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Rice Baseball: Jose Cruz Jr. brings in immediate reinforcements

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Rice baseball hit the Transfer Portal hard this summer, adding several reinforcements that will help the Owls on the field next season.

Newly named Rice baseball head coach Jose Cruz Jr. hit the ground running in Houston roughly one month ago. He hasn’t slowed down his pace since. In the past few weeks he’s hired pitching coaching Colter Bostick, invited current Houston Astros’ star Alex Bregman to stop by Reckling Park and hammered the Transfer Portal.

Rice baseball has picked up commitments from three new Owls, all of which have the potential to make an impact for the team on the diamond in 2022. Here’s a quick rundown of the new commits:

Tom Vincent, LHP – Texas A&M

Vincent was a two-way player during his days at Memorial High School in Houston, hitting .545 his senior year at the plate with a 2.55 ERA on the mound. He signed with Texas A&M last year but did not play for the Aggies during the 2021 season. Perfect Game tabbed him as the No. 10 LHP in Texas in his class. He has four years of eligibility remaining.

Drew Woodcox, SS – Texas Tech

Woodcox played his high school ball at Lamar High School and made his collegiate debut this spring. He played sparingly for Texas Tech, tallying just 36 official at bats with seven hits, a .167 average. Perfect Game ranked him as the No. 49 player in the state of Texas coming out of high school. He has three years of eligibility remaining.

Jack Reidel, INF – North Carolina

A versatile infielder, Reidel is also returning home to Houston. The former Houston Memorial product saw limited action at North Carolina this past season, participating in eight games with two hits in 10 at bats, both of which came in his collegiate debut against James Madison. Reidel was the No. 19 player in the state of Texas coming out of high school and according to Mark Berman, drew interest from Texas A&M and TCU before choosing Rice.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 82 – Previewing UAB Football with Evan Dudley

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Evan Dudley of AL.com joins us this week to preview the 2021 UAB football season as we continue in our preseason Conference USA previews.

August is right around the corner as we march on through our preview of the 2021 Rice football season and the Owls’ opponents. This week we’re joined by Evan Dudley who covers UAB football with AL.com. He gives us his take on the Blazers and helps preview their 2021 season. UAB persevered through a choppy 2020 season but still managed to secure a conference championship despite their many challenges. Can they provide an encore performance in 2021?

Be sure to stick around for the lightning round and check out his answers to a selection of UAB and Conference USA related topics. You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 82.

Episode Notes

  • Housekeeping
    • Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice. Every little bit helps.
    • Please support us on Patreon. Be the first to get the inside scoop on what’s going on with Rice football and stick around for even further analysis. That includes our debriefing series on spring football, recruiting news and more.
      Become a Patron!
    • Pick up your copy of the Rice Football or Conference USA Season Preview today or as it’s been called by others, The Bible for Conference USA!
  • Evan Dudley joins the show — Evan shares his insight on UAB football’s hard-fought 2020 season and the outlook for the Blazers in 2021, including:
    • UAB’s path to a conference championship in 2020
    • The Komodo Dragon question
    • Expectations for 2021
    • Loki and the Marvel Cinematic Universe
    • The Lightning Round

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

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Conference USA Baseball: Updated list of 2021 MLB Draft picks

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Conference USA Baseball had 14 players selected in the 2021 MLB Draft. Here’s the updated list of those drafted players.

The 2021 MLB Draft took place over three days, beginning Sunday, July 11 and wrapping up on Tuesday, July 13. The draft was held in Denver in featured 612 selections. It was expanded to 20 rounds this year after a limited 5-Round draft in 2020. Conference USA Baseball had 14 players selected from eight different programs, capping off a season that featured four teams selected for NCAA postseason play.

Southern Miss outfielder Reed Trimble was the highest selection, the first of three picks for the Golden Eagles, which tied Old Dominion for the most selections by any Conference USA baseball program this year. None of the 14 selected players were chosen by the same team, each will don a unique uniform to begin their professional career. The 18th round featured three C-USA selections, the most of any round.

Rice, Marshall, UTSA, UTEP and Western Kentucky did not have any players selected. The complete list of 2021 MLB Draft selections is featured below.

Conference USA Baseball 2021 MLB Draft selections

RD Pick Team Pos Player School
2 65 Orioles OF Reed Trimble Southern Mississippi
7 220 Padres LHP Ryan Och Southern Mississippi
8 242 Blue Jays RHP Hunter Gregory Old Dominion
9 268 Astros RHP Aaron Brown Middle Tennessee
9 259 Royals OF Parker Bates Louisiana Tech
11 336 Indians RHP Hunter Stanley Southern Mississippi
13 398 Athletics RHP Aaron Holiday Old Dominion
14 416 Giants RHP Tyler Myrick Florida International
15 454 Cubs 3B BJ Murray Florida Atlantic
16 481 Cardinals C Aaron McKeithan Charlotte
18 534 Mariners RHP Riley Davis UAB
18 537 Brewers RHP Ryne Moore Old Dominion
18 530 Rockies RHP Bryce McGowan Charlotte
20 600 Reds RHP Javi Rivera Florida Atlantic
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Conference USA Football: Breaking down C-USA Championship Odds

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The 2021 Conference USA Football Championship race is going to be wide open again this year. Who are the best bets to take home the crown?

