Nashville Regional - Vandy, Ga Tech, Indiana St, Presbyterian

[FredJacket]

Starting a regional thread for the action in Nashville this weekend.

Indiana St - Fri at 1pm (EDT). Sounds like Indiana St will be rolling out an above average starter. Jackets will need to really bring their very best. No extra baserunners or outs....pitch well & play solid defense.... or we'll be struggling to keep up where it matters.

Georgia Tech Named No. 2 Seed at Nashville Regional

Yellow Jackets will join Vanderbilt, Indiana State, and Presbyterian in Nashville

ramblinwreck.com

Regional Central

Vanderbilt baseball hosts Nashville Regional

vucommodores.com

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

Last regional I attended at Vandy, #2 GT lost to #3 Illinois, and we had to fight back for the opportunity to beat Vandy twice. Did not start our ACE Farmer vs. Illinois in the first game. He pitched ~5 innings in the loser's bracket game. We ended up beating Illinois and then Vandy once, brought Farmer back on short rest for the regional Championship game. Not good enough to advance.

Need to beat Indiana State. I will leave that up to Hall, Ramsey, DBo, and the players to figure out how to do that. I'll just sit back and watch. Still mulling over whether I should head down to Nashville for the games.

 

[ibeattetris]

I live in Nashville now and just this week went down to Florida to visit family. Sad I’ll miss the regional.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Thank you Fred for being willing to start this thread and therefore take any blame that comes with our performance.

 

[FredJacket]

Thank you Fred for being willing to start this thread and therefore take any blame that comes with our performance.

Know your role.

 

[eokerholm]

That's a lot of hair

 

[FredJacket]

No kidding. But our best chance to win the regional is beat ISU with our #2 pitcher and Vandy with our #1 pitcher. There's no point in beating ISU with Hurter just to get mauled by Vandy with our #2 guy. Then we have to win 3 more times likely without Hurter. Play the best odds to win the weekend. If you lose to ISU without Hurter than so be it. At least the decision to manage the entire weekend made sense

You seem sure about the strategy. I'm equally sure; but offer a different approach.

We need to arrive at our 1st game against Vandy having not lost a game yet. That gives us a loss "to give" when playing the clear cut regional favorite the 1st time. Basically... you want to be set up to have to go 1-1 (instead of 2-0) v Vandy to win the thing.

Best Case (Sun) - Ga Tech (2-0) v Vandy (2-1)
Next Best Case (Sat) - Ga Tech (1-0) v Vandy (1-0)
Worst Case - Any scenario where we MUST beat Vandy with no loss to give.

For me, it doesn't matter who we start; but for a different reason. We seem to be acting like Hurter is an A++ starter with all others as B and below. Currently (based on recent performances)... there is not a CLEAR #1 on this pitching staff. In ACC play, when Hurter started...the team was 6-6. Add in non-conf EKU and KSU it is still .500 (7-7). Bottom line is this team is not / was not superior when a particular pitcher started.

IMO.. the above dictates you play your best pitcher (I'm not sure I know who that is) on Friday v Indiana St and put the team in best position to start 1-0 in this tournament.

UNLESS... the coaching staff sees some weird matchup thing where our 2nd or 3rd best pitcher is likely to have better success v Indiana State lineup. This would be very unusual.

 

[GoJacketsInRaleigh]

You seem sure about the strategy. I'm equally sure; but offer a different approach.

We need to arrive at our 1st game against Vandy having not lost a game yet. That gives us a loss "to give" when playing the clear cut regional favorite the 1st time. Basically... you want to be set up to have to go 1-1 (instead of 2-0) v Vandy to win the thing.

Best Case (Sun) - Ga Tech (2-0) v Vandy (2-1)
Next Best Case (Sat) - Ga Tech (1-0) v Vandy (1-0)
Worst Case - Any scenario where we MUST beat Vandy with no loss to give.

For me, it doesn't matter who we start; but for a different reason. We seem to be acting like Hurter is an A++ starter with all others as B and below. Currently (based on recent performances)... there is not a CLEAR #1 on this pitching staff. In ACC play, when Hurter started...the team was 6-6. Add in non-conf EKU and KSU it is still .500 (7-7). Bottom line is this team is not / was not superior when a particular pitcher started.

IMO.. the above dictates you play your best pitcher (I'm not sure I know who that is) on Friday v Indiana St and put the team in best position to start 1-0 in this tournament.

UNLESS... the coaching staff sees some weird matchup thing where our 2nd or 3rd best pitcher is likely to have better success v Indiana State lineup. This would be very unusual.

Vandy has to lose twice. How do we advance by going 1-1 against them?

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Vandy has to lose twice. How do we advance by going 1-1 against them?

