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Texas A&M Baseball: Aggies Ready for Another SEC Test Against Auburn

By Matthew McNairy

Jul 20, 2016; Seattle, WA, USA; A baseball rests on top of the mound before a game between the Seattle Mariners and Chicago White Sox at Safeco Field. Seattle defeated Chicago, 6-5, in eleven innings. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 20, 2016; Seattle, WA, USA; A baseball rests on top of the mound before a game between the Seattle Mariners and Chicago White Sox at Safeco Field. Seattle defeated Chicago, 6-5, in eleven innings. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports /
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At the Plate

The Auburn batters do not often go yard; in fact they’ve hit the fewest home runs in the SEC (nine total with no batter hitting more than two out of the park). This however, does not mean they have a weak offense. The Tigers are more of a middle of the pack team relative to the SEC. They are 7th the SEC in runs scored, 8th in on base percentage and 6th in hits.

Auburn’s best batters are CF Jonah Todd (.357 avg. 17 RBI), 1B Daniel Robert (.325avg, 2 HRs and 26 RBI), and RF Jay Estes (.297 avg. 13 RBI). It will be intriguing to see how this offense performs further into SEC play. In SEC play four of the regular starters are batting .227 or worse. I see A&M’s pitching having the upper hand in this matchup, especially on Friday with Brigham Hill on the mound.

On the Mound

The Tigers form a formidable one-two punch in the starting rotation with Keegan Thompson and Casey Mize. There is some uncertainty about the full availability of Thompson this weekend, who missed his last start with a shoulder injury.

Both pitchers go about their success in different ways. Thompson does not strike out as many batters as Mize does (26 K’s over 30.2 innings compared to Mize’s 63 K’s in 45.2 innings). What Thompson does have is a stellar WHIP well under 1.000 and holds batters to a .158 average. Mize isn’t far behind. He has a WHIP slightly over 1.000 and a .232 batting average against.

The Tigers’ Sunday starter Davis Daniel has nearly a strikeout an inning and his 4.83 ERA is likely due to some timely hitting by opposing batters as his 1.28 WHIP does not seem to correlate with a rather high ERA. The A&M offense leads the SEC in strikeouts so pitchers with a high K/9 ratio are a point of concern. On the bullpen side, Cole Lipscomb is one of the better closers in the SEC with a 2.36 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP.