't know where the RPI rises up into that 1920 range that I feel like really would give them a strong shot. But it doesn't mean I don't think. You look at Arkansas and you look at Ole Miss.
Are you telling me Ole Miss is a better team than Arkansas? They could have won the series here. Obviously, if Christian Turner doesn't have the big swing, who knows, you know, maybe they win two to one, but you know, Arkansas and Ole Miss, they have the exact same record.
Arkansas is one game better in the sec. Now that's not necessarily an apples to apples comparison because the SEC is too darn big now and nobody plays the same teams necessarily. Arkansas's got 11 quad one wins in 21 chances. Ole Miss has 11 quad wins in 25 chances. Really what sets them apart right now, Bubba, is that Arkansas strength of schedule and it continues to improve. It's 18th Ole Ms. Strength of schedule is number four nationally. And so. But like, why is Ole Miss being considered a regional host up until this last week and Arkansas is not? It's because of the rpi and it's, it's just, I think it's a little bit of a broken system, but it's what we have right now.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: Well, what about that DSR system, the Diamond Sports rating?
[00:20:16] Speaker A: It's supposed to be.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: Are they implementing that this year?
[00:20:19] Speaker A: It is supposed to be used this year as a, as a metric, but
[00:20:22] Speaker B: they'll combine that with rpa.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Wait, I don't know. I think the point is that they're supposed to use rpi, dsr, which is the Diamond Sports rating, and KPI, which I forget what KPI stands for, but it's a variation of rpi.
And so they're supposed to use all three of those metrics to come up with who their regional hosts are, how they seed them, and then how they seed the number two seeds too, because that's going to have some bearing on who goes where in the regionals.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: I thought it was interesting what Kendall said about if you get enough of the quad one wins, then they don't look at your losses.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Your quad four losses.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: Yeah, your quad four, like Stetson, uta, they don't even. They overlook that, which was surprising to me because I was afraid that was going to really drag us down.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: But it's dragging The RPI down. Like, that's why the RPI is so low, because they had those three quad four losses. If that's only one, then their RPI probably now is like top 15 to 18 would be my guess. But, like, just two of those losses can have such a drain on your overall rpi, you know, that it can. It can really affect you. And I was telling you the other day, like, just to put a perspective on the number of quad four losses they've had between 2021 and 2025, they had four total quad four losses. 21 team didn't have any quad four losses. And then 22 through 25, each of those team had one. Arkansas has three this year. And that's, you know, I think that's why you're seeing such a big effect on the rpi.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Yeah, but didn't he also say that with the DSR system you don't get penalized? Because when we came in, we thought Stetson was a good team. Well, they haven't really done much since they left.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: Haven't been good in the A sun at all.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: Yeah, so. But he said that didn't drag you down. No. You didn't get penalized more based on
[00:22:11] Speaker A: what they are at that time that you play them. Not necessarily what they go on and do because, you know, and I don't know what's happened at Stetson, but, you know, let's say he used Oregon State as an example yesterday. Let's say you beat Oregon State early in the season. Well, that's a big win. But now Oregon State doesn't have Dax Whitney, who's so good for them and one of the best pitchers in the country. Well, that totally changes what they, you know, are now versus what they were six weeks ago. And I think that's what the DSR tries to take into account.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: Well, hopefully.
Hopefully. So, I mean, I guess it doesn't matter. We didn't need not worry about that. Just go out and win the series and go to Kentucky. Kentucky worries me more than OU does. Just because it's hard to play at Kentucky. I think. I don't know our record. I didn't go back and look at our record, but I know they recruit players to play on that turf just like OU does.
And I think it's harder to win at Kentucky. I think we'll do. I think we'll do well against ou.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: Counterpoint at Kentucky is Arkansas. They've. They've got some pretty athletic guys, too.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: And I, you know, I could see where a guy Like a Damien Ruiz and a guy like a TJ Pompey, you know, they get on base, you know, or heck, remember Casey Martin had the inside home. The inside the park home run up there. Was it seven years ago? Like, I mean if Ruiz puts one in the gap, it could easily be a triple there. It could maybe be an inside the park home run. And he's not the only player that I think, you know, has that type of potential on the team.
Christian Turner, is he going to play? You know, he's the type that, you know, he's got the speed on the basis. So I feel like Arkansas's got a team that could go up there and, and maybe have some success on that type of surface too.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: But how many teams do you think are faster than us? I mean look at our, look at, look at our guys.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: That's a good question.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Pompey.
I mean you got Christian Turner, you got Souza, Mike and New Helfrich. Those dudes are all fast and then kosher's not slow.
I mean that's a fast team, you know what I mean? I mean there's, we got a lot of speed. I'd line those guys up with just about anybody.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: Be interesting to see how it goes this weekend. How do you think Christian Turner fits into the plans? Because to me he gets the big hit last Sunday and I just think he gets into the lineup somehow especially oh, you. They throw quite a few right handers, right? I mean, so that's a left handed at bat that you could possibly get in there. New struggled on Sunday. It makes me wonder, you know, maybe do you take him out and play the matchups? Maybe put Christian Turner in as a left handed at Batman.
