Auburn 2nd of 2

[devcon]

Radio team said Brent Key picked up Vahn's HR ball.

 

[DecaturJacket]

As techbball21 mentioned, Kyle Peterson said that Auburn felt it was important to keep their Friday guy on Friday, their Saturday guy on Saturday, etc. rather than moving them all up one day to accommodate this week's Thursday - Saturday schedule. Unless something happens to change the plan, it sounds like they will go back to Alvarez mid-week and the normal weekend rotation will remain intact after this Easter weekend. IOW, no one is being moved out of the rotation.

ETA: I just looked at their remaining schedule, and of their remaining 7 series, 4 of them are Thursday - Saturday. So, I wonder what that means for Alvarez's usage going forward?

I know that coaches do that from time to time (more around the conference tournaments usually), but it's such an odd/silly thought process. These kids are usually already pitching on 7 days rest. 6 days rest is still plenty. Especially under 100 pitches. Other than rest, there's no like extra "comfort" in pitching Friday v Thursday. You also just kind of screw your 3rd starter out of a weekend start if you're bringing in a new guy to the rotation for the Thursday game. In this case, their Sunday guy has a 2.80 ERA with a .206 opponent batting average. I get that Alvarez has been great in the midweeks, but feels like a bad thing to be messing with.

 

[senoiajacket]

And this is the very reason games are determined on the field of play and not on paper.
Plus I'm still a firm believer that temps play a part in the psyche of a player.

lol, we need to get Auburns cold weather physiologist guy (or maybe his assistant) on our staff. I kid ….. sort of. Everyone is affected different. I get it.

 

[MWBATL]

The whole script for me is that our pitching staff held AU to 3 runs, with only one pitcher having a rough outing. That after a weekend where we held another tourney (likely) team down with great pitching as well. Forget our hitting…we have had great hitting in many prior years…but it often gets silenced by greta pitching in the post-season. BUT, if your pitching continues at this level….wowza!

PS-it was VERY good to see Wilcox not only get an inning but for him to produce a 1-2-3 inning at that! Let’s see more of this kid. And Underood baffles me…he seems to get to 0-2 immediately on EVERY hitter, but fails to put them away. I’m not sure what the problem is, but getting to 0-2 right off the bat against just about EVERY hitter tells me he has some good stuff….

 

[78pike]

That is reasonable. In real-time, I guess I was with you. But once the pattern seemed to be keeping all guys out of the pen below 20 pitches... I felt like the 'goal' became use a lot of arms; but don't "use up" any. Somebody else will need to confirm my logic there. Is <20 plenty low to turn guys around to be available 2 days later... Game 1 v Cal??

I feel like we have enough arms and quality depth to do a similar bullpen day on Saturdays while continuing to stretch out McKee and Blakely on Fridays and Sundays. Or simply just ride guys until they get in trouble and then bring in the next guy. It keeps the other team off balance while also keeping the bullpen happy with lots of guys seeing action. Unless we can find another guy like Blakely for Saturday I wouldn't mind this option.

 

[Bogey]

The whole script for me is that our pitching staff held AU to 3 runs, with only one pitcher having a rough outing. That after a weekend where we held another tourney (likely) team down with great pitching as well. Forget our hitting…we have had great hitting in many prior years…but it often gets silenced by greta pitching in the post-season. BUT, if your pitching continues at this level….wowza!

PS-it was VERY good to see Wilcox not only get an inning but for him to produce a 1-2-3 inning at that! Let’s see more of this kid. And Underood baffles me…he seems to get to 0-2 immediately on EVERY hitter, but fails to put them away. I’m not sure what the problem is, but getting to 0-2 right off the bat against just about EVERY hitter tells me he has some good stuff….

Agree, want to see more of Charlie. He has the stuff!

 

[XXX]

To be fair, I was surprised with the move to use Loy last night. I could be wrong, but I don't think we would've done that last season with Patel (just as an example). Another reason I like Loy in that reliever spot. I assume that means Loy won't be starting Friday night.

Loy will not be starting Friday night. It will be Buuresema.

 

[TechPhi97]

The whole script for me is that our pitching staff held AU to 3 runs, with only one pitcher having a rough outing. That after a weekend where we held another tourney (likely) team down with great pitching as well. Forget our hitting…we have had great hitting in many prior years…but it often gets silenced by greta pitching in the post-season. BUT, if your pitching continues at this level….wowza!

PS-it was VERY good to see Wilcox not only get an inning but for him to produce a 1-2-3 inning at that! Let’s see more of this kid. And Underood baffles me…he seems to get to 0-2 immediately on EVERY hitter, but fails to put them away. I’m not sure what the problem is, but getting to 0-2 right off the bat against just about EVERY hitter tells me he has some good stuff….

