Baseball and our pitching staff

[engie]

That's the crazy thing though, Woodruff was the guy that won the SEC Championship game for us last year. He can throw strikes, but he is a total Mark Wohlers head case right now it seems. Weird. I used to pitch and I had streaks of wildness when I was trying to overthrow or do too much, but nothing like what we're seeing out of Woodruff right now.

I agree with your premise in the post -- and while South Alabama is a huge game from an RPI standpoint, I think I agree with just saying F it -- you guys are going. Let's tell all 3 of them on a pitch count and tell them in advance they are making that pitch count regardless of their success rate. Got to quit coddling them.

As for the quoted section, Woodruff's problems go a little deeper than just being mental IMO. He's got a mechanical breakdown with his front side flying open causing fastballs to sail and his breaking ball to hang(when it's generally the sharpest 1:7 breaker in the league IMO). This could have been caused by his elbow soreness -- or it could have caused the elbow soreness in the first place -- but either way, it's more significant than just the Evan Mitchell headcase wildness. In his case, it could potentially be a bad habit that needs to be broken before he can be effective again. At any rate, I'm not sure if that's on Butch or his summer league pitching coach -- but it is what it is.

Glad to see someone else coming around to my viewpoint about Garner as well. I'm really worried that his lack of experience is going to cost us in the field next year. Nevermind that he potentially brings another power bat to a lineup that desperately needs a power bat...