Figure out. Is Turner your center fielder, Ruiz your center fielder? Do you swap them? Do you do some stuff like that?
I feel like Turner with that home run, I think he probably. It's not just the home run, it's the hole at bat.
I feel like he's probably going to have a chance to or an opportunity this weekend to play.
[00:25:06] Speaker B: Yeah, you just said it. The whole at bat. I think if he goes up there and swings at a first pitch, hits it over the fence, we're like, yeah, that's awesome. You know, good job, you know, good pinch hit. But the way he did it, you're right, I think really stands out. And typically, you know, you look at dvh, he'll reward a guy for an at bat like that and, and give him a start. So you know, he might find that right matchup and you Might see him out there, but boy, you hate to think of Mike and New not being out there. I love Mike and New. I mean, he's, he's so good in the outfield. He's one swing away from hitting a bomb or hitting a ball in the gap, man, he's. It's tough to not put him out there, but you might see, you could see that and see Micah coming off
[00:25:51] Speaker A: the bench late in the game, playing the matchups. I feel like they've done that a lot this year, playing the splits, right hander. You know, maybe you packed the lineup with lefties. You know, vice versa.
I think Turner, though, and it's going to be a really cool moment, I think this weekend whenever he comes up to the plate. Yeah. Because I remember and I don't know why this stand, this, this sticks with me. But when James McCann had a walk off home run to beat LSU in 2011, his. His next at bat the next day when LSU, they played LSU in the finale on a Sunday.
And his, his walk up song, I still remember it, it was Hightower by, by Cutlass and. Or Strong Tower. And you know, that first note of that song hits and I mean, the place just went nuts. It was kind of like watching wrestling back in the old days and the theme song comes on. You know, there's this pop in the arena. It was kind of the same thing with, with, with James when he came up to the plate. And I think it's going to be kind of a similar deal with, with Christian Turner. Whenever he gets his next at bat at Bomb, there's going to be a real neat ovation for him. Although I cannot tell you what his walk up song is. I have no idea.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: I don't either. Are you a wrestling fan?
[00:27:01] Speaker A: When I was in fifth grade, I liked it. Yeah. Really? Yeah.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: Who's your, who's your dude?
[00:27:06] Speaker A: Oh, probably Bill Goldberg.
Goldberg. Yeah, that's probably the guy.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: Don't know. I was expecting a bigger name than that. I didn't know Bill Goldberg.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: You don't know who Bill Goldberg is?
[00:27:17] Speaker B: I have no idea.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: You're serious?
[00:27:18] Speaker B: I'm serious.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: We have to have a conversation.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: That's how you got that channel. Yeah.
But no, I think you're right. When Christian Turner comes up, I think, I think there's going to be a lot ovation. They're going to, you know, they're going to show him their appreciation. Yeah.
[00:27:35] Speaker A: You know, his welcome song is I have no idea.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't hear through the, through the headset. So what I'll do every once in a while when I really want to hear the crowd. I'll take this. Heads this off this ear because I love hearing the crowd.
We have a crowd mic, but it's hard to hear through it. You don't hear a ton. So I love to do it. So every once in a while, I like some of the pictures that come in that have the. The hard rock, you know.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: Well, you're gonna like Christian Turner. I just looked up his walk up song.
It's. It's Def Leppard. Oh, yeah, that's. That's right up your alley.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Which.
[00:28:09] Speaker A: Pour some sugar on me.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: Oh, that's good.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: I'll have to listen.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: He's got good taste in music.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: He's got parents who raised him.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: Right.
Right? That's right.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: So speaking of whims, I had a conversation this week with his dad, and I wrote a story. I talked to his dad, David, and I spoke to his. His high school baseball coach, Glenn Maynor, who was also Peyton Stovall's high school coach. He's been a high school coach at Haughton for 32 years. Won his 700th game there earlier this year, which is a really cool. I mean, like, think about the longevity you gotta have to win 700 high school games. You know, when the seasons are shorter, you're dealing, I think, more with weather in the high school season and, you know, because fields and everything. And so that's pretty neat. So I talked to his dad, his coach, and then I talked to Peyton Stovall. And, you know, I don't know what I.
I think I go into stories, not really knowing where they're going to go.
And I didn't know where this one was going to go. Ended up writing, like, this kind of whole profile of Haughton, Louisiana, and how, you know, you've had Peyton Stovall here and he had Christian Turner here. But what I thought was really neat was the connection between the two families.
The way they told me they live, like, less than a quarter of a mile away from each other. Peyton and Christian Turner's older brother are best friends.
Christian Turner and Peyton Stovall's younger brother are best friends. It's one of these deals where they walk to each other's house. They don't knock. They have the garage door codes. You know, they go in, they don't ask if they can have food. They just grab something out of the fridge, grab something out of the pantry.
It was just kind of a neat deal. And then you hear Peyton and the Turner talk about Peyton's influence on Christian being at Arkansas in the first place, that was really neat to me.
