Quote Originally Posted by Coach34 View Post
What bothers me is that some people around here dont understand the problem of putting people out there in situations they arent ready for makes them look worse than they really are.

1. Loo- SS who also pitched. Potential top 3 round guy as a SS- decided he wanted to become a pitcher full-time. Has tremendous arm talent but in no way was he ready to be an SEC SP as a true freshman. Our previous lack of recruiting forced him into a situation he just wasnt ready for and we got the expected results. I expect him to have a big jump in 24 now that he has that experience and should be ready for prime time. Will be a Top 5 round draft pick next summer

2. Holcombe- Country ass Bama Gump who went juco...has arm talent but needed a year to develop and get around 20 innings- instead got twice that. Walked 42 batters in 36 innings and that will almost assuredly improve in 24. Teams only hit .228 against him. Expect him to really improve in 24 and likely drafted in the Top 8 rounds

3. Bradley Loftin- 3.08 ERA as a Freshman almost entirely from midweek duty. Only gave up 13 hits in 26.1 innings of work while striking out 43. Problem was the walks with 28. Teams only hit .146 against him. Missed most of April and all of May with an elbow clean-up. Will be ready to go this Fall. Expect him to push for a weekend spot in the rotation. Another Top 5 round pick on the mound for us in 25.

4. Evan Siary- another true freshman that had to learn quickly. Showed flashes at times like a true freshman does and also got roughed up some as a true freshman usually does. Appeared to get tired down the stretch- giving up 9 of his 22 earned runs in 3 of his last 4 appearances. Expect him to be improved out of the pen in 24

Expecting these guys to make jumps is not unreasonable or "homerish" but actually is expected due to their talent. Throw in Simmons, Auger, Dohm, Nixon, Tapper, the Miami guy, and possibly one more transfer arm and our pitching should be very improved in 2024.
I think that a major issue about the perception of this is that we were so deep in pitching from 2012-2021 that a lot of people have forgotten how easily injuries can derail a pitching staff. It seems that every year we had a key guy go down, but someone was able to step up and fill the gap. Even at our ebb when we had guys like Jake Mangum, Brant Blaylock and even Brent Rooker out on the mound we somehow found ways to win. That's some elite competitiveness, likely great coaching, and shear dumb luck gracing us for a decade. Well - the past 2 years have shown what injuries normally do to teams if they don't have those intangibles, and it sucks. I really do hope that Parker can right us on the coaching front, and these kids that have shown some talent can develop and buy us some time to get the depth back to where it was.