Pitching

[msstate7]

Everything seems to get blamed on our offense and fielding, but holy cross put up 10 hits or more in 3 out of 4 games.

This team is bad in every phase...

[Will James]

Also all the talk of "We need to find out what the pitchers have now" is bullshit. Someone listed that we cant rely on just Gentry Cox and Ross. Uhh BS.

In SEC play last year we only had 7 pitchers log more than 10 innings. We don't need a super-deep pen.

Woodruff, Lindgren, Fitts, Bracewell, Mitchell, Holder - These guys need the majority of our SEC innings. Around 85% of our SEC innings.

Gentry and Cox can be used for the other 15%.

Thats it guys. Real ****ing simple. Our brilliant freshmens (Hudson, Tatum, Sexton) that lost our games to ****ing Holy Cross can hang out on the mound midweek.

Pitch them when we are up by 5 until SEC play starts. Quit ****ing around and start winning.

[I seen it dawg]

Also all the talk of "We need to find out what the pitchers have now" is bullshit. Someone listed that we cant rely on just Gentry Cox and Ross. Uhh BS.

In SEC play last year we only had 7 pitchers log more than 10 innings. We don't need a super-deep pen.

Woodruff, Lindgren, Fitts, Bracewell, Mitchell, Holder - These guys need the majority of our SEC innings. Around 85% of our SEC innings.

Gentry and Cox can be used for the other 15%.

Thats it guys. Real ****ing simple. Our brilliant freshmens (Hudson, Tatum, Sexton) that lost our games to ****ing Holy Cross can hang out on the mound midweek.

Pitch them when we are up by 5 until SEC play starts. Quit ****ing around and start winning.

Uhh it's not bullshit. These aren't SEC weekends and we damn well better find some pitchers before conference starts. You have to know who is gonna walk out there and not be scared to compete. Now is the time to do it. I agree come conference the staff innings will be narrowed to less pitchers but over a long season you need an entire staff.

[I seen it dawg]

Hudson is a Top 10 first round talent and he has to pitch.

[Will James]

Hudson is a Top 10 first round talent and he has to pitch.

He can start every midweek until his heart is content

[Will James]

Uhh it's not bullshit. These aren't SEC weekends and we damn well better find some pitchers before conference starts. You have to know who is gonna walk out there and not be scared to compete. Now is the time to do it. I agree come conference the staff innings will be narrowed to less pitchers but over a long season you need an entire staff.

We already found them. Same ****ers that led us to Omaha and the championship. It's the guys I listed. The JV can pitch on midweek, not right now when we need WINS

[I seen it dawg]

Before it's over he is going to pitch meaningful weekend innings. Just as Lindgren will if he can stay mentally focused.

[I seen it dawg]

We already found them. Same ****ers that led us to Omaha and the championship. It's the guys I listed. The JV can pitch on midweek, not right now when we need WINS

We won't agree.

[Will James]

We won't agree.

Apparently not but ​I'm usually proven right.

[Todd4State]

Uhh it's not bullshit. These aren't SEC weekends and we damn well better find some pitchers before conference starts. You have to know who is gonna walk out there and not be scared to compete. Now is the time to do it. I agree come conference the staff innings will be narrowed to less pitchers but over a long season you need an entire staff.

I agree with you. This isn't X-box baseball. We can not put the same 2-3 pitchers out there every single time. We have to find out who can and who can't perform- and unfortunately that sometimes leads to upsets early in the season like today. If we blow out Ross and Lindgren's arms- we won't have them for the postseason. We also know that our good pitchers right now are going to graduate at some point and leave- we need to get some guys like Tatum and Sexton some experience or we are going to hurt ourselves in the long run. Some of our young pitchers learned some lessons this weekend.

I wish there was a 4 game pre-season baseball exhibition schedule for college. We bring in someone like Delta State for four games and then we can experiment with our pitching staff like today and then we wouldn't have to do it in games that count. There's a reason why MLB has an exhibition season- even though I think it's a racket to a degree.

The other thing to keep in mind is we play four games this weekend. That makes it a lot more difficult to manage a pitching staff. It forces you to go deep into your staff. During a SEC weekend you only play three games. The main guys that they beat up on are Sexton, Tatum, Shelly, Preston Brown (who did a decent job), and Holder. Every single one of those pitchers is a freshman or sophomore other than Holder. I think Fitts had one rough inning.

[Todd4State]

Apparently not but ​I'm usually proven right.

So, you are going to toot your horn when we pitch the guys you mentioned in SEC play even though everyone else is pointing out that this is not SEC play and have 9 more innings pre-conference to fill in? Awesome.

