2023 College Baseball - Tallon's Mounded Circle

[Monbo Jumbo]

This is the 2023 College Baseball thread for all things college baseball.

I have a rooting interest in James Francis Tallon.

Here's a few things to know about James.

D1baseball dot com notes his "elite spin" and "advanced command." They have him pre-season #5 impact freshman in the ACC and #43 in top 100 relievers in the oountry (only a handful of freshman on the list.)

In the dugout, his fastball is called "the invisiball." His coach calls him "special" and his teammates' nickname for him is censored here for blasphemy.

I call him family. He's my sister's grandson.

 

[Just a bit outside]

This is the 2023 College Baseball thread for all things college baseball.

I have a rooting interest in James Francis Tallon.

Here's a few things to know about James.

D1baseball dot com notes his "elite spin" and "advanced command." They have him pre-season #5 impact freshman in the ACC and #43 in top 100 relievers in the oountry (only a handful of freshman on the list.)

In the dugout, his fastball is called "the invisiball." His coach calls him "special" and his teammates' nickname for him is censored here for blasphemy.

I call him family. He's my sister's grandson.

That fastball has some serious carry. Just explodes on the hitter.

 

[Bozo Texino]

Fantastic thread title.

 

[DJnVa]

 

[RedOctober3829]

One of my former players’ brother is a potential first round pick. OF Travis Honeyman of BC. Kid is a stud player who took off on the Cape this summer.

 

[BigSoxFan]

One of my former players’ brother is a potential first round pick. OF Travis Honeyman of BC. Kid is a stud player who took off on the Cape this summer.

BC just took out #3 Tennessee in Knoxville tonight. 9-1 record. Might have something special here.

 

[RedOctober3829]

BC just took out #3 Tennessee in Knoxville tonight. 9-1 record. Might have something special here.

Their schedule has been pretty light to this point. Best wins are last night and Rutgers last weekend. But, we'll see what they're about this weekend when they are in Blacksburg to play #10 V Tech in the ACC opener.

 

[BigSoxFan]

Their schedule has been pretty light to this point. Best wins are last night and Rutgers last weekend. But, we'll see what they're about this weekend when they are in Blacksburg to play #10 V Tech in the ACC opener.

Definitely light so far but this team has legit talent, seemingly moreso than the Frelick teams from a few years ago. Honeyman can flat out rake.

 

[RedOctober3829]

Definitely light so far but this team has legit talent, seemingly moreso than the Frelick teams from a few years ago. Honeyman can flat out rake.

I would think the new facility has a big hand in recruiting. That is a palace when it comes to Northeast baseball.

 

[BigSoxFan]

I would think the new facility has a big hand in recruiting. That is a palace when it comes to Northeast baseball.

Agreed. Tons of talent in NJ where I live. BC should be able to get its fair share there along with (hopefully) most of MA/CT. There's a lane to be pretty solid here.

 

[Ale Xander]

Great facility
Free parking
No tickets needed
El Pelon next door

what’s not to like

 

[RedOctober3829]

Agreed. Tons of talent in NJ where I live. BC should be able to get its fair share there along with (hopefully) most of MA/CT. There's a lane to be pretty solid here.

There's just not much in terms of P5 programs in the Northeast so they should be able to do well. Rutgers was terrible for a while until last year despite all the talent that is in NJ. BC should be able to keep the local talent home because of that. Some will undoubtedly go south to premier programs if they're that good. My area on Long Island has produced a good amount of big P5 talent lately(kids at Miami, Clemson, South Carolina, UNC, Wake off the top of my head) but the mid-majors find enough talent to be good as well. Same for programs like Bryant and Northeastern in New England.

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

Dinner reservations? Plane to catch? Spiteful over a batter disagreeing with the call on the previous pitch? This was some bad umpiring last night down in New Orleans. Amazingly, it didn't involve Angel Hernandez in any way.

View: https://youtu.be/XzlybAML_3Q



Conference announced today that the ump has been suspended indefinitely.

View: https://twitter.com/SouthlandSports/status/1634641800374763523

 

[HurstSoGood]

One of the responses to this tweet said it best: The ump could have, justifiably, thrown the player out of the game for the way he reacted to the previous pitch (called strike). But Blue decided to basically throw his umping career away. Horrible, horrible decision on his part. I've never seen anything like it.

 

[CFB_Rules]

Yeah he was clearly pissed about getting shown up and decided he was going to get retribution.