You know, Christian, his dad told me, he said that Peyton came and had a conversation with him one time and told him that he ought to send Christian to an Arkansas prospect camp. Well, David Turner said, I'll be the first to tell you that. I told him he's not an SEC caliber player.
And Peyton told me, he said, I used maybe some colorful language to say I hit with him. You don't. I know what an SEC player looks like, and he's won.
Really neat story. I had a lot of fun writing that and just kind of, again, you knew that there was the Haughton connection between Peyton Stovall and Christian Turner. I did not realize it was as deep and as close as it was.
[00:30:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought it was cool. You'd be proud of me. I read the article. I am proud of you. I thought it was cool, you know, and. And I think the coach said he started to get up and leave.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: Oh, man, can you imagine? He started to get up and leave. And if he's here for two days because he said he drove up Friday night, he couldn't get here in time for the Friday night game. He's here all day Saturday, and he's here, say, for like six or seven innings on Sunday. And he gets in the car and he's at West Fork and he's listening to the game. He's like, oh, my God.
[00:31:09] Speaker B: I know.
[00:31:10] Speaker A: Can you imagine just how. Just sick you'd be?
[00:31:14] Speaker B: But, you know, I think that's so cool that. That he drove up here to watch him play. I think that's really cool. That's a. That's a coach that cares about his players.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: He told me he went to Chapel Hill to watch the Super Regional to see Peyton play his freshman year.
[00:31:27] Speaker B: Really? See, that's awesome. See, those kind of guys, I mean, I hope there's still a lot of them out there. I don't know, but, I mean, you got to care about your players.
So I. I've got guys that played for me years ago that I still. I'm still in touch with all the time. Some of them now have families and, you know, it's crazy. Some of them now have families and are now coming to the facility with their. With their kids. Yeah. So I think I'm getting old, but it's just cool. But I think that's a really neat thing that he came to watch, and I'm so glad he stayed and I'm glad his family was here to see that too.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: David Turner told me that he told Christian they had a long drive to go Sunday night. He's the AD at Haughton High School, so he had to be there Monday morning.
He told me though it's after 5 o'. Clock, they finally get a chance to see Christian after all the celebration has died down a little bit. And he said, time, not an issue. You pick the place, we're going to take you to dinner to go have a celebration deal. He picked Whataburger.
And if that didn't tell you, like, like, I think that's a great reminder that you're dealing with, you know, I mean, they're not kids anymore, but you're still dealing with really young people that in a 19 year old's mind, hey, you could go to. Yeah, I don't know where you want to go to Whataburger to celebrate. I thought that was kind of a neat telling. Yeah. Deal.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: No, that thought that was awesome. I'm sure his mom and dad were not happy with it, but I think that's really cool.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: Maybe they were. Maybe it saved them.
Well, 70 bucks.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: Yeah, true. Maybe they're looking forward to a big sale.
[00:33:00] Speaker A: Buy half a tank of gas right now.
A reminder.
[00:33:03] Speaker B: I think that's cool.
[00:33:04] Speaker A: Our baseball podcast sponsored by H and R Tire and Auto. They're a local shop that's been family owned for three generations. They built their reputation on taking care of customers the right way. That kind of longevity doesn't happen by accident at H and R Tire and Auto. Okay, so while we have been talking here, Dave Van Horne has been on Phil Elson's show and he says that Arkansas, and this isn't a surprise, he kind of hinted at this Monday at the Swatters Club. He said they'll start 100 deets on Friday night against OU. They'll go TBA Saturday and Sunday. He said if they have to use Gackel to win game one, they will. If they don't, there's a good chance that he'll start either game two or game three. And the game two thing might surprise people to hear that because Cole Gibler's been starting game two. You know, he mentioned Monday over at Swatters Club that there's a chance Cole Gibbler goes back into the bullpen.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's, it's about getting outs, you know, it's really what it is. And I think Dave, you know, at this point of the year, well, he does it Pretty much year round he's got. If he sees a win, he's going to go after it on Friday and then deal with Saturday when Saturday comes. I like it.
[00:34:08] Speaker A: Yeah. It's not just. It's flexibility. And when you go tba, TBA on those last two days and we talked about. I think you and I were talking about this the other day. Like, I don't know if, you know, if you. Let's say you announce Gabe gackles your Game 2 starter. I don't know if that gives you any flexibility to bring him in in game one or if you're like, are you handcuffed to that?
I don't know exactly how that works, but you go tba. Tba. It just gives you a lot of flexibility because basically you can do whatever you want to after Hunter Deets, you know, without any fear of repercussion from having announced somebody beforehand.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: You know, it's crazy that we don't know the answer to that because, you know, we've been around the game quite a while.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: It's a great mystery.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
Surprised you don't know that Kendall Rogers didn't know that.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: You're giving me a hard time, Kendall, today, aren't you?
[00:35:00] Speaker B: No, I think it's. I don't think it locks you in, but maybe it does. Maybe if you announce him as a starter, he's got a start. But I just think that, I don't know, I would seem odd to me that you would have to. But in today's game. But yeah, I don't know.
