Things to look for from the bullpen

I?m going to throw this out there for discussion?s sake, not to throw cold water on everyone?s optimism.

Cole needs about 3 more mph on his fastball so that when he isn?t sharp he is able to get away with pitches out over the plate a little bit. Cole is a damn good pitcher when everything is working (location, fastball, curveball). I would like to see someone put some gun powder in his food to give him some natural attitude. When things are going well, he can find a little manufactured cockiness but if things get sketchy he looks like he is praying a foxhole will magically appear. He just needs some natural meanness.

White is basically a one pitch pitcher. If he is sharp with it and at 95, he can probably do it. Good SEC hitters can hit 95 out over the plate if that is all they have to look for.

My dark horse for closer, if god forbid Cole can?t get it done is Liebelt. He has so much movement on his pitches that he can get away with not being totally dialed in. He also looks like he has the ability to make slight changes to each of his pitches. What I mean by that is, one fastball runs like crazy and the next one has less run. He has more weaopons at his disposal than the other two, therefore, an ability to keep good hitters off balance which is what you have to do against a good hitter.

Maybe some of the baseball guys can shed some light on this.

Someone inform me what's the deal with Price? I know he gets an inning here and there but he was a damn good closer two seasons ago. I assume, it's slow working him back into the mix. Does he not have the stuff and ability to possibly be in the mix if Cole can't get it done.

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Originally Posted by klong-dog

Someone inform me what's the deal with Price? I know he gets an inning here and there but he was a damn good closer two seasons ago. I assume, it's slow working him back into the mix. Does he not have the stuff and ability to possibly be in the mix if Cole can't get it done.

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Supposedly his curveball is already gone, but his fastball is very bad right now (someone said 84-85 w little to no movement). He?s gotta get that velo back up some to help in SEC play.

I'm stunned we aren't considering a closer platoon with Leibelt and Barlow depending on the lineup we see in the 9th.

Florida had a run of lefties towards the end and while Cole got out of it, I think Barlow would have been the better choice there.

Cole isn't an SEC closer. You look back over the last 10-15 years of our closers and Cole isn't anywhere close to them as far as stuff goes. Cole is a good 7th inning bridge guy or a long relief guy. But he doesn't have the stuff to consistently close it in the SEC, especially when he doesn't have his good stuff.

I think Barlow, Brandon Smith, and Leibelt are all guys that can close it. White is a solid 8th inning guy. He's gonna light up the radar gun and challenge hitters. Develop the breaking ball more and he's the closer next year. But I like at least 3 of our guys closing over Cole.

Damn One shaky outing and y'all ready to junk Cole. The Ump yesterday squeezed the strike zone on Cole. They had a week ass hit. What hurt Him was walks and HBP. Cole will be fine.

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Originally Posted by tcdog70

Damn One shaky outing and y'all ready to junk Cole. The Ump yesterday squeezed the strike zone on Cole. They had a week ass hit. What hurt Him was walks and HBP. Cole will be fine.

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Cole has the 3rd highest ERA on the team. He's not a closer. Can't help you if you can't see that. Doesn't mean he's bad. He's just not a closer. He's in that role right now purely because of his experience. Our bullpen is young, but there's at least 4 better arms in there right now.

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Originally Posted by tcdog70

Damn One shaky outing and y'all ready to junk Cole. The Ump yesterday squeezed the strike zone on Cole. They had a week ass hit. What hurt Him was walks and HBP. Cole will be fine.

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Cole is long relief is all people are saying. That's what made him key last year, he wasn't closing games

I think we need to evaluate moving Plumlee to SEC relief and let Cerantola and Smith do the midweek- that's another RHP to do Relief by committee on Weekends

Tyler Spring also- that's a huge kid that started his career in the SEC

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Originally Posted by MzTerry

Supposedly his curveball is already gone, but his fastball is very bad right now (someone said 84-85 w little to no movement). He?s gotta get that velo back up some to help in SEC play.

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His breaking ball has looked sharp to me but you are absolutely correct on his FB and I think that's something that will only come in time, if it ever does. Look at Ethan Small for example. Ethan was throwing mid 90's early in his career but has lost some zip since his injury but some of that is due to his refinement from a thrower to a pitcher.

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Originally Posted by tcdog70

Damn One shaky outing and y'all ready to junk Cole. The Ump yesterday squeezed the strike zone on Cole. They had a week ass hit. What hurt Him was walks and HBP. Cole will be fine.

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It's two shaky outings in a row, and walks have always been the issue for him.

Last 2 outings - 2 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, HBP, 4 R, 1 K

It's not time to panic, but it shouldn't be out of the question to discuss him and his role. He has improved every year on the mound, but let's not pretend he's above questioning.

2017 - 55.1 IP, 36 BB/HBP
2018 - 61.1 IP, 35 BB/HBP
2019 - 11 IP, 7 BB/HBP

He's not a guy who's going to give you clean innings often. He's going to battle and show toughness, but he's also going to put himself in situations he has to battle out of. It's worth asking if that's a guy we want closing games.

