Every year, by definition, you're going to have a "worst loss of the season"... It's a lot easier to stomach that when you're a good team and play well and win most times out. But we aren't really doing that right now. And there is no guarantee anyway we won't have a worst loss later on this year.
I don't know what else to say. Our inability to throw strikes has gotten ridiculous. Last night we had 10 walks, 5 wild pitches, and hit 2 batters. That's at least 17 free bases (I say at least because I don't know how many were allowed on the wild pitches). I know Georgia Southern had 16 hits last night. But still... when we threw strikes and didn't allow free bases, we were able to get them out. They really didn't beat up our pitching staff if you think about it. What should have been a solo HR was a grand slam after we'd walked and HBP'd the bases loaded. It's been an issue all year, it's not just a few guys, and it's not getting better.
We have a staff ERA of 6.06 right now. Only Miss State has a worse ERA in the league. In 25 games this year, we've walked 126 batters. Only Miss State in the SEC has walked more. We've allowed 36 HRs. Only Ole Miss has allowed more ("Thank God for Mississippi" I guess). We've hit 37 batters, which is the most in the SEC. Only Texas A&M has more wild pitches than we do. Nobody in the SEC has more balks than we do. Only Auburn has allowed more doubles than we have.
I say that to say this. Why in the world were we throwing Kyle Greenler late last night in the 9th inning when we were down by 10 runs? I know his last couple of outings haven't been good. I get that. But he's still a guy that you're going to count on to get outs this weekend, or you would have had he not been hurt. What need to develop some other options at this point... why throw Greenler (and get him hurt) and Rhadens last night? After the fall, they were big on Jarvis Evans. And I know he's struggled in his outings this year (which doesn't really differentiate him from anyone else), but why not give him the ball if you're down by 10 runs in the 7th inning? Why not get him some work and see if he shows you something? Why not DJ Radke or Max DeJong? When you stick Greenler out there in the 9th inning, all you're trying to do is not make the score look any worse.
I'm not saying that Kyle Greenler is Sony Michel, but I remember Sony playing until virtually the last snap against Florida in 2015, in a game that we were down 27-3, with a broken bone in his hand. And I can remember us kicking a chip shot FG earlier in the game to cut the score from 20-0 to 20-3 (I said to one of my buddies "that was some fine work making a three-score game into a three-score game")... you see stuff like that and you realize that there is such a focus on optics... how bad it looks. We had a chance last night to get some other guys some work and maybe, just maybe, see something that allows someone else to get in the mix. Instead we threw two guys, Greenler and Pearson, who we'd throw on the weekend. You wonder why the development is limited? That's a reason.
I said in a different post yesterday that we can go 13-11 the rest of the way in the league and make a regional. That's still very much out there. Driving home from work last night, I started thinking about what we more likely... 13-11 or 7-17? I don't think either happen, but I do think of those two options, the latter is more likely. Right now I think we land around 11-19 overall (so, 10-14 the rest of the way). I said at the start of the year that I didn't expect Stricklin to be fired after this year unless we had a terrible season, winning single digit SEC games... That's starting to look like a very real possibility and I don't think Stricklin survives if we finish 8-22 or 9-21 in the league. If Stricklin does survive, I don't think Sean Kenny does.
Last thing I'll say is this. Two years ago we had a lifeless midweek game in Athens and got beaten soundly... by Georgia Southern. The Vanderbilt series was on deck. Stricklin challenged everyone's manhood apparently and, as the story goes, and said to not get on the bus for Nashville the last night if you were scared. Then we had probably the most improbable win (more for the margin than the fact that we won) on Thursday night up there and won the series. I'm not offering that story to say "we can do that again"... but rather, because we're just right back to the same place... struggling in the league, lifeless home performance against Georgia Southern, and what looks to be a colossal mismatch on paper, coming up this weekend. Same thing it was two years ago.
You just can't find a lot of reasons to expect that this is going to turn. Not just this weekend, but in general. Scott Stricklin has, by my count, coached two seasons now where we've gone into the third weekend of SEC play with a winning conference record. It's practically every season where we've gotten two series under our belts and we're either treading water or just hoping it doesn't go completely off the rails.