If GT and Indiana State are smart and "gang up" on Vandy by using their best pitchers against Vandy, we give Vandy a loss and Indiana State gives them a loss. That has to be what @FredJacket wants

 

[FredJacket]

Vandy has to lose twice. How do we advance by going 1-1 against them?

If GT and Indiana State are smart and "gang up" on Vandy by using their best pitchers against Vandy, we give Vandy a loss and Indiana State gives them a loss. That has to be what @FredJacket wants

Yes. They have to lose twice... but not twice to us (necessarily)

Let's hope Presbyterian beats then out of gate.

 

[ramblinwreckguru]

Yes. They have to lose twice... but not twice to us (necessarily)

Let's hope Presbyterian beats then out of gate.

Yep, could happen.

GT beats IS
PC beats Vandy
Vandy beats IS (eliminated)
GT beats PC
Vandy beats PC (eliminated)
Vandy beats GT
GT beats Vandy (eliminated)

GT is 1-1 against Vandy and wins the Regional.

 

[FredJacket]

Yep, could happen.

GT beats IS
PC beats Vandy
Vandy beats IS (eliminated)
GT beats PC
Vandy beats PC (eliminated)
Vandy beats GT
GT beats Vandy (eliminated)

GT is 1-1 against Vandy and wins the Regional.

There are scenarios where Ga Tech faces Vandy anywhere from 0 to 3 times.

 

[bensaysitathome]

Apparently Corbin has a history of keeping his pitching rotation in regionals, regardless of opponent. Sets them up well for the supers.

So their Game #2 matchup likely won't see Vandy's ace, Rocker. Might make them a little more beatable.

 

[FredJacket]

Apparently Corbin has a history of keeping his pitching rotation in regionals, regardless of opponent. Sets them up well for the supers.

So their Game #2 matchup likely won't see Vandy's ace, Rocker. Might make them a little more beatable.

You seem to be suggesting Corbin doesn't employ the best strategy...

...the defending national champions & perennial CWS participant. His strategy is the correct one no matter what seed you are.

 

[bensaysitathome]

You seem to be suggesting Corbin doesn't employ the best strategy...

...the defending national champions & perennial CWS participant. His strategy is the correct one no matter what seed you are.

Haha I made no such suggestion. Just talking.

For what it's worth, I'm not sure what I think the best move is, re:rotation. But I do think it's a lot easier of a decision if you have a roster with 3 top-tier pitchers. And at the moment, that aint us.

I certainly see the pros to pitching your normal Fri/Sat/Sun guys. But if you have one guy that can keep you in the game against the defending National Champs, there's some merit to the idea that you save him for a potential game against the defending National Champs.

But like you said, I'm not a ball coach, just a guy with an internet connection. And it's certainly more fun to be having discussions like this rather than worrying about a COVID-cancelled season.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Great thread. Just sayin’

 

[senoiajacket]

Apparently Corbin has a history of keeping his pitching rotation in regionals, regardless of opponent. Sets them up well for the supers.

So their Game #2 matchup likely won't see Vandy's ace, Rocker. Might make them a little more beatable.

Not really sure who their "ace" is. As noted, (beating of the proverbial dead horse), Vandy has two guys that are going to go first round of the MLB draft. No matter which one you see you are going to have to bring your "A" game to have a chance to win.

As outlined above, our "dream scenario" would be for PC to beat Vandy in Game 1. It's just that, a dream.

It will be interesting to see who we start. As I mentioned above, IIRC, in the past CDH has stuck with his "normal" rotation in these scenerios.

Either way, "Go Jackets"

SJ

 

[ramblinwreckguru]

View attachment 10638

Not really sure who their "ace" is. As noted, (beating of the proverbial dead horse), Vandy has two guys that are going to go first round of the MLB draft. No matter which one you see you are going to have to bring your "A" game to have a chance to win.

As outlined above, our "dream scenario" would be for PC to beat Vandy in Game 1. It's just that, a dream.

It will be interesting to see who we start. As I mentioned above, IIRC, in the past CDH has stuck with his "normal" rotation in these scenerios.

Either way, "Go Jackets"

SJ

Looks like we'd rather see Rocker out of those 2.

 

[LargeFO]

Al Leiter's son is a beast too.

 

[senoiajacket]

Looks like we'd rather see Rocker out of those 2.

Well, Leiter is a sophomore, Rocker a junior (both counting 2020 season, so in other words this is Leiter's first full college season. Rocker on the other hand was "only" the 2019 College World Series Most Outstanding Player, so there's that. He no hit Duke in the 2019 Super Regional, striking out 19. His fastball sits at 95-97 and his slider is reportedly better than his FB. Leiter FB sits around 92-96 and he also sports a curve, slider and changeup. Both are RH

Interesting factoid: There are only three players from GA on Vanderbilt's roster: Two freshmen RHP and Rocker. There are only 12 players on Tech's roster NOT from Georgia. Make what you will of that.