Baseball team

[NeshobaChuck]

In my personal opinion I really really really wish we would bring Laster out of the bullpen and moved Hudson to midweek games. That's what I would do because:
1) Laster has the pitches and the arm to give you anywhere from 5-7 innings we just don't have a rotation spot for him
2) I'm like them 2 and another pitcher who is tired of seeing the same guys go out work innings 7-9 and us lose ball games
3) everybody yells swing the bat when we get guys on base. Well I'm a firm believer in playing small ball and working men around to get them in scoring position also there's that saying that goes "Pressure will burst a pipe"
All in all what I would do is if I'm Cohen is change things up go to Laster first out of the pen instead of Ross because the seams are killing Ross and he's only good for 1 inning and Hudson go to midweek cause rumor is Hudson and another are threatening to transfer cause of the PT situation

[chef dixon]

On Sunday you had to give some different guys an opportunity to step up. We are trying to force in Houston and Fitts over and over, and we can't just bring Ross in every game. I think you've got to keep rotating all the arms and figure out who is going to be able to get the job done. When the results have been what they have there is really no other option.

[engie]

Paul Young time IMO... Or really damn close to it...

[preachermatt83]

good points Chuck.. Laster could be the guy in that long relief role that changes everything... If he had pitched the 8th in either of our losses this weekend we would have won the series. But, NOOOOOOOOO, Super Butch and the Magnificent Cohen wanted to save him for 0-13 Eastern Illinois!!! Stupid.. Hudson can handle the midweek starts... If he can't let him transfer.

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

Paul Young time IMO... Or really damn close to it...
I've heard he's making his first appearance today.

[dawgs]

I'm glad you are a believer in small ball, just know that statistically speaking, it's not the best strategy. Pressure is swinging away and hitting the ball hard, not (best case scenario) giving up an out to move a guy from 1B to 2B.

[War Machine Dawg]

You need two things to be successful out of the bullpen:

1. The ability to throw strikes.

2. The willingness to compete/balls/nuts/however you want to phrase it.

This bullpen is struggling in both areas right now. Laster struggles throwing strikes consistently. Fitts throws strikes but doesn't compete. Ross has just lost it. Hudson can't throw strikes. If it were up to me, Fitts would be done as closer. I've never been a fan of pitch to contact closers anyway, but his failure to compete with runners on the sacks is inexcusable. You gotta have a guy at the back end who WANTS to be in the game in those situations and would gut you if you even thought of trying to take him out in a tough spot. I don't know that we have anyone in our bullpen currently that has that mentality.

A lot of people seem to be counting on Paul Young to be part of the solution. I'll admit that I'm curious about him, but no one really knows what will happen when he goes out there. Personally, I'd give him the first shot at being the closer. He ought to be able to pitch one inning twice a weekend at this point, especially if we've been trying to stretch him out to start. But the big question is does he have the mentality needed to close?

Once we get the back end solved, it'll be easier to fix the middle relief situation. I'd make Fitts our long relief go to guy. Demote Ross to a situational matchup specialist. Same for Daniel Brown, although I'd give him a shot in a setup role. McCord needs to factor in at some point too. Sure, he's starting in the midweek right now. But he ought to be able to give us a couple of innings on the weekend. The biggest problem to me is the failure of Dakota Hudson to take a step forward. If he were what he should be, he'd either be in the rotation allowing us to use Tatum or Sexton out of the pen or he'd be our dominant closer. As it is, we aren't even getting him any meaningful innings in the midweek. Getting him to figure it out would be a huge boost, but he looks to be the next in the long line of MSU pitchers with million dollar stuff and a 10 cent head.

[dawgs]

Also, just because you have a great pitching staff, doesn't mean you have to play small ball. Nothing wrong with winning games 10-1 instead of 2-1 and the margin for error is a lot smaller. There's literally no correlation between a good offense being detrimental to pitching. Not like football where you can argue game pace has an adverse affect on the D getting rested or something, or number of plays skewing the total yardage numbers.

[MetEdDawg]

You need two things to be successful out of the bullpen:

1. The ability to throw strikes.

2. The willingness to compete/balls/nuts/however you want to phrase it.

This bullpen is struggling in both areas right now. Laster struggles throwing strikes consistently. Fitts throws strikes but doesn't compete. Ross has just lost it. Hudson can't throw strikes. If it were up to me, Fitts would be done as closer. I've never been a fan of pitch to contact closers anyway, but his failure to compete with runners on the sacks is inexcusable. You gotta have a guy at the back end who WANTS to be in the game in those situations and would gut you if you even thought of trying to take him out in a tough spot. I don't know that we have anyone in our bullpen currently that has that mentality.

A lot of people seem to be counting on Paul Young to be part of the solution. I'll admit that I'm curious about him, but no one really knows what will happen when he goes out there. Personally, I'd give him the first shot at being the closer. He ought to be able to pitch one inning twice a weekend at this point, especially if we've been trying to stretch him out to start. But the big question is does he have the mentality needed to close?

Once we get the back end solved, it'll be easier to fix the middle relief situation. I'd make Fitts our long relief go to guy. Demote Ross to a situational matchup specialist. Same for Daniel Brown, although I'd give him a shot in a setup role. McCord needs to factor in at some point too. Sure, he's starting in the midweek right now. But he ought to be able to give us a couple of innings on the weekend. The biggest problem to me is the failure of Dakota Hudson to take a step forward. If he were what he should be, he'd either be in the rotation allowing us to use Tatum or Sexton out of the pen or he'd be our dominant closer. As it is, we aren't even getting him any meaningful innings in the midweek. Getting him to figure it out would be a huge boost, but he looks to be the next in the long line of MSU pitchers with million dollar stuff and a 10 cent head.

Might be splitting hairs but I think Ross has lost it because we've way overused him. Go look at his splits. Back to back 1 2/3innings against Bama on March 14th and 15th. On the 11th he pitched 5 innings against Western Kentucky. On the 8th he went 3 innings against Arizona and on the 6th he went 2 2/3 against Arizona. So in 9 days he's pitched 5 different times, all over 1 2/3 or more. I mean who does that?? This whole rubber arm thing is dumb. He can't continue throwing as much as he has and to me we have mismanaged him well beyond poorly.

I understand he hasn't thrown a ton of pitches in those outings, but let's be real. Using a guy on average every other day for extended or long relief just hasn't worked and I think he pitches like he's fatigued.

To your other points, totally agree that Laster has no business pitching mid week. It's stupid. We could have used him in the 8th in game 1 or game 3 and won the series against Bama. But we save him for Eastern Illinois. Beyond stupid. To me, Laster is the closer. Not because he's got amazing stuff, but because he's about the only guy I trust right now to execute pitches consistently in that spot. He can go 2 innings Friday and 2 innings Sunday. Nothing more. I don't trust anyone else right now and with that being our glaring weakness, I say put a veteran there not named Trevor Fitts.