Quote Originally Posted by smootness View Post
I agree with some of what you said, but Woodruff, Routt, and Mitchell aren't exactly pitching phenomenally well. It took Routt 4 years to get out of rookie ball, and he was mediocre in A ball at 22 and in A+ at 23. Woodruff's numbers were decent last year, but he struck out only 71 in over 109 IP while giving up more than 1 hit/inning. He's still not pitching up to his real talent level. Evan Mitchell put up rough numbers (not a terrible ERA, but all his peripherals look really bad) in A+ at 23 after struggling in A ball at 22. None of those guys are success stories, and still none of them are pitching to their talent level.
True and I agree. I was referring more to them not being able to throw a single strike in most outings. They definitely never panned out as Stars, but at least they are throwing pitches near the strike zone these days. I think I remember outings by especially Mitchell and Woodruff where they walked like the first 5 batters and then got pulled. And all on like 4-5 pitches. Just total head case stuff. I'm sure that happens to other programs too, but it seems like every single year we have 1-2 guys that throw gas, were pretty highly recruited, and could help us a ton...but are total head cases and can't throw a strike. I find that interesting, Bc most of them pitch great in the Cape, but get back here and can't throw a strike. Not blaming it on Butch, but I'd love to know what those guys would tell you the reason was. Probably just that there's more pressure in SEC ball than summer ball.