Pilkington starting tomorrow

[Johnson85]

So save him til game 5...

Im not saying saving him is the right move, just that it's hard to argue playing him tomorrow is the right move without admitting that saving him was the wrong move.

Only argument is if you were opposite a team with two lock down starters. Even then, it seems like the risk/reward for saving him again after losing the first game would be similar.

[I seen it dawg]

Starting Pilk against a 4-seed's #2 basically ends your chances of winning the Regional. It's a no-brainer to start Denver against UIC.

Totally disagree with this move. So what you win Game 2 but lose Game 3? You have accomplished nothing

It's a 4 seed that is better than us right now...you lose game 2 there is no game 3.

By this why start Pilk in game 3? Shouldn't he be saved until game 5? We are riding guys that we have zero trust that can win so you may as well do that until the winner take all final. Denver game 2, Billingsley game 3, wholestaff game 4, Pilk in game 5. If you don't pitch him against UIC then may as well wait and hope we get to usm or USA Sunday night winner take all.

UIC IS NOT Jackson St or Ole Miss. If we pitch Denver and the Denver shows up that we've seen just about every time then UIC will beat us. Can't trust him. I want to be able to run Denver out there and trust he will throw strikes and win, but what has anybody seen that he will do that? Nothing because he hasn't. It's a HOPE. Which we can't afford to trust at this point. It's now survival mode and hope doesn't go far.

[I seen it dawg]

Im not saying saving him is the right move, just that it's hard to argue playing him tomorrow is the right move without admitting that saving him was the wrong move.

Only argument is if you were opposite a team with two lock down starters. Even then, it seems like the risk/reward for saving him again after losing the first game would be similar.

Who gives a shit what anybody thinks if tonite was the right or wrong move. Flush it it's ****ing done and over.

Everyone we have faced the last couple of weeks is a lockdown starter.

[Johnson85]

The whole strategy behind holding him back is if your Gordon screws up the first game you almost guarantee yourself a chance to get through the first round of the loser's bracket and at that point you're throwing your three against someone else's three. So, it's almost a wash. You're basically gambling at getting a big advantage because if our guys hadn't screwed up tonight we almost guarantee ourselves a spot in the regional final. If it gets screwed up, it's almost like you threw your number one and lost game two anyway.

Fair enough but I'd still lean towards either a strategy of trying maximizing the chances of staying out of the losers bracket as long as possible or trying to 'steal' a game against a weaker seed, barring a particularly nasty matchup with the #2 starter of the 1 seed.

[lamont]

It's a 4 seed that is better than us right now...you lose game 2 there is no game 3.

By this why start Pilk in game 3? Shouldn't he be saved until game 5? We are riding guys that we have zero trust that can win so you may as well do that until the winner take all final. Denver game 2, Billingsley game 3, wholestaff game 4, Pilk in game 5. If you don't pitch him against UIC then may as well wait and hope we get to usm or USA Sunday night winner take all.

UIC IS NOT Jackson St or Ole Miss. If we pitch Denver and the Denver shows up that we've seen just about every time then UIC will beat us. Can't trust him. I want to be able to run Denver out there and trust he will throw strikes and win, but what has anybody seen that he will do that? Nothing because he hasn't. It's a HOPE. Which we can't afford to trust at this point. It's now survival mode and hope doesn't go far.

All that is white noise. You start Denver vs UIC and hope you get a win against them. You have to play the odds that you are better than the 4-seed. Its about winning the Regional- not just winning a game. Then start Pilk against the loser from the winner's bracket. That gets you to the Finals. You pitch Pilk in Game 2? No chance to make the Finals.

[Skydawg1]

We could start Pilk tomorrow and still lose because our hitting is absolutely atroucious right now. I know AC is the hitting coach but what are you going to tell your top 2 hitters when one is last seasons batting champ and the other is a Triple Crown/Golden Spikes candidate? Jeez, I'd hate to be in AC's shoes.

[I seen it dawg]

All that is white noise. You start Denver vs UIC and hope you get a win against them. You have to play the odds that you are better than the 4-seed. Its about winning the Regional- not just winning a game. Then start Pilk against the loser from the winner's bracket. That gets you to the Finals. You pitch Pilk in Game 2? No chance to make the Finals.

You start Denver tomorrow and he walks 6 guys in 2 innings and we are down 4-0 then what? No chance to play Sunday much less sniff a final. Im trying to win the regional but you can't do that if you don't give yourself the best chance to win tomorrow. If we don't walk 100 guys again tonite then no one is having this discussion. I'm gonna trust Pilk to ram it in their ass so I can HOPE Denver can win Sunday. If Denver throws strikes he mauls anyone in this regional. But he won't throw strikes. Therefore I can't trust him tomorrow. Sunday I have no choice so I'll run him out there then and HOPE.

