Thoughts Heading Into The Final Week

[StarkVegasSteve]

Crushing loss yesterday and series loss in general. We had an opportunity to sweep the series and to only come away with one sucks. However, we do not need to let that cloud the fact that we knew we needed one going into the weekend and.....WE GOT ONE. There's a lot to like, a lot to hate, and a lot that falls in the middle in regards to how this season has played out:

1. I'll start with the 600 lb elephant in the room, LEMONIS IS NOT GETTING FIRED. It's not happening. The only way he is not in the dugout next February is if he voluntarily leaves for another HC position.

2. It's ok to be pissed about how some of the games have gone, but still admit that we have drastically improved. Have we given some games away, ABSOLUTELY. But we also have won quite a few that we would have lost in the last two years. Saturday night is a prime example. Also the Sunday game at Vandy. Look we have dropped our fair share of games we had no business losing, but we have also won our fair share that we had no business winning.

3. Whether you want to give Lemonis credit or not, his hits out of the portal this year have helped us a ton. If we didn't have Khal Stephen, we would be a .500 ball team with a losing SEC record. Kohler has really started to come on. And despite their offensive inefficiencies, if we didn't have Long and Powell, we would be doomed.

4. Saying that, we missed on not getting a closer. Now whether that was supposed to be Holcombe, Auger, Dohm, Simmons, or whoever else you want to throw in there we do not have a true closer. Hardin is decent, but he doesn't have a go to pitch when he needs a K. Is what it is.

5. Injuries have hurt this team more than anyone is saying. Dohm being out took away either a closer or a weekend starter. Highfill being out took away a catcher and a bat with some pop. Mikhai Grant missing the season was a huge loss that no avg fan knows about. That's a guy that could be our Sunday starter right now. Stone Simmons just not being able to get healthy is another piece that we could've had. The fact that we're where we are with the amount of injuries is borderline incredible.

6. Justin Parker was worth every dime we paid him.

7. Cam Schuelke is a matchup guy in conference play. He cannot be counted on for extended innings. He has no blow away stuff other than the spinner and the umps are still trying to figure out how to properly have a strike zone for him.

8. Cjintje is going to pitch very little, if at all, LH for the remainder of the season. This is by design from him and the staff. His stuff from the right is electric and is what he's being drafted on.

9. Hines and Jordan need to be more consistent. That simple. They need to play to their potential the rest of the way for us to reach ours. They also play markedly better at home and that is why we need to host.

10. As much as I hate to agree with C34 on this because Chance is a fighter, he does have the weakest arm in the outfield. That does not take away from his bat though. He is very smart at the plate and we need to keep him in the leadoff spot.

11. This weekend we need to define the bullpen. We need to find 3-5 arms and roll. They need to understand that the kid gloves are off. They're going to have to pitch 2 times, and in an emergency, maybe three times a weekend. My guess is that those arms will be Auger, Davis, Hardin, Dohm(if healthy), Ligon, and Kohn. At least one out of Ligon, Kohn, and Auger is probably going to have to start Game 3. Getting Siary back to at least be an opener would be huge. Even if he can only give you 2 innings, it's 2 innings you didn't have.

12. If we can get production 6-9 then we can be dangerous.

13. Last point, enjoy the rest of the season. We can worry about 2025 when we're done with this season. But for now, let's enjoy the one we're in. It's still going and we're still in the hunt.

[Coach34]

As much credit as you give Parker for the staff- he ultimately is to blame on the Closer situation. He has failed in that aspect

I love the “2 and Que” talk when we have arguably as good of a 1-2 punch as anybody in the nation as our SP’s. We havent been beaten on both Friday/Saturday all season. It won’t start in a Regional either

Pico’s start yesterday was encouraging.

Let’s sweep this weekend and guarantee our Host spot

[StarkVegasSteve]

As much credit as you give Parker for the staff- he ultimately is to blame on the Closer situation. He has failed in that aspect

I love the “2 and Que” talk when we have arguably as good of a 1-2 punch as anybody in the nation as our SP’s. We have been beaten on both Friday/Saturday all season. It won’t start in a Regional either

Pico’s start yesterday was encouraging.