[CadaverDawg]

Todd, Will, etc... I just mentioned this in a different thread, but this thread seems appropriate...

How the hell do we line up our staff for 6 games this week, after just finishing 4? Who would your starters be? Don't we play Tuesday, Wednesday, and then 4 more next weekend?

[Todd4State]

Hudson is a Top 10 first round talent and he has to pitch.

He has been our best freshman pitcher by far. He pitched pretty well today I thought- he only allowed one run and got out of a couple of jams in three innings.

I do agree that he is probably not quite ready to start in the SEC- but we can use him out of the bullpen for a couple of innings.

[Will James]

I agree with you. This isn't X-box baseball. We can not put the same 2-3 pitchers out there every single time.

No........ but we can use the same 8 on SEC weekends.... Like we did last season....

Who said 2-3 strawman?

[Todd4State]

Todd, Will, etc... I just mentioned this in a different thread, but this thread seems appropriate...

How the hell do we line up our staff for 6 games this week, after just finishing 4? Who would your starters be? Don't we play Tuesday, Wednesday, and then 4 more next weekend?

Yes on the schedule.

Pretty sure Bracewell starts Tuesday and we need to work him into the Sunday spot by SEC play. Weds- I bet we start either Preston Brown or Zac Houston maybe.

I expect the weekend rotation to be the same pitchers.

Start Woodruff and Fitts against Michigan State. Start Sexton and Hudson against Eastern Illinois.

[Todd4State]

No........ but we can use the same 8 on SEC weekends.... Like we did last season....

Why do you think we wouldn't?

[Will James]

Todd, Will, etc... I just mentioned this in a different thread, but this thread seems appropriate...

How the hell do we line up our staff for 6 games this week, after just finishing 4? Who would your starters be? Don't we play Tuesday, Wednesday, and then 4 more next weekend?

Throw the 8 I mentioned... Throw the freshmens when we are up 4-5 runs.. You just have to take it as it comes.

[Will James]

Why do you think we wouldn't?

I dont. Thats the point. We don't have to "find out what we have" because we already know.

[It_Could_Happen]

Apparently not but ​I'm usually proven right.

Your one cocky fella aren't you?

[I seen it dawg]

Apparently not but ​I'm usually proven right.

Right about those guys eating most of the big innings? Of course. Not rocket science there and not hard to disagree with. But for the big picture you have to build some depth. This isn't the majors where you can just go buy some more. So when most of our big 8 are gone next year then what? Hope that's what if you don't develop pitching.

[I seen it dawg]

I dont. Thats the point. We don't have to "find out what we have" because we already know.

No we ****ing don't we are learning what we have. Lindgren is proving what we thought about his talent but his MO is lack of consistency which we have to learn. He was outstanding today but next weekend is he going to shit the bed? He has to prove it that he's altogether back. Sexton and Tatum we learned they are really freshman and probably aren't ready for any meaningful innings. But we have to learn those things by putting them on the field just not take the great Will James word for it in his infinite wisdom.

[Will James]

Right about those guys eating most of the big innings? Of course. Not rocket science there and not hard to disagree with. But for the big picture you have to build some depth. This isn't the majors where you can just go buy some more. So when most of our big 8 are gone next year then what? Hope that's what if you don't develop pitching.

They can throw when we are up 5+ and midweek. Very easy.

[Todd4State]

I dont. Thats the point. We don't have to "find out what we have" because we already know.

We might lose Holder and probably will lose Lindgren after this year. We also are possibly losing Woodruff and Fitts out of the rotation, and we will lose Bracewell to graduation, which means our entire SEC rotation possibly will be gone. We need to get our younger players into a game so that they can have some experience because we will have to count on them at some point next year. The pitchers need to know what they need to work on, and our coaches need to know what to work on with them. You can not 100% completely simulate a real game situation in a scrimmage.

And because we can't completely simulate that in a scrimmage, we also run the risk of having a guy that can maybe perform really well and is ready sitting on the bench- but again there is no way to know until you put them out there and watch them perform. All the while wearing out the same people.

We also don't know if we are going to be up 4-5 runs on people at any point- so then we risk not getting them into a game at all. As we learned from Arkansas last year, you can't play 15 SWAC games and not kill your RPI, so we have to do what we did today.

Look, it sucks that we lost today- and in the short term it hurts us. But in the long term we will benefit much more doing what we did today rather than bringing in Ross again. Every single pitcher you mentioned among the 8 or whatever that we should play went through some kind of learning stretch like our current guys are. Sometimes you put someone in a tough situation and they don't perform. Sometimes you put someone out there in a tough situation and they do. And then the person that does gets another opportunity.

