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I'll be darned. My password still works. Some topics you can't resist. I see Trautner assuming Barraza's long reluef role, hopefully with fewer runs allowed.

The pitching picture is complicated with Blais, Loar, and Barraza's graduations. This is how I think the rotation + bullpen look for now:

Rotation (in some order):
Sasaki
Brown
Hannah
The Crocodile Hunter

Bullpen
Trautner
Tucker- JC transfer
Justin Smith- JC transfer
Moffitt
Rodriguez
Wieser
Mascio- RS freshman
Andres Lara
Meredith-- freshman
Wesolowsky-freshman
Jordan- freshman
Peng- freshman ? (likely to spend more time catching)

Closer:Tucker or Smith

I left Torres, Spezia, + Lyford out as I don't know about their respective statuses for next year.

And the lineup while I'm at it:

C:Denholm
1B:Myers/Briggs
2B:Van Blake
SS:Murray
3B:Arenado
LF: Matt Smith or Colton Evans
CF:Kelly
RF:Morrison- JC transfer
DH: Myers and others

Dr Mike The team is not very good, and the less I say about that the better.

If I may hazard a UC Davis - educated guess or seven before I sign off this site for good I believe I have an idea of what happened.

We have two clues so far. 1. We know that Chima was suspended for violating team rules at the hotel and 2. UC Davis is attempting to smooth things over with the hotel.

Think back to when you were in school and travelled with your sports team, club, or class. What rules did you have in the hotel ? Probably chief among them were some subset of the following:

-A set curfew and lights out by a certain time
- Stay out of the mini- bar if there is one
- Don't disturb other guests or break anything
- No parties, rowdy behavior, or loud music.
- No visitors in your room

Now, which of these sounds like the most likely reasons would get you suspended for this long and facing academic review? Probably not staying out late or eating the $20 cashews, but violating any combination of the last 3 could.

Let's look at the other clue. UC Davis is attempting to resolve things with the hotel. When you read that you just know that the hotel suffered financial damages as a result of China's actions. That suggests that either property was destroyed or the hotel lost money refunding or accommodating angry guests that were disturbed by the behavior. Probably both in this case.

So where does this lead us ? Taking our previous assumptions together leads to a slightly less murky picture. One initial guess I had- that Chima had gotten into a fight at the hotel bar or restaurant- didn't pass muster because that seems out of character for him. Besides, a fight would likely have resulted in the police being called , and there would be a police record. If there were a police record a lot more would be known about the case.

Here's what I think happened:

Chima met some locals or perhaps even other hotel guests when he was out with the team having a meal or whatever. And you know by that I mean women. One thing leads to another and Chima invites his new friends to visit him in his room later to watch The Lion King and talk about how silly New Zealand is. One of the guests sneaks in some alcohol (or raids the mini- bar) and maybe another brings some drugs. There's loud music. People get drunk or high and furniture and mirrors/Windows start getting broken. There's your property damage. Guests in neighboring rooms complain to hotel management. They can't sleep. They want other rooms or refunds. Perhaps the hotel contacts the team representatives first, who break up the party before the police can be called.

Maybe Chima wasn't an active participant in these activities, but he's responsible for his guest's behavior, especially because he wasn't supposed to have any.

UC Davis is attempting to fix everything on the down- low with the hotel because this is very negative publicity for the University- it doesn't want to be seen as another Chico State. Chima is likely facing academic review because as an ambassador of the school he represented it very poorly in that instance.

Of course there's another explanation- that Chima is really a video game lion king/knight of the same name and tore the place apart looking for evildoers or power- ups of some kind.

There is one loose end- how did his roommate on the trip not get punished as well ? Perhaps they had a verifiable alibi for those hours. I can't imagine he got his own room.

And now I am done. It's time to go to trial. Cue the Law and Order music. And much like a mid- 80's fastball thrown by an Aggie pitcher to a Fullerton hitter I am OUT OF HERE !

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The Aggies also came close to defeating current San Francisco Giants pitcher Ty Blach in the opener (4 earned runs in six innings), but the bullpen couldn't hold the lead.

As the athletics website preview mentioned all the Aggie losses against the Blue Jays have been very close games. The only game out of the 3 in Davis I saw was the rubber game in the 2012 series. Aggie starter Tom Briner was injured 4 innings in, and the bullpen couldn't hold Creighton.

As an aside Briner was really a hard- luck pitcher in 2012. He also lost a 1- 0 game to Pacific in which he threw a complete game and the Aggies had 10 hits !

And the Aggies lose 14- 7. The difference in the game was 7 unearned runs. Nice pitching debut for Ryan Rodriguez- 2 scoreless.

Even if they lose tomorrow this will be a highly successful series. I'd swear UC Davis was Wile E. Coyote for all the trouble the Roadrunners have caused Aggie sports teams in my time, especially men's basketball, baseball, softball, and volleyball. Feels good to see the dynamite get the darn bird for a change.

I was at a bit of an offensive game myself in Santa Clara. Boston College was up 9- 6 in the bottom of the 7th when suddenly they couldn't stop plunking batters- at least 4 in a row at 1 point and 7 in the inning.. Santa Clara scored 14 times in the inning on the strength of first baseman Jake Brodt's two grand slams (he had 10 rbi in the game- 3 homeruns ). Think it's safe to say Schott Stadium is a lil' hitter- friendly. I think only one of them would've been out of the park at Dobbins. Also helps to explain how a team with 49 HR last year only won 13 games. Well, for now they're a .500 team.

Here we go- BC hit 10 batters in the game, the same guy twice in the 7th. The #9 hitter was plunked three times in the game. Not a single ejection or warning from the umpire.

