Tonight is Exhibit B of why I hate the SEC Tournament

[Todd4State]

Because of the awful format, it forces managers to do ridiculous bullpen/staff management like we saw tonight. Ross was off- but instead of bringing in Holder like we normally would do but didn't because we had to save him for later, we were forced to leave Ross in too long- which cost us the lead. And then we had to bring in Bracewell who was his inconsistent self tonight, followed up by Gentry/Tatum and THEN Holder who was also off and since we got into extra innings we ended up pitching Preston Brown who isn't healthy.

It's not just us- Kentucky had to start freshmen with ERA's of 5+ and it worked out for them. This is something that everyone has to deal with.

I fail to see how this can be considered good baseball and good for the SEC?

And as an aside- we're going to probably get eliminated tomorrow unless Woodruff steps up and has the game of the year for himself. That's just reality. We have ZERO pitching right now. Holder is definitely out, Lindgren probably won't be used if they have their drouthers, Laster threw 120 on Tuesday. Some of the guys that pitched tonight might be available- and that's hardly assuring based on their performance tonight.

The good news is we are hitting fairly well right now. Hopefully we carry that over into next week- and the good news is the NCAA isn't run by LT and we can use four starting pitchers max in the regionals. We can get by with Fitts/Ross/Laster/Ben Bracewholestaff. Hopefully Woodruff will finally step up and show some life and win the final spot should we have to play four in a regional. Just a MUCH more manageable format. Like I said- with the regional format where you don't have to play 5-6 games, we would have definitely brought in Holder and probably a lot sooner- much like we did against Tennessee and cut them down rather than have to gamble by keeping Ross in longer and then gamble with Bracewell and hope the good Ben shows up.

[ClancyDawg]

Tomorrow should be the Woody and Tatum show

[War Machine Dawg]

Tomorrow should be the Woody and Tatum show

Was just wondering why the hell we won't use Tatum. Dude has looked damn good in most of the chances Butch/Cohen have given him. He should have been a much bigger part of our staff coming down the stretch. And I repeat: why can't we give Dakota Hudson a shot at closing? 98 MPH gas for 1 inning against college hitters. Help him develop a nasty breaking pitch during the offseason and he could be virtually unhittable closing it out.

[Todd4State]

Tatum has been very good recently. I think he might be the furthest along of our freshmen pitchers right now. But why use Tatum when you have Lindgren? I think his lack of use is more about lack of opportunity than anything- Fitts/Lindgren, Ross, and then Laster have been eating up most of our innings in SEC play and we only had one OOC game since the Governor's Cup.

Hudson had some shoulder issues earlier in the season and that's why we've been reluctant to use him.

Austin Sexton, Tatum, and Zac Houston could all see action tomorrow, and I really like their upside.

[ClancyDawg]

Not sure who is on roster but this or something similar should happen tomorrow. Rea, Brown, Collins, Bradford need a rest. Could go even crazier but I doubt deeper scrubs are on roster (Hann, Robson)

Heck SS
Detz 1B
Pirtle 2B
Humphreys 3B
Garner DH
Walker C
Vickerson LF
Armstrong CF
Henderson RF

[RougeDawg]

Not sure who is on roster but this or something similar should happen tomorrow. Rea, Brown, Collins, Bradford need a rest. Could go even crazier but I doubt deeper scrubs are on roster (Hann, Robson)

Heck SS
Detz 1B
Pirtle 2B
Humphreys 3B
Garner DH
Walker C
Vickerson LF
Armstrong CF
Henderson RF

Need a rest??? It's one day more than normal. These kids are 18-22 yrs old. They could play 7 straight and not need rest. I would hope we are conditioned well enough to play 6-7 straight days.

[Goat Holder]

Retarded thread from top to bottom. From Todd4State whining about how hard it is to win the SECT when you're a 5 seed to Will James talking about how our poor kids are worn out and we need to start a bunch of benchwarmers.