[00:35:13] Speaker A: I sent Bubba a text earlier. Can I tell you? Tell people what you texted me? I said I'm hitting every red light in town and I'm trying to get there. And by the way, the red lights that I have to hit are the ones on Weddington.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: And those are not your normal red lights. This is not your, you know, 32nd red light. This is like a minute and a half to two minutes. Every freaking red light. It's crazy the way they've got that set up over there on the west side of the interstate. And so it's, you know, those accumulate pretty fast. Minute and a half. Minute and a half. Minute and a half. And all of a sudden, that drive that you thought was going to take you 15 minutes to the office, it just took you 25. And so I cut it too close and Bubba said Kendall Rogers would have left earlier.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Well, just saying, I could. I could have used DVH who got
[00:35:57] Speaker A: into the office versus one.
[00:35:58] Speaker B: I don't know how you got by me, I was actually sitting in the parking lot. I was gonna give you a hard time when you pulled in and I never saw you pull in. So, yeah, you beat me.
[00:36:06] Speaker A: Just went right by you. So Dietz is going to start. You know, going back to how the.
We don't know if Arkansas is going to play another series here, any other games here after ou. This might be the last time that you get to see Hunter Dietz pits on the home mound. I thought it was really interesting. It was a really insightful comment the other day from Van Horn at Swatter's club. He said that Hunter Dietz, if he was healthy, and I'm paraphrasing, would be one of the greatest pitchers in program history in terms of the stats that he was able to put up. And, you know, he's shown that this year. I mean, like, I don't know if this is an Isaiah Campbell 2019 or a Hagen Smith 2024 type season, but this has been a really solid, strong campaign that he's put together. And I've been so impressed by him, Bubba, over the last five weeks when they've had him pitch against the other team's number one guy, he has been up to the challenge and pitched at least equal, if not better than the pitcher he's gone against.
[00:37:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And if you look at his numbers, I mean, I think of a couple. I think of his first start at Globe Life where I thought he got squeezed a little bit. I thought he threw some strikes that weren't or that were, that they didn't get called.
You know, I think about the, the Missouri game, couple of windblown home runs.
You know, I look at some of those runs and you still look at his numbers. They're really good. But as far as like stuff, I mean, his stuff's elite. I mean, the way he, he's got that high release point, pitches downhill, the way he uses the fastball and the cutter, the way he changes speeds on the cutter.
Then, you know, just when you think you figured out those two pitches, oh, he can drop an 80 mile an hour curveball on you. I mean, it's just, it's just elite stuff. And I agree. I wish, gosh, I wish we could have seen him for three years.
[00:37:58] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it's, it's one of, it's going to be one of those great what might have been. And you think about like last year, what if that team has hundred eats this version of Hunter Deeds.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: What might have happened.
[00:38:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: You know, you never Know, but you know the thing that has stood out to me about him the last probably four weeks, have you noticed? It's just been the solo home runs for the most part. Missouri had a two run home run because he hit a guy in the foot and then the next guy hit a homer. But for the most part, like Georgia hit two solo home runs against him. Alabama hit two solo homers against him. Ole Miss got him once for a solo homer. Missouri hit a solo homer before the two run shot. Like.
So every pitcher is going to give up home runs. That's not what. I'm not saying that like it's concerning that he's giving up home runs because I really don't think it is because I think you would give up. You would trade a solo home run for the other six or seven innings that he's giving you. But it's what stands out to me is like they're just. There's hardly ever anybody on base.
[00:38:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: I think that's what those solo home runs really illustrate.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean solo home run ain't going to beat you. It's the, the two walks or the walk, the base hit, then the solo home run. A number that surprised me though is the league sitting conference only the league's hitting.225 off of him. I didn't think they were hitting that high. Didn't seem like he's.
I wonder if I thought that number should be lower.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: Like Florida was a little bit of a tough outing for him. I think.
Wasn't Mississippi State a little bit of a tough outing?
[00:39:23] Speaker B: They got a few hits.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: Yeah. So I wonder how much of that happened in the. I would be interested to see a breakdown of what that was. Say the first three weeks of the season versus what it's been. The last five, I would assume, or I would, I'd venture to guess the last five has probably been quite a bit lower. Although I will say he gave up seven hits against Missouri. He was really good that night of working around baserunners.
[00:39:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
And look, a lot of his hits are soft contact their cutters where they jam. A righty or you know, a lefty cues it off the end of the bat. I mean a lot of. If you look at his hard hits and, and I'm sure they have a number for it, but I don't feel like he gives up a lot of hard hit balls where some of the other guys, they, they get. There's some hard outs. But if you look at Hunter Dietz, he doesn't give up a, a Lot of hard outs.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: What about Gackel? What did you see for him last week? You've had several days now to digest what you saw from him against Ole Miss. How did you feel that went if they do use him in a starting role?
