Is there reason for concern with the Texas Baseball offense?

The story of the last two weeks has been separated into three main points of interest.

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Despite Texas remaining the No. 2 team in the country, two of those POIs are negative.

Firstly, the Longhorns have lost a pair of midweeks to far less talented teams like Tarleton State and Houston, not to mention blown leads against SEC opponents on Fridays. If we’re using the literal definition of weekdays, clocking in has not been Texas’ forte.

Those late collapses bring us to bullpen problems. Just hit the Inside Texas Baseball tab at the top of our website and you’ll see plenty of discussion on those arms.

On the positive side, Texas is still 4-2 in the SEC with two series wins, playing two teams that I believe are THE most underrated in the conference. Ole Miss has two elite bats and a great rotation, with a bullpen that intrigues me. Auburn has the best staff in the conference, and nearly beat a great Longhorn team.

But why aren’t people talking about Texas’ bats?

In those two midweek losses, the Longhorns scored a combined eight runs off of just five hits, only two for extra bases. Baseball is obviously more than a game of hits; you have to work counts into walks and run the bases well to score. Texas did that, walking 11 times and scoring seven runs. Quite a few of these walks came on deeper counts, but the Longhorns left 10 on base, and just one of 13 batters in the final four innings reached base.

Texas is averaging seven runs per game in SEC play this year, a solid mark against Ole Miss and especially Auburn. Against the Rebels, they scored eight or more in all three games, while Auburn’s great arms nullified them on Friday (outside of two Aiden Robbins nukes). They bounced back on Saturday and Sunday, scoring seven and five runs with Robbins, Carson Tinney, Casey Borba and even Maddox Monsour turning up with the bats. Anthony Pack also walked four times and scored two runs. Jayden Duplantier hit his first career homer.

Clearly, some things are working for this team, but it’s hard to ignore the struggles in midweeks and the late-inning hitting.

In innings 7-9 over Texas’ last five games, Texas is 4/50 with just one run, the Robbins homer on Friday.

Four hits in 50 ABs, to go along with eight walks and a reach on error, which I guess is nice. Still, that’s a .220 OBP, one XBH and one run. THAT is where I sound the alarm.

The problem has been that Texas finds runs early, six against Auburn on SAT, five against Auburn on SUN, seven against Houston in the first five innings of the last three games, but they haven’t scored in the seventh or onwards.

That puts even more pressure on the bullpen, as the offense falls asleep at the wheel once they take an early lead.

Now, this wasn’t a problem against Ole Miss, despite the extra innings loss on Friday. It may just be a blip, but look out for that tonight and over the weekend.

Looking individually, these are the stats in conference play.

Keep in mind, they haven’t been good in the midweek, either, which doesn’t factor in. Duplantier and Rodriguez would have a better OBP, and Tinney hit that homer against Tarleton, but most other rates go down.

You can see Texas’ top three bats here, which I mentioned earlier. Robbins has been a superstar with a 1.134 OPS and a .720 slugging. Meteoric numbers. Tinney has been good, and Borba has been even better. Three homers will play.

But as you can see, the OBP rates are low. Robbins and Duplantier are the only solidified starters with a .400 or higher OBP. Adrian Rodriguez and Ethan Mendoza are at .310 and below, comfortably the worst in the lineup.

You can handle Temo Becerra struggling a bit, or Anthony Pack not quite being a star yet, but your No. 1, and No. 4 hitters are far and away the most important OBP/AVG hitters in the modern game. Having them both be not just below average, but bad with the bats, has been a clear weakness for Texas.

Head coach Jim Schlossnagle has no plans to change the order, which means Texas needs more from its leadoff spot, as well as the 4-6. Every other spot in the order has been great; Robbins after Tinney, Borba late in the order, Duplantier has been good, that No. 9 spot between Monsour, Larson, Livingston and eventually Presley Courville has been surprisingly awesome. All four could start for this team.

Schloss said Mendoza made a physical tweak to his game before the night on Tuesday, and that resulted in two really good 3-2 walks and a strong double. I feel good that he’ll be back to normal.

Pack and Becerra aren’t much of a concern, either. Both have been working a ton of deep ABs, the swings just aren’t turning into hits. They’re No. 1-2 on the team in walks in SEC play. Pitchers just aren’t attacking them, which has set up Borba well. You just hope they combine for more than four hits, one XBH, over this weekend.

Rodriguez continues to scare me, but at this point, you just have to live with it. He’s been playing hurt all year and was also the worst bat in OOC play, though it was still better than his current. He’s yet to hit a HR, and the power is noticeably behind from when he joined the team last year. It’s good he dropped weight to help him defensively, but that, combined with a lingering hand injury, has led to a steep drop-off in his ability to drive the ball deep.

Overall, the only spots I have true concern about are late in games. They need to keep the foot on the gas. That was one of their biggest strengths earlier in the year, so we know it’s something they can do, but it just hasn’t shown up recently.

This weekend would be a great time for Mendoza and Rodriguez to get back on track. Either way, the Horns are going to need that Tinney and Robbins star power against a great Oklahoma pitching staff.

The Sooners are the No. 8 team in the country, No. 7 in power ratings, and rank inside the top-20 in strikeouts per nine.

But they also walk batters at a high rate, and when the ball hits the field, their gloves tend to play themselves into problems. This is where Texas’ emphasis on plate discipline and explosive base running can play a factor.

If the bullpen can figure out its woes, and the offense can clean up just a little bit of what’s been hurting them, Texas easily wins this series and reminds fans why they’re seen as a consensus top-two team in the nation.