I don't even know why the Southland said he's suspended, you can't bring a guy back with a fuck up that high profile. Just let him go.

 

[Dave Stapleton]

Well … BC sweeps the double header against #10 VTech to win the series after beating #3 Tennessee last week. BC opens the season at 12-2!

 

[RedOctober3829]

View: https://twitter.com/bcbirdball/status/1635431295156391937?s=46&t=IVL2VrlFgLlpc3mjGGto8Q

 

[Dave Stapleton]

BC wins another road series against a ranked ACC squad (FSU). Still need to overcome the preseason and historical bias as they should be top 15 after beating a highly ranked Tennessee and series against both FSU and VT. Need to continue to prove themselves.

Roger Williams transfer Chris Flynn is quite a story with a 5-0 record and 0.91 ERA. Was also named ACC pitcher of the week.

Big game against a solid Northeastern squad followed by another tough ACC series against NC St

 

[bosox188]

This kid is going to be fun.

 

[Ale Xander]

BC wins another road series against a ranked ACC squad (FSU). Still need to overcome the preseason and historical bias as they should be top 15 after beating a highly ranked Tennessee and series against both FSU and VT. Need to continue to prove themselves.

Roger Williams transfer Chris Flynn is quite a story with a 5-0 record and 0.91 ERA. Was also named ACC pitcher of the week.

Big game against a solid Northeastern squad followed by another tough ACC series against NC St

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8lgNCApaiY



Can't wait for May (and, /ducks, hopefully June)

 

[Dave Stapleton]

Who would’ve thought it’s baseball that would give BC fans joy this year. BC takes another series from a ranked opponent. Gutsy comeback walk off win in the final game to take the series.

 

[RedOctober3829]

Who would’ve thought it’s baseball that would give BC fans joy this year. BC takes another series from a ranked opponent. Gutsy comeback walk off win in the final game to take the series.

View: https://twitter.com/axcessbaseball/status/1640116881892712451?s=46&t=IVL2VrlFgLlpc3mjGGto8Q

 

[DJnVa]

Got out to see ODU play Marshall yesterday. ODU won 12-2 in 8 innings to improve to 20-4.

They have a lineup full of mashers. They've won games 15-8, 15-4, 19-1, 16-7, 13-0, 23-0 (those 2 over Princeton to win series 36-0), 13-1, and 21-5 (with 8 HRs). They're 4th in nation in average, 3rd in HRs, 3rd in HR/game, 7th in OBP, 2nd in runs/game, 3rd in slugging, 11th in walks, 9th in triples. Six guys in the lineup have an OPS over 1.000, two other regulars are over .930.

Hunter Fitz-Gerald is 8th in nation in HR and when asked why he picked ODU he said: "They hit a lot of home runs.” He's 6'5, 230. Teammate Jake Ticer is 6'7, 245 and hit one over the batter's eye this weekend.

 

[Awesome Fossum]

Texas 5, TAMU 2. Longhorn win streak at 15.

 

[Dave Stapleton]

BC reaches 20 wins after taking another ACC series (this time GTech) after losing the Friday game. Huge test next weekend at Louisville.

 

[Huntington Avenue Grounds]

Northeastern at 22-4, with 10 wins in row, 2nd longest active streak in the nation, head into the baseball Beanpot aganist Harvard on Tuesday to start a 5 game homestand.

 

[AlNipper49]

Dylan Crews of LSU is one of the reasons a lot of their bumper crop of transfers came in. He's not letting them down, hitting almost .600 thus far. He could go hitless in his next 70 at bats and still be hitting over .300. His OPS is sitting around 1.6

 

[RedOctober3829]

D1Baseball.com has their midseason tournament projection up. It's pretty cool that there is a regional made up of 4 northeast teams. They have BC getting the #8 seed and hosting the regional with Northeastern, UConn, and Central CT as the other 3 teams.

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

Duke baseball visits Chestnut Hill this weekend.

Duke's been inconsistent this year. They are second in the county in strikeouts, but that won't last long. They are 12th in ERA. The staff is young, quite green. They lost their #1 Friday night starter, John Santucci (50 Ks) for the season (broken arm). The tragedy is that the kid is from Leominster (Phillips Academy) and had sold 120 friends and family tickets for tonight's game.
Shortstop Alex Mooney is the best player on the team. They can crush fastballs all day long. A kid from V Tech with a filthy slider embarrassed them last weekend.