Let’s sweep this weekend and guarantee our Host spot

That's probably the one knock on him. Now maybe we planned on it being one or two others and they did pan out. Not finding a closer, as I've said before, is the difference in where we are now and being comfortably a top 8 national seed.

[Tbonewannabe]

Holcombe giving us nothing is the biggest head scratcher. At times last year he showed flashes. He is actually the only pitcher who has gotten worse, everyone else has taken giant steps forward.

[BrunswickDawg]

That's probably the one knock on him. Now maybe we planned on it being one or two others and they did pan out. Not finding a closer, as I've said before, is the difference in where we are now and being comfortably a top 8 national seed.

Closers like we had in Sims or Holder are not normal. The leader in the SEC currently has 7 saves. In SEC only games, the leader in Saves only has 5.
AS a team, in SEC games only, Arkansas leads with 11 Saves, we have 5. That's not a huge discrepancy.
The blown save rate in SEC games has to be huge

[Coach34]

Holcombe giving us nothing is the biggest head scratcher. At times last year he showed flashes. He is actually the only pitcher who has gotten worse, everyone else has taken giant steps forward.

Extremely- especially after early reports were he was throwing well. We have gotten nothing from him, Loftin, Simmons, or Dohm in SEC play yet we are on the cusp of hosting. You can hate all you want- but that’s a helluva coaching job

[Santiago]

Crushing loss yesterday and series loss in general. We had an opportunity to sweep the series and to only come away with one sucks. However, we do not need to let that cloud the fact that we knew we needed one going into the weekend and.....WE GOT ONE. There's a lot to like, a lot to hate, and a lot that falls in the middle in regards to how this season has played out:

1. I'll start with the 600 lb elephant in the room, LEMONIS IS NOT GETTING FIRED. It's not happening. The only way he is not in the dugout next February is if he voluntarily leaves for another HC position.

2. It's ok to be pissed about how some of the games have gone, but still admit that we have drastically improved. Have we given some games away, ABSOLUTELY. But we also have won quite a few that we would have lost in the last two years. Saturday night is a prime example. Also the Sunday game at Vandy. Look we have dropped our fair share of games we had no business losing, but we have also won our fair share that we had no business winning.

3. Whether you want to give Lemonis credit or not, his hits out of the portal this year have helped us a ton. If we didn't have Khal Stephen, we would be a .500 ball team with a losing SEC record. Kohler has really started to come on. And despite their offensive inefficiencies, if we didn't have Long and Powell, we would be doomed.

4. Saying that, we missed on not getting a closer. Now whether that was supposed to be Holcombe, Auger, Dohm, Simmons, or whoever else you want to throw in there we do not have a true closer. Hardin is decent, but he doesn't have a go to pitch when he needs a K. Is what it is.

5. Injuries have hurt this team more than anyone is saying. Dohm being out took away either a closer or a weekend starter. Highfill being out took away a catcher and a bat with some pop. Mikhai Grant missing the season was a huge loss that no avg fan knows about. That's a guy that could be our Sunday starter right now. Stone Simmons just not being able to get healthy is another piece that we could've had. The fact that we're where we are with the amount of injuries is borderline incredible.

6. Justin Parker was worth every dime we paid him.

7. Cam Schuelke is a matchup guy in conference play. He cannot be counted on for extended innings. He has no blow away stuff other than the spinner and the umps are still trying to figure out how to properly have a strike zone for him.

8. Cjintje is going to pitch very little, if at all, LH for the remainder of the season. This is by design from him and the staff. His stuff from the right is electric and is what he's being drafted on.

9. Hines and Jordan need to be more consistent. That simple. They need to play to their potential the rest of the way for us to reach ours. They also play markedly better at home and that is why we need to host.

10. As much as I hate to agree with C34 on this because Chance is a fighter, he does have the weakest arm in the outfield. That does not take away from his bat though. He is very smart at the plate and we need to keep him in the leadoff spot.

11. This weekend we need to define the bullpen. We need to find 3-5 arms and roll. They need to understand that the kid gloves are off. They're going to have to pitch 2 times, and in an emergency, maybe three times a weekend. My guess is that those arms will be Auger, Davis, Hardin, Dohm(if healthy), Ligon, and Kohn. At least one out of Ligon, Kohn, and Auger is probably going to have to start Game 3. Getting Siary back to at least be an opener would be huge. Even if he can only give you 2 innings, it's 2 innings you didn't have.

