in the last two seasons we've had a pitcher make his first SEC start in the series opener, on the road. Kevin Smith last year at Mississippi State, Andrew Gist at LSU, and then Blakely Brown tonight.
In Gist's case, he's an older guy and he'd gotten road starts the year before at tech and at Clemson. Still, it seemed like a tall order for him at the time to take the baseball in the series opener in Baton Rouge.
Last year I don't know what we were trying to accomplish by running Kevin Smith out there on Thursday. Same with Blakely Brown tonight. You're not putting these guys in situations were they can succeed. Tonight defies explanation, unless Gist tweaked something and needed an extra day (I don't believe that's what happened)... Gist started last Thursday, so it's not like he's going on a day's shorter rest. And obviously our next weekend series is a conventional one, so he wouldn't go until Friday at the earliest. Since Baton Rouge, Gist has really good in that Friday night/ series opener spot. Why mess with that this weekend?
I can't figure out what we're doing with Blakely Brown. Stricklin has said repeatedly, including tonighit on the post game show, that he has the best stuff on the staff. Stricklin said at the start of the year that he could be a future big leaguer (we have a handful of future big leaguers on this 15-20 ball club, according to the coach back in the pre-season).... Blakely has a bad outing on Opening Night and it was like he disappeared. How much times since then has been brought in to pitch with a lead? For the most part, ever since College of Charleston, we've been using him as a "keep it here" bridge guy out of the bullpen. Now he's your opening game starter? Stricklin was non-committal about whether Blakely would stay in the rotation on the post game show tonight, saying only "we'll see." It's a good thing he didn't pull the plug on Gist so quickly... Still, it makes you wonder why we elevate a guy's a role to that extent and what we think is going to happen when we do it.
I didn't have a problem with Blakely going into the rotation. I think he's earned that. But why not start him Friday or Saturday? Why toss him out there in game one?
Beyond that, it's obviously hard to find a lot of bright spots when you take a beating like that. Three and a half years into this thing, we still don't do a lot of little things.... The errors are piling up, the baserunning continues to be an issue, teams run on us practically at will (which, again, isn't all on the catchers)... I know we're young, but these aren't youth problems.... at least here they aren't... a lot of faces have changed, but the problems are still the same.
I used to say last year that we'd have to be the only team in the country that would bat Nick King leadoff for several weeks instead of Stephen Wrenn. After 4 SEC weekends, tonight we put a guy in the leadoff spot who is hitting .132/.250/.237 with 13 strikeouts in 38 ABs vs SEC pitching. (He's .191/.333/.309 overall).... I'm not trying to bag on Tucker Maxwell, he's got a lot of ability, but I can't imagine anyone else writing him in at the 1 spot right now. Put your players in a position to be successful. Where is the better spot for Tucker right now? Top of the order or bottom third? Maybe if you put him in that 7 hole he can see some better pitches and start to find some confidence at the plate.
We got hammered pretty badly at LSU on Friday night and although we got swept, we did acquit ourselves well over the next two days. Maybe that happens here.
In Gist's case, he's an older guy and he'd gotten road starts the year before at tech and at Clemson. Still, it seemed like a tall order for him at the time to take the baseball in the series opener in Baton Rouge.
Last year I don't know what we were trying to accomplish by running Kevin Smith out there on Thursday. Same with Blakely Brown tonight. You're not putting these guys in situations were they can succeed. Tonight defies explanation, unless Gist tweaked something and needed an extra day (I don't believe that's what happened)... Gist started last Thursday, so it's not like he's going on a day's shorter rest. And obviously our next weekend series is a conventional one, so he wouldn't go until Friday at the earliest. Since Baton Rouge, Gist has really good in that Friday night/ series opener spot. Why mess with that this weekend?
I can't figure out what we're doing with Blakely Brown. Stricklin has said repeatedly, including tonighit on the post game show, that he has the best stuff on the staff. Stricklin said at the start of the year that he could be a future big leaguer (we have a handful of future big leaguers on this 15-20 ball club, according to the coach back in the pre-season).... Blakely has a bad outing on Opening Night and it was like he disappeared. How much times since then has been brought in to pitch with a lead? For the most part, ever since College of Charleston, we've been using him as a "keep it here" bridge guy out of the bullpen. Now he's your opening game starter? Stricklin was non-committal about whether Blakely would stay in the rotation on the post game show tonight, saying only "we'll see." It's a good thing he didn't pull the plug on Gist so quickly... Still, it makes you wonder why we elevate a guy's a role to that extent and what we think is going to happen when we do it.
I didn't have a problem with Blakely going into the rotation. I think he's earned that. But why not start him Friday or Saturday? Why toss him out there in game one?
Beyond that, it's obviously hard to find a lot of bright spots when you take a beating like that. Three and a half years into this thing, we still don't do a lot of little things.... The errors are piling up, the baserunning continues to be an issue, teams run on us practically at will (which, again, isn't all on the catchers)... I know we're young, but these aren't youth problems.... at least here they aren't... a lot of faces have changed, but the problems are still the same.
I used to say last year that we'd have to be the only team in the country that would bat Nick King leadoff for several weeks instead of Stephen Wrenn. After 4 SEC weekends, tonight we put a guy in the leadoff spot who is hitting .132/.250/.237 with 13 strikeouts in 38 ABs vs SEC pitching. (He's .191/.333/.309 overall).... I'm not trying to bag on Tucker Maxwell, he's got a lot of ability, but I can't imagine anyone else writing him in at the 1 spot right now. Put your players in a position to be successful. Where is the better spot for Tucker right now? Top of the order or bottom third? Maybe if you put him in that 7 hole he can see some better pitches and start to find some confidence at the plate.
We got hammered pretty badly at LSU on Friday night and although we got swept, we did acquit ourselves well over the next two days. Maybe that happens here.