First, the obligatory disclaimer —  The Roost is not a gambling site and is not advocating that anyone place any bets, just providing information. With that said, the odds markets are interesting right now regarding the 2021 Conference USA football championship. We’re using the latest odds from ATS.io.

In layman’s terms, +100 Odds equate to a 50 percent implied probably. When putting that into context here, Marshall’s +253 odds to win Conference USA means odds markets given the Thundering Herd a 28.3 percent chance of winning the title. On the other side of the chart, UTEP is +10,000 to win the conference, essentially a 1.0 percent chance.

In practice, positive numbers indicate how much a better would win if he placed a $100 bet. Wagering a Benjamin Franklin on UTEP could pay off handsomely in 2021 was somehow the Miners’ year.

Everyone else is somewhere in between and can be bucketed into a few groups.

The Favorites | Marshall (+253), UAB (+270), UTSA (+350)

UAB and UTSA finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the West last year. Marshall won the East. All three teams return deep and talented rosters, making it hard to decipher who’s odds are the best. As interesting of a bet as UTSA is, the Roadrunners played eight one-score games last year and don’t carry the same level of cache as the Blazers or the Thundering Herd. At +350, they’re not getting a newcomer discount. UAB and Marshall are the safer picks here.

The Subtle Values | FAU (+800), WKU (+933)

The next rung of teams provides longer odds, but more value if things break the right way. Coincidentally enough, both teams have strong defenses and are looking for an answer at quarterback. WKU brings in highly touted HBU transfer Bailey Zappe. If he lives up to expectations and Marshall stumbles at all, it wouldn’t take too much imagination to see the Hilltoppers in the Championship Game.

The Most Intriguing Bets | Rice (+1566), Southern Miss (+1933)

Southern Miss is breaking in a new head coach and a new quarterback, but the roster is more talented than their forgotten 2020 season might lead others to believe. That said, it’s hard to not consider Rice the best value on the board. The Owls are projected to have one of the best defenses in Conference USA and add transfer quarterback Luke McCaffrey. If he can give them a jolt, the defense could carry this team all the way to the Championship Game. If you’re going beyond the top three, Rice is a great value.

The Longshots | Louisiana Tech (+2866),  North Texas (+2933), Old Dominion (+2933)

These three teams have a combined three Conference USA Football Championship Game appearances in their collective histories. Mason Fine has since departed North Texas and Louisiana Tech hasn’t broken through under Skip Holtz and Old Dominion is breaking in a new coach after not playing football last fall. Out of this trio, Tech’s experience makes it the only reasonable long shot to take.

The No Shots | MTSU (+3200), Charlotte (+3200), FIU (+3766), UTEP (+10000)

It’s rare for any team that finished below .500 the season prior to making the jump to conference champion. While that bar might be somewhat easier to reach in Conference USA than the SEC, it’s still not a good bet to happen. Unless you’re seeking a novelty souvenir ticket, none of these four teams has a realistic route to a championship. For many, getting back to .500 isn’t even guaranteed.

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Rice Baseball: 2021 Summer Ball – All-Star Break Update

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Current, former and incoming Rice baseball players are participating in Summer Ball leagues around the country. Here’s the latest on those Owls.

First a quick note on rosters. I’ve tracked down all players that I could find with listed statistics, but I know there are others playing ball this summer. If you come across information on anyone else associated with Rice baseball playing summer ball, please send it my way. You can leave it in the comments or send it to me some other way. Thanks!

Hitters

Everyone has seemingly gotten in on the fun at the plate this summer. Four different Owls enter mid-July with a batting average better than .290. That includes Austin Bulman, Nathan Becker and Cullen Hannigan, each of which earned All-Star recognition in their respective leagues for their tremendous performances to this point in the season.

Those four have done the bulk of the damage for the Rice bats. Hal Hughes picked up his first home run of the summer. He, Justin Long and William Burbank all notched their first extra base hits of the season over the past two weeks as well.

Hitting Stats

Pitchers

Micah Davis, Matthew Linskey and Dalton Wood each had outings since the last update with Davis settling into form. He struck out eight batters over 4.2 innings across two separate outings, upping his summer K count from two to double-digits in a short window. Linskey did allow his first earned run of the summer, but has maintained a microscopic 0.96 ERA.

Pitching Stats

*All stats as of July 23 taken from league and team websites.

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