12. If we can get production 6-9 then we can be dangerous.

13. Last point, enjoy the rest of the season. We can worry about 2025 when we're done with this season. But for now, let's enjoy the one we're in. It's still going and we're still in the hunt.

Good Stuff, and a nice Monday morning read.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Closers like we had in Sims or Holder are not normal. The leader in the SEC currently has 7 saves. In SEC only games, the leader in Saves only has 5.
AS a team, in SEC games only, Arkansas leads with 11 Saves, we have 5. That's not a huge discrepancy.
The blown save rate in SEC games has to be huge

Now that is true. Even Sims was a step up from Holder. We just need someone we can count on at the end of the ballgame and right now we don't have anyone. I mean Hardin has been good so far but this weekend was worrisome seeing him struggle

[Coach34]

Tyler Davis has been the best out of the pen lately. And we barely use him. He threw what- 15 pitches this weekend?

[KOdawg1]

Tyler Davis has been the best out of the pen lately. And we barely use him. He threw what- 15 pitches this weekend?
Yeah it's inexcusable that our only reliable bullpen arm only threw 1 inning. I get our thing is protecting arms but at this stage of the season, I'd like to see us actually use our weapons instead of sitting on them

[AlSwearengen]

something that bothers me with this staff is that we will have a guy that does pretty well in one outing and we become enamored with them and they are the new shiny toy. They are then trotted out in the next high leverage situation and they get lit up. It happened early with Stevens and this past week with Black. This didn't just start this year.

[DownwardDawg]

Crushing loss yesterday and series loss in general. We had an opportunity to sweep the series and to only come away with one sucks. However, we do not need to let that cloud the fact that we knew we needed one going into the weekend and.....WE GOT ONE. There's a lot to like, a lot to hate, and a lot that falls in the middle in regards to how this season has played out:

1. I'll start with the 600 lb elephant in the room, LEMONIS IS NOT GETTING FIRED. It's not happening. The only way he is not in the dugout next February is if he voluntarily leaves for another HC position.

2. It's ok to be pissed about how some of the games have gone, but still admit that we have drastically improved. Have we given some games away, ABSOLUTELY. But we also have won quite a few that we would have lost in the last two years. Saturday night is a prime example. Also the Sunday game at Vandy. Look we have dropped our fair share of games we had no business losing, but we have also won our fair share that we had no business winning.

3. Whether you want to give Lemonis credit or not, his hits out of the portal this year have helped us a ton. If we didn't have Khal Stephen, we would be a .500 ball team with a losing SEC record. Kohler has really started to come on. And despite their offensive inefficiencies, if we didn't have Long and Powell, we would be doomed.

4. Saying that, we missed on not getting a closer. Now whether that was supposed to be Holcombe, Auger, Dohm, Simmons, or whoever else you want to throw in there we do not have a true closer. Hardin is decent, but he doesn't have a go to pitch when he needs a K. Is what it is.

5. Injuries have hurt this team more than anyone is saying. Dohm being out took away either a closer or a weekend starter. Highfill being out took away a catcher and a bat with some pop. Mikhai Grant missing the season was a huge loss that no avg fan knows about. That's a guy that could be our Sunday starter right now. Stone Simmons just not being able to get healthy is another piece that we could've had. The fact that we're where we are with the amount of injuries is borderline incredible.

6. Justin Parker was worth every dime we paid him.

7. Cam Schuelke is a matchup guy in conference play. He cannot be counted on for extended innings. He has no blow away stuff other than the spinner and the umps are still trying to figure out how to properly have a strike zone for him.

8. Cjintje is going to pitch very little, if at all, LH for the remainder of the season. This is by design from him and the staff. His stuff from the right is electric and is what he's being drafted on.

9. Hines and Jordan need to be more consistent. That simple. They need to play to their potential the rest of the way for us to reach ours. They also play markedly better at home and that is why we need to host.

10. As much as I hate to agree with C34 on this because Chance is a fighter, he does have the weakest arm in the outfield. That does not take away from his bat though. He is very smart at the plate and we need to keep him in the leadoff spot.

