Clemson

FredJacket

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Weekend #1 of ACC play. Through 12 games...the team's shown flashes of vast improvement in pitching and other spots of mediocrity (to be kind). Looking forward to seeing what we have.

Friday will be Curry. I'll assume Sat goes to C.Thomas. Will CDH stick with Hurter who has started the last 2 weekends. I'd assume so... but always a chance he decides to go with a "new" starter, I guess. Is English ready to start? ...with a low pitch count.

The primary middle inning bullpen guys? (I am asking) Lee, Archer, Carpenter, Winborne, Hughes, Gibson,
The closer? (again, I'm asking) Datoc, English

Bart's injury? This sucks. Really need McCann to play/hit well while he's out...and Kel too.

Weather: Quite possible schedule gets modified. Rain inbound to Clemson late Sat into mid-day Sunday. May mean a DH tomorrow (Fri) and early start Sat to try to get all 3 games in before having to cancel one or have a long drawn out day on Sunday.
 

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I put this on another thread, but I'll kind of re-post here for any new eyes. Clemson, in my opinion, is a great team that has also had a massive amount of good luck this year. They are 12-1 right now, with 7 of those games being 1 run, and they went 6-1. Many come from behind wins. 2 games ago they were losing to Wofford until Wofford gave up 5 walks, 2 hit batters, and 2 errors to plate 5 Clemson runners in 1 inning. Clemson used those 5 handed over runs to come from behind and win 6-3. Last night they were losing 6-0 to 3-8 Michigan State until Michigan State walked 5 batters and gave up 9 runs in that inning. Clemson used those 9 runs handed to them to win 9-7. But Michigan State at 9-7 in the 9th had bases loaded with 1 out and couldn't score a run. Michigan State out-hit Clemson 14-8. They left 15 on base compared to just 5 for Clemson. Clemson is a great team, but I'm hoping the crazy amount of luck they've had this year comes back to bite them this weekend.
 

MWBATL

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The key for GT will be pitching efficiency.

We are simply NOT deep in pitching, and if we have to go to the bullpen early or often, we will be in big trouble. If our starters can be efficient and last deep into the game, and if the relievers we use can do so as well, we have a shot (imho) of taking 2 games. We simply do NOT have the pitching depth to have a prayer of sweeping anyone but very poor teams.

If Clemson uses their brains and forces our pitchers to throw a ton of pitches to get into our bullpen early, I think the best we can do is squeak out one win.

I would guess English would be the closer. Datoc has been kinda shaky last two times out. We'll use them both of course but I think English is our first option in a tight, winnable game. No way English pitches more than 2 innings this weekend, imho, in any one outing. It will be quite w while before he starts I suspect.

I would guess Hurter gets the "Sunday" start (whenever that game is actually played). I think your listing of middle relievers is probably quite accurate.

My prediction is that we win one game in the series, lose one competitive game and lose one ugly game. Just my WAG. Hoping i am wrong, but I just have not seen enough pitching consistency to be confident of anything else.
 

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In games that were decided by 3 or fewer runs:
Georgia Tech - 5 games out of 12
Clemson - 9 games out of 13

Georgia Tech: 3-2
Clemson: 8-1

Time for their luck to run out.
 

GTNavyNuke

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FredJacket

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I'll state the obvious again. The fact that we are starting a true FR with a 5.40 ERA says we don't have great starting depth. Our other two starters are So, one with a lot of experience and one with little. I agree 100% that Clemson's goal should be to run up the pitch count. We are going to need a lot of runs to win a game or two.
IF this DH plan for Sat goes down, I sure hope Thomas starts the 1st game of the DH. Better said... if there is any threat at all that the 3rd game may no be played (or completed)... Hurter needs to be lined up to start the 3rd game.
 

THWG

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IF this DH plan for Sat goes down, I sure hope Thomas starts the 1st game of the DH. Better said... if there is any threat at all that the 3rd game may no be played (or completed)... Hurter needs to be lined up to start the 3rd game.
I kind of like Thomas starting on Sundays for the rest of the year. Teams typically pitch their 3rd best guy and if we're going to our 2nd best guy then I like our chances better. If we do have a DH Saturday, then I'm with you and we need to start Thomas 1st just in case the 2nd game is rained out. Also, I think that Hurter is going to be a pleasant surprise this year. Remember, he was hurt for a little bit, so he might just now be rounding into shape on the mound.
 

FredJacket

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I kind of like Thomas starting on Sundays for the rest of the year. Teams typically pitch their 3rd best guy and if we're going to our 2nd best guy then I like our chances better. If we do have a DH Saturday, then I'm with you and we need to start Thomas 1st just in case the 2nd game is rained out. Also, I think that Hurter is going to be a pleasant surprise this year. Remember, he was hurt for a little bit, so he might just now be rounding into shape on the mound.
Ok... let's mark you down as "pro" Hurter. You'll be the 1st guy I'll lash out at when/if he struggles. ALL fans need a scapegoat. :woot:
 

GTNavyNuke

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Got some mention for the first time in D1 Baseball weekly column....... say Clemson hasn't seen our level of hitting yet. We are 12th in the country at .333 ........ and it's been with the 12th SOS. Of course the SOS is based on the early RPIs which are not reliable, but the point is we can hit. Just need to score like @FredJacket keeps "hitting" on.

Feels like the season opener. I'll miss watching the game ..... have to go to a GT club event and pour beer. Then drink it.
 

THWG

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Well, good guys drop it 3-2. I hate to lose, but this is a loss that I can accept. We played good baseball game today and made the other team beat us. Curry was good, but not great today and it's comforting to know that even when he doesn't have his A game, the guys still will have a chance to win.
 

MWBATL

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Lost 3-2. Tight competitive game. I did not get to watch any of it, so those who did please tell me any thoughts you might have. Box score sure indicates Clemson pitching was superb with tons of strikes (they threw 8K's and 0 BB's). Clemson was very economical (114 pitches for the entire game) and threw 73% strikes. Our pitching looked good in the box score...just not as good as theirs. We needed 147 pitches and threw 60% strikes. Those aren't great numbers, but the result (3 runs) is certainly about as good as we could hope for especially giving up 2 dingers.
 

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Clemson baseball is the luckiest freaking team in the country. 7-1 in 1 run games this year. 9-1 in games decided by 3 or fewer. And that’s out of only 14 games played. Ridiculous garbage.
 

Sideways

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The key for GT will be pitching efficiency.

We are simply NOT deep in pitching, and if we have to go to the bullpen early or often, we will be in big trouble. If our starters can be efficient and last deep into the game, and if the relievers we use can do so as well, we have a shot (imho) of taking 2 games. We simply do NOT have the pitching depth to have a prayer of sweeping anyone but very poor teams.

If Clemson uses their brains and forces our pitchers to throw a ton of pitches to get into our bullpen early, I think the best we can do is squeak out one win.

I would guess English would be the closer. Datoc has been kinda shaky last two times out. We'll use them both of course but I think English is our first option in a tight, winnable game. No way English pitches more than 2 innings this weekend, imho, in any one outing. It will be quite w while before he starts I suspect.

I would guess Hurter gets the "Sunday" start (whenever that game is actually played). I think your listing of middle relievers is probably quite accurate.

My prediction is that we win one game in the series, lose one competitive game and lose one ugly game. Just my WAG. Hoping i am wrong, but I just have not seen enough pitching consistency to be confident of anything else.

Sorry, I am too old to be hipster and up on the various acronyms. Pray tell, what is one's "WAG"?
 
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