[I seen it dawg]

Will, Our offense won't allow that. They have to pitch. And how are you going to really develop pitchers without putting them in situations like we left Hudson in today, to learn if he can nut up and pitch out of trouble and he was outstanding at it. You are a genius at statistics but don't know shit about developing players.

[I seen it dawg]

They can throw when we are up 5+ and midweek. Very easy.

And you act like I'm advocating running Tatum and similar out there against LSU in the 8th inning on Saturday while Bracewell and Ross sit on their hands.

[Will James]

Will, Our offense won't allow that. They have to pitch. And how are you going to really develop pitchers without putting them in situations like we left Hudson in today, to learn if he can nut up and pitch out of trouble and he was outstanding at it. You are a genius at statistics but don't know shit about developing players.

Hudson wasn't the issue today. It was not turning to Lindgren in a game we desperately needed from a RPI standpoint

[I seen it dawg]

We might lose Holder and probably will lose Lindgren after this year. We also are possibly losing Woodruff and Fitts out of the rotation, and we will lose Bracewell to graduation, which means our entire SEC rotation possibly will be gone. We need to get our younger players into a game so that they can have some experience because we will have to count on them at some point next year. The pitchers need to know what they need to work on, and our coaches need to know what to work on with them. You can not 100% completely simulate a real game situation in a scrimmage.

And because we can't completely simulate that in a scrimmage, we also run the risk of having a guy that can maybe perform really well and is ready sitting on the bench- but again there is no way to know until you put them out there and watch them perform. All the while wearing out the same people.

We also don't know if we are going to be up 4-5 runs on people at any point- so then we risk not getting them into a game at all. As we learned from Arkansas last year, you can't play 15 SWAC games and not kill your RPI, so we have to do what we did today.

Look, it sucks that we lost today- and in the short term it hurts us. But in the long term we will benefit much more doing what we did today rather than bringing in Ross again. Every single pitcher you mentioned among the 8 or whatever that we should play went through some kind of learning stretch like our current guys are. Sometimes you put someone in a tough situation and they don't perform. Sometimes you put someone out there in a tough situation and they do. And then the person that does gets another opportunity.

Todd I'm afraid it's a brick wall all of this sensible development of pitchers theory. When all of this plays out like Will wants he will be raising hell why our young guys that have to eat up all the big 8s innings in 2015 aren't ready. Stupid.

[Todd4State]

Hudson wasn't the issue today. It was not turning to Lindgren in a game we desperately needed from a RPI standpoint

At this point, we need to worry about getting it together and not RPI. I'm not talking about the pitching either.

[Will James]

At this point, we need to worry about getting it together and not RPI. I'm not talking about the pitching either.

They are pretty linked

[I seen it dawg]

Hudson wasn't the issue today. It was not turning to Lindgren in a game we desperately needed from a RPI standpoint

No Hudson wasn't it's the philosophy of it. It's not beholden to just one decision at a time it's a big picture. We have to see if Tatum is ready with his talent, and Shelly, and now we have to see if the bright spot of Lindgren can do it again. My guess is Lindy will get a much more major role next weekend as he has earned. He hadn't earned it up until today, no matter his talent. He had shit on it. Tatum and Shelly hadn't shit on it as of yet so they will get their chance. Big picture.

[I seen it dawg]

They are pretty linked

They are linked but if we don't get it together in all aspects the RPI will have taken care of itself. And we won't have to worry about it. RPI is not top of the list. You control what you can control and play against the game every pitch. The other stuff will take care of itself.

[Todd4State]

Todd I'm afraid it's a brick wall all of this sensible development of pitchers theory. When all of this plays out like Will wants he will be raising hell why our young guys that have to eat up all the big 8s innings in 2015 aren't ready. Stupid.

Some people don't see the big picture. There is a huge gap between the best high school league in America and D-I baseball. Tatum for example- last year he was dominating at Southaven. Today he's getting knocked around by a bunch of Catholics. Eventually, he will be a weekend starter for us. These guys have to learn that they can't just blow people away with a 92 MPH fastball and a nasty breaking pitch. They have to learn that they can't just get guys to chase out of the zone at this level because the hitters have better strike zone judgement than they do in high school.

So, the young pitchers have to learn how to adjust to succeed. It's a little scary for some of these guys that they have to let the other team put the ball in play and trust the defense for probably the first time in their lives.