Wasn't able to watch last night, but from a stats review perspective it was great to see our guys throwing strikes. 16 pitches to get 5 outs for Loy, and then Barfield got 3 outs with 8 pitches. Someone else got 3 outs with 8 pitches. I did watch a highlight reel and saw Spivey hitting 96 mph on his fastball in that last inning. Super happy to see good performances coming out of the pen.

 

[kg01]

View attachment 21356

This is an April Fools day joke. That ball never came down.

 

[Eli]

The whole script for me is that our pitching staff held AU to 3 runs, with only one pitcher having a rough outing. That after a weekend where we held another tourney (likely) team down with great pitching as well. Forget our hitting…we have had great hitting in many prior years…but it often gets silenced by greta pitching in the post-season. BUT, if your pitching continues at this level….wowza!

PS-it was VERY good to see Wilcox not only get an inning but for him to produce a 1-2-3 inning at that! Let’s see more of this kid. And Underood baffles me…he seems to get to 0-2 immediately on EVERY hitter, but fails to put them away. I’m not sure what the problem is, but getting to 0-2 right off the bat against just about EVERY hitter tells me he has some good stuff….

Agree with all but people need to stop with the “forget the hitting part.” We have the best offense in the BBCOR era and have surpassed 1987 in many offensive categories. This isn’t another solid offensive team it’s literally the best offense in the last 40 years at Tech and may go down as a top 5 offense EVER BBCOR or not..

 

[DecaturJacket]

The whole script for me is that our pitching staff held AU to 3 runs, with only one pitcher having a rough outing. That after a weekend where we held another tourney (likely) team down with great pitching as well. Forget our hitting…we have had great hitting in many prior years…but it often gets silenced by greta pitching in the post-season. BUT, if your pitching continues at this level….wowza!

PS-it was VERY good to see Wilcox not only get an inning but for him to produce a 1-2-3 inning at that! Let’s see more of this kid. And Underood baffles me…he seems to get to 0-2 immediately on EVERY hitter, but fails to put them away. I’m not sure what the problem is, but getting to 0-2 right off the bat against just about EVERY hitter tells me he has some good stuff….

It feels like Cooper just gets super unlucky. Another one where his stat line looks worse than I think he deserved.

I just rewatched his outing:

• 1st
  • Weak groundball out
  • Double on an off balance swing on a weakly hit breaking ball that just went in the gap between center and right
  • Can of corn to center
  • Strikeout swinging
• 2nd
  • Popup to right
  • Line drive HR to left
  • Routine groundball to 2b that for some reason Schmidt dove for and Cooper couldn't get to the bag fast enough for
  • Ground out to 2b
  • Walk on 5 pitches
  • Hard ground ball double down the 3b line that scored 2
    • He got ahead 0-2 here and had a pitch that was VERY close to a strike that Vahn didn't frame because the runners were moving
    • We also had this guy caught stealing at 3b, but the ball came out of Zuck's glove
  • 4 pitch walk, after which he was pulled (I do agree with the pull here FWIW)

He worked ahead most ABs and his stuff looked good. Really the only 2 hard hit balls were the HR and the double down the line. He arguably should've been out of the inning before the double though if Schmidt stays home a 1b on that ground ball to 2b. The two walks were his undoing, but I wouldn't say he looked bad. He came back and got 0-2 after the first one and made a borderline strikeout pitch. 4 pitch walks are a no-no though. Just gotta work on composure and control.

Campbell's outing was shaky, but yeah everybody else was very impressive. He's another guy who I think has great stuff, but just doesn't have the consistent control.

 

[GTGoldout]

Wasn't able to watch last night, but from a stats review perspective it was great to see our guys throwing strikes.

Great highlight video if you haven't seen it yet:

 

[FredJacket]

1. It's baseball. The Nats beat the Dodgers sometimes.

Come on, man. Leave the Nats alone.

Nobody (especially me....a Nats fan) has a problem with a 10 year rebuild. And I'm being mean to the Nats... it's actually 2 back-to-back 5 year rebuilds while a "Team is FOR SALE" sign comes & goes every now & then.

 

[DecaturJacket]

Come on, man. Leave the Nats alone.

Nobody (especially me....a Nats fan) has a problem with a 10 year rebuild. And I'm being mean to the Nats... it's actually 2 back-to-back 5 year rebuilds while a "Team is FOR SALE" sign comes & goes every now & then.

Funny enough I'd been using the Marlins for that example forever, but had to switch it up bc they're looking too good right now.

 

[Eli]

Funny enough I'd been using the Marlins for that example forever, but had to switch it up bc they're looking too good right now.

Along these lines the White Sox seem to be an absolute dumpster fire organization. I hope Lackey avoids getting picked by them..

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

Come on, man. Leave the Nats alone.

Nobody (especially me....a Nats fan) has a problem with a 10 year rebuild. And I'm being mean to the Nats... it's actually 2 back-to-back 5 year rebuilds while a "Team is FOR SALE" sign comes & goes every now & then.

Eh, at least your owner isn't spending $300 - $400M per year for the same results...