The guy does have a lot of ability. Stricklin says he’ll pitch in the bigs. Maybe… that “future big leaguer” stuff gets tossed around a lot. But he is a good pitcher, has good stuff, and has a very high ceiling.
Josh Fields was a freshman here in 2005. We didn’t ask him to close games that season. Granted we still had Will Startup, but we used Startup as a starter some that season too.
Tyler Maloof was a freshman here in 2009. He didn’t make the roster in 2010 as I recall, on what wound up being a pitching staff that struggled tremendously. Maloof won the closer job in 2011 and had a monster season - every save he got was critical to us getting into a regional.
We didn’t ask Aaron Schunk or Jack
Gowan to do it as freshman either (though we did run Schunk out there to make his pitching debut in a tie game in the 9th at Mercer - after he’d only thrown like 2-3 bullpens since arriving on campus).
You shouldn’t ask an 18 year freshman, no matter how talented he is, to close games for you in this league. And you really shouldn’t if he’s not been put in that position before SEC play.
You’re not protecting him that way. You’re not letting him grow into that role. And my concern now is that this is going to crush his confidence, no matter how good the pitching coach is next year.
Meanwhile we have a future superstar in Justin Thomas who can’t get ABs right now. Ben Anderson and Conner Tate … it’s nothing against those guys, but they aren’t going to help us next year. Thomas can. And I know that Stricklin couldn’t care less about 2024 right now. Still, you put a lot into recruiting and signing Justin Thomas. Let him play. If we are going to lose, let’s at least lose with guys who could benefit from the experience.
We have one young guy in a role a freshman shouldn’t have, and we aren’t playing another young guy in a place where we should.
It’s not JUST recruiting, it’s decisions like those that have this put us in this place also, in my opinion
Josh Fields was a freshman here in 2005. We didn’t ask him to close games that season. Granted we still had Will Startup, but we used Startup as a starter some that season too.
Tyler Maloof was a freshman here in 2009. He didn’t make the roster in 2010 as I recall, on what wound up being a pitching staff that struggled tremendously. Maloof won the closer job in 2011 and had a monster season - every save he got was critical to us getting into a regional.
We didn’t ask Aaron Schunk or Jack
Gowan to do it as freshman either (though we did run Schunk out there to make his pitching debut in a tie game in the 9th at Mercer - after he’d only thrown like 2-3 bullpens since arriving on campus).
You shouldn’t ask an 18 year freshman, no matter how talented he is, to close games for you in this league. And you really shouldn’t if he’s not been put in that position before SEC play.
You’re not protecting him that way. You’re not letting him grow into that role. And my concern now is that this is going to crush his confidence, no matter how good the pitching coach is next year.
Meanwhile we have a future superstar in Justin Thomas who can’t get ABs right now. Ben Anderson and Conner Tate … it’s nothing against those guys, but they aren’t going to help us next year. Thomas can. And I know that Stricklin couldn’t care less about 2024 right now. Still, you put a lot into recruiting and signing Justin Thomas. Let him play. If we are going to lose, let’s at least lose with guys who could benefit from the experience.
We have one young guy in a role a freshman shouldn’t have, and we aren’t playing another young guy in a place where we should.
It’s not JUST recruiting, it’s decisions like those that have this put us in this place also, in my opinion