[ClancyDawg]

Not saying they can't go but at this point it's meaningless and even the smallest risk of injury isn't worth it. Collins especially at catcher. More along getting others experience.

[CadaverDawg]

I will say this....

The most important thing mentioned in this thread, is that we typically wouldn't see Gentry or Brown last night...would have been Holder and then maybe even Lingo if it were a Regional. So if we take anything positive from last night's loss, it's that we likely win that game in a Regional. And the hitting was a positive last night as well IMO. But I can easily and confidently say that we win in 9 innings last night if we're in a Regional instead of the SECT.

Cohen was trying not to have to pitch Holder. I wish he would have gone straight to him , but it's clear to see what he was doing. In hindsight, the dumbest move was to take Tatum out for Gentry to begin with...Tatum looked sharp and will be a stud pitcher for us

[MarketingBully01]

You do realize that if we would have won that game they would have gotten a day off today? All of these so called decisions to "rest" our guys actually doomed us to play more. By starting Holder in the eighth, he would have played two innings and would have been able to play in the championship game had we made it that far. Lindgren would have been available Saturday. If Cohen and Butch just stick to their gameplan they used all season long, the kids would have had more rest then the bull shit they did last night (ie the Gentry/Brown experiment).

[CadaverDawg]

You do realize that if we would have won that game they would have gotten a day off today? All of these so called decisions to "rest" our guys actually doomed us to play more. By starting Holder in the eighth, he would have played two innings and would have been able to play in the championship game had we made it that far. Lindgren would have been available Saturday. If Cohen and Butch just stick to their gameplan they used all season long, the kids would have had more rest then the bull shit they did last night (ie the Gentry/Brown experiment).

Yea but aren't you glad they found out what Gentry and Brown are made of, so we don't get to see that experiment in Regional play? I am. So there's one small positive out of that dumb ass decision

[Jack Lambert]

Because of the awful format, it forces managers to do ridiculous bullpen/staff management like we saw tonight. Ross was off- but instead of bringing in Holder like we normally would do but didn't because we had to save him for later, we were forced to leave Ross in too long- which cost us the lead. And then we had to bring in Bracewell who was his inconsistent self tonight, followed up by Gentry/Tatum and THEN Holder who was also off and since we got into extra innings we ended up pitching Preston Brown who isn't healthy.

It's not just us- Kentucky had to start freshmen with ERA's of 5+ and it worked out for them. This is something that everyone has to deal with.

I fail to see how this can be considered good baseball and good for the SEC?

And as an aside- we're going to probably get eliminated tomorrow unless Woodruff steps up and has the game of the year for himself. That's just reality. We have ZERO pitching right now. Holder is definitely out, Lindgren probably won't be used if they have their drouthers, Laster threw 120 on Tuesday. Some of the guys that pitched tonight might be available- and that's hardly assuring based on their performance tonight.

The good news is we are hitting fairly well right now. Hopefully we carry that over into next week- and the good news is the NCAA isn't run by LT and we can use four starting pitchers max in the regionals. We can get by with Fitts/Ross/Laster/Ben Bracewholestaff. Hopefully Woodruff will finally step up and show some life and win the final spot should we have to play four in a regional. Just a MUCH more manageable format. Like I said- with the regional format where you don't have to play 5-6 games, we would have definitely brought in Holder and probably a lot sooner- much like we did against Tennessee and cut them down rather than have to gamble by keeping Ross in longer and then gamble with Bracewell and hope the good Ben shows up.

In my opinion only play 7 inning games. If it is tied after nine coin toss it.

[Political Hack]

it's a stupid format considering the implications it has for pitching staffs in regional competitions. they could easily structure it where all 16 teams play single elimination Tues, Wed, & Thursday. Then the 3 game championship series with Saturday playing 2 and 1 on Sunday if needed. Now that they have their own TV network, they can't use TV scheduling as an excuse to not have a "what if" 3rd game in the championship series. That would be 7 games at most for two teams. It would be 4 games max for teams that don't make the championship series, which is a normal week. The way it is now we could play 5 and not make it out of the semi finals.