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Originally Posted by tcdog70

Damn One shaky outing and y'all ready to junk Cole. The Ump yesterday squeezed the strike zone on Cole. They had a week ass hit. What hurt Him was walks and HBP. Cole will be fine.

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Actually, he was shaky in the outing against Maine previous to last night.

I wouldn't mind Liebelt in the 9th and bump other guys up. White found out last night you can't just fire fastballs tubed by everyone in the league. And Gordon wanted to be a farmer. Liebelt moves the ball very effectively which I like over straight power guys.

Barlow has the best stuff if he can harness it all.

Also, midweek play is only one game a week now, so that should free some guys up.

Does White have a breaking ball?

Gotta believe he has something. I haven't seen it though.

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

Does White have a breaking ball?
Gotta believe he has something. I haven't seen it though.

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He threw one offspeed pitch last night. Resulted in a 4-3 groundout I think. It stayed up but dude was way out in front.

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

Does White have a breaking ball?

Gotta believe he has something. I haven't seen it though.

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I saw it for the first time last night. He only threw it once and it was a wrinkle. Something that should be used out of the zone just to give a different look. People here had said it was very mediocre and what I saw was.

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Originally Posted by tcdog70

Damn One shaky outing and y'all ready to junk Cole. The Ump yesterday squeezed the strike zone on Cole. They had a week ass hit. What hurt Him was walks and HBP. Cole will be fine.

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Cole looked like he lost his mojo when the unp decided to not call his first beauty of a curveball a strike. That not only crossed the plate, the whole damn ball did. 17n joke of an ump in game 1. I mean if you only let a pitcher work middle in for a strike, its like he is setting it up on a tee for them. No chance of a player chasing outside corner if you cannot get outer 2 inches above the knees. Cole should have pulled himself based on that one called ball. That was not Cole's fault at all.

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Originally Posted by MetEdDawg

Cole has the 3rd highest ERA on the team.

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Say what? Before Friday night Cole had given up zero runs dating back to last season.

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Originally Posted by MaroonFlounder

Say what? Before Friday night Cole had given up zero runs dating back to last season.

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Shocking I know but it's not necessarily and indicator of how bad he's been but how good everyone else on the team has been. Our team ERA was sub 2 before the DH today. Giving up those 3 runs in one inning yesterday took his ERA up over 3. That was good for 3rd worst on the team.

He's now at 3.27 which is 4th worst. 8 relievers have better ERAs than him. Stunning how well we've thrown it this year.

Too much freaking out here.

Cole will be fine if he throws strikes. Yes, he got himself in a jam against Maine and Florida- he also got himself OUT of those jams too. He has to understand if they are calling breaking balls strikes or not. If the answer is not- he needs to rely more on his fastball and use his curve as more of a chase pitch. His ERA is misleading because of the small amount of innings. That happens to relievers sometimes if they have a bad outing.

Colby does need to develop another pitch. He also made his first SEC appearance ever. I think he will be fine overall. This was a big learning experience for him and some of our other pitchers.

Leibelt also gave up a home run today but our fans are giving him a pass. Which I think is fine- but if you give him a pass some of our other guys should get passes too. He is effective overall.

Self looked good and that is a good thing for us.

Brandon Smith- see Colby White as far as his first SEC appearance goes.

Spencer Price got an inning in and did well. That is a good thing for us especially in a game that is not a blowout and was a situation with some leverage to it.

Trysten Barlow is hell on LH hitters. He pitched well.


The bullpen didn't lose the third game. Keegan didn't go deep into the game and the bullpen only allowed one more run. Offensively there were some things that didn't go our way that could have led to us winning the final game and sweeping the series. Florida is very lucky that we didn't sweep them honestly. And the Sunday guy for Florida is considered a top 50 MLB draft prospect by MLB.com so he's actually their best prospect. Small and Ginn and better than Florida's one and two and it feels good to type that. I don't think Plumlee is much better than Keegan. What we really need to have happen is for Cerentola to develop enough where we can use him as the opener one time through the order and then bring in Keegan and etc. behind him for one time through the order like we did with Trevor Fitts and Chad Girodo in 2013. Or if Cerentola isn't ready- use Keegan one time through the order and then bring in someone else like Plumlee. Plumlee can get through the lineup at least one time too usually. After that- we're probably in the bullpen anyway no matter what and usually we aren't on the road facing a top 50 MLB draft prospect.


Cole and Colby will probably pitch in the midweek against UALR and Samford and then they have a chance to get themselves right going forward.


And I will add- I want to see Tyler Spring pitch more if not start midweek and then pitch Plumlee more against SEC teams. The guy has been nothing but lights out so far. He honestly may be better than Keegan or Plumlee by the end of the year.

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Originally Posted by klong-dog

Someone inform me what's the deal with Price? I know he gets an inning here and there but he was a damn good closer two seasons ago. I assume, it's slow working him back into the mix. Does he not have the stuff and ability to possibly be in the mix if Cole can't get it done.

