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Awesome!
We definitely wasted some pitchers the last couple of years
It is defiantly evident that Foxhall sucked ass with dawg pitchers.
Can't wait to see him in Biloxi/.
So sad all the way around. Sad for the players first and foremost. They came here expecting quality instruction and they simply didn't get it. Sad for Foxhall because I'm not sure what happened but he absolutely fell off of a cliff as a professional. Sad for our fans because we were probably robbed of at least two regional appearances.
I?m convinced that talents like Bednar and Sims overcame Foxhall more than he forgot how to coach. Could you imagine Cerantola, KC Hunt, Cade Smith, Andrew Walling, and the list goes on under Parker? I am not saying every pitcher figures it out, but I guarantee some do. Heck, even MacLeod fell off a cliff himself at the end of 2021.
I think the difference in Parker and Foxhall, Parker coaches what the pitcher does best, it's not about velocity, placement of the ball. Also I think Parker relates better and demands more. You work on your skills and don't slack off.
Foxy was a shit bag with issues! In Parker we trust!
Whether you love Lemonis, want him fired or somewhere in between, I think we all agree Foxhall was awful and Parker is a major upgrade
No doubt.
You can talk spin rates and max velo and all kinds of shit. But the best PC's teach mf'ers how to pitch. Figure out what your guy can make the ball do- then work movement and changing speeds. We had guys this year changing speeds on their breaking ball and such. That's pitching.
Now let's get 2-3 quality arms to add to the pen. Develop whats still here and lets roll
While I think we all can agree Foxhall wasn't great, some kids just take longer to develop and getting to develop in the minor leagues with less pressure per outing is exactly what some guys need. A lot of guys just need innings, in minor league ball if they like your stuff they will keep running you out there no matter how rough you're outings are and you get to kind of work through your problems on the field. SEC coaches don't have the luxury of letting you learn on the job as you have to produce wins. That is why you see quite a few kids that have struggled in college turn it around, they simply got to continue to get innings. We don't sign a lot of significantly polished kids as most go to LSU/UF etc. we get a lot of kids with high upside that still need to develop. Some kids figure it out pretty quick and others it takes more than 2-3 years yet they have a high end skill set.
So seeing all this stuff with these pitchers now dominating do we need to change our pitching approach as it relates to mid week? I mean is it a thing where we tell a guy that's a Freshman, "Hey you got 4 innings today. Whether you give up no hits or 10 hits you are staying in for 4 innings."
I mean we have already seen that midweeks really don't matter. Florida lost 6 midweek games this year, most by 5+ runs and is headed to Omaha. I know we say we don't need to take the MLB pitching approach, but maybe we do need to steal that part of the approach.
This is somewhat true but I can tell you this isn't the case with Cade. First off after the draft, he didn't start throwing again for a while. Didn't rush him to the minors, he went to "instruction school early fall. Then he got invited to their pitchers/catchers camp. He is in class A, his first several starts he pitched less than 4 innings, now he is starting to be extending. He has pitched 54 or so innings, era is really good as his strikes to ball. Maybe it's his age as he is still very young (22), but they like his future and aren't rushing anything. College ball is different, it's not nearly as fundamental as what I see. College (pitching) coaches aren't nearly as good as Minor league, growth and maturity has a lot to do with pitchers. Just saying.
Tough to say midweeks don?t matter when our midweek losses are part of the reason we didn?t get to host.
Yes, I?d rather make it to Omaha over hosting if it comes down to it, but hosting gives you the best path to Omaha.
I?m willing to bet most fans of the teams in Omaha only feel comfortable bringing in 2 or 3 guys out of the pen. A main closer or 2 and a main reliever or 2 are usually the only ones to feel 100% confident in. Everyone else isn?t the first arm out of the pen for a reason
Big time disagree. We did that approach with Central Arkansas and it bit us in the ass big time.
The only time we should "experiment" is when we play a SWAC team.
I'd like to see us have an established midweek starter. Ideally it would be a senior who has been around or a freshman with electric stuff that couldn't quite crack the rotation.
Then you manage the bullpen based on the situation. Sometimes we're going to need our big guns to win. Sometimes we'll be up 12-2 in the 7th inning and then we can experiment some.