PITCHING

It seems that Zane is back in a closer or late inning setup man role. Maybe that's where he should be at?

 

Sthele had a good outing in long relief in Game 3 at KU.

 

High numbers on radar gun alone do not a good pitcher make.

 

If you are that worried, I’d suggest looking around the country at #3 and 4 starters.

There are very few that are consistently good.

 

Yep. The problems we have on our pitching staff...most other teams have the same problems, but worse. For many teams, a lot worse...

 

https://www.ncaa.com/stats/baseball/d1/current/team/211

We're the #12 pitching team in the Nation.

Throw out: Northeastern, Oral Roberts, Lamar, and Penn due to terrible competition, and we're the #8 pitching team in the Nation!

 

https://www.ncaa.com/stats/baseball/d1/current/individual/205

This is one that won't be discussed much on tv, but it could be our trump card.

There are only 4 teams who have 2 (or more) starting pitchers ranked in the Top 50 pitchers in the nation:

1. Wake Forest
2. Texas (Gordon #18, LBJ #38)
3. UCSB
4. Army (competition bad/may not even make the tournament)

The top-ranked teams better hope we get our own Regional. They would not want to wake up, read the paper and find out that UT will be the #2 seed in their Regional.

 

We finish the regular season with a Team ERA of 4.06.
Our opponents have a Team ERA of 7.13

 

Yeah, but compare ERA’s of the 9th inning or 8th + 9th innings. Other teams were laying low until the 8th.

 

So with Shaw and Tole injured, and (according to some internet sources) Burke quitting/transferring, we've lost our 3 top relievers and our bullpen has been gutted. (I'm considering Witt as a starter, which is what he's been since he came back)

That leaves:

Reliever.....WHIP
Lummus.......1.17
Hurley..........1.38
Sthele..........1.54
Zane M........1.57
Minchey.......1.58
Ace W..........1.62
DuPlantier....1.64
Stuart..........1.67
Grubbs........1.85
Howard........1.89
Walbridge.....2.04

In the college game, you like to see a Reliever's WHIP under 1.50. If you take that up to 1.60, then we've still got 5 guys who can play, plus Ace W--arguably our most reliable reliever. That's 6 relievers we can (more-or-less) rely on to not give up many crooked-number innings. If we get out to big leads over U La or Maine, that's where Stuart will need to come in and eat up 4+ innings without suffering too much damage.

Also, to any who like to give Lummus any crap, the numbers don't lie. Per the stats sheet, Lummus is now the best reliever in our pen.

Of these pitchers, the ones that can go 3, 4, 5 + innings are Zane and Hurley, and maybe Sthele (but we've gotten into trouble using Travis more than 2 innings before; he may have to go 4-5 innings out of necessity). In fact, Zane (former starter) could go 6-7+ innings, if needed. The starters Gordon and LBJ will need to each go 7 innings.

 

Young guns who wanted to see some action in the playoffs--you may get your chance. Some of the young (and other) guys pretty far down the depth chart will see action if we stay in beyond a few games.

Minchey will see action regardless--game 1, 2, or 3. Grubbs is good for 1-2 inning spurts, during which he can get a lot of ground outs, but may also get hit. Howard--same thing, but without all the ground outs. DuPlantier is going to have to show up and throw 1-2 innings here and there. We know what DuP can do when he's on. Even Walbridge may throw an inning or two in these playoffs--I think our fan base has a distorted view of this hurler based on a horrendous first time or two on the mound earlier this year. His more recent outings have been decent enough.

 

https://www.si.com/college/texas/ba...lege-baseball-dj-burke-enters-transfer-portal

The coaches aren't required to bench/kick-off Burke because he entered the portal. Maybe Pierce doesn't want to set a precedent where a player can enter the portal and still play the rest of the year. I get that.

 

I figure Lummus and Ace may fill Shaw's role as the stopper, coming in when things are going South, getting us out of trouble, and throwing 1 more inning. We could see either, or both, in 2 or 3 games in Miami.

Or, 1 of the above may be our closer.

We may need to save Zane for a 4th game start or long relief, since Zane has gone 6-7 innings before.