My niece's kid, James Tallon is lighting it up. He's on track to break the school save record of 11. He's 19 yrs, 7 months old.

I'm accepting wagers on any Tallon / Honeyman matchup.

The family angle here is that James was named after my dad, his great grandfather. My dad was a baseball fanatic and BC class of '30. But his athleticism was confined to a very good short game in golf. Thus, he was student manager of the BC baseball team in the late 1920s. The manager was Hugh Duffy, famously the any-era, all-time, single season batting avg champ with the Boston Beaneaters in 1894 and infamously later involved in the Red Sox' Wille Mays disgrace. He managed BC between stints as Red Sox manager and coach. My dad's memorable encounter with Duffy was when the team was on a train south to play in a tournament. There were a group of nurses on that train heading to a convention. Duffy ordered my dad to check the players' bunks and make sure "there weren't any chippies" in them.' My dad always thought his use of the word 'chippie' was humorous. The dictionary definition of chippie suggests Duffy was a misogynist as well as a racist.

The kid has the ingredients.
James' parents met at Princeton, his dad swam, later PhD worked on decoding the genome. Mom was on the national champion women's rugby team at Princeton and goes on to be a hot shot, big law queen. But more interestingly, I deduced when listening to her under-the-breath commentary while streaming one of his games, is that she is a tiger baseball mom and she has forged a fucking, stone-cold assassin in this kid. His stats and her 7-0 record in front of the world court in Helsinki are one of those times correlation is causation.

My sis and brother in law will be in the stands for the series. My good Catholic sister believes dad is watching it all from up there. My spirituality is a little different. A piece of that kid who saw Babe Ruth pitch in Fenway 37,827 days ago* is taking the mound in Chestnut Hill this weekend.

*stat courtesy of HP12C

 

[Ale Xander]

Duke baseball visits Chestnut Hill this weekend.

Duke's been inconsistent this year. They are second in the county in strikeouts, but that won't last long. They are 12th in ERA. The staff is young, quite green. They lost their #1 Friday night starter, John Santucci (50 Ks) for the season (broken arm). The tragedy is that the kid is from Leominster (Phillips Academy) and had sold 120 friends and family tickets for tonight's game.

BC has free admission for baseball, so not sure how Mr Leominster sold 120 tickets

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

BC has free admission for baseball, so not sure how Mr Leominster sold 120 tickets

Third hand info.
Lighten up Francis.
120 disappointed at any price folks.

 

[Awesome Fossum]

BC has free admission for baseball, so not sure how Mr Leominster sold 120 tickets

That's some impressive arbitrage. Must be a business major.

 

[RedOctober3829]

Saw Northeastern play today. They are extremely good. Well-coached, don't make mistakes, and can pitch the hell out of the ball. Very impressive.

 

[Awesome Fossum]

Really bad managing in Waco from David Pierce. Up 9-5 in the top of the 9th.

ground out
single
wild pitch
walk
wild pitch
walk (four pitches, none close)
HBP (first pitch)
[mound visit]
HBP (first pitch)

Miraculously, the last HBP resulted in a review which gave the Longhorns time to finally get another pitcher warm.

I enjoy college baseball, but when it's bad, it's unwatchable.

 

[Kremlin Watcher]

David Pierce is not the answer in Austin. We had a remarkable run of baseball coaches from Disch to Augie but it appears that our luck has run out with the Pierce hiring. He won't last too long as baseball is truly the one sport at which the University will not tolerate mediocrity. Let's get the next one right.

 

[canderson]

David Pierce is not the answer in Austin. We had a remarkable run of baseball coaches from Disch to Augie but it appears that our luck has run out with the Pierce hiring. He won't last too long as baseball is truly the one sport at which the University will not tolerate mediocrity. Let's get the next one right.

He’s weird. He seems to be able to develop players quite well but makes horrible in game decisions.

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

Tallon vs Honeyman
Like I was saying, stone, cold assassin.
No takers on my wager offer, unfortunately.

With three hitless innings of relief, Tallon picks up two saves in the series. He's tied for 5th (with six other guys) in the nation with eight.
Big thrill for grandma to see him live.

 

[RedOctober3829]

Big week for BC baseball. They host #15 UConn tomorrow night then go down to Chapel Hill for the weekend.

 

[Dave Stapleton]

Big week for BC baseball. They host #15 UConn tomorrow night then go down to Chapel Hill for the weekend.

