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Texas opens their college baseball season on February 17 against Duke. The Longhorns will have to break in some youth, thanks to season-ending preseason injuries to Cohl Walla and Sam Stafford.
Texas Longhorns senior pitcher Sam Stafford has suffered a shoulder injury and will miss the 2012 college baseball season, according to Alan Trubow of the Austin American Statesman.
This is a tough blow on multiple levels for Stafford and the Longhorns. For Stafford personally, the injury comes months after saying no to the Yankees and returning to school after they drafted him in the second round in last June’s draft. Depending on his recovery process, Stafford will likely have to accept a minimal pro signing bonus with the hope that his arm bounces back.
For the Longhorns, they lose one of their two top pitchers and one of the top five Big 12 prospects for the next draft, according to Baseball America. The injury means that Hoby Milner will be joined by Nathan Thornhill and John Curtiss as Augie Garrido’s likely set of weekend starters.
Just five days ago the Longhorns found out that they would be without outfielder Cohl Walla for the season after he tore his ACL in practice. Texas doesn’t have a ready replacement for Walla.
Baseball America's college baseball preview edition hits newsstands this week, and Thursday they released their Big 12 capsules full of information on top players and the nine teams competing in the conference this year. In BA's preseason Top 25 (released in January), Texas A&M led the way for the conference at No. 7 in the nation. Texas is at No. 13 - two spots above TCU.
In the conference preview they predict that the two big Texas schools will dominate the conference in their final season together, each posting a conference record of 19-8, while only No. 19 Oklahoma finishes with a .500 record of better among rest of the group. Baylor is projected at 13-14 in conference, but they and Missouri are projected as tournament teams in addition to the top three.
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Big 12 Places 5 Players On The Preseason Golden Spikes Watch List
The Big 12 are well represented on the USA Baseball preseason Golden Spikes Award Watch List as five baseball student-athletes were nominated.The Golden Spikes Award Watch List highlights the top 50 college baseball players coming into 2012 season.
The Texas Longhorns placed two pitchers on the list as Corey Knebel and Hoby Milner will look to push the Longhorns to a Big 12 championship this Spring. Knebel is currently rated as the No. 2 pitcher in the conference this season.
The Texas A&M Aggies have three players on the watch list. The trio of Tyler Naquin, Ross Stripling and Michael Wacha make the Aggies tied with second-most players in the NCAA.
Its no surprise that the Longhorns and the Aggies are considered the favorites to win the conference, with the Oklahoma Sooners the other team predicted to keep the conference standings close. This will be the final season of Big 12 play for the Aggies as they move over to the SEC in the summer.
The 2012 Big 12 baseball season began on Friday, Feb. 17 and conference play will kick off the weekend of March 16.
Feb 19 1:47p by Eddie Maisonet