Todd4State
03-30-2014, 11:59 PM
Our pitching has been very good even if we don't have an ace. Or what I would consider a true ace. Preston Brown has been a warrior. If we keep throwing him Fridays, I'd like to give him a shorter leash if he's not "on" and then go to Lindgren on Friday and Sunday. Keep Ross on Saturday. I'd also like to see Dakota Hudson worked in some as well. Lindgren was a bad ass this weekend. He's our new Girodo. And Holder has looked good as well.
I'm not exactly sure why we keep starting Randolph over Gavin Collins. But I suspect Zach is going to start the rest of the year and next year as well. This is going to be harsh and no one is going to agree with me on this- but Zach needs to start acting like he belongs and less like he is just happy to be there. The reason I'm saying that is in part because I do believe he belongs and he has the ability to be good. He needs to focus more on blocking balls in the dirt, not swinging at pitch outs with two strikes and less on making little kids happy before games. Harsh- yes. But not without good intent. Fire away.
We lead the SEC in fielding. Kudos to Wes, Pirtle, Britton, and Heck. We're better defensively on the infield than we were last year. Wes has to know the field conditions better- and not try to hit home runs into gale force winds. It's either going to go foul or end up in an outfielders glove. Pirtle has quietly gotten up over .300. Britton still frustrates me as a hitter. Yes, his OBP is fine BUT he needs to start hitting some. Heck needs to get hot again.
If we start Demarcus, CT, and Derrick Armstrong, we will be starting an outfield with all .300 or better hitters. Vickerson appears to be snapping out of his slump. Lot of good options and it has made losing CT easier to swallow.
Detz is doing better and he will be up around .300 by the end of the year.
I think our hitting will improve the second half of the season. The past two weeks we had to play the #2 and #3 pitching staffs in the SEC based on the current leaderboards. And we just took a series from the hottest pitching staff in the SEC. LSU is #4 as far as pitching goes currently, so we'll get them out of the way next. But because of who we played and how we have done so far- take away the 17 we hung on Vandy because that's an outlier- we're averaging about 3.4 runs a game. That includes a game where we were shut out, and if you take that one out, we're averaging four runs a game. I did all the math in my head, so if something is screwed up- don't be shocked. But if we keep scoring 3-4 runs a game, we're going to win our share of games with our pitching staff.
The game we got shut out in- we still had 10 hits. That's what happens when a team like us DOESN'T run. The reason we didn't run was because we were behind- but we have to use our speed and manufacture.
Great job by the team to take their third SEC series in a row. We need to get some sweeps and keep winning like we are if we are going to win the SEC. LSU is obviously struggling right now having been swept by Florida and they lost to their arch-rival Tulane last week as well. But we certainly can't and shouldn't take them lightly. They hate us, they hate Cohen, and they think that they are entitled to win against us in baseball. Plus, it will be on the road. But if we play our game we will be fine. We have a week off, and the last time that happened, we played like we were refreshed. Hopefully it will happen again.
I'm not exactly sure why we keep starting Randolph over Gavin Collins. But I suspect Zach is going to start the rest of the year and next year as well. This is going to be harsh and no one is going to agree with me on this- but Zach needs to start acting like he belongs and less like he is just happy to be there. The reason I'm saying that is in part because I do believe he belongs and he has the ability to be good. He needs to focus more on blocking balls in the dirt, not swinging at pitch outs with two strikes and less on making little kids happy before games. Harsh- yes. But not without good intent. Fire away.
We lead the SEC in fielding. Kudos to Wes, Pirtle, Britton, and Heck. We're better defensively on the infield than we were last year. Wes has to know the field conditions better- and not try to hit home runs into gale force winds. It's either going to go foul or end up in an outfielders glove. Pirtle has quietly gotten up over .300. Britton still frustrates me as a hitter. Yes, his OBP is fine BUT he needs to start hitting some. Heck needs to get hot again.
If we start Demarcus, CT, and Derrick Armstrong, we will be starting an outfield with all .300 or better hitters. Vickerson appears to be snapping out of his slump. Lot of good options and it has made losing CT easier to swallow.
Detz is doing better and he will be up around .300 by the end of the year.
I think our hitting will improve the second half of the season. The past two weeks we had to play the #2 and #3 pitching staffs in the SEC based on the current leaderboards. And we just took a series from the hottest pitching staff in the SEC. LSU is #4 as far as pitching goes currently, so we'll get them out of the way next. But because of who we played and how we have done so far- take away the 17 we hung on Vandy because that's an outlier- we're averaging about 3.4 runs a game. That includes a game where we were shut out, and if you take that one out, we're averaging four runs a game. I did all the math in my head, so if something is screwed up- don't be shocked. But if we keep scoring 3-4 runs a game, we're going to win our share of games with our pitching staff.
The game we got shut out in- we still had 10 hits. That's what happens when a team like us DOESN'T run. The reason we didn't run was because we were behind- but we have to use our speed and manufacture.
Great job by the team to take their third SEC series in a row. We need to get some sweeps and keep winning like we are if we are going to win the SEC. LSU is obviously struggling right now having been swept by Florida and they lost to their arch-rival Tulane last week as well. But we certainly can't and shouldn't take them lightly. They hate us, they hate Cohen, and they think that they are entitled to win against us in baseball. Plus, it will be on the road. But if we play our game we will be fine. We have a week off, and the last time that happened, we played like we were refreshed. Hopefully it will happen again.