Arkansas' Relief Pitcher Practice vs MSU

[The Federalist Engineer]

In 2023, Arkansas swept MSU in Starkville. In 2023, The closest game was 6-2, when cade was pitching. Even the 2021 team got swept in Starkville.

Sucks to lose, but i can't recall being able to compete for 3 games versus a Top-5 Arkansas team in a long while, especially in Fayetteville. Had Hardin pitched his Friday, like he did his Sunday. MSU wins 2 of 3. MSU swept Arkansas in 2016, but that was a 20-Loss Arkansas team.

The biggest competitive difference is that Arkansas used 11 pitchers in an SEC weekend. They used the entire Friday relief force again on Sunday. MSU has only used Hardin twice on 3 occasions in the SEC. Davis has not pitched twice this season, average 2 innings per week. Auger only pitched once per weekend as relief. Schulke has pitched twice on 7 occasions. Seems, that Schulke's second outing, if he pitched to more than 1 batter the first time, has been rough. This is the thing, UA was scared too death this weekend, they have not worked the pen this year like this weekend and they got a miracle outing from Coi, a kid with really bad numbers. Van Horn had not used Wood or Foutch twice in a weekend this year.

If MSU is paired with Arkansas in a Super Regional. I would pitch it backwards. Pico-Davis-Hardin in Game-1. This way, you have Davis and Hardin behind Stephen for Game-3. If you are brave enough to pitch Schulke twice versus Arkansas and willing to go 3-innings versus Alabama with Cheatham. I would have used Cheatham versus arkansas. The pigs do not like hitting versus lefties. Had MSU been able to pitch Davis yesterday for 2.0 innings, the Dogs probably win the game. Two RHP (ligon, Black, and 2nd time Schulke) were raw meat to Upig.

Just saying.

Game-1
Smith 4.0
Foutch 1.1
Gaeckle 1.1
McEntire 0.1
Wood 1.0

Game-2
Tygart 1.1
Ben Bybee 2.1
Parker Coil 3.0
Dossett 0.1
Hewlett 0.1
Faherty 1.0

Game-3
Molina 1.0
Wood 3.0
Foutch 1.1
McEntire 2.0
Gaeckle 2.0

[CaptainObvious]

Faherty was warming up hard in the 9th on Sunday if needed. That would have been back to back for him as well.

When you need 10 damn runs to win a game, you are not going to win many of those! Ligon has not shown he could pitch under pressure. Our coaches fail to pick up on trouble early in a pitchers outing. There should always be 2 guys tossing in the pen when the opponent gets to our relief staff. A bad outing is a 4 pitch walk to the leadoff guy when you have a lead.

[Todd4State]

I think Lemonis's policy of a relief pitcher pitching one time a week unless he gets desperate and then he might pitch the closer twice is insane. I could understand if it was rooted in some fact as in it's a legit safety issue or something like that. In other words if a guy like Auger comes out of the bullpen and throws four innings and has 65 pitches in that outing and he isn't brought back- I get that.

But if you look at Dr. Andrew's pitch count protocols we're always way under for most guys like Tyler Davis. So in other words if we did pitch him twice this weekend we would be in the realm of safety and if a parent of a pitcher questioned it we could tangibly point to the data which coming from a third party MD who is the Tommy John guru- it's really hard to argue against that.

https://elitebaseballperformance.com/new-pitch-smart-pitch-count-guidelines-to-protect-youth-arms/

The link I provided is what is endorsed by MLB "Pitch Smart" program which while designed for Little League players discusses limits for college age pitchers as well. This program was designed by Dr. Andrew's.