On the whole, it's been quite good thus far this year. The pitching is soooooooooooooooooo much better than last year. Now the batting, on the other hand... Think 70s - 80s Houston Astros or St Louis Cardinals, playing in the cavernous Astrodome or the old Busch Stadium. Bunch of 2-1, 3-2, 2-0 games.
And last night's ump (LSU game) had a particularly small strike zone. This would normally mean more runs. Goes to show you the caliber of pitching on both teams.
Slow down bro. At this time last year, the pitching was great. Lucas Gordon was a reliever. In the post season until the CWS, the pitching was the story. In the CWS, hitting and pitching both were poor.
LBJ going to challenge for Sthele's spot (or maybe even Zane Morehouse's spot) as a weekend starter before long. To be fair to him, Sthele hasn't done bad other than that Grand Slam to Vanderbilt. In fact, he turned in a really good game against Indiana. But when you give up Grand Slams a lot of people get really upset... And, while Zane Morehouse looks really good so far, only Gordon's name is chisled in stone at this point. May the best 3 men win. The consolation prize is mid-week starter--not a bad gig.
LBJ needs to be consistent #1, he pitched well ONE time so far against a pretty good team, I need to see him string these outings together. #2 he needs to be able to last into the 7,8, or 9th inning. We can’t have a starter get regularly knocked out of the game by the 5th or 6th inning because his pitch count is high. His stuff looked good but I have never seen a pitcher throw a pitch into the dirt as often as he has. Just some slight tweaking and he might be able to go the distance. and that goes for both Stehle and Morehouse too. to be continued……
As good as Gordon is, his pitch count often gets pretty high by the 5th or 6th and he's pulled for that reason.
You're right, i should have included him too, I was thinking he made it deeper last year. I mentioned in an earlier post that we needed them to get to the 5-6th inning and we could possibly deal with it in the bullpen but that is the floor. Ideally we need the starters to get to the 7th minimum. At least that's what I'm looking for. THEN I know we are ready for the post season at least from a pitching stand point.
good grief, i just watched the replay of Duplantiers outing and it only took him 4 pitches to give up a hr. And to my earlier point, while Duplantier was on the mound, the announcer stated we had thrown 58 more pitches than LSU. That's a lot on a bullpen for one game and I imagine thats how its been going so far in every game. That has to improve, they need to be more efficient. Dup threw two balls that were way outside the zone, had a 2-1 count and the next pitch was a fast ball right down the middle, a hitters count. These guys have got to stay ahead and pound the zone.
Interestingly, against Indiana, Coach let Gordon go well North of 100 pitches. He really wanted a win and to see how far Gordon could safely go.
I try so hard to keep a positive attitude and not get down on individual players. But with these pitchers that give up Grand Slams, walk in batters, give up 3 run homeruns in less than 5 pitches, etc..., it's sometimes difficult to say nice things. That being said, Sthele was ice against Indiana. Totally different guy mentally than last year. If Sthele can keep it together mentally on the mound, we're a lot better team. We've got 3 solid starting pitchers, and 4 if LBJ keeps up. Of course, while I've been pumping up Zane Morehouse for over a year, his numbers are actually just so-so for now. If Zane develops consistency, AND GETS AND STAYS AHEAD OF THE BATTERS IN THE COUNT, he's an all-conference 2nd team or hon. mention sort of pitcher. And with his stuff (and velocity), the pros will draft Zane pretty high.
With our well-earned reputation from last year for lack of control, I bet opposing coaches are having their guys take a lot of pitches.
I really hope Sthele keeps proving me wrong. I had major doubts about him based on last year's inconsistent hot-and-cold / high-and-low performance. He's always had good stuff. This could be his big break out year. Sthele's grand slam surrendered against Vanderbilt should be forgiven by all. Our error-prone fielding in the Arlington event really screwed him.
I am more concerned with guys coming out of the bullpen and walking batters. This caused us much grief last year as well.
I thought that was sort of his specialty last year. It's hard to believe after 8 shut out innings HE is the one Pierce chose to leave the game to in a scoreless game against the #1 team.
I know Dup felt worse than anyone about it, I just hope he works harder because of it. We need all the arms we can get.
Zane Morehouse still tends to fall behind batters in the count, and has to dig himself out of the holes he dug. But, he turned in an overall good performance vs. Fullerton. 5 innings, 1 run surrendered. He came out cold, and finished hot. Zane is our #2 starting pitcher, he's earned it. Hurley's stock went up after 4 solid innings, with 1 run surrendered. We did not have that last year--middle/long relievers who could eat 3-4 solid innings without getting shelled, walking lots of batters, or finding other ways to blow the game.
It’s another big night for LBJ tonight. If he shuts down Sam H, his ERA will dive very, very low. He could make a case for a weekend starter position before conference play rolls around. The way he handled #1 LSU—I’d say he’s already laid a solid foundation.
LBJ tonight vs. Sam Pretty solid performance. He's mostly staying out of the dirt and not frequently getting behind on the counts. Last year, he was living in the dirt way too much (release point issues). He seems to have mostly gotten over that. At this point, there is little doubt that LBJ is one of our best pitchers.
More on Minchey "No. 3: Kobe Minchey, RHP On a Texas pitching staff with more questions than answers, Coach Pierce will have to find innings wherever he can get them. Freshman right-hander Kobe Minchey is as good of an option as any. Minchey stands at 6-foot-2, 220 pounds. He was homeschooled in high school and had a bit of late development, leading to recruiting rankings that do not reflect the juice he has in his arm. Minchey has gained 6+ MPH on his fastball over the past year. His four-seamer sits in the low 90’s and can creep up to 95. He supplements that with a slider and changeup, the latter of which he is comfortable using in any count. Coach Pierce noted that Minchey pitches with a ton of confidence. This is a must at the high D1 level and is a trait that is hard to instill in some pitchers. I do not expect Minchey to be a weekend starter for the Longhorns, at least not yet. Coach Pierce and first-year pitching coach Woody Williams will likely deploy him as a mid-week starter and/or out of the pen on the weekend. If he holds up to start the season, Minchey could force his way to that Sunday starter role by the season’s end." Texas Baseball: 3 freshmen poised for a breakout
Whitehead and Grubbs look like two guys we will see a lot more of. The stock of LBJ and Burke continues to rise. Sthele has the occasional bad inning, but overall looks a lot more consistent than last year. Stuart is struggling lately.
We have so many pitchers that are dang close to being REALLY good pitchers. I liked the way Stehle, Morehouse and LBJ looked this past week. Those three guys are very close together in terms of current skill. I see more potential from those three than I do from Gordon. Not saying anything bad about Gordon but those guys look like they have a lot of ability left to tap. and then......... ........by mid April we get Witt back
