Photo through Creative Commons
My dreams of traveling to Omaha to watch our Missouri Tigers play under the lights of Rosenblatt Stadium in the College World Series will be delayed for at least another year.
I think this would sting a lot more if it hadn't been so predictable. It was like getting hit with a train that you could see coming from miles away. It still hurts, but at least you have time to come to grips with that inevitable pain.
I was optimistic when we won 8 0f 10 heading into the Big 12 Tournament. But then when our sloppy play and trainwreck of a bullpen (guess we're going with a railroad theme today) prevented us from advancing to the championship I came to the realization that this wasn't going to be the year that I got to visit the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo.
I'll admit I thought we had a puncher's chance when we beat Ole Miss in the first game of the regional, but then in the last two games those two glaring weaknesses, fielding and relief pitching, reared their ugly heads yet again. You CAN'T CAN'T CAN'T consistently win close games against good teams without those two things (see 2003 Boston Red Sox for further proof). It got to the point where we either had to have a dominating performance by our starter (which happened regularly when Crow or Gibby was on the mound) or an offensive explosion (like we had against Texas and Nebraska) in order to beat any decent team and you can't bank on those things when you're playing the best teams in the country.
I'm more than a little concerned about Kyle Gibson. I thought it was a great move by Tim Jamieson to move him to the bullpen for postseason play but it backfired in the worst possible way. Gibby was shelled in every one of his performances but his first. In his final 2.2 innings pitched he gave up 7 runs (6 earned) on 6 hits. He also either blew a lead or gave up the eventual winning run in each of those appearances. That's gotta affect a guy's psyche. At a point in the season when we absolutely had to have Gibby pitching lights out he did anything but. I just hope he's able to recover and come back strong because next year, he's the Aaron Crow. He's the Max Scherzer. In order for Mizzou baseball to take the next step they need Kyle Gibson to do the same.
Other than the aforementioned bullpen and fielding woes, it was Jamieson's inability to discover a consistent third starter that spelled the Tigers' eventual doom. Ian Berger was hit or miss all season (and seemed to be a miss in the most critical games) and Rick Zagone never really regained his form from last season. Nick Tepesch looked very much like the freshman that he is coming out of the bullpen and didn't show anything to convince anyone that he could handle starting at this point.
But the question remains, did Mizzou baseball underachieve this season? That's difficult to answer. They obviously fell well short of the expectations that most people had for them. When you're ranked pre-season top 10 and climb to as high as No. 2 in the country, anything short of Omaha is a disappointment.
But I think early on most people failed to grasp how crippling some of our weaknesses were. Sure, Aaron Crow is as good as any starting pitcher in the country and for the most part Gibson was an excellent No. 2. There was even enough evidence to believe that between Berger, Zagone and Tepesch we'd have a darn good No. 3. Aaron Senne and Jake Priday formed one of the best 3-4 combos in the country and Ryan Lollis ended the season as hot as any hitter this side of Chipper Jones.
But when you start facing the Miami's of the college baseball world, you find out how complete a team you are. And in the end the Missouri Tigers, although they had their strengths, were not a complete baseball team.
