Baseball thoughts for the Dodgers Tournament
Bullpen: Hit and miss here. I question the management of how some of our guys are used but I think a lot of it is our pitching coach not being all that familiar with some of our guys and overestimating what some of our guys can do. For example- Reid Humphreys. Here is a guy that hasn't pitched since high school until this fall- and even then I think that was only one outing- and yet we decide to try to overextend him and we get in a jam and the game gets tied because of it. In the bullpen, you have long relief guys and short relief guys. Humphreys is a SHORT relief guy- and I would have thought that common sense knowing his background would have indicated that. And I've seen some people questioning bringing Hump in- I don't question that. He got us out of a jam when he was first brought in- granted he did hit a guy that scored a run. And yes he did give up a home run the next inning but he also got a couple of K's as well. And that should have been it for him. Paul Young- who we didn't see this weekend and unless there is an injury or suspension I don't know about, I question why he wasn't used as well. But again, he is a ONE INNING GUY. And we might have and probably would have beaten Oklahoma had he started the sixth. Conversely, Tatum was awesome all weekend. I've seen some people on twitter talk about moving him to the rotation but he has been so good in the pen, I would leave him where he is right now. Especially if Daniel Brown is only going to go three innings. More on that in a minute. Blake Smith has been a very pleasant surprise to me. And he's another long guy and I think the coaches have at least figured that out about him. Rigby I still think is a good pitcher that can help us- but I don't think he is going to be a guy that is going to do very well in jams. Hopefully our coaches learned that this weekend as well. And I would be remiss without talking about Kale Breaux and his performance against USC. This is a guy that FAU hammered just two weeks ago. And then here he is on the road against USC and he's striking out a guy with the tying run on third and one out and then fields a rocket and gets the final out to win the game. And speaking of that game- I woud love to have a closer for us throw 100 MPH. Zac Houston can get pretty close to that. But I'm becoming more and more convinced that he just doesn't have the mental whatever it is you need to close.
Rotation: Dakota Hudson pitched his ass off and more than held his own against UCLA's ace who went undefeated in PAC 12 play last year as a freshman. Hudson will win his share of those going forward. Sexton has to be more consistent. He looked unhittable last week- and then this week he looked like last year. We beat USC easily if he pitches like he is capable. Instead he allows two bombs and keeps them in the game. Daniel Brown NEVER ONCE this year ever has had his command where he needs it to be. He has good "stuff". And from what I have heard he "knows how to pitch". But the problem is you still have to command it. Every outing is an endless string of hit batters, walks, and hits mixed in with some K's and probably at least one guy picked off. I would say try Houston here, but when Houston starts he never seems to have his mechanics together and Wes actually had to take him back out to the bullpen between innings to fix his delivery last week. Tatum as I said has been so good out of the bullpen I think we should keep him there plus it allows us to use him twice in a weekend. Plus, Brown and Houston in the bullpen scare the living hell out of me. I think it's getting close to time to start trying Kale Breaux in the rotation. And if Sexton doesn't get it together- Ethan Small is next up. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked at all if our weekend rotation ends up being Hudson, Breaux, and Small by the end of the year- but that remains to be seen.
Catcher- I thought Marrero hit the ball MUCH better. But we still need Kruger to get healthy because in the long run I think he will be the best option here and will allow us to put our best players out there. Could happen as early as Tuesday or this weekend. It looks like Stovall might become Hudson's personal catcher.
Corner infield- Gavin Collins starts at third and it spurs a 7 page thread here. LOL. We really don't have a good third baseman. And it's going to be an issue all year long no matter who we stick there. At least it's not Sam Frost/Alex Detz though. Once we move Kruger to catcher it should open up DH for Collins- who while he has had a rough year, kudos to the roof shot at Dodger Stadium. That was impressive. Personally, I would like to see Reid Humphreys play third. I don't want Alexander there because I think it weakens us in the MIF some. I thought Nate Lowe hit the ball better and he is improving. I think he will put it together before too long hopefully. He may have a little more of an adjustment that Kruger simply because he played his freshman year in the American Sun or whatever conference Mercer is in whereas Kruger played in the PAC 12. Also- good God we misplay at least one bunt a game every time we play a ****ing PAC 12 team where they bunt ad nauseum. And every time it costs us a run- and that run decided UCLA and a misplayed squeeze cost us not only a run- but we didn't get any outs on it. And Oregon plays probably more small ball than any of the teams we played this weekend- so we better work on our bunt defense big time or it will bite us in the ass again. No excuse to not get an out when the other team is trying to give you an out.
Middle infield- I like Alexander, Stovall, and Gridley. They give us some toughness and grit that we desperately need. And they'll play anywhere you put them- see Stovall catching and LA playing third, and Gridley playing SS and 2B. Both of them have their moments good and bad at the plate because of their youth.
Outfield- Rooker needs to step it up at the plate. Our middle of the order guys struck out against UCLA I think 8 times- that can NOT happen. Robson is doing OK- other than getting picked off against Oklahoma. He is what he is. If he continues like he is, he might set a school record for stolen bases. Oregon starts three LH pitchers- I'm assuming they won't pitch one against Alabama who they play on Thursday. If that's the case we won't see Cody Brown very much this weekend. I know some people questioned why Mangum started and that is understandable. But to his credit he had a good day with two hits and a walk. He's going to be a good player for us- and I think we will see more and more of him. Reid certainly could play some in the OF this weekend, but one thing I have noticed is that when he doesn't start it's usually because we plan on pitching him.
I think it's appropriate that we went 1-1-1 because I think we have taken strides as a team and gotten better- but we aren't quite there yet. Case in point- last year we hit 117 extra base hits on the entire SEASON. Right now- we have 47 after three weeks. And some of those are against some legit teams. Also- I guarantee you we lose the USC and Oklahoma games last year with our bullpen situation. And while the bullpen isn't settled, we're at least starting to find some reliable guys and while I'm upset about some of the moves this weekend, I think we at least have learned more about who can do what. We also appear to at least have a legit ace which we didn't have last year. And other than third base I think we've looked better defensively than we did last year. And I know that people are going to bitch about hitting no matter what- but we're better overall there too.
The thing about this team is while I wouldn't say we are "young", I would say that we are inexperienced except in a couple of spots. I'm not using that as an excuse for anything- but my point is I think as the year goes along we will probably get better and better. Now, I'm sure I'll get bombarded with blah, blah, blah, we should be in Omaha every year and beat everyone 15-0. It's just a matter of getting everything together. And I know people are going to say- "well, he's had the fall, summer ball and spring to get everything together..." The fact of the matter is until you actually get your guys out there against live competition you really don't know HOW they are going to do. It's just a different intensity when the lights are on. And it's like that at probably every level of baseball at least to an extent.
Now going forward short term- this is a big week for us. Probably bigger than this past week even though the tournament was big for us to go on the road and play some tough road games and then get to play in a MLB stadium. South Alabama has looked really good this year so far. They might win the Sun Belt- and beating them could be a nice win for our resume. Oregon is a big name team and that series is HUGE for us. They have one of if not the best rotation in college. But they are basically built after Cal State Fullerton and they are a big time small ball offense. Which means we have to make defense a premium ESPECIALLY AT FIELDING BUNTS! The good news for us is IMO the BEST way to shut down an offense like that is to go with power arms and just blow their ass away. And we have some. Kruger probably knows at least some of their guys so that gives us a little scouting edge maybe. So anyway- if we were to win this series, it would be huge for our team leading into SEC play.
Sorry for the long post.