[00:40:23] Speaker B: No, I thought his, his, his outing was better than his pitching line showed. I thought he, I thought he threw good. I thought he threw well. I thought he had some good pitches. Breaking ball was good. Made a couple mistakes, but I thought he was way better.
So that's a good sign that he's, he's trending in the right direction.
[00:40:41] Speaker A: Do you like Gibler more in a bullpen roll or in a starter role?
[00:40:45] Speaker B: I think he's got better every start.
[00:40:47] Speaker A: Mm.
[00:40:47] Speaker B: I really do.
[00:40:48] Speaker A: I think, I mean, he had the rough outing against Ole Miss the other day, but.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: But that was self inflicted. If he covers the bag.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
[00:40:57] Speaker B: If he gets over right there. I don't think any of that happens.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And you know, and people take this as an excuse, but like, again, like, that's a routine fly ball.
You think about how that ending goes different. If he covers the bag, that's two outs. And then let's say he throws that pitch and the wind's not blowing out, you know, 15 miles an hour, whatever it was, to that part of the ballpark. That's a routine fly ball. Yeah. Maybe you give up one run and you strand the bases loaded or you strand two on, you know, it is what it is and he's got to live with the results of it. But, you know, I do think there have been a couple of times with him this year where he's had an inning that hasn't gone well. I think this happened against Georgia too, didn't it? Where, you know, like, wasn't there an early inning where things kind of went haywire on him and then he's done a good job of just kind of battling and not letting it spiral into the. I guess he gave up seven runs against Ole Miss, but, you know, for the most part, like, he hasn't let it spiral into that.
You know, that outing that is say six runs and two and a third or something like that. He's been fairly good at that.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: Well, think about his outing. You know, if he doesn't get it together, they've got to go to the bullpen in the second inning.
That changes that whole weekend. We probably don't win the next day. We probably don't win Sunday if he doesn't go on out and throw 95 pitches.
So he was able to get it back together, throw some quality innings, minimize the run, and more importantly, save the bullpen. I thought that was huge, what he did. A lot of guys can't bounce back like that.
So I just think I like him. I like his. His mound presence.
Like, a lot of times, Matt, I'll. I'll either look at the broadcast up here on the TV or I'll just get the binoculars out. I want to look at a guy's face. You can see so much. I say all the time, you can look at a hitter in the eyes and tell if he's a hitter.
And I look at these. Some of these guys on the mound, and. And you can tell, you know, they're, you know, they got it under control.
I looked at Hunter Elliott, and, I mean, his face was all red. He was flustered. I mean, he. He was very frustrated, and you could see it in his body language and on his face. And I.
Cole Gibler, I don't see it. He. He knows he's good.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: It'll be interesting to see what they. How they use him this week, because I think he's been better out of the bullpen, and I also think that there's a value in being able to potentially use him two times.
[00:43:27] Speaker B: I agree.
So who do you. You put leave Gackle as a starter and say goal?
[00:43:33] Speaker A: It seems to me like that's probably the most likely outcome, and that's just based on. On what Van Horn said at Swatters Club on Monday. It feels like. It almost felt like last week was a test for Gackel. Can you start? Okay. We've seen, you know, we saw what the start, the starting stuff was for however many weeks. Went to the bullpen, you know, got some things corrected. It felt like, you know, got some confidence. Can you show us that you can start?
I just. And I know what. I know what the splits have said for Gackel starting versus relieving, but I feel like they have got to.
If this team is going to reach its potential, I feel like they're going to have to have Gabe Gackel pitching well as a starter. I don't know if he can do it.
[00:44:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:13] Speaker A: But I feel like if they're going to reach their potential, they need to have Dietz and Gackel pitching to their potential as starting starters, because that's how, to me, that's how this team was constructed to work.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: I think. I think he's going in the right direction. I thought he. I thought he looked good against Ole Miss.
Thought he did A good enough job.
I think what we need to do is at least one game, score a whole bunch of runs.
Whichever game it is, we need one game where we can score a bunch of runs and kind of relax and save pitching for the games that are close. Whether it be.
You know, I prefer it not be Friday night because I feel like Dietz is going to shut them out or do a good job, not shut them out.
[00:44:55] Speaker A: Well, also, whenever you score those runs on Friday, they typically don't come in boxes on Saturday.
[00:44:59] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:45:01] Speaker A: It's kind of the law of averages.
[00:45:02] Speaker B: So if we can go Saturday or Sunday, if one of those games we can score. And if you look at. If you look at. Oh, you pitching, you know, they've. They've had some days where they've given it up. Their starters have.
[00:45:15] Speaker A: Well, their Friday guy was LJ Mercurious, and they. I guess last week was when they made the change and they brought him out of the bullpen on Friday night. I mean, his ERA is 8. 18 with a 164 whip. And that's overall conference. It may even be. What's his conference?
[00:45:31] Speaker B: His conference ERA is 818.
[00:45:34] Speaker A: I'm looking at conference, yeah.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: 33 innings, 42 hits.
The league's hitting.302 against him in conference.
That's a big number.
