We blew 12 games when we had the lead in the 7th inning or later. That's pitching. When you have the lead you have to close that's the way baseball works and our average with risp was almost identical to year before.
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Obviously adding Skenes bumps us up another tier, but even if we don't add him, we should be better on the mound next year based solely on having more options.
RHP: Cade Smith, Landon Gartman, Nate Dohm, Aaron Nixon, Colby Holcombe, Loo Cijinte (BHP), Logan Forsythe, Will Gibbs, possibly KC Hunt, possibly Brandon Smith, possibly Parker Stinnett
LHP: Pico Kohn, Cole Cheatham, Bradley Loftin, Loo Cijinte (BHP), Brock Tapper, Tyler Davis (VCU transfer on campus right now), Max Miller, Graham Yntema
There's not a lot of experience in that group, but it beats having about 6 arms to depend on like we had this past year.
Need all the "possibly's" to come back, add Skenes, the VCU transfer, and another lefty for me to feel confident though.
Yep you nailed it. 2021 and 2022 our risp was almost identical we were slightly worse in 2022 with runners on third and less than 2 outs getting the run in. Just think even if we go 8-4 in those 12 games we blew the lead(67% close), we wind up 34-22 and we're in the post season and 67% is reasonable. We had 1 whole save in sec play! The bullpen cost us and that's because of the injuries and the need to move PJ and Brandon out of the pen to the rotation. That's not even counting losing arguably the best pitcher in the country.
Right now we are in a tricky spot. Obviously I think we are happy with what we?ve brought in from the portal, but there are still a couple of BIG holes. We need another front line starter, hope with Skenes seems to be fading a bit and Watts-Brown did not really reciprocate any return interest. The other is another corner outfielder. Losing Knight hurt, and I do not really know what happened with Groff but it seems that either he has moved off us or we moved off him. If we continue to strike out at that position we may have to roll with Bryce Chance. And while he is a great bat, he does not have the best arm to be playing in the outfield.
The staff has worked their ass off this summer, but we need to close this last month and go from a team who should be in a regional to a team that is hosting a regional. We built that stadium for June, not April.
I wish I could tell you. I was told before the season ended he was entering the portal and we were getting him. It was not going to be a long process and he would play either CF or LF for us. Then it was he wanted to see what his draft options were but that if he was not taken high enough we still had him. I think the Knight stuff kind of pissed him off. No knowledge of that, but reading between the lines it seems like he was under the impression that we were holding him a spot and then went out and got Knight and Ledbetter. Which, I get where he is coming from but we have to build a team. We cannot be held hostage until school starts waiting for the draft process to play out. We had to fill those positions with what was available at the time.
I still think there is a chance we get him, but way less confidence than I have been in a long time.
The M over S requires a "team-first" mentality, and if Grof wanted to be part of MS, he needed to make his decision faster than he did.
Love the Ledbetter and Knight transfers (even with Knight drafted by MLB). But now, I'm ready to roll with Dakota Jordan and see if he can become the Alpha dog we missed in 2022 (ie, no Mangum, no TA, no Rooker on this past year's team). A single year from Grof will arguably only delay (and cost us to lose a year) from Dakota at the expense of prolonging a 5th-year, non-drafted player's career.
Well? we aren?t getting either.
Knight signed with the Mariners today for $50k ($100k below slot value)and Groff committed to Ole Miss.
Hopefully Ledbetter works out and some of these freshman step up.
https://twitter.com/aaronfitt/status...178169862?s=21
Ledbetter is having a helluva summer
Just landed a LHP - Tyler Davis, VCU