[The Federalist Engineer]

The Nut-Up move is to start McQ tomorrow and just fight like hell. Same Pilk for the USM/USA elimination game...Or start Self against UIC

[lamont]

You start Denver tomorrow and he walks 6 guys in 2 innings and we are down 4-0 then what? No chance to play Sunday much less sniff a final. Im trying to win the regional but you can't do that if you don't give yourself the best chance to win tomorrow. If we don't walk 100 guys again tonite then no one is having this discussion. I'm gonna trust Pilk to ram it in their ass so I can HOPE Denver can win Sunday. If Denver throws strikes he mauls anyone in this regional. But he won't throw strikes. Therefore I can't trust him tomorrow. Sunday I have no choice so I'll run him out there then and HOPE.

You are an SEC-level pitching coach- but I just disagree. Throwing Pilk is the cover your ass play. If Denver walks 6 in 2 innings in Game 3? You lose badly there anyway. At least pitch Denver against a shittier team that he may somehow get away with things like that.

[I seen it dawg]

If you're gonna save Pilk then save him for game 5 winner take all. You're gonna have to win 3 games with wholestaff to win the regional anyway so saving Pilk to game 5 gives us the best chance to win the last game. By the save Pilk to game 3 logic...

[I seen it dawg]

You are an SEC-level pitching coach- but I just disagree. Throwing Pilk is the cover your ass play. If Denver walks 6 in 2 innings in Game 3? You lose badly there anyway. At least pitch Denver against a shittier team that he may somehow get away with things like that.

And that's ok we disagree. If im gonna get beat tomorrow it's gonna be with the guy I trust the most because I have a choice. Sunday there is no choice except between 2 guys that walk everyone. I put more stock in what I SAW out of UIC today than they are justmyour run of the mill 4 seed. Also taking into account we can't hit me right now. I desperately want to save Pilk bc logically I agree with the move to get us to the finals. But everything I'm seeing at this moment I can't do it.

[CadaverDawg]

UIC IS NOT Jackson St or Ole Miss.

My man

[Choctaw Dawg]

The Nut-Up move is to start McQ tomorrow and just fight like hell. Same Pilk for the USM/USA elimination game...Or start Self against UIC

We've been saying start self all year and I honestly won't see him getting a starting nod no matter how many pitchers we've burned. I badly want Self to start next year though

[Intramural All-American]

The whole strategy behind holding him back is if your Gordon screws up the first game you almost guarantee yourself a chance to get through the first round of the loser's bracket and at that point you're throwing your three against someone else's three. So, it's almost a wash. You're basically gambling at getting a big advantage because if our guys hadn't screwed up tonight we almost guarantee ourselves a spot in the regional final. If it gets screwed up, it's almost like you threw your number one and lost game two anyway.

That's absolutely false. You don't go into a tournament with a loser mentality thinking about "what if we lose game 1". The strategy behind pitching Gordon in game 1 was because we thought we could beat USA with our #2, which in turn would save our ace for the #1 seed to put us in the championship series with saving our whole johnny whole staff. Period. The reason you just gave is absolute BS, and it's you trying to contort the argument to fit your narrative.

The best chance we have to beat UIC is to throw Pilk. True. However, that also gives us the least chance of winning the regional. Beating UIC is not the goal. Winning the regional is. So you have to save pilk. If we can't beat UIC with McQ, we aren't beating USM or USA either with him.

Let's face it though, we are toast.

[Intramural All-American]

If you're gonna save Pilk then save him for game 5 winner take all. You're gonna have to win 3 games with wholestaff to win the regional anyway so saving Pilk to game 5 gives us the best chance to win the last game. By the save Pilk to game 3 logic...

That's not the same at all. Winning game 3 with pilk, means we are facing someone else's number 3 with our number 4. If we saved pilk for 5, we would be facing someone's 3 with our 5. The more games that are played, the more pitching everyone else uses up too. But wasting pilk in game 2 gives us no advantage at all.

[I seen it dawg]

That's not the same at all. Winning game 3 with pilk, means we are facing someone else's number 3 with our number 4. If we saved pilk for 5, we would be facing someone's 3 with our 5. The more games that are played, the more pitching everyone else uses up too. But wasting pilk in game 2 gives us no advantage at all.

I obviously disagree totally. No need to rehash it.

[confucius say]

Unless we start swinging the damn stick, it doesn't matter who pitches when. At this rate, we'll need pilk and Self to beat uic.

[I seen it dawg]

Why didn't we just start Denver tonite?

[tcdog70]

Once you are in the losers bracket it is then one game at a time. You do whatever to win that 1 game. Pitch your best and then worry about the next game after you advance. I might consider pitching Self and if we could get a nice lead pull Him. If not burn Him down. The deal is, we have to ****ing hit. We can win this by knocking the piss out of the baseball.

[Intramural All-American]

I obviously disagree totally. No need to rehash it.

I mean we can agree to disagree on tactics and merit. I'm just pointing out that your logic is flawed in that particular instance. We disagree about starting pilk tomorrow. I see your point, and I'm sure you see mine, we just disagree on this particular game. Your comment about saving him til game 5 is either trolling or not educated.