Now, Caden Leone, I guess that's how you say his name. 6.06 ERA, 6 innings, 11 hits.
League's hitting 193. Now, it's a smaller sample size, 16 innings, but, you know, but I'll tell you what. Marcellus did come in in the third inning and threw four good innings last week against Florida.
[00:46:08] Speaker A: So Skip Johnson's team is always going to be one that you think can pitch. I mean, this guy is really well respected as a pitching coach.
And, you know, I mean, wherever he's been, whether it be. Was it. Was it Kilgore, was that the. Was that the college that he was at in Texas? I think it might have been.
It was. He was at a Texas junior college. I know that. And then he was the. I think he was Augie Garrido's pitching coach for several years. Maybe like the last 10 years that Augie was at Texas. And, you know, obviously he goes to ou.
Like, there's a real track record there of guys that he has, you know, either. Like at junior college, he sent Jess Todd to Arkansas.
We know Jeff Todd was pretty darn good.
[00:46:48] Speaker B: Right?
[00:46:49] Speaker A: You know, he was. I don't think there's some sort of connection there. With Kershaw. I think Kershaw might have been committed to play for him, but then ended up going pro, but has gone back and worked with him quite a bit.
So, I mean, like, like, I mean, that's Clayton Kershaw. So that tells you the kind of reputation that this guy has as a pitching coach. And you know, I mean, the expectation is that OU they're going to be able to bring a lot of quality arms out.
[00:47:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. You know what I'm. What I've been looking at though, Matt, and it's hard.
I haven't had a chance to really study the numbers. But when you look at the offensive numbers, they're hitting.262. As a team, we're 239. That's in conference.
You know, they've struck out fewer times than us.
They've drawn more walks than us.
We've scored 26 more runs. They've scored 120 runs. We've scored 146. So that's 26 more runs.
It's weird. You look at now, we have hit more home runs. They've hit 24, we hit 37. So we've hit 13 more home runs. Maybe that's where the run totals come. But if you look at the numbers, it's like, how do we score that many more runs than them?
They've stolen more bases than us.
[00:48:06] Speaker A: Do you think it's the same?
[00:48:07] Speaker B: They've struck out fewer times, They've walked more. I mean, it's could.
[00:48:12] Speaker A: You know what.
[00:48:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it could be.
[00:48:13] Speaker A: That's one of those games where. Yeah, I said it after they played him. Like, like you eat statistically off of that game.
[00:48:18] Speaker B: Yeah, you're right. Yeah, that could, that could have something to do with it.
[00:48:21] Speaker A: But we haven't looked at you schedule enough to know whether or not they've had that type of game offensively.
[00:48:26] Speaker B: I don't see them as the type of like. Kind of like Kendall said, they're not the kind of team that's going to throw a big number up on you. I mean, 24 home runs, OPS. They're 76 6. We're 7, 6 5. I mean, it's close there. I mean, it's just somewhere in there we're. We're scoring a lot more runs. South Carolina could be some of it, but. Yeah, but I don't know. I just feel good about the weekend. I don't know what their rotation is going to be. If Cameron Johnson's going to be back. Supposedly he's going to be okay.
[00:48:56] Speaker A: That's, that's from the sounds of it. They said he was going to Tom Murphy again. He spoke to him and you can read this at our website Whole Hog Sports Do.
He spoke to Skip Johnson this week and Skip said that Johnson. There's a lot of John, a lot of guys with the last name Johnson.
You got Skip, you got Cameron. They got a guy, Camden Johnson, who's pretty good position player for him. It was Cameron Johnson, who is their. I think he's a lefty pitcher.
He left the game against Florida last week after the first inning. And from the sounds of it, it was just kind of precautionary, kind of like what happened with Dylan Vigue when Georgia played here, when he left after two innings.
So it sounds like it's precautionary. They said that he was going to throw a bullpen on Wednesday night and that would tell them, I guess, what his availability was going to be like for the weekend. But Skip Johnson made it sound optimistic that he was going to be able to pitch this weekend. We're not going to have the starting pitching matchups till later this afternoon.
[00:49:59] Speaker B: Yeah, well, hopefully. I thought, I thought Skip Johnson almost threw him under the bus saying, you know, he, he probably could have still pitched. I think is the way where that, whatever Tom's articles, it was something to that to effective. He thought he could have still gone out there and pitched, but maybe I'm misquoting him. So I'm sorry, Skip, if I'm doing that, you know.
[00:50:19] Speaker A: Did you have much, did you have much interaction with Todd Butler?
[00:50:22] Speaker B: Yeah, a lot of. We still text today.
[00:50:25] Speaker A: So for those who don't know, Todd Butler was out of Arkansas for eight years. He's in his second year as an assistant coach at ou.
[00:50:31] Speaker B: Yeah, we. We actually had some really good hitting talks back in the day. I like, I like Todd a lot. He's a good, good guy. Good hitting guy. So. Yeah, we.
He used to, he used to listen to the, to some of the broadcasts because every once while I'd say something, he'd text me. So it was pretty cool. But looking forward to seeing him.