Bad loss to UConn but starts off the weekend with an extra innings win for their first win in Chapel Hill after 17 tries. A series win would be huge after regressing a bit the last couple weeks.

 

[AMS25]

OU baseball has had atrocious pitching all year. But, the Sooners beat Texas 2-1 last night? And are leading the Longhorns 8-0 today? Are the Texas hitters slumping or something?

 

[Dave Stapleton]

BC takes second game of series 9-4. Flynn does it again. Can play loose tomorrow!!

 

[AMS25]

OU baseball has had atrocious pitching all year. But, the Sooners beat Texas 2-1 last night? And are leading the Longhorns 8-0 today? Are the Texas hitters slumping or something?

LOL -- Sooners sweep the Longhorns. This will probably be the high point of OU's season, just like OU basketball's defeat of Alabama. Oh well. At least OU did SOMETHING notable in baseball this year.

 

[Dave Stapleton]

BC Sweeps UNC at Chapel Hill!! Huge bounce back weekend. Say it again. Who would’ve thought baseball would bring joy to BC sports fans this year.

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

Duke sweeps Louisville. On Saturday, our boy James with his first blown save (ump was squeezing him) but gets the W out of it anyway, and then gets the save today!

Tough schedule ahead with road series at Virginia and Miami.

 

[kenneycb]

BC Sweeps UNC at Chapel Hill!! Huge bounce back weekend. Say it again. Who would’ve thought baseball would bring joy to BC sports fans this year.

Who would’ve thought sports would bring any joy to BC fans this year?

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

Duke goes 15-3 in April with weekend series road wins against BC and Virginia and a home sweep against Louisville.
They've cracked a pair of top 10 rankings and sit atop the Coastal division of the ACC.

They've done this with their pre-season #1 and #2 starters out for the season (Fox - Santucci) and virtually no production from three highly touted (top 100) freshman pitchers.
Coach Pollard is playing small ball, not letting opposing batters get a second look at most pitchers. Gow, Higgins, Healy looks to be a decent set of starters and Oschell III and Tallon on the back end are beyond solid.
The offense hits lots of bombs.

Tallon is likely to tie or break the Duke, single-season save record of 11. He has 9 now. I put his name in the thread title, and he's doing his fam proud.

 

[Huntington Avenue Grounds]

Northeastern has made the top 25 poll for the 1st time in program history. Wins over #9 UConn, #10 Duke, and #19 BC, an 8 game winning streak and 7 weekend series winning streak got them there. They even catch a brake with a cancelation of an RPI killing game with Stonehill. Huge game at #23 Maryland looming next Tuesday, they are getting close to that at-large bid should they lose the conference tourney.

 

[AlNipper49]

LSU is now basically appointment baseball for anyone who even has a passing interesting in college baseball. Dylan Crews may be the best hitter to come out of college in a long time. Skenes, the kid who transferred over from the Air Force, is a top five pitching prospect type.

The other interesting one to atch is Chase Dollander from TN. Elite, elite pitching prospect. a clear #1 pick in a world that Dylan Crews does not exist.

 

[BigJimEd]

Bama fires Coach Bohannon amid reports of suspicious betting activity.

Alabama has fired baseball head coach Brad Bohannon following an ESPN report regarding "suspicious wagering activity" related to the team's games. New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are no longer allowing bettors to place wagers on the Crimson Tide's games while an investigation is ongoing.

"Alabama director of athletics Greg Byrne announced he has initiated the termination process for head baseball coach Brad Bohannon for, among other things, violating the standards, duties, and responsibilities expected of University employees," the school said in a statement on Thursday. "Bohannon has been relieved of all duties and Jason Jackson will serve as the interim head coach. There will be no further comment at this time pending an ongoing review."

Bohannon and interim head coach Jason Jackson are also being sued by a former player due to alleged mistreatment of an injury.

According to ESPN's report, the Ohio Casino Control Commission suspended betting on the team's baseball games after U.S. Integrity, which is a Las Vegas independent company, detected some suspicious bets on Friday's Alabama/LSU game. According to NOLA.com, there are a parlay involving Alabama/LSU as well as a "large" straight bet on LSU to win.

Those wagers were placed at the BetMGM sportsbook at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.


Alabama pitcher Luke Holman was slated to start that contest, but reliever Hagan Banks was told an hour before the game that he would be starting instead.

 

[Humphrey]

Other than the CWS, perhaps, the amount of action on a college baseball game must be smaller than small. I doubt it took very long to figure out who was behind these wagers.