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Price is in the same spot about where Blake Smith was last year. He is still recovering technically and that's why his velocity isn't 100% back. He can be effective in spots like today- but making him the closer would overexpose him which is what happened with Blake Smith last year.

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Originally Posted by The Federalist Engineer

Cole is long relief is all people are saying. That's what made him key last year, he wasn't closing games

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Damn, you must be a baseball genius. You can see this but our Coaches can't. How stupid are they for running Cole out there to pitch. He only had about 20 something scoreless innings, but you can see how he sux. If another pitcher turns out to be a better closer I'm sure our Staff will make them the closer. In the mean time please keep posting with you infinite baseball knowledge.

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Originally Posted by tcdog70

Damn, you must be a baseball genius. You can see this but our Coaches can't. How stupid are they for running Cole out there to pitch. He only had about 20 something scoreless innings, but you can see how he sux. If another pitcher turns out to be a better closer I'm sure our Staff will make them the closer. In the mean time please keep posting with you infinite baseball knowledge.

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Damn, who pissed in your cheerio's?

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Originally Posted by msbulldog

Damn, who pissed in your cheerio's?

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Dude we are 18-2 and beat The Gators 2 of 3 in Gainesville . Has Cole blown a save ---no.. but for some reason some want to whine. Throwing over 20 scoreless innings just isn't good enough. Sit back and enjoy our success and remember it's baseball and some days you eat the bear and other days the bear eats you. I think I'll be glad to see Cole march in from the bullpen until he starts losing games..

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Originally Posted by tcdog70

Dude we are 18-2 and beat The Gators 2 of 3 in Gainesville . Has Cole blown a save ---no.. but for some reason some want to whine. Throwing over 20 scoreless innings just isn't good enough. Sit back and enjoy our success and remember it's baseball and some days you eat the bear and other days the bear eats you. I think I'll be glad to see Cole march in from the bullpen until he starts losing games..

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I think our fans want what's best for the team. One of the trends in baseball right now-moreso the postseason- is to have a long relief guy like an Andrew Miller that can come in at any point in time and pitch multiple innings and get multiple hitters (LH/RH) out. Cole does have that kind of ability and we have a couple of guys at least in Colby White and maybe if he's healthy Spencer Price that can handle the traditional one inning closer role. We were ahead of our time with what we were doing with Lindgren and Girodo and also having Fitts as an opener basically.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

I think our fans want what's best for the team. One of the trends in baseball right now-moreso the postseason- is to have a long relief guy like an Andrew Miller that can come in at any point in time and pitch multiple innings and get multiple hitters (LH/RH) out. Cole does have that kind of ability and we have a couple of guys at least in Colby White and maybe if he's healthy Spencer Price that can handle the traditional one inning closer role. We were ahead of our time with what we were doing with Lindgren and Girodo and also having Fitts as an opener basically.

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I want the best also. But I trust our staff to know what is best. They think Cole is a closer---so far he damn sure is. Cole like most closers are good if the UMP doesn't squeeze the Zone. he squeezed Cole and it pissed Cole off--Yes he got into trouble but He also got His self out of trouble.

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Originally Posted by confucius say

Also, midweek play is only one game a week now, so that should free some guys up.

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Schedule say .. we play two midweek games THIS week. Home with Little Rock and @ Samford on Wed.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

I think our fans want what's best for the team. One of the trends in baseball right now-moreso the postseason- is to have a long relief guy like an Andrew Miller that can come in at any point in time and pitch multiple innings and get multiple hitters (LH/RH) out. Cole does have that kind of ability and we have a couple of guys at least in Colby White and maybe if he's healthy Spencer Price that can handle the traditional one inning closer role. We were ahead of our time with what we were doing with Lindgren and Girodo and also having Fitts as an opener basically.

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I don't think our staff is settled beyond Small and Ginn as #1 and #2. For exceptionally good reasons like the emergence of leibelt, Barlow, and White and If we consider that Price, Cerantola, and Spring could be prime time ready by May - we may have many interesting ways to deploy our talent.

I wonder if we end up with a super talented freshman with multiple pitches and stones in the Closer role like we did with Jonathan Holder in 2012. Thinking about Cerantola who also seems ready to potentially start by May

Assuming that Cerantola could do it.

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Originally Posted by Saltydog

His breaking ball has looked sharp to me but you are absolutely correct on his FB and I think that's something that will only come in time, if it ever does. Look at Ethan Small for example. Ethan was throwing mid 90's early in his career but has lost some zip since his injury but some of that is due to his refinement from a thrower to a pitcher.

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Look for Price to be our closer a little later in the year. My understanding is that everything is back (for the most part), it's just a matter of location/control consistently and really just getting back to game ready.

We are good enough at closer for the time being and taking it slow with Price is a smart move. If we make it to the post season with Price healthy and only a half season of relief of wear, look out.