[00:50:52] Speaker A: I think. I think at least one of his kids went to the U of A. Maybe. Maybe both of his daughters went to the U of A. So I mean, I know that they've. And he stayed in touch with a lot of people here, including, you know, people at the, you know, the baseball building. Like they remain, you know, close and in touch. And, you know, it wasn't like he left, he left Arkansas to Be a head coach at Wichita State. That was a great opportunity for him.
Didn't go, you know, didn't go great there at Wichita State. Van Horn said the other day he didn't think that Todd got a fair shake at Wichita State because, you know, Gene Stevenson was leaving. That's who you're replacing. I mean, that's.
Imagine, you know, whoever comes in and replaces Dave Van Horn. That's going to be big shoes that you're filling. And Gene Stevenson at Wichita State, I mean, like when you think about Wichita State baseball, that is Wichita State baseball.
And you know, so Dave said that, you know, he had to keep the pitching coach that, you know, basically it just, he wasn't really put in an environment to be successful.
Left there, went to Missouri. Now he's, now he's at ou.
Boy, I think about the teams that he helped recruit though, and some of the players that he helped bring in, you know, like Zach cox and James McCann. And I think he was the lead on Andrew Benintendi to get Andrew Ben Intendi to come to Fayetteville. So I don't think he ever coached him.
[00:52:06] Speaker B: Don't forget about Brett Eibner.
[00:52:07] Speaker A: I mean, like, yeah, I mean like a lot of really good players, not to mention, you know, I mean, he was their recruiting coordinator. Think about the pitchers who came in during that era, you know, maybe some diamonds in the rough that they found. You know, like the Dallas Kickels of the world and Drew Smiley. I mean those were really good years when it comes to prospects that Arkansas was able to bring in here.
[00:52:26] Speaker B: Yeah, you're right. So it'll be good. It'd be fun to see him. I haven't got to talk to him in a while. We haven't actually texted in a while, but there for a while we stayed in contact quite a bit.
[00:52:36] Speaker A: So it would be neat if Arkansas. And it wouldn't surprise me if they did this, but if they, you know, showed him on the video board and just kind of a neat little in between inning, you know, hey, will you welcome back, Butler. I think that'd be kind of a neat.
[00:52:48] Speaker B: That would.
[00:52:49] Speaker A: Because again, a lot of the success, a lot of the groundwork that Van Horn had or that he laid in Fayetteville was a result of Todd Butler coming in in like what, year four, I think when, when Dave was the head coach.
So. And they had, you know, they had some really good runs there, you know, and obviously good runs even after Todd left because of some of the players like Andrew Benintendi, who he helped, Helped Recruit or was the lead recruiter on.
[00:53:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it'd be fun.
[00:53:17] Speaker A: So. But he's not their offensive coach. Reggie Willets is their offensive coach, former big league guy. And he's the one who's kind of the mastermind behind this whole chaotic offense that they run.
[00:53:27] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's. That's the thing that I wonder how.
How Todd relates to, because he's more of. Look at some of the guys he recruited back in the day. It was more, you know, a lot of. A lot of your power guys. Yeah, well, he just. Well, he just brought in good hitters, you know, not that, oh, you don't have good hitters now. I just think.
I feel like Todd brought in a different type of player.
[00:53:50] Speaker A: And that's. What. Asked Van Horn the other day. I said, you know, I don't remember him being the type that's ever had like a running game like this. He said, well, he's not in charge of the offense.
I think he's. He's more in charge of the recruiting. Yeah. So before we get out of here, what do you think about Arkansas and OU playing like. Like they haven't played a whole lot, and it's kind of surprising. I remember when Sonny Galloway was the head coach there, it seemed like every other year, Arkansas and ou, every year they would. They would schedule a midweek game.
Arkansas would always end up going to Norman. Oh, you would never end up coming over here. You know, it might rain. You know, like, there were a couple of times where it felt like they kind of, I don't know, weaseled out, but, you know, where they just. They didn't live up to their end of the. The contract.
[00:54:37] Speaker B: Well, if I had to choose a stadium to play in, I'd play at our stadium versus.
[00:54:41] Speaker A: Haven't they done some renovations over there at ou? Or maybe some are planned.
[00:54:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I think they got some stuff planned. I don't know what all they've done.
I know they had a lot of stuff planned when they went into the sec. I. We usually go over there and play a showcase event every year, and it's. It's not a big place at all. It's tough.
[00:55:00] Speaker A: They've got a softball stadium right next to it that is.
I mean, it is way better facility than baseball. I know softball is huge at Oklahoma, but that's. I don't know, that's always just kind of been. And of course, you know, they've just built that softball stadium within the last two or three years. But it's just weird how you Got a softball stadium right here. And your baseball stadium. If it wasn't for Missouri, it would probably be the worst stadium in the league based on what I remember it being before they came into the league. And it's been a long time since I've been over there.
[00:55:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it's just small. I mean, it's turf and, you know, for, for a showcase event. It's, you know, my guys love going over there, but you think about that being an SEC stadium. I don't know what it holds.