I don't know what else to say. Our inability to throw strikes has gotten ridiculous. Last night we had 10 walks, 5 wild pitches, and hit 2 batters. That's at least 17 free bases (I say at least because I don't know how many were allowed on the wild pitches). I know Georgia Southern had 16 hits last night. But still... when we threw strikes and didn't allow free bases, we were able to get them out. They really didn't beat up our pitching staff if you think about it. What should have been a solo HR was a grand slam after we'd walked and HBP'd the bases loaded. It's been an issue all year, it's not just a few guys, and it's not getting better.
We have a staff ERA of 6.06 right now. Only Miss State has a worse ERA in the league. In 25 games this year, we've walked 126 batters. Only Miss State in the SEC has walked more. We've allowed 36 HRs. Only Ole Miss has allowed more ("Thank God for Mississippi" I guess). We've hit 37 batters, which is the most in the SEC. Only Texas A&M has more wild pitches than we do. Nobody in the SEC has more balks than we do. Only Auburn has allowed more doubles than we have.
I say that to say this. Why in the world were we throwing Kyle Greenler late last night in the 9th inning when we were down by 10 runs? I know his last couple of outings haven't been good. I get that. But he's still a guy that you're going to count on to get outs this weekend, or you would have had he not been hurt. What need to develop some other options at this point... why throw Greenler (and get him hurt) and Rhadens last night? After the fall, they were big on Jarvis Evans. And I know he's struggled in his outings this year (which doesn't really differentiate him from anyone else), but why not give him the ball if you're down by 10 runs in the 7th inning? Why not get him some work and see if he shows you something? Why not DJ Radke or Max DeJong? When you stick Greenler out there in the 9th inning, all you're trying to do is not make the score look any worse.
I'm not saying that Kyle Greenler is Sony Michel, but I remember Sony playing until virtually the last snap against Florida in 2015, in a game that we were down 27-3, with a broken bone in his hand. And I can remember us kicking a chip shot FG earlier in the game to cut the score from 20-0 to 20-3 (I said to one of my buddies "that was some fine work making a three-score game into a three-score game")... you see stuff like that and you realize that there is such a focus on optics... how bad it looks. We had a chance last night to get some other guys some work and maybe, just maybe, see something that allows someone else to get in the mix. Instead we threw two guys, Greenler and Pearson, who we'd throw on the weekend. You wonder why the development is limited? That's a reason.
I said in a different post yesterday that we can go 13-11 the rest of the way in the league and make a regional. That's still very much out there. Driving home from work last night, I started thinking about what we more likely... 13-11 or 7-17? I don't think either happen, but I do think of those two options, the latter is more likely. Right now I think we land around 11-19 overall (so, 10-14 the rest of the way). I said at the start of the year that I didn't expect Stricklin to be fired after this year unless we had a terrible season, winning single digit SEC games... That's starting to look like a very real possibility and I don't think Stricklin survives if we finish 8-22 or 9-21 in the league. If Stricklin does survive, I don't think Sean Kenny does.
Last thing I'll say is this. Two years ago we had a lifeless midweek game in Athens and got beaten soundly... by Georgia Southern. The Vanderbilt series was on deck. Stricklin challenged everyone's manhood apparently and, as the story goes, and said to not get on the bus for Nashville the last night if you were scared. Then we had probably the most improbable win (more for the margin than the fact that we won) on Thursday night up there and won the series. I'm not offering that story to say "we can do that again"... but rather, because we're just right back to the same place... struggling in the league, lifeless home performance against Georgia Southern, and what looks to be a colossal mismatch on paper, coming up this weekend. Same thing it was two years ago.
You just can't find a lot of reasons to expect that this is going to turn. Not just this weekend, but in general. Scott Stricklin has, by my count, coached two seasons now where we've gone into the third weekend of SEC play with a winning conference record. It's practically every season where we've gotten two series under our belts and we're either treading water or just hoping it doesn't go completely off the rails.