 

Go to the pharmacy and get some heartburn medicine. Over the course of the Miami Regional, we're going to be trotting out some hurlers to the mound in relief who may give you heartburn.

 

To further complicate matters, rain delays could cut short starts by Gordon and Johnson. If there are rain delays, gotta hope they come before the game starts and not after they've pitched 4 innings. It's already raining at the ballpark.

 

Some possibilities:

Tomorrow:

Starter: LBJ
Stopper: Ace W or Lummus
2nd Reliever to enter the game: Ace W or Lummus
Closer: Morehouse or Sthele or Minchey


Game 3:

Starter: Witt
Long Reliever: Hurley or Sthele
2nd Reliever to enter game: Hurley or Sthele
Closer: Ace W or Lummus or Morehouse or Minchey or DuPlantier or Stuart

Game 4:
Johnny All-Staff
1-3 innings from each of:
Gordon
Morehouse
Ace W
Lummus
Minchey
Sthele
DuPlantier
Grubbs
Stuart

For any game, if we're absolutely getting destroyed (or if we're up by 6+ runs)--long reliever to eat up innings: Stuart

I don't know what the deal is with Stuart. He can throw really fast, and he's got pretty good stuff, but he seems to lose his control, and also get hit, and it all seems to happen in one or two big innings.

 

It’s an interesting read on some of these play-by-play innings from today. Granted many are the underdogs, but the walks and hit by pitches would give you dudes heart attacks.

For instance Auburn scored the tying run in the 8th on HBP, walk, HBP, and walk.

Iowa walked two dudes in the 9th to make it interesting.

Rider had some walks/HBP to help Coastal get some runs late and help get it to extras.

Troy had 3 walks/HBP in the 8th and 2 more in the 9th to help BC stay in the game.

 

Now that would drive me up the wall if I was the coach. I'd have 3-4 pitchers warming up in the pen.

 

Clearly, MLB and Longhorn great pitcher Greg Swindell is worthy of much respect. And you hear him frequently say on LHN broadcasts (paraphrased): 'What's the primary job of a relief pitcher? To come out of the bullpen throwing strikes.'

 

It’s just where we are. CSF has walked 7 in 2+ innings.

 

He is 100% right. I would think that by this time of year, our pitchers would all be able to accomplish this. A ball in play is much better than a walk. We have a pretty descent fielding team so just give them a chance to make the play.

 

Well, the bullpen hasn't mattered yet with our 2 monster starters. It's about to matter though. While Witt is really good, his pitch count will be lower than the other starters for obvious reasons.

Trusted enough by the Coaches: Ace "Boogey" Whitehead, Lummus, Zane Morehouse, Hurley, Sthele, Minchey, DuPlantier.

And some guys like Stuart, Grubbs, Howard, and Wallbridge could even see action if this turns into a 4 game Regional for us.

We UT fans like to gripe a lot about our bullpen, but aside from Wake Forest, Tennessee, and maybe a few others, it's pretty solid compared to the other teams out there. Even without Burke, Tole, and Shaw, it's at least an average bullpen among the Top 16 teams. Other fan bases sound just like us: 'What's with our bullpen, we need a new pitching coach, why can't we recruit good relievers, blah, blah, blah..." It ain't just us. It's endemic throughout the entire college game.

Fortunately, we have 2 superior starters (3 if Witt is back 80-90% +) that set us apart from all but 1 team on the mound when it comes to starting pitchers.

 

Gordon will pitch in game 3 if we are winning after 6 innings. No reason to hold Gordon for Game 4 if Horns can win it in game 3 with Gordon going 2-3 innings.

 

After the Regionals:

Starting Pitcher.....ERA.........WHIP

Gordon....................2.45...........1.09
LBJ............................2.62...........1.21

Now that's a 1-2 punch!

 

Ace Whitehead

Summer League
Mat-Su Miners (Alaska)

2.57 ERA
1.29 WHIP
18 Strikeouts
6 Walks
in 14 Innings pitched



Ace Whitehead - Alaska Baseball League - player

 

The challenge next year is going to be getting everybody enough innings to pitch.

 

Coming soon to Austin, Texas:

 

Coming soon to Austin, Texas:


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TUMIS

 

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