[00:55:39] Speaker A: Can't hold more than 5,000, I'd say. Yeah, I'd say even less than that. Maybe more like closer to three.
[00:55:45] Speaker B: Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know, but I mean, it's, you know, nice little. It's a, it's a. It's a fun place to play.
[00:55:52] Speaker A: I just, I think it'll be neat for Arkansas, not just in baseball, but in the other sports, too, like when the football teams start playing. I know Arkansas and Oklahoma football are worlds apart in terms of success and maybe even talent, but I think that I grew up in a town where. In Arkansas, but in a town near the border where our hometown radio station was an affiliate of the Sooner Sports Network. And so there's always been kind of. I guess maybe I come from this vantage point where for me, there's always been this Arkansas OU crossover. And I think it's kind of neat to see them play this weekend. And I told you this the other day, you know, it's graduation weekend. There are going to be a lot of people who are in the ballpark, you know, coming in from out of town, but there's going to be a lot of Oklahoma people, I think, in this area who. It's like, hey, this is an easy chance to see the Sooners. Like, I remember when Baker Mayfield won the, the Burlsworth Trophy for the first time. The number of Oklahoma people who were in that banquet room was astounding to me. But I'm sitting there thinking, you know, it's like, hey, they can drive over from Siloam Springs and see Baker Mayfield.
A 15 minute drive, 20 minute drive. It makes sense. And so I say all that to say I think that it's going to really create a high ticket demand, at least for those for that first game Friday night and then probably for Saturday's game, too.
[00:57:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. I've already been contacted by a few people that live in northwest Arkansas about tickets that are. Oh, you fans.
So, yeah, something about it. I remember back in the day, like the Brian's the line.
[00:57:22] Speaker A: Bosworth.
[00:57:22] Speaker B: Bosworth, yeah. You know, back in those days where it was like, like, oh, you. Football was like the thing.
So it was pretty cool back then.
[00:57:30] Speaker A: So their baseball team's gotten, you know, they've gotten pretty good under Skip Johnson. You think about 2022, this was almost the national championship series.
[00:57:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:38] Speaker A: If Arkansas gets past Ole Miss, they're playing Oklahoma and Omaha.
So OU baseball, they've done good. It'll be interesting to see how this goes this weekend. It's. It's a big series for Arkansas, big series for Oklahoma. I think they've still got some. You talk about, you know, wanting to host. They've still got a chance maybe to host if they finish strong against Arkansas. And then they play Tennessee next week, which I think is interesting. They're playing Tennessee at the Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City. They're not going to play them on campus. They're going to play them over in Oklahoma City. I guess maybe to get more, maybe more revenue, more people can get in the ballpark. I don't know exactly what went into that decision, but they've got, I'm sure they look at this and say, hey, we got a pathway here too, to maybe get a regional as well. So you got two hungry teams they're going to play this weekend and I think it'll make for a really fun series.
[00:58:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's going to be fun.
I wish we played them more, though, you know, I wish we didn't have this 16 team mess.
[00:58:32] Speaker A: I don't like.
[00:58:33] Speaker B: I wish we had divisions and they were in our division.
[00:58:35] Speaker A: Yes. I don't like the. I don't like. And you know, here's the thing that I don't think the conference probably ever thought about.
Like, just because you have divisions doesn't mean you got to have two divisions. You can have four divisions. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, maybe you play. Maybe. Oh, you. Let's say. Let's just say, let's throw out a hypothetical here. Maybe you have a division that's Arkansas, Texas, Texas A and M and Oklahoma.
What's stopping you from going to Austin and Austin coming here and going to College Station and College Station coming here. Like, I think that, like, there was some imagination that was lost in scheduling or in putting together the conference from a baseball standpoint after it went to 16 teams. And I don't like this two, eight model they went to. I think they could have gone to a 5, 55 model where you got 5 permanents and then you rotate the other 10 every other year. I think that would have been a lot better for baseball. But that's, you know, that's just me.
[00:59:34] Speaker B: Can we, can we keep Mizzou, though? Just.
[00:59:37] Speaker A: It helps. Doesn't column. It helps. It helps.
[00:59:41] Speaker B: I'm sure no one from Missouri is watching this, so can we keep Mizzou? It's nice to have a few wins there.
[00:59:47] Speaker A: Okay, so Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky. There's your, there's your division right there. We'll call it the SEC North.
[00:59:54] Speaker B: All right, Bubba.
[00:59:54] Speaker A: Appreciate you being in here. You can listen to Bubba tomorrow night on the Razorback Sports Network with Phil Elson.
One more time, our baseball podcast brought to you by H and R Tire and Auto. They're proudly family owned since 1976. Trusted across northwest Arkansas, committed to keeping you safe on the road all season long. You can learn more or schedule service ath&r tireandauto.com we'll be back with another show tomorrow. Hope to see you at our website, wholehogsports.com where you can check out all of our baseball coverage. Have a great day, everybody.
