Anthony Rendon (2010 TCBB Top 100 Countdown: #18) who has been hampered this summer by a major foot/ankle injury is looking to bring the Rice Owls back to Omaha for the first time since 2008. The major question mark with Rendon is how his foot/ankle will recover from having six screws inserted into his fibula which according to many sources he is on his way to a full recovery. It is the second consecutive summer that he has been shutdown after a terrible ankle injury as he tore ligaments in that same ankle in the Baton Rouge Super Regional in 2009. The other question with the Rice Owls is the fact they will have to get through either TCU or Texas in the Super Regionals this season to make it back to the promise land.
You can check out a full article on Rendon and the Rice Owls by clicking here.
3 comments
Brian– where’s the link to the “full article” on Rendon and the Owls referenced at the close of this posting?rnrnBTW, while I would certainly agree that TCU and UT will begin the 2011 season higher ranked than Rice, let’s not presume both are shoo-ins for national seeds just yet. IMO, TCU will be a consensus preseason Top 3 next season (along with UCLA and Florida) and Texas will likely (IMO) be overranked somewhere in the Top 5 – 7…while the Owls will probably be ranked preseason in the #12 – 18 range. Having said that, I do think the Longhorns will slip a bit in 2011, as their offense lost 3 of it’s top 5 hitters from a team that hit below .290 in each of the past two seasons…and as formidable as Jungmann and Green will be at the top of the rotation, Stafford, Milner and Dicharry do not have the stuff of either Workman or Ruffin. They’ll certainly be good, but their offense will somehow need to find a way to produce a bit more than it has done the past two seasons.rnrnThe Rice offense will likely slip a notch from 2010, but should still be above average with Rendon, Rathjen, Fuda, Ratterree and Manuel returning. The bullpen should be a key strength n 2011, and could potentially be one of the best in the country. The key for the Owls, and what will determine whether they are a national seed contender or simply a top 15 – 20 team is how quickly their trio of stud Freshman RHPs (Simms, Kubitza, Mason)– top 200 high school prospects all– emerge. The only high school pitching recruit as highly regarded as any of these three during the Wayne Graham era was Joe Savery. If two of the three emerge from the get-go to join Taylor Wall, Boogie Anagnostou and Abe Gonzales in the starting rotation, the Owls could very well compete for the Horn Frogs and Longhorns for supremecy in Texas…though I’d be the first to agree that TCU and UT should be higher ranked preseason.
The link should be live now. I must had forgot it when I was doing the article late at night.
I’m a HUGE Rice Baseball fan – and I sincerely pray Anthony Rendon is the first pick in the draft – then gets traded to the Atlanta Braves who hopefully will be enroute to their second World Series win. But sadly, the Rice Owls are not a top 25 team. When this early in the season the team ERA is above 10 against several Div 2 teams like Sam Houston and Lamar – among other issues – it will be hard to recover. Rebuild for 2012?nnViva Wayne Graham! God Bless you, sir!
Comments are closed.