Less games per team... all teams... a true championship series. Seems easy to me.

Right now,

[the59dawg]

I will say this....

The most important thing mentioned in this thread, is that we typically wouldn't see Gentry or Brown last night...would have been Holder and then maybe even Lingo if it were a Regional. So if we take anything positive from last night's loss, it's that we likely win that game in a Regional. And the hitting was a positive last night as well IMO. But I can easily and confidently say that we win in 9 innings last night if we're in a Regional instead of the SECT.

Cohen was trying not to have to pitch Holder. I wish he would have gone straight to him , but it's clear to see what he was doing. In hindsight, the dumbest move was to take Tatum out for Gentry to begin with...Tatum looked sharp and will be a stud pitcher for us

+1. Amen

[MarketingBully01]

Yea but aren't you glad they found out what Gentry and Brown are made of, so we don't get to see that experiment in Regional play? I am. So there's one small positive out of that dumb ass decision

Everyone and their mother knew it was a bad decision already before doing it. It is kind of stupid that they were that head strong to try t in an actual game when everyone and I mean everyone knew it was a bad idea to do so.

Another stupid decision is to not start the same lineup that scored 12 runs the previous night on USC's ace. And when I mean the exact same lineup I mean the same lineup order as well. We should have blown that game out of the water since they started that crappy righty last night. Instead we basically start the same lineup that we struggled with against Georgia. Our only hope for an offensive explosion is that the other team starts a left handed pitcher. That to me is the sad thing.

[Todd4State]

Everyone and their mother knew it was a bad decision already before doing it. It is kind of stupid that they were that head strong to try t in an actual game when everyone and I mean everyone knew it was a bad idea to do so.

Another stupid decision is to not start the same lineup that scored 12 runs the previous night on USC's ace. And when I mean the exact same lineup I mean the same lineup order as well. We should have blown that game out of the water since they started that crappy righty last night. Instead we basically start the same lineup that we struggled with against Georgia. Our only hope for an offensive explosion is that the other team starts a left handed pitcher. That to me is the sad thing.

So, again I ask- do you want to burn out Holder and Lindgren to win the SEC Tournament? Or do you want to do well in the regionals?

[M.Fillmore]

Upig used a reliever in the 2nd inning which his first SEC action of the year. He did well but Todd is right, after last night we would have to play seven games in six days had we made the finals. You won't see that kind of action in the NCAA tourney.

[CadaverDawg]

Everyone and their mother knew it was a bad decision already before doing it. It is kind of stupid that they were that head strong to try t in an actual game when everyone and I mean everyone knew it was a bad idea to do so.

Another stupid decision is to not start the same lineup that scored 12 runs the previous night on USC's ace. And when I mean the exact same lineup I mean the same lineup order as well. We should have blown that game out of the water since they started that crappy righty last night. Instead we basically start the same lineup that we struggled with against Georgia. Our only hope for an offensive explosion is that the other team starts a left handed pitcher. That to me is the sad thing.

No, stupid would be to pitch Holder and Lindgren in every single game of the SEC tourney and hurt their arms before Regional play. Jesus, think beyond what's going on this minute.

[Steakonastick]

I wish they would do it pool play. Take the top 8 teams put 1,4,5,8 in A and 2,3,6,7 in B. Start the tourney on Tuesday each team plays 3 games. One game Tuesday, one wed, and one Thursday. Play a championship game Saturday between the best records in each pool. Scoring differential being the tie breaker.

It gives every team at least 3 games to get their weekend rotation work. And at most two teams play 4 games.

[Todd4State]

I wish they would do it pool play. Take the top 8 teams put 1,4,5,8 in A and 2,3,6,7 in B. Start the tourney on Tuesday each team plays 3 games. One game Tuesday, one wed, and one Thursday. Play a championship game Saturday between the best records in each pool. Scoring differential being the tie breaker.

It gives every team at least 3 games to get their weekend rotation work. And at most two teams play 4 games.