[It_Could_Happen]

They are pretty linked

Honestly how many innings have you played? I'm as frustrated as anybody but slumps happen. Not throwing the freshman won't fix that. So give that up.

[Intramural All-American]

He has been our best freshman pitcher by far. He pitched pretty well today I thought- he only allowed one run and got out of a couple of jams in three innings.

I do agree that he is probably not quite ready to start in the SEC- but we can use him out of the bullpen for a couple of innings.

I'm gonna disagree with this Todd. Hudson got shelled today. They were hitting missiles off of him. He has to work on hitting spots because throwing 95 down the middle doesn't work as well in college as it does HS. Kid has a ton of talent and he will be a stud for us, but today wasn't very good. But like you and everyone else but Will have said, he needs these innings and going through struggles are going to help him in the long run.

I personally would start Lindgren in the Sinday spot. Then you have Mitchell and Ben as our main middle relief guys and Gentry and Holder as our late inning guys.

Also, we crushed the ball the last two innings today, but we were just very unfortunate. Hate to say it, but "that's baseball. ". We never should have been in that situation though.

Lastly, Holder had an injection in his middle finger today and it was splinted. He may be out a few games, and that may be why he's struggled.

[I seen it dawg]

Todd, Will, etc... I just mentioned this in a different thread, but this thread seems appropriate...

How the hell do we line up our staff for 6 games this week, after just finishing 4? Who would your starters be? Don't we play Tuesday, Wednesday, and then 4 more next weekend?

I agree with Todd.

Tue/wed go with Bracewell and Brown. Can bring them back on the wkd out of pen.
Mich St sees fitts and woody and I would go Hudson and either Sexton to see if he learned anything yesterday or Lindy to see if he gains some consistency against EIll. I almost lean Lindy there.

[I seen it dawg]

I'm gonna disagree with this Todd. Hudson got shelled today. They were hitting missiles off of him. He has to work on hitting spots because throwing 95 down the middle doesn't work as well in college as it does HS. Kid has a ton of talent and he will be a stud for us, but today wasn't very good. But like you and everyone else but Will have said, he needs these innings and going through struggles are going to help him in the long run.

I personally would start Lindgren in the Sinday spot. Then you have Mitchell and Ben as our main middle relief guys and Gentry and Holder as our late inning guys.

Also, we crushed the ball the last two innings today, but we were just very unfortunate. Hate to say it, but "that's baseball. ". We never should have been in that situation though.

Lastly, Holder had an injection in his middle finger today and it was splinted. He may be out a few games, and that may be why he's struggled.


Hey Will, between him and Shelly that's 2 injuries. God forbid something happen to say Mitchell and Fitts for some time. What then? Hope. Have to develop a full staff.

[Todd4State]

I'm gonna disagree with this Todd. Hudson got shelled today. They were hitting missiles off of him. He has to work on hitting spots because throwing 95 down the middle doesn't work as well in college as it does HS. Kid has a ton of talent and he will be a stud for us, but today wasn't very good. But like you and everyone else but Will have said, he needs these innings and going through struggles are going to help him in the long run.

I personally would start Lindgren in the Sinday spot. Then you have Mitchell and Ben as our main middle relief guys and Gentry and Holder as our late inning guys.

Also, we crushed the ball the last two innings today, but we were just very unfortunate. Hate to say it, but "that's baseball. ". We never should have been in that situation though.

Lastly, Holder had an injection in his middle finger today and it was splinted. He may be out a few games, and that may be why he's struggled.

He wasn't exactly Roger Clemens out there- but compared to the other freshmen, he was better.

If Lindgren keeps dominating, he might very well end up in the rotation.

[I seen it dawg]

I'd love to see Woody on Friday, Lindy and Hudson on Saturday and Fitts and Mitchell on Sunday.

[RAYn_Man]

We know we'll get Bracewell on Tuesday and hopefully he can eat some innings up for us. Then we'll probably see some combo of Brown/Sexton Wednesday. Woody Fri, Fitts and Johnny Wholestaff Saturday, Hudson Sun. We can sweep this weekend if we stick to that and score some runs. Bring in Ross, Lindgren, Bracewell, Gentry, Brown if we get in any trouble. Holder to shut it down if he's healthy, or Lindgren can close. You'll probably see the coaches get back to the piggyback system after a haywire type of weekend. Woody/Ross and Fitts/Lindgren are two dynamic pairings. Completely different types of pitchers following each other.

[DogDaddy]

Apparently not but ​I'm usually proven right.

You're an idiot.