MSU Pitching...

[CadaverDawg]

As many of you know, I like to look ahead to next year. And I was thinking about how great our pitching staff could potentially be again next year, but I see one small hole.

First of all, think about this....

We feel good about Woodruff bouncing back and hopefully being a starter, along with Lindgren. Now the fun part, this is the right handed arms we will have in our bullpen/midweek:

Holder
Bracewell (hopefully)
Gentry (Hopefully Wednesday's Gentry)
Cox (new arm angle has been great)
Fitts
Shelly
Norris
Preston Brown

And from the left side:

Ross Mitchell
CT Bradford

We will be losing damn near all of our pitching production from the left side outside of Ross (Which is the majority of our pitching period). No more Pollo or Girodo. I feel like one of those RH pitchers will make the move to the Sunday starter....but what about from the left side? We will need at least 1 good hard throwing lefty to replace Girodo in that matchup situation. Obviously, we will have some freshmen coming in that Could contribute, but it's unsure at this point. Am I missing someone from the left side? And who do you guys see as that potential likely 3rd starter?

By the way, think of all of the different arm angles and velocity differences in that bullpen. We could be filthy in the pen again next year. And that should be in addition to a much better, and healthy, starting rotation.

[Todd4State]

We have a junior college pitcher coming in named Luke Laster who is LH who I think will be a bullpen guy and then we have two freshmen coming in that are LH in Vance Tatum from Southaven and Glenn Irby from Florence, Al.

Laster went 6-2 with 50 K's and 16 walks in 54 innings and he had an ERA of 2.61.

Vance Tatum is Southaven's ace and they are currently playing for the 6A title in Pearl. He is up for the Charlie Lea award for the best pitcher in the Memphis area and he throws 86-88 and has a funky delivery with a good 12-6 curveball.

Irby went 7-4 and led his team to the state championship series which they lost. He is the ace on a team that also has a pitcher that signed with Alabama. He throws in the low 90's and may get drafted.

[Todd4State]

As far as the staff goes- Woodruff and Lindgren will likely be in the rotation. Woodruff will be basically rehabbing most of the fall- he should be able to throw in August but should be ready by the spring. I think the Sunday spot will be up for grabs between Fitts, Bracewell, and Daryl Norris should he return next year. If Dakota Hudson comes to MSU, he will have a say in the Sunday spot as well.

I'm interested to see what we do with Will Cox. I think he can be a starter, and he might end up being sort of like David Cone- someone that starts that uses several arm angles.

One of our JUCO signess- Ben Hudspeth- I think our fans are going to like him. The guy just battles- he reminds me a little bit of Pollorena except he is right handed.

[CadaverDawg]

Thanks Todd. It looks as if we will really be good from the bullpen for the next several years.

Question...who do you see us trying to develop into the closer role over the next year or so? Holder may be gone after next year, so Im wondering who our next guy will be.

Do you see Shelly as a potential closer? If not, where do you see him next year? Could he be a guy that challenges for a starting job?

[Todd4State]

I think Shelly will be the closer after Holder leaves. I can't see him being a starting pitcher with what we have coming in to be honest with you. I think Zac Houston might get a look if he is not in the rotation, I think Irby could be the closer if Tatum is a starting pitcher, and I think Myles Gentry could also be a candidate to close as well. Avery Geyer and Jacob Billingsley are also going to be candidates as well. We're going to have to get everybody on campus and sort it out.

[Esmerelda Villalobos]

id like to see shelly pitch this weekend. wtf happened to him and flair?

[Todd4State]

There is a SEC roster of 27 guys, and I suspect that they aren't on the SEC roster.

I've seen some rumors on here about Flair not coming back, but we also placed him on a summer league team, and usually that doesn't happen if we don't expect a player to return.

We used Shelly some early in the year, but his main focus and Flair's for that matter, is learning and developing as players. People forget that they are only freshmen still and we have a veteran team. Really, the only freshman that has played a good bit for us is Robson.