I like that idea. BUT the only issue is that involves 8 teams- and part of the reason for what we have now is because usually the SEC will have 9-10 regional worthy teams and the NCAA was leaving out teams 9 and 10 because they "weren't good enough to make their conference tournament".

[MarketingBully01]

No, stupid would be to pitch Holder and Lindgren in every single game of the SEC tourney and hurt their arms before Regional play. Jesus, think beyond what's going on this minute.

We still pitched Holder in the Kentucky game did we not? And instead of pitching him 2 innings we pitched him 4. I would be willing to bet we would have pitched Lindgren if needed in the semi final game and Holder in the championship game if needed if we went that far thus rotating them every other game. This isn't wearing out your bullpen. It's using your bullpen smartly. We didn't use our bullpen smartly on Thursday, thus we got put out yesterday. Doesn't take a genius to figure this out.

[MarketingBully01]

So, again I ask- do you want to burn out Holder and Lindgren to win the SEC Tournament? Or do you want to do well in the regionals?

Rotating Holder and Lindgren every other game is not burning them out. Sheesh, you guys must think these guys have fragile arms or something. So I guess by you guys logic, you must think that LSU, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Florida won't make deep runs in the post season because they made it far in the SEC tournament. I would be willing to bet at least two of the teams still playing will make it to the CWS and at least three of those teams make supers. It's not going to hurt them.

[MarketingBully01]

And I will add, we better hope that the teams we play start left handers so Cohen will put the best starting lineup out there. Otherwise it could get really interesting.

[Todd4State]

Rotating Holder and Lindgren every other game is not burning them out. Sheesh, you guys must think these guys have fragile arms or something. So I guess by you guys logic, you must think that LSU, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Florida won't make deep runs in the post season because they made it far in the SEC tournament. I would be willing to bet at least two of the teams still playing will make it to the CWS and at least three of those teams make supers. It's not going to hurt them.

Ummm.....yes it is burning them out. We typically have been pitching them for at least 3 innings and longer which means that they are getting their pitch count up into the 50-60's. Not to mention the fact that we also typically pitch them once, maybe twice a week. So, what you are saying is we should have pitched guys with one day rest 50-60 pitches that aren't used to it and haven't done that all season. And 60 pitches times three games each comes out to about 180 pitches in one week. MLB relief pitchers don't carry that type of load typically.

I don't think they have fragile arms- I think they have human arms. And I'm not willing to show everyone how macho and tough we are in a meaningless tournament right before the most important tournament of the season.

LSU and Florida got byes on day one and have stayed in the winner's bracket- that's how you have to win the SEC Tournament. They've played at least one and more than likely two less games than everyone else. They get to pitch their guys almost like normal. Which is exactly the same amount of games that I proposed for my single elimination format. UK and Arkansas have had to pitch freshmen and do things that they don't want to do with their pitching staff either. Kentucky was fortunate that Ross was off. Or perhaps unfortunate since they have to keep throwing people.

If you look at the pros and cons of what you are suggesting:

Pros- Win the SEC Tournament, get a t-shirt, still probably end up as a two seed no matter what happens.

Cons- Burn out our bullpen before the regionals, risk injuring two guys that have a very possible pro future in baseball which could very well be magnified since arm injuries and Tommy John surgery incidence is a focal point of the baseball world right now, and in doing so hurting our reputation with pro scouts and potential recruits.

[Todd4State]

We still pitched Holder in the Kentucky game did we not? And instead of pitching him 2 innings we pitched him 4. I would be willing to bet we would have pitched Lindgren if needed in the semi final game and Holder in the championship game if needed if we went that far thus rotating them every other game. This isn't wearing out your bullpen. It's using your bullpen smartly. We didn't use our bullpen smartly on Thursday, thus we got put out yesterday. Doesn't take a genius to figure this out.

If it was a regular season game, we would have kept Holder in and would have brought him in earlier- like we did against Tennessee. At some point, Bracewell has to step up and so does Gentry.