Georgia series thoughts- and Perception Week
I think I can Cliff4State it by saying I think I am like most people that I am happy we won the series, but not happy that we didn't get the sweep.
Hudson was awesome again and I hope he keeps up this roll that he is on. Ethan Small has so much potential- he's going have a chance to be a first round pick in two years as long as he stays healthy. Very impressive Friday night.
Sexton is getting better and better too- he's really tough at home. And he went up against Georgia's ace and pitched almost as well. Rigby is becoming a reliable option in our bullpen which is much needed.
Now obviously Sunday we have an issue and we can't expect to JohnnyWholestaff it in the SEC. It just won't happen. I don't know that there is a great solution at this point, but what I would do if it were me next week is I would start Zac Houston and then bring in Daniel Brown. And quite frankly, I thought that is what Cohen and Wes would do today. I can understand their thinking by starting Keegan and I'm not criticizing that- but I think with all of our freshmen pitchers at this point really none of them are quite ready yet. At the same time, I think everyone sees how high their ceilings are as players. It's kind of like your favorite MLB team having a really good pitching prospect that is going to be really good and may have better stuff than the guys that are in MLB- but they would get shelled in MLB simply because they just aren't ready yet from a mental/physical/baseball standpoint. Like Keegan James- a big game for him at this time last year would have been against Oak Grove, Madison Central, or Tupelo. Now it's Vanderbilt, Florida, or LSU. HUGE difference.
But back to Houston- my thinking is per rumor he WANTS to start. And I think letting him do that he might perform better than out of the bullpen in a jam. I'm surprised he hasn't gotten a chance to start again to be honest with you- his last start he struck out 10 and walked 1 and didn't allow any runs, yes against Nicholls but still. But from a pitching technical standpoint, I think Houston would also do better where he has a set routine and doesn't have to warm up quickly.
And when I say "Houston starts"- I'm not thinking of him going 6 IP. I'm thinking more like 3 here. And then follow him up with Daniel Brown. I was looking at the games that Brown has pitched in this year. The first time through the order he is VERY good. The exception being Vanderbilt where we made 2-3 errors behind him and even there most of those runs were unearned. And you look at today- really the same pattern occurred again for the most part. Also, I did watch Brown's bullpen session before Oregon this year and one thing that stood out to me was how quickly he got ready. He's not going to be Lindgren or Girodo- but I think he could give us 2-3 on most Sunday's. I would take him out as soon as he gets through the order though.
Another thing that I think would help the bullpen would be to start using Rigby more- as in Friday and Sunday. His ERA is like 0.87 which speaks for itself. And now, this may be God getting me back for being critical of Ross last year, but I think Tatum is slowly getting better- but he's certainly not where he was either. I do think he will get back to where he has been before and he didn't give up any home runs this weekend which is progress although he was still certainly hit hard at times. Blake Smith has to get a little better too. Kale Breaux has been reliable for one inning at a time and we didn't even use Humphreys on the mound this weekend. Hopefully Ethan Small turned a corner this weekend as well. Pilkington might figure in at some point as well if he keeps pitching well.
Elih Marrero is our most improved freshman from game one to this point. Ed Easley was the best catcher I have ever seen at MSU- and Elih might pass him at some point. He's all the way up to .277. I guess Gavin will be Sexton's personal catcher for the rest of this year.
GREAT to see Lowe come through after all the hard luck he has had this year at the plate. And against his home state team. I bet he keeps it up too. Gavin keeps improving every week at third base. Kudos to him. He's struggling at the plate some- maybe because he is focusing on his defense so much. But he's still taking some good at bats.
Also good to see John Holland coming back from the dead. Just in time for Easter- Lazarus would approve. He looks SO much better defensively than he was last year and he's hitting the ball better too. I have to think that Holland and Gridley are our best MIF right now. LA is still a good option as a late inning defender.
We have five good outfielders right now- but Rooker needs to get it going again. Robson had a good weekend- I thought Georgia did a good job of controlling our running game though and that limited what we could do on offense somewhat. The Reid Humphreys comparisons to Hunter Renfroe offensively are interesting. Not sure why they started- but he is hitting a LOT better. He had a nice oppo home run in game one and that really impressed me. Cody Brown is still solid but Jake Mangum is winning me over. He just keeps coming up with big hits over and over.
Jack Kruger is struggling some right now- and no I don't understand why we have been asking him to bunt so much lately.
Now- this week is perception week. In other words we play USM and of course Ole Miss this weekend. If we do well this week it's going to go a LONG way as far as how our fans see our program (right or wrong) and also if we do well we could potentially make a HUGE jump in RPI. USM is always going to be tough because we are one of their World Series games. USM is having a good year this year- they just swept Texas San Antonio and they do have a midweek win over Alabama who has not been very good midweek lately. I do think that USM will likely end up in a regional this year, so it's a big game and we need to show up and hopefully Cohen won't pull an Eastern Kentucky on us in Jackson. I'm expecting Pilkington to start and I'll be interested to see how he does against a really strong team.
We're still developing as a team- but we seem to be getting better and better. I loved the fire that Robson showed today sticking up for Kruger even though it nearly started a fight. That's usually a good sign. We just have to find a Sunday starter and maybe tweak how we use the bullpen a little bit- but overall we're in a good spot right now.