11. This weekend we need to define the bullpen. We need to find 3-5 arms and roll. They need to understand that the kid gloves are off. They're going to have to pitch 2 times, and in an emergency, maybe three times a weekend. My guess is that those arms will be Auger, Davis, Hardin, Dohm(if healthy), Ligon, and Kohn. At least one out of Ligon, Kohn, and Auger is probably going to have to start Game 3. Getting Siary back to at least be an opener would be huge. Even if he can only give you 2 innings, it's 2 innings you didn't have.

12. If we can get production 6-9 then we can be dangerous.

13. Last point, enjoy the rest of the season. We can worry about 2025 when we're done with this season. But for now, let's enjoy the one we're in. It's still going and we're still in the hunt.

Excellent read. Thanks for posting!! Sat here at lunch and enjoyed reading it.

[Santiago]

The base running each weekend, we seem to give the other team outs, and bail out opposing pitch counts. Almost weekly.

[StarkVegasSteve]

The base running each weekend, we seem to give the other team outs, and bail out opposing pitch counts. Almost weekly.

Thought that was too fresh a wound.

[Cooterpoot]

Holcombe giving us nothing is the biggest head scratcher. At times last year he showed flashes. He is actually the only pitcher who has gotten worse, everyone else has taken giant steps forward.

Some of us tried to tell people he was a head case. He's mentally weak to the point he can't control himself. Was the same in Juco, so Im not surprised. Had hoped Parker could help him but he's got to grow up and get mentally tougher before he can sniff what his talent level is.

[R2Dawg]

Closers like we had in Sims or Holder are not normal. The leader in the SEC currently has 7 saves. In SEC only games, the leader in Saves only has 5.
AS a team, in SEC games only, Arkansas leads with 11 Saves, we have 5. That's not a huge discrepancy.
The blown save rate in SEC games has to be huge

I think Davis is our closer. He has been pretty good most of the time and he has that swagger too. Yeah he's been burned a few times but overall he has been pretty good. He is no Sims or Holder but he is good. Now he didn't emerge until late in year which is an issue too.

To me our pitching issues have been middle out of the pen especially when a starting pitcher has a bad outing.

[R2Dawg]

Some of us tried to tell people he was a head case. He's mentally weak to the point he can't control himself. Was the same in Juco, so Im not surprised. Had hoped Parker could help him but he's got to grow up and get mentally tougher before he can sniff what his talent level is.

Pitching injuries and a guy like Holcomb that we were going to depend on not panning out really hurt our pen.

[Cooterpoot]

something that bothers me with this staff is that we will have a guy that does pretty well in one outing and we become enamored with them and they are the new shiny toy. They are then trotted out in the next high leverage situation and they get lit up. It happened early with Stevens and this past week with Black. This didn't just start this year.

And Pico too. I said Pico wasn't going to go last long. But I think some of it is we're going with committee now on game three, which gets arms work too. We're trying everybody at this point. We only need two good starters in post season and a third guy to give us 4. The pen has to shape up though and it went backwards again. We got a lack of serviceable pitching depth. Too many guys that can get one out but then give up a bomb.

[Cooterpoot]

Pitching injuries and a guy like Holcomb that we were going to depend on not panning out really hurt our pen.

Anyone that saw Holcomb or knows anything about him knew how it was going. Kid might go to the minors and figure it out but he was never going to help us. And Foxy was the absolute worst coach he could've been under last year, I can't understate that enough.

[ScoobaDawg]

Need to find a way for tomorrows game to not happen... that drops our OOC rpi from 60 to 71. and even with a sweep of Mizzo predicted for our RPI to fall to 20.
Not to mention resting our bullpen.

[Tbonewannabe]

Tyler Davis has been the best out of the pen lately. And we barely use him. He threw what- 15 pitches this weekend?

That is the other head scratcher. Davis has pitched well and isn't just a left on left match up guy either.

[bulldogcountry1]

Good writeup, but I'm curious what games you consider were games we had no business winning.

[ScoobaDawg]

Offically cancelled UAB game added in - So now predicted is 19 including a sweep and North Alabama game.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Good writeup, but I'm curious what games you consider were games we had no business winning.

Sunday Vandy game, Sunday Game 1 and 2 against Auburn, UNO game, Samford game, Air Force Game 1

[Pancho]

word