According to the article I read after the game, Brodt's 2 grand slams in the 7th represented only the 7th time in NCAA Division I history (since they started keeping records in 1957) that this has been accomplished., and the last time was about 17 years ago.

And that's a final (15- 1)- what I believe is Chris Brown's first victory as a starter. 3 scoreless innings from freshman Brett Erwin.

Chase Lyford, LHP Saddleback JC was (6- 5) 3.28 as a starter last year, according to California Community College Baseball Association. Better record than Trautner, but it's relative to context. Next year's team may be a little heavier than previous seasons in terms of JC transfers, when you take into account the 3 coming in next year + The 3- 4 this year (Trautner, Lyford, Spezia, and possibly Joseph Torres on whom I can't find any info) +Houston Roberts- if he plays next year.

Edit: The only info I can find suggests that Joe Torres (from La Crescenta, CA) was a reliever at Glendale Community College and also spent a season at Point Loma Nazarene. If this is the right Joe Torres then he went 2- 3 with a 5.52 ERA in 2017 per cccbca.com . Pretty good considering it looks he just recently took up pitching.

Here's a new name for the bullpen- Dylan Spezia. Pitched at Sierra College as a reliever. Redshirted as a freshman at SAC State.. According to CCCBCA.com he pitched 8 innings (9.00 ERA) relief as a sophomore, and only played infield as a Red shirt freshman. Well, Sierra College, like most good college programs, is very competitive for playing time. That small sample is probably not indicative of how good he'll be for UCD.

It's up, guys !

Well, according to what you and Aggiebaseball have observed sounds like we have at least Ryan Rodriguez, Jared Sasaki, Daniel Barraza, and Brock Moffitt to go with Loar and Trautner. Added to the 4 starters that gives us 10 pitchers. If Matt Mascio and Andres Lara are still with the team we have 12. Probably 1 or 2 more pitchers we haven't named yet. Tough to name a stopper from this group. I'm guessing Rodriguez, with Trautner getting some multi- inning save opportunities. I don't know that we'll have any Red shirts among the pitchers not due to injury. With the inexperienced rotation we'll need the bullpen more than last year.

Still no roster, but a series preview is up. Looks like our rotation is Blais- Brown- Hannah.

It's unusual for most schools to wait this long to release a roster, but not so much for UCD. I understand why they wait until after New Year's. The results of December finals can result in some players becoming academically ineligible. I think it's more a communication breakdown. Baseball is not really one of the big priority sports, so I don't think the athletics dept is setting firm deadlines and getting on the baseball program to release this info in a timely manner. If they were requiring Vaughn to get it done faster he would.

I also think it's a university preference to try to get the media guide online first so all the players' bios and photos are up too + they have a finished product. It never works out that way though. I've seen both extremes. In 2003 (Rex Peters' first season) the roster was up in December 2002. In 2015 it wasn't finalized online until the 2nd game of the season (I believe Grant Henderson was injured and Elijah Ontiveros was added). Of course the official roster is what Davis submits to the NCAA and it's opponents so what we see may not accurately reflect where they are with it.

Thanks. It sounded like an easy walk. Lots of people talk about how rough Berkeley is, but I'm sure that particular area can't be that bad as students are likely using ithat BART station all the time. Any decent restaurants (including fast food) in that 4 block area ? Weather permitting I might go next weekend. Would be nice to see Bakersfield take a beating without having to go to Bakersfield

They usually have it up right when they do their opening series preview, so probably Thursday at the earliest.

There is one clue in the team photo with J.J. Huish. I thought I counted 35 players in the picture, unless one of them is a coach I don't know about. So likely a full roster.

As it turns out 1 of those players is not Diego Fisher. That was obvious to me when he pinch- hit and played some left field for De Anza College on Saturday vs. SAC City. Interesting that De Anza has him listed as an outfielder and not a pitcher/outfielder. You'd think a player recruited primarily to pitch at UC Davis would be one of the best options on a junior college team, unless it's one of those super- competitive JC's like Chipola (FL) where players go to get drafted.

Fisher can swing the bat, although I suppose it's all relative to context. SAC City's cleanup hitter Kody Gardner has I believe 18 RBI through 8 games (a season's worth for many good players), but he hit .133 with SAC State last year.

Have you ever attended any games at Evans Diamond in Berkeley as a player, coach, or spectator ? Thinking of attending a game this year,(probably a day game, eliminating the Davis contest). From the photos I've seen, except for the posters of star players and the stadium lights, it looks like Dobbins has it beat. Those benches look mighty uncomfortable. I've heard mixed reviews on the neighborhood near the park. The CAL baseball fan site has some helpful directions for how to get there from BART, but they might be intended for Stanford fans they hope will get lost on the way there !

I appreciate that you are trying to keep the peace without appearing to take sides. Unfortunately you failed at the latter. I can tell when I'm being placated.

All this business about making it a welcoming place for opposing fans- do you take me for a child or some sort of simpleton who doesn't know how to act ? I could give a rat's behind if opposing fans want to visit as long as they mind their manners. This one didn't. Any value he created on one useful article doesn't give him a free pass to make asinine, borderline bigoted remarks, even in jest. If he's such a good person, what is gauchoreg doing to diffuse the situation ? Apologizing for being out of line ? No, he's making snide remarks. He was put in his place, and instead of being this good person he kept it up.

And you are siding with him ? Well, you made your choice. I'm afraid you backed the wrong horse however.

And where are the rest of you posters in all of this ? I stick up for one of you, and the rest of you can't be bothered to join in ? Well, I see how it is. You can have all the trolls you want. I'm done with this site.

No need to reply. I have also made my choice.

Now if you'll excuse me I have some posts to delete.